Don’t go, Jake! Jordan Calloway‘s character is seriously considering his future at Station 42 on Fire Country.

We’ve already seen him wondering what his future could hold considering he knows that the “keys to the kingdom,” a.k.a. Vince’s (Billy Burke) job as battalion chief, will one day be his son Bode’s (Max Thieriot), now that he’s free and part of Cal Fire. Vince awkwardly overheard him talking about it with Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) in the previous episode, and all he really did was give him the cliche “I’m not dead yet” line. But Jake’s clearly not happy with how things are going at the firehouse, continuing into Episode 17.

Now, Jake finds out that Vince gave the OK for Gabriela’s new love interest, photographer Finn (Blake Lee), to do a ride-along and take action shots … at the station he captains without giving him the heads up. And so when Audrey (Leven Rambin) remarks that she wasn’t prepared for that, he admits it was news to him, too. He also offers her a bit of advice when she begins to talk about climbing the ladder like him, namely that at 42, there’s a ceiling and her best bet is to learn the skills she needs, then move on to a station that offers growth. (Ouch.)

Things just get awkward when Bode and Sharon (Diane Farr) get into a screaming match about the latter’s deal with Oxalta (including an NDA, that means they can go poison other places like they did with Three Rock’s water) and Vince’s ex-girlfriend Renée (Constance Zimmer) looking into a class action suit against the company. Jake intervenes, Sharon says it’s between her and her son, and he says to then take it to their house. There, Bode is her son, while at 42, he’s his probie, he argues. In turn, Sharon reminds him she’s his division chief.

When a ski lift malfunctions, 42 heads to the scene to rescue those who fell off it. And while searching, Bode thanks Jake for calling Sharon out, and in return, the captain calls him out on being as much out of line as she was. At 42, and on the mountain, she’s their division chief and he’s just a probie, so he needs to check any family baggage. Bode notes that’s hard when 42 feels like his living room, and Jake remarks about it not being the station they idolized as kids.

Then, when a fire breaks out on the mountain, Sharon wants to call for a water drop, but that runs the risk of causing an avalanche. Bode suggests using snow cannons to spray the fire, but Sharon refuses to entertain the option, even as Jake says it’s the right plan. She argues that the right plan was given to them by their division chief and they are to follow her orders. Still, Jake goes with Bode’s plan, and it works.

Back at 42, Sharon pulls Jake aside, and he defends his decision. But as she sees it, he disobeyed an order and she’s coddled him to the point that he believes boundaries are a suggestion. So, she’s offering him a lesson for it, and for breaking protocol and dragging two probies (Bode and Audrey) with him, he’s suspended for one week. Even as she warns him to watch himself, he asks if she said no to Bode’s plan because it was a bad one or because he suggested it. She’s silent.

Jake then tells Audrey he shouldn’t have said what he did to her earlier; he was frustrated, but he doesn’t want to be the kind of leader who throws cold water on probies’ dreams. He then answers a call from Luke and thanks him for calling him back. He needs some advice: When did he know it was time to leave 42? Say it isn’t so, Jake!

When TV Insider recently spoke with Thieriot about Season 3 Episode 16 when he stopped by our office, we asked him about the tension this has caused between Vince and Jake — and it possibly extending to Bode as well.

“It puts a little strain on Vince and Jake’s relationship, but more than anything, I think it’s not about being upset with somebody, it’s more one of those situations where people are a little hurt and disappointed. I think that everybody sort of knows, certainly once Bode was hired by Cal Fire and showed up at 42, that Leones have run that station for decades. And so I think that Jake isn’t blind to that, whether he hears Vince say it or not, but at the same time, it really sort of is forcing Jake to take a step back and sort of look at his own life and look at his own aspirations and where he wants to be and what he wants to be doing,” he explained. “So I think it puts more in question for Jake just as far as what his options are going forward.”