One of the biggest questions going into Season 4 of Fire Country surrounded the crashing building and who might not make it out of it. Then, the trailer for the season that’s about to premiere on the 2025 TV schedule confirmed the casualty from that event, as we learned that Vince had, in fact, died. Now, Max Thieriot is opening up about how Bode will be impacted by his father’s death, and I’m nervous.
At the end of Season 3, it was revealed that Stephanie Arcila, who plays Gabriela, wouldn’t be returning as a regular, and it was also reported that Billy Burke wouldn’t be back as Vince. However, while Arcila’s exit was certain, there wasn’t immediate confirmation about Burke and Vince’s fate. Now, we know his character died, and it’s pretty obvious it’s going to impact everyone at Station 42, and specifically Bode, as Max Thieriot told TV Insider:
It’s certainly going to be sitting there pushing him, trying to push him over the edge, which is scary for someone like this. And I think the troubling part is that the way he’s trying to cope with it is he’s trying to put on this face of, ‘I’m OK, everything is OK.’ And as Bode does, he internalizes things when really he desperately needs to be letting it out in some way.
He’s so right, Bode is the king of compartmentalization, and that won’t do him any favors here. As Thieriot said in this interview, Bode “hasn’t experienced a loss like this” since his sister died, and his life has changed a lot since then.
Earlier this year, the actor said he was worried about Bode and “how poorly he would respond” to a loss like this. Now, he has to face it head-on. However, he also has to help his friends, family and community too, which might cause things to go unchecked within him, as the co-creator of Fire Country explained:
And so he’s battling with himself over trying to be the man that his mom needs him to be and that the station needs him to be and his community needs him to be, while inside, there’s a little boy in there that’s really hurt and is really crying inside.
I’m so worried that Bode is going to put everyone so far ahead of himself that he’ll explode this season. He’s selfless to a fault, and while that can help others, in this case, it won’t be good for him. To that point, it feels like he’ll hit a breaking point, which Thieriot alluded to as well, explaining:
I think we see him really sort of at his breaking point constantly, but because of that — and this season is really about rising from the ashes and overcoming — his journey will be one that, people always say, ‘You have to get knocked down to get back up.’ And this is really sort of the epitome of that for him.
Along with getting knocked down himself, it seems like this situation will create challenges in his relationships with his friends and colleagues, specifically Jake. To that point, the actor explained that Bode will be blaming others and “questioning every decision that everybody makes,” and that means various relationships will need to be healed.
However, it sounds like that growth and healing can happen as Bode climbs back from rock bottom. But first, he has to be at the bottom, as the actor said:
I mean, you can’t really get knocked down any further. And so I think while there will be a lot of that, by the end, we see probably more growth than we’ve ever gotten to experience Bode have in this series.
Well, while I’m certainly worried about Bode and how he’ll be doing following the death of his dad, this last comment makes me feel better.
If he can figure out how to heal and maintain healthy relationships with his friends and colleagues, I think he’ll be on a good path. However, we have some rough waters ahead first, as Fire Country is set to premiere Season 4 on Friday, October 17, at 9 p.m. on CBS, or you can stream it the next day with a Paramount+ subscription.