If there’s one thing that “Fire Country” knows how to do well, it’s writing off fan-favorite characters. The firefighting drama got rid of Fiona Rene’s Rebecca Lee pretty early on, but another who got the axe heading into the show’s sophomore season was W. Tré Davis’s Freddy Mills. A recurring cast member in Season 1, Freddy is Bode’s (Max Thieriot) best friend and confidant at the Three Rock Conservation Camp,  and he quickly became everyone’s go-to hero. Nicknamed “Goat,” Freddy helps save plenty of lives as a convict firefighter, but unlike Bode, he was incarcerated under false pretenses. It’s not until the end of the first season that Freddy is exonerated, and he wastes no time leaving Edgewater behind him.

“Fire Country” was never quite fair to Freddy. The character was more than just Bode’s best friend at Three Rock, he was also the heart of the show. While every other character has massive amounts of soapy drama keeping their lives in a constant state of unbalance, Freddy is the consistent companion who always has the right thing to say. He’s the type of friend that everyone needs and proves himself loyal to the end. Even when we thought that he and Bode were on the outs for a while, it all turned out to be a ploy meant to uncover a secret drug ring at Three Rock.

But with the show’s second season, “Fire Country” wrote Freddy off, sending him to SoCal while his best friend was rotting away in a cell up north. Sure, Season 2 brought Freddy back for the finale, “I Do,” but not before making him seem like a fair-weather friend who left town the moment things got hard. It just didn’t seem in character.

“Fire Country” could easily restore Freddy Mills to his proper role in Bode’s life if the show gets its act together in the third season. With Bode once again wondering where his place is in this world, a family man like Freddy might be able to give him the right sort of guidance that could put his life back on track. With Season 3 set to introduce a few new characters, there’s no time like the present to bring Freddy officially back into the fold. 

From what we know so far, it sounds like Bode is going to be spending some time with Cal Fire in Southern California with newcomer Camden Casey, played by former “Supernatural” star Jared Padalecki. This would be the perfect way to re-integrate Freddy into Bode’s life, as we know the Mills family — Freddy, his wife Cookie (Katrina Reynolds), and their son — lives in Los Angeles, with Freddy running his own small business down there. If Bode were staying with Freddy’s family or even just visiting them often, the show might be able to rekindle the flames long lost between the first season and now.

Though it’s likely the CBS series will instead push more Bode and Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) shenanigans, the show would be better off giving Bode some additional space. Sure, Freddy encouraged his friend to go “get his girl” at the end of Season 2, but maybe the time apart will help the firefighter see why the Bode-Gabriela pairing should stay dead. It might also help him appreciate the friends he has stalwartly by his side.