Fire Country Season 3 Episode 8 Review: Zombie Fires Take Control

Well, folks, that’s a wrap for 2024. Fire Country, along with most of our favorite shows, is now on fall break. As usual, the show left us with plenty of cliffhangers.

Fire Country Season 3 Episode 8 review analyzes its events and aftermath and what we might expect when the show returns in 2025.

Like most Bruckheimer productions, Fire Country Season 3 Episode 8 had plenty of action, heart-pounding terror, insubordination, and personal angst to tide us over through the holiday break.

And several of our favorite firefighters were left in mortal danger. Could we perhaps see the demise and exit of any of the Fire Country cast? We haven’t received word of anyone leaving the show.

Three seasons in, and we still have the same core characters, minus a few small roles from supporting characters like Cara, Freddy, and Rebecca.

The show has been building up to these events since the start, pushing each character through life predicaments that eventually affected how each of them reacted during the Fire Country Season 3 fall finale.

As a finale goes, this one was as good as any I’ve seen in the 2024 season, and it’s certainly miles better than the delayed seasonal start and shortened ten-episode second season.

And yet, despite how well the show did setting up its seasonal break so fans would stay in a state of intrigue and torment, there was a lot of UGH and OMG really’s from the episode itself. Really, the whole season.

Starting with the typical drama surrounding Gabriela. Go ahead and weigh in real quick, Fanatics, on the first exchange between Gabriela and Jake. It’s hard for this reviewer to decide which person is right.

While Jake feels they should tell Bode about their drunken hook-up, Gabriela thinks that it’s none of his business, since they are not together.

But like Jake said, Bode is his best friend and Gabreila is his ex-obsession. However, like Gabs said, she was with Jake before Bode. So should they tell Bode or let it stay a drunken episode of no consequence?

Although this reviewer’s twisted mind could totally see that one lapse of judgement resulting in an unplanned pregnancy for Gabriela and Jake, who’s still tortured by the loss of Cara and the recent decision of Cara’s daughter to move in with her real father instead of Jake.

At first, Gabriela seemed to be doing better this episode, less hell-bent on beating herself to death and doing risky crap. Like father, like daughter.

And then, we saw her mental status deteriorate, resulting in her disobeying direct orders from a superior, breaking the law, and being fully insubordinate. How many times does she get to yell at her boss (this time, it was Jake instead of Sharon) before she faces disciplinary action?

I’m on her side for helping out the desperate mother and child who ran out of gas while trying to evacuate. Their vehicle was the only home they had left, and it didn’t seem fair that they’d lose everything again.

Truthfully, this viewer probably would have done the same thing by siphoning the gas from the car parked in front of a fire hydrant. Criminal charges be damned.

But I can’t condone the rest of her behavior.

She seems to have a major problem separating her past from her job, often letting her personal experiences affect her performance. Something she frequently scolds Bode and her father for doing.

It was freaking amazing seeing Jake put Gabriela in her place. Her hissy fit response was typical of her self-indulgent pity party, where she wants everyone to feel bad for her situation despite the fact that where she’s at in life is all her own doing.

And then, as usual, she acts all melodramatically, stripping off her fire gear and walking off in the middle of a fire call. Only to end up meeting a wall of flames as she wandered aimlessly down the road.

She says she’s done but done with what? Her actions are as clear as any resignation letter. Could we be saying goodbye to Gabriela Perez when the show returns?

Or maybe the Fire Country Season 3 finale is the end of the line for inmate firefighter Manny Perez. We’ve seen Manny experience a full 360 of his life since the first season.

He was once the captain of the Three Rock prison camp, mentoring Bode post-prison so he could be successful once released, only to flip places by Fire Country Season 3.

While Bode is a free man and now an official member of CalFire since Captain Camden Casey passed him in fire training in Fire Country Season 3 Episode 7, Manny is now a firefighter inmate at Three Rock, with Eve as Captain.

Seeing Manny falling so far from his original redemption has been hard, but it’s been a great way to explore more of his character. Unfortunately, going back to prison seems to have dulled Manny’s righteousness.

He’s acted out of character several times during Fire Country Season 3, almost as if he’s given up on a future due to his setback.

Manny went from being my favorite character to an annoyance this season as he tries to make repairs with Gabriela while simultaneously expressing his self-anger at anyone around him.

He struggled in this episode between being a supportive first saw firefighter and being a sullen inmate pissed about doing time. Seeing him talk down Cole when he almost had words with Eve’s cousin was great.

Unfortunately, Manny is unlikely to be as willing to follow Cole’s advice about not going out on his own to find Gabriela.

The show ended with a cliffhanger involving him and Three Rock on the Edwards ranch, miles away from where Gabriela went missing. Due to her tantrum, she walked straight into a fire zone.

Manny just requested a parole hearing. Going AWOL during a fire call, even if it’s because his daughter is in danger, isn’t going to look good. Will the second half of Fire Country Season 3 have Manny stuck in prison longer for an “attempted escape,” or could Perez be the show’s first regular cast member to exit?

How did everyone like their first visit to the Edwards ranch? Geez, there was a lot of tension between the Edwards patriarch and everyone around him.

Elroy Edwards was exactly as we expected when we found out Eve hadn’t talked to her family in six years. After meeting them, I understand why there’s discord there.

Seeing her go to bat for her crew against her father’s prejudice was great. He’s a stubborn old man who thinks Eve chose firefighting and the Leones over her family, both in the past and presently.

If you read our Fire Country Season 3 Episode 8 spoilers, I lamented how cool it would have been to see Eve on horseback, fighting fires. We saw her on horseback, so I half got my wish.

However, I’ll settle because it was so cool that she delivered a foal and had a moment with her dad.

But while she was playing rancher, she neglected her firefighting duties. Vince had to come out and check on things, ruining her progress. Elroy had multiple grievances against Vince and CFD.

The two debated creating a backburn on the ranch to prevent the fire from spreading into Edgewater. Vince thought he had the authority to do it, even on private property. Elroy felt that he had the right to say no because it was his land.

Eve ended up between her blood family and her fire fam. She disappointed Elroy by siding with the job over her kin.

We have to wonder if her setting the fire was symbolic of burning her last bridge with her family. It was supposed to protect the ranch.

But shifting winds carried embers across the fire line and onto the barn, where the ranch hands had just put all the horses, including the new baby foal Eve had just delivered.

Eve wasn’t the only one whose plan to protect something backfired. Bode and Audrey went on a fire call, thinking they would only be doing preventative measures. Leave it to their luck to stumble upon a massive zombie fire.

Huh? That’s one way to add a unique twist to the typical zombie outbreak.

Show of hands: Before this episode, who had heard of a zombie fire or holdover fire? Not this TV fanatic, and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every fire movie or series available.

It’s pretty gnarly but totally awesome, too.

How crazy would it be to have to face a fire that’s been burning underground for months to years? That sounds like some Tommy Lee Jones ’90s Volcano or the La Brea intro or something.

Bode’s a badass ex-convict, so it’s always a pleasure to see his softer side, from the teddy bear in his locker to the family portrait in his helmet to the near tears he had when he listened to the sob story of a local with a beautiful home and a dead wife.

Bode made a promise to save his house, and things seemed to be going well until James jinxed it by talking crap. Never test the universe with an early celebration, especially when it comes to fighting fires.

Sharon continued to issue orders to Leone and James to abandon the location and handle other fires. But the couple ignored her calls, freaking Momma Bear out.

Bode should face serious reprimand for ignoring direct orders. In his desperation to keep a promise and supposedly leave behind the old Bode, he put himself and Audrey in a very dangerous situation.

Does anyone else find it irritating that after Bode screwed up and put both of them at risk, he made a plan and tried to talk about how to save them like their being trapped wasn’t his fault?

As the fire consumed everything around them, James held onto Bode for literal life as they dove underwater to avoid the flames. And then the credits rolled.

Will Bode and Audrey’s first kiss be a mermaid breath of life as they share air? Will Audrey forgive Bode for putting her into the terrifying situation of getting burned alive or drowning because she couldn’t swim?

If they had left earlier, as she had wanted and as she had ordered, they would not have been trapped on all sides by a wall of flames.

My favorite part of the day was when Eve asked how to reason with a stubborn old man, and Sharon and Bode both shot ‘that’ look at Vince. Priceless! Is that a hint at Vince’s own father issues? Or are they calling him a stubborn old man?

And what was with this episode and people ignoring their radio calls? Does anyone else notice a theme where all the various scenes and people tend to focus on one narrative?

In Fire Country Season 3 Episode 7, subordinates lashed out at their superiors, which in real life would have resulted in numerous firefighters being dismissed from their stations.

So, fanatics, what did you think of the Fire Country Season 3 fall finale? Are you excited for the show to return so we can get answers? Where do you hope the story goes from here?

What did you like about the episode? Hate? Is it better than previous episodes, which have been borderline daytime soap with basic or regurgitated storylines?

Join the conversation in our comments!

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