SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for “Sheriff Country” Season 2, Episode 5, “No Way In” and “Fire Country” Season 5, Episode 5, “No Way Out.” Both series stream on Paramount+. It was all hands on deck for the most recent crossover between CBS procedurals “Sheriff Country” and “Fire Country.” A raging wildfire sent Manny (Kevin Alejandro) and the rest of Station 42 to the Edgewater Police Department to ask Mickey (Morena Baccarin) and her squad for help evacuating residents if the flames moved closer to town. The request was made a bit awkward by the reveal that Manny and Mickey once went on a date from hell after being paired up at the police department’s annual date auction.
There wasn’t too much time to dwell on that, as the mission was complicated by the news of a prison break. Three women inmates escaped a transport van in the midst of the fire chaos, and Mickey needed her troops to find the missing convicts instead of helping with the fire. Mickey ultimately sacrificed herself to the convicts after they were found at The Meat Up, and would only let the hostages inside go if Mickey let them take her daughter, Skye (Amanda Arcuri), with them as collateral to make it across the county border.
Skye was saved by her mom, and Manny didn’t let a bad date stop him from volunteering to drive the fire truck the trio wanted to escape in so he could help them fight the incoming flames at the top of the crossover’s second hour. The situation went from stressful to terrifying when a downed semi-truck forced Mickey to improvise and call in his crew so they could allegedly clear the truck, but also buy him and Mickey time to escape their captors. The trio realized what was going on before Mickey and Manny could fully escape, leading to a shootout and one inmate with a serious grudge trying to ax Mickey to death.
Eventually, Boone (Matt Lauria), Bode (Max Thieriot), and the crew were able to subdue Manny and Mickey’s captors, allowing everyone to go home to their families in one piece. Manny and Mickey ended the day with a beer, and they cleared the air about their awful date. The chemistry was crackling as they shared a drink, and they weren’t the only pair with sparks flying in the two-hour crossover.
Variety spoke to “Sheriff Country” showrunner Matt Lopez and “Fire Country” showrunner Eric Guggenheim about how they crafted this year’s action-packed crossover episodes with shows that film on opposite coasts — and what burgeoning relationships are going to extend into the rest of the season. Eric Guggenheim: You said it. The shows film on opposite sides of the country, and across three time zones.
Scheduling is probably the biggest challenge, but it’s a fun puzzle for us to figure out. It’s a real credit to the line producers on both “Sheriff” and “Fire” that they were able to make it work. The next thing is continuity, because we shot scenes for Part 2 in Toronto before we started shooting “Fire Country” Season 5.
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