Spoilers for Fire Country Season 2, which just wrapped up on the 2024 TV schedule, are ahead. If you missed the season finale, you can stream it right now with a Paramount+ subscription.
Going into Season 3 of Fire Country, we’re going to have a lot to unpack, especially when it comes to Bode and Gabriela’s relationship. Between Gabriela’s mom championing Bode and Max Thieriot and Stephanie Arcila’s characters sharing a kiss, I thought something would go down between them at her wedding to Diego. However, nothing happened, Bode left, and the showrunner told us why he decided not to interfere on his ex's big day.
While speaking with CinemaBlend about the eventful Fire Country finale, showrunner Tia Napolitano detailed the decision behind not having Bode break up Gabriela’s wedding. Despite Freddy telling him to act on his feelings in the episode and the kiss he shared with his ex earlier, he ultimately decided to not be the guy who speaks when "speak now or forever hold your peace" was mentioned. Napolitano told me why exactly he made that choice, saying:
Yeah, we walked every road of ‘Is he actually gonna break up this wedding?’ I think Bode is not the guy who's going to stand up and embarrass her in front of all those people. So what his intention was to go to her before she steps in front of all these people and ask her like real talk: ‘Do you want to do this? Are you happy?’ And then Manny gives him his answer. And Bode can't do it.
This is in line with what Max Thieriot has told me about Bode too. When I asked him at the start of Season 2 if Bode was really happy for Gabriela and Diego, he bluntly told me “No.” However, that was followed up with him explaining how selfless his character is, and he noted that his firefighter would rather “carry the burden and the weight around” if it meant “somebody else [could] be free.”
With that philosophy in mind, it makes sense that Bode didn’t break up the wedding. He wants Gabriela to be happy, and if that means it’s without him, so be it.
As the showrunner said, when he tried to talk to Gabriela, he got the answers he needed from Manny, who told him that she had said this day was “the happiest day of her life,” and confirmed that she was “happy.”
Tia Napolitano reiterated all this and added more about why Bode made the decision he did in those final moments of Fire Country’s sophomore season, telling me:
If she's happy, he's never gonna try to break up this wedding. But he can't watch her do it. He can't sit there and watch it, and he has to walk outside, which I think is so Bode. He just excuses himself.
So, that’s why Bode left the church, walked outside, and asked his Uncle Luke to help him become a firefighter. He’s trying hard to move forward, and he’s trying to accept the fact that Gabriela seems happy with Diego.
However, is she truly happy with Diego? How would she have felt if Bode would have actually gotten to her? Also, we haven’t seen her and her fiancé say “I do.” That means, there’s going to be a whole lot to unpack between Bode, Gabriela and Diego when Fire Country returns in the fall for Season 3.
