Everyone on Fire Country has been on their best behavior (mostly) for several weeks now, so it feels like it’s about time for someone to go off the rails. You’ll never guess who it was. Just kidding, the answer isn’t Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila), so obviously it’s Bode (Max Thieriot). He hasn’t officially started down a dark path, but the warning signs are there.
Last week’s tough call is still in Bode’s head as the County Clash baseball game approached. Rafael’s (Victor Andres Turgeon-Trelles) ghost isn’t the only thing haunting Bode as he is confronted with the game that ended his own baseball career. The unwelcome trip down memory lane, the unsettling visions of Rafael, and a persistent pain in the knee impacted by the rock slide put Bode in a very precarious mental space as the episode ends. Luke (Michael Trucco) maybe gets through to him, but we don’t know for sure. Meanwhile, Jake (Jordan Calloway) gets back on the dating wagon and Manny (Kevin Alejandro) loses a friend at Three Rock. He may also be having a tough time adjusting in the future.
County Clash Brings Back Old Rivals in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 13
County Clash should have been a chill day of hot dogs and mild trash talk, but the annual baseball game with neighboring rivals also means high school pranks gone wrong. The Station 42 team and Three Rock get called out to save a kid stuck in a drain pipe after he sets off smoke bombs in his own dugout. The poor kid is stressed out about pitching the game and potentially costing another loss for his hard-as-nails coach, Drew Kimbro (Luke Humphrey). It turns out that Kimbro is behind the dirty play that caused Bode’s injury in high school and sent him down the path to abusing opioids and ending up in prison. Kimbro has no issue bringing up Bode’s drug-addled past as the team tries to put out the fire in the dugout. Despite the tension, when they find Nolan, the pitcher, in the drainpipe, it is Bode who talks some sense into Kimbro to actually coach the scared kid out of the precarious situation.
Kimbro gains some new respect for Bode, and after nearly fighting on the baseball diamond at the start of the call, they reach a truce by the time Nolanis rescued. However, things take a turn for the worse when Kimbro offers Bode some of the painkillers that he took for his own shoulder injury. If we didn’t have to worry about Bode, he would have refused the painkillers that Kimbro gave him. Instead, we don’t know what Bode does after he takes the baggie of pills. He takes his uncle up on a game of catch and talks about losing Rafael on the last call. That shows that he wants to process his feelings in a healthy way, but we can’t take a real breath of relief until we see what happened to those pills. We could be on the edge of a Bode relapse, and that’s a terrifying thought after everything we’ve already gone through with Gabriela this season.
Jake Is Back on the Dating Scene in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 13
On the bright side, our boy Jake gets back in the field. His first prank assignment of the episode is to help a young Edgewater cheerleader out of the mascot costume after the rival school glues her in. The slow job gives Jake a chance to flirt with the cheerleader’s older sister, Violet (Nesta Cooper). Fun fact: Jake is ADORABLE when trying to figure out his mojo in a post-Cara world. It’s also hella awkward to see him trauma dump on the poor girl, but it ultimately works out for the best.
It turns out that Violet isn’t a stranger to trauma herself. She’s a recent divorcee who moved back in with her parents and baby sister to get back on her feet. She’s also trying to figure out how to date after being married. Jake eventually gets up the courage to ask for her number, and there’s real potential there for Jake to have a spark with someone. He’s had shit luck in the romance department since the show started, so cross fingers and toes that the tide is about to turn for him when it comes to love.
Vince’s Ex Comes for a Visit in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 13
Jake isn’t the only one having awkward romantic encounters, as Vince’s (Billy Burke) ex Renée (Constance Zimmer) shows up for the Clash and immediately bonds with Sharon (Diane Farr). Both women are very dedicated planner enthusiasts (we love seeing depictions of women with taste on TV). We also love that Sharon’s first instinct when confronted with Vince’s ex is to bond with her and ask for embarrassing stories about Vince as a teenager.
Vince hates the idea of them hanging out, and he is right to be concerned. Renée lets it slip that Vince proposed to her when they were teenagers, and she turned him down, which is the reason they ultimately broke up. She went to go travel the world and Vince went to fire camp, where he met Sharon and the rest was Leone history. Sharon lets the prior engagement get in her head, though, and accuses Vince of making her the rebound. Never fear, our guy Vince promptly stepped up and told Sharon that their relationship wasn’t a mistake or a rebound. Renée rejecting him put him on the path he was meant to be on, because his heart has only truly belonged to Sharon. They remain the best married couple on TV, argue with a wall.
Manny Has a Rough Day at Three Rock in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 13
While Vince and Sharon are cementing their status as #MarriageGoals, Manny is in for it at Three Rock. The day starts with Birch (Jeff Goldstone) complaining about a cold. Manny wants to send him to the infirmary, but Birch is concerned about going back to prison, even for medical care, because it would be too tempting to relapse when he’s just gotten sober. So Manny convinces Eve (Jules Latimer) to get Birch some ibuprofen and let him sleep it off at camp. Eve does what’s asked, but Birch doesn’t improve. They put him on the list for prison transfer the next morning and Birch says he’ll never forgive Manny for selling him out like that — and, unfortunately, that’s the last conversation they have. When Manny and the guys are helping with Nolan’s rescue, Birch is unresponsive in his bunk.
The crew starts CPR measures, but it’s too late. Birch never regains consciousness, and after several minutes of compressions, they have to declare him dead. It’s a very rough blow for all the guys at Three Rock because Birch was an example of someone who had made mistakes but died because he was trying to stop himself from repeating bad habits. There’s no question his loss is going to stick with Manny for a minute. Don’t forget, Manny’s got one strike left before he gets sent back to prison, so he can’t afford to let emotions get the best of him.
Both Manny and Bode are in precarious emotional places as we head into the next episode, and it feels too naive to hope that both of them are going to do the right thing for themselves. So buckle up, because the drama train is pulling back into the Fire Country station, and we doubt everyone will make it out unscathed.
Fire Country continues Fridays at 10 PM on CBS. Episodes are available the next day on CBS.