The battle is only just getting started–and it could drive a wedge between Jake and Violet.
Fire Country has turned into a conspiracy thriller, and we’re here for it. The show is doing a subplot inspired by movies like Erin Brokovich and Michael Clayton, where underdogs go up against a corporation that’s harming people.
Last week, Kevin Alejandro told Parade that a story that’s much bigger than it seems at first is coming, and this week we found out what he meant. A powerful chemical company is poisoning Three Rock’s water supply and they’re trying to cover it up. On top of that, Jake’s (Jordan Calloway) new girlfriend Violet (Nesta Cooper) is about to take a job as an attorney for the company. It’s a different type of story than Fire Country has done before, and the show is doing it in a very Fire Country way.The story started when Three Rock resident Birch (Jeff Birch) got sick and died with sudden and severe flu-like symptoms. Eve (Jules Latimer) tried to get an autopsy done on him to figure out what killed him, but his body was cremated before it could be performed. When Eve talked to his sister, it seemed like someone else had persuaded her not to do the autopsy. Eve suspected that someone was trying to cover something up, and she vowed to get to the bottom of it. Then Manny (Alejandro) got sick with the same mysterious symptoms.Season 3, Episode 15, “One Last Time,” picks up with Manny recovering in the hospital. The nurse informs him, Eve, and Gabriela (Stephane Arcila) that he’s suffering from the effects of pesticide poisoning. The race is on to figure out where he was exposed. Here's everything that happened on tonight's episode of Fire Country.Back at Three Rock, all the other residents are getting sick. But Eve is not, and she realizes it’s the water. She has bottled water in her office, but the residents are drinking tap water. The well is contaminated.
Eve figures out the geographical coordinates for the location of the well, and asks Sharon (Diane Farr) to help her figure out who owns the land so they can ask them to help fix this fatal problem. But they discover that the land is owned by Oxalta, the biggest chemical company in California. It’s an extremely powerful and influential corporation. It has a senator on its board. This is not good.
Sharon has a friend on Oxalta’s board, and she calls her, trying to get more information. While she’s on the phone, an attorney from Oxalta named Bruce Meriwether (J. August Richards) enters her office and tells her how things are going to go. The company is lawyering up in a big way. From now on, all communication between Station 42 and Three Rock will go through attorneys.
“Why is that, Mr. Meriwether?” she demands, incredulously.
“Respectfully, Chief, I don’t have to explain why,” he says.
He’s not going to say it, but we all know what’s going on: Oxalta is poisoning the well and they know it, and they’re going to do everything they can to avoid taking responsibility for it. They’re going to cover it up, and try to crush Station 42 and Three Rock with their vast resources. It’s going to be an intense battle in the last quarter of the season. And they’re adding a new weapon to their arsenal in the form of Jake’s new girlfriend Violet.Meanwhile, Jake and Violet are getting serious, with Jake letting slip that he sees a future with her, an idea that doesn’t scare her off. And the future is coming for her. She is offered her dream job, a highly paid in-house counsel position at…Oxalta. Jake doesn’t know it yet — and Nesta doesn’t, either — but they’re about to become enemies. Will their budding relationship survive?
