SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the two-part Season 3 finale of CBS‘ Fire Country, “A Change In the Wild” and “I’d Do It Again.”

EXCLUSIVE: CBS’ Fire Country just delivered another suspenseful, emotional finale ending in a major cliffhanger. But its impact will go way beyond any previous season closers as Bode Leone (Max Thieriot) and Station 42 will be left reeling from the departures of two main characters next fall.

According to Deadline sources, Fire Country original cast members Stephanie Arcila, who plays firefighter and EMT Gabriela Perez, and Billy Burke, who plays Cal Fire battalion chief and Bode’s dad Vince Leone, will be leaving after three seasons.

Burke’s Vince is part of the finale’s life-and-death cliffhanger involving Vince, his wife, Cal Fire Division Chief Sharon (Diane Farr), and his father, retired battalion chief Walter Leone (Jeff Fahey) trapped in burning memory care building with the roof collapsing on them.

In an interview with Deadline, Fire Country co-creators/executive producers Joan Rater and Tony Phelan and executive producer/showrunner Tia Napolitano spoke about Arcila’s exit as a series regular and shared their hope that she would return as a guest star so “the epic love story of Bode and Gabriela” can continue. But they would not confirm Burke’s departure, opting to keep fans guessing whether it would be Sharon, Vince, Walter or Jake — who had given a two-week notice after accepting a new job — leaving the show.

The trio explained in detail the decision to make the first casting changes on the series after three seasons, the way it was reached and handled and the ramifications for the remaining characters, especially Bode who was held back by his captain and friend Jake (Jordan Calloway) from rushing in to help his parents and grandfather.

They addressed the resolution of Gabriela’s stalker storyline, which may create complications for ex-con-turned-firefighter Audrey (Leven Rambin), who shot Finn before Gabriela’s dad Manny (Kevin Alejandro) swooped in to keep him alive and was ready to cover for his daughter if she had pulled the trigger. Separately, Manny decided to go for the 42 captain position that was being vacated by Jake.

Season 3 finale’s writer Napolitano and husband-and-wife Phelan and Rater — who all previously worked on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy — also discussed the future of Three Rock, whose crew of incarcerated firefighters, led by captain Eve (Jules Latimer) valiantly but unsuccessfully tried to save the camp from the raging wildfire that also caused the building collapse with the Leones in it.

They trio also spoke about the big cliffhanger, the Leone family legacy and working on the firefighter drama during the L.A. wildfires.

DEADLINE: It’s been pretty bad week or so for California fire chiefs, coming off of what happened on ABC’s 9-1-1. Did you have any idea that they were doing something there too?

PHELAN: No, no, no idea at all.

RATER: But when you’re working on shows that have such danger and high stakes, it’s, I guess, to be expected that sh*t’s gonna happen.

PHELAN: Joan and I, having come from Grey’s Anatomy, we’re used to killing people. You always want to, on these shows, make sure that the threat is real, and also make sure that you are telling stories in an honest way, and that you’re finding the most exciting, creative way to tell the story.

Shaking up the cast: Why? And why now?

DEADLINE: I cannot think of another show in recent memory that has had the same series regular cast in the pilot going to series and through three seasons. Same group, no additions, no departures. Why did you keep the cast intact until now and why did you decide to shake this all up after Season 3?

NAPOLITANO: Especially in the beginning, we felt like we had lightning in a bottle. It just was magic, the chemistry with this cast. Season 2 was obviously very short because of the strike, and at this time, Season 3, leaning into the authenticity of the real-life heroes that our characters are playing, people die, they leave.

That’s a reality, there’s danger in this sort of job, so we wanted to honor that and really up the stakes. Again, coming from a show like Grey’s Anatomy for years and years, that’s how it works with character-driven dramas. You want the opportunity for that door to open, for someone to walk out of it, or for someone to walk into it. We’re really leaning into that aspect of the show as well as honoring the authenticity.

DEADLINE: This time of year, especially, we focus a lot on budget cuts; CBS has done it on multiple shows picked up for next season. Was that a consideration at all for the cast change, keeping Fire Country‘s costs in check to remain financially viable in the long run?

RATER: It really just comes down to what’s the best creatively. There’s a lot of stuff going on that we as producers juggle, but honestly, we are writers first and foremost and storytellers. And we struggle with these stories, we wrestle them to the ground, we consider them from six different angles. We don’t do anything lightly, we talk, we talk, we talk. And then we just have to go with our gut about what makes the most compelling story, and we are really trying to write authentic stories that examine what these heroes deal with and go through. So that’s where we’re coming from at all times.

PHELAN: Also, going into Season 4, you don’t want the audience to ever feel complacent, to feel like they know exactly what they’re gonna get, and it’s gonna be the same thing that they’ve gotten. You want to create lean-In moments where the real stakes of what’s involved with what these heroes do is always there. So the audience never knows what’s coming next.

Arcila’s Departure & Burke’s expected exit

DEADLINE: The decision for Stephanie to leave, was it done earlier in the season? And when did you tell her about it?

NAPOLITANO: It wasn’t decided earlier in the season. It was during discussions about finding the end of the season. We spoke to Stephanie while we were shooting the finale.

PHELAN: It was really a decision that came out of the dynamic between Bode and Gabriela; we felt like those two characters needed a reset. We love Stephanie, and we are committed to saying that the Bode-Gabriela story does not end here, it goes on.

We’re hoping that we can bring that character back, because we think that they have such great chemistry, and the audience is really invested in the two of them. But we felt, with everything that’s happening in the finale and moving on into the next season, that it was time for that character to discover what’s next for her.

DEADLINE: What about Billy? When he, Diane and Jeff were filming the finale and that fire scene, was any of them aware that that at least one of them would not continue? And when did you make a decision that it would be Billy?

NAPOLITANO: We are not going to confirm who we’re losing. There will definitely be a devastating loss for everyone that remains in our family. No, shooting the finale, none of the actors knew.

DEADLINE: A few of the Fire Country series regulars, including, I believe, the two in that fire, had been asked to reduce their episodes for next season in a cost-saving measure. I heard they banded together, and ultimately their episodes were not reduced. Is the cast member departure in any way, shape or form, connected to that?

RATER: No, it’s really coming out of us wanting to be exciting storytellers.

Open-ended finale with no goodbyes

DEADLINE: How did you decide to leave the finale open-ended? I mentioned 9-1-1, their character died onscreen. You went for a big cliffhanger with three people in danger. And as for Gabriela, the last time we saw her, she was looking at the fire in horror and no indication she may be leaving.

RATER: Tia had this beautiful image about how she wanted to end the season. Tia, can you talk about it, the lions roaring at each other?

NAPOLITANO: I wanted this ferocity of Bode, just like a lion, primal, knowing three members of his family are inside that fire, knowing that he’s been resisting going in, and Jake, his captain, has been holding him back.

It wasn’t quite blocked that way, but emotionally Jake, the ferocity of him protecting his friend. They were best friends. They’ve gone through some stuff. They’re brothers, and these two young men rising in the ranks in the fire department in the season of legacy with those three lions inside just felt like, gosh. The ferocity of Bode and Jake at the same time, and just going out on that energy felt very satisfying and very, as Tony was saying, you want to lean in. What happens in there? What’s the fallout for Bode? There’s going to be huge emotional ramifications.

In the finale you see him — which we rarely see this side of Bode — fall to his knees, which just took my breath away when I saw the way that it was directed. So that image has always been a mainstay of what the finale was going to be.

RATER: I wanted to leave it like that without leaving a moment to settle. I remember on Grey’s, we would have these finales that we felt, “Oh my god. How are we going to solve this next season? We have written ourselves into a corner.” But that’s where the best creative ideas come from.

PHELAN: There are different ways you can do it. You can have that kind of resolution, like they had on 9-1-1, or you can go off on the question and have the audience holding onto the question throughout the hiatus. And I think, depending on how you’ve chosen to wrap things up, both are really valid choices. As Tia said, the theme of last season was legacy, and so this felt like the best way to have the audience really grappling with what that means for all the characters on the show.

DEADLINE: When you were breaking the season early on, did you already know that not everyone of the three Leones would walk out of that building? Or was that a development that came later?

NAPOLITANO: We had talked about a number of different scenarios in the writers room early on, but the goal was always to end the season in a big way … that vision of lions roaring at each other. Deciding which characters that would impact was a creative decision made later in the process and we also wanted to maintain the authenticity that first responders have dangerous jobs with life-or-death stakes. The Edgewater community and Station 42 are about to be rocked.

DEADLINE: Did you discuss potentially not killing anyone off? Did you wrestle in the writers room with the different scenarios: should somebody die and who should that be?

NAPOLITANO: Yeah, we get into it in that writers room. I think we imagined no exits, one exit, multiple exits, different exits, every which way we have to. What is the show like if we do this? What opportunities are there if we exit this person or keep this person. We owe it to the audience and to the show to throw all the pieces in the air and see where they fall in Season 4. It is time for something a little fresh that’s still the same show everybody loves, but with a twist.

DEADLINE: None of the characters whose lives are in danger had a chance to say goodbye or have a farewell scene. Did that stem from the desire for authenticity — since deaths in real life are often unexpected and abrupt — and did you consider giving them proper goodbye?

NAPOLITANO: This stems from authenticity.

Time jump & possible cast additions

DEADLINE: Will you do a time jump, or will we start right after what happened with the big fire?

NAPOLITANO: The writers room starts in a week and a half, so I think we will play with time. I think the most important thing is, we’ve left huge cliffhangers, so we’re going to satisfy all of those cliffhangers and give everyone the information that they’re craving — we’re certainly never going to skip over any of that. Will we play the time deeper into the episode? Perhaps, we’re still figuring out the most exciting premiere.

DEADLINE: Are you going to be beefing up the cast in light of the departures? Will there be new additions for next season?

RATER: We haven’t started in earnest talking about next season. And I think we’re going to have so much excellent, mind-blowing, really deep and incredible story for the people we have, so that’s what we’re going to be focusing on.

PHELAN: There’s a lot of loss in the finale: the loss of Three Rock and what’s happening to our cast, that putting the pieces back together is really what the beginning of Season 4 is going to be about.

Finale’s impact on Bode

DEADLINE: Speaking of loss, even if you are not confirming who exactly dies, they are all Leones, so the impact on Bode will be profound. He already has struggled with addiction and the death of his sister. How much more grief can one person take on before they break? How will he handle it? Could he relapse again?

RATER: It’s a show about redemption and second chances and the strength these people have, and we lean into that. We believe it. We want to explore that. We don’t want to torture Bode by any means but these guys are in a dangerous profession, and we can’t ignore that, and we didn’t want to.

PHELAN: I think you are asking all of the questions that the audience is asking, which is, how much more can he take? And I’m sure those are going to be questions that he’s going to be grappling with all through next season. So we look forward to finding the new way to tell that story.

RATER: And by the way, there’s a lot of humor to be mined. Whatever happens next season, we also plan on having some joy and some light and some life and some humor, because that’s real too.

Gabriela’s stalker exit arc & likely return

DEADLINE: After being put through the wringer the last three seasons, Gabriela got to end her arc with a creepy stalker storyline. How did that come about? And since there was a gun in the scene, and we know the rule that it has to fire, was there any discussion of her being shot and killed since Stephanie is leaving?

RATER: Oh, I can’t remember, but I don’t think so. Although, you know a writers room, Nellie, everything is discussed, but I don’t think that was ever on the table. We love her too much. I like the way you talk about this, Tia, that in the pilot, we make this promise that Gabriela and Bode are going to be very important to each other in their lives, and we stick by that. So our hope is, and our plan is to bring Gabriela back at some point in a really satisfying, beautiful way for the audience who I know cares as deeply about that relationship as we do.

NAPOLITANO: It’s important to echo to what Tony said earlier, it isn’t goodbye. So I wouldn’t say that her story is ending with a stalker story. We hope to see her back very soon, to give her a proper not goodbye, but see you later. In the epic love story of Bode and Gabriela, sometimes it’s very useful for a longing, to miss her, to miss them, to really crave seeing them on screen together, whatever they mean to each other. It’s part of long-arc, character-driven storytelling. We love her, and we’re all excited to see her on screen again.

PHELAN: We think of her in the same way that people loved George Clooney and Juliana Margulies on ER. They are a big part of each other’s lives, and even though one of them might not be around all the time, their presence lives in the show.

DEADLINE: You just gave fans an idea where you may be headed because we all know how Doug and Carol’s story ended.

PHELAN: True.

DEADLINE: But Gabriela also is still part of the family because she and her father, Manny, are very close. She has a reason to pop in to visit him from time to time.

RATER & PHELAN: That’s right. Exactly.

DEADLINE: What did you think of fans’ reaction to the stalker storyline? I think it was pretty divisive, no?

NAPOLITANO: The one fun thing that I read was, once we started to tip into him being a little creepy, people are smart. They were like, “Oh, I think that he’s going to be creepy, he’s going to be a stalker, I knew he was too nice.” That was really fun to watch the play by play and to see how surprised people were, and they seemed like they were really captivated by it. So I thought it was fun to read the fan reactions.

DEADLINE: Will we ever see Gabriela in a healthy relationship?

RAITER: (laughs) I hope so. We love our characters like they’re our own family, and we want the best for them, so I hope so.

Vince finding closure

DEADLINE: Can you talk about the Vince-Walter storyline this season? You gave Vince really nice closure with his father as he finally accepted Walter’s diagnosis and reconciled with him in the episode with Jelly Roll.

PHELAN: As we said, we really felt like legacy was a big part of this story from the beginning of the season on. We told the story last season of Vince and Sharon coming to a point in their lives where they felt like they didn’t need to parent Bode as much anymore, and they had moved on. And then they get hit with, oh my God. Now Vince’s father is declining, and we need to deal with that.

So telling that story, and Vince’s complicated relationship with Walter, and Walter being a firefighter as well, and the legacy of the Leone family was really important to us. And the fact that Jeff Fahey and Billy Burke did such amazing work this season to really embody those characters and bring them to life and make us feel so much for how difficult it was for Vince. The prospect of losing his father before he could reconcile with him was a really important story for us to tell. And the fact that we could get Jelly Roll into it and and have that be a part of that reconciliation was really big.