[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Fire Country Season 3 Episode 18 “Eyes and Ears Everywhere.”]
Poor Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila)! Just as it seemed like she found the guy to move on from Bode (Max Thieriot) and their very complicated history with on Fire Country, he turns out to be a stalker.
After coming on too strong following their first kiss and text messages that took a turn, in the Friday, April 18, episode, Finn (Blake Lee) set fire to his own house so 42, and therefore Gabriela, would come to his rescue. As she rode with him in the ambulance to the hospital, the others found his basement filled with photos he’d taken while following her. Vince (Billy Burke) came to her rescue, but Blake fled, armed with a scalpel.
Elsewhere in the episode, Jake (Jordan Calloway) got a job offer to be a captain in Butte, where he could one day become battalion chief, which isn’t in the cards at 42, which Vince acknowledged when the two (finally) sat down at the end of the episode. Plus, Bode and Manny (Kevin Alejandro) fought back against Oxalta, despite their NDAs, and with some help from Sharon (Diane Farr) and Renee (Constance Zimmer), they were able to get the settlement they deserved and Renee had wanted with her class action suit (even after some threats).
Below, Arcila breaks down that scary turn in Gabriela’s love life, ponders her character’s feelings for Bode, and more.
Finn’s not a good guy and he’s a serious threat, but even if he had been a good guy, do you think Gabriela was ready for that kind of relationship?
Stephanie Arcila: I think that she is, in part, a hopeless romantic and yearning for what she kind didn’t receive when she was younger. So I think in this moment she’s like, “Okay.” Obviously not now after seeing all these text messages, but doing the textbook thing again: “Okay, this would be a good guy. Okay, maybe I should open myself up.” But I think that she definitely probably needs some time to process some things as well, and those are falling into those things and not seeing red flags in the beginning are part of our journey into our healing traumas.
Sergei Bachlakov / CBS
So what was your reaction to the storyline, and especially seeing the script, with photos of Gabriela in the basement, he started the fire, and then everything that happens in the ambulance?
Oh, I did not see that coming. So when I was reading it for the first time, I was like, “What?! This is insanity.” But I also loved it because I think it’s a really good way of bringing awareness. This happens to people a lot and we don’t realize it. So to be able to have that awareness of seeing those red flags and taking all the steps and having all the tools to protect yourself, it’s really important, too.
Talk about filming the episode and then especially when you have the scenes in the ambulance when Gabriela is not in control.
Yeah, I think Gabriela, just by how she was brought up, has this fighter and this kind of find resolutions and figure it out and try and fix it personality, which is also slightly maternal in a way because I feel like she had to be a mom to her dad as well at some point. So it was nice to explore those sides of her, those waves of her releasing control, knowing that she can, because her whole life was being an Olympic diver. Her whole life was having these moments where her life has no control, but everything in her career usually does, to have that duality and watch her handle it in a way where she now does, no longer has the anxiety of doing it because she feels confident in it as well and has processed those emotions of when she can’t save everyone.
How is Gabriela feeling at the end when Manny asks her where her gun is? Is she even prepared to have to use it?
No. I think so many thoughts and emotions rushed through her head, including, what is my dad doing and what is he thinking? He just got out. All of the fear of abandonment, the fear of losing her quote only family member, even though Edgewater has become family to her, I think it’s really, really scary. But also they’re very right. The Perez family is very much “figure it out, go, we’ll deal with the rest later.”
Yeah, I have to say I love that they have that nice happy moment though as a family that Manny is out before all of this is happening. They needed that.
Yes, yes. I think that was a really hopeful moment for Gabriela and for Manny as well, but just she can kind of breathe again.
How worried is Gabriela about Finn being out there and being a threat to her versus thinking he’ll just flee?
She’s just thinking that he’s going to flee. I don’t think she knows the severity, the extreme of it. I think she’s being very cautious about everything, but I don’t think she knows what’s coming.
Sergei Bachlakov / CBS
Even though Gabriela seemingly tried to move on with Finn, there’s still the amount of Bode and that’s always going to be complicated, but how does she feel about Bode right now?
I think it’s that impossible love, and sometimes you just need some space and a breather to maybe come back to each other or develop a new type of relationship, whether that’s a friendship, but the love will always be there. I think that was a love for them that neither one had experienced, but in having the space and allowing each other to grow differently, we get to know each other in a different way is also healthy. Sometimes we got to explore other people, right? It’s like, isn’t that what dating is? You go on dates. Even in jobs, you go on job interviews and you go on maybe three and you see which one best fits you and aligns with you.
Yeah, it just feels like it’s so complicated for them to even try to figure out how to be friends because they kind of just keep falling back into each other.
Yeah, it’s kind of hard to backtrack when you never really started as friends and it was instant. It’s kind of hard, but I think it’s also a good learning healthy curve for them as well. And whatever happens is going to feel like it was earned.
I have to say how much I’m really enjoying seeing Gabriela and Audrey be friends. That’s a friendship I didn’t know I needed until it started playing out on screen.
It’s so nice. Anytime they give Gabriela — she’s surrounded by men all the time, whether it’s her dad, whether it’s her coworkers. So anytime she gets another female energy in there, I think it’s nice because she’s not used to it. So to be able to explore that and have that camaraderie as well in the fire station is exciting.
What is it that Audrey brings to Gabriela’s life that she specifically needed?
I think her fearlessness. Audrey has been through it, so has Gabriela, but Audrey is, I think, sometimes mentally in a place where she’d like, I got nothing to lose. So I think that fearlessness that she has and that openness because girl’s not used to being around so many people. She had a very solitary Olympic diving career and then jumped into this Edgewater town where everyone’s in your business. So it’s having that is really fun to play with.
It’s looking like Jake is going to be leaving 42 and something the show has done so well is move Jake and Gabriela from dating to friends, even past that one-night stand. They feel like friends. So how would Gabriela feel about Jake leaving if he does?
I think you said it right, they went from dating to becoming friends to, I think now it’s more of a brother-sister even energy, and he in some way has always had her back and is somebody that she can talk to. So I think at the end of the day, anyone who leaves that fire station, it’s kind of like a small hole in your heart, right? Because we’re all so close-knit.
Is there anything that you really hope to do with Gabriela going forward?
I want Gabriela to not be saved by someone else. I want her to save herself. I want her to rise above and have that strength that we women have naturally because we are women, because we are survivors, because we do bring life into this world. I want her to really continue pouring into herself into this new version of herself and not need anyone to save her.
You’ve had some of your co-stars direct over the years — Max, Kevin, Diane. How has that been?
I feel like anyone who directs that is an actor from specifically our show, they already know it. They know the baby, they know the foundation of it, they grew within it. So having all of that knowledge is always so helpful and so easy. It’s just like another day at work with them. We get to explore different creative gates that we haven’t been in with them. So it’s really exciting. It’s always exciting seeing people jump into different departments because we are multi-talented there. Everybody knows how to do something else always, and it’s incredible.
What was your favorite scene to film from the season?
It was probably my favorite and the hardest. It was the episode that Kevin directed where I was shadow-directing as well. So a combination of that. But the scene where I’m in the bathroom, just telling him the truth and just pouring it out and telling him, “You abandoned me. I needed you. Stop running from all these things.” It really gives him so much crap for running, so for her, that’s a big thing. You don’t run away from your problems. You face them, especially for family. We’re here for each other and we show up for each other.
So having to be behind the camera with Kevin and then all of a sudden that scene comes up as well, which is just really emotionally complex and everything has just come up to a boiling point and just spills out and to just that fearlessness that we were talking before, right? This is her moment of not having fear and expressing her full self and her full emotions with her dad. And she feels like at this point she has nothing to lose because he is her everything. Gabriela’s dad is her first love. He’s the one that he looks up to. And to be disappointed and devastated in that way was so hard. And just to have it be directed by Kevin was so special as well. To be able to lift those dualities with him in scene behind the camera and in front of the camera and him make it such a safe space to be that vulnerable was really special.
How was the shadow directing experience?
Oh my goodness, I had the best time. Kevin is, I’ve gained a dad on set and offset, but also just a really good friend and he’s so completely just generous in teaching me, and I’m so grateful to have learned from the well of his wisdom. He also would ask me, which is a rarity, “Hey, what do you think about this stuff? How would you do this?” Things like that. Or if I had an idea, he’d be open to it and he’d tell someone and someone would tell him, “That’s a great idea.” And he’d be like, “That was all Steph.” So it’s just the way that he uplifts any human and his generosity in sharing with them is really special and beautiful and I’m so grateful for it eternally. It’ll be something that I will never forget, and the fact that Jerry Bruckheimer and CBS gave me the opportunity to shadow direct as well is huge. I don’t take it for granted.
