S02.E05: This Storm Will Pass

[DanaK]

Quote

The station 42 crew must protect Edgewater and take cover when an extremely rare and dangerous fire tornado leaves lives in peril, on FIRE COUNTRY, Friday, April 5 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+

 

[Just my 2 cents]

I called it last episode.  Tv has become so cliche.  I know no one is shocked by the ending.

Jake is the worst confidant ever.  He'll never have a job with top secret clearance.  Poor Cara.  It was kind of sad that she pretty much knew she was going to die from the beginning when she kept looking at her eyes and insisting she needed to get to the hospital.

It's interesting in the 1st season Jake was initially portrayed as someone that would break up with someone before it got serious.  Now he's the one that wants to commit and nothing is working out for him.

Edited April 6 by Just my 2 cents

[DanaK]

I enjoyed it overall

At least Vince and Sharon had their very important conversation while hiding under the truck from the fire tornado instead of having it standing in the open while the tornado was bearing down on them

[Danielg342]

That was an episode where...things happened. Was there ever a real attempt at piecing together a coherent, navigable storyline?

Oh, and nothing else says "this show is bereft of ideas" than by metaphorically shoving Cara into a giant refrigerator.

Nice, touching ending, but it's the wrong choice. Not that I would have liked any choice, but I think the show would have been far better off killing Diego and ending the nonsense about him and Gabriella because we all know that Gabby isn't ending up with him so why we now must waste further time with him and Gabby is beyond me.

At least Sharon and Vince had a nice moment under the fire truck and Eve is learning on the job. I'm not sure Freddy 2.0 is any more interesting now that I know why he's in jail but at least the show's rounding him out a bit.

Still, all in all, this was a fire tornado- a dumpster fire tornado, that is.

[mommalib]

So they have decided to break Jake's heart for the second time. Screw that they should have killed off Diego, that would have made more sense. Wouldn't have tugged at the heart strings the same but would have been preferable. 

[Artsda]

I knew it would be Cara and not Diego. This triangle has to go to the wedding. 

Poor Jake and that child already lost her parents then her aunt/mom and now left with still not knowing who dad is but thinks it's Bodie. 

Eve is the worst.  Cap needs to take back over the inmates

This firenado I kept expecting sharks to fall. Lol 

 

 

 

[Just my 2 cents]

41 minutes ago, Artsda said:

This firenado I kept expecting sharks to fall. Lol 

I kept thinking that this should be airing on the SyFy channel.  And I did think about seeing a few sharks mixed in with the firenado.

 

[Madding crowd]

The angst of Bodie continues! You know that the young girl will end up living with Vince and Sharon somehow. Vince is ok but Sharon is the most self-centered person on the planet. Why couldn’t they let Jake be happy? 

[possibilities]

I actually thought this one was better than this show's average. It was kind of leaning into the campiness of the situation (not the ambulance part but the fire tornado) and that helped me not get so worked up about the ridiculous aspects. 

I keep making the mistake of hoping they a really are course correcting things I don't like-- like maybe they would really end the triangle, and maybe they are really going to stop talking about personal drama instead of fighting a fire during an emergency, and maybe they are really going to make better use of the prisoner stories and also stop making Bode some sad sack/hero hybrid.

And they sort of did that with Freddy 2.0 and Eve, though in a very annoying way that undermined her character and propped up Manny's at her expense.

And they sort of did that with Vince and Sharon waiting to talk about their personal drama until after they took care of the kids (I don't know why the fire truck would be safe, though. Isn't that like an untethered trailer? Why wouldn't it be affected by the tornado? If it was nearly lifted off the road so that they couldn't drive it, why would it provide safety while NOT weighted down even with the weight of the passengers and just sitting there empty and parked?)

If I believed they really ended the triangle, I'd be happy about it, but I don't trust that they did.

But I still thought this episode was less irritating then most of the previous. This show clearly is not going to be my dream of a show, but I thought this was better than its average and clearly I'm still watching.

One thing they are fairly consistent about is showing the prisoners doing their jobs and not being Big Scary Monsters. Bode and both Freddies were essentially unjustly punished and stigmatized, and we don't know the stories of most of the others. We had the one Bad Seed who was disposed of in the previous arc that sent Bode back to prison and then back to fire camp. But they are not demonizing the convicts and actually are showing them to be at the least, hard workers and not scary, with the one exception. This is not a point they explicitly focus on most of the time, but having it in the background is a throughline that you can't fail to notice if you watch the show. I like that. I think it's a good thing.

They also don't make the women any less effective as firefighters or rescue personnel compared to the men. Sharon may be annoying, and her kidney issues absurdly misrepresented, but she is not bad at her job. Likewise, Gabriela may be written into a stupid triangle, but she is and always has been brave and a asset to the team even aas a trainee. And Cara, who they unceremoniously fridged to give Bode more heroics and Jake more angst, was also extremely professional even while dying. So I give the show points for that kind of thing, as well.

 

[Bulldog]

In an event where fire is swirling around in the air, is taking shelter under a giant box full of gasoline really the smartest play?

[NJRadioGuy]

On 4/5/2024 at 10:50 PM, DanaK said:

I enjoyed it overall

At least Vince and Sharon had their very important conversation while hiding under the truck from the fire tornado instead of having it standing in the open while the tornado was bearing down on them

That was pretty enjoyable. Vince and Sharon are the only reason I'm sticking with this glorified train wreck of a soap opera.

And in a nice nod to Twister, I love how they were all in a shed with dangling, swinging implements of potential impalement and destruction. At least they weren't saw blades and scythes, though, so there's that.

1 hour ago, Bulldog said:

In an event where fire is swirling around in the air, is taking shelter under a giant box full of gasoline really the smartest play?

In all fairness, the Engine is diesel powered and it's hard as hell to get that fuel to combust. Not impossible, but not exactly easy either. You can drop a lit match into a drum of diesel and the match will just go out.

[Dowel Jones]

What's more dangerous is the tunnel effect caused by airspace below the vehicle.  That could very easily suck fire and hot air from the fire tornado through the tunnel.

[possibilities]

Another board I frequent has a gritted teeth reaction. I would use that one but since we don't have it here, I gave the above post a fire emoji.

One of these days, they will play this song behind one of the more dramatic scenes:

https://genius.com/The-doors-light-my-fire-lyrics

I say the show is best when it leans into itself.

[christie]

I have one question: where were Cara's parents? We know that, until recently, Genevieve lived with her grandparents who she thought were her parents; we haven't heard anything about them dieing, so where were they? We know that Genevieve is going to go and live with Vince and Sharon 'cause her living with two strangers makes more sense than living with the couple who raised her (eyeroll). 

[Danielg342]

On 4/6/2024 at 1:34 PM, possibilities said:

They sort of did that with Freddy 2.0 and Eve, though in a very annoying way that undermined her character and propped up Manny's at her expense.

I think what they're doing with Eve's story is that the writers are going for a storyline of "Eve needs to learn to loosen up and be more of a people person than a stickler for the rules". It's not necessarily a bad storyline, but it's terribly one-sided.

I don't like the idea of Manny losing his job as Captain of Three Rock, but they did have a sound reason to do it- namely that things had become so uneven and so undisciplined at Three Rock that a change in leadership was necessary (the "drug ring", in this context, is more of an "icing on the cake" situation than a standalone reason for action).

In such a case, there's was an opportunity for the prisoners- especially Bode- to experience some character growth of their own. They could have learned, through Eve, the importance of teamwork and thus trusting each other on the job, since too many of them- especially Bode- "wild West"-ed things too much last season.

At the end, you'd have a storyline where Eve learns that getting worked up about Bode bringing a coffee into camp isn't worth it, but Bode also learns that when Eve tells you "stay on your line and don't run into the burning house", there's a good reason why she's making that order so Bode doesn't do it.

There might be those who'd argue that it would be "the end" of Bode's "heroism" but it need not be that way. It would just add another layer to it. Bode would still have his maverick tendencies, and Eve could recognize Bode's instincts are usually good. There could still be drama as he and Eve fight over when Bode's maverick instincts are appropriate, and neither would be shown to be "right" all the time.

Bode, too, would also have his own internal conflict over whether he should pursue the immediate or if he should pull back and think of his future ("one more time, Bode, and it's back to jail!").

Yeah, maybe this kind of storytelling requires a level of writing this show hasn't been capable of reaching, but I think they're truly missing an opportunity to give more characters depth by not pursuing this angle.

[possibilities]

Yep. They are making it all about how Eve is wrong and Manny is right, rather than that there is a happy medium. And Bode is also always right, and usually everyone or at least someone is wrong about him. 

Last season, Vince was wrong and Sharon was right. Then they flipped it and Sharon was wrong and Vince was right.

I wonder if anyone knows anything about the writers. Are they newbies? Or is this a network preference? 

I guess the ratings are good, so maybe it's a culture-wide preference.

[KeithJ]

I still don’t understand the whole thing with Eve and wanting to send the murderer back.  Does she even get a say as to who gets assigned to Three Rock?  I was always under the impression that inmates get assigned there by someone else.  Whoever assigned him there obviously knew his background.  Why is she making such a big deal about it and that she has to save Three Rock by getting rid of him?

[mythoughtis]

On 4/7/2024 at 11:10 PM, christie said:

I have one question: where were Cara's parents? We know that, until recently, Genevieve lived with her grandparents who she thought were her parents; we haven't heard anything about them dieing, so where were they? We know that Genevieve is going to go and live with Vince and Sharon 'cause her living with two strangers makes more sense than living with the couple who raised her (eyeroll). 

I believe they are deceased.   Cara came back last season to take care of her mom.  
 

[christie]

1 hour ago, mythoughtis said:

I believe they are deceased.   Cara came back last season to take care of her mom.  
 

Thanks. I really didn't remember.

P.S. I think you mean Cara came back to take care of her daughter.

[mythoughtis]

1 minute ago, christie said:

Thanks. I really didn't remember.

P.S. I think you mean Cara came back to take care of her daughter.

No she came back to take of her mom.  But once her mom died then she had to take care of her daughter. 

[christie]

23 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

No she came back to take of her mom.  But once her mom died then she had to take care of her daughter. 

Thank you, once again; I remember none of this.