Fire Country Season 4 Episode 19 Sets Up a Colossal Emergency, and Then There’s That Other Stuff — Review

Critic’s Rating: 3 / 5.0

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Fire Country’s season finale emergencies are legendary.

The mudslide in Season 1, the helicopter crash in Season 2, and the Zabel Ridge fire in Season 3.

All these emergencies make you feel an impending sense of doom from the first minute.

So it comes as no surprise that the show goes hard for the Season 4 finale with the flooding.

Everything converges at Pineville in a somewhat contrived fashion as Roberta heads for treatment, and Bode goes to apologize to the man he’d traumatized a decade prior.

Oh, and in case we forget, Jake is getting married.

Fire Country Season 4 Episode 19, “Raincheck for Tomorrow,” continues the arcs from the previous episode but in a Fire Country way.

What do I mean by a Fire Country way? I’m glad you asked. There are small signs of brilliance before a ridiculous justification is conjured up.

Let’s start with Malcolm.

Get Off My Back, Bro

Everything about his career in Station 42 screams HR nightmare. And when that career is saving lives, well, lawsuits are the next logical step when someone inevitably dies because of his mistake.

We find him this hour on his first day at the station, and even if he looks damn good in that uniform, it doesn’t befit him because he hasn’t earned it.

His presence creates tension in all corners because everyone sees him as another case of nepotism.

Despite his attempt to overcompensate, one can see he’s not a good firefighter. The excuse? It’s his first day in the firehouse.

That’s plausible, but it doesn’t excuse the hiring behind Manny’s back, or those seventeen seconds he can’t shave.

His presence causes friction between Jake and Violet (it’s not Victoria) when she rightly calls out the circumstances.

This is one couple I don’t care about whether they get married or break up, but seeing this conflict made me side more with Violet. I even learned her name.

So in a huge emergency, Jake has to babysit his brother, and we get the classic “arguing while the world burns” Fire Country moments.

The resolution is quick and silly. Malcolm dislodges something, and suddenly he’s in the top one percent of firefighters.

Yeah, no.

There are seventeen seconds to account for, and the shady hiring process.

The problem continues with Bode’s arc as he goes to apologize for breaking into someone’s home and attacking them.

And Chloe is in tow. Oh, what fun!

He’s Such a Good Guy. Forgive Him!

I know I knock on Bode’s storylines a lot, but this one is serious. As the victim articulates, being attacked in your own home never goes away.

What was once a sanctuary starts to look like a minefield.

But we knew Bode wasn’t going to apologize because it’s the right thing to do; it was just another case of Bodeism.

The idea is that he pretends to be sorry, gains Danny’s sympathy, and gets forgiven and feels good about himself.

That could have worked if Danny hadn’t had a plan ready to get Bode into police custody.

Bode thinks for a minute and agrees to call the police. Hmm, odd. That’s not like Bode to do something when he stands to gain nothing.

It’s only a while later that he outs himself by revealing that he was cornered.

If he hadn’t called, Danny would have done it. So Bode did gain something: he seemed like a hero.

And this hero cares so much that when the dam breaks, he immediately rushes to the man’s home to save him.

If that man “drowns,” Bode did it!

So not only did he break into this man’s house alone ten years ago, but now there are two of them.

If that man “drowns,” Bode and Jake did it! We know there’s nothing that Jake can’t do to please Bode.

It’s a penultimate hour that hints at departures and deaths, but I don’t think anything will happen.

If there is going to be one, it should be Bode as he’s frogmatched to prison.

Maybe he can join the teenagers who have also adopted his behaviors and made a bad situation worse by channeling Bodeisms.

But inasmuch as we’re talking about the flooding being a huge emergency, the technical details left something to be desired.

Perhaps it’s because I’m watching a screener, and they are not always broadcast quality, but that flood looked wonky.

Then again, I’m not an expert on flooding. Let me know if it looked the same to you.

Gut Check

Look, if this were four years ago, “Raincheck for Tomorrow” would have hit all the right notes.

But now that I can predict the writing, half the episode is excitement, and then the other half is disappointment.

It’s becoming unhealthy for me.

Intrusive Thoughts

• Mike O’Malley, what an actor you are!!

• So Malcolm hit that piece of metal, and suddenly it’s all good? Uh!

• Also, what if that scissor lift had malfunctioned and crushed him?

• Aaaw, it was so sweet that Hartman was so sad when Zane left. If it weren’t for the injustice of it all…

Over to you, Fire Country fanatics. What did you think of this penultimate episode? Did the emergency progress way too quickly? Was it odd that Bode made it back for his hero moment?

You made it to the end — and that means a lot.
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