Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Fire Country Season 3 Episode 7.

Every time I think I’ve figured out how messy Fire Country will get, they go and surprise me. The firefighter drama is back this week after taking a hiatus for Thanksgiving, and we enter the episode with Eve (Jules Latimer) begging Jake (Jordan Calloway) and Bode (Max Thieriot) to get on the apps with her. The trio has been sulking and cooped up inside, and she thinks they need to get out there. There are only so many push-ups a person can do, man!

Unfortunately, Jake is still in “dad mode” and only thinking about Gen’s impending visit. Bode isn’t ready to get back on the apps because he just broke up with Gabs, and she’s barreling toward rock bottom of her current mental breakdown, so now is not a great time. Plus, Bode and Jake don’t need dating apps when they could just repeat old mistakes and make their personal and professional lives so much more dramatic instead.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Aside from everyone’s relationship status, we’re stressed because Cam Casey (Jared Padalecki) is going to post his pass list, which will determine whether Bode will graduate from the Cal Fire cadet program. Vince (Billy Burke) preemptively makes his special spaghetti sauce to celebrate. Sharon (Diane Farr) is on hormone replacement therapy and feeling like her old self again. What could possibly go wrong? Casey decides not to graduate Bode because he’s still bent out of shape about the eagle call. That leaves Bode with one last shift to try and change Cam’s mind, so you know it’s going to be a doozy.

A Trip to the Weed Store Goes Wrong in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 7
Image via CBS

The dysfunctional crew is called out to the Edgewater weed store, “Dank Account,” because the alarm system has gone off. The apparently high security guard comes to greet Casey and Sharon to explain that he accidentally tripped the alarm, so Sharon leaves Casey and the cadets to reset it and check the building for any hidden fire. Surprise, there’s no fire, but the security guard has a gun! He’s not high, but stressed because he’s holding up the store. He tripped the alarm to get the firefighters there and have them open the safe for him. So now we’ve got two maverick firefighters – Cam and Bode – and a wild card like Aubrey (Leven Rambin) locked in a room with a dude with a gun. Everyone here is going to make safe, thought-out decisions. I can feel it.

Bode and Cam are tasked with breaking open the safe while Audrey sits with the Dank Account hostages. She immediately tries to think of ways to break the zip ties she and the other hostages are tied up with and eventually finds a pair of trimmers in the employee lockers nearby. She would have gotten away with it too if Vince hadn’t called Cam right as Audrey is cutting the ties off her co-hostages. Our robber gets enraged and shoots Audrey in the shoulder. He is shocked by the amount of blood. This is definitely this guy’s first robbery rodeo, and it’s a little embarrassing.

Audrey getting shot ups the stakes. So naturally, Bode and Cam argue about who should tackle the gunman. Cam gets so exasperated that he calls Bode “Patrick,” the name of his dead brother whom he still feels responsible for. Bode doesn’t have a chance to respond before Cam decides this is his chance and rushes the robber. He fails to get the job done, though, so Bode takes over. The gun goes off, and a bullet hits some sort of accelerant in the storeroom, starting an actual fire that brings Sharon and the rest of 42 back out to the weed store.

Once everyone, including the robber, is being taken care of, Bode gets his chance to call out Cam for calling him Patrick. When Cam reveals who Patrick really is, Bode lays into Cam about being a hypocrite. How can he hold Bode back for having familial ties when Cam is letting his guilt rule everything about how he trains cadets? Bode never stood a chance of passing with Cam as his captain because Cam was always going to compare him to his little brother. It’s apparently the tough love that Cam needed (except Vince gave him a much nicer version of that speech a couple of weeks ago, and it did nothing). Cam changes his mind and passes Bode, and then strides off into the sunset to handle “unfinished business” (probably on his own spin-off). It took two and a half seasons, but Bode Leone is officially a Cal Fire firefighter and will be joining Ladder 42 along with Audrey, who conveniently broke up with her boyfriend in this episode. That’s going to be fun.

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

Two Bad Days Don’t Lead to Good Decisions in ‘Fire Country’ Season 3 Episode 7
Image via CBS

There is not a sigh deep enough to make this section of the recap easier. What a relief to find out at the top of the episode that Gabriela and Cam didn’t sleep together. He just watches her get drunk and then turns over her forgotten ID to Sharon and Vince. Sharon is at her wit’s end because she doesn’t know how to get through to her surrogate daughter. Gabs is moody. She’s diving off tall rocks and injuring herself in the process. She’s working herself to the bone to pay off the wedding she torpedoed. When she’s not working, she can be found at the bar drinking away her sorrows. She tells Bode that she needs more time to work on herself, but it doesn’t seem like any of that work is actually happening.

Gabriela also snaps at Sharon so fiercely that she gets benched for the rest of the day. This is not the first time it’s happened. When Manny (Kevin Alejandro) gives Sharon the go-ahead to do whatever she would do to save Bode for Gabriela, Sharon goes snooping around the airstream. She’s looking for drugs or anything that can help her make sense of Gabs’ self-destruction spiral when Gabs returns with her takeout dinner. They have another blow-up and Gabs heads to the bar to blow off steam.

That’s where she finds Jake, who also isn’t having a good time. He has his own spat with Vince when the senior firefighter advises that Jake take a firmer stance about how much time Gen is spending in Idaho. Jake doesn’t want to be told what to do and how to raise his daughter, and that makes him extra salty when Vince turns out to be right. Billy wants to keep Gen and requests that Jake send her stuff to him. He’s on the verge of losing his last connection to Cara and is not taking it well. I can sympathize with both of them, really. They are both going through it, but going through it is not enough of an excuse for your brain to melt and ooze out of your ears. At one point, they say they don’t want to be like Vince and Sharon, which is nuts because they are the best married couple on TV. If that isn’t enough to convince you that these two are not in their next mind, the following scene should be.

What is worse than sleeping with your ex-situationship’s boss who is about to leave town? It is sleeping with his best friend and now-roommate, who is also your and your ex’s boss. Jake and Gabs hook up in his truck in the Smokey’s parking lot like everyone they know doesn’t hang out there on a regular basis. I genuinely can’t wait for next week to learn how on Earth they try and justify this as a good idea. Yes, Bode is apparently already salivating over Audrey now that she’s single, but we all know he isn’t over Gabriela. He will never be over Gabriela enough to make it okay for Jake to hook up with her – even if she was Jake’s girlfriend first. This is what I mean; even when you think you have a good idea of the mess Fire Country is going to serve up, they find even more diabolical ways to keep the drama running.

The Fire Country fall finale airs next Friday at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. Episodes are available the next day on Paramount+.

Bode becomes a firefighter as Gabs hits a new low in Fire Country Season 3 Episode 7.ProsBode is FINALLY a firefighter.I’m with Audrey and think “Dank Accounts” is an excellent pun.Vince can cook, too? Your honor, I love him. ConsCam Casey left without a single ridiculous speech for us to remember him by.Jake is so much smarter than the decisions he made in this episode.Gabriela needs to hit rock bottom and snap out of this, ASAP.

Watch on Paramount+