Season 3

Alex Taylor

WHAT HAPPENED TO ALEX TAYLOR IN SEASON 3

Alex’ father was killed as the South Tower collapsed on 9/11. Alex took his death very hard and would spend all her free time down at “the pile” helping the rescuers. This eventually led Lieutenant Johnson to move her to the paramedic side of the squad, where she rode with Kim Zambrano, as he did not want to lose “another member of his squad”. Alex originally rode with Carlos Nieto, as Kim (who had recently returned to work following a suicide attempt) was riding with Doc, but after Kim proved herself fit for duty she and Alex were partnered up. They developed a strong friendship as the only women in the firehouse, but despite this Alex wanted to return to firefighting. She was annoyed when a new firefighter, Prescott, arrived – she was worried he would take her place in the squad. It turned out that Prescott knew of Alex, as he had worked with her father soon after joining up. Angus Taylor’s body was found 233 days after 9/11, and he received a hero’s burial. Alex returned to firefighting not long afterwards.

Alex started dating Ty Davis during the show’s third season after he comforted her over the death of her father. They kept the relationship secret from everyone for a while, but eventually Ty realised that he and Alex didn’t really have enough in common to keep a relationship going. After ending up in hospital due to being shot, he introduced Alex to his mother as a “friend” rather than a girlfriend.

EPISODES

01 – “In Their Own Words”
This was a special non-fiction episode which told, in their own words, the real stories of the police officers, firefighters, paramedics, emergency services personnel, and their families in the aftermath of 9/11/01. The regular starring cast members did brief introductions to each of this documentary’s segments, which featured the real police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and emergency services personnel who work as part-time technical advisors and cast members in the production of every regular “Third Watch” episode. This episode has only aired twice, the first being its original air date and the second was on the first anniversary of the attacks, where it aired on A&E. On March 27, 2002, this episode received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. Molly Price, who plays Faith Yokas, did not do a segment introduction. Since her husband is a firefighter who was involved in the rescue operation, she was interviewed in one of the segments.
 

02 – “September Tenth”
On September 10, 2001, Ty and Sully are in Atlantic City on the eve of Sully’s wedding to Tatiana; Kim sinks deeper into depression; Bosco searches for love; and Jimmy nurses a sick Joey.
Doc (at 6 a.m.): Starting to build his new house. Bosco: At a girl’s apartment in Chelsea. We hear a plane fly over the apartment. Faith and Fred: In the Subway. The subway comes to an emergency stop. They are next seen outside the subway, Faith gets a ride while giving instructions to Fred involving the children. Jimmy and Alex: Finishing their double shift, in which the call for the explosion was announced. They are next seen getting the equipment on board their fire truck. Kim: At home. Her mom calls her, tells her to turn the TV on. She is next seen running toward the fire station.
Sully and Ty: In Atlantic City, they are in a casino. Both see a crowd of people at a bar, watching the TV set. They check out what is going on TV, then immediately start running out.
 

03 – “After Time”
It’s September 21, 2001 and the squads continue to battle through their emotions and their misgivings about their hero status, while working double shifts and spending every free moment at “the pile” searching for the missing; Kim returns to work and teams up with Doc, which allows an emotionally frayed Alex to return to paramedic duty; an exhausted Sully attempts to co-exist with his prospective in-laws while he waits for an opportunity to marry Tatiana.

04 – “The Relay”
After a despondent woman takes a walk off of an eight-story apartment building, the squad finds themselves in a race to transport both the woman’s heart and a dying girl to a local hospital in time to save the youngster’s life. The suicide hits home for Faith as she comes to grips with her own ongoing medical problems, while Doc expresses concern over the emotional effects this case will have on Kim, despite her constant reassurance that her accident was not an attempt to kill herself.

05 – “Adam 55-3”
Even though his co-workers want to nominate him for the “Paramedic of the Year” award, a pensive Doc is disheartened as he considers his unfulfilled life. He later teams with Kim as they try to save a heart attack victim while fending off a woman who’s wielding a meat cleaver. In addition, Doc tries to minister to a chronic old drunk and a teenaged girl who attempts suicide in her bathtub. Meanwhile, Faith secretly undergoes a procedure to determine if the lump in her breast is cancerous, leaving an unsuspecting Bosco assigned to a nervous rookie cop; Kim reluctantly consults a lawyer about Jimmy’s intention to claim custody of Joey.

06 – “He Said, She Said”
During a sweep for prostitutes, Faith and Bosco tragically misjudge a sexual encounter between a young woman and a man in a car to be consensual; the situation spirals out of control when the girl later claims she was sexually assaulted while the cops laughed it off; Carlos considers a willing Ty as a potential roommate candidate.

07 – “Childhood Memories”
Bosco runs from the present and his past when he is wrongly suspected of murdering a sexual-assault suspect. As Faith tries to gather evidence to clear him, Bosco turns to his dysfunctional family, including his alcoholic mother, drug-addicted brother and estranged, abusive father. An emotionally rattled Kim virtually kidnaps Joey from Jimmy while Carlos actively solicits Ty to be his new roommate.

08 – “Act Brave”
Ty, with his own experience, counsels Alex on the loss of her father while Alex helps him and Carlos move into their new apartment. Alex ends up taking solace in Ty’s bed as well. Sully is shocked when Tatiana takes his mother out of the nursing home without his permission and says that she will take care of her at home. Jimmy and Kim go to war over custody of Joey but try to come together to help Joey celebrate his birthday. Jimmy begins to realize that taking Joey away from Kim might not be the best decision. A stupid Anthrax scare turns into a nightmare when a nearby diner explodes from a gas main leak. Alex defies orders and stays with a scared trapped child even though she has no protection from an impending explosion.

09 – “Sex, Lies & Videotape”
Carlos finally finds out Ty isn’t gay although Alex manages to keep the secret that she’s the one sleeping with Ty. The reality TV series Trauma Response films Doc at work in anticipation of his winning paramedic of the year. Doc and the other paramedics treat an entire family that has been shot, but it turns out that the father of the family may have been the one who shot them. When the father gets away, Ty and Sully get in a car accident chasing him. At the scene of the accident, Doc is caught on tape making a mistake that paralyzes a man. Meanwhile, Faith and Bosco chase the suspect on foot, but Faith’s treatment finally catches up with her and she isn’t able to back up Bosco at a crucial moment. Bosco is shot, but is saved by his bulletproof vest. Faith finally admits to Bosco that she has Cancer.

10 – “Transformed”
Alex gets bent out of shape when a new firefighter, Prescott, joins the squad. She tells the boss she’s ready to come back, so he says as soon as they can find a replacement medic for her she’s back on the squad.
Yokas comes back from her “vacation” and promises never to hide anything from Bosco again. Kim and Doc bring a woman to the hospital who dies because she was beaten by her druggie boyfriend, and then they have to save the druggie boyfriend’s life when he’s arrested by Yokas and Bosco and overdoses.
Joey breaks his arm falling off the jungle-gym while in Jimmy’s care.

11 – “Old Dogs, New Tricks”
Carlos has a mis-hap trying to slide down the fire pole. Doc opens up about his guilt to the wrong person. Kim and Alex turn out to make good partners. Sully’s mother gets burned when Tatiana leaves her alone at home. Bosco busts a drug dealer who turns out to be his own brother.

12 – “The Long Guns”
In his ongoing quest to join the ESU, Bosco befriends an embittered but wily squad veteran, Glen Hobart, who instructs him in the art of distance shooting. When Hobart’s emotional problems cause him to lose control, Bosco must endure his mentor’s self-destructive tendencies. Meanwhile, Carlos is repulsed when he learns about Alex’s sexual relationship with Ty. The cops search for an armed and drug-addled thief, and Faith’s latest scary incident on patrol prompts her to ponder taking the test to earn a desk job as a sergeant.

13 – “Cold Front”
Feeling betrayed, Doc angrily confronts Jerry Mankowitz for tricking him into confiding vital information about a pending malpractice suit by not revealing that his old partner is now working as an attorney’s investigator. Later, when Doc heroically responds to an emergency involving a near-comatose elderly woman trapped in ice, he remembers that his job is worth the legal fight ahead. Meanwhile, Carlos worries that he got the wrong telephone number from his latest romantic conquest. Faith thinks that troubled Bosco has lost his enthusiasm for police work. Jimmy struggles to act as both mother and father to Joey.

14 – “Superheroes (1)”
When Yokas recommends that Bosco get psychological counseling, Bosco gets pissed off and requests a new partner. Bosco, who hates his new singing partner, gets called to a drive-by shooting involving the brother of a drug-dealer that Bosco is familiar with. Yokas and her scared rookie partner are called to a domestic disturbance that turns out to be the remnants of a drug-related blood bath. Sully and Davis are called to the hospital when Sully’s step-son, Sergei, is beaten to within an inch of his life. Sully gets out of Sergei that a Russian mob boss named Chevchenko is to blame and Sully drags Davis along on his vendetta. Yokas convinces a scared old man to tell her about how Chevchenko was in charge of the blood bath in the apartment across the hall from him. Davis follows C-Note, the drug-dealer, as he goes to avenge his brother’s death. All the cops end up converging on a Russian restaurant and getting stuck in the cross-fire of a war between C-Note’s gang and Chevchenko’s gang.

15 – “Superheroes (2)”
The police officers sort through the carnage and count their dead in the wake of a shootout between rival gangs. While Faith tries to interrogate Fyodor Chevchenko, a ruthless Russian mobster, Sully worries about the severely wounded Ty and regrets causing the incident. Tatiana chastises Sully for hassling her injured son. Faith worries about Gusler, her ineffective, frightened rookie partner, and a weary Doc gets some unexpected good news about his medical malpractice suit.

16 – “Thicker Than Water”
During the investigation of the gang shootout, the officers are questioned and presented with evidence which suggests that Ross was killed by friendly fire; Carlos learns that Vangie is dead and that he might be the father of the baby her sister leaves at the firehouse; on the first anniversary of Bobby’s death, Kim quarrels with Jimmy over her visitation with Joey and confronts a female gang during a call; and Doc is visited by the father of a former patient whose debilitating injury may have been caused by Doc’s error during treatment.

17 – “Falling”
Bosco’s emotional turmoil escalates when he begins to experience panic attacks and flashbacks, but continues to deny that there’s anything wrong. After he has a panic attack while driving the patrol car and nearly causes a crash, Sully insists that Bosco see his friend Brian O’Malley, who’s a therapist and a former cop. Carlos starts an open adoption process for Kylie, but fails to follow through on appointments to meet prospective parents as he becomes more attached to her. Ty pitches in to help with the babysitting, and saves Kylie’s life when she suddenly becomes very ill and stops breathing. Fred invests his hopes for a better future for his family on Faith’s passing the sergeant’s exam, and reacts angrily when he learns that Faith’s preoccupation with Bosco’s well-being may have caused her to fail the exam.

18 – “The Unforgiven”
Tatiana is still missing, and Sully continues to search for her while grieving her loss. When he comes upon the body of a six year old girl in a box on a curb, he becomes strangely unnerved. Haunted by this sight and by thoughts of the mistakes he has made recently, he takes the rest of the day off sick, and winds up in a local restaurant where he finds his parish priest. They ruminate on the nature of guilt, absolution, forgiveness, faith and the intercession of God as they recall the fate of another man who also made mistakes and tried to fix them, and whose life ended tragically at Sully’s hand. Sully finally comes to a place where he can forgive himself and go on with life, and seeks out Davis to once again beg his forgiveness and reaffirm their connection to each other.
 

19 – “The Greater Good”
Hopelessly in love with Kylie and concerned that she will lose her Filipina heritage if she is adopted by a white couple, Carlos considers raising her until he realizes that the couple can give her the sister, the grandparents, and the extended family that he cannot; Kim’s preoccupation with her new PDA drives Alex crazy until they are able to use it to save a very sick man, thus redeeming themselves in the eyes of a hypercritical Dr. Peterson; Faith and Fred are still on uneven ground about the sergeant’s exam; in an effort to shake Chevchenko’s tree, Faith and Sully execute a clever plan to disrupt the Russian’s bookmaking operation, which also opens the door to the possibility of the still-missing Tatiana’s return; Bosco is cleared for duty, and he and Faith agree to be partners again as soon as he returns.

20 – “Unleashed (2)”
When Dr. Susan Lewis from Chicago comes to New York to search for the missing daughter of her drug-addicted sister, Faith and Bosco focus their attention on the child’s stepfather, a New Jersey cop, after they discover that the girl was taken by a man in uniform; Tatiana returns home; Jimmy spends some quality time with Joey.
This episode concludes a crossover with ER that begins on “Brothers and Sisters”. Sherry Stringfield guest stars as Susan Lewis.
Amy Carlson does not appear in this episode

21 – “Two Hundred and Thirty-Three Days”
Rescuers find the body of Alex’s father, and he is given a hero’s burial; Faith and Bosco tail a convicted rapist released on appeal, certain that he will rape again; dissatisfied by Tatiana’s explanation of her whereabouts the eight weeks she was missing, Sully investigates further and uncovers some astonishing and heartbreaking facts about his wife; after Chevchenko threatens to kill him if he doesn’t roll over on Faith and Sully, Frankie tells Swersky that the raid on Chevchenko’s numbers business was a hummer bust, leading Chevchenko to threaten a lawsuit and have another angry confrontation with Sully.

22 – “Blackout”
When a blackout strikes the city during a heat wave, Sully prophetically warns the more optimistic Ty that trouble in the streets will swiftly ensue. After Carlos leaves the ambulance running to keep the bus cool while he and Doc are on calls, the engine catches fire and the ambulance is destroyed. A wealthy old man confined to his bed by illness offers them a large amount of money to stay with him until his daughter arrives. Bosco arrests a young man, Latrell Griffith, and faces a difficult decision when an immigrant shop owner shoots and wounds a teenage shoplifter. After Latrell uses his training as a medic to save the boy, a riot breaks out and Bosco, Latrell and the shoplifter barely escape. Nightfall brings more unrest as the nervous cops try to keep the peace. Faith and Fred are stuck in a elevator when the power goes out. Faith tries to calm Fred’s mounting anxiety about being trapped, and is left helpless when Fred suffers a heart attack.
 
This episode was orginally supposed to air has the season premiere of season 3. But because of the 9/11 attacks it was pushed back and aired as the season finale.