‘Fire Country’ Boss Talks Shocking Midseason Finale Ending: Who’s in the Most Danger?

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Fire Country Season 3 Episode 8 “Promise Me.”]

It’s almost impossible to say who’s in the most danger at the end of the Fire Country midseason finale. Well, maybe not. After all, one person has no gear and is surrounded by fire!

Station 42 and Three Rock work together to try to prevent a massive fire from spreading. To do so means appealing to Eve’s (Jules Latimer) father, Elroy (Phil Morris), a backburn on the land of his ranch is the way to go. That’s easier said than done, and even once they’re left with no choice, that takes a turn, leading to another blaze starting at the barn. Also in danger due to the fire? Bode (Max Thieriot) and Audrey (Leven Rambin), on their first day, trying to protect themselves by staying underwater in a pool, and Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila), having walked off without her gear after arguing with Jake (Jordan Calloway) and now surrounded. Her father, Manny (Kevin Alejandro), is on his way to her.

Below, showrunner Tia Napolitano breaks down the midseason finale and teases what’s ahead.

You’re crafting this cliffhanger, you’re putting Bode and Audrey, then Gabriela right in the middle of the danger, then you’re throwing Manny into the mix, going to look for his daughter. When did you know you wanted to end the first part of the season with all of that?

Tia Napolitano: Early when we were breaking the season, I wanted to put two people in a pool for sure. And I didn’t know who, probably Bode and somebody, but at one point it was like a bunch of people, and we knew we wanted to put a lot of people in danger early. That’s always the goal. It’s like what’s the danger going to look like? And then Gabriela’s story led us to a place where we felt like she could walk off the job. And then of course, what does that mean for Manny kind of story organically led to how and where we put people in peril.

Eric Milner / CBS

What can you preview about what’s coming next for those characters?

Oh, I’m so excited. I’m really excited about the premiere. It’s a shame everyone has to wait all winter break for it. It’s mostly a direct pickup. I mean, it isn’t an episode where you can really skip time. You want to be in that pool, you want to be in that fire, you want to be with Manny. We have a lot of questions of how we will ever pull everyone out of this situation. And it’s a freight train, man. The premiere is just a freight train.

Is there any time jump at all in that episode or in the one after it or is it just directly picking up and going from there?

No, it’s pretty straightforward.

Who would you say is in the most danger? Because I feel like it has to be Gabriela—she has no equipment with her whatsoever.

Yeah. She’s just out there where people should not be and she has no equipment and they have no eyes on her and she’s alone. If there’s two people together, they can work together. And I think she’s not sure if anyone even realizes the dangers she’s in. So she’s in a really scary situation.

But then there’s the fire starting at the barn. And even before then it was hard to see how Eve and her father would ever see eye to eye. What did you want to show with that relationship leading up to that cliffhanger? Because they’re that really lovely moment with the horse.

I know, and I think that lovely moment with the horse is kind of undeniable. I think even if this barn fire makes it worse for them, this is a conversation they needed to have regardless of how it ended. They’ve just been apart for so long. Feelings have been festering and now they’re literally exploding, and even as pissed as her dad and hurt as he looks towards the end of the episode, you can only hurt someone like that if they really love you. He must really love her, he’s really deeply hurt in a way that gives me hope. If you’re that upset at someone, there’s potential for a future if it’s a father-daughter relationship.

Sergei Bachlakov / CBS

So what can you tease about what’s to come on that ranch when the show returns and how Eve’s going to be handling that? She may have been away from that ranch for years, but it’s still her family home.

Yes, that’s still her family home. I don’t think we will ever see Eve more determined to win against fire as we’re about to see in the premiere episode, which is great. It’s just like a great color on her. She’s so often there for our people. We get to see our people be there for her and have her family be at the center of everything and the focus as opposed to the Leone family in that episode. And it’s just a nice expansion of the world.

I really liked the moment with Eve and Manny on their way to the ranch and Manny trying to be there for you.

Yeah, it’s really sweet. I love those two.

So talk about having Gabriela and Jake hook up and then their subsequent conversation at the beginning of this episode. When did you know this was going to be part of their journey together and as individuals this season and then also their different perspectives on telling Bode?

Early we decided, when we started talking about Gabriela kind of having a spiral and then when we got around to Jake’s going to lose Gen [Alix West Lefler] and that’s going to be very, very painful and slow and awful and losing Cara [Sabine Gadecki] all over again. And those are the spaces where people make mistakes when they betray their own character sometimes and anything that feels like you can’t come back for it is kind of the move you want to make on TV. It’s the most interesting stuff. And we felt strongly that both of those characters had had enough emotional growth that they could recognize that was a mistake, consensual mistake between friends. Jake has his issues to sort through with Bode. She sort of owes no one nothing and they were just there for each other on a really hard night. It seemed like a really fresh take. No one’s petty, no one’s catching feelings again, no one’s doing it for revenge. It is a mistake.

But I think yeah, they have very different points of view about it. I had really strong feelings about it as a woman and as a feminist that you owe nothing to your ex, what you do consensually with your body. And a lot of the male members of the staff felt like bro code, dude. So we brought those two POVs into that scene and just gave them the characters. It was really like people had strong opinions on both sides of the issue. When we crafted this story.

When I talked to Stephanie earlier this week, she also pointed out she was with Jake first and that’s the same thing with Bode. It’s all just complicated. 

Yes, she was with Jake first.

Sergei Bachlakov / CBS

I have to admit that at the end of Episode 306, I was like, is something going to happen between Gabriela and Camden (Jared Padalecki) at the bar?

That was intentional. That was one of my favorite outs of an episode this year.

So you talked about this a little bit, but what is that going to do to Bode and Jake’s friendship? Because I mean they’re doing so much better.

I know, they’re doing so much better. I guess the question is how mature is Bode? Because when push comes to shove, if you hold a mirror up, Bode did this and worse to Jake. Bode basically stole Jake’s girl and Jake didn’t say boo about it. He really just took it. It was the right thing to do and I think he could see that Gabriela’s heart was elsewhere, but we’ve sort of been here before with them in reverse and Bode’s not with Gabriela anymore. So do you have the right to, I don’t know. I think it really is like each individual person would react differently. And I think we’re going to walk around for a minute wondering when Bode finds out, how will he find out and what’s the level of reaction to it?

But then there’s also the matter of just what’s going on with Gabriela, and that’s more important is the fact that she’s going through a lot right now. So I’m wondering is the situation she’s in now going to be somewhat of a wake-up call for her?

I think there comes a point if you’re on a spiral of any variety where you scare the s**t out of yourself, and that’s the place she’s in, it’s like, “Oh no, this is bad.” Sleeping with Jake is one thing, living in the Airstream is one thing. Drinking with Camden is one thing, but I’m going to get myself killed. It does feel like an opportunity for her to really wake up to what she’s doing to herself.

And Manny on his way to her, is that going to be the beginning of them reconciling?

I hope so. I think what’s been missing for Gabriela for episodes and episodes is Manny. I think it’s been missing from the show, and in a good way, I think when we get it back we’ll be so satisfied. And I think that’s her family. They have a small family. It’s two people, but that’s her whole family. So if you’re not on good terms with one family member, that’s the whole thing. It’s not like she has seven sisters to call. So she needs her Manny back.

And Manny needs her back.

Manny needs her back.

You teased the potential of Bode and Audrey in 307. What’s the appeal of that potential relationship?

It’s interesting. They both just got out of something with someone else. So it feels very new, early for them. They have a lot of chemistry, even as friends. I love that they joke around with each other. There’s a lot of smiles, there’s a lot of laughter. It feels very easy in a way that I’m super interested in, but we’re not going to go running in that direction very quickly.

What is coming up for Gabriela and Bode? Now it’s clearly not the right time for them to be in a relationship with each other. They’re two very different places in their lives, but what does that mean for them to try to be friends? They tried that early this season and that did not work.

Yeah, I mean, we’ve seen her be alone on her way down a spiral. I’m really interested in seeing her be alone on her way up. This work she keeps saying she needs to do on herself, let her do it. Let her just be a woman on her own for a little bit in a way that I think is great. And Bode’s got a million plates spinning. I think in the epic will there or won’t they for Bode and Gabriela, we might not see their time very soon.

What’s coming up for Vince (Billy Burke) and Sharon (Diane Farr)? They’re adjusting to working with their son in these life-and-death situations.

I think we will start to truly see Vince and Sharon walk the walk of letting their adult son be their adult son and getting comfortable there and really the kids are growing up. I mean they’re not kids, they’re adult people, but in their careers and given where Bode is and his journey having been incarcerated, I think they really are growing up and there’s just a lot of gratitude of the perspective of how big a win it is to have their son back, to have him out and not be incarcerated. He’s a firefighter. In a twisted way, it’s a dream come true. And so I think really a place of gratitude for them

And I love them running Smokey’s.

Yes, it’s so fun. It really feels right, like the king and queen of Edgewater.

Sergei Bachlakov / CBS

What can you say about Manny’s parole hearing?

I’m very excited for Manny’s parole hearing as is he. We will see how he gets out of that fire when he walked off duty.

I like the Manny and Cole (Tye White) dynamic, too. Part of me is like, is Cole going to follow him?

Yes. No, he is not going to follow him. He also isn’t going to call him out too much so that anyone else can hear. He kind of lets him go.

You delved into Eve in this first part of the season, which I really like—the family stuff, but also her ex-girlfriend (Katie Findlay).

I know, it’s great. We’re really getting to know a lot of parts of her. I love that Francine is from her past and it really feels like the door isn’t closed, that they broke up over a misunderstanding and it really feels like in Episode 6 with the eagles, that chemistry is still there. It just feels exciting. It feels like we’re really filling out Eve’s life in a beautiful way.

Is Katie going to be back?

We’ll see some Katie. Katie will be back. Katie’s great.

What else can you tease about what’s coming up in the show when it returns?

We’ve got a long way to go. We’re not even halfway for the midseason, so there’s a lot of new engine. There are a lot of big bads that we’re going to have to fight against and a lot of good things that we’re going to have to fight for. We have a lot of surprises coming, A lot of really cool fires coming up and really different kinds of story, but it’s almost like a part B of the season. There’s just so much more to look forward to.

Will Michael Trucco be back?

Yes. I love Michael Trucco. We’re going to continue to get into Leone legacy business. We’re going to see Walter [Jeff Fahey], we’re going to see Luke, just lots of Leone family messiness, more family lore, family history, brotherly dynamics between Luke and Vince, which are so great.

Any other returning characters?

Not that I can think of.

Fire Country, Returns, Friday, January 31, 9/8c, CBS