When it comes to procedurals, nothing can be more excruciating than waiting for the will-they/won’t-they couple to get together. While most shows use arbitrary reasons for keeping their leads apart, Fire Country is one of the few that gives good reason for the separation between Bode Leone (Max Thieriot) and Gabriela Perez (Stephanie Arcila), namely the fact that Bode is a convict and Gabriela a free woman. But while the show continues to tease us with the possibility of these two getting back together, we can’t help but think that maybe they shouldn’t.
Bode and Gabriela Have Had a Questionable Relationship on ‘Fire Country’
From the first moment that Bode and Gabriela laid eyes on each other, we all knew there would be trouble. At the time, Gabriela had just returned to Edgewater following a “choke” at the Tokyo Olympics where she was competing for the U.S. in a diving championship. While there, she quickly gets caught up in a romantic relationship with Jake Crawford (Jordan Calloway), a Cal Fire firefighter at Station 42 and something of a surrogate son to Bode’s parents, Vince (Billy Burke) and Sharon (Diane Farr). To make things even worse, Jake and Bode didn’t end things well back in the day, and after Bode grew attached to Gabriela, things between them got even rockier.
But this spot fire soon became a wildfire as Gabriela struggled to choose between her boyfriend Jake and Three Rock inmate firefighter, Bode, two men who save lives for a living––including hers. Once Gabriela pursued firefighting as a career of her own, she started working with Bode regularly, and the two often saved each other from sudden death. The episode “No Good Deed” in particular details a situation in which Bode risks his life to save someone, only for Gabriela to then go and risk hers to save him. Their symbiotic need to save the other has often put them in tough situations and has kept them from a relationship time and again. Yet, they have thus far always found their way back to each other. Well, until the end of Season 1 anyway.
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In the Season 1 finale “I Know It Feels Impossible,” Gabriela stands by Bode’s side even when he falsely admits to spreading drugs throughout Three Rock in order to save his friend. When Bode is sent back to prison, she continues for a month to try and contact him, but he never answers. Eventually, she gives up, and it wasn’t long before someone else caught her eye. While Bode was wasting away in a cell, Gabriela started up something new, but now that Bode is out and back in Edgewater, he continues to pine after her, but he really shouldn’t. If anything, his stint in prison proves that he needs to be in a different headspace if he wants to be happy (and free) one day.
Bode Needs To Work on Himself Before He Should Be in a Relationship
Season 2 throws Bode a curveball. He might be the father of his ex-girlfriend Cara’s (Sabina Gadecki) younger “sister” (who is really her daughter), Genevieve (Alix West Lefler). Armed with this knowledge, all Bode wants to do is be the type of man that Gen could look up to, respect, and even love. Of all the people to talk him out of ruining his life in prison, Bode only responds to Jake (who is ironically now dating Cara) when he explains that Bode might be a father. This snaps him out of the funk he was in and allows him to move on. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that Gabriela had already moved on without him. Bode’s recklessness, both with himself and others, has done more damage to his life and future than anything else. Until he works through that, he shouldn’t be with Gabriela, let alone, anyone else.
If Bode is indeed Genevieve’s father, that’s a responsibility that the Three Rock firefighter needs to put above anything and everything else. Worrying about being with Gabriela, and putting his life and potentially his future on the line for her, will only keep him from his duty as a father. And even if Bode isn’t actually Gen’s father, the steps he’s taken toward becoming a better, changed man, and the work he’s put into leaving his old life as a convicted criminal behind, will only make him better relationship material in the future. When Bode’s mind is fixed on Gabriela, everything and everyone else becomes a blur, but when he can focus on bettering himself, it’s only then that he becomes the hero he’s always wanted to be. That’s the Bode who is interesting to fans of Fire Country and longtime followers of actor Max Thieriot, and it’s the Bode who could one day leave Three Rock for good. Or, at least leave his sentence goodbye.
Throughout the first season, Bode is constantly risking his time at Three Rock (which is very conditional) on Gabriela, leaving the boundaries of the camp and putting his future on the line just to be closer to her. Whenever Gabriela is involved, he can’t think rationally or unemotionally, which can be a serious danger to a firefighter and those around them. The work they’re doing saving literal lives and putting out literal fires is much more important, and while Bode has come a long way even in that, he still has some growing to do. As a man so focused on getting out of confinement, Bode has proven himself a flight risk whenever Gabriela is involved. Even in Season 2, he has to fight to keep himself from being the one to rescue her, even with just as capable hands there. That has to change.
