Warning! SPOILERS about Fire Country season 3, episode 8 ahead.
EXCLUSIVE: Fire Country stars Diane Farr and Billy Burke weigh in on Bode and Gabriela's complicated romance, hinting at how it develops in season 3.
Despite Bode being incarcerated, he and Gabriela’s bond seemed unbreakable in Fire Country season 1. Diego’s arrival in Fire Country season 2 changed things, with his and Gabriela’s upcoming nuptials being the talk of Edgewater. Gabriela’s shocking wedding decision in Fire Country season 3’s premiere put a stop to her and Diego’s relationship, but that didn’t mean Bode and Gabriela got together, although the reason Gabriela stopped the wedding were her feelings for Bode. Fire Country season 3 has Bode and Gabriela unmistakably apart, but that can unexpectedly be good based on how unequipped Bode and Gabriela seemed to date.
7 Bode Needs To Focus On Firefighting & His Future
Bode’s Freedom & Building His Life Takes Priority Over Love
Were Bode and Gabriela to date, Bode’s focus would be pulled from firefighting. It already was in Fire Country season 3, when the two weren’t dating but only casually hooking up, and Bode’s attention being pulled was so evident that a perfect stranger like Camden realized it. Between pulling away from the rest of the group and riskily proposing to hookup in the middle of shift, Gabriela proved a liability for Bode, making it evident how Bode needed all his focus to deal with his training instead of sneaking around with or worrying about Gabriela.
6 Gabriela & Bode Want Different Things From Life
Bode Wants A Relationship, While Gabriela Is Focused On Her Problems
If the biggest challenge for Bode and Gabriela’s happily ever after was Bode’s incarceration in Fire Country season 1, they didn’t have that impediment in season 3. Fire Country season 2’s ending had already delivered Bode’s freedom, as his extraordinary conduct credit was awarded by season 2, episode 9’s ending, and Bode was officially out and about in Fire Country season 2’s finale. Fire Country season 3 marked the first time Bode and Gabriela could practically and relatively easily get together, and Bode wanted them to, but Gabriela had evidently other ideas.
Indeed, Bode and Gabriela wanted entirely different things from life in Fire Country season 3. Bode needed to focus on his future and finally build a life in Edgewater, surrounded by his family, while Gabriela felt adrift, wanting to settle her debt with Diego’s family about the wedding and also dealing with Manny serving time at Three Rock. While Bode and Gabriela briefly agreed to casually hang out, it quickly became too little for Bode by Fire Country season 3, episode 6, making it yet another good reason for which Bode and Gabriela shouldn’t date.
5 Dating Always Brought Out Bode & Gabriela's Recklessness
Gabriela & Bode Behave More Reasonably When There Are No Feelings Involved
Another major hurdle in front of Bode and Gabriela's dating is how their being closer brought out the worst recklessness in them. Bode consistently disobeyed Three Rock’s rules to meet with Gabriela in Fire Country season 1. Bode nonetheless displayed the worst recklessness on calls, going above and beyond to save Gabriela in season 2, despite refusing to tell her about his feelings. Bode’s vicinity also made Gabriela reckless, and that couldn’t have been more evident than in Fire Country season 1, episode 9, when Gabriela dove into a dangerous river to save Bode, disobeying orders and endangering her life.
4 Gabriela Has To Focus On Getting Better
Gabriela’s Crisis Reached Terrible Highs In Fire Country Season 3’s Fall Finale
Gabriela has been lesser and lesser like herself in Fire Country season 3. While she refused to talk with anybody worried about her, Gabriela slightly opened up to Jake in Fire Country season 3, episode 7, admitting she drank to numb her feelings and performed risky dives from the rocks to feel something. Jake, Vince and Sharon all tried to help her, seeing how differently she behaved, and even Bode worried, before Gabriela shut him out. Manny’s incarceration didn’t help, as Gabriela could put all the distance she wanted between them and he couldn’t do anything about it.
1 constant in Bode's firefighting was his disregard for orders if he didn't agree with them, making it a problem for his colleagues at Station 42.
3 Bode & Gabriela's Short History Proves They Might Not Really Know Each Other
They Spent Little Time Together & Even Less Getting To Know One Another
Fire Country always established Bode and Gabriela’s love story as the one at the center of the firefighting drama, with Bode even using it as his anchor not to waver while in Three Rock in season 1. However, Bode and Gabriela had only known each other mere months. Bode’s incarceration made it difficult for them to really get to know one another, and they spent the better part of Fire Country season 2 not speaking to each other after Bode shut Gabriela out upon returning to prison and Gabriela refused to speak with him once he returned to Three Rock.
2 Gabriela & Bode's Timing Is Always Off
There Is Always Something Stopping Bode & Gabriela From Getting Together
Fire Country season 3 showing Bode and Gabriela getting the chance to be together and not taking it proved their timing was off even when external circumstances were in their favor. Fire Country already proved Bode was better off without Gabriela after their relationship became the cornerstone of his entire motivation to get out of the fire camp in season 1, as everything he hoped for depended on getting parole as that meant he could finally be with Gabriela freely. Their stubbornness didn’t help them, as the setback of going back to prison effectively prompted Bode to ignore Gabriela.
1 Bode & Gabriela's Approach Shows They Don't See One Another As Partners
They Idealized Their Relationship & What It Meant
Gabriela and Bode have confessed their love for one another in more than one occasion, but it’s unclear if they actually see each other as partners, understanding the other’s wishes and needs, or just use their bond as an ideal. Indeed, instead of truly getting to know Gabriela, Bode spent the majority of Fire Country season 1 focusing on the future they could have together once he paroled, but his parole being granted wasn’t a certainty.
Fire Country season 3, episode 4's ending changed things for Bode and Gabriela, but their tryst sadly highlights how Manny was right about their bond.
Similarly, Gabriela idealized her and Bode’s short relationship in Fire Country season 1, seeing it as a panacea for all her personal problems, like the ones she had with Manny. Gabriela did exactly the same in Fire Country season 2’s ending when she realized she had doubts about marrying Diego. Instead of thinking about the reason why she was unsure about marrying Diego, Gabriela focused all her energies on what kissing Bode made her feel, proving that it was less about the relationship she could build with Bode and more about the idea Gabriela had of Bode in Fire Country.
Fire Country season 3 returns to CBS at 9pm on Friday, January 31, 2025.
Fire Country is an action-drama series created for CBS that follows Bode Donavan, a man in the middle of a five-year stint in prison looking to redeem himself. Given a unique chance to do so, Bode signs on to a unique prison-release program where he'll have the rest of his sentence commuted if he works with firefighters in Northern California. What starts as a chance at redemption becomes a confrontation with his past when Bode is assigned to his hometown - where his life went down the wrong path.
