‘Fire Country’ Tests Its Firefighters: ‘Their First Instinct Is to Help People,’ But…

Meredith Jacobs February 19, 2024, 9:00 am

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Kevin Alejandro as Manny Perez and Diane Farr as Sharon Leone — 'Fire Country' Season 2 Episode 2 — Sergei Bachlakov/CBS

It’s the moral dilemma first responders are faced with too often: How much do you risk to save a life? They put their lives on the line, and they’re willing to do so, but the February 23 episode of Fire Country is really going to test that part of our favorite firefighters.

In “Like Breathing Again,” directed by series star Kevin Alejandro (who was also behind the camera for a Season 1 episode), while breaking up a bonfire party, the Station 42 crew is called to complete a dangerous and highly complex cave rescue.

“Really what it comes down to is they’re faced with this cave that these kids go into regularly, and they really have to come to terms with, where is that line between putting firefighters at risk versus attempting this rescue?” executive producer Tony Phelan previews for TV Insider. “And I think it really tests everybody’s resolve on those questions because, obviously, their first instinct is to help people. So it should be a very exciting episode.”

He also raves about Alejandro as a director. He has “a great eye” and brought “a tremendous visual style and obviously [in] constructing that cave and making all those elements. He’s so enthusiastic,” he shares. “I think that’s the big thing that he brings. He obviously knows all the actors well, and his enthusiasm is really infectious, so the set is very fun and exciting.”

Max Thieriot Talks Bode's Redemption & Possible Kid in 'Fire Country' Season 2

This rescue comes after the premiere revealed quite a few shake-ups in job titles. For example, Eve (Jules Latimer) is now leading Three Rock, the fire camp for inmates, and Bode (Max Thieriot) is back there after starting the season in prison. Over at 42, Jake (Jordan Calloway) is now captain, and one of the firefighters now under him is Manny (Alejandro), previously the Three Rock captain.

“We’ve done 22 episodes of the first season of Fire Country, figuring out who all those people were, and there’s this tremendous desire on all of our parts to shake everybody up and move them around and see how these new roles tell us more about them, give them challenges, put them in new situations, and to see how different people do those jobs,” explains Phelan.

Fire Country, Fridays, 9/8c, CBS