Fire Country Season 3: How Episode 16 Sets Up The Spin-Off Sheriff Country
Contains spoilers for "Fire Country" Season 3, Episode 16 — "Dirty Money"
If you've been raring to find out more about "Fire Country" mainstay Bode Leone's (Max Thieriot) aunt Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin) in light of her upcoming spin-off "Sheriff Country," then "Dirty Money" tells you a whole lot about where she and her stepsister Sharon (Diane Farr) come from — and why they're women who believe in law and order versus the fast and loose way to success. It also introduces fans to an important new character who will apparently act as Mickey's foil in "Sheriff Country."
In "Dirty Money," we meet Sharon and Mickey's pop, Wes (W. Earl Brown), and it turns out Bode's predilection for illegal activities might just run in the Fox side of the family. Wes has a large illegal marijuana empire, and he's less than popular with his fellow drug runners. One of them tries to take Wes out, so Mickey and Bode team up to figure out who tried to put Grandpa Fox in the deep freeze. While Sharon and Bode eventually figure out what's gone awry, Wes refuses to go legal with his empire. Per Max Thieriot, therein lies the rub — and the genesis of the main conflict between Mickey and Wes, which will presumably carry over into their spin-off.
Max Thieriot notes the importance of building tension between Mickey and Wes
Speaking with TV Insider, real-life hero Max Thieriot revealed that "Dirty Money" definitely sets up Mickey and Wes' intended future dynamic. "We have to have a huge arc for those two in this series and just maintain that sort of conflict of having a father who is the epitome of everything that she's not and what he represents versus what she represents and why she became a sheriff and the childhood that she had," he said. With Mickey determined to stay on the straight and narrow and her father obsessed with dollar signs, it looks like Mickey will be fighting a permanent battle with her resistant pop to get him to go into the legal pot game.
Will Mickey give in and hide things for Wes, the same way Sharon has sheltered Bode from some of the harsher consequences he's coped with? Or will she remain strong and make his life difficult? And will her conflict with her own daughter — who hasn't been cast but will apparently be a huge part of the show — complicate things? Everyone will find out when "Sheriff Country" debuts on CBS in the fall of 2025.