Sabina Gadecki, Max Thieriot, and Jordan Calloway explain

how the impact of this loss will ripple across the community.

Last month, star Diane Farr teased “a turning point” coming up

on Fire Country, and that turning point just turned. While a firenado put the entire town of Edgewater in danger, Cara (Sabina Gadecki) was the episode’s big casualty. She succumbed to injuries sustained when the ambulance she was in was flung off the road. This tragedy leaves Genevieve (Alix West Lefler) without her mother, and the entire Edgewater community facing a lot of questions about what happens next for her.

Gadecki found out about Cara’s fate going into production for the season premiere, so she knew this was coming for some time. “I’m so grateful I had time to process my own feelings before it became something, so it was my little secret from the cast,” she tells Entertainment Weekly.

While she will miss both the role and working with her castmates, Gadecki understands the storytelling choice because it sets several characters on new courses. For example, Bode’s (Max Thieriot) driving force since returning to Edgewater from prison in the season premiere has been the fact that he is most likely Genevieve’s father. That secret is now out after Jake (Jordan Collaway) shared the news with Bode’s parents, so everyone will have to step into the new normal without Cara there to stabilize things for her daughter. “The story has to go places. It broke my heart, but I understood it,” Gadecki says about the exit.