Peter Tolan, Leary's creative partner, describes the self-destructive Gavin as "a bottomless pit of disbelief in the goodness of people and of himself."
In a five-alarm twist, however, Gavin will crawl out of the pit this season, Tolan says. Last seen drugged and unconscious in the burning beach house of his spurned girlfriend, he'll see the light.
Before he reaches the promise of redemption, Gavin must hit "an extremely dark, disconnected place," Tolan explains. By the end of the season's 13 episodes, the change "will be fairly dramatic."
In a Dickensian conceit, Gavin's wake-up call takes the form of a surreal glimpse into what his future will be if he doesn't clean up his life, which as long as we've known him, has revolved around copulating, boozing, and avoiding the c-word - commitment.
"Through the actions of others or through visitations, Tommy sees what's awaiting him and all the guys in the [fire]house," says Tolan, 48. "He gets shaken up."
To Leary, his character "is visiting the deep recesses of his own wishes, and in the course of that, confronting his own fears, finally.
"Basically, it's a trip through the male ego - fear, death, grief and sex, and how they all work in the male mind. He's finally facing the fact of 'This is how I am and this is how I have to live in order to change.' "
Through all the upheaval, Gavin manages to stay on the wagon.
BTW, Leary, a recovered alcoholic, has no patience with celebrities who blame their bad behavior on the bottle.
For example, when Mel Gibson insisted that his anti-Semitic rant last summer was due to too much tequila, Leary ripped him in an original song with his rock band.
"If tequila made Mexico anti-Semitic, the entire country would be an anti-Jew zone," Leary muses.
