S02.E07: A Hail Mary

[DanaK]

Quote

The future of Three Rock is in jeopardy as public opinion of the camp grows increasingly negative, on FIRE COUNTRY, Friday, April 26 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+

 

[possibilities]

I'm always down for people being mad at the electric companies.

I really like that they are focusing on the "inmate firefighter" issue more again. I also like that they stopped assassinating Eve's character and building Manny up at her expense. It balanced out with the reminder of Manny's imperfection and Eve's abilities in this episode.

I forgot that Luke was the Chief now. 

I wound up being okay with how things went with Gen. It's true that Bode is always glomming onto someone else to build himself up. I think he hasn't fully dealt with being blamed for his sister's death. And Cara only really "chose Bode" because she thought he was Gen's biodad. So having the kid go with Jake actually is the chosen family story after all.

No comment on Vince's trembling hand. It looked like a really bad burn he had, so having it heal overnight seemed a lot like Sharon's miraculous lack of kidney disease even when she needed a transplant desperately, and her total lack of issues after receiving one. 

The protesters, media, and generally fucked up nature of that entire situation was one of the more realistic things this show has done. Convenient that a crisis happened right then, to flip the script. I predict the locals now want to get 3 Rock re-opened, and will change the minds of TPTB.

What was Gabriella doing in the house while Jake and Gen were playing jenga? Why was Gab there instead of with her fiance? 

Edited April 27 by possibilities

[Danielg342]

I liked Jake telling Bode that Bode needs to learn that fighting for himself can be good enough, he need not always attach himself to someone else.

I also thought Alix West Lefler (Genevieve) did really well in this episode.

It was also great seeing Lochlyn Munro again and I appreciated that this episode didn't follow the usual story beat where people campaigning for the shutdown of the show-central institution see how good said institution is and the institution is saved.

No, even though Three Rock more than proved their worth to the community, they're still getting shut down. I don't know where the story goes from here and I don't know if it's the right choice, but the show made a move that took some guts, so credit to them.

...but...Billy Burke...

Sure, Fire Country may not always know the best about how to use him, but I'd have to say, it's a deal breaker if he leaves, especially if they write him out so cheaply. Burke and Diane Farr really centre and ground this show and give it its heart and soul, so the show should be wise to keep those two around because you can't replace actors like that.

Yeah, likely we'll get some more Hollywood health and Vince is going to wind up being just fine despite the scare, just like Sharon was with her kidney (remember that storyline?), but I'd appreciate it if the show gave Vince and Sharon more meaningful things to do other than cheap drama like the kidney and Vince's electric shock.

Just like S.W.A.T. before it, we've got three more episodes of Fire Country to go. Will Three Rock survive? Will Bode understand the meaning of life? Will we ever get competent writers on this show?

One thing's for sure though- if a tree falls in a forest, at least Station 42 will notice.

[Artsda]

Does Bodie know Gen isn't his?

The whole he'll look after her when he's out seemed out of nowhere.  I'm with Jake, what's with the rush to sign papers to make Vince and Sharon for guardian to a child they don't know who isn't Bodies. 

Jake being the guardian makes sense and perfect for her. 

Three Rock obviously not going anywhere. 

Good on Jake for calling Bodie out on choosing to live for everyone else.  

Hopefully Vince's tremors will be ok. 

 

[Dowel Jones]

Show of hands - how many were absolutely, positively, without a doubt sure that Bode would disobey orders and insert himself into a life and death situation to be the big rescue hero?  Everyone?  Okey dokey, then.

 

[possibilities]

I think everyone was in a hurry to make SOMEONE the legal guardian, and Cara asked Bode to promise her he'd take care of Gen, so everyone was just kind of rolling along that road.

Jake was stunned with grief and not sure what to do, whether he had a right to interfere, etc. Bode was doing his usual thing of hero/rescue. And Sharon and Vince got in over their heads, thinking they were doing the right thing and supporting everybody-- giving Jake time to grieve, taking care of family, following Cara's wishes, etc.

People were grief-addled and confused. 

I actually thought it was a pretty reasonable portrayal of one of the more normal types of post-tragedy confusion, and not even heightened all that much. I mean, people TALKED to each other! They TRIED to be supportive. They worked it out! It didn't even take ten trillion episodes to get there! And they are still all friends.

 

 

2 hours ago, Artsda said:

Does Bodie know Gen isn't his?

 

 

I think Sharon and Vince told Bode last episode that he isn't the biological father, and he said he wanted to be that for her anyway, that he promised Cara and ever since he found out about Gen he's thought of himself as her father and doesn't care that it's not genetic.

[Just my 2 cents]

16 hours ago, Danielg342 said:

Will we ever get competent writers on this show?

I don't think we have to wait until the end of the season for the answer to this one.  They gave us the answer to that the first season and have made it canon in most episodes since then.

By the way does anyone want to bet that when Jake finally decides to adopt Gen she will have taken a 23 and me or some other online genetic test linking her to her paternal family.  They will instantly be ecstatic to meet her and take her into their family?  This will end the Gen storyline for good well unless this show lasts several years.  They'll bring her back as a high school graduate that wants to be a paramedic or a firefighter.

Edited April 27 by Just my 2 cents

[mommalib]

2 hours ago, Just my 2 cents said:

I don't think we have to wait until the end of the season for the answer to this one.  They gave us the answer to that the first season and have made it canon in most episodes since then.

By the way does anyone want to bet that when Jake finally decides to adopt Gen she will have taken a 23 and me or some other online genetic test linking her to her paternal family.  They will instantly be ecstatic to meet her and take her into their family?  This will end the Gen storyline for good well unless this show lasts several years.  They'll bring her back as a high school graduate that wants to be a paramedic or a firefighter.

I'm thinking something like that might happen to, which means more heartbreak for Jake because she really wants to be there for her and she did choose him. 

[mythoughtis]

I‘m not sure Vince’s shaking hand has anything to do with the electrocution.  Gabriella asked him how long it had been going on. 
 

The storyline about Bode taking on Jen wasn’t realistic anyway.  She’s not his biologically, he’s in prison and she doesn’t know him.   Cara only asked him because she thought Jen was his.  Jake makes more sense.  I’m sure Bode will spiral though because that’s what he does.  
 

Why was Luke at the Firehouse and not at the hospital with Sharon? Vince is 1) his brother and 2) under his command. 
 

 

Edited April 28 by mythoughtis

[sweetandsour]

MVP of the episode is Jake and is frankly always Jake.

At least the producers/writers knew enough to stop Bode's "me-me-me"-ism poorly disguised as "heroism" short of insisting he should be Gen's guardian.  She is a kid, she has her own life to live other than being the primary motivation for a man she.  Does.  Not.  Know.

It's felt a little weird this year seeing constant reminders that these non-CW shows also shoot in Vancouver.  Canadian actors who used to populate the slate of CW shows seem to be showing up elsewhere now all the time.  Good for the actors that they keep getting work, but it's a sad reminder for me of the CW basically come and gone.

[NJRadioGuy]

What got me was the whole powerline garbage. First off, a downed primary is a priority one call for every utility. One simply doesn't fuck with ~14kV and live to tell the tale. Also, shutting those lines off is not something that would be done from a central office. They'd have to roll a truck and pull the cutouts from an upstream pole. Each primary line has a cutout, usually coupled to a lightning arrestor and often with a fuse in the door, that is opened to do work on a primary line or to isolate a segment in case this very type of thing happens.

Even dumber is the lines being re-energized without a supervisory level employee verifying in person that the scene is safe; again, for precisely the reason of what happened. Yes, there are automatic reclosers but those are for momentary faults, etc. (i.e. why you'll lose electricity very briefly but it comes back right away--think a squirrel that gets fried touching two phases, etc).

Frankly I'd be somewhat surprised if fire crews didn't have hot sticks to lift the lines (carefully) and training in their use. I've been dealing with local utility workers on powerline arcing issues for the last six months and the professionalism they display on every job site is beyond awesome. How they portrayed them here is frankly disgusting to me.

As for the Genevieve draaaaaahma, I didn't hate how it went, and I also didn't hate the Three Rock story. That part was very watchable, and for TV drama storylines, I've seen far worse. I'm guessing the "camp closure" plot point was in case the show didn't get renewed, and they'd have had two episodes to tie the ribbons on the various characters' arcs.

But with the renewal, I think they have to move beyond Inmate Bode to ex-con Bode and the beginning of his slow journey to Captain Bode (and what I think is the inevitable killing off of Manny). 

They've said that acts of heroism can knock 12 months off a sentence. Bode had, what, three years left out of a five year bit, but has done so many crazy rescues he should have been paroled sometime around the fourth episode of the first season. Time to move the plot forward at the conclusion of this season.

[Dowel Jones]

1 hour ago, NJRadioGuy said:

How they portrayed them here is frankly disgusting to me.

Why should they be exempt from the writers' ignorance?

 

1 hour ago, NJRadioGuy said:

...the beginning of his slow journey to Captain Bode...

You mean three episodes?

[possibilities]

I think there is a lot of anger at the utilities in CA  because of the way their lines sparked forest fires due to negligence. So, I'm fine with them portraying the company as incompetent, apathetic, and full of shit.

Likewise, locally (rural parts of Massachusetts) they were so bad at maintaining the lines that we had massive prolonged outages here routinely (a week at a time) as well as constant short ones (a day long, with no weather events at all) to the extent that finally the state threatened them with giant fines and voila! Now we still have the outages but they fix them faster.

I sat and watched out my window one time, when a dozen workers were standing around with two trucks for several hours doing nothing, until finally a supervisor showed up and suddenly they "pushed the button" and our neighborhood got its power restored.

Some places might be better than others, but I don't think the companies are an unfair target for how this episode portrayed them, even if the details were absurd. 

[jabRI]

Can somoene explain why Bode is still in prison? we was in, out, went back to cover somebody, that was exposed...

[NJRadioGuy]

34 minutes ago, possibilities said:

Some places might be better than others, but I don't think the companies are an unfair target for how this episode portrayed them, even if the details were absurd. 

At least here in NJ, I was told that a lineman cannot get within either three or five feet of a 13.2kV primary without supervision present. Every piece of safety gear is tested daily (gloves, boots, insulated devices, etc) and processes around voltages north of 240VAC (which they call "low voltage") is very slow and very deliberate.

There are really no second chances with that level. Vince would almost certainly have died on contact with that Halligan if the truck was fully energized, although ground contact might have been survivable with third degree burns and likely permanent heart damage (according family in the fire service and EMS). Remember, the electric chair is supposed to be an instant death and those were typically 2500-3000 Volts from what I read years ago. Primary lines are over 10kV pretty much everywhere, some as high as 17kV. If you are between 10kV and earth....have a nice day. It'll be a short one, but real exciting--briefly.

[Danielg342]

It's common on police procedurals to portray the departments the heroes don't work for as nothing but obstructionists who do what's needed to hinder the heroes in their plot (think pushy FBI guys, procedure-obsessed bureaucrats, lawyers...etc.). So it doesn't surprise me that Fire Country resorts to the same storytelling tactic.

I didn't have too much of a problem with how the electricity was portrayed in the episode, aside from the air of "things are happening because the writer needs them to happen that way for the plot". Of course, I don't know that much about electricity in the first place, so I likely missed some of the details.

My guess is that the electricity storyline was written by someone who didn't have any knowledge about how it worked and simply read some things about it, applying what little they learned. It's understandable given the time constraints surrounding a typical Hollywood season, but it's also on the showrunner to better organize the writing so episodes are not left to writers who don't know what they're writing about.

[possibilities]

On 4/29/2024 at 1:14 PM, NJRadioGuy said:

At least here in NJ, I was told that a lineman cannot get within either three or five feet of a 13.2kV primary without supervision present. E

I'm all for safety, but why have a dozen workers and two bucket trucks dispatched to do nothing for hours on end? 

The utility leaving entire neighborhoods without service for long periods of time, and not maintaining infrastructure so we have outages even when there is nothing happening with the weather, is a purely cost-saving measure. They don't keep enough staff and they don't do routine maintenance. But the shareholders are raking it in, so I guess that's fine.

Anyway, I think resentment of the electric company in this episode is well-earned. They should write things so the complaints are based on the actual malfeasance, though. Say, sparking wires or damaged poles, or no staff to respond to emergencies, or whatever it is. This show is quite lazy, but the ratings are great so I'm shouting into a void.

I liked the aspects related to 3 Rock's mission this week, and for me that overcomes any irritation about misrepresenting what the utilities do wrong, but I totally understand that if you are involved in that aspect of things IRL, it will irk that they fucked up the portrayal. 

[JH Lipton]

On 4/29/2024 at 9:30 AM, possibilities said:

I think there is a lot of anger at the utilities in CA  because of the way their lines sparked forest fires due to negligence. So, I'm fine with them portraying the company as incompetent, apathetic, and full of shit.

8 hours ago, possibilities said:

Anyway, I think resentment of the electric company in this episode is well-earned. They should write things so the complaints are based on the actual malfeasance, though. Say, sparking wires or damaged poles, or no staff to respond to emergencies, or whatever it is. This show is quite lazy, but the ratings are great so I'm shouting into a void.

Full disclosure: I work for Southern California Edison

Not all utilities are the same.  The one in the state of Texas  has ridiculous  highs and lows (remember how they let people freeze to death while their senator fled to Mexico?).  In Northern California: PG&E has been very lax about fire safety.  Our company makes sure that there is no vegetation around the wires and shuts the power if there is a chance of a wildfire.  We even have goats keeping brush down.  Safety is the number one concern .

[Danielg342]

4 hours ago, JH Lipton said:

Our company makes sure that there is no vegetation around the wires and shuts the power if there is a chance of a wildfire.  We even have goats keeping brush down.  Safety is the number one concern .

Did Southern California Edison change management recently?

I ask because I understand your company did have to settle numerous lawsuits related to allegations SCE equipment caused forest fires. Maybe it's due to my own cynicism having worked for a big company in the past that was completely profit driven, but my guess is that SCE only really started caring about safety once they realized negligence is going to cost them, literally, a lot of money.

[KeithJ]

I still don’t understand Bode’s unhealthy attachment / obsession with Gen.  Yes, you thought she was your daughter for a couple weeks but she’s not.  He really thinks a single male ex-con is going to get custody of a teenage girl that he doesn’t even know?