Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Fire Country Season 3 Episode 6.

Things are heating up on Fire Country and I don’t mean the calls. Bode (Max Thieriot) is playing with fire in his personal life, too (and that is the last heat/flame metaphor in this recap, I promise). It’s time for a hangout at Smokey’s when this episode begins, and the gang is all here, including Audrey (Levin Rambin). Two eagle babies are set to hatch in the nearby state park, and it seems like most of the town has gathered to watch the live feed of the nest. Gabs (Stephanie Arcila) is unfamiliar with Edgewater’s eagle obsession despite living there for a few years now, but Audrey is already caught up and in the thick of it.

Bode is also in the thick of it. He’s telling stories about his childhood eagle adventures. He’s laughing. He’s joking. He looks like a completely different person than the brooding adrenaline junkie we’ve spent the last two seasons with, and it’s all for… Audrey. Yeah, you read that right. After going to the most extremes for Gabriella, Bode has the nerve to boldly flirt with Audrey right in front of his ex-girlfriend-slash-hook-up-partner’s face. He’s even housesitting for his fellow cadet.

Gabs really hates that, but she’s not willing to admit it. Why would either of these two start being straightforward about their feelings now? That would be productive and healthy behavior, and it would make for boring TV. So we know we’ve got at least one more round on the Gabs and Bode feelings carousel, but there’s one person that’s not getting on the ride, and that’s Cam Casey (Jared Padalecki).

‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 6 Is All About the Eagles
Image via CBS

Bode’s assignment for this week is to prove he’s a Serious Firefighter, but Cam doesn’t think that he can get the job done if he’s surrounded by distractions, like Gabs and the entire Leone family. There’s no better time for Bode to prove that he’s ready to move on to the elite than with the latest fire that is threatening the safety of the town’s new baby eagles.

Everyone is determined to save these eagle babies — except for Cam. His priority is saving people, not baby birds. He wants to take the most efficient route to cut the fire off from town, but it would mean disturbing the eagles’ nest. Eve’s (Jules Latimer) ex-girlfriend Francine (Katie Findlay), who is the park ranger overseeing the birds, will not allow it. So Vince (Billy Burke) comes up with a compromise that will save the eagles and also cut off the fire, but it’ll be harder for the firefighters to cut the line because of the rougher terrain.

Bode, Ladder 42, and Three Rock get to work on clearing the brush so they can cut the line. Gabs makes the mistake of trying to have a conversation with Gabs while they shovel pine out of the way, but he is determined to be a Serious Firefighter and he cuts all communication. It’s not going much better for the Three Rock guys. Eve appoints Manny (Kevin Alejandro) to be first saw, a job that Cole (Tye White) was vying for because he believes it will help him make parole earlier. He knows that Manny got the job because Manny was already a captain, and he feels robbed, so he picks a fight with Manny as the fire encroaches. It’s not a good look for either of them, and Eve has to put on her big boss pants to break it up. Luckily for Eve, Francine really likes seeing her in charge. At least someone is having a good time with an ex in this episode.

Bode Makes a Tough Choice in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 6
Image via CBS

Despite Vince’s best efforts, the wind exacerbates the fire, and it arrives at their destination before they’ve finished the line they need to cut. When Vince weighs the option of ordering a water drop, which would wash the baby eagles out of their nest, Cam loses it and pulls his cadets. He’s not going to put them in danger for the eagles’ sake. He tells Bode to pack up, but Bode has never run away from a fire. He’s trying to make the case to Cam that they should stay when he sees Francine running into the forest to save the birds before the water arrives.

Cam tells Bode that if he wants to be a Serious Firefighter, he needs to get on the rig, which makes absolutely no sense. He wants Bode to be the guy to do whatever it takes to save people from fire, even when protocol forbids it, but he’s getting his panties in a real twist that Bode isn’t blindly following his command. Either you want Bode to be a firefighter who follows his gut, or you just want a lackey who does what you say, bro. What kind of “Serious Firefighter” doesn’t stay to fight the fire? Cam wants Bode to choose between him and Vince. There are distractions, and there’s trying to isolate someone from their family and now everyone’s reservations about Cam are starting to make sense.

Related Jared Padalecki Is Exactly What ‘Fire Country’ Needed We can’t get enough of Camden Casey.

Bode is loyal to a fault, and he sticks with Vince, especially when he sees Francine trying to climb the tree to get to the baby eagles. They have mere minutes before a plane flies in with the water dump, and both Francine and the eagles will die if she’s up there when it comes through. After a near fall and more theatrics, Francine makes it to the birds and wraps them in her sweater. Bode takes the birds and covers them as the water drop comes through — and everyone, including the babies, is safe.

It’s a job well done all around, even for Audrey, who spent the incident shadowing Sharon (Diane Farr) at incident command. It turns out that Audrey has a real knack for running a scene and Sharon is super impressed with what she sees. However, they do have a bit of friction when Audrey points out that Sharon’s aching shoulder and other symptoms align with perimenopause. Sharon is not stoked about how old the possible diagnosis makes her feel, but at least it’s not kidney failure! We can deal with some hot flashes and mood swings over Sharon needing another kidney.

It Takes Four to Tango on ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 6
Image via CBS

While everything works out on the field, it is not all gravy back at the station. Cam is pissed that Bode stayed with Vince on the call rather than siding with him. He’s ready to boot him out as a cadet, but Vince takes Cam aside to argue in Bode’s defense. This is when we discover that one of the people he lost during his traumatizing big fire was his little brother. That’s why he wasn’t willing to risk the cadets to fight the fire if the water drop didn’t work. Cam doesn’t appreciate Vince just calling him out for his blatant guilt projections, though, and storms off.

Meanwhile, Jake (Jordan Calloway) has a heart-to-heart with Gabs and says she needs to just go for it with Bode. It saddens me to say that this take means Jake has lost his “Adult in the Room” privileges. I guess Bode and Gabs being together isn’t a total disaster as long as Bode isn’t his cadet? Gabs knows that she’s still working things out for herself, though, and that jumping into a serious relationship with Bode isn’t going to help her fix whatever it is that compels her to blow her life up for him. She tries to explain this to him yet again, but Bode says he’s already been waiting too long for her. If she says it’s only a maybe now, then that’s basically telling him no, so they both need to move on.

I can’t pretend that I don’t agree with Bode here, at least when it comes to them both moving on, but I hate that he’s making Gabs sound unreasonable for wanting to work on herself before committing to another person. She’s eating cold chicken nuggets in an Airstream most nights of the week! Gabriela is not doing great, and she’s right to not want a serious relationship at the moment. Of course, the argument could be made that had she taken this needed time to sort herself out when Bode went back to prison instead of hopping into something serious with Diego (Rafael de la Fuente), we wouldn’t need to have these frustrating conversations, but alas! Here we are.

Gabs heads straight to the bar to deal with these feelings, and who should she see across the bar as she’s downing her first shot of tequila? A lonely Cam Casey drinking away his own feelings. Last week, I erroneously wondered if Bode would find himself accidentally pursuing his boss’s girl. It looks like Fire Country is flipping the script and implying that Casey and Gabs are going to hook up. If Cam thinks Bode struggles with distractions now, just wait for this to become the most awkward love square (because Audrey is still part of this, even if she has a boyfriend in North Carolina) at the station. It’s also super hypocritical to call out Bode for not being a Serious Firefighter when it seems Cam is looking for anything to help him not think about the job. Things will continue to get messy as we head towards the winter finale.

Fire Country continues Fridays at 9 PM ET on CBS. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Paramount+.

Baby birds illuminate the first schism between Bode and Cam in Fire Country Season 3 Episode 6.ProsSharon and Audrey running incident command was incredible.The sparks between Eve and Francine were real.We love to see Manny helping the Three Rock guys do better. ConsBode and Gabs needs to break up, but not like this.The CGI baby birds are low-key terrifying.Jake is now supporting Bode and Gabs?Cam needs a more consistent definition of Serious Firefighter(TM).

A young convict joins a firefighting program looking for redemption and a shortened prison sentence. He and other inmates work alongside elite firefighters to extinguish massive blazes across the region.Release Date October 7, 2022 Seasons 3 Network CBS Streaming Service(s) Paramount+ Expand

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