via CBS
Published Oct 17, 2026, 2:38 PM EDT
Jeffrey is a freelance features writer at Collider. He is an MPA-accredited entertainment journalist and a Tomatometer-approved critic based in the LA area. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science in Radio, TV, & Film and a Bachelor of Arts in Theater.
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Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Fire Country Season 5 Episode 2.Fire Country is back for its fifth season, but there have been some noticeable absences in the first two episodes. In Season 4, the writers finally remembered a subplot that was first introduced way back in the Season 1. Jake Crawford (Jordan Calloway) has a half-brother who he never met. Season 4 finally brought Malcolm Crawford (Dominic Goodman) into the fold, establishing his relationship with his long-lost brother and forging their sibling bond. However, as Season 5 progresses, it's strange that Malcolm Crawford is nowhere to be found, leading to some awkward moments in the latest episode, "Fire Under Fire."
Malcolm Is MIA in 'Fire Country' Season 5
Malcolm's absence in the first two episodes of Fire Country Season 5 is particularly weird considering the shocking cliffhanger that ended the Season 5 premiere, "Founders' Day." In the final sequence, a gunman opens fire on Station 42, and Jake is wounded by a gunshot. The next episode, "Fire Under Fire," picks up right from where the episode ended, with Jake hospitalized and everyone worried over his condition. Once again, where is Malcolm?
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz
Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?
Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
FIND YOUR PARTNER →
01
You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.
ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.
REVEAL MY PARTNER →
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
It would be one thing if Jake lived out of state or on the other side of the country. However, he lives and works in Edgewater. During his Season 4 arc, Jake went out on a limb to get Malcolm a job working in Battalion 1408 at Station 42. We last saw Malcolm in the Season 4 finale at his brother’s wedding to Violet (Nesta Cooper). Jake and Malcolm obviously grew very close after they finally met, so why are the writers treating the character as if Malcolm vanished and never existed?
Keep in mind, Season 5 picks up with CAL FIRE and Station 42 short-staffed due to the flood, so they need all the good hands they can get. The lack of explanation for Malcolm's whereabouts is highly problematic. Bode Leone's (Max Thieriot) girlfriend, Chloe (Alona Tal), is also noticeably missing in these early episodes, but Bode at least mentions that Chloe isn't in Edgewater at the moment due to her son’s incarceration. No such explanation was given about Malcolm.
'Fire Country' Has a Problem Writing Out Important Characters
What's happening right now with Malcolm in Fire Country encapsulates a larger problem in the show: important supporting characters with major roles in the narrative are unceremoniously discarded. Case in point: Genevieve Maisonette (Alix West Lefler). For those who may have forgotten about her, Genevieve is the daughter of Cara (Sabina Gadecki), Jake's deceased lover who tragically died in Season 2. At one point, the series even teased that she might be Bode's daughter, which was little more than a bait-and-switch. Bode's entire motivation for returning to Three Rock in Season 2 was his belief that Genevieve was his daughter at the time.
After Cara's tragic death, Jake took it upon himself to take care of and provide guardianship for Genevieve. Bode also wanted to serve as a role model for her, even after learning she wasn't his daughter. However, Genevieve leaves Edgewater to spend time with Rick Stengler's (Adam Aelderks) family after Rick is revealed as Genevieve's biological father. It was a jarring exit for a character who had a fairly prominent role in the first two seasons. Also, Bode and Jake never appear to check in with her. As of Season 5, Genevieve and Cara feel like distant memories, as if they never existed in the series, despite their significant relationships to Bode and Jake.
It's not just Genevieve who suffers from this issue, but Gabriela Perez (Stephanie Arcila) as well. Gabriela leaves Edgewater for a CAL FIRE recruiting mission early in Season 4, telling Bode she loves him before leaving town. Yes, Gabriela received a formal exit storyline, but even that wasn't handled well. After all, how long does a CAL FIRE recruiting mission last? They certainly don't last two years. Can’t Gabriela ever return home to visit her father or Station 42? It was a clumsy way to write out one of the show's best characters and temporarily delay the series' main romantic pairing, Bode and Gabriela, a romance that viewers had been invested in since the first season.
The Way Forward for Malcolm Crawford
Image via Sergei Bachlakov/CBSNow, Malcolm Crawford plays like the latest victim of Fire Country's narrative void. Hopefully, the writers fix this problem as Season 5 continues and provide a proper explanation for what happened to Malcolm. It would have been easy to establish that Malcolm and his family moved away from Edgewater, or that he accepted a nice job offer to become a firefighter somewhere else. Otherwise, Malcolm's conspicuous absence when his brother is shot and hospitalized makes no sense. Now, it comes off as if all the time dedicated to setting up Malcolm in the series and putting him at Station 42 was a waste of time, which is not only a disservice to his character but to Jake's as well. It's very frustrating how Fire Country habitually builds up characters, offering them significant roles in the plot, and forgets about them later. The writers can't just ignore the Malcolm issue forever.
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