As the captain at Three Rock during Fire Country‘s first season, Kevin Alejandro‘s Manny Perez had seemingly stepped into his full potential.
He knew who he was, he was honest about his past mistakes, and he was willing to see the best in others too. He was a physical embodiment of the hope that Bode (Max Thieriot) and others on the program had of getting out and making a real life and career for themselves. But now that Manny’s gotten himself in legal trouble and is being sent back to Three Rock not as a free man but as an inmate, one has to wonder if Fire Country might be making a mistake…
‘Fire Country’ Doesn’t Seem to Know What It Wants to Do With Manny
Manny lost his position at the conservation camp because of everything that happened with Bode and Sleeper (Grant Harvey) right under his nose. It wasn’t Manny’s fault, but he ultimately got punished, and it sort of wrecked him. Throughout Season 2, now back at Station 42, Manny struggled to find his place. No longer a captain, he was still a firefighter and a free man. But that changed when he punched Luke (Michael Trucco) in front of the Governor and contributed to a small fire that erupted in the aftermath. As captain, Manny always kept his anger in check, but having been demoted and reprimanded for something out of his control, it pushed him back into territory that he worked so hard to avoid.
But the second season didn’t really know what to do with Manny. After Eve (Jules Latimer) took his place at Three Rock, the pair struggled to work together with her in his old role. Many hoped they might become co-captains at the conservation camp, but now that Season 3 is sending Manny back under incarceration (after having just wrapped up the drama between them), it feels like we’ve come full circle in the worst of ways. Yes, it’s great that Manny is going to be back at Three Rock, as it’s traditionally where he’s shined and worked best as a character, but on the other hand, it’s hard not to feel like this is the show backtracking to make Manny’s arc interesting again.
Fire Country has a history of forcing its characters to grow and then immediately undercutting any of that development. It’s what Season 2 also did with Bode when he thought he was a father, only for all of that to be thrown away. As a result, he’s refocused his energy back on Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila), which isn’t too far from where he was back in Season 1. Likewise, we’ve played the Gabriela/Manny at odds thing before (again, back in the first season) when Manny was disappointed in his daughter for choosing firefighting over diving, and she was frustrated with him for getting back into gambling. With neither one of them willing to apologize nor work things out, it feels like a stalemate that we already know the results of, even if the circumstances are a bit different. It’s almost like this show always chooses steamy drama over any lasting character development, something that affects Manny the most right now.
Manny Worked Hard to Make Three Rock What It Is and Ought to Get a Second Chance
More than anything, we want to see Manny back in charge at Three Rock. It’s clear after spending so much time with him outside the conservation camp that it’s where Manny made the most profound impact on others. Not only did he literally save lives, but he saved a lot of inmate firefighters from going down the wrong path. With his guidance, Bode got his life back on the right track, and his strict yet gracious form of leadership instilled discipline and courage into his firefighters. Manny’s story was an impressive one, and it was one of Fire Country‘s best features during its first season. To see Manny now stripped of rank and status, only to go back to the camp he fought so hard to build — now in chains himself — is heartbreaking.
While the CBS drama doesn’t have the best track record of fully developing its characters, it has real potential if they could do Manny’s story right. Fire Country could use Manny’s Three Rock arc to rebuild him into the man he’s strayed so far away from. Even if Eve will likely remain Three Rock’s captain, it’s possible that Manny can work his way out of the camp with enough honor to restore him as a firefighter. We’re still hoping that Manny can work together with Eve down the line and that his time under her direct supervision won’t ruin that. If they can work this out together, Manny could end up back on top.
