Fire Country revealed new — and unsettling — details about how exactly Vince died after Billy Burke‘s shocking exit.
During the Friday, November 21, episode of the CBS series, Walter (Jeff Fahey) visited Sharon (Diane Farr), who previously blamed him for not searching for Vince when they were all trapped in a burning building.
The late firefighter’s dad told Sharon that Vince was already dead before they tried to find an exit. Despite Sharon blaming Walter for not allowing them to save Vince, his revelation confirmed there was nothing they could have done.
Season 3, which wrapped up earlier this year, ended on a cliffhanger with Vince, Sharon and Walter’s lives left in the balance. News broke hours after the finale aired in April that budget cuts led to Burke, 58, and Stephanie Arcila‘s exits. (Burke has yet to address his departure.)
“I had no idea ever. But at the same time, I know that this is the nature of the industry that I’m in, and I have accepted the flow of release and acceptance throughout my journey and knowing that when one door closes, another one always opens,” Arcila, 35, exclusively told Us Weekly in April. “We have this beautiful eternal door of revolving desires in what we love in life. I believe that if we put resistance towards that, sometimes it stops us from fulfilling other things that we love.”
While speaking to Us, showrunner Tia Napolitano defended the decision.
“It’s a fire show. Anyone can go at any time,” she said in October about the character deaths and departures. “But in terms of losing people, we’re also adding some really fun guest cast. It’s a revolving door of people from Sharon’s past and new faces that are exciting to bring conflict and secrets and twists and turns.”
Fire Country will have to balance “really spicing it up” while still walking a “fine line” of paying tribute to the loss.
“What we’ve done is really thread the needle of honoring — especially Vince — because Gabriella is gone, but she’s gone to a happy and successful life. She’s still out there. But we really walk this line of honoring Vince while also finding hope rather quickly,” she noted. “Looking forward, the theme of the season is rising from the ashes and recovery.”
Napolitano continued: “How do you recover from something like this? And we’re really going to see everybody rise to the occasion, in celebration of Vince, of his life and in honoring the sacrifice that he made.”
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Farr recently spoke to Us about adjusting to the new normal.
“I found out over the summer. None of us knew what was happening,” she exclusively shared earlier this month. “Billy, Jeff and I went into the fire and we didn’t have any more information.”
The actress recalled multiple character exits could have been possible since Jake (Jordan Calloway) “was possibly transferring” and Gabriela did end up leaving the series as well.
“I think now we’re always going to have the OG cast — the original seven. The hope for all of it is I would love to see Gabriela and Bode have a more adult version at some point,” Farr, 56, teased. “I would love to see Sharon start to have dreams where she sees Vince. This is the this we take when we let these amazing actors go out and be free. They may be unavailable [to come back].”
The hardest exit for Farr to deal with was Burke, who played her onscreen husband.
“It was very clear that the producers or writers were going to make some kind of change. It was Billy who told us all. He told the cast in a group note saying that he wasn’t coming back — it was pretty devastating,” she recalled. “Everyone was sad and I felt like I was coming back in with only half my character because they’re so tied.”
Fire Country airs on CBS Fridays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes will be streaming the next day on Paramount+.
