‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Premiere Recap: Feelings Explode All Over a Helicopter Crash

The idea that Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) and Diego (Raphael de la Fuente)

would get married on Fire Country without a disaster occurring was a pipe dream.

There were so many things that could go wrong, like Manny (Kevin Alejandro)

getting arrested or Bode (Max Thieriot) breathing too closely while they said their vows. In the end, it was a crashing helicopter ripping through the church that interrupted the party, and in hindsight, we shouldn’t have expected anything less. This is a Jerry Bruckheimer production, after all.

Let’s be clear, though. It was obvious that Gabi wasn’t going to say “I do,” even before the helicopter parts started hitting the guests. The imminent disaster just gave her an excuse to pull the Runaway Bride routine she was already considering, but it wasn’t long before Gabi had to come clean with both Diego and Bode. And that was just the beginning of the mess that unfurled in the first half of this action-packed premiere.

‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Kicks Off With a Disaster Scene Confession

Gabi leaves Diego to attend to injured guests while she rushes to the actual scene of the helicopter crash – Smokey’s parking lot. There, she finds Bode putting out spotfires and grabs a shovel so that she can help. She has some questions for her ex, like why he walked out at her wedding. It seems that Gabi needed Bode to spell out that he is still in love with her, but to our boy’s credit, he tried to push her towards a safe and stable life with Diego she spent the majority of Season 2 swearing that she wanted. That’s what we call growth, fam!

The temptation gods are not on Bode’s side, though, because the pair is soon tasked with trying to extricate the helicopter pilot from the fallen vehicle. In his delirium, the pilot assumes that Gabi and Bode are the happy couple and profusely apologizes for ruining their big day. They decide to play along to keep the guy calm and start spinning yarns about their upcoming honeymoon while they work on cutting him loose from his chair. They’re talking about some really exciting fake plans in Hawaii when Diego arrives to help (because, you know, he’s the paramedic, not Bode), and things immediately get awkward.

They are able to help the pilot, but not before Gabi tells Bode that she feels alive for the first time in a year when they kissed at the campaign fire a week prior. Luckily, Diego doesn’t hear that part, but he does show up in time to confront Gabi about ditching their wedding, pretending to be married to Bode, and just not seeming super into spending the rest of her life with him in general. (He also noticed that she was hesitating long before the helicopter came through the church roof.) He’s tried to be so patient and understanding about her past with Bode, but what the hell? So, Gabi finally comes clean and admits that she kissed Bode at the campaign fire, and the looks on both of their faces confirm Diego’s worst fears.

If you think that any of these people are going to go see the therapist required to untangle a complicated, emotional mess, you are mistaken. Right after this big emotional explosion, the helicopter remains literally explode, setting the woods immediately around the scene on fire. Did I mention this is a Jerry Bruckheimer show? The fallout from the explosion will have to wait for Episode 2, which is the second half of the premiere airing next week. We have other mess to address in the episode.

Two Dads Could Be Kind of Fun on ‘Fire Country’ Season 3

Jake (Jordan Calloway) has been trying to catch a break ever since his former best friend Bode came back into town in the Fire Country pilot and rocked his world. Since then, he’s been dumped, accused of arson, found a new love, and then had to listen to that love die over the radio as Bode and Diego failed to save her after an ambulance crash. Now, Jake is the primary custodian of that love’s 12-year-old daughter, Gen (Alix West Lefler), and he just wanted to share a milkshake with his adopted kid when an errant helicopter collapsed the roof of the restaurant and trapped her by the jukebox!

To make matters worse (why would we want to make things worse for this man?!), Gen is trapped with Jake’s high school nemesis Rick (Adam Aalderks), who he discovered moments prior to the crash is probably Gen’s biological dad. The world is really small in this northern California town. Luckily, Jake has his priorities straight. The first task is to get Gen (and Rick) out safely before any more damage is done to the building. He is able to create a space for them to crawl through thanks to Eve (Jules Latimer) and everyone lives to see another day.

To make matters worse (why would we want to make things worse for this man?!), Gen is trapped with Jake’s high school nemesis Rick (Adam Aalderks), who he discovered moments prior to the crash is probably Gen’s biological dad. The world is really small in this northern California town. Luckily, Jake has his priorities straight. The first task is to get Gen (and Rick) out safely before any more damage is done to the building. He is able to create a space for them to crawl through thanks to Eve (Jules Latimer) and everyone lives to see another day.

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