Fire Country Season 4, Episode 2: New Chief Shakes Things Up and Bode Finally Steps Up md11

No one expects Station 42 to immediately snap into shape after the loss of station leader and show patriarch, Vince Leone (Billy Burke) on Fire Country. But after two months on the bench, you’d think Bode (Max Thieriot) and the rest of the crew would be ready to show what they’re made of. Brett Richards (Shawn Hatosy) is definitely ready to make changes at 42 and the team proves Richards is right to change things up during their very first call with him as Battalion Chief.

Richards’ first order of business is testing the station’s responsiveness to a 9-1-1 call. It takes them six minutes to assemble when he pages the team, which is below his standard. Then he quizzes them on the Cal Fire safety rule book — which they pass. The team has the rules memorized, but it turns out they suck at putting them into practice, which becomes immediately evident when 42 is called to a nearby forest fire and finds Edgewater displaced residents from the Zebel Ridge fire camping nearby. When Bode convinces Jake (Jordan Calloway) and the rest of the team to prioritize belongings over people, the situation escalates to a deadly situation that Richards seems to know was coming.

Audrey Is Back in Town in ‘Fire Country’ Season 4 Episode 2

Gabs (Stephanie Arcila) is gone, but Audrey (Leven Rambin) is back in town. Finn (Blake Lee) wakes up from his coma just long enough to tell authorities that Audrey shot him in self-defense. So she’s in Edgewater and ready to jump-start her life with Bode…except Bode is keeping secrets. He’s sleeping at the station without telling her and not sleeping much. He thinks he’s being slick, but Audrey is also an addict, so she knows when someone is slipping.

She pushes him throughout the episode to just tell her what’s going on. He won’t because he already lied that he flushed his stash of pills. Confessing that he’s taking long jogs to contemplate popping one of his old vices isn’t something that Bode is ready to do. So he continues to teeter on the edge of a relapse and throws his reconnection with Gabs in Audrey’s face to try and throw her off the scent. She doesn’t take the bait (apparently picking up some major maturity points during her time away), and tells Bode he needs to call her when he’s ready to be serious.

Bode is on the verge of blowing it with yet another woman who is too good for him. Does he think that no one would understand he’s struggling with the death of his father? Audrey knows all of his tricks and is still standing by him. He needs to understand how rare that is before it’s too late, or he does something he can’t come back from.

Bode’s Attempt at Being a Savior Backfires Royally in ‘Fire Country’

That last piece of advice can apply to multiple areas of Bode’s life. Once again, he’s the center of attention at the forest fire call. He encounters a wandering dog named Tiberius while he and Audrey are hosing down the fire line. He follows the dog to find an encampment of people displaced after the Zebel Ridge fire. They’ve already lost everything in one fire, and Bode decides it is more important to let them grab their stuff and pack up rather than evacuate them immediately as Richards orders him to do.

The worst part is that he convinces Jake, Eve (Jules Latimer), and Manny (Kevin Alejandro) to go along with it. So they’re busy trying to pull a truck out of the mud so the campers can escape in their cars when Sharon (Diane Farr) comes to check on them and realizes they’ve gone rogue. She tries to chew them out but gets distracted by an illegal electricity setup that’s about to cause the fire to spread, or electrocute one of the campers. Since this is Fire Country, you may have already guessed that it does both. Needless to say, Sharon is busy when Richards comes to check and absolutely loses his mind that none of the campers have moved out.

Jake takes the initial round of Richards’ rightful ire because he okay’d moving the truck instead of moving the campers on foot. The fire jumps to the encampment, so now time is ticking even faster. They attempt to fell some trees to bring the fire lower to the ground, but it burns too quickly. Some of the residents pivot to travelling on foot, but soon that path is blocked by fire as well. Janice (Tara Wilson) and her dog Tiberius are still trying to drive out when her car is surrounded by flames.

Richards takes a step back to watch how Jake and the crew handle the emergency situation. He knows they’re going to play fast and loose with protocol but Sharon has warned them to be on their Ps and Qs, so obviously they are going to listen, and absolutely no one, not even Bode, is going to try and be a hero. I yearn for the day when predictable sarcasm is not needed in these recaps. Jake leads the team to getting Janice out of her care safely, but Tiberius is stuck in the hatchback trunk. The protocol is to get Janice to safety because flames are creeping in from all sides and the fire has already burned through 42’s hoses. Backup is still on the way, so it would be risking life and limb to jump back into the inferno to save the dog.

Bode can’t let that stand. He jumps back through the flames while Richards and Sharon watch. He manages to save Tiberius, but only nanoseconds before Janice’s car explodes and sends Bode flying to the ground. Obviously, we are not rooting for anything to happen to that dog, but Bode’s behavior throughout the entire incident proves everything that Richards has been saying. Station 42’s disregard for safety regulations is dangerous.

He doesn’t pull punches when they get back to the station. He tells Bode and the rest that their reckless behavior is why Vince is dead. It’s harsh, but Richards is right. Vince went into the Buena Vista building because Bode shouldn’t have. If Tiberius’ gate in Janice’s truck had been even slightly harder to wrench open, Sharon would be burying her son, too. That’s why she’s not listening when Bode begs her to write Sacramento and tell them that Richards has to go. She may not like him, but she sees that 42 has some lessons to learn. Bode is going to hate it, but Richards is going to keep Sharon’s son alive, and that’s what matters most to her in this moment.

Jake Decides To Stay in Edgewater, Thank God

It’s a rough episode, but it feels good to be back on team Shawn Hatosy. He’s not trying to replace Vince out of malice, but he does see flaws in the Station 42 ecosystem that need fixing. He’s a good addition to the station. However, it’s rough watching the crew screw up and get their noses rubbed in it. Luckily, there is a silver lining to all of this.

Jake makes the firm decision to stay in Edgewater. Brett may have the job that he wants, but this is the community where he grew up, and this is the community that he wants to protect. His girlfriend Violet (Nesta Cooper) pushes him to make the decision, and it is such a relief. Jake is my guy, even if this pissing contest with Bode remains extremely annoying. Hopefully, committing to staying in one place rather than looking for the next rung up on the ladder is the thing that Jake needs to be the leader that Station 42 needs. He’s the best hope of helping the team through Richards’ tough love.

And if that wasn’t enough good news, there is some hope for the Three Rock situation. The county is going to sell the land that the original camp was on, but Manny proposes that Eve go after the land the campers were settled on. They could rebuild the fire camp there instead, which would also save them from the contaminated water issue. It would be a brand new start in a brand new place. So who is up for a change of scenery? It is still going to require Sacramento to invest in the Three Rock program, but Eve and Manny are not being counted out yet.