[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Fire Country Season 1 Episode 18 “Off the Rails.”]
Bode (Max Thieriot) gets some good news in the latest episode of Fire Country — a date for his parole hearing — but it seems like everyone else is more excited about it than he is.
Manny (Kevin Alejandro) is a bit wary of him putting himself in danger at the scene of a train crash — where they meet train hopper Robin (Kane Brown), who leaves his bag of cash behind — because he wants to make sure Bode is still alive when that date arrives. And Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) starts looking to their future together, eventually getting him to come around to talking about the possibilities.
Meanwhile, what Vince (Billy Burke) and Sharon (Diane Farr) come to realize by episode’s end is that Eve (Jules Latimer) has been struggling with her mental health and likely self-medicating when she hits the bars.
Thieriot (who’s also an executive producer) teases what’s ahead and how it will set up what’s to come in the fall.
Bode’s parole hearing date is set and we saw how Manny is so determined to make sure that he’s alive for it. Is that something we’ll continue to see them clashing about, especially as it gets closer to that date?
Max Thieriot: For sure. Yeah, we’re going to get to experience that all the way. We’re going to draw that out and see how Bode’s parole date affects everybody and what it means, what it could look like for everyone in the future. We’ll see characters with reservations, wondering how he would do, and then Manny’s always championing. It’s a big thing that [Vince and Sharon] are sort of thinking about — welcoming their son home after he left many years ago and where we brought them back into the relationship at the beginning of the season. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re going to be doing there.
Gabriela seems to have gotten him to start thinking about the possibilities if he is paroled, and he seems probably as hopeful as he can be at the end of this episode, but can he maintain that outlook when he’s not around her?
I think the trickiest thing for Bode is he’s always apprehensive and a little nervous, fearful of [what could happen]. But the other thing that we’ve seen that we’ve commented on so well that he does is he’s extremely reactive. He makes decisions without really thinking all of them through. He puts himself into situations constantly, whether it’s danger [or not], because he sort of leads with his instinct and his heart.
Sergei Bachlakov/CBS
For me, I think that’s one of the biggest things, is when Gabriela’s not around and they’re on an incident or whatever, who’s going to be the one to tell him, “don’t screw this up, don’t do something stupid, don’t do something dangerous.” Because as we’ve seen time and time again — being in the back of the car flying off that bridge, running into a fire or building or whatever — he puts himself in precarious situations.
How worried should we be about Eve? And will we be getting more Bode and Eve scenes in that arc? I enjoy those scenes.
Yeah, I love the Bode-Eve scenes. We’ll have some. Everybody’s focused on Jake [Jordan Calloway] and nobody’s seen Eve, and I think that’s obviously a pattern that happens in this group of people in this town, is that the first thing that’s right there in front of your face is the thing that they’re all focused on. But there might be something that’s happening that you’re not noticing. That’s obviously what’s been going with Eve and we’re definitely going to explore that and encourage her to try and get through this.
Also, it’s a reality and it’s something that I know I certainly wanted to bring attention to for a while: the struggle that firefighters go through because it’s not easy going to calls like they have to go to on a daily basis and then go home and bury that and pretend like everything’s fine. And so I think it’s important to bring awareness for all those people and that all these people know that people want to help and there is help and there’s things you can do, people you can talk to. And I’m so excited because Jules is such a talented actress and she can play those emotions so well that I’m really excited for the fans to see Eve’s journey here at the end.
What else can you tease about what’s coming up to set up Season 2?
Oh, man, a lot. We’ll bring in some new characters, which I think is always exciting for people, characters that should be staying around for a long time. And I think that the biggest thing is, the last three or four episodes are going to be crazy. They’re crazy. That’s all I can really say. I know as a viewer, my favorite thing is simply when I’m left wanting more — for good, for bad, for whatever — and I’m just left with having to see the next episode. We’re certainly going to leave everybody craving more and wanting to know what’s going to happen next. Obviously we love our cliffhangers, that’s what we’ve been doing all season. So I think the best and biggest is yet to come.
Is Robin’s bag of cash — because they still have it — a storyline that could lead to Kane coming back, or will Bode and Freddy (W Tre Davis) just turn it in to be donated like they said?
The bag of cash isn’t over. I’ll say that.
Fire Country, Fridays, 9/8c, CBS