Duty

Previously on Third Watch: Sully got it on! with Tatiana! Alex, who will be MIA in this episode, told Bobby that he tends to mother people. Sully busted a guy in the head, to Ty's surprise, and then made it clear that even when he steps out of line, Ty is supposed to back him up. Sully tells Yokas that sometimes the thing that makes you a good cop messes you up as a person. Something tells me that line came in earlier this season just so they could use it as a teaser to this episode. Those clever Third Watch writers!

The episode opens with up in a mirror's-eye view of Sully in the morning, presumably the morning he got his freak on with his sexy Ukranian neighbor. Sully runs a hand through his hair, rubs his chin, and acts like Mr. GQ-Smooth. He leans back and rubs a hand over his bosom and stomach, facing sideways. He is the Primp Daddy. He smiles wide, leans into the camera, and checks around for stray zits. It's okay, Sully. They've all been Oxycuted. From behind, I spy a shadow moving. "You look good, John," Tatiana says in her sexy morning-after voice. Sully jumps, turns, and says, "I was just, uh..." That's okay, Sully. Ladies love a Primpin' Man. Don't they? Oh, damn, what if they don't? All those hours I spent in front of the mirror, working on my little pre-goatee! So many years wasted! But, I digress. Tatiana stands in the doorway, wearing one of Sully's police shirts like a tent. Sully says he has a robe if she'd like one, but she smiles, runs a hand through her hair, and says it's okay. She likes to wear a man's shirt. She asks if he wants coffee. Sully says he'll get it, but she says she'll do it. She wants him to shower. Grrrrowl. Sully smiles and says okay. He watches her as she walks to the kitchen. He hates to see her leave, but he loves to watch her go. Oh, yeah. Sully leans forward to the mirror again. "You look good, John," he laughs. Then he showers.

Shot of a Denny's-caliber breakfast. Toast, eggs (sunny-side up), bacon, juice, and coffee. That's a man-meal! Sully goes, "Wow!" Tatiana says she had to bring things from her place because he had nothing. That's because he doesn't eat in much, he tells her. Sully puts his hands on her waist, kisses her on the forehead, and smiles big. "You like eggs?" she asks, in exactly the same tone she asked, "do you like sex?" the night before. Watch out, Sully, if she starts asking, "You like co-signing for credit card?" Sully says he likes it, he likes it. Tatiana tells him to sit. She says she likes to watch a man eat. She stands, drinking her coffee, watching him. Sully tries to put some salt on his food, but his salt shaker is empty. Huh. Tatiana watches him intently. Anybody else creeped out by being watched while you eat? Sully must not care. Tatiana says you can tell a lot from a man by the way he eats. Sully asks what she can tell about him. She says he likes to have fun. Sully asks if he can tell all that from watching him eat. "That I learned from you last night," she says naughtily. Sully's got some hot lovin'. Indeed. Sully says he learned something too -- that his clothes look better on her than they do on him. Sully, your clothes would look better on David Hyde Pierce. But I still love you.

Outside, Sully is walking, carrying his uniform in a laundry bag, and smiling as if he is the supreme Lover Man. Which for this brief, shining moment, he actually is. Sully is about to get into his car, when he's stopped by two IAA agents (Internal Affairs Assholes). IAA agent puts a hand on Sully's shoulder and asks where his gun is. "What the hell's going on?" Sully asks. They ask for his weapon and say he has to go with them. Sully just wants to know what's happening. He gives them his gun and they take him to his car. He says they don't have to push. In the car, Sully forlornly looks through the window back out to the street. Opening credits.

My cat, Cosa, is nowhere to be found. She usually dances around to this song, but she must be exhausted from all the SurvivorDVD recapping from last weekend.

In the police locker room, Bosco starts us off on a path of whimsy by saying he had a weird dream the night before. "Did it involve a supermodel?" Faith Yokas asks him. No, Yokas, this is the new Bosco. The likeable Bosco. Weren't you here for the last two episodes? Bosco is a sensitive '90s man. Too bad it's the '00s. Bosco says he can be deeper than that. Right you are. Ty comes in asking where Sully is. Nobody knows. Bosco explains his dream. He's the sheriff. (Not Suzanne Somers.) A clock on the wall he can't read. It's the Old West. In the middle of the town, he faces off with three guys dressed in black. They're laughing at him. He has no pants on. Ty laughs. "It's not funny," Bosco says. He's wearing jockey shorts and a holster. Ty insists that it is indeed funny. He also says the dream means Bosco feels vulnerable about something. "No, I don't," Bosco says. "Yes, you do," Ty tells him. Ty asks about Sully again. He says he wanted to get the rundown on the Russian girlfriend. "Oh my God, Sully's getting him some?" Bosco asks. Even Yokas looks surprised. "Is this his first?" Bosco asks. Bosco returns spectacularly to form by asking if the girlfriend has a younger sister with similar low moral fiber. Nice. Sergeant Doogie Bateman from the last episode comes in looking for Ty. He tells him that Sully won't becoming in and Ty has to be his driver for the day. Sucks to be Ty. Bosco says that if you haven't had sex in decades, it must take a while to recover.

At the fire station, Carlos is hitting the books. Pretending to know how to read. A mug with the Sweet & Low logo inexplicably sits on the desk. Kim is sitting with him. She asks what he's studying and complains about the coffee Carlos made. "That's impressive," she says. "Making bad coffee?" he asks. Don't attempt witty banter, Carlos. Geez. Kim spells her own doom by saying that she admires Carlos for going to school while working. Carlos gets all doe-eyed and smells her hair and thinks about kissing her in a tree and making babies and whatnot. Something tells me Carlos is going to be not only spanking the monkey later, but sending that monkey into time-out, grounding the monkey for two weeks, and taking away the monkey's TV privileges. Bobby comes in and he exits with Kim while Carlos chuckles pathetically. Which is appropriate given that he's a chucklehead.

The car carrying Sully and the IAA fellows pulls into what looks like a nasty part of town. Sully asks if they're gonna kick his ass. They ask about an Officer Jacowicz that Sully used to work with. Sully talks back and they tell him to shut up. Apparently, Jacowicz says that Sully manufactured evidence against a convicted murderer named Rudy Stiles. They tell Sully they're giving him the opportunity to make a deal. He says he doesn't want a deal. They ask him to name some other bad cops. Sully: "No deal." He says he doesn't know anything about anyone.

In the ambulance, Kim asks Bobby what's wrong. He looks mopey and tired. He says he hasn't been sleeping, while Kim bitches about how Joey's videogames are keeping her up at night. Bobby complains that dreams are keeping him up, but he can't remember them.

Kim and Bobby arrive at the scene of a woman at home having trouble breathing. Her husband says she's in end-stage ovarian cancer. Her name is Francine and she is, indeed, struggling. Bobby puts an oxygen mask on her. The woman tries to talk while Kim calls in an order for morphine. Bobby suddenly recognizes her. "Is she a teacher?" he asks. Turns out he had her in eleventh grade. Poignant music plays.

Driving Mr. Doogie. Ty is in the car, playing chauffeur. Doogie Bateman says that Sully is involved in something, but won't say what. He tells Ty where to go, but nothing else. Doogie is an ass: he tells Ty he doesn't want to talk; Ty is just expected to drive. Ty asks what happened to Sully. "I hear a lot of good things about you, Davis," Doogie begins. "Stay away from Sullivan. He's the kind of cop that could dirty a young man's career." Ty immediately says Sully's a great cop. Doogie tells him he can take the advice or leave it.

Sully and the IAA jerks. They're outside the car. They demand Sully's shield and ID, and say he's suspended. Reluctantly, Sully hands over his ID. He stabs his finger removing his shield. He calls the guys jag-offs, which is pretty weak. They approach him threateningly, then hand him back his laundry. "Hey, how am I supposed to get home?" he asks as they get into their car. IAA the first says he doesn't give a rat's ass. Not even one? They drive away, leaving Sully in the lurch. Commercial, so we can seethe over the injustice of it all.

Hospital. Bobby is looking in on his old teacher, who is bent over, moaning. He talks to the husband, but is interrupted by Kim because they have a call. "Be strong," he says to the man. As opposed to...?

Sully gets home and is greeted by the lovely Tatiana. "You come home already!" she squeals. Sully brushes her off and says he had problems at work. "What are you all dressed up for?" he asks. She says she got called into work. Waitressing? She says there were police there earlier, but it sounds like she's saying, "Bullies," which indeed they were. Sully enters his apartment and yells "Dammit!" They tore his place up. Stuff, including his guitar, is lying everywhere. "Oh, John," Tatiana says. Sully turns and tells Tatiana not to worry about it. He tells her he needs some time alone as she protests. He closes the door on her, puts on the latch and quietly says, "I'm sorry." Poor Sully.

In the ambulance, Bobby asks Kim if she had a teacher who made a big difference in her life. Sex Ed, I bet. She says it's her English teacher, Mr. Romano. Bobby says it was Mrs. Bradley for him. Bobby says he would have turned out worse than his brother, Matty, if not for her. He attributed his whole life to her: "She was the first adult who ever believed in me. She saved my life."

Bosco and Yokas get back to the station. Yokas asks Ty if he's heard the news. She shows him a newspaper with a bunch of cops on the front page. She says that Jacowicz worked there her first six months and got busted for holding dope, mostly prescription drugs. Ty looks pretty stunned. She says the guy's rolling over on a bunch of cops, including Sully. "Well, what about innocent until proven guilty?" Yokas tells Ty that, with them, it's the other way around. Ty immediately tries calling Sully at home on a conveniently placed phone. Sully is sitting in his living room, stuff strewn everywhere. He's plucking at his guitar, restringing it. The phone rings. Sully doesn't react or answer it.

At the hospital, Bobby visits his old teacher. He talks briefly to her husband, who thanks him: "You gave her some relief. These days, that's a lot." Profound yet meaningless. Bobby goes in and introduces himself, but she already knows him. The teacher says she's happy to be going home. She says she hadn't wanted her husband to call the ambulance until she felt like she was drowning. Drowning, she says, is her big fear. The teacher says she's been coming in more and more often. She compliments Bobby on his uniform, saying it looks better than his old leather jacket. "That jacket was cool," Bobby says. Bobby turns the moment serious and tells the teacher that she changed his life. "It was you," she says quietly. "You were ready for a change. I just happened to be the teacher of record at the time." Nicely, there's no sappy music here. Well, not yet. Bobby asks if there's anything he can do. She says maybe there is. Now the music comes in. She says that the drowning feeling was bad. She doesn't want her husband to see it. Oh, I recapped City of Angels. I know where this is going. She says doctors won't help her. Bobby says, "I can't, I'm sorry." She wants to die and she wants Bobby to be her Kevorkian. "I shouldn't have asked," she says, and begins to cry. Bobby looks down as she tells him it's all right.

Sully's pad of depression. He opens the door to Tatiana. "I hear what happened on the news," she says. Sully doesn't hug her or anything. She asks what happened. Sully tells her they say he put somebody in jail that's not supposed to be there. She asks if he did that. "No," Sully says. She says that's great, everything's gonna be fine. "You'll still be police man." Sully bluntly says that he's not sure he wants to be one anymore. Tatiana loses her glow, says, "Okay...so," and says she should probably go back. Sully agrees. No goodnight. No nothing. Sully closes the door and puts on the chain. He puts his hand on the door. So either Tatiana is after his pension, had a dad who was a cop, or has a deep, dark secret. Something's up here.

Short exchange in the ambulance. Bobby is looking moody and sad. Kim tells him he's a drag when he's like this. Kim, shut your pie hole.

Another knock at Sully's door. "Tatiana," he says, but it's actually Ty. Ty says he tried to call. Sully tells him he's fine. "Guess I'll go home, then," Ty says. Oh, just hug, you men. Sully apologizes if his troubles are causing Ty problems at the station. Ty, a stand-up guy, says he doesn't care about that. "I know you, I know what kind of cop you are," he says. He tells Sully he doesn't believe the accusations and has Sully's back 100 percent. Sully says thanks. "I was really happy this morning," Sully says. "I won't make that mistake again." Sully goes back into his hovel and retreats from the world. Man, who stepped on Sully's karma? Commercials appear so we can feel good about something in the world.