Friday’s episode of Fire Country was quite a family affair, and Kevin and Leslie Alejandro spoke to PopCulture.com about the most challenging part of it.
Leslie directed the latest episode of the firefighter drama, marking her second time directing Fire Country.
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The episode, “Elite of the Elite,” saw Bode trying to prove himself during the REMs tryouts, and a leak about the Zabel Ridge arsonist igniting turmoil across Edgewater. It had everything from emotions to action. The REMs tryouts, for instance, involved some navigating, big rescues, and obstacles, taking a mental and physical toll on the firefighters hoping for a spot on the elite team. While it was a tough challenge, Leslie said it was also fun.
“Honestly, the REMS tryouts were the challenging part for that was keeping the action up and making the stakes feel that they were still high because everyone knows that these tryouts aren’t meant to kill anybody off or knowing that accidents can happen,” she explained. “But, kinda keeping those stakes up and making the action feel just as big as any of the other episodes. So it was that, but it was still fun to figure out.”
Meanwhile, even though Kevin’s Manny had some pretty intense scenes when it came to Jake, who was still not happy about what happened with Malcolm, due to Manny’s decision during the wildfire, that wasn’t the most challenging part about the episode for him. And it mostly had to do with his wife taking over directing, and knowing when to step back.
“From the outside, if I wanted to jump into the director brain of me, I was envious of what you had in that episode because you got to really have the opportunity to highlight the skills and the advantages and highlight the different parts of each character of what makes them a great firefighter,” Kevin admitted. “Merrily quick, but also makes them a great human being.”
As previously mentioned, this is not the first time that Leslie has directed Fire Country, and the couple frequently works together, so it’s not like they aren’t used to it. But directing these kinds of high-stakes missions, and not being able to step in and trust that she has it, and making sure to highlight each character, can be difficult. But the episode turned out pretty great, so they both did well. With Fire Country renewed for Season 5, it’s possible that this won’t be the last time Leslie steps behind the camera.
New episodes of Fire Country air on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+.