'Fire Country' Set Up Its Potential Spinoff—and Revealed a Big Part of Sharon's Backstory
Morena Baccarin as Mickey
Friday’s episode of Fire Country introduced Sgt. Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin), who, if this episode is successful, will star in a law enforcement-focused Fire Country spinoff.
Mickey works for the Edgewater Sheriff’s Department, and is Sharon Leone’s (Diane Farr) younger sister. Technically, they’re ex-stepsisters—Mickey’s father was married to Sharon’s mother when Mickey and Sharon were teenagers—but they’ll always be family, even if they haven’t been close in the past several years.
They reconnected in this episode, however, and viewers got to learn more about Sharon’s side of the family, see a different part of Edgewater’s first responder community, and get a sense of what Sheriff Country (working title) will be like.
The episode, aptly titled “Alert the Sheriff,” picked up about a month after Cara’s (Sabina Gadecki) death. Jake (Jordan Calloway), who was preparing to propose to her, is really struggling. He has been avoiding seeing her daughter, Genevieve (Alix West Lefler), who is living with her potential grandparents Sharon and Vince (Billy Burke), because he’s worried he’ll completely fall apart if he sees her. Genevieve is pretending like his absence doesn’t bother her, but it does.
Related: 'Fire Country' Renewed for Season 3 on CBS
How is Mickey introduced in Fire Country, and what does it tell us about Sharon?
The action starts when the Station 42 and Three Rock firefighters are putting out a blaze and they see a police helicopter chasing a private helicopter above them. We meet Mickey, who is trying to get the helicopter she’s pursuing to land. This is a small town, and she personally knows the suspect, whose name is Dean. She eventually apprehends him, but not before he rains $46,000 down onto the inmates and firefighters below.
While Mickey, her boss Sheriff Watson (Michael St. John Smith), and another cop named Kubiak (Alberto Frezza) interrogate Dean, who has been laundering money for drug dealers, she reveals that she got good at being able to tell when someone is lying because her father was a drug dealer. Mickey and Sharon’s house was very chaotic growing up, it turns out, and fighting crime is very personal for her.
Sharon brings the cash the firefighters recovered to the sheriff’s station, where she and Mickey talk for the first time in what seems to be a long time. There’s been tension between them ever since Mickey arrested Sharon’s son Bode (Max Thieriot) for breaking and entering when he was a teenager. Sharon admits that she was “crazy” when it came to trying to constantly save Bode from himself, and she’s sorry. “I said some really awful things to you, and I’d like a chance to be a sister again—a better sister,” she says. But Mickey says no.
The worlds of the firefighters and the sheriff’s department are not done colliding, however. A terminally ill convict named Rudy (Alex Désert) escapes from Three Rock because he wants to see his daughter one last time, and the departments have to team up to find him. Mickey, who just found out her sister might be a grandmother, demands that Sharon partner up with her on the search.
They talk about their resentful feelings toward each other. Mickey feels like Sharon turned her back on her, and was so wrapped up in her own problems that she never thought about Mickey. Mickey even called her a month ago, and Sharon didn’t pick up. Sharon, meanwhile, resents Mickey for judging her as a mother. Where Sharon was permissive with Bode, Mickey was performatively strict with her daughter Sky, raising her to be the opposite of Bode. Mickey always followed the rules and Sharon didn’t. And now Bode’s incarcerated while Sky’s in college.
But Mickey reveals that her pursuit of perfection didn’t work. Sky’s in rehab. That’s what she called Sharon about. She needed her sister, and her sister wasn’t there. Again, Sharon is sorry.
What crime does Mickey solve, and how does it set her up for a spinoff?
Just then, they see Sheriff Watson and Kubiak on the ground. Watson has been fatally shot in the head, but Kubiak is only slightly wounded. Kubiak reports that Rudy got the drop on them and killed the sheriff. This is bad news for Three Rock—no one in power is going to support a rehabilitative program where prisoners escape and kill cops— and even worse news for Mickey, who looked at Watson as the father figure she never had.
Later that night, Bode gives Sharon $4,000 that his friend Cole (Tye White) kept from the helicopter incident to return to Mickey. When Mickey finds out, something clicks. Kubiak said there was $50,000 in the helicopter, but there was only $46,000. And Kubiak’s story about Rudy shooting him and Watson didn’t add up. And Dean the money launderer told Watson there was a dirty cop in the department. Mickey realizes that Kubiak killed Watson and blamed it on Rudy to cover his tracks.
Kubiak, meanwhile, is questioning Bode, who reveals that Rudy is probably hiding out at a remote fishing cabin Bode told him about. Kubiak takes Bode along to show him where the cabin is, and Bode realizes too late that Kubiak is planning to kill him and Rudy. Inside the cabin, Bode is able to get on Kubiak’s radio so that Mickey hears Kubiak explain his evil plan. Bode and Rudy are able to overpower Kubiak after Bode kicks over a lantern and starts a fire, and they all get out of the cabin before it burns down.
When Mickey arrives, she captures Kubiak. “I have so much empathy for people, because I know how hard life is, and I know we are not always perfect,” she tells him while she’s arresting him. “But you know who I have no empathy for? Like, none? People like you, who wear the badge and betray it.” That sounds like a bit of a mission statement for Mickey. If she gets her own show, she’ll have empathy for people who turn to crime to survive, similar to how Fire Country believes that people who have committed crimes deserve a shot at redemption—which is what Eve (Jules Latimer) and Manny (Kevin Alejandro) will have to prove in the face of a new petition that seeks to shut Three Rock down.
Related: Is 'Fire Country' Based on a True Story?
How does Genevieve fit into all this?
Later, Jake, Genevieve, Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila), Vince, Sharon and Mickey are all hanging out, being a family, when Sharon finally gets the results of Bode’s paternity test. Genevieve is not his daughter.
Sharon is upset, but Mickey reminds her that even though they’re not related, they’re still sisters. “Look at them,” she says, gesturing to the others. “None of them share your DNA. But they're your family.” The test doesn’t change anything. Genevieve is still their responsibility.
When Sharon and Vince tell Bode, he takes it pretty well, but he’s very sad. “I’ve messed up so much,” he says. “I wanted this to just be the one good thing that I do.” But he still has that chance. On Fire Country, family is more than blood. It’s your responsibility to the people you care about.
“Alert the Sheriff” served as an exciting introduction to Mickey Fox and her corner of Fire Country, and we’re curious to find out if we’ll be seeing more of her. She's probably about to become the sheriff of Edgewater.
Fire Country airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. It’s available to stream on Paramount+.
Next, Will Bode and Gabriela End Up Together on 'Fire Country'?
