Fire Country Season 3, Episode 16, “Dirty Money,” serves as a reminder to fans that the Sheriff Country spinoff is indeed coming to CBS, thanks to the return of Sharon Leone’s (Diane Farr) stepsister, Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin). But the episode also solves the Oxalta issue, at least temporarily, getting Manny (Kevin Alejandro) out of jail and giving viewers a blowout fight between Bode (Max Thieriot) and his mom that threatens to damage their relationship forever.
What Happened Between Bode and Sharon on Fire Country?
Sharon ends up solving the Oxalta issue the best way she can by negotiating with the chemical company. After getting some leverage on them, thanks to Violet, Jake’s girlfriend, Sharon gets the company to agree to fix the wells at Three Rock and force the Department of Corrections to release Manny. He’ll have to sign an NDA promising he won’t sue, but that seems like a small price to pay for his freedom.
Bode, however, is not happy with this development. Instead, even though he is no longer a Three Rock inmate and he doesn’t know much about this case, Bode thinks he can still tell his mom about the things she did wrong. In a very tense scene, he yells at her about silencing the inmates and tells her that Oxalta will just poison more people in a different town, even calling her an enabler.
It’s a very ironic high horse for Bode, who has been busy making bad decisions the past few episodes, to the point that his parole officer had to show up at his door to tell him to stop associating with known criminals. He is, after all, on parole. That known criminal? His step-grandfather Wes, who literally runs an illegal weed farm, and who Bode was doing work for on the side.
He’s also been lying to both his parents and his girlfriend, despite knowing that his dad is expecting him to stay out of trouble and thinking about the firehouse becoming his one day. Perhaps, that’s part of the problem. Bode has never been good with expectations. Perhaps things are going too well for him. His grandfather was taken care of, he was getting along with his parents better than he had in a while, he and Gabriela were seemingly on good terms, and his relationship with Audrey (Leven Rambin) was flourishing.
When things with Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) imploded, it was easy to pinpoint who was to blame. She was spiraling, and Bode kept trying to help, and she wouldn’t let him. Now, they both seem to have moved on, but perhaps we just ignored the underlying issues from the beginning. Because yes, Gabriela was a mess, but so was Bode. At least Gabriela’s breakdown forced her to deal with her issues. Bode just hasn’t dealt with his.
Now he’s snapping at his mom, the one person who has always been in his corner, and worse of all, doing so in a situation he doesn’t understand. How can the Fire Department win against a big corporation? Sometimes it feels like Bode doesn’t live in the real world, because if he did, he’d appreciate how good his mom was at handling this situation, and he’d understand that both she and his dad have been going through a rough time lately and don’t need him to be yelling at them over the silliest things. And he’d be able to look at the people around him and consider the damage his bad decisions are going to cause before he makes bad choice after bad choice.
But he has consistently proven he can’t. And even out of jail, that probably means the lying, the drugs he hasn’t taken but still keeps, the secrets he keeps. and all the issues he hasn’t dealt with are bound to catch up to him. Likely on time for the season finale. There’s nothing TV shows love more than ending a season on an emotional bang.
