Much like the opening lineup of a baseball team, tonight’s episode wasn’t very spectacular, but it did its job by loading the bases with enough possibilities for the season finale to knock home a few runs. Following the random shooting of Tommy’s brother, Johnny, it’s finally revealed that the shooter in question was a hired gun paid to kill the cop planning to testify against some low-level drug dealer. Now, Johnny’s dead and Tommy’s out shopping for a casket. This all seems a little too reminiscent of last season’s second-to-last episode (where Tommy’s son, Colin, was killed in a drunk driving accident), but the writers had to find a way to keep his character on the show, and now that Johnny’s out of the picture, you can bet that Tommy will be back with his wife in no time. Of course, if they really wanted to surprise us, Tommy would stick with his initial plans of moving away with Sheila, but I just don’t see that happening any time soon.

Oh well, at least Garrity finally married Maggie. Then again, the ceremony did take place directly following the burying of Johnny – and at the cemetery, no less – but that only gave the writers the chance to introduce the long-lost (and deaf) Gavin sister, Rosemary. I’m not exactly sure why they did this (perhaps just so the hilarious sign-language gag between Maggie, Rosemary, Tommy and Garrity actually worked), but maybe they felt like the Gavin family was losing too many members. Oh well, perhaps we’ll find out more after next week’s season finale. Then again, maybe not.