'Sheriff Country' Season 2 Can't Escape Its Biggest Plot Holes | Review

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Sheriff Country Season 2, Episode 1.The first Fire Country spin-off, Sheriff Country, is back for its sophomore season, kicking off with the Season 2 premiere, "Cyclone." The first season ended by dropping an atomic bombshell on Sheriff Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin) with the shocking reveal that DEA Deputy Director Eva Santos (Rachel Ticotin) is Mickey's biological, long-believed-to-be-deceased mother. Additionally, the DEA is cutting a deal for Mickey's recently incarcerated father, Wes Fox (W. Earl Brown), as Director Santos wants his and Mickey's help taking down the Stoyanovs, a Bulgarian drug cartel currently operating out of Edgewater.

The revelation that Mickey's mother is alive, and Eva Santos was certainly shocking, but the scene was neither organic nor well written. The first season referenced Mickey's mother on multiple occasions, yet there was no reason to suspect she was still alive. Those mentions never played out as narrative foreshadowing. Not to mention, the idea that Santos was operating undercover, married a drug dealer, started a family with him, and somehow climbed to the top of the DEA sounded awfully far-fetched, even by Edgewater and Sheriff Country's standards. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Season 2 is going to be pulling back on any of this drama just yet.

Mickey's Family Drama Whirls Like a 'Cyclone' Through Edgewater

The Season 2 premiere, "Cyclone," picks up a few days after the first season finale. Deputy Nathan Boone (Matt Lauria) was shot 72 hours earlier during the finale, but he's not about to let that interfere with helping Mickey. Boone and Cassidy Campbell (Michele Weaver) arrive at the neighboring Drake County sheriff's office, headed up by Sheriff Jim Wade (Ben McKenzie), where they find poor Mickey passed out drunk after a binge-drinking session, drowning away her family sorrows. Mickey's reaction to last season's startling revelation is probably the most realistic and believable thing ever depicted in the show’s history.

Now that the cat is out of the bag about Santos, she pleads with Mickey for assistance in bringing down the Stoyanovs, but Mickey wants nothing to do with the mother she never even knew as Eva Santos, let alone her father, who flagrantly violated her trust multiple times last season. The show sets up an obvious premise that Mickey, Eva, and Wes will eventually put aside their personal differences for the greater good, and they will likely repair their frayed family dynamic. Season 2 positions the dysfunctional Fox family as the main source of the melodrama, but doesn't instill suspension of disbelief.

'Sheriff Country' Season 2 Poorly Explains Eva's Revelation

To the writers' credit, or perhaps not so much, "Cyclone" attempts to explain how Eva went from being presumably dead to having a lifelong career as a government agent. As showrunner Matt Lopez said to Soaps, Eva went undercover in Edgewater, assuming the identity of Sarah Bernal, to report on Wes Fox. Instead, she genuinely fell in love with Fox, married him, and they had Mickey. Flashbacks narrated by Eva to Skye (Amanda Arcuri) reveal how Wes' arrest and its aftermath played out. Despite the exposition offering details regarding how Eva faked her death as Sarah and resumed her work in the DEA, none of it makes much sense. The series' attempts to justify these extreme plot developments fail spectacularly.

It's one thing for Eva to go undercover and fall for her target, but the faking of her death and climbing to the top of the DEA just doesn't work. The way the flashback sequences play out doesn't effectively establish how Eva climbed out of a legally precarious hole relatively unscathed, especially without the public noticing. It's flimsy, hackneyed writing at its finest. Eva avoids jail, becomes the DEA's Deputy Director, and no one ever recognizes her? That's where the plot doesn’t just hit a roadblock, but careens over a cliff in a fiery explosion.

This scenario is easily worse than Boone's marriage to a mysterious wife, Nora (Susan Misner), which was later revealed to be a sham, only for Boone to attempt a genuine relationship with her. Nora then promptly breaks up with Boone, failing to cope with his profession, and she's never mentioned again. In Season 2, Boone is still flirting and perhaps looking to start a new relationship with Edgewater Medical Examiner Emmy Yorke (Jenny Raven), whom we first met last season. But what about Nora? Isn't Boone still legally married to her? Did they annul their marriage? What is going on?!

What Works in CBS' 'Sheriff Country' Season 2?

Image via John Medland/CBS

The one bright spot in Season 2 is the relationship between Cassidy and fellow Edgewater deputy Hank Iglesias (Ian Quinlan), as they're building their partnership and investigating the murder of Punch Elliott's (Sean Bell) mother, a crime for which Punch believes his troubled and vagrant brother Andy (Gabe Fazio) is responsible. The case presents a solid mystery for Hank and Cassidy to develop their dynamic, and it's also great to see Quinlan upgraded to a series regular in Season 2. Cassidy and Hank solving crimes with their fun chemistry works well, and it's refreshing to see Cassidy finally move away from that awful relationship with Mickey's ex-husband, Travis Fraley (Christopher Gorham), from last season.

Sheriff Country's disconnect from flagship series Fire Country becomes even more prevalent in Season 2. Fire Country and Sheriff Country take place in the town of Edgewater, yet both shows look like they are set in two distinct cities. Sure, some actors cross over in multiple episodes, but that's the extent of the shared continuity. The shows lack organic visual cohesion and continuity. Part of that is due to filming logistics. Sheriff Country shoots in Toronto, while Fire Country shoots in Vancouver, which is apparent when watching both series. The shows need to find some middle ground because right now, it doesn't feel like they're in the same world at all, aside from the copious amounts of soapy family drama.

New episodes of Sheriff Country Season 2 premiere on Fridays at 8 PM ET. New episodes will also be available to stream immediately upon release on Paramount+ in the U.S.

Release Date October 17, 2025

Showrunner Matt Lopez

Pros & Cons

• Cassidy and Hank partner up for an intriguing mystery, which nicely builds their dynamic and showcases their chemistry.
• Ian Quinlan being promoted to series regular is the show's best move yet.

• The unappealing Fox family drama continues to rule the series.
• The explanation of how Eva Santos faked her death and became DEA Deputy Director doesn't justify the awful plot development.
• Edgewater in Sheriff Country and Fire Country look nothing alike.