Who saw that coming?
For a season finale, Fire Country Season 1 Episode 22 hit all the right notes in the first three-quarters of the hour but then went downhill in the last quarter.
It was action-packed, thrilling, and touched on some storylines that had been ignored for the better part of the second part of Fire Country Season 1, but in setting up a cliffhanger felt like we were back to square one.
What’s so disappointing was the fact that there were a million and one ways this could have gone, yet they went that way.
But before getting to the bad, let’s unpack what transpired.
It appeared that Eve had healed and moved on from past trauma because she was dating again. Or at least she tried to.
While one wasn’t particularly invested in how this relationship would turn out because we had just met the new girl, it was disappointing that she was one of the few characters not in a stable relationship.
Mel came out of nowhere, and like the mudslide, she wrecked everything in her path.
She can be termed in one word as being incompetent at best.
There is something to say about Fire Country and its incompetent investigators. Remember the bridge rescue investigator?
Mel was even worse. She came in with a theory, laid it in front of Bode, and just like that, he agreed to change his story. What transpired was blackmail, and that shouldn’t be legal because it wasn’t ethical.
While Bode is known for going to bat for the people he loves, this was just so out of character.
When he returned to camp, he found Manny waiting for him, armed with a grave allegation. Typical of Bode, he fought the accusation as best he could by telling the truth no matter how wild it sounded.
Bode: It has to be Sleeper, man. He told me that our beef was not over.
Manny: Can you tell me how a dude in prison could orchestrate a drug test swap her in camp because I’m having a real hard time understanding what that looks like.
Bode: He obviously has a foothold here. Could have been one of his guys.
Even if Manny didn’t believe him then, he later came to see the truth.
Being accused of running a drug ring was also serious, and Bode not putting up a defense was what felt odd about the whole affair.
Many characters have been through some unbelievable stuff through Fire Country Season 1 but never did anyone roll over and take it. They fought the best they could.
And maybe the season finale was always set up to fail since they had a few storylines to wrap up, or else the season would feel odd.
Foremost was the general story focused on Sharon’s kidney for a long time.
We were under the impression that the kidney problem was urgent and that it would be bad if she didn’t get a transplant.
Yet after Jake failed to be a match, they forgot about it until this hour when they needed to give Luke a redemption arc.
Whatever the outcome, Luke was a creep and needed to understand that about himself. He had been desensitized to his behavior by Walter for so long that he thought it was acceptable to go behind his brother’s back and make plans with Sharon.
For someone known to harbor unholy feelings for Sharon, his interactions with her should have been chaperoned if at all they needed to happen.
But why does that matter when he can offer a healthy kidney?
You think donating a kidney is gonna erase what you did?
Vince
There also needed to be an emergency, and while the mudslide was a great one, it dragged on for far too long.
Seeing it happen was wild. Within less than a minute, a hill was almost leveled off, and the mudslide trashed everything in its path.
A lot was happening during the mudslide, which made it all that thrilling to watch.
By nature, it was as harmful as a fire because it denied its victim oxygen, and just like a fire grows, the mud was hardening with every passing minute lowering the chances of survival for the victims.
It’s always sad when people are in such a situation, but the stakes become much higher when children are involved.
Between Janey and Dylan, it felt like we were experiencing the parents’ anxiety in real time. It was only after Janey was driven away in an ambulance while Dylan was reunited with his dads safe and sound that one could breathe a sigh of relief.
And even then, there was always the danger of making the wrong step or another mudslide getting triggered.
It had all the makings of a great emergency, but with how much was happening, it consumed too much time.
Everything else had to be squeezed into less than fifteen minutes making the finale seem rushed.
Sharon and Luke were delivering the kidney news to Vince one minute, and the next, Bode was locked in a cell.
In between, a bombshell was dropped about the potential of Bode being a father, and there wasn’t enough time to get a reaction from Jake or even Cara herself.
Fire Country was advertised as a show about redemption, and we tuned in every week to see how the journey unfolded.
Many people had made a lot of sacrifices to ensure that Bode got the many chances he had gotten, yet he threw it all away.
Who’s willing to bet that if he’d fought, the investigator would have had to present an actual case she didn’t have? All she had was a story and a menacing posture.
I believe you are running a drug game at Three Rock, Mr. Leone. Listen, you’ve got a couple of options here, OK? If you skirt justice in this hearing today, all you are doing is prolonging my investigation and keeping Freddy’s case in limbo. You accept the blame; my investigation ends.
Mel
It felt like we returned not to square one but zero because Bode was now back in prison.
Every word Bode said after the mudslide rescue didn’t feel like him.
Did he spend more than two seconds thinking about the effects of his decision?
He would be letting down his entire family and friends because he wanted to play the silent hero.
To have so much privilege you can upend your entire life for a lie is wild, and my mind can’t compute that.
Recently, camp’s changed. All it takes is one bad dude to infect a place as special as Three Rock. The truth is, that bad due is me. I relapsed here at camp, and it snowballed. There is no one else to blame. I alone take full responsibility.
Bode
It felt like the writers had to do something wild for the season finale, and instead of killing off a very important person to Bode as other normal writers do, they did that.
Is it wild to think they didn’t expect a second season and thus didn’t map out the show’s direction for more than a few episodes? Because it sure felt like it.
While many season finales create intrigue and leave viewers questioning what’s to come, Fire Country Season 1 finale left a nasty feeling and a bad taste.
What did you think? Was that ending something you could live with until Fire Country Season 2? Will Freddy try to help Bode, or will he enjoy his freedom and family?
Chime into the conversation in the comments section.
You may watch Fire Country online via TV Fanatic.
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.