# Rescue Me 8/22 (Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934 "2006-08-23T20:01:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/1 "2006-08-23T20:01:52Z")
Another fantastic episode. I really enjoyed the montage at the beginning of everyone finding out about Johnny (what was that tune - I recognized Portishead as the sample but I’d never heard that version). I was confused about the phone messages. Here’s my take on it: [ul]Tommy hears that gutwrenching message from Johnny[/ul] [ul]Then after Johnny is already dead, Tomme leaves more or less the same message for Johnny.[/ul] [ul]When he tells Johnny’s body that he left him a message, (with Janet listening), Johnny’s ghost snaps to life, because Tommy’s lying to score points with Janet.[/ul] [ul]Tommy plays the message, and it works - Janet starts to get all sympathetic. [/ul] OK, then WHY did Tommy say he was quitting the FDNY and moving in with Sheila? It seemed odd to do such an evil thing as to steal your dead brother’s sympathetic phone call to get Janet back, then we see that tactic actually start to work, then he brushes her off for Sheila? Huh? Or am I totally wrong about the phone messages? ---
**Author:** ![Zachlee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Zachlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zachlee)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/2 "2006-08-23T20:43:20Z")
I got it that Tommy left the message for Johnny at around the same time Johnny left one for him. Which is why Tommy hit the bottle after hearing Johnny’s message, cuz it was obvious Johnny didn’t get the first message. It wasn’t a ploy or anything. We just didn’t see Tommy leave the message. Johnny snapped up in the coffin (and scared the bejabbers out of me, btw) because Tommy always sees dead people when he’s under stress. They went to get Johnny’s phone because he wanted, HAD to know whether Johnny got the message before he was killed. Also, the appearance of Tommy’s son at the funeral was heart-breaking. Killer ep though. The wedding on top of the funeral was inspired. (A deaf sister? Huh?) Tommy’s family is full goose bozo. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/3 "2006-08-23T21:44:50Z")
[QUOTE=Zachlee] Killer ep though. The wedding on top of the funeral was inspired. (A deaf sister? Huh?) Tommy’s family is full goose bozo. [/QUOTE] That was the only part I didn’t like – the wedding, not the deaf sister, she’s cool. Nice touch that Sean “Gavity” and Tommy both know how to sign. What happened between “You make me throw up” and “I do”? I didn’t get Franco’s new girlfriend freaking out that she resembles Keelah (as a child), but I guess the writers won’t let Franco have an uncomplicated relationship. Loved Sean – “Who died?” Bad Tommy for not realizing Sheila needs **no** encouragement to plan the rest of their lives. Dumb Sheila for not realizing Tommy can’t be counted on. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/4 "2006-08-23T22:32:32Z")
[QUOTE=Zachlee] I got it that Tommy left the message for Johnny at around the same time Johnny left one for him. Which is why Tommy hit the bottle after hearing Johnny’s message, cuz it was obvious Johnny didn’t get the first message. It wasn’t a ploy or anything. We just didn’t see Tommy leave the message. Johnny snapped up in the coffin (and scared the bejabbers out of me, btw) because Tommy always sees dead people when he’s under stress. They went to get Johnny’s phone because he wanted, HAD to know whether Johnny got the message before he was killed. [/QUOTE] Can we get some more votes here from the SDMB? I absolutely thought the implication was that Tommy never let Janet hear that message, and instead swapped it for one of his own, that he left himself after Johnny had died. It would be a pretty serious plot point to misunderstand, so I’d love more clarification. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/5 "2006-08-24T00:05:31Z")
Now I’m confused. Tommy didn’t let Janet hear _what_ message? Why do you ( **ZachLee** think Tommy hit the bottle? I saw him holding a bottle but I didn’t see him take a drink. I didn’t see any manipulation of phone messages. I can’t see even Tommy being so manipulative that he’d leave a self-serving message on Johnny’s phone after he knew Johnny was dead. But I could be wrong. Tommy can be a right bastard. Anyone else think it was weird that Johnny’s mailbox recording called it an “unheard” message rather than a “new” message? ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/6 "2006-08-24T00:18:45Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] Now I’m confused. Tommy didn’t let Janet hear _what_ message? [/QUOTE] Tommy didn’t let Janet hear the message that Johnny left on his machine. The one where Johnny said (paraphrasing) “it’s your wife, I love her man, I’m sorry, but I’ll bow out” The message that Tommy played for Janet was a message that HE left on Johnny’s phone. It was Tommy’s voice - it was not the phone message we heard before. My understanding is that Tommy intentionally left a similar message on Johnny’s machine AFTER he died, to curry favor with Janet, not that Tommy really did leave that message before his brother’s death. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/7 "2006-08-24T00:46:10Z")
[QUOTE=Dooku] Tommy didn’t let Janet hear the message that Johnny left on his machine. The one where Johnny said (paraphrasing) “it’s your wife, I love her man, I’m sorry, but I’ll bow out” [/QUOTE] Janet wasn’t even around when Tommy played that message, was he? I thought it was just him and Lou, walking back and forth in Tommy’s kitchen. Ya know, maybe I missed a few minutes. I don’t remember seeing anything that looked like Tommy was trying to cover up Johnny’s “I’ll bow out” message. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/8 "2006-08-24T00:52:18Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] Janet wasn’t even around when Tommy played that message, was he? I thought it was just him and Lou, walking back and forth in Tommy’s kitchen. Ya know, maybe I missed a few minutes. I don’t remember seeing anything that looked like Tommy was trying to cover up Johnny’s “I’ll bow out” message. [/QUOTE] This was after the funeral. Tommy played another message holding his cell phone and using it as a speaker phone as they were standing in the street. Listening were Lou, Tommy and Janet. As Janet listened to Tommy say how sorry he was, and “I love her man” and all that, she started warming up to him. As I was listening to it, I though “Oh wait - he’s not playing the message Johnny left him last night - he’s playing a message that HE left, and he’s stealing Johnny’s material!” ---
**Author:** ![Zachlee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Zachlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zachlee)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/9 "2006-08-24T01:17:24Z")
The phone he played the message on was Johnny’s- they got it from the police just before. I figured Tommy hit the bottle because after he got the bottle out of the cupboard, they showed him waking up face down on the couch- classic drunksleep position. After you guys explain it, I can see the manipulation idea, too. I guess I’d like to think even Tommy wouldn’t pull that kind of sleazy trick on his dead brother. But yeah, it would explain the sharp look from Johnny’s corpse. Probably it was intended to be unclear, and will be revealed sometime in the future. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/10 "2006-08-24T01:59:35Z")
Ahhhh, now I get the confusion. You ( **Dooku** ) thought Tommy, Lou, and Janet were listening to **Tommy’s** messages, when they were actually listening to Johnny’s. All right then. I’m not confused anymore. Except about Sean and Maggie. ---
**Author:** ![IntelInside](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a5b964/32.png) [@IntelInside](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IntelInside)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/11 "2006-08-24T16:58:43Z")
There was no timestamp on the “message” that Tommy left for Johnny, which leads me to believe that it was not the heartfelt speech it was meant to represent. How much for the Honda Civic? ---
**Author:** ![IntelInside](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a5b964/32.png) [@IntelInside](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IntelInside)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/12 "2006-08-24T17:01:14Z")
Oh, and I thought Tommy had a bottle of water in his hands when he heard Johnny’s message. I haven’t seen him drink since the 8+ fingers of whiskey. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/13 "2006-08-24T18:11:34Z")
Our satellite reception was disrupted by a huge storm Tuesday night, so the first 10-15 minutes of the episode were lost. We cut back in when Tommy was in the kitchen with Lou (or is it Lieu?) listening to Tommy’s message. I should try to TiVo one of the replays so we can see the opening montage. Unless I missed something critical about the phone messages in those missing minutes, the impression I got was that Tommy and Johnny left each other those messages at about the same time, and neither of them heard the messages until after Johnny was shot. So they were on the verge of reconciling, but didn’t quite connect in time. I didn’t think Tommy was making a play for Janet with that message. **Auntie Pam** : my voicemail calls them “unheard” messages rather than new as well. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/14 "2006-08-24T18:50:22Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Ahhhh, now I get the confusion. You (Dooku) thought Tommy, Lou, and Janet were listening to Tommy’s messages, when they were actually listening to Johnny’s. Yes. And my main point was that Tommy left his message on Johnny’s machine _after_ Johnny died, knowing that Janet would hear it and think Tommy was the bigger man. [QUOTE=cbawlmer] Unless I missed something critical about the phone messages in those missing minutes, the impression I got was that Tommy and Johnny left each other those messages at about the same time, and neither of them heard the messages until after Johnny was shot. So they were on the verge of reconciling, but didn’t quite connect in time. I didn’t think Tommy was making a play for Janet with that message. [/QUOTE] Put much better, thanks. My understanding was the exact opposite - Tommy didn’t leave that message at the same time, but left it after he heard Johnny’s message, which would make it really sleazy. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/15 "2006-08-24T19:11:12Z")
[QUOTE=Dooku] Put much better, thanks. My understanding was the exact opposite - Tommy didn’t leave that message at the same time, but left it after he heard Johnny’s message, which would make it really sleazy. [/QUOTE] I honestly don’t think that’s the case. Not that Tommy wouldn’t stoop so low, but I don’t think he did in this one instance. Subtlety isn’t this show’s strong suit – I think they would have made that more explicit if Tommy was really playing her with a post-death message. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/16 "2006-08-24T19:20:58Z")
Allrighty then. Now I’ll have to watch it again with that interpretation in mind. ---
**Author:** ![threeorange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@threeorange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threeorange)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rescue-me-8-22-spoilers/369934/17 "2006-08-26T10:43:56Z")
[QUOTE=Dooku] I really enjoyed the montage at the beginning of everyone finding out about Johnny (what was that tune - I recognized Portishead as the sample but I’d never heard that version). [/QUOTE] The song was “Hell Is Just Around the Corner” by **Tricky** from the album _Maxinquay_. Both this song and Portishead’s “Glory Box” use the same instrumental sample from “Ike’s Rap III” by **Isaac Hayes**.