Fire Country season 3 ending with Bode being kept from entering the building engulfed by flames by Jake highlighted how defeated Bode felt, believing his family had all died. The lack of certainty over Vince, Sharon and Walter’s fates in Fire Country season 3’s last moments ups the stakes, as no answer would be available for audiences and characters until Fire Country season 4. However, updates about Fire Country season 4’s cast, external to what happened onscreen in season 3, undercut the impact of the shocking cliffhanger after two original cast members were revealed they wouldn’t return in season 4.
Vince Leone’s Fire Country Season 3 Finale’s Fate Is Confirmed By Billy Burke’s Future
Billy Burke Not Returning For Season 4 Decreases The Worry For Sharon & Walter
Indeed, on the same day of Fire Country season 3’s finale airing on CBS, Deadline reported Stephanie Arcila and Billy Burke wouldn’t be returning to play Gabriela Perez and Vince Leone respectively in Fire Country season 4. Arcila’s exit as a series regular was confirmed by Fire Country showrunner Tia Napolitano and co-creators Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, but they chose not to comment on whether Burke was the other original cast member exiting the firefighting drama to keep audiences guessing. Still, the fact that only those two names were mentioned points to a degree of certainty over those exits
Billy Burke not returning for Fire Country season 4 can only mean Vince Leone died in Fire Country season 3’s ending. The strength of Fire Country season 3’s cliffhanger ending was based on Vince, Sharon and Walter being equally in danger of dying in the fire, but Burke’s exit effectively decreases that danger for Sharon and Walter, as it would be wholly justified by Vince’s death. Between the high stakes of Fire Country season 3’s finale and the fact that Vince would never abandon Bode and Sharon, especially after reuniting as a family, Vince’s death is the only possible outcome.
