Gabriela’s (Stephanie Arcila) clearly going through it on Fire Country, and while no one does anything wrong in the latest episode, she did just make a questionable decision.
Gabriela and Bode’s (Max Thieriot) attempt at a new normal as friends didn’t work out; he wanted more and is looking ahead to a future, and she’s just not ready for that. And while pretty much everyone can see that she’s dealing with stuff—the debt from her wedding that didn’t happen? the least of it—she’s not ready to talk about it when Sharon (Diane Farr) tries to. Gabriela does, however, start sharing a bit with her ex-boyfriend Jake (Jordan Calloway) … before the two hook up in the parking lot of Smokey’s.
Below, Arcila talks about that hookup, Bode and Gabriela’s complicated relationship right now, and more.
We have to start with the Gabriela and Jake of it. So explain Gabriela’s decision here. Is this part of her trying to blow up her life more? Is she looking for comfort and Jake is familiar and she can trust him? Is she looking to feel something like with cliff-diving? All of that? Something else?
Stephanie Arcila: I don’t think she’s fully thinking logically. I think when you’re spiraling and going through so much, it’s really hard to make the right decisions for yourself. And it’s a big cry for help, for love. It was just as shocking for me to read. I had no idea. And yeah, Gabriela has had a lid on her steaming pot for the whole first and second season, and this third season is when that lid is kind of ready to pop. But at the end of the day, her whole life was changed. She moved to this small town that she grew up visiting, never fully living in, and her life completely changed. And whether it’s for the good or bad, there’s a moment of taking that in. There’s a moment of adjustment. There’s a moment of getting to know yourself in this new dynamic and these new circumstances. And if you just kind of plow through it and work through it all and just stick yourself into this “horse with blinders” mentality and just “Go, go, go,” eventually your mind and your heart is going to ask for something else and urge that you get to know it.
Sergei Bachlakov / CBS
Not only is Jake her ex, but he’s also Bode’s best friend…
I am sure there’ll be waves of many things that are hitting her. And I think that right now she doesn’t know how to compartmentalize them and how to just put them in their own individual boxes to be able to process what she’s going through and she’s definitely spiraling and not herself and isolating from everyone.
What I have been enjoying was seeing Gabriela and Jake as friends, and she did open up to him a bit about what’s been going on, about the drinking to not feel and the cliff-diving to feel at least more than she had to anyone else. Why do you think that was the case?
I think they were in a space where they maybe had a little liquid courage as well. And also because he was vulnerable with what he is going through. When someone is vulnerable, it helps the other person be vulnerable as well. I think she just is somehow some way asking for help, and that might’ve been the safest way for her, even if it’s not the right way, but she’s only human and she’s trying to figure it out.
So how are both Gabriela and Jake feeling about what happened when Episode 8 picks up? Is this a one-time thing?
I think they’re both going to be able to process it at some point and talk about it at some point, and then we shall see where they move forward from that. There’s lots of things to check off in what just happened that they have to really think about and process. And one of them, like you said, is Bode being his best friend, but at the end of the day, they are also both single. And also Gabriela was with Jake first before Bode, and Bode’s Jake’s best friend as well. So it’s all in the family. [Laughs]
Gabriela told Bode she’s not ready for the life that he was picturing. Is that completely true or does she think she shouldn’t be ready for it since she was going to get married?
I think she has a lot of guilt about a lot of things in her life, and she hasn’t gotten to know herself in this new dynamic and a lot of it comes from her childhood, wanting what she thinks her life, her childhood should have been, the family that she should have had. I think a lot of her decisions come from that and from her brain, from her logical brain as opposed to her heart lately. Fear as well. I’m sure she has a lot of fear in the decisions she’s making and the things, and now that the reality of Bode coming out is here, but at the same time, she hasn’t processed things like, how do you fully love someone when you don’t love yourself fully yet? How can you pour into somebody else’s cup when you can’t pour into your own cup yet?
Sergei Bachlakov / CBS
So what are we going to see from Gabriela and Bode going forward? Because these two have never really actually been just friends.
[Laughs] I can tell you what I’d like to see because I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’d like to see what you just said, that friendship, right? Because every great relationship starts with a friendship, whether you feel romantically about each other, just building that foundation is really beautiful. And I think that’s kind of what they were trying to do a lot of—we as humans do a lot of storytelling out of fear in our heads, and I think that’s what they’re going through, the ideas and the expectations and the storytelling of it all. And then when it comes into reality that it is not the perfect fairy tale story that you expected. And that’s crushing and scary, too. So I think hopefully we’ll see the dynamic of their individual healing so that they can heal for each other and their community.
Then there’s Gabriela and Manny’s (Kevin Alejandro) relationship, and to call it strained is an understatement. What do you think it’s going to take for them to get back to anything like they used to be?
I think that they both have to drop their guards, not just her. I think Manny slowly is doing it and realizing a lot of things. I think that the expectation of this man—Gabriela has had two men in her life that she absolutely adores and loves and were her safe space and were there for her, and right now those two men are not. And the disappointment and heartbreak of Manny being back at con camp for a decision that could have been prevented is just really heartbreaking for her. She needs an adult right now, and I think at the moment that happened, she felt like she was the adult as opposed to her father. And at this point in the story, both of the men in her life that she cherishes so much are not there, whether they wanted to be and she’s isolating herself and pushing them away, but everyone has different ways of processing and needing the love—there’s different ways to be there for everyone individually, right? Everybody has a different dynamic of the help that they need.
Gabriela lashed out at Sharon in the episode. Why is she trying so hard to push her away?
I don’t know if it’s necessarily that she wants to push her away. I just think that this is the first time someone has seen her mess and that is very much a reflection of where she’s at mentally. And I think she’s so used to putting up a facade and being the hero, saving people and doing everything so perfect and her perfectionism because it comes from her Olympic background and from her need to have some sort of stability and control for what she didn’t have growing up because part of it is control as well, control over her life, when in reality, none of us have control over our lives. We just got to do our best and what’s going to happen is going to happen. So I think it was a big, big blow0up and affected her because of that, because it’s a window that she’s never showed anyone, and she’s kind of being forced to show it without her willingly doing it, and she’s just been isolating and it’s really hard, especially when it’s the mother of the man that you love.
Yeah, I was going to say it’s also the entanglement of that, the Bode of it, but also Sharon is her boss.
Yes, yes, it is her boss, but I don’t think Gabriela is thinking logically right now. In all of that, I think she’s just in survival mode and really trying to breathe through everything that her mind is going through. And I hope she gets to a point where she knows that she’s deserving of love and she knows that she’s deserving of healing and deserving of rest and of just being.
What do you think it’s going to take for her at this point to have that?
That’s a good question. I think she’s going to have to continue peeling the layers of Gabriela. Nobody likes healing because it’s not easy because you have to get in awe of the dirtiness of your life. It’s not an easy journey, and I think that’s what’s been hardest for her to go through, seeing the dirtiness and the not so perfect—when she’s so used to perfectionism, right?—side of her, and actually allowing people to see that and expose herself to that is really hard. So I think continuing to peel those layers until she feels safe at some point again.
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This week is the fall finale, and based on the promo, it looks intense with that fire. What can you preview about that?
There’s definitely a fire. [Laughs] I think it’s going to leave fans wanting more and thinking a lot. So I urge everyone to have patience for the [midseason premiere]. Both episodes are going to be really huge episodes and they’re connected. So I think there’s going to be a lot of realizations, a lot of breakdowns, and a lot of different types of clarity in where Gabriela is at mentally.
What can you say about Gabriela in the middle of any of the action in the fall finale?
I can say that there’s going to be a lot of triggers for her in this next episode in the fire. There’s going to be a lot of triggers and reminders of her life.
What’s been your favorite scene to film from this first part of the season?
I am just going to go with the first thing that came up in my head because it just did, which was Manny finally putting his ego down and going up to his daughter to talk to her and say, Hey, I am here. What’s up? And although she still didn’t open up, I think that was a very beautiful moment and a page-turning into the right direction for that dynamic.
Those scenes have been heartbreaking so far this season, and the one in the elevator was so good.
Yeah, thank you. Yeah, he’s so great. I love this father-daughter dynamic because I do believe in order for her to move forward with whomever she moves forward with, a big part of that is healing her relationship with her father.
Yeah, I think she needs to do that before even thinking about her love life.
Agree. Smart woman.
Fire Country, Fridays, 9/8c, CBS
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