Spoilers for Fire Country’s Season 2 premiere are ahead! If you haven’t seen the episode yet, you can stream it with a Paramount+ subscription.
When Fire Country premiered on the 2024 TV schedule, it started with a bang and left viewers on the edge of their seats because of the bombshell moment in the final seconds of the episodes. To recap: the premiere ended with Bode returning to Edgewater and Three Rock, and while he was with Eve at camp, Gabriela burst in to tell her she was engaged. All of this was very awkward for everyone involved, and when I had the chance to chat with the Fire Country cast about it, they explained what it was like to take part in Bode and Gabriela’s big moment that Eve was also there for.
How Max Thieriot And Bode Felt About Gabriela’s Big News
While Bode put on a brave face, and he told Gabriela he was happy for her, clearly he was not. While chatting with Max Thieriot about this jaw-dropping final scene, he not only told me his character was “crushed” by his ex’s news, but also that it was overall very awkward. Speaking about filming the scene, as well as how his character felt in the moment, he explained:
I think we both just played the awkward. But I think that, you know, Jules and I have a really fun relationship, and we're such good friends. And I think that we were sort of playing off of each other as far as our awkwardness and different levels of it, you know? And then naturally in between takes we were also sort of joking, like, ‘We should do something so when she comes in this scene is not what she's expecting it to be at all.’ It was like a lot of different ridiculous things that we were coming up with. But yeah, I think it's definitely a heavy ending moment of episode one for Bode where he thought he was back in this place that he knew. And he really does not.
Even though they had fun on that day while shooting, it wasn’t lost on Thieriot that his character was shell-shocked and really sad about Gabriela’s big news. It turns out Stephanie Arcila, who plays her, had similar feelings.
How Stephanie Arcila And Gabriela Felt About Bode Being Back
Following Fire Country’s Season 1 cliffhanger that sent Bode back to prison, Gabriela was left hanging. So, she moved on with Rafael de la Fuente’s new character Diego, and they got engaged during the premiere. So, when it came to filming this moment where Bode finds out about it, Stephanie Arcila told me what it was like to shoot, and what was going on in her character’s head:
It was great [to film]. We always have a good time. That's the thing that I'm so grateful for with our cast and our crew. I think that obviously like as characters we’re like ‘You’re engaged? How do you feel about that?’ And then Max is always just a joy as well. So having that walk you through, and then you know Jules [Latimer] has these incredible looks that she gives through her character, right? And then clocking that and looking back, and it's just like watching his face, and Gabriela trying to hold it together, but really just her heart feeling like it's broken in a million pieces again, in these two drastic changes of her life where all of a sudden she realizes he's back and she's engaged.
Continuing to tell me why this was an awkward moment for Gabriela, and how she might handle her ex being back in Edgewater, Arcila told me:
You know he said ‘Forget about me.’ And as much as she tried, you know, and as much as she went on with her life, I think that subconsciously she pushed a lot of things down and didn't expect to see him. So everything just comes...a flood of emotions is just coming back to her. So I think it's like these moments where she has to self-assess and realize and everything. But I think Gabriela, instead of doing that, just kind of dives into her work, you know. And I'm excited to see how that progresses.
I’m also excited to see how it progresses. Gabriela was so excited to share this news with Eve, however, Bode being back really threw a wrench in things.
How Jules Latimer And Eve Felt About Being Caught In This Awkward Moment Between Her Friends
Speaking of Eve, she really got stuck between a rock and a hard place, as she had to witness Bode and Gabriela’s shocking and awkward reunion. Telling me about what it was like to shoot that scene and simply watch this situation unfold, Jules Latimer explained how both she and her character reacted to this bombshell, saying:
When we shot it, I don't know how it's cut, I haven't seen the first episode, but it sort of got a little slapsticky because I was like, ‘Ahhh, does anybody want some coffee?’ Or [laughs] I was like, ‘I think I'll just leave you two here. I don't know what to do.’ Um, we were all laughing because it was just so frickin awkward. Like this is, I'm like, I think the fans are just gonna get a kick out of that scene. Because it's so, yeah, it's a lot.
As a friend of both Bode and Gabriela, Eve really is in a tough situation here, and watching her react to all this happening was both funny and awkward.
Overall, it’s nice to know that these three had a blast filming this moment, and they leaned into the awkwardness of it all. The episode ended there, so we don’t actually know what the fallout of this will look like. However, you can find out when the second episode of Season 2 airs on Friday, February 23 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
