‘Fire Country’s Max Thieriot Teases ‘Terrifying’ Midseason Finale With Major Decisions

It may feel like this season of Fire Country just started, but we’re already five episodes in and it’s November. So you know what that means: the midseason finale soon.

The CBS drama, only two episodes in, has mastered the finale cliffhanger (whether it’s in the middle or the end of the season), and so we, of course, had to ask Max Thieriot (star, co-creator, executive producer, and director) what to expect from the midseason one coming up. Below, he gives us scoop on that, a hostage situation in a couple episodes, Morena Baccarin‘s return as Mickey before next season’s spinoff Sheriff Country, and more. (Plus, read what Thieriot had to say about the major moments of Season 3 Episode 5 here.)

There’s a hostage situation coming up? What can you preview about that and the danger characters will be in?

Max Thieriot: There’s a core group of people that will definitely be in danger and sort of walk into a situation that they’re not expecting. The people who aren’t there, I guess, begin to feel some guilt over the decisions they made that ultimately put these people in this situation. And yeah, it’s kind of a wild, exciting episode of something that seems very routine that goes bad really quickly.

How does Bode handle that with where he is in his journey at that part of the season?

I think that he, in the episode, is starting to listen to his own instinct and his own gut. The next couple episodes, he’s sort of battling with being pulled in different directions between Camden [Jared Padalecki] and family. And there’s a lot of forces that are pulling him in different ways and are creating a bit of uncertainty in his decision-making and how he needs to do things. And I think when we finally get to there, he sort of is just accepting where he is and who he is and that he’s going to ultimately be the firefighter that he’s going to be, not the one that anybody is trying to make him become. And so you’re going to see moments of old Bode, but also how he’s becoming the person he’s meant to be.

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I know Mickey’s coming back before the launch of Sheriff Country. Is there anything you can say about that and what you want to do with her and that world to lead into the spinoff next season?

Yeah, I think we have a fun episode that I haven’t seen the script got but we’ve talked about. Conceptually, I think it’s a really exciting and big episode with a lot of family and bringing everybody together and getting to refresh us with the sheriff’s office and the work that they do and how they can be involved with our firefighters in certain incidents. And there’ll be some more good family sort of soap and drama because obviously, she’s part of the extended Leone family.

What can you tease about the midseason finale and its cliffhanger?

The midseason finale is going to be big. There’s going to be some awesome fire and it’s definitely sort of this, big beautiful, wonderful scope and we’re going to be left with a lot of characters really sort of facing some pretty terrifying situations. A lot of people are going to be faced with some big changes and some big decisions that they have to make and there may be lives at risk. It’s going to be great.

What else is coming up for Bode? Are there any significant Bode and Manny (Kevin Alejandro) conversations?

Yeah, there are some big Bode and Manny conversations coming up. I think especially in Episode 8, we get to see Manny dealing with a lot of his own things at fire camp and [Episodes] 8 and 9, there’s a lot of big sort of turning points for Bode and Manny in there.

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Honestly, there’s a lot of really big character stuff and also action stuff in both [Episodes] 8 and 9 for Bode, for Manny, for Vince [Billy Burke] and Sharon [Diane Farr]. At the end of Episode 7, there’s a big moment that happens that’s family-driven. And there’s a lot of really, really good character soap and drama coming up, honestly, for everybody and a lot of really new fresh stuff—and fresh in a way that, there’s things we haven’t told, but they’re still very relevant to understanding who all these people are and getting to see more.

We’re getting great stuff with Eve (Jules Latimer), and I liked meeting her brother. Also, liked that mini Walker reunion with Jeff Pierre in the same episode as Jared.

Oh yeah, there’s a mini Walker reunion there and yeah, clearly the stuff that she has with her brother was not all there is to it. There’s more coming there. So Eve has some really wonderful stuff coming up.

Fire Country, Fridays, 9/8c, CBS