After Bode Almost Made A Scary Decision On Fire Country, I’m Flashing Back To The Showrunner’s Comments About Addiction Being Present In Season 4
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Spoilers for Season 4, Episode 2 of Fire Country are ahead! Read with caution, and stream the show with a
Paramount+ subscription
.
The death of Vince is looming large as Fire Country’s fourth season gets going on the 2025 TV schedule. Every character is grieving, and for some, old demons and struggles are making their way back to the surface. For Max Thieriot’s character Bode, he’s been tempted by his addiction twice now. So, after he almost took pills in Episode 2, I’m thinking about the showrunner’s comments regarding Bode being a “recovering addict,” and how that will impact him as everyone moves forward.
In Fire Country’s Season 4 premiere, Bode is in possession of pills that he says he’ll flush. However, he doesn’t do that; he keeps them. Then, in the final minutes of Episode 2, he takes a pill and then immediately throws it back up. It’s clear that Bode’s addiction is challenging him more now than it has in a long time.
So, I asked showrunner Tia Napolitano about it and how addiction will impact Max Thieriot’s character as Season 4 goes on. In response, she told me:
That’s right, but Bode is a recovering addict, and this show, in particular, part of our DNA is our characters aren’t perfect. You know, when you meet him, he’s in orange, he has a past. He struggles with addiction, and that struggle becomes very real when his father dies. And so we want to remind the audience that that’s a real part of his life.
That reminder certainly hit hard at the end of Episode 2. While it was good to see Bode not go through with taking the pill, it was still terrifying to watch. He’s put in so much work to move away from the troubled parts of his past, and in that one moment, he (almost) reverted to old ways.
Also, the episode ends before we can see what he does with the rest of the pills. So, as far as we know, he still has them and can take them. That’s a scary thought, and it reiterates how challenging living with addiction can be.
However, Napolitano made it clear to me that while this will be something Bode has to deal with this season, he has good people in his corner. Explaining the team that will help him weather this storm, the showrunner said:
We’ll bring forward that struggle a little bit and really sit and root for him at home to choose angels over demons. Audrey will be a very big part of that, in terms of someone in his corner. Manny will be a very big part of that. You’ll see all of our people step up to sort of help Bode, hopefully, to succeed.
Young & Restless Outrages Fans as Noah Fights for His Life
Credit: CBS screenshot
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Noah, as the headline says, is in the fight of his life as he recovers on The Young and the Restless. It’s so touch and go that Sharon has been torn between supporting Mariah and waiting by Noah’s bedside. And all of Noah’s loved ones have gathered to hold vigil while they wait to see what happens!
Wait, no, strike that last one. That’s actually not what’s happening at all. Claire’s there — you know, the cousin he’s never met — but there’s no Faith or Summer, both of whom are his actual sisters. There’s at least an excuse for Mariah’s absence, but what about his grandparents? Are Nikki and Victor too busy? Isn’t family
everything?
Shouldn’t Victor be at the hospital shouting at the poor doctors to do everything they can and more to make this right, dammit?!
And then there’s Allie. Supposedly she and Noah are still together, but how serious can it be if she’s not by his bedside as he fights for his life? Maybe she’s worried she won’t like his new face once it’s revealed. Somehow, we doubt that. So yeah, we can definitely see Tessa catching his eye again when he wakes up and realizes his girlfriend has been MIA.
And all of this is driving quite a few fans crazy. As Di puts it on X, “[Claire] being involved in Noah’s story while his sisters and other family members are nowhere to be found is an example of everything wrong with this show.”