Bode’s Toughest Test Yet: Fire Country Season 4 Premiere Without Vince md11

Fire Country is about to say goodbye to two of its own, based on exits reported after the Season 3 finale. And the trailer ahead of the October 17 premiere reveals that Billy Burke‘s Vince dies. How Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) will be written out has yet to be seen, but we know she’s in that first episode, and new photos show her alongside Bode (Max Thieriot), Manny (Kevin Alejandro), Jake (Jordan Calloway), and Eve (Jules Latimer) during a rescue. Is this her last call?

In the premiere, titled “Goodbye for Now” — which we assume is related to Gabriela’s storyline — “in the aftermath of the Zabel Ridge fire, Station 42 faces internal turmoil but must rally together for a high-stakes rescue that tests their strength, loyalty and the future of the firehouse.” The episode will be airing at 8/7c, an hour earlier than usual, with the new spinoff

Sheriff Country premiering in its usual time slot, 9/8c. The two shows will swap back for the October 24 episodes.

The Season 3 finale ended with Bode (Max Thieriot) only able to watch as the Zabel Ridge fire consumed the care facility where his grandfather, Walter (Jeff Fahey), had been living and where he was still inside, along with Bode’s parents, Vince and Sharon (Diane Farr). The building was collapsing on them when we last saw them.

The trailer has since revealed that Vince does, in fact, die, while Sharon and Walter both survive. TV Insider spoke with executive producers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater about that decision.

“We felt like coming into Season 4, we have a show about wildland firefighters and we have the same cast that we had from the beginning. And to be truthful to the work that these people do, which is always our desire, we felt like it was time for the show and the characters to have a loss,” Phelan explained. “And last season was about legacy. Vince dealing with the legacy of his father and using that as a lens to look at what his relationship with Bode was. And as we were talking about the end of the season, we felt like the thing that was really going to shake up the show and shake up our characters in the best way possible and force them to really reassess where they were and what they were doing was this kind of loss.”

He added, “At the same time, we want to be very respectful of the character of Vince, of how important he is to the show, and how important Billy was as a presence on the show. So, the loss of Vince is going to echo through the entire season, and we are going to see our younger firefighters really have to begin to grapple with growing up and what is the next step for them.”

Rater told us that Vince’s death is revealed in the trailer because “we care about our fans, and to play Vince’s death as a gimmick or a [gasp moment] didn’t feel right. It felt awful actually. So it’s like, prepare the fans and really get into Vince’s dead early on and how is this going to impact us?”

What do you think will happen in the Season 4 premiere, especially after these first details, for the Leones? Scroll down to check out all the photos from the episode, then let us know your predictions in the comments section below.