Fire Country, and their new boss is not stoked. Brett Richards (Shawn Hatosy) has made his mission clear: he wants to reform Station 42 into a group of firefighters that know how to save lives — most importantly, their own

. He’s not interested in anyone who isn’t ready to play by his rules and get the station in shape. Jake is ready to step up and obey orders, but the chip on Bode’s shoulder is making it impossible for him to see straight.

A particularly irritating case that requires Bode and Jake to save a daredevil trying to plan a fire hazard of a proposal causes Bode to lose it on the job. Jake and Richards manage to save him from himself, but

this is the second call where Bode is a loose cannon when Richards is looking for cracks in the team’s structure. It’s not a good look is an understatement. Richards is ready to hand Jake the keys to the Station 42 castle, but it may mean betraying his best friend and ruining the Leone legacy. Meanwhile, Sharon ( Diane Farr) is starting to find the light after sorting through Vince’s (Billy Burke) things with Renee (Constance Zimmer), but secrets are bubbling up that could shake everything up.

Bode Is on Thin Ice in ‘Fire Country’ Season 4

I can totally understand Bode’s impatience with people who don’t use common sense. I spend half of these recaps ragging on him for that exact reason, but bro, there is a time and place. First, he’s set off by Jake using Vince’s axe on a scene. I can give him grace because it’s Vince’s birthday and it’s just salt in the wound that his dead is dead. Jake could have had a conversation with Bode before just taking it. That conversation still wouldn’t have gone well, but he’d have the higher moral ground to stand on instead of just claiming it.

Bode keeps forgetting that Jake is his captain, though. That means he has to respect what Jake says on a scene, especially when they are on Richards’ radar. He is constantly snapping back at Jake and doing his own thing, which makes him a liability. On the main call of the week, they are tasked with rescuing a zip-liner attempting to set up a romantic picnic to propose to his girlfriend. Jake and Bode free him from the stuck zip line just in time for his celebration fireworks to go off and almost start a forest fire.

It’s real dumb, and everyone on the scene is frustrated by it, but Bode decides to personally lecture the guy. He’s going fully in on this guy who also almost died. Jake tells him to calm down twice, and even gets backup from Eve ( Jules Latimer) before Richards steps in and tells Bode to chill out. It’s hard to count how many strikes this is for Bode, who is still holding on to his sobriety by a thread, but Richards is really over it.

When they make it back to the station, Richards tells Jake that he isn’t planning to disband the station. He thinks it can recover and get back in shape if Jake takes over as Battalion Chief

but he warns that whoever takes the job next is going to have to do something about Bode. By “do something,” he means fire him. He’s too much of a wild card and isn’t listening to reason, which puts everyone’s lives in danger. Jake has been working so hard for this promotion, but is he willing to throw his best friend and the Leone firefighting legacy under the bus to have it?

It’s extra complicated because Richards isn’t wrong. Bode is not in his right mind right now, and it is only a matter of time before he puts someone in a situation they can’t get out of. Jake knows that too, even if he isn’t clued into what is specifically causing Bode to act out besides his grief. He needs a creative solution to prove that Bode can be a good firefighter before he has to do something that will drive a wedge between him and the Leones forever.