During the episode, Phil’s sons, Jake and Josh, each had a final, heartbreaking goodbye with their dad. Jake said goodbye to his dad as he left for rehab, while Josh had a conversation with his dad that I dare you to watch without getting at least choked up, if not bawling your way through. Lying in a hospital bed, his head shaved, Phil first squeezes Josh’s hand (“all right, you got power!”), and then whispers to his son, “When yo’re growing up, I should’ve been a better father.” Josh replies, “You’ve taught me everything I need to know to be a man. And I’m going to take care of you as best I fucking possibly can.”
That wasn’t the last we saw of Phil, nor was that the last conversation he had with Josh, but it was the beginning of the end. Phil suffered another hemorrhage and died, and while there wasn’t footage of him being operated on, scenes from the hospital were intercut with the other boats battling a fierce storm, all set to Johnny Cash’s “Redemption Day,” which the episode was named after. It ended with Josh telling Jake on the phone, “we lost dad, dude.”
