S03.E06: Not Without My Birds

[Danielg342]

Quote

When a fire breaks out in a park containing an eagle nest, Station 42 and Three Rock work to rescue the protected species and prevent the fire from spreading into town

Via Paramount Press Express

[possibilities]

Calling Bode "Broody" made me laugh. 

Good episode for Eve.

And I called it on the hot flashes!

[Danielg342]

Let's start with the positives.

First, nothing says "this is a small town" more than an entire bar getting excited about the imminent hatching of some eagle eggs in the woods. For fans of SimCity, that sure reminded me a lot of Dullsville and their paint drying event, so I was happy to see the show really lean in to a storyline like this and give the episode some much needed levity.

It was just great, all of it.

Secondly, good to see Vince be protective of Bode with regards to Camden and set Bode's mind straight. I might have appreciated Bode being a bit more assertive and tell Camden, "you always told me to trust my instincts and that may mean going against orders, so, sometimes, I'll disobey you", but at least the show is recognizing Camden may not be the best influence for Bode.

Thirdly, Levin Rambin was great again as Audrey and she should be in the main cast next year. That, or she gets her own show. How many more times can she hit it out of the park before the producers realize what she's worth?

Lastly, nice to see the show remember that Eve's a lesbian and we get a bit of light shed on her previous loves. Seemed like she even rekindled that old flame and, while I might have appreciated a kiss (9-1-1: Lonestar did it, why not Fire Country?), I'll take what I can get.

Oh, and one small one- as much as "Bodiella" gets on my nerves, at least Bode was right to call out Gabriella and tell her he's tired of waiting. If only he could get that assertive elsewhere in his life.

That's about it for the positives.

I can't really say there were a whole lot of truly bad negatives, but a lot of the episode's events felt very contrived.

Honestly, we had the perfect episode where you have a situation where the crew had to make some hard choices and, as in real life, you're going to wind up with something that is merely "the best possible case" and isn't ideal.

...but...baby eagles. Gotta save them, even if you've got to contrive the events to make it all work.

Perhaps the show wants to wait for the fall finale before doing something "really big" and finally have Bode's "instincts" screw up an incident so bad that he'll hit a major snag in his comeback.

Perhaps the show also wanted to wait for the right moment, too, to really ignite the Leone vs. Camden feud regarding training Bode and have that feud blow up spectacularly in an episode, setting up a future arc.

I get that.

However, if so, why not use this story- which was tailor made for such scenarios- for that moment and use another story for this airing? Or, since too many people would be upset about baby eagles dying, don't put the eagles in the episode's main plot and have something else be that proverbial "rock and a hard place"?

Of course, the episode's main problem was really that everything felt very forced and hardly anything really flowed. The only moment that really felt like it had some kind of authenticity was Manny's fight with Cole, but even those two acted like overgrown schoolchildren.

"You took what was rightfully mine." Really Cole?

Maybe the real takeaway is that we may finally see Bode face some real consequences for his hero antics, which is one thing the show has shied away from too much. Certainly the feud between the Leones and Camden is developing a real, um, slow burn and I'm actually looking forward to how it ignites.

Of course, knowing this show, it'll just blow up in their faces. Again.

[Dowel Jones]

59 minutes ago, Danielg342 said:

The only moment that really felt like it had some kind of authenticity was Manny's fight with Cole,

And you were right; fights between inmates, or even crews sometimes, can erupt over nothing and go from 0-60 in a flash.

I side with Camden in re Bode.  If you're going to be a firefighter, get your head out of your ass and pay attention to your boss.  Ignoring his orders, whatever the immediate gratification, is the quickest way to get fired.

Sorry Sharon, you don't put a firefighter trainee in charge of the Command Center.  It takes a fair amount of training and experience to do that job, and you put a lot of people at risk doing that.

I really hope they settle their personal issues (and that means everyone) by the time the show returns.  It's getting more and more absurd.  Sure, let's talk about it while I'm driving the fire engine Code 3 to a wildland fire.  Let's take a break from this fire that's threatening the park and go inside the tent to talk about it.  Get to work, people!

By the way, Johnny Cash started a fire is the Sespe Condor Refuge outside of Santa Barbara back in 1968, I think.  His wheel bearing overheated and away it went.  Steep, rugged country there.  Anway, the fire killed something like 80 California Condors, but when he appeared in court, he reportedly snarled at the judge and said, "I don't care about your damn birds!"  Way to impress them, Johnny.

Edited 4 hours ago by Dowel Jones
The Man in Black!

[Danielg342]

1 hour ago, Dowel Jones said:

I side with Camden in re Bode.  If you're going to be a firefighter, get your head out of your ass and pay attention to your boss.  Ignoring his orders, whatever the immediate gratification, is the quickest way to get fired.

Not that I inherently disagree with you here, but Camden's problem is his hypocrisy. He made a point of telling Bode to trust his instincts and do what is right, ignoring orders and protocol if he has to, but then turns around and gets offended when Bode does that to him.

Cam, it's either you want Bode to follow procedures and rules or you don't. You don't get to say, "you don't follow the rules, unless I'm the one giving them to you."

Of course, no doubt, Bode should be following the rules regardless, but- pardon the pun- Cam shouldn't be stoking the flames if he's not prepared to get burnt.