The actress dives into what Liam means to Sharon what she hopes viewers don’t take away from the storyline.
Liam (Jason O’Mara) was not a welcome surprise in Edgewater.
Fire Country picks up right where it left off with Sharon (Diane Farr) having to explain who Liam
is to her husband Vince (Billy Burke). Turns out the two bonded cutting line while Sharon was away, but their time together felt more romantic to Liam than to Sharon. After the two men spend the night in jail after a fight, they have to work together to save Sharon and more than a dozen other people during a severe fire. While she is able to drive everyone to safety, it’s clear Sharon has to work on her marriage with Vince because she shared something with Liam even though it wasn’t physical.
Below, Farr talks to Entertainment Weekly about Sharon’s emotional affair with Liam, what getting to play the character means to her, and what’s ahead on Fire Country.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your reaction when you learned about the character of Liam and how he would enter Sharon’s life?
DIANE FARR: I was a little nervous. The world is not usually that forgiving of women having needs outside of marriage, children, and maybe earning a living. Then when it was going to be Jason O’Mara I was like “Oh my God, he’s so dreamy” and he’s never gotten to use his real accent on screen ever, so the Irish of it all made it very exciting.
It’s clear that he and Sharon have very different takes on the time they spent together. What does Liam mean to Sharon and what did their time together mean to her from your perspective?
Sharon may have been a little bit of denial over what an emotional affair is. What she needed was a friend and Sharon is the kind of person that is better friends with a guy, so she was looking for a friend and found someone close enough to her husband with a slightly different vibe.
Our writers really touched on this thing. That women can make friendships that are asexual and often when you do with a guy there must be a sexual nature because they’re sharing intimacy. That any form of intimacy is then translated into something sexual. The writers are really hitting this gray line that I hope Sharon doesn’t get hung for because it’s about what is missing from her marriage.
Sharon and Vince end the episode in a much better place. At this point, what work do they have to put in to continue to keep moving in a positive direction?
In season one, the thing I said all the time was [Sharon’s] actual primary commitment was to Bode (Max Thieriot) and the person she had to hide that from was Vince because your primary relationship is supposed to be your partner. The truth of season 2 is she’s getting down to the core of “I didn’t do my son any favors by doing that. How much can I lean into my husband?” Getting called out in tonight’s episode is sort of a gift, but now she’s got to be more vulnerable and figure out who they are to each other if not just somebody’s parent or parents of this firehouse.
