Don’t forget these important details leading into the Season 2 finale.
The Big Picture
- In
Fire Country
Season 2, Bode gets a new lease on life with a hero credit, post-prison. - Manny’s reckless behavior puts his job at risk and he goes missing.
- Jake’s newfound responsibilities may lead him to pivot his career.
It’s hard to believe that we’re already nearly finished with the second season of the firefighting drama Fire Country. Because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023, the once full-length season was shortened to 10 episodes — and what a whirlwind it’s been. From the moment Bode Leone (Max Thieriot) made his way back to Edgewater in the first season, there’s been nothing but steamy drama between the firefighters of Three Rock Conservation Camp and Cal Fire Station 42, and Season 2 takes it all even further. After fighting the Lazarus campaign fire for over a month, our heroes are back in Edgewater for the season finale, and there are a lot of questions as to where the story might go next. Before we get to the season finale, “I Do,” here are some things we need to remember about this season as it comes to a close.
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Fire Country
A young convict joins a firefighting program looking for redemption and a shortened prison sentence. He and other inmates work alongside elite firefighters to extinguish massive blazes across the region.
- Release Date
- October 7, 2022
- Creator
- Tony Phelan, Joan Rater, Max Thieriot
- Cast
- Max Thieriot , Kevin Alejandro , Jordan Calloway , Stephanie Arcila
- Seasons
- 2
‘Fire Country’ Season 2 Has Been a Wildfire
From the moment Season 2 started, Fire Country returned with a bang. After Bode sacrificed himself so that Freddy Mills (W. Tré Davis) could be freed from his wrongful conviction, he spent months in prison where he wasted away into nothing. But just as Bode was going to commit suicide via combat with Sleeper Hadley (Grant Harvey), Jake (Jordan Calloway) called and revealed a shocking truth: that Bode might be a father. Unfortunately, after the death of Jake’s almost-fiance and Bode’s ex, Cara (Sabina Gadecki), it was soon revealed that Bode wasn’t Genevieve’s (Alix West Lefler) father at all. Emotional whiplash aside, Bode handled the news fairly well, and still fought to make Gen feel safe and comfortable with him while Jake (who has a clear rapport with Gen) took over parenting duties.
To make Bode’s life even more complicated, the Three Rock convict’s old flame, Gabriella (Stephanie Arcila), moved on in the time that he was away. In fact, during the course of Season 2, Gabriella got engaged to fellow paramedic Diego Moreno (Rafael de la Fuente) after a whirlwind rebound romance that she clearly has mixed feelings about. With the Season 2 finale, titled “I Do,” centering around Gabriella and Diego’s nuptuals, it seems entirely possible that Bode will be forced to make a final gesture to try and win her back before she can utter those two words. Of course, Bode and Gabriella have a long way to go because they’re right for each other, but after the sparks that flew between them at the end of “No Future, No Consequences,” it seems like Fire Country is prepping us for a do-over on their Season 1 romance. Hopefully, things work out better for them this time around.
Bodie Has Been Given a New Lease on Life
Perhaps the biggest news heading into “I Do” is that at the end of the season’s penultimate episode, Bode was awarded a hero credit (called an “extraordinary conduct credit”) for helping save his father Vince’s (Billy Burke) life during the Lazarus fire. Bode has been released from his prison sentence and is now free apart from Three Rock Conservation Camp. As a free man, Bode can do anything now, even if he is no longer officially a firefighter. It’s unclear what Bode will do with himself after being released. Back in Season 1, when it looked like Bode would be getting parole, he and Jake had agreed to live with each other. Now with Gen living at Jake’s, that could make things even stranger between them, or it could be another way for Bodie to continue to be involved in Gen’s life.
Additionally, Bode’s freedom may also limit his career options. Having found himself as a firefighter, it would make sense that Bode could take over Three Rock himself one day, not unlike Manny’s (Kevin Alejandro) role there during the first season. In many ways, that seemed to be the direction that Fire Country was taking Bodie throughout the first season. But now with Eve (Jules Latimer) as the current captain over at Three Rock, it seems more unlikely that Bode would want to step on his friend’s toes. Additionally, we know that Vince has dreamed about fighting fires alongside his son at Station 42, but with his sudden decline in health after being electrocuted a few episodes earlier, that’s looking less like a viable possibility.
Manny Is in the Wind at the Most Inopportune Time
In “It’s Not Over,” we saw a side to Manny that we hadn’t seen before on the show. We know from his backstory that the former Three Rock captain was an inmate before he was Cal Fire, and we also know that he struggled with a gambling problem. This returned in Season 1, but, with the help of Gabriella and his friends, Manny was able to beat it. In Season 2, we saw another side of Manny’s criminal behavior via his lack of anger management. It’s often been said that Gabriella’s mother and Manny’s ex-wife Roberta (Paola Núñez) was a bad influence on Manny, and that she wasn’t the best wife, mother, or human being, and we’ve finally seen that for ourselves. The moment Roberta returned, Manny lost control, and got into a physical altercation with Luke (Michael Trucco) after it was revealed he recommended Three Rock be shut down.
Manny’s recklessness not only got him in a sticky situation with his superior, but it also started a fire and threatened his job. Thankfully, “No Future, No Consequences” revealed that Manny’s job was safe, and after a heart-to-heart with Eve, it seemed like the former Three Rock captain was going to get his act together. But after getting a call from Vince that the police were loitering about with a warrant for his arrest (the charges involving his assault and arson), Manny skipped town. After the events of “Alert the Sheriff,” where Manny tries to convince a runaway Three Rock inmate that the best way to deal with his sentence is to face it and not run from it, it feels out of character for Manny to ignore his own advice. Will Manny stay gone forever? Is he going to have a change of heart? Time will tell, but it might take someone like Bodie to convince Manny that this isn’t the way.
Will Jake Continue Fighting Fires?
Throughout the Lazarus campaign fire, Jake struggled with the idea of not making it back home to Gen, especially after promising her that he wouldn’t die. Gen has already lost her grandparents and her mother, and Jake is the only one in her life left. Throughout the Lazarus campaign, Jake continued to freeze in the face of danger, and only with Bodie’s help was he able to jump back into the literal fire to save Vince and another fallen hero. But that doesn’t change the fact that Jake, now a captain at Station 42, has new responsibilities as a surrogate father. He might not be Gen’s biological dad, but he’s the closest thing to that sort of figure in her life that she’s got—and it’s his job to make sure he always comes home.
Given this newfound responsibility, it’s possible that Jake could quit firefighting entirely. Sure, because this is Fire Country and Jake needs something to do to stay relevant on the show, it’s unlikely he’ll completely remove himself from Cal Fire, but he could easily take some time off, or even pivot his career with the company. If Jake were to become a dispatcher, he would still be involved in aiding during these life-or-death circumstances, it would just be from another vantage point that doesn’t put him in the fray. That might make Gen feel safer about his work, especially in light of how her mother died, and could even allow him more time at home. Though the show hasn’t made any specific moves in this direction, it seems plausible given Jake’s arc in the penultimate episode.
Three Rock Is Saved, but What Will Become of Station 42?
Another major plotline in Season 2 was the impending closure of Three Rock. At one point, the inmate fire camp was officially closed by Cal Fire, who deemed it too much of a flight risk after the camp’s issue with drugs last season, drugs that were ultimately pinned on Manny and Bodie. But with Bodie cleared of those charges and Manny taking a step back from the camp, Eve worked tirelessly to get Three Rock back up and running. Eventually (and with Bodie’s help), she succeeded, and Governor Kelly (Catherine Lough Haggquist) officially reinstated Three Rock as a vital entity in the fire fighting business. But with Three Rock, and inmates like Cole Rodman (Tye White), saved, Fire Country needs some drama elsewhere, and that comes in the form of what’s brewing over at Station 42.
We mentioned Vince’s declining health before, which is something that’s become an even bigger issue in the past two or three episodes, but during the Lazarus fire, it nearly cost him his life. More than that, it put his own son in harm’s way. Because of his heart condition, Vince has relinquished control of Station 42 to his wife, Sharon (Diane Farr), for the foreseeable future. What this means for Station 42 (and Vince’s career in general) is unclear, as the Leone patriarch has been at the steady head of the firehouse for as long as anyone can remember. Without Vince at the helm, Station 42 could look vastly different, and it makes us wonder what there might be left for Billy Burke to do if he’s not playing a commanding Cal Fire officer. At least now that Bodie is out, these two can have some serious father-son bonding time that’s been long overdue.
‘Fire Country’ Is Returning for Season 3 — With Some Company
Thankfully, even if all our questions aren’t answered, Fire Country is returning for Season 3 sometime next fall. The firefighting drama has been making waves on CBS and Paramount+ since it launched back in 2022, and continues to delight audiences with its high-drama material. To make things even more interesting, Fire Country will be returning with a companion series, Sheriff Country, which is set to follow Sharon’s step-sister Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin), who was first introduced in this season’s “Alert the Sheriff.” Though it’s not been confirmed how many episodes will make up Fire Country‘s third season, we’re hoping that now that the Hollywood strikes of 2023 are over, we’ll be getting a full 22-episode season pickup like with Season 1.
Fire Country airs on Fridays on CBS and is available for streaming on Paramount+.
This article was originally published on collider.com