Franco faces one of his toughest opponents.

Death was all around in the season’s next-to-last episode of “Rescue Me.”

We had the death of the jumper, who either fell backwards on purpose, or on accident while trying to put on the coat brought to him by Black Shawn.

This loss resulted in a shaken Shawn being told by Tommy to not be like him and to go tell Colleen how much he loves her. What follows is one of the most awkward hugs seen on cable TV, a bond only broken when Tommy claims to see another jumper on the bridge.

“Jump” ends with the shocking death of Ellie, who, we assume, didn’t survive the frightening head-on collision with a dump truck.

Ellie wasn’t the most likable character, although Teddy worshiped the ground she walked on, or, more accurately, stumbled across. We can only assume that the accident will leave a permanent scar on her husband, her drinking buddies and Tommy, who, shortly before the crash, received thanks from Mick for “putting us all back on the road to liver failure.”

We have the shared deaths of Tommy’s son, Connor, and Kelly’s infant daughter, whose memory she keeps carefully locked away in a silver case.

Kelly’s revelation results in another awkward hug, this time with Tommy on the giving, rather than the receiving, end. Only this time he isn’t in such a hurry for it to end.

Of course, in a show that deftly mixes the comic with the tragic, not all the deaths in the episode were such a bad thing.

We had the death of Franco’s boxing career, which wasn’t such a great loss considering he had been relegated to taking on a woman in the ring. A woman who was kicking his butt.

We had the death of the marriage of Lou and Candy – sorry, Lou and Barbara.

In one of the most gratifying scenes of the season, Lou gained his revenge against the former prostitute-thief.  After finding out she was still on the grift, Lou gained a flatscreen TV, a massaging recliner and O.J. Simpson’s Heisman – sorrry, Heiman Trophy – while giving his new wife the ultimate kiss-off.

We also have the career death of Apache Stone – sorry, The DB’s. Actually, not the entire band’s career, just Mike’s. Though he had grown a little tiresome in his belief that he would one day be Bono-like, you can’t help but feel a little bad for the half-wit. He puts a rocking band together and then is told that they are good enough to back up a “gorgeous 21-year-old junkie from San Diego,” but he isn’t. 

On the plus side, Sean rebounds from the loss of his gig as band manager by facilitating the sale of three Volkswagen Routan minivans.

So what did you think of the episode? What do you think will happen in next week’s season finale? Will Tommy finally resolve his relationship triangle? Will Ellie’s crash have a major effect on the bar gang? Will Mike bounce back with a new band? Will all of Sean’s, um, body colors become normal?