Fire Country Season 1 Episode 9: No Good Deed

Bode goes over a bridge. He risks his life to save someone trapped in a car teetering on the edge of the bridge, and when the car finally gives way he goes overboard with it, falling into the water. Everyone loses sight of both Bode and the car. The crews are about to call in water rescue when Gabriela takes matters into her own hands: she strips off her gear, dives into the water, and goes looking for Bode herself. Her actions lead to an internal investigation by the Edgewater Fire Department, with firefighter Erika Snow leading it.

Snow looks into everything, including why Bode was in the car at all: he ignored orders to help someone, breaking the chain of command. Bode is used to breaking the chain of command, knowing Manny would not do anything about it, and he acted too fast for his own father to stop him.

Gabriela does the same with her father, jumping off the bridge before anyone can stop her so she can get close enough to Bode. She finds him after several deep dives, drags his limp body to the shoreline, and performs CPR, saving his life. The two are a couple of miles away from everyone.

Bode has a broken rib and a cut to his head, yet he and Gabriela still plan to walk several miles to get help and convince someone to call 911. That plan is ruined when they run into the hit-and-run driver from the bridge, who had fled the scene, gone into the woods, and fallen down a cliff, leaving her seriously injured and calling for help.

Her name is Meg. She cannot move on her own and needs their help to get back on her feet. Meanwhile the rest of the fire department searches for Bode and Gabriela, with Manny and Vince each leading crews along the coastline, but they do not find them by nightfall. Worried the pair will catch hypothermia, Manny proposes starting a fire — it would guide Bode and Gabriela to the road and keep them warm through the night. Vince worries the fire could get out of hand and tells Manny that if he is going to do it, he must do it alone.

Manny sets the fire believing he is helping their children, but he does not know about Meg, who is slowing Bode and Gabriela down. They cannot leave her, and she is crying in pain as she loses feeling in her leg, which is swelling and turning pale. Gabriela sees that something is wrong and remembers her training: a puncture to the leg would relieve the pressure. She finds something sharp in Meg's bag and cuts into Meg's leg, and the idea works — she saves Meg's life. Then they spot the fire, a beacon they head toward, but Gabriela collapses before she can reach it.

Bode worries about her, and Meg suggests he leave her behind and carry Gabriela to safety; Bode promises he will come back for Meg. Meg is not angry about his leaving, because she thinks she deserves to die: she ran from the crash scene because she could not afford car insurance, and she was so worried about killing someone that she fled, and when she fell in the woods she took it as karma.

Meg dies from her wounds before she can be found. Her parents blame Bode, because he is a convict and a firefighter, and they are angry that he chose to save Gabriela over their daughter. Erika Snow recommends that Bode take the blame for what happened and be sent back to prison. Vince tries to convince her otherwise, offering to have the blame pinned on himself, but Snow says putting the blame on Bode would save the department a headache — and she is about to do exactly that when Vince manages to convince her to let him talk to Meg's parents first.

Vince does his best to talk Meg's grieving parents out of a lawsuit, arguing that Meg died from internal bleeding because she was in a car accident and walked away from it before getting treatment. Meg's mother is willing to see that; the father still needs convincing, but Vince does everything in his power to fight for Bode. Later, when Gabriela is released from the hospital, she goes to Jake's apartment, and he tells her they have to talk about her relationship with Bode — he wants to know what motivated her to jump off that bridge.

The bridge rescue is resolved: Gabriela revives Bode with CPR, and the pair survive, though Meg dies of her injuries before she can be found. Vince's argument to Meg's parents — that Meg died of internal bleeding after walking away from the crash without treatment — is beginning to land with Meg's mother, while her father remains unconvinced.

The episode leaves Bode's fate unresolved. Erika Snow has recommended that Bode take the blame for Meg's death and be sent back to prison, and although Vince has stalled that outcome, whether it is dropped is not settled within the episode. Meg's father's resistance and the threatened lawsuit also remain open. Separately, Jake tells Gabriela they need to talk about her relationship with Bode, leaving that confrontation unresolved, and Manny's beacon fire is left without stated consequences.