Fire Country Season 1 Episode 20: At the End of My Rope

Sleeper is a problem, and he came to the fire camp to be one. He wants revenge against Bode: Bode was once his right-hand man at the prison, they used to run things together, and Bode did everything Sleeper ever asked of him — until one day they fell out, perhaps because Bode finally got clean. Bode is a drug addict who has taken years to get clean, and Sleeper was part of that problem too, supplying him drugs; now Sleeper is supplying those same drugs to his fellow prisoners at the fire camp and rebuilding his own crew.

The camp had been doing so well before his arrival, everyone getting better and saving lives, and then Sleeper arrives with a bit of heroin and it is as if they no longer care about early parole — they just let him risk their freedom and their lives. He quickly takes over and there is nothing Bode can do about it.

Bode's plan with Freddy is not working, because Sleeper knows Bode too well. He knew Freddy was spying on him, and he was simply letting them think they had one over on him while playing them the whole time. The moment Bode gets in his face ends Sleeper toying with Freddy: Bode tries to convince Sleeper to stop peddling drugs, and Sleeper says he is willing to revoke all the new privileges he brought in — including the phone call Freddy has every night with his baby girl. Sleeper also decides to be a pain on calls.

He can see Bode is taking firefighting seriously, which is why he sets out to ruin it. Sleeper never learned to use a chainsaw and still takes it from a more experienced person at the camp because he wants to test Bode. Bode tries to stop him, and Sleeper retaliates by cutting him with the chainsaw; Bode needs medical attention and is seen to by Gabriela as Sleeper quickly develops a name for himself.

Sleeper has already had Bode beaten up by his new crew, wanting to take over regardless of his lack of experience or the lives on the line, and he wants to destroy everything around Bode because of their falling out. He also threatens Bode's loved ones if Bode even thinks of snitching to Manny.

Bode tells Gabriela a little about what is going on — not much, because he promised to keep her out of prison politics — saying only that there are drugs at the camp, and she tells him he has to focus on getting out, on getting paroled. She wants him to stop thinking like a convict, and he tries to do that, walking a middle path: he asks Manny when the camp was last drug tested. It has been a while, because the tests are expensive, and Manny would not normally authorize the payment unless he suspected something — so Bode gives him reason to suspect.

Manny orders a surprise drug test on the camp's return. Bode technically does not snitch on anyone, even though he walks a fine line. He goes with the others to the camp while the other firefighters stay behind to save some Girl Scouts trapped in a mine — an old gold mine over a hundred years old, where the girls, probably just exploring, got lost and then the mine began to cave in.

Vince's family is in town for a visit. His father, Walter, needs convincing to get a hip replacement, since he has been suffering nasty falls; he is also a bit of a jerk who likes setting his sons against each other, and he used to be a firefighter who knew those mines. Walter says there is a back exit the miners used to take for a smoke break, but he has been out of the job for a few years and does not know that exit has since been sealed with concrete. Sharon has to direct firefighters to that area to tear it down so they can rescue the girls.

Jake and Eve have gone into the cave after the girls, and the cave seals itself behind them, so they need another way out — their only option being old dynamite to get past the concrete wall. The girls all need medical treatment, and one goes into diabetic shock; the dynamite becomes the last resort. They blow a hole through the concrete and rescue the girls. Sharon later goes to her father-in-law's bedside to yell at him after finding out what he said to his son: Walter threw the fact that Vince cheated back in Vince's face.

Vince had just lost a daughter and went to his father for comfort, and his father took him to a bar to get drunk every night until Vince ended up kissing a stranger — just a kiss, which Vince told Sharon about right away, and which she forgave. Sharon is tired of Walter throwing it in Vince's face. Walter was particularly mean whenever his sons messed up, and stopped loving them if they were not perfect, which stunted both of them: Vince is afraid of making a mistake, and his brother Luke is afraid to take risks in case of a mistake, which is why Luke never married or had kids.

Sharon tells Walter he does not get to do that anymore.

And Sleeper tries to plant the drugs on Freddy, but Bode finds them and finally goes to Manny with them, telling him Sleeper has been bringing in drugs. Sleeper is arrested and sent back to prison, and his final words to Bode are that he is going to get revenge. It thankfully will not fall back on Freddy, because Eve is one step closer to finding evidence that proves him innocent of the crime he is charged with.

The mine rescue is resolved: the crews blast through the sealed concrete wall with old dynamite and free the trapped Girl Scouts, along with Jake and Eve. The Sleeper storyline also resolves — Bode finds the drugs Sleeper plants on Freddy and takes them to Manny, and Sleeper is arrested and sent back to prison.

Two threads are left open. Sleeper's final words to Bode are a promise of revenge, so his threat is not fully closed. And although the drugs no longer fall back on Freddy, his case is not yet resolved: Eve is described as one step closer to finding evidence that proves him innocent, leaving his release as a matter for later episodes. Sharon's confrontation with Walter has aired the family's damage but leaves its consequences unresolved.