Fire Country: The Inmate Love Connections Are Weird
Romance on the small screen has been a fixture for decades. Name a storyline for any good show and there is a romance wedged between courthouses, cubicles, homes, and even firehouses. Fire Country is no different, except, it is different. What’s weird about the romances here is that they take place between people with nothing real between them.
We could tell from the start that there would be something between Bode and Gabriella. Their first encounter on the side of the road set the stage for what was to come but the writers forgot to add the missing pieces. There are moments where you can normally see some chemistry between characters but where was the chemistry between Gabriella and Bode?
She pulled a gun on him the first time they met and even went as far as to rat out Bode and Freddie to her dad. Even then, their exchange was a bit off. A man kneeling in the woods offers to help you with your car and then your guard is completely down to the point you apologize for pulling a gun. What was she supposed to do in that situation?
While Gabriella is in a relationship with Jake, Bode finds an admirer in a female inmate who, with no guards watching at night, just find time and opportunity to have sex on base. Where does that happen at? And not just sex, but we could tell that Rebecca has caught feelings for Bode just by watching him put fires out. Where is the supervision for the inmates? Anyone can just come and go on the campus as they please, I guess.
I can fully understand the attraction between Bode and Rebecca. Both are incarcerated and spend time around one another. But the Bode and Gabriella bond is super strange. She doesn’t know Bode and yet, here she is, diving off a bridge, risking her life to save someone she doesn’t know. Sure, her father knows Bode but that’s a different situation than growing up next door to one another.
At the beginning of Fire Country, it was Gabriella who was all in for her and Jake’s relationship. She actually confessed her love for him but one look at Bode in prison orange, and now she has a change of heart? What’s also sad is she knows the history between Jake and Bode and yet, she’s still going all in. At what point did they have the time to build this chemistry? Did we miss something between the episodes?
I have nothing against inmates. What I have a problem with are holes in storylines. Build up their connection. Make viewers want it. But to just have Gabby dump Jake for Bode, that easily is a bit sketchy and not thought out storyline-wise.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
