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Ready for an ensemble episode? Me, too.
Previously on Third Watch: Yokas gets beat up while pregnant and is told by her husband, Fred, that she should quit. Kim amputates a woman's leg to get her out of a car and save her baby. Doc gets burnt out on his job. Alex, the new female firefighter, saws through a gate. And Jimmy, in a voice-over, says he loves being a fireman. Random flashbacks, much?
The episode begins with a car on fire on a city street at night. Standing by watching it are (as we pan left to right), Carlos, Bobby, Doc, Kim, Sully, and Ty. Hey, where's Bosco? The fire truck arrives with Jimmy and Alex leading the way with the hose. Alex is holding the hose behind Jimmy. We'll just leave it at that. The two of them start dousing the car with water as some funky music plays. Bosco suddenly appears and seems to walk off in disgust as the others just stand around looking stunned. We're in for one bummer of an episode, it looks like.
In the locker room, Ty and the others are still looking sad. Faith Yokas comes by and asks if Bosco is okay. "It's their own fault," Bosco says. Sully slams the locker and leaves, disgusted with Bosco. Faith looks troubled. Bosco repeats himself. Ty gets up and asks if anybody else feels like getting really hammered. Um, I do. Every Monday night, about 9 p.m. Central time. Faith says she just wants to go home and stare at her kids, praying they don't get any older. Bosco says they will, because he's smart like that.
Carlos spots Bobby at the table and asks why he's still around. He says he's giving Kim a ride and she's still changing. "Women," Carlos mutters, ever the master of observational social commentary. Doc walks by and gets invited by Bobby to go out for a couple of drinks. Carlos jumps at the offer, but Doc says he doesn't drink. "You don't have to drink," Bobby says. Alex walks in and invites herself. When did she become the social butterfly? Bobby says they should go out for drinks, then go out to Coney Island and build a bonfire. Okay, first of all, isn't that illegal? Secondly, you're gonna build a bonfire to get your mind off a car that was on fire? Third, didn't you learn anything from the Texas A&M tragedy? Just asking. Carlos says he's going to get changed and go, and it suddenly becomes clear that he's being ignored, even though he was the first person to say he wanted to go. Ha ha. Carlos is the bitch of the bunch.
Kim sits alone on a bunk holding something. She flashes back to the fire where she stands watching it. She spots something on the ground and picks it up. We come back to Kim on the bed, crying. Carlos comes in and says to hurry up because they're leaving. She gets up and starts to change, wiping tears from her eyes. "Let's go have some fun," she mutters. We go to opening credits.
Gladiator is out on tape and DVD. How much you wanna bet Dennis Quaid doesn't let his kids watch it in the house?
Sully is standing at the front desk. He's looking over a form and asks if that's all there is and who he has to turn it in to. "Sully. You're not really gonna quit?" the desk sergeant asks. Sully asks if she's the person he has to bring the form to. She says yes. Oh, Sully don't quit! What will you do? You live alone, you've got few friends, no love life...I guess you could go into computer programming.
Outside, Yokas is leaving and runs into Doc, who's sitting on the hood of his car. Doc says he ran into a friend from high school recently who sells real estate. He has a nice car and money to spare. Faith says that's not a bad second job. Doc says it wouldn't be a bad first job. Oh, now you, Doc? Didn't you see American Beauty? You might have to sleep with The Real Estate King. Doc invites Yokas for some coffee. She says that everyone's asleep at her place and she'll go. Sullen Sully walks by. Doc invites him to go. He says, "Have fun." Yokas says that Sully should go because it's better than sitting home alone. Ouch. Way to kick a guy when he's all getting ready to quit. "Why not," Sully finally says, resigned to the fact that everybody thinks he's a loser. Well, you know what, Mister? I don't think you're a loser. I think you are a big, chunky ray of light in this crazy, mixed-up universe. So buck up, cowboy. We're gonna get through this episode together, Sully.
At a bar, Bobby, Alex, and Ty are knocking them back. Ty drops a shot into his beer glass and starts in on the drinks. "It's going to be a short night," Alex says. Again, when did she become so buddy-buddy with everyone? You know, she's still listed as a "guest star" in the opening credits even though she's getting thrown in with the main cast. Methinks we're going to see a fire-related cast-member death in an upcoming episode. Kim is on the phone to her mother. She tells Bobby, who sidles up and puts his arm around her, that her mother is pissed, but that she's been worse. Pissed because she has to take care of Joey while Kim runs around? Probably so. But damn! She's been amputating legs and watching people burn up in flaming cars. Let the girl have some drinks. Criminey! Jimmy, who is standing to Kim, says the bar sucks and he doesn't feel like drinking.
"You wanna go?" somebody asks belligerently. But the person's not talking to Jimmy (ha ha, you clever TV writers). The person talking is actually Bosco, who is picking a fight with somebody over a game of pool. (Bosco's the kind of guy who could start a fistfight over hanging chads.) I had my suspicions about Bosco's size. He was on Beverly Hills after all, which included a cast comprised entirely of near-midgets. But the full scope of Bosco's size is finally revealed when he picks on a guy who is roughly three times his size. And the bigger man doesn't even look that huge. My guess is that Bosco is roughly the size of a Powerpuff Girl. Bosco and the man start pushing each other around. Jimmy pulls Bosco away. Bosco says he wants to fight. "Can't we all just get along?" Bobby asks lamely as he returns to the bar. Half the cast leaves because they're not in the mood to drink. Ty, who is still downing drinks, stays behind with Bobby and Alex The Party Girl.
Outside, Bosco says he should have cracked the guy inside. Jimmy assures Bosco that he could have taken the titanic man. Bosco asks Kim how she's getting home. She'd planned on taking the subway at this late hour (because, as we know, Kim is just brilliant), but Bosco offers her a ride. Oh yeah, and those other guys, Carlos and Jimmy, can ride along, too.
At a diner, Sully is still being a party pooper. Doc is talking about commissions on real estate deals. Twenty-five thousand dollars on a $500,000 condo. He says that's half a year's salary. Okay, so Doc makes fifty grand. I thought it was a lot less last season. Maybe it's because he's been around so long. Yokas complains that it's national priorities -- at her kids' school, some janitors make more than teachers. Well, if the teacher would clean a toilet once in a while...Okay, no, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. Teachers rock the house. Don't e-mail nasty letters. I love me some teachers. Again, I apologize. As they're talking, an attractive young woman comes to their table. She asks if anybody knows when the buses in the area come around. Faith wants to help her. Sully is disinterested. The girl says she got into a fight with her boyfriend. Faith asks if the boyfriend put her out of the car. "I kind of put myself out of the car," she says. Hmmm. Mysterious. Faith says it's too late for buses. Doc says the girl can sit with them and they'll give her a ride. Sully makes a protesting noise. "You can ignore Mr. Rudy Bahooty," Yokas says. Mr. Who? The girl sits down. Yokas says she's safe: they're two cops and a paramedic. So if she dies of a sudden drug overdose, Doc can save her life and the other two can arrest her afterward.