When Fire Country EPs Tony Phelan and Joan Rater told TVLine that “everybody’s in a new place” when Season 2 opens, they were not kidding.

I mean, yes, of course, BODE is now back behind bars, where he has been misbehaving so as to get moved closer and closer to Sleeper’s cell block. But pretty much everyone else has experienced change either on the professional or personal front, in the six months that have passed since the events of the Season 1 finale.

MANNY, having caught some heat for letting Bode’s “drug operation” flourish under his watch, got booted as Three Rock’s fire captain; fortunately, VINCE saw to it that Manny gently landed with a job at Station 42. EVE in turn got promoted to captain of the Three Rock crew. JAKE also made captain (at Station 42), and is doing his best to smooth things between girlfriend CARA and her daughter Genevieve, who apparently didn’t take the news well that her “sister” is actually her mom.

GABRIELA has “moved on” from Bode, after far too many unanswered letters, and now is training to be a paramedic at the hands of newcomer DIEGO (Dynasty reboot alum Rafael de la Fuente), with whom she is also romantically involved. SHARON had her kidney transplant surgery, but then seems to have “peaced out” a bit on son Bode (whom she won’t even discuss), Edgewater and husband Vince; in her stead, brother-in-law LUKE stepped up as Cal Fire Division Chief.

Sheriff Country: Everything We Know About Potential Fire Country Spinoff

View List

The main drama of the premiere revolved around Bode’s mission to land himself in Sleeper’s orbit, to “get to him before he gets to me.” Friends and family are thus worried about him — Vince even brought an unwelcome Manny for a prison visit, for naught. Getting wind of Bode’s path of self-destruction, how he things he has nothing to return home for, Jake beseeched Cara to tell Bode that Genevieve might be his kid. Cara was reluctant, but Jake — crashing a phone call between Bode and Manny — dropped the paternity bombshell in the nick of time.

As such, when Bode then went mano a mano with Sleeper, and amidst a prison-shaking earthquake no less (!), he ultimately sought not to throttle his adversary but secure a confession. And when Sleeper wound up pinned beneath a slab of crumbled concrete, Bode agreed to save the fellow dad’s life in trade for the truth being told, to exonerate Bode.

So while the truth about (maybe) being a dad helped set Bode free, he returned to Three Rock one month later only to be blindsided by someone else’s good personal news — when Gabriela came bounding into Eve’s office to show off the engagement ring she just received from Diego!

The twist? Soaptastic. And Bode’s “I’m so happy for you” expression? Priceless.