Alright, Fire Country fans, we’re starting with the bad news. Bode (Max Thieriot) and Gabs (Stephanie Arcila) have escalated their ill-advised heat-wave-induced hook-up to a full-on bad-idea friends-with-benefits situation at the top of this week’s episode. We are promptly informed that they have banged it out in Vince’s (Billy Burke) Airstream three times in the past week and show no signs of slowing down, despite both of them potentially being late for work. Gabs is upfront about this being a purely physical situation for her. She just blew up her own wedding (okay, technically, an errant helicopter literally blew it up, but she was seconds away from metaphorically doing it herself). She’s not talking to her dad. She’s secretly living in an Airstream, for goodness sake! Now is not the time to be rekindling a romance with her fresh-out-of-prison ex-boyfriend.
When you put it like that, it’s hard to argue with her. Oh wait, she’s trying to argue with the human brick wall that is Bode Leone. Bode is also upfront about wanting to take her to dinner. He wants to call her his girlfriend. He wants to put a ring on it himself. This is the love affair he’s been dreaming of since he got out of prison, apparently. He even compares her dumping Diego (Rafael de la Fuente) at the altar to him robbing a liquor store (at gunpoint!) and her squatting in his dad’s Airstream to him being in prison and doesn’t see anything wrong with that! This man’s delusion is sometimes truly awe-inspiring. I have to believe that Gabriela can see this is going nowhere good, but she’s not ready to give up the stress relief that is Bode’s washboard abs just yet. And since this is Fire Country, things are obviously about to get a lot more stressful.
There’s a New Captain in Town in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 5
It’s Smokey’s re-opening day, so it’s time to celebrate! To mark the occasion, Fire Country has delivered us an intriguing bearded stranger on this auspicious day. He’s putting Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” on the jukebox because he’s a Cool Guy. Don’t let the Dodgers jersey in Northern California or the cargo shorts and flip-flops fool you. This guy means business, and he’s in Edgewater to shake things up. Of course, he’s not actually a stranger. He’s Jared Padalecki, playing a guy named Cam Casey. Before Cam can get to formal introductions, he needs to make an impression on the locals. He does so by taking over a fight Bode is about to have with a few of Diego’s old co-workers who have come to Smokey’s to tell Bode he is a bro-code-violating homewrecker. They are not wrong, but did they have to destroy Sharon’s (Diane Farr) flyers advertising Smokey’s re-opening to prove the point?
Cam steps into the altercation by throwing his dusty flip-flop at the fight instigator. For those with a Sam Winchester foot fetish, this might feel like Christmas Day. For those of us who feel feet should be kept personal business, this is a horrendous act paramount to treason. No self-respecting bro can tolerate a flip-flop to the face, so Jared Padalecki enters a barefoot karate fight in the middle of his first scene on the show. Fire Country has done some truly wild things throughout two and a half seasons, but this is among the absolute wildest.
Imagine being an aspiring actor who is so excited you’ve scored a guest-starring spot on a popular CBS procedural and then finding out your day is going to include taking Jared Padalecki’s naked foot to the face. I would quit acting and enroll in law school like my dad has been begging me to do for years. Diego’s bro club disseminates after Cam finishes opening his can of whoop-ass on them and properly introduces himself to Bode. Surprise! He’s the Stage 3 cadet coach for Ladder 42, a.k.a. Bode’s new boss. What a way to preview what Bode’s next stage of training is going to be like!
‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 5 Explores the Wolves Inside of Us
We don’t have to wonder for long what Cam is going to be like as a boss. Moments after he and Bode shake hands, Vince comes in with the word that an Oregon-bound flight is making an emergency landing in Edgewater, a highly flammable town with no airport. This is the second time this season that an aeronautical vehicle has experienced engine-failing trouble in Edgewater airspace. If we get a third, the federal government should launch a formal investigation into what’s going on in the air around this town.
The plane manages to land semi-safely but is very on fire when Ladder 42 and Three Rock make it to the scene. Cam immediately claims Bode and Audrey (Leven Rambin) to work for him. They are in charge of putting out the fire in the engine and cockpit and rescuing passengers from the front of the plane. They need another exit to get the passengers out or they risk losing them to smoke inhalation. Cam proves that he is the boss of Bode’s dreams because he’s all about risk and doing what it takes to get the job done. Even though Bode is still a cadet, Cam sends him to the top of the plane to put out the fire in the cockpit while Jake (Jordan Calloway) watches in horror. Our adult in the room is not a fan of this flagrant disrespect for procedure. How dare Cam not keep Bode on the leash everyone has created for him!
Shocker, Bode does just fine putting out the cockpit fire and gets the front door of the plane open so they can evacuate the other half of the passengers quickly. He saves the day and becomes an Internet sensation. Bode is a wild card at the best of times, but that wild card can be an ace in the hole when you direct him properly, which Cam knows exactly how to do. As the Ladder 42 firefighters help the plane crash survivors set up for a sleepover at Smokey’s until their next round of transportation arrives in the morning, we learn exactly why Cam is so willing to lean into risk. He lost his crew to a bad fire because he played by the rules instead of doing whatever it took to save them. He sees Bode as willing to be the guy who does anything to save lives, and Cam loves it. He wants to harness it.
“You have a wolf inside you, and you got to feed it,” Cam tells Bode in the gruffest voice you have ever heard and with a straight face, “and don’t ever put it in a cage.” He is so serious, and I am immediately obsessed with this proverb-editing SoCal cowboy, even if he is disrespectful with his absurd footwear. He cements his place in my heart later in the episode during a heart-to-heart with Jake when he tells the captain that he’s going to take care of Bode. “You gotta let him be free to run into the fire and not worry that he’s going to burn,” is a real thing Cam says in this episode. I need to learn to cross-stitch ASAP for all of these absolute gems.
An Airstream Is No Place for Privacy in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 5
The pep talk from Cam is everything Bode needs to hear. He is ready to take on the world — or, at the very least, have a quickie with Gabriela in the Airstream parked outside of the station before the next crisis erupts. Poor Bode hasn’t realized that the second you think about a crisis in Edgewater, one lands right in your lap. One of the plane passengers is a pot-smoking menace. After accidentally lighting some rare film on fire, he crashes out in the Airstream, which is exactly where Gabriela finds him after she’s benched for snapping at one of the other passengers and getting benched by Vince. She just wants to unwind and bone her hot ex to forget about her issues, and there is a greasy kid laying all over her bed. We did say things were going to get more stressful! Gabs’ scream when she finds the kid in the Airstream brings everyone running, and thus informs Eve (Jules Latimer), Jake, and Manny (Kevin Alejandro) that Gabs has been squatting in the Airstream. It’s fine because Vince already knew, but Gabriela didn’t want all of her co-workers, especially her dad, to find out about it.
The Airstream is a temporary situation so that she can save up money to repay Diego’s parents for the money they spent on the reception that never was. Side note: Gabriela seems really pissed she still has to pay for the wedding, but babe, what did you think was going to happen here? She needed to decide she didn’t want to marry Diego before the chicken and fish were thawed out and the appetizers were already in the oven. Finding out that Gabriela is staying in the Airstream confirms to Manny that his daughter is spiraling, so of course, he’s not stoked to also find out she and Bode are hooking up again. He wastes no time taking Bode aside to say that he loves him, but he’s no good for Gabriela. Manny will not be winning any father of the year trophies this season, but the man knows how to make a point. He tells Bode what Gabs was hinting at at the beginning of the episode: she is in the middle of a spiral, and Bode is part of her self-sabotage. He can’t help her until he recognizes that. Sorry, dude, but maybe the wolf does need to be put in a kennel sometimes.
To Manny’s credit, he doesn’t stop with Bode. He also finds Gabriela. She’s still not ready to talk to him, but he knows that she needs her dad. He calls her out for digging herself into a hole and bonding with the shame of her recent missteps rather than trusting anyone to help her. He recognizes it because it’s also what he does, and he begs her to let someone, even if it isn’t him, in so that she doesn’t follow in his footsteps. Gabriela knows he’s telling her the truth, but she’s not ready to break the mold. That choice may be made for her instead.
Karaoke Is the New Homewrecker in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 5
The Fire Country gods heard us: Smokey’s gets a second chance at a re-opening after the plane crash victims leave, and that stage Vince rebuilt is immediately christened. Not only do we get a grumpy Vince serenading us (we demand this happen in every episode!), but surprise, Audrey James can saaaaaang. Our troublemaking cadet is the first up at the mic, with Vince on backup, and Bode is immediately transfixed. In fact, he’s so transfixed he completely ignores Gabs’ request for him to come help her work some tension out in the Airstream.
I wish I could gloat about calling Bode falling for Audrey episodes ago, but it’s actually really sad. Gabs, like Manny predicted, is hiding out in the Airstream away from her friends and family, waiting for a guy she knows is bad for her to call her back. She’s isolating herself and Bode’s rejection, unintentional or not, is only going to reinforce the negative narrative she’s got going on in her head. It’s going to hurt like hell, but hopefully, it will cement for Gabs that Bode is a dopamine chaser. He’s going to wander to where the next hit is most effortless, and it looks like that’s Audrey now.
Of course, Audrey also reveals in this episode that she has a boyfriend. It’s long-distance, though, which in TV terms means easily breakable once Bode turns on the charm offensive. I’m also not convinced her boyfriend isn’t Cam. The two have immediate banter, and it would make sense for her not to tell Bode about it because a supervisor can’t date a subordinate. It’s a long shot, but it would feel right for Bode to dump Gabs for Audrey, only to find out she’s his boss’ girl. This show loves mess, so it’s not out of bounds!
It’s All Family Reunions and Anxiety in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 5
Bode and Gabs are not the only people in this episode with things going on. Eve finally reaches out to her family — her brother Elijah (Jeff Pierre), specifically. They get a drink at Smokey’s after an initial failed attempt to talk before the plane crash. Some of that old resentment is still present, but Eve insists that their being siblings is still very important to her, and she wants that relationship. Elijah agrees and informs Eve that she’s going to be an aunt soon. She’s over the moon, but then he drops the other shoe that if she wants a relationship with the baby, she’s also going to have to reach out to their parents. So Eve’s family drama will continue, and maybe we’ll even get to see the farm?
Meanwhile, Sharon is convinced that something is wrong with her body. Medical tests prove that her kidney is fine, but she still doesn’t feel right. It takes a third doctor to convince her that her temper and her slowly mending shoulder are physical manifestations of anxiety. Maybe she shouldn’t have bought a money-pit of a restaurant while also getting her Incident Command job back. Luckily, she’s married to the best husband ever who apologizes for being a grump during the plane crash sleepover to make her feel better. We know that as long as Sharon and Vince are on the same page, everything is going to be alright.