Bode Leone’s greatest strength is also his biggest weakness. The guy is impulsive and drawn to danger. It’s what got him in trouble the first time, and now, in Season 3 of Fire Country, he’s really working to figure out how to harness that energy in a meaningful way. However, when I spoke with Max Thieriot about all this, he thoughtfully explained why firefighting is both a helpful and harmful addiction for his character.
Ahead of Fire Country’s premiere on the 2024 TV schedule, I spoke to Thieriot about what was ahead for Bode this season. Now, three episodes in, we’re starting to see the struggles his character is facing as he navigates his new life as a free man. Speaking about the newfound freedom Bode has, the actor behind him told me:
Everything that he's done to this point he's not been forced to do, but he's acted within the confines of what he's able to do. And I think he's been navigating that with these walls and with these handcuffs. And now that the handcuffs are off, he's a little bit lost in a way, right?
In a lot of ways, firefighting serves as a healthy outlet for Bode. He’s able to pursue his Leone legacy, work with his family and friends, and have an outlet for all this energy he has, all while making a positive impact on his community.
However, it’s more than that for Bode; it’s also a thing that he's able to hold on to as he navigates his new life. Thieriot explained why that’s the case while chatting with me, saying:
And he's looking for something to hold on to, and something to grasp when he feels like he's not sure how to put one foot in front of the other. For him, I think it's like he has to have something that is his drive. And, you know, he finds that in firefighting. He looks at it and says, ‘My family has been doing this for generations. This is my legacy.’
However, this season he’s been trying to find a balance between using his impulsive and at times dangerous energy and putting it to the wayside. For example, in Episode 3, we saw him struggle with that a lot as he went through a major training session. However, in the premiere, we witnessed the good it could do as he hopped into action to save his fellow firefighter with Gabriela, albeit that had its own negative consequences afterward since they didn’t act by the book.
All of that shows the positives and negatives of this career he’s picked. To that point, Thieriot told me firefighting is like an addiction for his character. Notably, addiction is something Bode has struggled with in the past, and he’s worked really hard to not let it take over his life. However, even though it is a mostly positive addition to his life, it can also be dangerous, as the performer said:
But I think beyond that for him, it's also about that addiction, and replacing his own addictions with something. Finding something that he can hold on to, and firefighting is that for him. And so I think he's so focused on being all in on being a firefighter. And [he] knows ‘Here's this job that I can hold on to. This is something that I'm good at. I can do it. And this is going to not distract me, but this will be my focus and my driving force.’ And, you know, I think a lot of it is figuring out: Is that healthy? Is any addiction healthy?
Much like Bode’s parents trying to find balance when it comes to parenting him and leading the Leone family, Fire Country’s leading man needs to figure out how to use firefighting as a healthy tool for growth while not letting it completely take over his life.
As Thieriot and I continued talking he said that Season 3 is all about Bode “finding himself and his journey as a free man.” He also said he’ll struggle to pick up the relationships he left when he went to prison. His friends and family’s lives have evolved since he went away. While they’ve stayed close, kind of, Bode’s entering a whole new world.
My hope is that Bode can become a firefighter in Edgewater and keep Three Rock in his life by helping out Eve. However, to get to that point, I think some reflection is needed from our leading man to make sure his love for this job stays pure.
With that in mind, it’s important that he figures out how to pursue his dream career and work with his family and friends in a way that’s also healthy for him. Because in the blink of an eye, it could turn into a toxic addiction, and that’s the last thing we want.
To see how Bode’s relationship with firefighting both helps and harms him this season, you can catch new episodes of Fire Country every Friday at 9 p.m. ET on CBS or you can stream them the next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
