Looking back to Fire Country's first two seasons on CBS, questions pop up about why Sabina Gadecki's Cara Maisonette left the hit series.
Fire Country recently had its third season debut on TV, continuing Bode Donovan's journey with the Cal Fire firefighting program as he works off his prison sentence. An important part of that story came through Gadecki's Cara Maisonette, who boasts nine appearances through the first two seasons.
Cara was an emergency room nurse who was also notable in the show for being Bode's ex-girlfriend, showing up in the series to help take care of her mother. She also developed a romance with Bode's childhood friend, Jake, leading to plenty of drama during her tenure.
Does Cara Die In Fire Country?
Season 2, Episode 5 of Fire Country saw Cara Maisonette meet her end, marking Sabina Gadecki's last episode in the series.
This episode (titled "This Storm Will Pass") sees the Edgewater firefighting team take on their first firenado, putting the group in more danger than usual. Tragically, Cara was thrown from a cliff while driving her ambulance, and she was impaled by a steel rod alongside Bode and Diego Moreno.
Courtesy of the crash, Cara suffered from an epidural hematoma (bleeding of the brain), but she could not be moved due to being impaled, as that would worsen the injury and bleeding. Bode and Diego kept her stable until backup arrived to take her to the hospital.
In her last moments with Bode, she tells him to take care of her daughter, Genevieve, who may or may not be Bode's child. Sadly, she died away shortly after.
Why Did Sabina Gadecki Leave Fire Country?
Speaking with US Magazine, Fire Country executive producer and showrunner Tia Napolitano shared what went into the decision to kill Cara.
Admitting how hard it was to do that to Gadecki, who she described as "so sweet and such a wonderful actress," Napolitano spoke on how things get complicated with "only one known biological parent left standing:"
"It’s very hard because Sabina Gadecki is so sweet and such a wonderful actress and we love having her on our show. But when I pitched this season originally, Genevieve was really the soapy center of it. Then we want to lean into and complicate that as much as we possibly could. When there’s only one known biological parent left standing, it complicates everything."
She confirmed that the death would make the audience "feel the loss like the characters do" after her relationship with Jake evolved so deeply:
"If that person dies tragically — and we’ve made her and Jake so much stronger — [after] it really feels like she’s going to stick around and be in the fabric of our show [it is hard]. It’s always sort of the intention to rip that away from the audience so that they feel the loss like the characters do."
Responding to a question about Cara possibly coming back in flashbacks, the showrunner referenced moments where Bode's late sister got scenes like that. She confirmed this was a possibility for Cara by saying:
"There’s always a chance. We’ve seen Riley on screen, haven’t we?"
If Gadecki had her way (per US Magazine), she would not have wanted her character to be killed off:
"If I had any involvement, I would be not dead.”
She also revealed that she knew her character's fate after a chat with the writers, explaining how it was planned well in advance of her finding out:
"We had a whole beautiful heart-to-heart before the season started, so I feel really grateful that I knew ahead of time. They felt they needed a place for all the characters to go and they were like, 'We need you to know this was a pivotal storytelling moment, not a spur-of-the-moment decision to get rid of a character.'"
New episodes of Fire Country premiere on CBS every Friday at 9 p.m. ET before moving to Paramount+.
