For really the first time, Fire Country is going to offer a look at exactly who “prison Bode” is, according to star, executive producer, and co-creator Max Thieriot. He has a “darker side, a little bit of that edge.”
The series began with Bode’s “pseudo being out” at Three Rock, and last season ended with him sending himself back to prison by lying at his parole hearing to ensure his friend Freddy’s (W. Tre Davis) freedom to close an investigation into drugs at the fire camp. And in doing so, he blindsided his friends and family, who had all been preparing for him to get out.
Now, six months later, things are rough between Bode and love interest Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila); she wanted to be by his side, but he told her to forget about him. The premiere will reveal who’s at fault for where they are now, and as Thieriot tells us in the video interview above, he’s prepared for fans to be “devastated or excited or heartbroken.” But that’s the relationship he expects Bode to have to work the hardest to repair. “They have some work to be done,” he says.
But that’s true of pretty much all his relationships. “He let down a lot of people, and I think he felt terrible about this difficult decision that he had to make and about what he told his parents,” Thieriot says. “Clearly, there’s a lot of making up to do and putting all the pieces back together really with everyone.”
That’s much easier said than done, depending on the person. For example, his father Vince (Billy Burke) and former Three Rock captain Manny (Kevin Alejandro) will be visiting him in prison. Bode and Vince’s relationship is much better since the two reconnected over the first season.
Vince has “found a way to look beyond what his son has done and the past and all that they’ve gone through, and I think that the guilt that he carries as a father is pushed forward and forcing him to set aside all those feelings that he had and realize that the last thing he wants to do is to really lose his son,” explains Thieriot.
Meanwhile, he continues, Manny, with his similar past, “sees Bode’s mistakes really clearly and understands the decisions that he’s making, like his decision last season. … It’s hard for him to watch this guy who has these opportunities and who he knows is a good dude at heart self-destruct a little bit because I think he sees the good in him and knows what it takes to be a free man and the line that you have to walk. And so it’s a fine line for Manny of being encouraging but also really frustrated with Bode constantly.”
On the other hand, Bode’s relationship with his mom, Sharon (Diane Farr)—who needed a kidney transplant last we saw her but is now healthy!—needs a lot of work. She refused to believe that he’d been set up with a positive drug test and to pull strings when Vince asked her to get their son out of prison at the end of the finale.
Eric Milner/CBS
While “Bode and Sharon have a lot of rebuilding to do like Vince and Bode did in Season 1 … most boys are mama’s boys,” Thieriot points out. “You can be really upset with your mom, but when you see her, it’s like, ‘It’s my mom’—and vice versa.”
Sharon and Vince’s relationship was affected by her decision as well, and it hasn’t gotten any better in the time that’s passed between seasons. “It would be a shame to just forget about that and jump right back in like it’s all rainbows and unicorns and roses and happy,” says Thieriot. “I think getting to unpack that and what that is emotionally and mentally for both characters is significant and important for the season and what they’re both going through and how they’re both feeling. That’s definitely going to take place, and I think we’re going to dig a lot deeper and find out the backstory on what has been going on these past six months.”
Watch the video above for more from Thieriot.
Fire Country, Season 2 Premiere, Friday, February 16, 9/8c, CBS
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
