Fire Country Season 5 Episode 5 Review: Another Epic Crossover with Sheriff Country

Fire Country Season 5 Episode 5, “No Way Out,” concludes another entertaining crossover with Sheriff Country.

Overall, the two-episode outing does an immaculate job not only finding a way for these two teams, Station 42 and Edgewater Police, to work together, but also building on their rich lore and shared past.

Picking up where Sheriff Country Season 2 Episode 5, “No Way In,” ends, we find Mickey and Manny in a real predicament when Kendra, Paige, and Crystal, escaped convicts, hold them hostage, forcing them to help in their quest for freedom.

That’s not the only issue, though, as Mickey and Crystal share a rocky past, previously putting Crystal behind bars for homicide. This creates tense moments among the five of them, as the fight for power among the three convicts becomes a nuisance and causes unwarranted strife.

Throughout the two-hour event, both Fire Country and Sheriff Country do an impeccable job working in most of the main characters and overlapping them. No aspect of the outing belongs solely to one side, and it adds an extra boost to the world-building the series is aiming for.

We have Tex, Skye, and Cassidy working together to figure out the convicts’ motives at the police station. Bode, Boone, Eve, and Jake are on the ground, working to help them get through a turned-over semi-truck. Lastly, Manny being the sole protector of Mickey when she’s taken at gunpoint.

On top of all this, the directors for both episodes, Edward Ornelas for Sheriff Country and Bill Purple for Fire Country, absolutely nail the assignment, seamlessly playing into one another and harmoniously blending their aesthetics and grand feelings.

Their situation comes to a fiery end when Bode and Boone ram their truck into a spot near Kendra and Paige, taking them by surprise, and quickly cuffing them. Manny, meanwhile, finds himself back at the rig, helping stop Crystal before she can take Mickey out for good.

While an unlikely pairing, Manny and Mickey’s dynamic in this outing is one of my favorite aspects of the latest crossover. We get to learn more about the history and depth of the personal connections shared between the departments.

Never in a million years would I have assumed Manny and Mickey had been on a date before. However, that connection and the two finally taking the time to digest why the date went so badly leads to quite the emotional development.

As parents, it’s natural to gravitate toward talking positively about your children, even going so far as to make them look better than they could be. In the adult world, this is where high school tactics tend to come into play, as people try to make their lives/kids seem better than the other.

So, when Manny approaches his date with Mickey right off the bat with the news that Gabriella is an Olympian, it strikes a few triggers in Mickey.

Earlier that same day, she was in the middle of looking for a rehab for Skye, leading to an emotionally overwhelming moment for her. From there, their date was destined to be a colossal failure, but it’s not all on Mickey.

Manny reveals that he only uses Gabriella’s status to hype himself up because he feels inadequate. With a sore spot about his past and his ex-con status, he hopes it’ll make him look better than he feels.

With a fitting bow to wrap up the entire episode, Mickey and Manny recreate their horrific date, turning a bad memory into a good one.

The showrunners behind Fire Country and Sheriff Country have yet another crossover to be immensely proud of.

Everyone brings their A-game to the massive event, but Morena Baccarin and Kevin Alejandro are the stars. The chemistry the two share is astounding! I hope to see more of it in another crossover.

Stray Thoughts:

• Seeing Bode and Boone hit the baseball and genuinely relax after their exhausting day is a treat. Max Thieriot and Matt Lauria are also a pairing that shares great chemistry. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and Boone will cross paths with Station 42 once more before the end of the season.
• Tex and Skye flirting with one another is absolutely hilarious! I hope they mention it somewhere in a future episode of Sheriff Country, because it’s so fitting for Skye’s character to be attracted to a boy like Tex.
• And we can’t forget the moment with Ian Quinlan (Hank) when he strips off his shirt on stage for the Bachelor Auction! Was I the only one hoping Kevin Alejandro would follow suit?
   

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Fire Country airs Fridays at 9/8c on CBS.

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