The Sheriff Country series premiere introduced a shocking murder that will continue to drive the show moving forward — but how worried should viewers be about the conclusion?
During the Friday, October 17, episode of the CBS series, Mickey (Morena Baccarin) is concerned when daughter Skye (Amanda Arcuri) continues to spend time with her boyfriend, who was previously addicted to drugs and was caught with pills.
Skye claimed she would put distance between them but instead she returned home bloody after walking in on Brandon’s dead body at his apartment. As the sheriff of Edgewater, Mickey took Skye to the station to process her despite the possible town assumption that Skye was involved in Brandon’s murder.
Executive producer Joan Rater spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about how the story will play out.
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“The writers have come up with a story that is so exciting. When they pitched us the final episode, [fellow executive producer] Tony [Phelan] and I were like dead on the ground,” she recalled. “We couldn’t believe it. So the mystery and what happens with the death of Brandon and Skye and her involvement will take us to places that are truly shocking. It will end on such a bang.”
Us then asked creator Matt Lopez what a tease like that meant for the rest of the season, to which he shared, “The mystery will not last the entire season. It will seemingly resolve but there will be ripple effects and continuing twists spinning out of it that will go deep into season.”
Lopez promised “delicious plot twists” moving forward.
“Just when you thought something was put to bed or understood in a certain way, we will ask the audience to possibly reconsider if what you saw the first time is actually what you saw,” he noted. “So we love that kind of storytelling.”
The town of Edgewater was originally introduced when Fire Country premiered in 2022 with inmate Bode (Max Thieriot) returning home and volunteering for the California Conservation Camp Program during season 1 of the hit show. By season 2, a backdoor pilot set up the world of Sheriff Country, which is centered around Sharon’s (Diane Farr) estranged sister Mickey (Baccarin) as she solves crimes in town.
“Mickey is the sheriff of Edgewater and yet her father — while he has his roguish charms — is at the end of the day a career criminal. So we have this guy who is allegedly going straight, then you have Skye, who is Mickey’s daughter, but she is also Wes’ granddaughter,” Lopez teased. “We have a lot of fun playing with when do we trust Skye and when do we not?”
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Despite the stakes being so high, Lopez hinted that viewers shouldn’t be too worried about their favorite characters being in life-ending danger — yet.
“In the context of Fire Country, it would in a way dishonor the danger that these characters put themselves into in the literal line of fire — and in the case of Sheriff Country in the metaphorical line of fire,” he said. “To tell one story after another in which they emerge from these death defying situations completely unscathed is not true to the storytelling.”
Lopez concluded: “There need to be real stakes to these episodes. We have some plans to subject some of these folks to some really stressful situations but I’m not unzipping body bags just yet. It’s early for that.”
Sheriff Country airs on CBS Fridays at 8 p.m. ET.
