Secrets.
When it comes to Fire Country, or you know, life in general, everyone keeps secrets. Revealing secrets isn’t easy, but protecting people from secrets is harder. Sometimes it’s the secrets that we’re protecting them from is one of the worst things that a person can do.
In this weeks Fire Country, we’re still on the arsonist, but hey, at least we know who it is now. And now as I am watching this show and I feel bad for Jake. Like I really don’t like the man, but I feel for him. Everyone is immersed in their own story, that’s true. Eve was right there.
But sometimes stories are hard to finish, hard to tell and hard to wrap your head around. For this episode, I am both confused and scared of what happens next. See, there is a thing about stories and there is a thing about redemption – learning secrets in the process that will tear you apart.
Jake is filled with secrets. He’s filled with a lot of secrets and he’s filled with a lot of hope. But he’s also filled with a lot of pain. Jake is hurting from the inside out.
But when no one believes in you and assumes the worst, how do you recover from that? It’s what Jake feels. Especially when he’s being asked about where he was from Sharon and Vince.
If you’ve been watching Fire Country, you know that when Jake was a kid he started a fire. Sharon and Vince both covered up for him and no one ever asked him why he started the fire. But when it comes to light that Jake started the fire, everyone at CalFire is looking at him as though he’s guilty.
And Jake, well, he’s hurt and rightfully so. Jake is looking for some backup, but no one is giving him support. Vince is looking at him as though he’s done something wrong and for Jake that’s the worst thing that can happen.
Jakes Dad passed away when he was younger and Vince has been the only father that he’s known. He’s looked at Vince as his hero and yes, while he’s kept his secrets from Vince, Jake doesn’t want to loose his respect.
Because he felt like he didn’t have the support, he reacted. Jake reacted, just as I think any of us would. He wanted to hear someone back him up and yes, he appreciated the way that Bode backed him up. Until Bode didn’t.
Bode was upset that he didn’t know about Jake starting the fire when they were younger. The look on Jake’s face when Bode started to doubt them made me break. I think it’s one of the hardest thing to experience when you think that you can trust in people and then they turn their back.
Even for a second,.
Bode does keep investigating, even though they have a huge fire they are fighting. He’s determined to keep trying to look into this one guy, who he knows is lying, and to be there for his friend. He wants his friend to be innocent, even though he knows that there is a possibility that he isn’t.
When Bode and Cap are able to prove Jake’s innocence, it still doesn’t help Jake. It doesn’t help Jake because he still doesn’t understand why it is that everyone would didn’t believe him in the first place. He also didn’t understand why it was that no one was asking him the right questions.
Somehow we all have to understand is that secrets are kept because people aren’t asking all of the right questions. What they aren’t asking, well, the silence can be deafening. The silence screams louder than words. It tells you what all of the doubts that people have and aren’t saying.
Jake and Bode have a moment where they are able to connect again. Jake tells Bode that when they were kids he started the fire when they were kids and he did it because he found out that his father was having a baby with another woman. He did it to try and make his Dad stay.
He told Bode that when he couldn’t give his kidney to Sharon, he went searching for his brother, thinking that maybe, just maybe his brother could be a match. But what he realized was that it was a long shot. And he felt bad because he couldn’t connect with his brother.
It felt like he was letting everyone down because he couldn’t save Sharon and it was hard for him that he couldn’t make a personal connection.
There is no part of Jake that isn’t hurting. There is no part of Jake that doesn’t feel alone. He’s grieving still and seeing him grieve was heartbreaking.
So yes, for a moment, I liked Jake. Jake deserves some peace.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- The bullets going off in the fire scared the shit out of me
- Gabby need to think better of herself
- Manny’s burritos looked a lil too small… but maybe I am too used to Chipolte
- The poor guy who couldn’t leave his room… I wanted to hug him
- Sharon getting caught keeping secrets… we all knew that was coming.
Fire Country airs Fridays on CBS.
