I don’t know about you, but I ship Bode and Chloe so hard on Fire Country, and Max Thieriot and Alona Tal’s chemistry is a big reason why. It makes sense too; the actors just so happened to play a couple for years on SEAL Team. However, according to Thieriot, his history with Tal also presents a challenge for their new fictional relationship.
While Bode and Chloe’s relationship is just getting started, Thieriot and Tal’s is not in its early days…not even close. They played a couple for years on SEAL Team, which you can see by watching the show with a Paramount+ subscription. So, I asked Thieriot ahead of Season 5’s premiere on the 2026 TV schedule how that impacts their work on Fire Country. He said it “impacts a lot,” and then explained one of the challenges they face because of their past:
SEAL Team, we went through [a lot], we saw an entire relationship unfold throughout the series. You know, from dating to marriage to kids. Like we got to really kind of go through all of it. And so by the end, it's like you're seeing a married couple. So I think the most challenging thing is honestly, as actors, is sort of that comfortability is great, but then finding a way to sort of re-infuse the awkwardness of the beginning dating stage back into a relationship.
It was Thieriot’s idea to hire Tal to play his love interest, and it was a great one too. However, I do see the challenge they were up against on Fire Country. While they have the chemistry down, Chloe and Bode don’t have a deep past. They are just really getting to know each other, which means their actors have to pretend like they don’t know each other.
To be clear, while this is a challenge, it’s a good one. As Thieriot told me, it’s not really “hard”; it’s just “different” for him and Tal. They had to start fresh after playing an established couple for so long on SEAL Team. Explaining that point fully, the co-creator of Fire Country said:
I don't know if it's hard; it's just different. So it's like starting new again, which is, I think, the challenge. But at the same time, I think we have such an ease between the two of us, like working together, that we get to kind of really push each other and find those moments together. And our rapport is so great that it makes it easy.
At the end of Fire Country Season 4, Bode and Chloe were together, and things were looking hopeful. So, I can’t wait to see how their relationship grows in Season 5.
So, how much of Tal will we see this season? Thieriot wouldn’t give me a specific answer. However, he did say they “want Alona around as long as [they] can keep her,” and he said that this season we get to “ really invest in [their] relationship and go through the ups and downs” with them. Specifically, the Bode actor told me he’s looking forward to seeing how their characters go about adjusting their lives to fit each other into them, especially since Chloe is a teacher and Bode is a firefighter. To quote Thieriot when it comes to this storyline:
There’s just so many different layers to it, and so we get to really kind of invest in that journey in a really fun way.
Well, I know I can’t wait to see this! And even though Thieriot said his history with Tal does come with a challenge, that one minor thing is far outweighed by the benefits that come with their history.
Now, to see these two actors back in action as Bode and Chloe, you can catch the new (and shorter) season of Fire Country on CBS every Friday at 9 p.m. ET starting October 9.
