It’s hard to believe that this season of Fire Country has already blown by. With only 10 episodes in a shortened second season, this firefighting drama has managed to cram a season’s worth of material into such a small window that we can’t always keep up with each new development. All of this comes to a head in the Season 2 finale “I Do,” where Bode (Max Thieriot) is forced to confront the reality that he’s about to lose Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) forever. But with that as only the backdrop for this life-changing episode, a few other twists came up that we didn’t expect. What do they mean for Season 3?
‘Fire Country’ Season 2 Introduces Gen’s Real Father
Immediately as Bode gets out of Three Rock, now officially on parole, he comes in contact with an old friend from high school, Rick Stengler (Adam Aalderks). Back in the day, Rick was the one originally responsible for getting Bode hooked on a plethora of drugs following his sports injury, and, in some ways, is the reason that Bode went down the wrong path that he did. So when Rick offers Bode a job, it understandably puts everyone on edge. It’s hard not to think that Bode might immediately fall back into the same mistakes he once made, but then we remember how far he’s come since the pilot. Thankfully, Rick, too, is trying to turn his life around, and he and Bode begin working a construction gig at the hospital together. But by the end of the episode, Jake (Jordan Crawford), who previously judged Rick, ends up apologizing to the guy, which results in Rick confiding to Jake that he’s in town to meet his daughter, Genevieve (Alix West Lefler).
After wondering all season about who might be Gen’s actual father, and ultimately deciding that Jake is likely the best fit for the role, Fire Country threw a wrench in everyone’s happiness by introducing Rick. While Season 3 will likely further expand on his and Bode’s past, as well as his attempts to atone for his previous sins, right now he feels mostly like a stranger. Jake is right to be concerned about Gen, who has been tossed around from him to Bode to the Leones and then back to Jake. Now that she might be forced to live with Rick, a man she’s never met and is entirely unfamiliar with, it’s unlikely she’ll want to go willingly. Sure, that was the case once with Bode and Jake too, but back then, Cara (Sabina Gadecki) was there to help soften the blow, and to assure her daughter that everything was going to be okay. Now, Gen is left mostly alone, though she has found happiness with her would-be father.
This might complicate things between Bode and Rick too, as Rick admits to hooking up with Cara during the period in which she and Bode were on-again/off-again. While Bode was understanding about Jake’s relationship with Cara (it had been since high school that he and she had dated), it’s another to feel betrayed by someone like Rick. By all accounts, Bode should be Gen’s father. He and Cara had been together for a considerable amount of time, whereas Cara and Rick (by his admission) only had sex once. The chances that Rick would be Gen’s father over Bode were slim, and yet they proved true after all. If all the uncertainty about Gen caused a riff between Bode and Jake this year, there’s no telling about the conflict that will erupt between Bode and Rick in the next season. Whatever happens, hopefully, Bode doesn’t mess up his parole.
Jake Will Have Some Major Life Choices To Make In ‘Fire Country’ Season 3
Rick’s revelation doesn’t just shake up Gen and Bode’s lives though, it also shakes up Jake’s. Thus far, Jake has taken it upon himself to be Gen’s father, and he’s been doing a bang-up job. Not only is Gen much happier when Jake is around, but she implicitly trusts him, knowing that he would likely have been her step-father had Cara not died before they got the chance to wed. But the sad truth is, Jake doesn’t have the legal rights to Gen that someone like Rick would. He’s the biological father, and that will likely take priority in court if it comes to that. If Jake is going to keep Gen, and if she wants to stay with him, there are going to be a lot of legal hoops they’re going to have to jump through to get there.
In the last few episodes of Season 2, Jake has struggled with the idea of dying on the job and not coming back home to Gen. It’s caused him to freeze in the midst of danger, and put folks’ lives at stake as he does so. Because of this, Jake decided in “I Do” that he wanted to pursue a less dangerous route with Cal Fire, hoping to pull himself from harm’s way while still making a difference. The way everyone from Sharon (Diane Farr) to Eve (Jules Latimer) talk about it, Jake would be going from being Superman to being Clark Kent full-time. This would certainly make him more available for Gen, and also keep her from being so anxious about if he’d be coming home or not, but if Rick ends up claiming custody of his daughter, that might not matter.
Still, Jake is coming to terms with his own mortality, and after Cara’s death, he sees his career as a first responder a bit differently than before. Whether he retains custody of Gen or not, he loves and cares about her as if she were his own flesh and blood. With that in mind, it still seems possible, and maybe even likely, that he’ll give up his role as captain and look for other ways to fight fires. Unlike Bode, he’s not an adrenaline junkie who needs to fight fires in order to mentally and emotionally function properly. He could quit if he wanted to, and it’s because of his love for Gen that he really might. Even if she ends up living with Rick long-term, Jake will always be a part of her life, and he will fight to keep himself available to her whenever she needs him. Still, if Fire Country has taught us anything, it’s that characters’ intentions can change at a drop of a hat, and how Jake feels right now about being active in the field could be very different by the time the show returns.
Do Gabriela and Diego Get Married After All in the ‘Fire Country’ Season 2 Finale?
The other major twist we get from Fire Country Season 2 is likewise unexpected. After Manny (Kevin Alejandro) returns to Edgewater for Gabriela and Diego’s (Rafael de la Fuente) wedding, the police show up to arrest him at the ceremony. While Vince (Billy Burke) and Sharon are able to stall them until Manny can walk his daughter down the aisle, he’s forced to go with them soon after. It’s here that we understand the episode’s title, “I Do,” doesn’t refer to the wedding ceremony, but instead Manny’s admission that he understands his rights as he’s being shoved into a patrol car. Why the police couldn’t have waited until after the ceremony is beyond our comprehension, especially since Gabriela claimed it was the happiest day of her life with him being there, but either way, Manny is in for a heap of trouble next season.
But the big twist really pops when we realize that Gabriela and Diego are never heard saying “I do” in the wedding chapel. In fact, we don’t get to see how the wedding turns out at all, because Bode leaves before the vows to convince his uncle Luke (Michael Trucco) to pull some strings to get him back fighting fires. Believing he’s lost Gabriela forever, Bode needs the stability of Three Rock once again, and while he won’t be going back to the fire camp any time soon, the next best thing would be working with Cal Fire in some other capacity. Still, it’s a bit odd that we don’t see Gabriela and Diego actually getting married, which leads us to believe that maybe she couldn’t go through with it. Gabriela was looking for Bode in the crowd after all, and once he left the scene, she was noticeably upset. We know from the penultimate episode, “No Future, No Consequences,” that she still has clear feelings for Bode, and she even reveals in a conversation with Eve that Diego is just the simpler, more reliable option. But, it seems her heart has different ideas.
There were a lot of great moments in the Season 2 finale of Fire Country. Seeing W. Tré Davis return as Freddy put a smile on our faces, and his conversations with Bode about being honest with Gabriela felt very Season 1 in the best of ways. Watching Bode and Vince wash some fire engines together was a father-son bonding moment we’ve been needing all season long, and the nice send-off that Three Rock gave our favorite convict-turned-firefighter was exactly the push Bode needed to get back into the world. But even with all of these great moments, “I Do” leaves us wanting more. Thankfully, Fire Country has already been renewed for a third season, and if we’re lucky, it’ll be a full 20-something episodes just like the first year.