‘Fire Country’ Star Max Thieriot on Bode’s Season 2 Redemption: ‘It’s Him Finding His Peace’

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This is not going to be an easy season for Bode (Max Thieriot) on Fire Country.

He’s back in prison, after lying about being responsible for problems at Three Rock, the fire camp for inmates; rather, his nemesis Sleeper (Grant Harvey) was the one behind his positive drug test, but when Bode was told the issues were holding up Freddy’s (W. Tre Davis) release, he shocked everyone at his parole hearing with a different speech.

Along with our previous teases from Thieriot about Bode in prison, his relationships with his parents Vince (Billy Burke) and Sharon (Diane Farr), love interest Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila), and former Three Rock captain Manny (Kevin Alejandro), we caught up with the star, executive producer and co-creator about what redemption looks like for his character, that secret Jake (Jordan Calloway) knows, and much more.

What does redemption look like for Bode this season?

Max Thieriot: I think it’s not necessarily his redemption to society, [but] more the redemption to his community and to his family and him trying to put back all the pieces after. He sort of tore it all apart when he left, but it’s just much different than it was that first time.

I think it’s also him trying to find himself finally. Season 1 has so much of him wanting to get out and make amends and earn back the love and respect of his dad and his family and his community and all these people. This season is much more about him wanting to earn that love for himself and find what that other thing is in his life that pushes him, that really sets him free emotionally in a way. What is that thing that can break him from years of prison and pull him out of being all of a sudden wired into that life and being that type of human really? How does he become himself again? Because even last season, I don’t think we ever saw him being himself. I think we saw glimpses of it and we saw a lot of hope in there, but I don’t think we ever saw him sort of allowing his soul to be free in a way.

Because he was dealing with being around everyone again.

Yeah, I think there was so much noise still that it’s like he was never able to find silence and just be at peace with anything. And so I think it’s that—it’s him finding his peace.

Eric Milner/CBS

The finale revealed that Bode might have a kid. What can you say about how that’s going to play out and how Bode might react given where he is in Season 2?

Well, I think if that news comes down the road and he does find out that it has to do with him, inevitably that’s going to be a significant thing for him. But I think we’ve left that in a place where we really don’t know how that’s going to end up. Will it be utilized in this season or not? I don’t know. But we’re not going to leave that reveal hanging. We’re going to at least address it.

There are a few new characters coming in who sound designed to really shake things up—including Diego (Rafael de la Fuente), Cole (Tye White), and Liam (Jason O’Mara). What can you preview?

All three are amazing in the show and really each one brings such a different energy and character to the show and dynamic to the team. They’re all sort of in different parts of the world and so they’re going to resonate and sort of have an impact on different characters, but each one will also have an impact on all of the characters at the same time.

Cole will become a different perspective for Bode and somebody who’s there to help him in a lot of ways, and it is just sort of a fresh outlook on life. Those characters are going to have a lot of fun as well, which people can look forward to. There’s some good banter and BS, smack-talking between the two of them, which is always a good time. And Diego’s just a totally different presence. He’s coming in, he’s doing medic stuff in the show and has a military background and sort of opens up the Cal Fire world a little bit in a fun way that we haven’t really utilized yet.

Is the show kind of switching from the Bode and Freddy of last season to Bode and Cole in this one?

Yeah, I think that’s kind of the dynamic we’re looking to switch to, but we could never replace Freddy. [Bode and Cole] have a much different relationship, but it’s a good one.

Are we going to see what life is like for Freddy now?

We will have to see.

Sergei Bachlakov/CBS

What about Bode and Jake? Because Jake was so excited that Bode was getting out.

They have some work to be done. We got to see so much growth between those two characters last season, and so I think they finally got to a place where they were really kind of back to where they were when they were young. All things aside from Bode making this decision to take this blame and go back to prison and do this thing that he knew was going to hurt so many people, I think that Jake and Bode have opened up to each other enough and they’re sort of at that point now where they can go, “Look, I know your flaws. I know the stuff that you’ve been through. I see you, I know that, but I know who you are.” And so I think that there’s some stuff that’s unsaid, but I think at the core of that, these guys have finally gotten back into a place where they can look beyond those things.

It’s now just about getting back 100 percent to that place of where they were and how can they do that for each other? How can they help each other? Because they sort of finally dropped all the secrets and just opened their hearts and exposed themselves and just said, “Hey, this is me. This is who I am, I’m sorry.” [They’re] brothers at the end of the day. I think they’re in a pretty positive place, but either way, Bode still carries a lot of shame and a lot of guilt.

But speaking of secrets, now Jake knows about the kid who could be Bode’s…

There is another secret that Jake has been given. It’s like the poor guy. It’s all these secrets either that are his or he gets secrets dropped on him that he has to carry the burden of. So yeah, certainly I think how he will wear that throughout the season and what he will do with that information and if it will evolve into something greater is certainly a big topic.

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'Fire Country': Max Thieriot Warns That Prison Bode Is 'Darker' (VIDEO)

What else can you preview about the season?

There’s a lot packed into 10 episodes, which is really exciting. I think visually from an action standpoint, from a cinematic standpoint, there’s a lot of really exciting big cool things that we’re doing. But then emotionally for all these characters, we have a really phenomenal journey for each from where we start them, which will be shocking, and then where we finish each character is going to be really rewarding and just a really exciting journey for people to watch.

It wouldn’t be our show if we didn’t have plenty of reveals and card turns and dramatic characters or action beat hooks in episodes. There’s going to be cliffhangers and, not in the same way as this season, we’re going to leave you wanting more and wanting to know what happens after the last episode. … I just know from the last hearing of the pitch for the rest of the arc this season, I finished and sat back and was like, “Whoa, this is going to be great. This is going to be really cool.”

Just seeing the first photo of Bode in prison…

I think that was the big question for a lot of people, too: Is he in prison still? Is he out? Where is he? What’s happening? And obviously we hear the audience, we know what people want to see, and so certainly we take all those things into consideration. But I think Tia [Napolitano] and our incredible room of writers came up with a really great way to build the season out and start in one place and really finish in a totally different and exciting place.

Fire Country, Season 2 Premiere, Friday, February 16, 9/8c, CBS