‘Fire Country’: ‘Opening Pandora’s Box’ of Sharon & Vince’s Problems Could Be Explosive

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Fire Country Season 2 Episode 3, “See You Next Apocalypse.”]

Sharon’s (Diane Farr) wanted to be in on the action on Fire Country, and she definitely does that in the latest episode, driving, with Jake (Jordan Calloway) and Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) on top of the truck and 10 civilians in it with her, through a fire.

Her personal life heated up, too, with Liam (Jason O’Mara), whom she’d worked alongside while she was away fighting fires, coming to town thinking something could happen between them. Vince (Billy Burke) punched him. Then, the two men had to work side-by-side to help Sharon during the fire (Vince, of course, did more). But Sharon made it very clear that she wants her husband, and it looks like the two are going to start fighting for their relationship.

Below, Farr does a deep dive into Sharon’s relationships with Vince and Bode (Max Thieriot).

This episode was amazing.

Diane Farr: I’m so glad. I love this episode. The stuff in the truck was not easy to shoot. There were 11 of us in that truck, and it was mostly background actors and they don’t get a lot of say, so they were left on top of each other for 12 hours.

Sharon loves being in the action and fighting fires, but this was a whole new level.

I know. This was like, your life’s in jeopardy and it’s going to be your fault if something happens to all of them. It’s been a really fun thing having Jake be Sharon’s boss because he’s like my surrogate son. He grew up in my house. I love the idea that when push came to shove, she’s still somebody’s mother. So at the end of the day, I think that what was pressing the most was these two kids that I love are on top of this truck and just what the bond is when you trust somebody, when you let your nervous system calm down and let somebody else be in charge of you. I think that’s really hard for Sharon, and it’s really hard for Diane. If you really had to drive a car and not be able to see and somebody else was going to direct you, it is almost the most romantic thing I can think of.

I think it’s possible that I like Sharon and Vince’s relationship even more this season because of the new layers to it, and now she says she’s ready to fight for them. So, is she feeling more optimistic about their marriage?

Who’s optimistic about marriage after 30 years? I think zero people, but she’s willing to throw her skin in and fail, which I think is the important part because I think Sharon feels like she failed at Bode. I think she feels like he went back to prison because I did it wrong. Therefore, it’s like, what is the marriage? We talked a lot in the first season that Sharon’s first priority is really Bode and the person she has to hide that from is Vince.

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The whole of the second season is her unloading this secret that this marriage really wasn’t her first thing. So it’s like a different layer of committing, and God bless our writers for dealing with not only the possibility of an emotional affair but that a woman might think she’s friends with a guy, and just by the nature of him not having female friends, he thinks it’s something else. It’s such a gray area they’re delving into, and I hope Sharon doesn’t get hung for it because I think it’s real in society.

Is talking about Bode being priority part of what fighting for them means to her? Are we going to see her saying everything she needs to? I feel like Vince and Sharon need to sit down and talk about everything they haven’t, not just the Bode of it.

You ask such a good question because to me, I feel like part of marriage is seeing where the problem is and getting through the day without talking about it because that’s another day that you’re in your marriage. And sometimes I think the truth of partnership for people that are on their second marriage or people who don’t feel like they’ve promised everyone in the world they’re going to do this is they go at the heart of the problem. So if we take two people who are both super strong or both natural leaders and they have to talk about the thing, it’s like opening Pandora’s box. So the whole season is them sort of lightly stepping into, how much can I really tell him about what’s going on? The Liam of it all was really like, alright, I needed something. It might be more dangerous to you that it’s talking, but I needed something, you didn’t do it. It is definitely getting them closer, but it could lead to an explosion. We’ll see.

I liked that Sharon was so confused about how Liam saw things, but it also seemed like he was part of the therapy that she needed while she was away, not in the sense of who he is specifically, but someone she could talk to who isn’t part of Edgewater because everyone else knows both Sharon and Vince. She can’t talk to, say, Manny (Kevin Alejandro) about this even though they’re becoming closer.

You so nailed it of the rub of a small town. If you really keep all the people you started with, there’s not a lot of chance to do a reversal on some opinion you’ve had your whole life. If Vince and Sharon have been a thing for longer than Sharon was ever a person by herself, the idea of talking to someone else could be amazing. I don’t know if everybody deserves the chance to see that fantasy conversation person right next to their husband. If you really put, this is my escapism conversation and this is my real life, side by side and see who’s truer, I mean, what a risk. But in this scenario, it’s very clear that Vince is the guy for her. So, I think the universe gave her what she needed.

Sergei Bachlakov/CBS

Will Liam be back?

I sure as hell hope so. Do you know that Jason O’Mara has never gotten to use his real-life accent on screen? He’s Irish and it couldn’t possibly be any cuter, and both of our DPs on Fire Country are Irish, and when they would start to talk to each other, they’d get more Irish. The accent kept coming out more, and me and the other women were like, just let that on screen. It’s so sexy. It’s ridiculous. So I can only hope he’ll be back.

Fighting fires has been her therapy, but she’s now back. Is she ready yet to step back and face everything she’s not by still being out there in the action?

Oh, you are good with these questions. I don’t know. I don’t know what happens to Sharon if you take the adrenaline junkie out of her. She has a bit of a savior complex. Bode probably got it from both his parents. I think Sharon and Bode both think with their heart instead of their head. I think Vince is better at thinking logically and strategically, where they both jump. I’d love to see who Sharon is if you take the adrenaline away from her.

Sharon and Bode are on a path to a different but better place for them. What does that look like?

I don’t know yet. There was this question at the end of the finale last year—Gabriela was standing by him in a way that his mother wasn’t, and at some point, I think that’s supposed to be the goal. We don’t want to be attached to our mom and dad in a way that prevents us from taking flight. I don’t know who they’re going to be to each other. They’re so similar, and their lives are so entwined. I don’t know if he’s getting out of that prison, but if he does, they’ve never had normalcy because he’s been a drug user since high school. The two of them have to figure out what they do, and they may just be like two incinerators, they may be two things that keep starting a fire. We’ll see. I think it’s better that Vince is in there now. Vince has some skin in the game because he might be a grounding factor with Bode around Sharon.

Sergei Bachlakov/CBS

They had that conversation in Episode 2 when she went to see him—I loved that scene. But how hard is it going to be for Sharon not to slide back into who she used to be with Bode?

I think it’s borderline impossible. If you study anything about addiction, it’s a family disease. There’s the person who’s having the addiction, and then there’s generally the person who’s addicted to keeping them alive. Kevin Alejandro shot that scene in Episode 202, and he saw that scene right from the beginning. I thought it was going to be close and intimate, and he saw us as two people [holds hands up to show them standing apart]. It was so beautiful. But my favorite thing is the last clip is Sharon is actually over the 50 percent line on Bode’s side. So I was like, she’s never going to let go of doing too much. She’s too fiery. [Laughs] Pun. She’s too passionate. It’s a nice long journey she’s going to have to figure out where her kid, her only surviving kid, is and where she is, finding that line.

When I spoke with Kevin last week, I told him how much I’m enjoying Sharon and Manny working together, and he said he likes that, too. How much does Sharon need someone like Manny in her life, especially now?

God does Sharon need a peer and a friend. It’s one of my favorite relationships also because from the beginning, he’s the one that she told she was ill. When they thought Jake was the arsonist, she goes to Manny and not her husband. They have this brother sister thing to me where they’re a little quick and fast and humorous. Earlier on in Episode 3, she was like, “You’re my friend. I don’t want to sleep with you. Do I need to explain that?” And he’s like, please, no. So there’s so much humor. There are so many funny actors on our show. Anytime we get a chance to be funny, it’s a dream.

Fire Country, Fridays, 9/8c, CBS