Fire Country‘s Max Thieriot and Stephanie Arcila know fans want Bode and Gabriela to finally get back together — but it doesn’t sound like season 3 is in a rush to make that happen.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Thieriot, 36, and Arcila, 34, individually weighed in on the “different dynamic” that is coming up for Bode and Gabriela.
“There will always be love and you will always feel that,” Arcila teased. “Most relationships — most long-lasting relationships — start off with friendships. You get to know each other and build that relationship outside of it. This is going to be a great opportunity for them to get to know each other in a different place in their lives.”
The season 3 premiere, which aired on Friday, October 18, showed Gabriela calling off her wedding to Diego (Rafael de la Fuente), but her future with Bode remained unclear. Arcila is looking forward to seeing whether the fan-favorite couple can “build” upon where they are in their lives at the moment.
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Thieriot hinted at a similar pause between Bode and Gabriela that will hopefully bring them back together in the future, telling Us, “Their relationship is symbolic of that. These are two people who were trying to explore this relationship with bizarre limitations and restrictions on it. Now that the handcuffs are off, so to speak, how can they move forward, and will they?”
Bode and Gabriela have been taking one step forward and two steps back ever since they met. In season 1, Gabriela formed a connection with Bode while dating Jake (Jordan Calloway). Gabriela ended her relationship with Jake to wait for Bode until he was released from the California Conservation Camp Program. Bode broke things off when he was sent back to prison, and by the beginning of the second season, Gabriela was engaged to Diego.
“It’s important for anyone in any relationship — and for people seeing it from the outside — to see the battle between your mind and your heart and what should be and what shouldn’t be. All of that is so human,” Arcila said about Gabriela’s conflicting feelings. “Society has built these fairy-tale stories especially for women. The fact that people get to see Gabriella question things and not know where she’s going is a beautiful part of the story.”
The actress is expecting some frustration from viewers. “A lot of people are angry and a lot of people are like, ‘Wait, what’s going on? What are you going to do? What is this?’” she noted. “But at the end of the day, we’re just all perfectly flawed humans.”
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Arcila is looking forward to more growth for Gabriela, adding, “There’s going to be lots of changes. This is a season that definitely shows her imperfections, which I’m so excited for because we’re all human. We’re not perfect. We make mistakes and we all deserve forgiveness and redemption. So, this is a story about redemption.”
Thieriot, meanwhile, urged fans to give their vision for Bode and Gabriela’s story a chance.
“It’s about finding that [storytelling] balance. You don’t want to have total instant gratification … [we’re] trying to stretch some of that out and earn those moments. It was easy to do that when he’s at camp and there’s only so much they can do. Now that he’s free, that’s been one of the challenges,” he revealed. “Figuring out how to stay in a little bit of that gray and fight through their relationship as opposed to just totally open the floodgates and have it become a thing.”
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The executive producer even argued that perhaps the audience doesn’t actually want Bode and Gabriela together just yet.
“Internally they don’t want that, because then you lose the conflict and you lose the struggle. So this season is very much long-gaming that out, which I think will be fun,” he teased to Us. “We get to see that push and pull and get to feel these two people, who are also really in different moments of their lives in season 3 than they were in seasons 1 and 2. In season 1, had Bode gotten out instantly, I think they probably would’ve gotten together. But now that they both have experienced different things and become the people they are, it adds different layers to that in a great way.”
Fire Country season 3 airs on CBS Fridays at 9 p.m. ET.
