After hinting that Bode will be struggling with his sobriety, Fire Country had him slip up — for 10 seconds.
During the Friday, October 24, episode of the CBS series, Bode (Max Thieriot) was struggling after father Vince’s (Billy Burke) death. Station 42 then had to deal with a change in leadership when Brett (Shawn Hatosy) arrived to assess how a firefighter got killed in the line of duty.
Bode, who thought he deserved to take over in his father’s place, wasn’t thrilled to be working with Brett and went against his orders multiple times. But by the end of the episode even Bode’s mother, Sharon (Diane Farr), agreed that Brett wasn’t in the wrong — Bode was.
This led to the episode’s final scene where Bode went to his locker where he had stored the pills he claimed to have thrown out. Instead, Bode appeared to fall off the wagon for a very brief amount of time.
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Bode took the painkiller and in exactly 10 seconds he was throwing it back up. The final scene was Bode coming to terms with his decision even though it remained unclear whether this was his rock bottom or not.
“Bode is a recovering addict. That’s something that he struggles with and we’ve seen him really successfully put that in the background for a lot of our show,” showrunner Tia Napolitano explained exclusively to Us Weekly. “With Vince’s passing and Gabriela leaving, it felt like that’s a real challenge that a person experiencing addiction problems would face. We wanted to honor that authenticity and watch him struggle. It won’t be easy and we’re going to root for him to really overcome it and be on that roller-coaster with him.”
Napolitano noted that Brett’s appearance at Station 42 would only make things worse for some.
“He really walks a line of letting us wonder if he’s a good guy or a bad guy. We get to know him and we will have him for some episodes. We will see him later in the season as well,” she teased. “We really want to invest in this character. We get to know him over the course of the arc. People want to know who is this guy and what’s his agenda? Can we trust him?”
Napolitano wouldn’t give away Brett’s true motives, saying, “The things that we’ll discover about his style, about where he’s from and what his backstory is will surprise us as we dole out these little breadcrumbs to figuring out who Richards is.”
Season 4, which premiered earlier this month, picked up after Vince’s shocking death and Gabriela’s (Stephanie Arcila) decision to leave Edgewater. The CBS series surprised viewers with the shakeups, which Napolitano defended.
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“It’s a fire show. Anyone can go at any time,” she said about the character deaths and departures. “But in terms of losing people, we’re also adding some really fun guest cast. It’s a revolving door of people from Sharon’s past and new faces that are exciting to bring conflict and secrets and twists and turns.”
While “really spicing it up” this season, the show had to walk a “fine line” of still paying tribute to the loss experienced on screen.
“What we’ve done is really thread the needle of honoring — especially Vince — because Gabriella is gone but she’s gone to a happy and successful life. She’s still out there. But we really walk this line of honoring Vince while also finding hope rather quickly,” she noted. “Looking forward, the theme of the season is rising from the ashes and recovery.”
Napolitano continued: “How do you recover from something like this and we’re really going to see everybody rise to the occasion. In celebration of Vince, of his life and in honoring the sacrifice that he made.”
Fire Country airs on CBS Fridays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes will be streaming the next day on Paramount+.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
