S01.E17: A Cry for Help

[jewel21]

Quote

An internal investigator suspects Jake of being the serial arsonist setting recent fires, so Bode and the crew take it upon themselves to investigate.

Airdate: 03/31/23

[circumvent]

Adding to Bode's resumé: solver of mysteries nobody else can solve.

The man is so heroic, he should be the lead on "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once". That's his job description.

What an egotrip this actor is in! He probably wakes up saying "me, me, me, mine"

[psychfan]

Isn’t it a bad idea to make an entire crew of firefighters suspicious of each other? Don’t they need to rely on each other for their lives and all?

[Lady Calypso]

Well, no surprise there that Bode, Our Fire Lord and Saviour finds the arsonist. The only thing missing was him heroically tackling Probie to the ground and putting the cuffs on himself.

So, somehow, Probie poses as a veteran firefighter's son and...nobody questions it ever. And, apparently, the fire chief or whoever hires firefighters suck at their job, since they apparently never did a background check on this kid.

Totally obvious that it was Probie, as well. He shows up in the exact episode the arson plot is introduced. And of course he frames Jake and made it totally obvious. What a predictable ass plot. Most of us literally called it from that first episode. But I think I was hoping they wouldn't be this predictable.

I will say, though, this was the best episode for Jake. The first in seventeen episodes where he gets actual backstory that has nothing to do with Riley. It only took almost the entire season to give him something to do, even if it was at the expense of him being framed.

They did get me to feel for him, though. I really felt bad when essentially everyone thought he was the arsonist and didn't believe him in the slightest. Hell, we had Sharon calling him out publicly in front of everyone; yes, Jake brought it up first, but she definitely didn't have his back before or after. She made it super obvious she was suspecting him. She should have handled it better.

It wouldn't be an episode of Fire Country without one of Gabriella or Bode inserting personal drama in the middle of a fire. 

That being said, it WAS a decent episode, even with all the plot holes. I surprisingly did like the final scene with Jake and Bode, and I thought Jake's reasoning wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. 

[Danielg342]

I watch that final scene, where Jordan Calloway does an excellent job pulling at the heartstrings and creating a wonderful, warm and fuzzy bonding moment with Bode (which may launch a few ships, intentional or unintentional) and I can only think of one thing.

"What is wrong with this show"?

Seriously, if the writers put in at least half the effort the actors do in creating one of the few TV environments where the cast have actual camaraderie with a believable and wonderful close-knit bond, they might actually have a show that is a joy to watch, not one that, at best, merely holds your attention if you happen to chance upon it when it's on.

I could go on all day about how silly the show's idea of an investigation was. How predictable that Collin O'Reilly- sorry, Alex Showcross- was shown to be the true arsonist, and how it contributed to the fake drama of Jake not being believed when he says he's not the serial arsonist.

...but then I see how much Bode's bond with Jake drove him to find the truth, and how much the truth provided a gut punch once Jake realized that his bond with Collin Alex proved to be a lie.

Oh, what this show could be.

Truth is, if the show just realized that if they let their characters drive the stories, take what they produce and build more stories from there, this could be a marvelous show.

Instead, they get stuck on contriving too many storylines, because these writers are obsessed with making sure their stories go the way they "want" to instead of just letting the stories grow organically and naturally.

There are some great actors on this show and pretty much all the characters at least have a base upon which they can be developed in interesting and engaging ways. This could be a bellwether personal drama if the writers just realize what they actually have before them instead of trying to twist what they have into things that they are not.

Like the old sporting cliche goes, "take what you are given, don't force what you are not". If the writers ever learn that, they could make a truly special show. Until they do, all they'll have is a show that merely just fills the time and nothing more.

[possibilities]

Can you drink alcohol when you're in dire need of a kidney?

[buckboard]

Jake thinks that nobody supports him, but he's hiding why he was in Drake County.  The Chief investigating the arson knows he set his house on fire as a kid -- which, BTW, came from the probie, not Sharon or her husband. There is other evidence that it was Jake.  Give them a reason to have your back, kid.

Once again, the gang has personal conversations in the middle of fire calls.  Jake is called to a medical emergency, but first has to have a conversation about the arson.  Jake is trapped in a burning building, but Bode stops those in command positions from fighting the fire to explain how he figured out who the arsonist is.  Jake could have died, but at least Bode would have proved he wasn't the arsonist.

Great background check on the nugget.  His supposed father was this famous hero in Cal Fire, but no one knew him personally and they didn't know that he didn't have children?  They just took the probie's word and didn't look up his resume.

Edited April 1, 2023 by buckboard

[Dowel Jones]

5 hours ago, psychfan said:

Isn’t it a bad idea to make an entire crew of firefighters suspicious of each other?

That was so patently absurd, it was worth a laugh.  Investigators don't give up their info.  At all.  She's playing like she's Hercule Poirot in 'Arson in the Edgewood FD'.  

"How many people who live in Edgewood have Arizona plates?"  Oh, maybe anyone who doesn't want to pay the California registration costs.

Always a good idea to put a PTSD patient in a claustrophobic mask and leave him in the room by himself in a life threatening emergency.

By the way, unless the bullets are chambered in a weapon, they're really not that dangerous. The powder explodes, forcing the bullet down the chamber and out of the weapon, wherever it's pointed.  If there is no resistance, both the cartridge and the bullet travel in opposite directions to a (usually) short distance of ~3'.  The noise is loud and scary, but you get over it.  Unless the rifle is a semi-automatic style with a loaded magazine, only one bullet will cook off.  Which brings the question of why this camping lodge has a cabinet full of loaded rifles within easy access of any guest.

[Artsda]

What a shock it's the new guy who showed up when the arsonist did. That wasn't predictable at all. 

Bodie of course solved the mystery and framing of Jake. 

I felt bad for Jake but he did have evidence he was hiding like his alibi. 

[possibilities]

Sharon really had to investigate, and not just give a pass to everyone she liked. All she needed to do was say: "Jake, we see you were there when the fire happened-- I would never suspect you, but we need to establish your alibi so I can formally rule you out" and he could have just told her what he was doing. It was stupid of him not to, and it was stupid of her to assume the worst. 

Any competent investigator would have wanted to know what he was doing, and it's better to tell your friend who can help clear your name than wait for the cops to arrest you over it and have to tell them and hope they care enough to investigate enough to prove it.

[circumvent]

Gosh, this show is bad! I had to stop watching the episode, so boring it was. 

There is a structure fire, then a bunch of other fires so everyone needs to get involved. But the way Vince was directing the firefighters, so leisurely, it was as if they were all in a vacation camp. Then the woman comes running, their kids somewhere, they don't move a muscle to make sure they are ok, until the girl comes running. A firefighter goes inside the structure on fire, with magical bullets being magically fired, puts a mask on a kid and LEAVES! (patient? she called him patient. Is that what firefighters call the victims of a fire?). On top of that, the two women are just standing there, really close to the lodge, just watching. 

Then we see three or four firefighters just talking around a woman with a non-life threatening injury, Gabriela seems to be giving her a head massage instead of actually cleaning the wound or doing whatever a paramedic needs to do - she is a firefighter, not a paramedic - while the fire rages.

Bode spends his days sweeping the floor? I don't know how the inmates spend their days but I don't think it is believable that they just socialize in the main firehouse of the town. But of course, Bode needs to be everywhere because he needs to be there to solve problems. And to brood. Maybe he has a different brooding face for each place he goes to, I should have paid more attention to that. That actor needs a wake up call. He is not half as good as he thinks he is.

Sharon is terrible at her job. The actress is just as bad. During that scene on the beginning when the investigator call everyone in, there was a close up shot of Sharon's face. She was supposed to be angry/upset, I think. But she looked like a child pretending to be upset. I can imagine the director saying: Sharon (forget the actor's name), make an angry face. Good girl, you look soooooo angry!

It was pretty pathetic. 

And again, she cannot have a scene with Billy Burke without grabbing any part of him. I hope the pay is good because Billy Burke has absolutely nothing to do in this ridiculous show and he is way above the level of all those actors. I don't think he is phenomenal but in this crowd, he surely looks like it.

[Dowel Jones]

7 hours ago, circumvent said:

Bode spends his days sweeping the floor? I don't know how the inmates spend their days but I don't think it is believable that they just socialize in the main firehouse of the town.

Well, you know, when the female inmate you've been smashing with back at the inmate camp gets killed, there's just too many bad memories to stay in camp all day.  So let's all traipse over to the fire station where's there's more women around.

[possibilities]

8 hours ago, circumvent said:

Maybe he has a different brooding face for each place he goes to, I should have paid more attention to that.

LOL. I have been thinking that, for somebody who everybody loves and who solves all the world's problems like he was parked in their path just to do so, he never, ever smiles. The character acts like he's sleepwalking all the time.

[Lady Calypso]

13 hours ago, circumvent said:

I don't think he is phenomenal but in this crowd, he surely looks like it.

I mean, the actor has plenty of experience with elevating a shitty project. He had to act in five Twilight films, after all, and he was the only good one in those films (though, to be fair, I think every actor in the Twilight franchise was ok, but had shitty writing and directing so they all seemed to give up on actually trying early on). So he's had practice looking the best amongst bad acting.

13 hours ago, circumvent said:

Maybe he has a different brooding face for each place he goes to, I should have paid more attention to that. That actor needs a wake up call. He is not half as good as he thinks he is.

It's a shame, because Max Thieriot is phenomenal in Bates Motel, and he was a decent child actor, so I'm not really sure what's happened. I didn't watch Seal Team long enough to make an impression. And you'd think, this being his literal show, that he could do better. Maybe he's taken on too much and let his acting slip to the wayside.

[jabRI]

You cannot just show up to a firehouse and start working.  He didn't even have a valid drivers license, did he?   My son was a volunteer fire fighter in high school, and there was more of a background check!

 

And yeah, stop the personal conversations and wandering around in the middle of an actual emergency. For all its faults, at least 911 gets that right for the most part.

[FnkyChkn34]

This episode had a lot of faults, as already mentioned, but one thing that bothered me was when Jake said that no one supported him.  Umm... they all spent the entire episode trying to solve the mystery and prove that it was NOT him, rather than fight the fire.  How is that not supporting him?  He refused to talk about where he was and why, but everyone else proved his innocence for him.  I get that he was angry that he was accused in the first place, but he seemed a bit ungrateful that they all did go bat for him.

[Stevie Nicks]

On 4/1/2023 at 12:28 AM, Dowel Jones said:

 

"How many people who live in Edgewood have Arizona plates?"  Oh, maybe anyone who doesn't want to pay the California registration costs.

 

Once you establish California residency, aren't you required to register your vehicle in California? You can't live in California and legally have Arizona tags. 

The ammo in the guns wouldn't be a problem, but all the extra ammo they had for the hunting party that was coming was a problem as it cooked off. 

I like the way Jake dealt with the man with PTSD, helping him focus. 

When they got to the fire, it was daylight, next scene it was dark. Once the ammo stopped cooking off, they seemed pretty slow about getting the fire out. 

At the end, when they had the firebug in custody, I wanted Jake to go over and belt him one. 

Whoever is in charge of vetting or doing background checks on firefighters there needs to be fired. Nobody bothered to do any checks on the firebug?  Just take him at face value. Ugh. 

Sharon looks too healthy for someone in dire need of a kidney. I hate her hairstyle. Just looks sloppy. 

On 4/2/2023 at 5:42 PM, Lady Calypso said:

 

It's a shame, because Max Thieriot is phenomenal in Bates Motel, and he was a decent child actor, so I'm not really sure what's happened. I didn't watch Seal Team long enough to make an impression. And you'd think, this being his literal show, that he could do better. Maybe he's taken on too much and let his acting slip to the wayside.

I loved him on Bates Motel. He was phenomenal on Seal Team too. His character was killed (for no good reason, really) and it was so sad. His character was killed because Max was starting this show, bug they could have very easily let him live. It wouldn't have been hard at all. 

[mythoughtis]

On 4/2/2023 at 7:17 PM, FnkyChkn34 said:

This episode had a lot of faults, as already mentioned, but one thing that bothered me was when Jake said that no one supported him.  Umm... they all spent the entire episode trying to solve the mystery and prove that it was NOT him, rather than fight the fire.  How is that not supporting him?  He refused to talk about where he was and why, but everyone else proved his innocence for him.  I get that he was angry that he was accused in the first place, but he seemed a bit ungrateful that they all did go bat for him.

I believe that line referred to the scene in the firehouse when he was accused in front of the crew.   Sharon and Vince did suspect him.   Let’s face it - he did set a fire previously, and he was the only firefighter known to be  in Drake County.  Which was obviously untrue since Alex set the fire. In reality- I’ve quit assuming everyone I know to be innocent no matter what because I’ve been wrong about that.  You never really know anybody. 
 

However there was no  reason to accuse him in public without actual evidence.  Especially since they hadn’t run the fingerprints on the  physical evidence they had. 

Faulty hiring practices in Cal Fire.  Seems to me every new hire would be fingerprinted and have a background check just because of liability issues- firefighters are in people’s homes and around small children. 

[NJRadioGuy]

1 hour ago, Stevie Nicks said:

Once you establish California residency, aren't you required to register your vehicle in California? You can't live in California and legally have Arizona tags.

Considering he's a serial arsonist, I doubt the legality of his truck registration was high on his priorities list.

1 hour ago, Stevie Nicks said:

Once the ammo stopped cooking off, they seemed pretty slow about getting the fire out. 

The firefighting scenes were just horrible. Like every other damned firefighting show, they can't seem to grasp the fact that you need to use water when you can. Inside the PTSD man's room the CGI'd water stream on the CGI fire was just laughable. Fog pattern, move the nozzle around and that little amount of fire is out in under 10 seconds.

Probie struggling to throw at ladder solo was also ridiculous. Take any offered help when there's entrapment. Saving five seconds may save the victim's life.

Quote

At the end, when they had the firebug in custody, I wanted Jake to go over and belt him one. 

Jake would have been back in the big house right along with him.

[Dowel Jones]

1 hour ago, Stevie Nicks said:

Once you establish California residency, aren't you required to register your vehicle in California? You can't live in California and legally have Arizona tags. 

Yes, that's true.  Legally being the key word here.  It happens a lot, believe me.

 

1 hour ago, Stevie Nicks said:

The ammo in the guns wouldn't be a problem, but all the extra ammo they had for the hunting party that was coming was a problem as it cooked off. 

Really, it's just the opposite.  The loaded weapon will shoot that bullet somewhere, just as if someone would have pulled the trigger.  The stationary ammunition would just blow up in place.

Edited April 5, 2023 by Dowel Jones

[circumvent]

On 4/5/2023 at 9:36 AM, Stevie Nicks said:

Once you establish California residency, aren't you required to register your vehicle in California? You can't live in California and legally have Arizona tags. 

Maybe it varies by state but I know of people living for maybe a couple of years in one state with plates from another. I knew them well and I know they never had a legal issue with it. Even sold the car with the same plates. Maybe it is state incompetence

[circumvent]

Finished the episode. There so much wring packed in just this one episode, I really don't think I can keep watching the show. There is no silver lining, no weak string to hold it together for me anymore. I will probably watched the season but pretty sure will have lost interest when it comes back. Maybe if Sharon dies, then the acting is not so gritting. Don't think she will, though.

So, Jake sets a fire when he is 11 and nobody tells anyone. What are these people thinking? A child who plays with fire to the point to doing what he did needs therapy. Was it ever mentioned that he got that? Just pretending it was a "mistake" and hiding the truth is not a solution. Gee, people.

The production is also proving to be at the same level of the writing and acting - below surface. There is no standard. That fire was the worst fake fire ever, the way the fire progressed made no sense, Gabriela leaving a person inside a building on fire is negligence. The deductions Super Bode made about the arsonist's car is so OOT, it only makes sense in this show. Speaking of the super inmate detective emotional support to everyone, why can he just stroll around town without supervision? He is an inmate. I am pretty sure there is a little more surveillance than allowing him to have a one-to-one with his buddy, cry a little, brood some more. Students protesting gun violence are more surveilled than he is.

Jake being all hurt and dismayed about the why his secrets led people to be suspicious are also ridiculous. And his explanation for it all still does not justify his outrage. Just the "I didn't do it, period" is a child's response. If people suspect him, he comes clean because he is the one with secrets. But he was already redeemed when he had his therapy with the kid as the fire consumed the room and the building. Oh, and the mother and sister were just standing there, a few steps from the structure. WTF, show! The real Cal Fire should be outraged for this display of incompetence in their name.

One almost good thing: Eve telling Gabriela that not everything is about her. But I guess it went over her head and she didn't compute any of it. 

 

[possibilities]

The mom and sister being totally calm about the son/brother maybe burning to death was so creepy. I was certain they had been abusing him, locked him in the room as a form of torture, rather than that they actually were "merely" ignoring his self-induced trauma exile.

I am someone who has learned how to stay very calm in a crisis, but it doesn't mean you just stand around acting like nothing is at stake, either.

And all the ammunition they had, which was exploding from the heat. Ye Gods. That didn't phase them, either. Their house is burning down, their family member is trapped inside, multiple people are risking their lives for you, and your ammo is exploding everything, and you're not even breaking a sweat. They seemed like psychopaths, to me.