Is Shawn Hatosy’s Brett Richards Sticking Around on ‘Fire Country’?

Is it just us, or are 2025 and 2026 the years of Shawn Hatosy playing, on TV, the supervisory characters who offer sage advice based on their experiences? Well, at least that’s the case with Battalion Chief Brett Richards on Fire Country and Dr. Jack Abbot on The Pitt.

And that continues in the Friday, March 13, episode of the CBS firefighter drama. Richards, who was the “fixer” battalion chief at 42 following Vince’s (Billy Burke) death and who appointed Manny (Kevin Alejandro) to the position when he left, returns to help out during a busy shift, and, it turns out, he has another reason for being there — but it’s not to (necessarily) force anyone out. Warning: Spoilers for Fire Country Season 4 Episode 12 ahead!

Immediately after walking back into 42, Richards checks in with Manny and his captain, Jake (Jordan Calloway); he doesn’t, in his job as fixer, really get to see how things turn out, much like paramedics dropping patients off at a hospital. He’s also station hunting, he reveals, after being at 63 for 20 years in between diagnosing other stations. He feels it’s time for a change.

Richards then spends the rest of the episode talking others through their problems. For Bode (Max Thieriot), it’s how involved he is with Chloe (Alona Tal) and her son Tyler (Conor Sherry), who confesses he accidentally set the Zabel Ridge fire that killed Bode’s father (and others and caused serious damage to the town). Landon (Josh McDermitt) had gotten on his case about his clothes, so Tyler decided to burn them before he could and the fire spread. Richards suggests that he take the off-ramp Chloe offers him since that’s the kind of baggage that can break you if you let it.

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Later, Bode calls him out on rolling through, reading people, and rattling cages, and Richards admits that his daughter lives in Edgewater and he wants to be closer to her, even if that means leaving the station and house he and his wife shared and taking a demotion. The battalion chief then turns the tables on Bode and asks if he figured out what he’s going to do about Tyler. He also learns that Bode’s mom Sharon (Diane Farr) doesn’t know yet. Bode’s still conflicted.

Richards does end up helping Manny, who, despite pressure from Jake, has been keeping his panic attack secret — though Manny lashes out when Richards calls him out on leaping into action in ways battalion chiefs shouldn’t (grabbing hoses and shovels), paranoid that Jake’s talked to him about him and that he wants his spot. But once back at 42, Manny suggests Richards takes the job he never asked for in the first place. Furthermore, what’s been bothering him, he admits, is that he‘s not the one taking the risk but rather the one sending his crew into danger and he’s not alongside them. As Richards sees it, that weighing on him doesn’t make him a bad fit for the job, but rather, that is the job. And what Manny’s saying is telling him that he’s not looking to quit but rather advice on how to keep going.

Richards tells him it’s all about how he handles the danger that counts. “Me, I have cats,” he says. Or, maybe he’s a dog person. Or birds. It’s all about how responds his time off the clock.

Sergei Bachlakov/CBS

Then, near the end of the episode, Richards tells Sharon that he needs a home in Edgewater and would like a job to go with it, but it doesn’t have to be today. “Because we’ve been so hospitable?” she asks in disbelief. She’s not wrong, but he didn’t get off to a great start with 42 either. But this Richards, the one in this episode? The one that 42 is ready to have around? We think he could be a good fit. We also think that Richards and Sharon could actually become friends, like we see in this scene or like we did right before he left town last time.

Richards explains that when his wife died, he clung onto everything familiar (even their vegetable garden), while their daughter did the opposite and never looked back once she moved to Edgewater. It drove a wedge between them that last too long; she wouldn’t even see him the last time he was in town. Now, she’s getting a divorce, and he’s going to be there for her if she needs her father, like he should have been when she lost her mom.

Meanwhile, Bode moves Chloe and Tyler in with him, and we do wonder: Did he even inform his roommate, Jake?

What did you think of Shawn Hatosy’s return? Do you want to see Richards stick around in Edgewater? Let us know in the comments section below.

Fire Country, Fridays, 9/8c, CBS