Fire Country (2022) s01e09 Episode Script

Previously on Fire Country
You and me while you're with Jake,
it's over the line.
You don't want me to call at all?
- Rebecca, I'm flattered.
- But I'm not the cap's daughter?
- That's different.
- Yeah, she's out there,
we're in here. Let's escape.
You know what I liked
most about you diving?
Let's not do this again, Dad, please.
That look on your face
every time you dove.
I saw that same look today.
The car's teetering
over the edge. It goes over,
it takes both those kids with it.
Let's get them out of there.
- Good job.
- Get me out of here!
This car is falling
apart. We need a plan B.
- Bode, no don't!
- Bode!
Get him out now,
or this was all for nothing.
Get Bode, get Bode.
Take my hand. Grab my hand, Bode!
Come on!
No, no, no, no, Bode!
Bode!
An incarcerated firefighter
inserts himself into a precarious rescue
without being ordered to do so.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg
of a call that went so sideways
even the rescue is
under review here today.
Sorry, is that a question?
Chief.
I'm with Cal Fire, too.
I'm here to help you.
But I do have to ask you
and your team about what
the hell happened out there.
State your name and rank for the record.
Battalion Chief Vince Leone.
You were the incident commander
on the day in question, yes?
Yes.
When would you say
you lost control of the call?
I wouldn't.
Either you did
or you sanctioned this mess,
which is much worse.
So, I'll ask again,
when did you lose control of the call?
Probably when a, uh, firefighter
went off a bridge into the water.
This is not happening.
Maybe he survived the fall.
Oh, my God.
Bode? No! Check the
other side of the bridge.
Bode!
I don't see the car!
Which of the two firefighters
who went off the bridge
are you referring to?
Call Swift Water Rescue.
Greencrest, Engine 1591,
emergency traffic.
We have an inmate firefighter
who's fallen over the Ledgewood Bridge
into rapid river waters below.
We have no sight on his location.
Gabriela, what are you doing?
No, no, no, no
Probie! No!
- No! Vince, that's my daughter.
- Anybody see her?
That's my daughter, Vince.
Negative, I can't see her!
No!
State your name and rank for the record.
Captain Manuel Remy Perez.
How would you describe your
relationship with Bode Donovan?
He's an inmate on my hand crew.
That's all he is to you?
An inmate firefighter
that I work with. That's it.
And Gabriela Perez?
She's my girlfriend.
My only daughter.
She's my best probie.
Chief. If she's your best probie,
help me understand
how she went off a bridge
before going MIA with your own son,
unsanctioned?
It was a unique situation.
But I'm afraid legal is gonna
want more specifics.
Legal?
A life was lost.
You can't be surprised
when people want answers.
Chaos often starts at the top.
Firefighters match their
commander's tone. That's you.
But you weren't the only
authority figure that day.
If you're waiting for me
to throw a fellow firefighter
under the bus,
we're gonna be here a long time.
How would you describe
your state of mind that day, Captain?
My daughter jumped off
a bridge. Take a guess.
It's the worst feeling in the world,
knowing that your child needs you
and not being able to help.
Not being able or not being allowed to?
Is there a difference?
What were your stress levels
before Gabriela jumped?
Look, the only reason that I was on edge
is because my daughter was in danger.
Did you blame Bode for that?
No.
I blame Bode for a lot of things,
but that wasn't one of them.
Of all the people on that bridge
Bode's captain, his crew,
his own father
Why do you think Gabriela
was the one who jumped?
Bode!
It's a steep fall.
She must have been scared.
I'm sure she was.
Is she prone to making rash decisions?
Was that just a yes to you moving in?
I'm still thinking about it.
No.
Eve Edwards.
Can't say I ever expected
to see you here.
You surprised I didn't
quit after the academy?
I'm a tough trainer.
You know, it wasn't until
I made it to Station 42
that I was able to get
your voice out of my head,
saying that I didn't have what it takes
- to be in Cal Fire.
- The girl I saw was meek,
indecisive, lacked confidence.
Well, that was, that was
five years ago, what
I'm happy to be proven wrong.
We are on Ledgewood
and our leadership is exercising
questionable judgment.
I have an inmate firefighter
hanging off the side of a damn bridge.
Now, that girl is decisive.
Well, there were lives at stake.
Do you regret your insubordination?
No. It didn't even do anything.
It got you written up,
which I'm not sure I even agree with.
A write-up is a piece of paper.
My call was too late to be significant,
to stop everything that
went down after.
The life that was lost.
No, n-no, n-no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no!
Bode.
Wh
Bode is a loose cannon.
He's always been.
I don't know, I should have
should have had him sent back
to prison when I had the chance.
How would you have done that?
Doesn't matter now.
I didn't report him back then,
I'm not gonna do it now.
Please have a pulse.
Oh, crap.
Okay, airway's intact.
Come on, Bode.
I'm alive?
You better be after I jumped after you.
You jumped to save me?
Why?
You fell to save Sam, a stranger.
I did the same,
except you're no stranger.
Where are we?
We went downstream,
a few miles, maybe.
I'm guessing my dad
didn't sanction you jumping.
I'd never ask you
to do any of this for me.
Well, it's a good thing I didn't
give you a chance to say no.
Did I hurt your rib?
It happens. Not your fault.
Where are you going? You're hurt.
Ribs will heal themselves.
We got to get out of these woods
and get back to the road
before it gets dark.
We should s-stay. They're gonna
They'll be looking for us.
They're gonna check the water
first, and then they're
they're gonna do a grid search
and follow the river until they find us.
That'll take way too long.
Night's gonna fall.
You're soaking. You're gonna freeze.
You too.
Don't worry about me.
I don't-I don't want to be responsible
for hurting you or anybody ever again.
We got to walk east and then
we'll eventually hit the road.
We can flag someone down and call 911.
Yeah, um
We'll rescue ourselves,
and then we'll let your dad
yell at us both.
Well, let's go.
Bode's record at Three Rock
is a gripping read.
Well, fire camp's not the academy.
No. It's stricter.
Or it's supposed to be.
Bode wandered out and met
someone on an open road.
He assaulted a firefighter.
Did Jake tell you that?
Lucky guess.
I thought you were on our side.
I am,
but I can't help if I don't
have the whole truth.
So, tell me.
You had plenty of opportunities
to send Bode packing. Why didn't you?
Manny, I'm sick.
Because he's a damn good firefighter.
But he's also reckless.
That doesn't explain why you kept him.
And if I'm asking,
so will the victim's lawyers.
I think I need a minute.
You and Manny
need to get your stories straight
or that woman is gonna eat you alive.
I know her. She's a human lie detector.
Manny won't listen to me.
Just like he wouldn't
listen to me out there.
Hey, lower your voice.
Hey, Sharon.
- Can I talk to you real quick?
- Of course.
- You can't tell her anything.
- I'm gonna tell her.
- What?
- What?
She can't know what you did.
I think she'll understand.
No, she won't. No one will.
We're firefighters.
Sharon, Bode put us all in
a very difficult position here.
- You think Bode's the problem?
- That's not what I'm
You know that I'm grateful that
you took a chance on me, right?
You have a strange way of showing it.
Sharon, that's how you're
gonna come at me right now?
Because it was my gratitude
that kept him here in the first place.
And I shouldn't have done that,
but I did it because you asked me to,
and you shouldn't have done that.
Don't make it worse for us.
I got to-I got to te
- I got to tell the truth.
- No, Manny,
you are gonna give her the
sword to stab you with.
I have to.
Are you cold?
A little.
It's only gonna get worse
now that it's getting dark.
We could huddle together
for some body heat.
Do you hear that?
Sounds like a baby.
It can't be.
It could be coyotes.
Hey, someone out there?
Oh, thank God.
Please help me.
I can't move very well, and
I think my leg might be broken.
What are you even doing here?
I was hiking.
In heels?
Those facial lacerations
That must have been some fall.
Yeah.
You're the driver from
the car wreck on the bridge.
You're the hit-and-run driver?
You're the reason we're even out here.
I'm so sorry.
The turn was so sharp
I lost control of the car.
I didn't mean to hurt anyone.
That turn is too sharp,
but you were also speeding.
I know. I'm sorry.
And you ran from the scene.
This month, I had to pick
between rent money
and car insurance. I picked rent.
I thought, if I stay, I go to prison.
I was scared to see
what damage I caused.
Did I kill anyone?
We got everyone out alive.
Oh, thank God.
What's your name?
Meg.
You'll still help me, right?
I can't walk on my own.
I'm so sorry.
I'm Bode, this is Gabriela,
and of course we'll help you.
Thank you.
Some people see you as a hall monitor,
but I know better.
You're one of us.
No wonder everyone loves you.
This department, this town.
A lot of people would be
willing to do you favors.
And sometimes you let them, right?
Is that what Manny told you
That he offered?
Oh, that's very nice
but that's not true.
I asked him to keep Bode at Three Rock.
And because you asked him
Captain Perez chose to ignore the fact
that your son's broken multiple rules?
I saw a chance
to keep my incarcerated son,
my only living child, close to home,
so I asked an old friend for a favor.
Does he often bend the rules like that?
Like going over a bridge
to save someone's life?
Way more often than I would
like, but that's who Bode is.
I'm talking about Captain Perez.
Does he have a habit
of circumventing protocol?
You think they could
pin this whole thing on Manny?
Tell me what happened out there
and I'll answer that question.
Sharon, Swift Water Rescue is back.
No sign of them, still?
Swift found Bode's shirt washed up.
Is there an implication here?
We have to consider the
possibility that they drowned.
Is there any other implication here?
Your son's an inmate.
He could be using this
as an opportunity
Oh, I dare you to finish that sentence.
If they somehow made it
out of the water,
they've been walking around
in the cold, soaking wet.
We're likely looking at two hypothermic,
disoriented, injured persons.
And in this weather
I don't know how they
make it through the night.
Because we are professional
search and rescuers.
So, we search and then we rescue them.
Hey, Chief.
Search perimeter's too far out.
We don't have the manpower.
Perimeter's not the problem.
Those rapids were
challenging even for our Zodiac.
You know what, bro, my daughter
didn't swim in the Olympics
just so she could drown in Edgewater.
She's out here somewhere.
With my son, and
we're going to find them.
Right?
I'm requesting volunteer fire
department for extra eyes.
And I'm calling in the K-9, too.
All right, Meg, we're gonna
stabilize your leg
with a makeshift splint, okay?
- It'll get us moving.
- Mm-hmm.
I keep hearing animals.
Lot of wildlife out here.
This is karma.
I'm a horrible person who fled a scene
and I'm gonna die out here in the dirt.
Well, look,
I'm an expert on self-punishment.
Okay? I get it.
Right now, we just
we got to keep working.
Deep breath, okay?
Okay.
You could go
get some help while
I stay here with Meg.
No, I'm-I'm not leaving you.
- Either of you.
- He's right.
You two save people.
The world's not losing
a firefighter 'cause of me.
Least I can do is limp through this.
Listen, we need to-we
need to start moving faster.
Can't have anybody getting hypothermia.
That's a good call.
We could keep each other talking,
uh, stay alert.
So, you're a firefighting couple?
You two have a baby, it would
be like having the baby Jesus.
It's, uh, it's not like that.
We're-we're friends.
You jumped in the river
for "just friends"?
Not quite.
Friends talk, even if it was
just on the phone.
We just see each other at work.
I think what Bode's trying to say
is that we're coworkers.
Ready? Let's go.
Good? I'll help you up. Hold on.
- Okay.
- That's it, right?
- Mm-hmm.
- Two
Three.
Ooh!
- Ready?
- Mm-hmm.
- Gabriela!
- Bode!
Gabriela!
We've only covered
20% of the grid, Chief.
We need more people searching.
Yo, Cap!
We're here.
I took the crew back to camp,
like you asked me to, but
We heard about the search for Bode.
And if Cap's looking for his daughter,
then we're looking, too.
Thank you, firefighters.
- Let's go.
- Gabriela!
Gabriela!
- Bode!
- Bode!
Aah!
- Are we lost?
- No.
- Oh, no.
- Bode, are you okay?
This is a bad idea. We should
just wait for the rescue team.
We'll freeze to death.
Leave me behind. I'm slowing you down.
This is all my fault.
Just help me light a fire
to keep the animals away,
and then go get help.
We shouldn't split up,
but stopping to light a fire
is a good idea.
If we stop, we'll die.
You're hypothermic.
You're not thinking clearly.
It's not hypothermia.
Shivering? Check. Stumbling? Check.
Confusion
No, listen, we-we just, we got to keep
going uphill, okay?
I can't see the stars right now to tell
which way is north.
All right, guys,
everyone closer together.
Keep an eye on the person next to you.
Bode!
Gabriella!
Chief, I'm pulling my unit. Shift's up.
Wait, no. You can't do that, man.
The dogs are tired.
It's only gonna get worse.
The heavy rain
is gonna suppress the scent
and the strong winds won't help either.
Our crews need a break, too.
So, what, we're just gonna give up?
No, I'm not giving up.
I'm not resting until I find my kid,
but we can't ask our crews
to do the same, okay,
it's been too many hours.
Yeah, too many hours,
which means that Bode
and Gabriela are already
out of time, Chief.
We need to find them.
Or we got to make them find us.
Freddy, come here.
Yes, sir.
Turn around.
Manny, what are you doing?
Cal Fire They got a prescribed burn
scheduled for just a mile from here
tomorrow. I'm gonna start it early.
- No.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- We starting a fire out here?
- That's right.
Hey, good idea. Bode's
rubbing off on you, Cap.
No, no! We are not doing that.
The burn's already permitted, Chief.
But we're not the ones
permitted to do it.
We got no resources, no backups.
That fire gets out of control,
we got no way to stop it, Manny.
The road's just right there, man.
It's gonna act as a natural line.
Come on, Vince, it's the only
way our kids are gonna be able
to know how to find us.
Screw this. Three Rock, who's with me?
- Hell yeah, I am.
- Let's do it.
Chief, what are we doing?
All right, let
- Manny. Manny.
- What? What?
You want to do this,
I'm not gonna try and stop you.
But I can't get my crew involved.
Understood.
But plan on thanking me later.
- Grab your tools, guys, let's go.
- Let's go.
Captain Perez is a good man.
He runs into those flames
when every other
living thing is running out.
And he built a really loyal crew,
so don't even think about trying to get
one of his guys to flip.
I'm not trying to flip anybody.
He's as devoted a captain
and a firefighter
as he is a father.
Captain Perez made many
exceptions for your child. And
if he would do that for
someone else's kid
how far would he go for his own?
Oh, my God!
Something hurts worse. I'm so sorry.
I have to stop.
Here. Okay?
Slow. Slow. Go slow.
Is the swelling normal?
Uh, a little, but, uh, this much, no.
I can't get a distal pulse.
Meg, can you feel this?
All I feel is pain.
Skin looks really pale.
Paleness paleness is
paleness is a sign,
along with pain and pulse.
There's five of them, and I
I They all start with a P,
but I can't
I can't remember the other two.
Hey, hey, what's wrong?
What does she need?
I'm a probie.
I barely have any medical training.
I have no idea
what I'm talking about, Bode.
Doesn't sound that way to me.
Yeah, because I've-I've read up,
I've watched tutorials.
I know the theory.
- I
- Tell me the theory.
It's-it's compartment syndrome.
With bone fractures,
tissues from the bone
seep into the blood, cau
causing so much swelling that
it cuts off the circulation.
If it's not treated,
she could lose a leg.
Or even worse, she could die.
She needs help right now,
and I-I can't
Hey, hey. It's just a theory.
How is it treated?
A fasciotomy.
You cut into the leg
and relieve the pressure.
But that needs to be done
in a hospital by a doctor.
Can it wait?
In theory?
No. No, it can't wait.
And then she said
she was gonna call another witness.
Who is it?
She's gonna find out, Sharon.
And my career's over.
I mean, how the hell
do I explain starting a fire?
Am I gonna go back to jail, Chief?
Okay, Manny, she's on our side.
She's trying to contain a lawsuit.
Sharon
you've been in administration too long.
Should have just kept my stupid
mouth shut like you told me to.
Okay, what if this other witness
is some other angle?
What if this witness is
Exactly who she needs to nail me.
This was supposed
to be a controlled burn.
It's spinning out fast.
The fire's jumped. Freddy, over here.
Jump in on this, here, come on.
Shovels over here!
Go, go, go, go, go!
Hey, stomp that out.
Cap, these hand tools
are not enough. We need water.
That's good, crew.
You're out of your damn mind, Manny.
This is out of control.
But I can't let you hang for it.
Watch out.
Hey, hey, spot fire.
Watch out, watch out.
Starting to regret
volunteering for this.
You volunteered?
What can I say? I like Bode too much.
Hey, well, I know the feeling.
Yeah, but I didn't also think that
we were searching for my competition.
Cap's daughter?
I mean, anyone can see they've
got eyes for each other.
Uh
that's my girlfriend.
I Shoot, I'm sorry. I
I didn't realize, and
I'm probably wrong, so
Well, let's hope so.
For both our sake.
Okay.
I can disinfect the eyebrow
razor with hand sanitizer.
Clean the skin before you cut
so it doesn't get infected.
Okay.
Ready?
Uh-huh.
You got this.
Okay.
Ah, that feels better,
which is crazy 'cause you just
sliced my leg open.
Her distal pulse is back. It worked.
That was incredible.
You smell that?
Smell what?
Gab.
That fire's probably only a mile away.
Oh. I've never been
so happy to see smoke.
That's our North Star.
Where there's smoke, there's Cal Fire.
We can get there by morning. Let's go.
On this search and rescue, you operated
under Captain Perez's
leadership, correct?
Yes.
Then you saw him light the fire.
I have nothing but good things to say
about the way Captain Perez
conducted himself that night,
and in general.
And if you don't mind,
that's all I'm gonna say
without a lawyer present.
Because I don't want this to go
the way these things go.
These things?
I'm in prison for something I didn't do.
I know how this goes down.
How does this go down?
You stand there and ask me questions
in just the right way
to make me say something
I don't want to say
and trick me into confirming
whatever theory
you got going on.
And suddenly I'm under
a bus I never saw coming.
Or someone else is.
I don't want to trick you, Freddy.
I want to know what happened that night.
Next you're gonna tell me
you're on my side.
I am on your side.
And what I think I'm hearing you say
is that while you were
combing through the grid
that had been set up as part of
the search and rescue operation,
you spotted a fire in the woods
that started spontaneously.
With the storm, it would make sense.
Lightning struck
and started a brush fire.
Thank goodness you were all nearby
and could get it under control quickly.
So, tell me, what happened?
- We made it through the night.
- We're almost there.
Are those sirens?
You'll be punished, but I promise,
what you're doing to yourself inside
is way worse, trust me.
Gab! Here, stop.
Hey, hey, you okay? You okay?
Hey, talk to me. Talk to me.
Talk to me. What's wrong? What's wrong?
Gab.
She's unconscious
and she's barely breathing.
I can't lose her!
Leave me. Take her.
Af-After everything you've done for me,
it's the least I can do.
I'll-I'll come back for you. Okay.
I had to make a choice.
I don't know if it was the right one.
I don't know either.
All I could think
of was saving Gabriela.
I couldn't see anything else.
I got her. I got her.
What's wrong with her?
I don't know. I don't
know. She was fine.
She she was coughing some,
but she was able to walk,
and then she just
she just started wheezing.
Sounds like secondary drowning.
There's water in her lungs
because she jumped off that damn bridge.
Tell the paramedics
they need to have O2 ready.
Her pulse is racing.
There's still-there's still
another injured civilian
- that's down there.
- Civilian?
The hit-and-run driver. Eve.
- Arthur, come on.
- All right, yeah.
She was in-she was in
better shape than Gabriela,
so I grabbed Gabriela
and I started I just started running.
We tried to fix her broken leg
and her compartment syndrome
- as best that we could.
- Okay, okay.
You have to save her.
Somebody get me a warming blanket.
Gabs, listen to our voice. Come on.
Come on, open your eyes. Come on.
At the time, Gabriela had collapsed.
I didn't know what it was.
Meg was fine. She was up and,
and she was talking.
But as it turns out,
she was bleeding internally.
We had no way of knowing.
She was a traumatized civilian.
And you are an incarcerated firefighter
who made all the choices
that led to her death.
At least that's how
her parents' lawyers see it.
I am deeply sorry.
I liked Meg.
She made a mistake.
I did my best to try and give
her a long life to overcome it.
Okay, Donovan, back to camp.
Bode?
No, it's me, Jake.
You're gonna be okay, mija.
We're gonna get you to a hospital, okay?
- She awake?
- Yeah.
- If I don't make it
- You're g-you're gonna make it.
I'm gonna call
and check on you so many times
you'll be sick of me.
What a friend would do.
After speaking with all of you,
I have some recommendations.
Eve, I'm undoing your write-up.
I strongly recommend that
you climb the Cal Fire ladder.
You're an asset, firefighter.
Jake
despite your personal
entanglement with both
MIA firefighters,
you put your badge before your heart.
DC Leone,
I look forward to you returning to work.
The department will be stronger for it.
Battalion Chief Leone,
your leadership style
It deviates from the handbook,
but there's no bottling
this job in a handbook.
I get that.
Cap.
There's a narrative here
that you started
a prescribed fire early,
an incredibly reckless choice.
But there's another narrative
that suggests
lightning started a brush fire
that you put out.
That's what Freddy said.
Like I said, my goal is to protect you.
Protect us, Cal Fire.
So that's it, then? We're good?
If it were up to me, yes.
But I'm afraid
there are parents and lawyers
who won't rest until
someone goes down for this.
My recommendation is Bode.
- No! What?
- Oh, God.
He's an inmate who
directly treated the deceased civilian.
He-He's a small loss to the department
compared to any of you,
and from what I've gathered,
Bode's been on thin ice before.
I was the one.
It was me. Write that down.
Tell the parents to tell the lawyers
Chief
Bode covered for me
i-in saying that he treated Meg.
He rescued Meg.
I treated her.
So
truth is, her
Her death is my fault.
There's no evidence to support that.
Listen
I can lose my job.
That's okay. I'll-I'll figure it out.
But my son cannot go back to prison.
That will kill my wife.
I'm sorry. it's over.
Bode's done.
Uh, all right, can I just, um
Can I
Can I just ask for one favor?
No parent should have to
bury their child.
It's unnatural.
And it's cruel.
And I'm sure you're struggling right now
with why it happened to your family.
Happened to mine, too.
You lost a child?
Yeah.
My daughter.
When we first lost her,
I thought I could
punch my way through the pain.
But
just made everything worse.
If you're trying
to talk us out of this
Shh, Charles, just let him talk.
This lawsuit it-it doesn't just sue
a nameless, faceless organization.
It's got a-a person's
name attached to it,
and that-that name is
shaping up to be my son.
Um, he and I,
we rarely see eye to eye on anything,
but what he did out there
for your daughter, what
He did-he did everything right.
- He killed our daughter.
- No.
Meg succumbed to internal bleeding
after she walked away from the crash.
Please believe me, I'm not-I'm
not blaming your daughter,
but if you blame my son
Cal Fire loses
a very valuable firefighter.
And that could put somebody else's kid
at risk someday.
And worst of all, it's not
not gonna bring Meg back.
You got to grieve your daughter,
love each other.
Blaming the wrong person
That's-that's not gonna
make anything better.
I'll talk to the lawyers.
You want to tell me about her?
What was she like?
Hey.
Hey, how are you feeling?
So much better
being out of the hospital.
I missed you.
I came straight here.
I missed you, too.
But, um
are you sure you're feeling better?
Seriously.
I'm horrified
that we lost Meg
after all of that, and it's gonna
- take me a while to shake that.
- Yeah.
But physically, I'm good.
Okay.
Then we need to talk.
About?
You and Bode.