Spoilers for Fire Country Episode 21 “Backfire” ahead. If you haven’t watched the CBS drama’s penultimate episode, you can stream it with a Paramount+ subscription.
It’s finale season on the 2023 TV schedule, and for us Fire Country fans this spring has been stressful since Bode’s future still being a big question. While the penultimate episode of the CBS drama seemed to be setting Max Thieriot’s character up for a successful parole hearing, things went south in the final minute when his drug test came back positive, making his fate on the show incredibly murky.
Throughout the back half of Fire Country’s first season, a big point of contention has been between Bode and Sleeper, who was dealing drugs at Three Rock. After Thieriot's character got his nemesis sent back to prison for his nefarious acts, the people at camp who worked with Sleeper or got drugs from him were big mad at their campmate. When this whole situation was found out, the entire camp had to do drug tests, and while Bode 100% has not done drugs and is clean, his test came back positive in the final minute of Episode 21.
Manny confronted Bode with the test, and both men are clearly shocked by the news. Kevin Alejandro’s character is overwhelmed with disappointment over the news, and it’s clear immediately that Thieriot's protagonist was not expecting something like this to happen either. However, when Sleeper went back to prison, he did say Bode would have to pay, and it seems like this moment is acting as payment.
With Bode’s parole hearing literally hours away, this kind of devastating news could seriously alter the outcome of that event if he can’t prove that the test was falsified.
As the final promo for Episode 22 teases, the finale will feature Bode still at work helping out with a mudslide, and he’ll be facing the parole board as well. Since he’s still working, I’d assume Manny hasn't reported him when they get that call for the emergency. This could possibly mean one of three things:
- The call came in before Manny had time to report Bode.
- Manny needs time to think about how he’s going to deal with the outcome of Bode’s drug test.
- Bode convinced Manny that he was innocent, and the results of the drug test were tampered with.
I think outcome number three feels like the most likely situation. Manny and Bode have become very close during their time at Three Rock, and the captain trusts the inmate a lot, I think deep down he knows Bode wouldn’t risk his future like that.
This final revelation from the episode Max Thieriot directed is guaranteed to play a massive role in the finale. A positive drug test is bad news, and it could lead to Bode either going back to prison or getting his Three Rock time extended. His freedom has been one of the biggest points of Season 1, and not seeing him get it would be really sad and impact every character in the show. Hopefully, Manny and Bode are able to prove his innocence by the end of the episode, because I’d love to see our protagonist finally get his freedom. However, with Season 2 of Fire Country on the way, they have to keep the drama red hot, so we’ll just have to wait and see how this bombshell of bad news impacts Episode 22.
The Season 1 finale of Fire Country will air Friday, May 19 on CBS at 9 p.m. ET, and all episodes will be available to stream on Paramount+.
