Fire Country is officially on hiatus until the end of January, and it's quite frankly a relief to get a break from the dumpster fire that has been the third season of the firefighting drama so far. In just eight episodes, the season has already destroyed the relationship between Bode (Max Thieriot) and Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila), taken Gen (Alix West Lefler) away from Jake (Jordan Calloway), and generally just shown no clear direction for Season 3 beyond bizarre and unnecessary character choices made for the sake of creating drama.
The mid-season finale, "Promise Me," ends on a number of cliffhangers caused by a cluster of zombie fires. Gabriela is left stranded in the middle of a fire, and Manny (Kevin Alejandro) has broken the rules of Three Rock to go save her, which will likely get him in a lot of trouble and ruin any chance he has at parole. Bode and Audrey (Leven Rambin) have ended up stranded in a body of water surrounded by fire, and Audrey can't swim. Meanwhile, Eve's (Jules Latimer) family is about to lose their ranch to a fire, which will permanently destroy her already strained relationship with them. These cliffhangers may be something to come back for, but they won't sustain the second half of Season 3 if Fire Country doesn't make some serious changes.
'Fire Country' Needs To Stop Punishing Gabriela
Image via CBS
Was it a bold and potentially misguided choice to have Gabriella leave Diego (Rafael de la Fuente) at the altar for Bode? Yes, absolutely. That relationship should have ended long before the two made it to their wedding day, and the show clearly only escalated it for the sake of drama. That being said, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to put Bode and Gabriela back together, especially after she told him that their kiss at the campaign fire made her feel more alive than her wedding to Diego did.
Instead, though, Fire Country seems dead-set on punishing Gabriela for leaving Diego at the altar by having her make a string of bad choices that have isolated her from everyone she cares about. Bode, who almost broke up the wedding, is not getting the same punishment, and at this point, the show's treatment of her feels downright misogynistic. Gabriela's storyline this season could have been a thoughtful and nuanced portrayal of depression.
The combination of leaving Diego at the altar and seeing Manny be sent back to Three Rock could have triggered a depressive episode for Gabriela, and she has very clearly been displaying depression symptoms all season long. Instead, though, the show has just reduced Gabriela's pain to some errors in her judgment, which is made worse when Jake lectures her about Bode's feelings in the mid-season finale. Until Fire Country treats Gabriela with some respect again, it won't be easy to take the show seriously at all.
'Fire Country' Doesn't Seem To Know Where It's Going With Season 3
While Gabriela's story arc is the most egregious example of Fire Country Season 3's mistakes, it is hardly the only one. Jake was the voice of reason for the beginning of the season, but now he has lost Gen, yelled at Vince (Billy Burke), slept with Gabriela, and picked a fight with her when she was already feeling isolated. Bode completely abandoned Gabriela after telling her just a few episodes before that he would wait for her as long as it takes, and now he's already starting up a doomed romance with Audrey. Additionally, Bode has just put himself and Audrey into a dangerous situation due to his own stubbornness, and he's probably going to come out of it looking like the hero.
Fire Country does not seem to have any plan for where it is going this season. This is especially noticeable when compared to the incredibly strong Season 2. Fire Country's second season was deliberate in its exploration of each character's struggles as it worked toward the main storyline of Bode being released from Three Rock. This season doesn't seem to be going anywhere, especially now that Bode has gotten what he wanted and is working as a firefighter. Instead, the season has just been destroying character arcs and dynamics and creating drama at every turn. Fire Country needs to turn things around and come up with a clear plan before it returns from the hiatus, because if it keeps going the way it is, it'll only get worse.
Fire Country will be back on CBS on January 31. In the meantime, it is available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
