After last week’s game-changing Season 3 premiere, Fire Country kept its foot in the gas in Episode 2, “Firing Squad,” an absolutely jam-packed hour with a different feel than a typical episode. Its courtroom drama-esque structure with flashbacks that gradually reveal the whole story reminds me of the Academy Award-winning film Anatomy of a Fall. The episode also contains perhaps the most drastic change in Fire Country history: Bode gets a haircut!
“Firing Squad” picks up where the premiere left off, as Bode (Max Thieriot) and Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) rush to help Station 42 firefighters who got caught in the blast after fuel from the helicopter crash ignites. They work together to save the life of an injured firefighter named Gilmore, but something happens. Gabriela makes a mistake that she and Bode cover up, but the show does not reveal what happened, keeping that secret for later in the episode.
The action then cuts to a week later. We get a nice scene of Bode, Jake (Jordan Calloway), and Eve (Jules Latimer) hanging out in the Leones’ living room. They’re goofing around and singing along to “Wagon Wheel.” It’s so gratifying to see Bode getting to live a normal life. It’s a scene that couldn’t have existed in the first two seasons. Vince (Billy Burke) comes in and informs them that Bode has a shot at joining the Edgewater firefighter training program, but the catch is that it’s the second round exam, so he’ll have to demonstrate a higher level of competency — and the exam is tomorrow. Bode is a special boy who always gets special treatment, but that’s just Fire Country for you.
What’s Bode and Gabriela’s secret?
Bode shows up the next day with a shorter haircut and a mustache, without a beard, because he has to meet firefighter regulations. This new-look Bode is going to take some getting used to, but it’s part of his life changes. His oral exam is a “hot wash,” where he has to give a report on an incident while instructors and other cadets grill him about it. His incident, of course, is saving Gilmore.
During the hot wash, Bode gives a mostly truthful account of what happened, leaving out his and Gabriela’s secret. One cadet in particular, a former inmate firefighter named Audrey (guest star Leven Rambin), asks some tough questions. A Three Rock inmate named Big Mike saw Bode and Gabriela arguing and told her about it, so she asks what they were fighting about. Here, Gabriela steps in and covers for Bode with a lie about Bode forgetting an oxygen tank in the heat of the moment. However, intercut flashbacks reveal what really happened.
Gilmore was crashing, and Gabriela injected him with atropine to stabilize his heart rate. Unfortunately, he’s allergic, and went into anaphylaxis. He was wearing a necklace that disclosed his allergy, but neither Gabriela nor Bode noticed it before the injection. Gabriela saved him again with an emergency tracheotomy, but then she started to panic about how this mistake could end her career. So Bode took the necklace off the unconscious firefighter, and they agreed not to tell anyone what really happened. Like always, Bode is making a bad decision with his heart in the right place.
Bode passes the test and is ready to officially start his firefighter training. But Jake finds the necklace when it falls out of Bode’s locker. So Bode and Gabriela’s futures may be in danger at the start of the next episode.
Is Manny going back to prison?
Elsewhere in the episode, Manny (Kevin Alejandro) is facing three years in prison because the DA is getting political pressure to make him an example, but with the support of his firefighter community, he gets it negotiated down to a year at Three Rock. It’s better than the alternative, but Gabriela is very upset with him for getting in this situation at all and acting like it’s not a big deal, while Manny is upset with her for the chain of events that led to her leaving Diego (Rafael de la Fuente) at the altar. It’s the most tense we’ve ever seen things be between the father and daughter, and their estrangement will surely be an important plotline this season.
Eve gets set up with a plotline about how she turned her back on her family when she became a firefighter. It’s not clear what that’s all about or where it’s going yet, but we’re obviously going to learn more about Eve’s family this season. And Jake is dealing with family problems of his own, as Rick (Adam Aalderks) informs him if the paternity test comes back positive—which it will—he’s going to tell Genevieve (Alix West Lofler) whether or not Jake approves, so it’s up to Jake to decide how he wants to handle it.
It’s not all bad news, though. When Sharon (Diane Farr) finds out that the owner of Smokey’s doesn’t have money to fix the damage from the helicopter crash and is planning to sell the building to a vegan restaurant chain, she basically impulse buys the place. So now she and Vince own a bar that needs an unbelievable amount of work to get up and running. What could go wrong? That’s going to be a fun story to watch this season.
