Mickey's Got Daddy Issues in a New 'Sheriff Country' Crossover -

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Fire Country Season 3 Episode 16.CBS would like to remind audiences that the Fire Country spinoff Sheriff Country is still in the works and will premiere next fall. That’s a long time to wait, so fans are reminded of Sheriff Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin) and the dysfunctional side of Sharon’s (Diane Farr) family in Friday’s episode. Mickey and Sharon set up a sister night to discuss how Sharon will deal with the firefighter case against the Oxalta chemical company, which they have proof poisoned the water at Three Rock. It takes a turn when the stepsisters are summoned to meet with Mick’s estranged dad, Wes (W. Earl Brown).

Mick and Wes have trouble seeing eye-to-eye as he’s an illegal weed grower, and Mick is the local sheriff. She can’t visit her dad without compromising her job, and she especially doesn’t want Wes around her addict daughter, who is on her second stint in rehab. Mick can’t stay away, though, when someone attempts to murder Wes via a rattlesnake planted in his toolbox. Bode (Max Thieriot) is right there to help her investigate, because it turns out the mysterious work he’d been doing is clearing brush for Wes on the weed farm. Even though Bode wasn’t doing anything illegal, being associated with the weed farm is a violation of his parole. Our boy is making great choices as always.

It’s Another Fraught Family Reunion in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 16

Bode’s bad decisions at least put him on Wes’ farm when the rattlesnake bites him. Whoever planted the snake also knew about Wes’ first aid kit and removed the anti-venom. Bode takes his step-grandfather down to Station 42 to get the anti-venom shot from Gabs. Vince (Billy Burke) is there to tell Wes to go to the hospital instead, which starts a standoff. Mickey arrives shortly afterward, gives Wes the shot herself, and tells him to listen to Vince and go to the hospital for follow-up treatment.

Wes suggests that a man named Mojave (Nick Gomez) was the one to plant the snake. Mickey and Bode go to talk to the suspect, but when Mojave accuses Wes of being a snitch, Mickey realizes her dad has pulled a fast one on them, naming Mojave to distract her and Bode so that he can ditch the hospital and go after the real suspect by himself. The real culprit is Ozzy, Wes’s right-hand man, who came after his boss after Wes declared that he wanted to leave the illegal farm to his granddaughter, Skye. Mickey and Bode figure it out on the way up the mountain and get there just as Wes and Ozzy are in a tussle. Ozzy throws Wes into the weed shipping container and shoots at the butane cannisters, which sets the entire thing ablaze. We can’t have a real crossover without some fire action!

The team arrives promptly and gets the fire under control. Mickey and Jake (Jordan Calloway) make it up the mountain to find Ozzy and escape the flames after a miraculous water drop. It is a mostly successful day — until Mickey goes to visit her dad in the hospital and begs him to make his business legitimate so they can have a relationship. He says he’s too old to change, which breaks her heart.

Sharon Brokers a Deal in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 16

Diane Farr and Kevin Alejandro in Fire Country Season 3 Episode 16 — Image via CBS

The Oxalta case is already causing drama. Eve (Jules Latimer) has not warmed up to Violet (Nesta Cooper) after hearing she’s general counsel for Oxalta. So, Jake is stuck playing middleman between his best friend and his girlfriend (yep, it’s official!). Things don’t get less tense when Sharon arranges for Manny (Kevin Alejandro) to meet with Violet and the Oxalta spokesman.

Manny gives a moving statement, and then Oxalta argues that he and Birch were the ones to get seriously injured because they struggle with alcohol addiction. Gasoline is added to the metaphorical fire when Violet reveals she knows about the crack in the Three Rock well, which Eve had let slip when they were eating breakfast in Jake’s kitchen earlier that morning. That knowledge allows Oxalta to blame Three Rock and the Department of Corrections for not having an up-to-code water system, rather than Oxalta taking accountability for dumping the pesticides.

Max Thieriot as Bode Leone in the middle of a fire on the poster for 'Fire Country' Season 3.

“The Scope of Those Sequences Is Pretty Massive”: Max Thieriot Teases the ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Finale

The two-hour finale airs this month.

It turned out that Violet is a real one, though. After the well crack debacle, she returns to Three Rock and conveniently leaves her phone on the table so that Eve can take a look at Oxalta’s internal testing. Violet’s feelings for Jake are so strong that she’s willing to jeopardize her very well-paying new job to make things right. This is a girl we can definitely support. The report tells Eve, and thus Sharon, that this isn’t the first time Oxalta has been implicated in water poisoning. A Nashville plant also dumped chemicals that led to the deaths of four people in a nearby housing project. Sharon is able to use that and the most recent well water testing figures to convince Oxalta to return to the negotiating table.

Regardless of whether Oxalta takes responsibility for the toxic water, it’s not safe for the Three Rock inmates to remain on the property until the wells are sealed and the water is deemed safe. That means going back to prison. Manny is supposed to join them, but Sharon is able to negotiate for Oxalta to fix the wells at Three Rock and get the Department of Corrections to release Manny after he signs an NDA that promises he won’t sue. Gabs is over the moon about the development, but Bode rides straight over to Vince and Sharon’s on his high horse to chew out his mom for silencing the inmates. He believes their silence will allow Oxalta to poison more people in a different town, and Sharon is nothing but an enabler. Yikes!

Vince and Bode Have It Out in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 16

Jordan Calloway in Fire Country Season 3 Episode 16 — Image via CBS

When Bode arrived at Station 42 with Wes earlier in the episode, Vince gruffly told him that the station would be his someday as long as he stayed out of trouble. It was meant to be a warning to his wayward son, but Jake heard it as Vince confirming that Jake would never get to take command of the station where he grew up. He later vents about the unfairness of the situation to Gabs, at work, where Vince is also employed. Then he’s shocked when Vince overhears his tirade.

When the two have a chance to cool down, they’re able to have a more reasonable conversation, if not a more satisfying one. Jake lays his cards out on the table and explains that he had no beef with Bode, but he can’t sit around the station if there’s an invisible ceiling over his career. He wants Vince’s job, eventually. Vince doesn’t give Jake the assurance he’s looking for, which leaves Jake’s position at 42 in question.

We Need To Talk About Finn in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 16

Gabs gives Manny her phone when he’s set to leave Three Rock so that they can stay in contact, so it’s Manny who picks up when Finn (Blake Lee) calls to ask Gabs on another date. Finn has been very sweet and attentive so far, but then he shows up at 42 with a brand-new phone for Gabs. She’s hesitant about wanting to take it, and I screamed at my TV that our baby girl needed to follow her instincts! You have been on one date with this man. It is indeed very weird that he just went out and bought you a phone! He’s also made a lot of surprise visits to the fire station.

It seems like a sweet excuse to see Gabs at first, but are Finn’s visits a sign of something more sinister? This phone situation reminded me that Gabs and Finn first met because he was trying to break into his hoarder neighbor’s house. Gabs has been through so much this season, and she deserves a chill, nice guy to help her detox from Bode. However, something doesn’t feel right about Finn in this episode — and we should prepare ourselves that Fire Country is going to break our hearts with this one.

Fire Country continues Fridays at 9 PM on CBS. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Paramount+.