Fire Country’s third season ended on a heartbreaking cliffhanger, and the EPs are explaining why.
In “I’d Do It Again,” Vince, Sharon, and Walter were trapped inside Walter’s care facility because of growing fires, and before they could make it, part of the structure collapsed.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The cliffhanger was an emotional one, especially since Bode was held back outside by Jake and fellow firefighters, and all he could do was watch as his family was trapped. It seemed like a brutal way for the season to end, and showrunner Tia Napolitano told Deadline she “wanted this ferocity of Bode, just like a lion, primal, knowing three members of his family are inside that fire, knowing that he’s been resisting going in, and Jake, his captain, has been holding him back.”
“It wasn’t quite blocked that way, but emotionally, Jake, the ferocity of him protecting his friend,” she continued. “They were best friends. They’ve gone through some stuff. They’re brothers, and these two young men rising in the ranks in the fire department in the season of legacy with those three lions inside just felt like, gosh. The ferocity of Bode and Jake at the same time, and just going out on that energy, felt very satisfying and very, as Tony was saying, you want to lean in. What happens in there? What’s the fallout for Bode? There’s going to be huge emotional ramifications.”
“In the finale you see him — which we rarely see this side of Bode — fall to his knees, which just took my breath away when I saw the way that it was directed,” Napolitano explained. “So that image has always been a mainstay of what the finale was going to be.”
“I wanted to leave it like that without leaving a moment to settle,” co-creator Joan Rater added. “I remember on Grey’s, we would have these finales that we felt, ‘Oh my god. How are we going to solve this next season? We have written ourselves into a corner.’ But that’s where the best creative ideas come from.”
Said co-creator Tony Phelan, “There are different ways you can do it. You can have that kind of resolution, like they had on 9-1-1, or you can go off on the question and have the audience holding onto the question throughout the hiatus. And I think, depending on how you’ve chosen to wrap things up, both are really valid choices. As Tia said, the theme of last season was legacy, and so this felt like the best way to have the audience really grappling with what that means for all the characters on the show.”
While there will be a “devastating loss,” it hasn’t been confirmed who will be perishing in the fire. However, it’s been reported that Billy Burke will be exiting, so unfortunately, there’s a good chance Vince Leone will be the one dying. Fans are going to have to wait until the fall to see what happens when the show returns for Season 4, and although there are some good points made about why there is a cliffhanger, that doesn’t make it easier. All three seasons of Fire Country are streaming on Paramount+.