‘Fire Country’: Kevin & Leslie Alejandro Detail Bringing Manny’s Panic Attack to the Screen

As Leslie Alejandro proved with her Season 3 episode, when she’s behind the camera, you’re going to get a different kind of opening. Such is the case once again for the March 6 episode of Fire Country.

It’s also an episode that highlights the character played by her husband, Kevin Alejandro, as Manny and Jake (Jordan Calloway) hash out their issues following the fire that landed the latter’s half-brother, Malcolm (Dominic Goodman), in the hospital. Meanwhile, Bode (Max Thieriot) and Sharon (Diane Farr) deal with the aftermath of Tyler (Conor Sherry) confessing to setting the Zabel Ridge fire that killed Vince (Billy Burke). TV Insider spoke with Kevin and Leslie Alejandro to get insight into this episode. Warning: Spoilers for Fire Country Season 4 Episode 11 ahead!

In the aftermath of Tyler confessing and being taken into custody, the fire department holds a press conference — where Bode struggles when questioned. Then, Sharon learns that it’s her mother, Ruby (Christine Lahti), who leaks Tyler’s name to the press, and it’s that news that also distracts Bode as he tries out for REMs, the elite rescue unit that Luke (Michael Trucco) is putting together. In fact, Bode’s ready to withdraw his name from consideration, until he hears that Malcolm’s sister, Eleanor (Shailene Garnett), is in trouble and he rushes to help her. That’s proof enough of his skills, and he’s accepted.

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Elsewhere, Jake blames Manny for letting Malcolm and Bode rescue him, which landed his brother in the hospital. Manny reminds him that he didn’t need his permission, that he’s his battalion chief and Jake is his number two, and he wasn’t going to leave him behind — because he’s also his friend. The two are working on rebuilding their relationship when Jake receives a call from the hospital. It’s soon after Jake finds out that Malcolm is awake that Manny’s hands begin shaking (for the second time in the episode), and he collapses in what looks like a panic attack.

Below, Kevin and Leslie Alejandro break down this episode.

Leslie, you picked up everything from 410 in 411 with all these emotional conversations and a very character-driven episode — Manny and Jake, Bode and Luke, Sharon and Ruby, Bode and Chloe (Alona Tal), Eve (Jules Latimer) and her dad (Phil Morris). Talk about your approach to directing those because this is such an action-driven show, but the character stuff is always next level, too.

Kevin Alejandro: Yeah, exactly. We just, in the previous episode, laid everything down. It was like, “OK, here you go. What are you going to do now?!”

Leslie Alejandro: I loved it. I loved being able to get into the emotional side of everything, of their situations, and go back into the characters because they’re all dealing with something that is so major. How are they going to bring that into their work? And I feel like the writers and the actors have been able to take it back where it makes sense, where it wasn’t that while they’re fighting fires that they’re talking about their love lives. I mean, it was actual dialogue and real conversations and connections of trying to work and work through these issues together. And I loved all of that. The guys are pros. All the actors are pros. They know their characters so well. So, honestly, it was just a lot of minor notes to get to, obviously, where I see the scenes should go. It was fun and it was amazing to watch. And I can’t say that I wasn’t even tearing up on some of those moments with them. And what was amazing to see it from my side was the true chemistry that these actors had with each other that really reels you into the scenes.

Kevin: Yeah, at this point, we’re in Season 4 going into Season 5… We’ve all discovered as actors or chemistry and how we fit.

Leslie: But it looks, though, effortless, and it feels effortless being able to —

Kevin: And it becomes effortless.

Leslie: — watch them, yes.

Kevin, it feels like the conversations that Manny and Jake have about him being his number two, that they’re not equals, and then beginning the work on rebuilding their relationship are something they’ve kind of needed to have ever since it was Manny who became battalion chief. Are they kind of now getting past that conflict with the way that we see them at the end in the hospital?

Yeah. We’re both understanding — when I say we, I’m referring to our characters — sort of how it works and the reasons behind the choices. So, what I really respect about what they’ve done with the writing this year and with the way they’ve sort of tied everything together and the relationships is that there’s a genuine want to understand from either direction. And I think that both Jake and Manny would probably agree that Jake probably would’ve been a great chief, but there was this one reason, and I think it’s because Manny’s an elder, Manny has just a couple of more years on him. And I think they both just sort of respect that and understand that. So, you get to see later in the season how they become, you know what? I’m embracing my role as this, and I’m embracing my role as this. So, if we’re going to do this, let’s do it at our best possible, highest caliber of concentration. And you get to see them both become superheroes and understanding of the communication between each other.

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But then we have reason to be concerned about Manny because there’s his shaking hands that we get earlier in the episode, and then he collapses at the hospital. Is this a panic attack? Is this something else going on? And Leslie, what was your approach to directing the scenes with Manny and what you wanted Kevin to show, because it was building up to that?

Kevin: It’s definitely a panic attack. This is what I’m saying, where both Jake and Manny accept their positions within each other, where you get to see the chief go down, and then the captain —

Leslie: Step up.

Kevin: — step up and be like, “I got you.” You get to really give an opportunity to explore the human sort of connection that they had for each other, whether it be a father-and-son kind of thing, whether it be equal colleagues, that’s for you to decide. That’s for the audience to decide. But for them, it’s like, we are brothers, we got each other. And you get to see that world develop in a really beautiful way.

Leslie: I knew that Manny had a lot on his shoulders and has had a lot on his shoulders and has been holding it in, has been keeping it together for everybody, even from the beginning of this season, especially from the beginning of the season, stepping up to fill the shoes of somebody that was so well respected. But I didn’t want it to make it seem so dramatic, and so it was important for me to do a little bit of a buildup and show these little things that were going on with him.

Kevin: Clues.

Leslie:  Yeah, the little clues, but trying to get inside of Manny’s head as opposed to just physically seeing him slowly going until ultimately, he has this panic attack. So, yeah, it was fun to kind of create that. And it was important also to not make it look like he had a heart attack. So again, being very internal rather than external was my take on how to handle his situation. And I mean, he killed it. He did so amazing. And the team, my team, was great with relaying what I was hoping to see and the perspective that I was trying to see from Manny’s perspective with his hands and just the world while he was going through with that panic attack. And I think they accomplished it really well. We accomplished it really well.

Kevin: Agree.

Something this episode touches on that I really liked was Luke’s loss because it’s so easy to focus on what Vince’s death means for Bode, for Sharon, for Jake especially. As Luke points out, he lost his brother. Leslie, what did you want to bring across in that really great Bode and Luke scene that we got near the end?

Leslie: I wanted to make sure that Luke was able to be vulnerable. That scene for me was all about vulnerability and having Michael Trucco, there’s a little bit of a break, but he’s still his uncle, he’s still above him at work and whatnot. So, keeping it together but giving him a little bit of something so that they can be on the same page was important. And I think Trucco did incredible with coming to that level with Bode.

And Kevin, how is Manny doing with his grief? Because he also lost Vince, we can’t forget about that. He’s also dealing with this loss.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think he’s dealing with it the best way he can. You get to see him understand the shoes that he has to fill, how big they are. And what’s important to him is to do it justice and to continue on the legacy that Vince left behind. So, it’s a lot on him, and it’s a lot on everyone around, but now he’s got that leadership, so there’s a door that he has to close in order to complete his job, and we get to jump into that a little bit.

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Leslie, what was your favorite scene to direct in this episode, whether it was with Kevin or not, and Kevin, is there a particular scene that stood out from Leslie as a director that you could tell she loved doing?

Kevin: Probably every one with me in it.

Leslie: [Laughs] Always, always.

Kevin: Makes sense.

Leslie: The whole scenario with the chicken coop in general, there was so much metaphor with them building this chicken coop together, and then also in their relationship. So, it was really fun to marry those two together without making it seem —

Kevin: Hitting it on the head too much.

Leslie: Yeah, exactly. Or it could have went super cheesy, but I think with the writing and also just the situation and all of a sudden with the guys and how they came together, that was really fun to bring in. And also the intensity of them, kind of having them do it different ways, where it was a little more subtle than having different ways where they were kind of blowing up on each other. I think they had a lot of fun doing that, too.

Kevin: Yeah, I would agree with that. You did a really good job with setting all of that up. Jordan and I love each other as actors, as people, as friends, so, it was really cool to really start to discover our dynamic as characters and given the freedom both from the writers and the director to really explore where we fit and why there’s that much respect for each other, so, that was a really beautiful part.

But I think my favorite part of her directing is, and part of it is just because I was there on the day, but it’s really my favorite because I knew how much work she did in trying to choreograph it and get what she wanted, is the opening of the episode with being inside of Bode’s head with all these questions being fired at the fire department and understanding her creative choice on how she wanted to shoot it and watching it actually come to life in a collaborative way was my favorite part of seeing it. Which was pretty much your first day, I think, right? Your first couple of days?

Leslie: Yes, definitely. That was fun. I had not directed that many people at one time before, too. All the characters were there, and then also then there were the reporters and setting that up, blocking that, even designing how it was going to look and put it all together was so much fun. I had a great opening last year that I’m super proud of, and that’s kind of the signature that I want is something a little bit different than what you usually see from other episodes, put a little bit of my signature on it.

Fire Country, Fridays, 9/8c, CBS