Fire Country Round Table: Is Bodiela Forced?

Bode is up for parole.

A  lot of things happened on Fire Country Season 1 Episode 18, including Bode’s news, Eve’s struggles, Manny meeting a new romantic partner, and the fallout from the arson investigation.

Our Fire Country Fanatics Jasmine Blu, Dale McGarrigle, and Denis Kimathi discussed some of the biggest moments, including the Bode and Gabriela, Kane Brown’s acting debut, and what they loved most about it.

Bode is up for parole. What are your expectations, and how might the outcome change the show?

Jasmine: It’s late enough in the season where I can envision him getting paroled, but he’ll still have to bide out his time until that happens.

And we still have Manny running the inmate program, Bode serving as a great example of its success, and things like that, so Bode can make that shift to becoming an official firefighter on Vince’s team while still having the inmate element.

They could also expand characters like Freddie’s roles. Of course, that’s assuming that bag of money doesn’t screw Bode somehow.

Dale: I do expect that Bode will get paroled. However, with only a handful of shows left, I don’t feel it will have any impact this season.

Instead, it will get kicked down the road until next season. Rather than staying adrift for any time, Bode will seek to join Vince’s company in Cal Fire as a firefighter. It’s all he knows.

And him being slammed together with Jake, Gabriella, and Eve will make for a different dramatic dynamic.

Denis: I feel like if he gets paroled, that will change the show dramatically. The hook was that he was an inmate returning home. It was the original charm. I’m not sure what the show looks like once it wears off.

I trust the writers and know they’ll develop something interesting next season.

What are your thoughts about the Eve situation?

Jasmine: I was thrown a bit because I didn’t feel like they built up to it for the audience, but maybe that was the point. We tend to miss cues about people until it’s too late.

I appreciated Vince and Sharon speaking about her as if she were one of their children. Because Eve embodies oldest-daughter syndrome, she is always the level-headed one, the glue, “the one no one ever has to worry about,” and loved ones tend to take that for granted until said person spirals.

I look forward to seeing others rally for her.

Dale: It seemed to come on without a lot of warning. But she did ask for leave, and Vince, so good at missing emotional cues, handled that poorly. So, yeah, it wasn’t surprising that she was ready to explode.

At least they held off on having her in an accident after the show. That doesn’t mean she won’t crash in another way next episode. It will be intriguing to see how everyone handles Eve, the station’s rock, breaking down.

Denis: You are both spot on. It seemed like it came out of nowhere, but maybe that’s the idea. It made sense based on how much she’s been through.

It honestly broke my heart. Like Bode, Eve doesn’t color within the lines, but the problem is that she doesn’t have the same length of rope.

I was afraid that this and other past actions would work against her.

What did you think of the much-advertised Kane Brown acting debut?

Jasmine: I mean, it was definitely a cameo role. He appeared out of nowhere and disappeared into thin air. It was quick, and I feel it was overhyped, but he did just fine. It wasn’t glaringly apparent that it was his first role.

He wasn’t awkward to watch onscreen. He was fine, and I wonder and hope there’s more to the role. I also loved that they used his music in the episode.

Dale: Was he in this episode? I blinked and missed it.

Now, the producers kept it simple for him, and he handled his handful of scenes just fine. Also, the bag of money he left behind makes me wonder if he might still be coming back for a more full-bodied appearance.

Was his character more than just a train-hopping Good Samaritan?

Denis: For a first-time role, he did great, but it didn’t deserve a thirty-second announcer promo.

They should bring him back if this were a test because he passed.

Manny was offered a new job and some action. What are your thoughts about this?

Jasmine: I don’t trust Faye. It doesn’t help that Mader plays roles that are often sketchy. I’m glad he turned down the private gig. I’m side-eying him for the sex because of the messiness with them both being in the program (unless she was only there to get close to him, which is still sketchy).

But I’m also not mad at him because he really needs a break, and she’s gorgeous. But goodness, this is about to be a mess.

Dale: After all that’s happened to Manny, granted much of it self-inflicted, he deserves a break. And he finally got one. Of course, by getting involved romantically with Faye, Manny is already breaking one of those support-group rules about relationships.

At least he’s holding out on doing the right thing as far as firefighting is concerned. However, a private company would pay a man deeply in debt a lot higher wage, which has to be tempting to Manny. But Faye seems almost too good to be true.

She has got to have an ulterior motive.

Denis: What are the chances that a CEO of a private fire company so happens to be an addict too? I don’t trust it.

Manny getting some action was good, though.

Is Bodiela forced, or are they star-crossed lovers?

Jasmine: Oh, they’re totally forced. They haven’t grabbed me yet as a pairing. Watching their scenes always feels like they’re checking off boxes and only on this road together because the script dictates it.

I accept that they’re the main romantic hook of the series, likely have tons of shippers, and will probably be an endgame, but I also don’t care.

I can’t help but chuckle because there’s always this argument that the romance brings in the female viewers for a show like this, but for this female viewer, I could do without out and find literally every other aspect of the show more interesting.

Dale: They’re forced to the extent that a girl falling for her boyfriend’s bad-boy best friend is a TV trope.

Do they end up together? Probably, for a time. But they’re both young, volatile, and dealing with many problems, so expecting them to last as a couple is unrealistic.

Denis: While it makes for some good drama to create a love triangle between friends, it’s the oldest and most tired trope ever.

I feel like they had to do something, and pairing them was the easiest thing. Lazy writing there.

I genuinely cared more about Bode and Rebecca. Now that we’re talking about it, I somewhat dread seeing them in a romantic scene. It doesn’t quite click.

What was your favorite quote, scene, or storyline from the episode, and why?

Jasmine: I loved Jake’s mother coming in and confronting Sharon. I hate that Vince managed to stay out of it because he should have gotten some of her frustration and ire directly.

But I was delighted that they didn’t just slip past that whole thing with Jake and the ramifications it still could have on him, and his mom was there to add some perspective and advocate for him in a way he was probably too hurt to do himself.

Dale: How about Sharon, who is usually the peacemaker of the Leone family, continuing to mishandle her relationships with the Crawford family?

First, she briefly considered that Jake might be the arsonist last episode. This time out, she had to explain herself to Lilly, who has been trying to save Sharon (initially with Jake’s kidney, no less). She and Lilly were in a better place by the end of the episode.

But Sharon should never have put herself in that position.

Denis: Jake’s mom was the best. Someone outside the little Station 42 bubble was needed to bring to perspective just how messed up the whole thing was since Jake isn’t the best communicator.

Anything else, good or bad, you would like to point out about the episode?

Jasmine: I was so thrown off and confused by Jake and Lilly’s conversation about his father and the other kid. And I was disappointed that she went all these years not telling him the truth and even knowing that there’s another piece of his father out there that he may want to know and getting deprived of.

It just was an oddly executed conversation with the dialogue, and the overall situation was handled poorly, in my opinion.

Dale: Speaking of mishandling things, how about Manny seeking to protect Bode from himself as his parole hearing nears?

Understandably, he’s trying to pay back the Leones for all their kindness. But he’s already got a full-time job plus side gigs. Being Bode’s babysitter has no good payoff.

Bode must be in the heat of the action. Keeping himself busy that way helps him to forget, if only for the length of the fire, how badly he’s screwed up his life. Being on the sidelines gives him too much time to think.

Denis: Bullseye, Dale! Why did he feel like he needed to protect a grown man who had managed to keep himself alive that long?

It would have made sense if there had been a documented record of paroled inmates dying in their final days as inmates, but all the evidence was subjective and anecdotal.

It came off as irrational.

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What did you think? Do you agree with our team’s opinion? Let us know in the comments section.

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Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on Twitter.

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