Episode 17 of “Fire Country” showed Jake being wrongfully accused of arson. It was Alex Shawcross who was pretending to be Colin O’Reilly, son of Kal Fire legend Kevin O’Reilly. How Jake was treated by his unit has hurt him to the core, and it will take time before he forgives them all. “Fire Country” Episode 18 shows Station 42 handling a train wreck situation while coping with their own personal struggles.
Spoilers Ahead
Good Followed By Bad
Bode gets his letter of parole. The hearing will take place in 60 days. Manny gets a job offer from the beautiful Faye Stone, founder and CEO of Nozzle Fire Suppression, a private fire company, but he declines it. Faye, who is quite enticing, tells Manny to think about it.
It is nighttime. Bode is at Three Rock when he calls and tells Sharon about his parole hearing. Everyone at station 42 is very happy, but Bode doesn’t want to get their hopes up. That’s when Jake’s mom, Dr. Lilly Crawford, arrives at the station and asks Sharon why she wasn’t contacted while her son was going through all that. Gabriela takes the phone from Sharon and walks away. So do Jake and the others who know better than to try to intervene when the ladies are talking. As Bode speaks to Gabriela, he hears a loud screeching sound followed by something crashing. But Bode knows that it isn’t just any crash. It’s a train crash. He disconnects the call.
The Massacre
Three Rock and Station 42 arrive on the scene. It is a massacre. The train hit a bus that had a bunch of prom kids. The driver is dead, and the kids inside the bus, which is now lying beside the railroad tracks, are seriously wounded. Bode and Freddy break the windshield of the bus that lies sideways. Vince enters and finds the kids in a bloodied state. One of the teenagers, a boy named Raphael, has a metal rod that has pierced through his torso. It’s like a scene from a Final Destination film.
While Vince, Jake, and Eve try to find a way to free the boy as much as possible to be able to carry him to the hospital ASAP, Gabriela and Bode, along with other paramedics, tend to the girls that are hurt and bleeding badly. Sharon and Jake’s mom are inside the engine tending to the pilot, who tells them that there’s questionable cargo that his boss pays him to transfer without asking questions. Upon opening one of the carriages, they find, to their utter fear, that the cargo is aviation fuel tanks. One small spark and the whole train will go up in flames, not to mention the bus that still has the kids inside, all the firefighters and paramedics, as well as the emergency vehicles. The fuel is a ticking time bomb.
Airlift
The only way to prevent a potential disaster is to airlift the fuel tanks and get them as far away as possible to be disposed of. The rescued kids will be taken to Three Rock Camp. The regular Cal Fire choppers aren’t equipped with nighttime capabilities, so Manny calls in a favor from Faye. The kids are shifted, and Lilly notifies Sharon that they are all stable. This is when Sharon tells Lilly that it was because Jake went to Drake County that everyone doubted him. Lilly is surprised that Jake went there. Back inside the bus, Raphael is fading. He has lost too much blood. Eve decides to use the electric saw to cut the rods, thereby going against Vince’s orders as sparks could ignite the fuel that’s leaking. And that’s exactly what happens, even though they get Raphael out. The sparks from the saw have ignited the fuel, and the fire is now moving toward the train.
‘Fire Country’ Episode 18: Ending Explained – Do Station 42 And Three Rock Prevent The Explosion?
The chopper arrives, and Manny risks his life connecting the fuel tanks to the chopper’s cable and not letting Bode help him. If he is unable to connect the tanks with the cable before the fire reaches the carriage, he will be in pieces. He knows that, and that’s why he pushes Bode out of the carriage because he wants him to live his life with his family and take care of Gabriela. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen. He connects the tanks with the cable successfully and gets off the carriage before the fire can get to him. The chopper carries the tanks away. Everyone is safe.
The next day, Lilly speaks to his son Jake about him going to Drake County. Jake reveals that he found out about it after he overheard his father, who was on the phone. Lilly tells him that she and his father were going to separate, and they had decided to tell him about it, but his father suddenly passed away. She didn’t know what to tell Jake or how, so she didn’t. Lilly and the woman who mothered Jake’s stepbrother had known each other, and they decided to keep the whole thing a secret from their kids.
Faye meets Manny at his office and asks if he has reconsidered her offer. Manny hasn’t changed his mind about the job, but he has considered it. They end up kissing and making out in his office.
Bode and Freddy are at Three Rock. They open the bag that was handed to them by a guy who was traveling on the train with the cargo. It’s full of money. They decide to tell Manny about it when they meet him and hide the bag for the time being. That’s when Gabriela arrives. She wants to speak with Bode. Freddy smiles and walks away with the bag. Gabriela and Bode take a walk in the woods, and she tells him to be optimistic about the parole, after which they can be together and enjoy the togetherness that comes with cooking, drinking, and spending time with each other.
Vince tells Sharon that Eve hasn’t gotten over Rebecca’s death yet. It has taken a toll on her, and she believes that Rebecca’s death is her fault. She has been drinking a lot of late, and Vince thinks that it’s her way of forgetting her sorrow. They need to help Eve before it gets worse.
“Fire Country” Episode 18 ends on a somber note. Vince and Sharon are worried about Bode, Jake, and Eve. Bode is having second thoughts about his parole hearing. Jake has just found out that his mother and father were separating when his father passed away. Eve is struggling with Rebecca’s death. It seems that Station 42 is in dire need of a team meeting, Bode and Manny included. Will this happen? It needs to.
