Fire Country Unleashes a Fire Tornado, Life-and-Death Drama for Bode, Diego and Cara (Exclusive Sneak Peek)

After cooling its heels for two weeks, CBS’ Fire Country is “back with a bang!” this Friday, showrunner Tia Napolitano avows.

“We had a bit of a midseason break” due to CBS’ March Madness coverage, Napolitano notes, “and we always knew that when we came back for the second half of this very tiny [10-episode] season, we had an opportunity to go big.”

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To recap where the sophomore drama left off: In the course of putting out a fire at a chemical plant, Bode (played by Max Thieriot) brashly rushed into a burning building to search for more survivors, soon after which the place went boom. Fellow inmate Cole (Tye White) found Bode and saved his life, after which Bode was loaded into an ambulance with Diego (Rafael de la Fuente), Cara (Sabina Gadecki) and a prison guard.

But just before that episode ended, said ambulance skidded off the road, flipped and crashed. When the season resumes this Friday at 9/8c, viewers will realize the extent of the pretty brilliantly orchestrated life-and-death situation going in inside the flipped ambo.

“We loaded up that ambulance for drama,” Napolitano asserts. “Inside you have Cara, the woman Jake is about to propose to; Diego, the man Gabriela is about to walk down the aisle to; and Bode, the other man who has a piece of Gabriela’s heart.” (Oh, and don’t forget — Diego had just overheard a dazed Bode re-profess his love to Gaby. Awkward.)

Similarly, Cara had just told Bode that — after she and not-my-sister-but-my-daughter! Genevieve witnessed him getting him scolded/ordered to his knees by a Three Rock guard — he is not father material.

“Everyone has said and overheard all these ugly, juicy things,” Napolitano reminds, “and then we put their lives in danger, in close proximity, and stay there [inside the ambulance] — for a whole episode.”

Elsewhere, as seen in the exclusive sneak peek above, Vince (Billy Burke), Sharon (Diane Farr), Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) et al are bracing for a “fire tornado” that has formed and is fast making tracks for Edgewater.

“From the second we pitched ‘fire-nado,’ everyone’s eyes just lit up,” Napolitano recalls. “We decided, ‘Let’s come back with a bang!'”

Want scoop on Fire Country, or for any other TV show ? Email InsideLine@tvline.com, and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!

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