(S03E08) Ahh, my glorious return to the age of power... well sort of. All my power is back but the internet is still down. So I'm at the office and I feel like everyone has more to say about this episode than me because they all saw last week's installment. But I feel pretty caught up. I've read some other reviews and the "previously on Rescue Me" montage at the beginning of the show was pretty complete. All I'm saying is bear with me since I'm still trying to connect all the dots.

That being said, great opening sequence. Huge warehouse fire and some men from another house get trapped in the basement. The Probie was the only one not in the building yet and he risked his life to find the man down and got him out. It was huge. High fives, pats on the back. He was on cloud nine. He's definitely no longer The Probie after this act of courage. Though I wonder if the rest of the crew even know his real name is Mike?

(S03E04) Go grab a thesaurus and look up fantastic. The dozen or so associated words - wonderful, spectacular, etc. None of them, not a single one, would do this episode justice. It's easily one of the top-five episodes of Rescue Me so far and that's saying a lot, especially if you saw the previews for next week.

The episode started with a bang. While responding to a medical emergency (an elderly African-American male with chest pains), the crew encounters a toppled school bus full of children. Naturally, they pull over and help get the kids out. Just in time too because the bus caught fire and part of it blew up. But nothing goes easy for these guys. As a result of ignoring the medical call, they got called out on the evening news by the Reverend Al Sharpton. His argument? They're racist because they helped all those white children instead of the guy who called 911. But there was an Egyptian kid on the bus too. Take that Al.