Season 4 of Fire Country will see two major cast exits — but will that result in character deaths?
Max Thieriot teased how his character, Bode, would react if his father, Vince (Billy Burke), died following Burke’s departure from the series, telling TV Line on Sunday, June 8, “Bode has obviously gone through a lot of hardship in his life and it seems like every time he feels like he’s coming out the other side, something happens.”
Bode would be “very broken” by Vince’s death.
“So I worry what [Vince’s death] would to do him, and how poorly he would respond,” Thieriot, 36, added. “We know [Bode has] made leaps and bounds as far as the person he is after being incarcerated. But has he come far enough to deal with something like that or not? It’s heavy.”
The season 3 finale, which aired in April, ended on a cliffhanger with Vince, Sharon (Diane Farr) and Walter’s (Jeff Fahey) lives left in the balance. News broke hours later that budget cuts led to Burke, 58, and Stephanie Arcila‘s upcoming exits. (Burke has yet to address his departure.)
“The minute that they told me [Gabriela wouldn’t return as a main character], I accepted it. I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to put Gabriela in this beautiful little drawer of fulfilled dreams and let the universe take over,'” Arcila, 35, exclusively told Us Weekly in April. “I respect every department in our industry, and I know that we all know what we’re doing and have a way with storytelling. It’s a collaborative process. I have no idea [where Gabriela’s story] would go from here, but you never know [about coming back].”
Arcila said she was in “complete shock” about her departure. “I had no idea ever. But at the same time, I know that this is the nature of the industry that I’m in, and I have accepted the flow of release and acceptance throughout my journey and knowing that when one door closes, another one always opens,” she added. “We have this beautiful eternal door of revolving desires in what we love in life. I believe that if we put resistance towards that, sometimes it stops us from fulfilling other things that we love.”
Arcila, who played Gabriela since Fire Country premiered, went on to address the overwhelming response to her and Burke’s futures.
“We watch these shows and we grow with them. We grow these attachments as well and we look forward to watching them. So it’s shocking,” she continued. “I have received all those messages. People have so much love for Gabriela — and I didn’t realize it. We’re in such a bubble sometimes when we’re working nine months out of the year. So you don’t realize that.”
She concluded: “Then when we get back, we try to pour into ourselves because we pour so much into these characters. So to have this big reaction and this amount of mourning that the fans are having — it’s like a big hug. It warms my heart so much.”
Fire Country is currently streaming on Paramount+.
