Fire Country season 2 finale explained: Bode makes a choice at Gabriela's wedding

In all honesty, Fire Country season 2's finale, "I Do," felt like we were left on an extended pause. Showrunner Tia Napolitano had teased that the episode "bookends" the season, but we were left with more questions than answers like this was a midseason finale and not the end of a story told across 10 episodes. Nevertheless, these characters have been set up for a third season that will put most of them in interesting places narratively. Here's what happened!

Fire Country season 2 finale ending explained

Let's start with Bode. In "I Do" it was very important that he made it through the first 72 hours of being a free man without getting in trouble. Though that may seem like a small window of time to us, for someone used to the rigors and restrictions of their life in a prison facility, the outside world is full of triggers that could set someone off and land them right back in jail. One such trigger for Bode is not having a purpose.

His best friend Jake hit the nail on the head in episode 7, "A Hail Mary," when he told Bode that he needs to turn his life around for himself and not anyone else. His purpose can't be hinged upon doing the right thing because it's what other people want for him. So, in the finale, Bode tried to walk the line. As he told Freddy, who has come to town to celebrate his release, he can't be a firefighter because the union has been pushing back on former inmates joining Cal Fire.

Without the ability to step into his legacy like he hoped, Bode accepted an offer to get him a job doing construction. However, it came from Rick Stengler, a man he'd been friends with in his teens who was known for partying and being a drug supplier. That's not the choice anyone who cares about Bode wanted for him, but he needed a job so he took it.

While at the site, which is conveniently at the same hospital where Vince had a follow-up appointment for his heart condition, a fire broke out due to Rick putting what he thought was an empty gas barrel in the garbage for disposal. It apparently wasn't empty and sparks from another worker's hand tool causesed it to catch flame and then explode.

For some reason, a child who is a patient at the hospital was left unattended in a room where he could do art to his heart's content with only a window separating him from the workers and their construction duties. This was a recipe for disaster as the explosion blew out the windows and smoke poured into the room. Having interacted with the child earlier, Bode rushed to save him and got him to safety as 42, including his mom, dad, Gabriela, and Jake looked on.

Once the daring do was done, Bode laid into Rick, thinking that he'd been high and distracted. His assumption, however, was wrong because this is Fire Country and this series is all about redemption. Rick has been sober for two years and didn't take kindly to being judged so harshly as if he can't change his life around like everyone else. Surprised and then filled with guilt, Bode and Jake tried to apologize but the damage had been done.

Speaking of redemption, "I Do," does circle back to Manny's plot though what happens is the last things that fans would want for his character. Before your heart races out of your chest, let me assure you, I'm not foreshadowing a sudden death. I mean he's taken into custody.

Manny is arrested at Gabriela's wedding

Gabriela had been concerned that Manny wouldn't make it to her wedding. Knowing how important it is to her for her dad to walk her down the aisle, Diego did ask Gabriela if she wanted to postpone the wedding but she didn't want to do that. She planned to go on in spite of his absence but, thankfully, Manny did come

We'd seen him earlier on in "I Do" sneaking into Station 42 to get something out of his locker. When he goes to see his daughter, who looks stunning in her wedding dress, it's revealed that he'd retrieved a family heirloom--a beautiful bracelet passed down through the generations. Suited up and ready to walking her down the aisle, Manny almost didn't get to live out the moment he and Gabriela had been so excited to have.

The police had arrived to take him into custody but Sharon and Vince cut them off before they could. They asked if the officers could wait long enough for Manny and Gabriela to have that moment since he isn't a flight risk and did intend on surrendering himself. After they reached the altar, and he was able to take in at least this much of the wedding, Manny silently made his exit so as not to cause a scene and he was arrested outside of the church.

Gabriela and Diego's wedding is left in limbo

If you were hoping for Bode to make a scene at the wedding, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but he does no such thing. While he had taken Freddy's advice to heart about going to get his girl, he was stopped in the hallway by Manny before he could speak to Gabriela. The scene happened just before the ceremony began, after her father had come from seeing her himself. He told Bode that he knows why he's there but that Gabriela is happy. She's the happiest he's ever seen her.

Bode has consistently tried to put Gabriela's happiness above all else when it comes to their relationship. Hearing that she's happy stopped him from ruining that for her. Instead, he chose to sit in the pew as a wedding guest, a welcome one as Diego showed when he greeted him. But watching Gabriela standing before Father Pascal and the rest of the guest proved to be too much for Bode. He slipped out of the church before things could really get started.

His exit meant that we didn't get to see what exactly happened next in the church because Bode was outside talking to his uncle Luke and insisting that he help him become a firefighter. It felt like he was about to make a deal with the devil because Luke's ambition has strained more than one relationship on the series. He'd just gotten dragged by Eve after she turned down the job offer in Sacramento that would have given her the opportunity to oversee the entire con camp fire program.

Sharon had also gotten her own lick in when she informed Luke that she was going after her old job as division chief (the Sheriff Country synopsis gave away whether she's successful). But if he has Bode in his debt, Luke may have leverage that causes all kinds of disruption for the Leones in season 3. We'll have to wait and see just like we'll be waiting months to find out whether Gabriela and Diego tied the knot since, frustratingly, the season 2 finale doesn't tell us or show us if they do or don't.

Genevieve's biological father comes to Edgewater

We don't get out of "I Do" before Fire Country season 2 upends Jake's world once again. At this point, I'm asking, cut this man a break! He and Genevieve just lost Cara and now their household is about to be interrupted again. Not this season but in the show's junior run. Rick wasn't just a season ending addition brought in as a means of highlighting Bode's past. It turns out he's the man Cara had been with back in the day, and he knows that she had a daughter. What he's apparently not aware of is that said little girl is in Jake's custody and Jake didn't tell him.

Earlier in the episode, Jake had been considering becoming an inspector since Genevieve has struggled with the idea that he puts himself in danger day in and day out. But everyone questioned that move because he enjoys his work as a captain and active firefighter. He skipped out on attending Gabriela's wedding because Cara's loss is too fresh and he'd been hoping they would be getting married, that's how he ended up bumping into Rick again anyway. He and Genevieve were at Smokies getting milkshakes. There's been a lot of change in Jake's life recently, losing the child he's come to see as his own to a man he doesn't have a positive view on, and doesn't know, could be too much.

There's so much up in the air by the end of the finale that'll lead us into season 3. Including whether or not Vince will be able to continue working as a firefighter, so you can see why this feels more like a dramatic pause then it does a season ender. We'll be returned to Fire Country come Fall 2024. For now, a bookmark will hold our place in this unfolding story.