'Fire Country' EP Defends Major Death, Why [Spoiler]'s Exit Was Necessary ...Middle East

Season 4 of Fire Country introduced several hurdles for its characters — a death, a major exit and a possible relapse — and there are no regrets about exploring so many changes at once.

During the premiere on Friday, October 17, Bode (Max Thieriot) was dealing with dad Vince’s (Billy Burke) death when Sharon (Diane Farr) chose to shut down the station for a while. Then Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) chose to leave Edgewater and Bode ended up in a concerning place by the time he was secretly checking the pills he had stashed away in his locker.

The CBS series surprised viewers with the shakeups, which came amid other fictional firefighters leaving or dying on other shows. While speaking exclusively to Us Weekly, showrunner Tia Napolitano defended the vision for the series going forward.

“It’s a fire show. Anyone can go at any time,” she said about the character deaths and departures. “But in terms of losing people, we’re also adding some really fun guest cast. It’s a revolving door of people from Sharon’s past and new faces that are exciting to bring conflict and secrets and twists and turns.”

Which 'Fire Country' Stars Are and Aren't Returning for Season 4 After Exits

While “really spicing it up” this season, the show has to walk a “fine line” of still paying tribute to the loss experienced on screen.

“What we’ve done is really thread the needle of honoring — especially Vince — because Gabriella is gone but she’s gone to a happy and successful life. She’s still out there. But we really walk this line of honoring Vince while also finding hope rather quickly,” she noted. “Looking forward, the theme of the season is rising from the ashes and recovery.”

Napolitano continued: “How do you recover from something like this and we’re really going to see everybody rise to the occasion. In celebration of Vince, of his life and in honoring the sacrifice that he made.”

Keep scrolling for a breakdown of what to expect from the season:

How Does the Show Adjust to Billy Burke’s Exit?

According to Napolitano, the show “planned” for Vince to be killed off.

“It was a creative choice we made so we knew that Vince wouldn’t be in the picture for season 4,” she revealed. “We felt like for this show — that was so rooted in the death of Riley — we started having a death that the audience could experience and mourn along with our characters. It felt like a return to the show’s roots while keeping it fresh and really throwing new challenges at everyone but most of all Bode.”

Where Does Gabriela’s Exit Fit In?

Vince’s loss is meant to hit in a “different” way compared to Gabriela’s departure.

“It really feels like a reimagined and fresh version of our beloved Fire Country. We do have Audrey for some time — just in terms of following more firefighters who are early in their careers on the show to keep alive that generation of the show,” Napolitano explained. “Us missing the Manny and Gabriela stories has been interesting. You’ll see Manny say, ‘I have nobody to flex these dad muscles on.'”

She continued: “So you really see him becoming paternal with Eve, becoming paternal with Jake and always with Bode. But he finds his way to be a leader and a mentor and an inspiration to that generation.”

Napolitano isn’t ruling out a return for Gabriela in the future.

“We intentionally let that door open and Bode says that love has never been the issue between him and Gabriela. It’s always been timing,” she continued. “That door certainly is open. I’m a fan of Bode and Gabrielas so I’m hopeful that we’ll see more of them to come.”

Will Bode Continue His Romance With Audrey?

“She’s back. They will be a couple that we really root for. We throw some obstacles at them right off the bat. You see Bode grab for those pills in the premiere and that’s going to be an issue for him,” Napolitano teased. “She’s going to be someone that he’s really able to to lean on and who’s really going to encourage him to choose good over evil and to be the person he’s worked to be for all these seasons that we’ve seen him.”

When asked about the fan backlash against Bode’s connection with Audrey, Napolitano replied, “We love for an audience to have strong opinions. I love a slow burn romance. I love longing. I love rooting for two people to get together. That’s a show that’s in it for the long run — with a long romantic arc. I think getting [Bode and Gabriela] together would have felt like the less exciting version. I want the audience to want for them to be together.”

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Is Bode Going to Relapse?

Napolitano noted there was “definitely the potential” for Bode to relapse after secretly keeping multiple sets of pills.

“Bode is a recovering addict. That’s something that he struggles with and we’ve seen him really successfully put that in the background for a lot of our show,” she explained. “With Vince’s passing and Gabriela leaving, it felt like that’s a real challenge that a person experiencing addiction problems would face. We wanted to honor that authenticity and watch him struggle, It won’t be easy and we’re going to root for him to really overcome it and be on that roller-coaster with him.”

Will Bode’s Friendship With Jake Get Even Worse?

“It’s very brotherly. They really feel like two brothers who lost a father. I think grief looks different on different people. They’re always vying for the same space within this Edgewater community and the Leone family,” Napolitano told Us. “It’s a spot that when it gets hit, it can open old wounds of the place that Jake took within the Leone family when Bode left.”

She added: “To see them both have their eye on this prize after the death of their father or father figure, it felt really organic. We’re going to want to root for them to come out of it and be friends again. We just lost Vince, we want that familiarity of that friendship and we will get it back. But we want to honor the conflict of this very real between these two.”

Where Does Shawn Hatosy’s Brett Richards Fit Into All This?

“He really walks a line of letting us wonder if he’s a good guy or a bad guy. We get to know him and we will have him for some episodes. We will see him later in the season as well,” she teased. “We really want to invest in this character. We get to know him over the course of the arc. People want to know who is this guy and what’s his agenda? Can we trust him?”

Napolitano wouldn’t give away Brett’s true motives, saying, “The things that we’ll discover about his style, about where he’s from and what his backstory is will surprise us as we dole out these little breadcrumbs to figuring out who Richards is.”

How Will Eve’s Story Shake Out?

Season 4 is set to follow Eve as she fights “to get Three Rock” back.

“It’s going to be very difficult and when she does succeed — because Three Rock is part of the DNA of the show — she’s going to have to fight because bureaucracy is difficult. The camp did burn down and it’s not like money’s falling from the sky for a program like this,” the screenwriter explained. “But she fights for what’s right. Our people rally behind her and eventually, when she accomplishes it, we’ll be surprised that the Three Rock we get back is wonderful. But it looks very different and very fresh and brings something new to our show.”

Napolitano added: “We’ll also see Eve reconnect with her family again. We want to see more of that. Eve also has romantic challenges this season that will surprise us.”

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