Season 4 Episode 10 – High
After bribing Colleen for access to the baby and information about Janet, Tommy gains a surprising insight into his childhood during a conversation with his dad.
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As Tommy promises Colleen a new car in exchange for information on Janet’s love life and secretly allowing Sheila access to the baby for two days each week, Lou looks to get revenge for Theresa’s indiscretions with Cousin Mike. While pondering sleeping with the waitress Mike is currently dating, he counsels Tommy to placate Chief Feinberg by going out on another date with his daughter, Beth. Facing personal problems of his own, Franco enlists Natalie’s brother, Richie, to find out who she’s seeing in the wake of their recent breakup.
With Black Shawn and Chief Feinberg complaining of rampant racism within the fire department, Colleen leads Tommy to the real estate office where Janet is working while dating her handsome boss. Just when Tommy is on the verge of drinking again to cope with his mounting problems, Mickey heads him off outside a neighbourhood bar. Then, after doing his best to help Mike with the depression that’s resulted from his knee injury, Tommy tries to deflect the sexual advances of the nameless woman who’s been pursuing him.
With his life spinning out of control, Tommy is summoned to a bar where his dad is facing down his own drinking problem. After learning that, as a boy, he was deathly afraid of heights, Tommy takes refuge in a nearby church, where he’s accidentally mistaken for a priest. Finally, as Sean decides to become an alcoholic in order to better understand Maggie, and Mike gets an unexpected surprise after being picked up at a bar by a beautiful older woman, Tommy’s fear of heights is brought into focus as he rescues a window washer trapped thirty-five floors above the street.
Denis Leary as Tommy Gavin
Charles Durning as Tommy’s Dad
John Scurti as Lou
Larenz Tate as Black Shawn
Daniel Sunjata as Franco Rivera
Natalie Distler as Colleen
Michael Lombardi as Mike Siletti
Robert John Burke as Mickey
Steven Pasquale as Sean Garrity
Cornell Womack as Richie
Andrea Roth as Janet Gavin
Jerry Adler as Chief Feinberg
Callie Thorne as Sheila
Patti D’Arbanville as Ellie
Tatum O’Neal as Maggie
Gina Gershon as Valerie
Directed by: John Fortenberry
Written by: Peter Tolan & Denis Leary