Fire Country fans witnessed a heartbreaking death on the Friday, April 5, episode — and even the actress who played the character wishes she could have saved her.
Warning: Spoilers below for Fire Country season 2, episode 5.
“If I had any involvement, I would be not dead,” Sabina Gadecki, who plays Cara, exclusively told Us Weekly before her character’s death played out on screen.
During Friday’s episode, Cara got into an ambulance accident with Bode (Max Thieriot), which resulted in a brain injury and eventual death all before her boyfriend, Jake (Jordan Calloway), could get to her and propose.
While Gadecki was sad to see Cara’s demise, she told Us she felt prepared to say goodbye thanks to the writers’ warning.
“We had a whole beautiful heart-to-heart before the season started, so I feel really grateful that I knew ahead of time,” she explained. “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.’”
The actress recalled receiving a call from the showrunner, Tia Napolitano, in December 2023 before season 2 got underway and she prayed, “Please, don’t let this be the call.” As soon as Napolitano said she wanted to “talk about your story arc,” Gadecki said, “Damn it,” because she knew.
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Gadecki, who began playing Cara halfway through season 1 in 2023, was happy to have “time to process on my own before the rest of the cast” learned of Cara’s fate. “I feel grateful they honored my character in the way that they did. Even though it guts me,” she confessed.
During the episode, Cara and Bode had a real discussion about coparenting her daughter, Genevieve (Alix West Lefler), whom she said earlier this season could be Bode’s child. Cara was also taking steps forward in her romance with Jake, who had bought a ring in hopes of getting engaged.
“I think I do feel a lot of unanswered questions were answered in that scene [with Bode]. I wish we got to explore further,” Gadecki revealed to Us. “I wish I got to explore my relationship with Jake further. I think we just started to scratch the surface with, I think we had something really special there.”
Although she is “bummed” Cara and Jake didn’t make it down the aisle, Gadecki had nothing but good things to say about working on the CBS series.
“We have to keep people on their toes. The writers know what they’re doing, so I’m bummed, of course, because I love Cara,” she continued. “I love the show. I loved everything about it, but I get it. It makes sense.”
Even though Gadecki has processed Cara’s death, she hasn’t given up hope for a return to Fire Country.
“You pour your heart and soul into a character for a year and a half and Cara becomes a part of me, and so it’s hard to say goodbye,” she confessed. “I hope that there’s room to sort of explore, maybe flashbacks and stuff.”
Gadecki teased that as soon as the writers give her the go ahead, she’d happily fly back to set and reprise the role.
“I would be so honored to be a part of the flashbacks because I think there is some more to explore of the backstory and sort of Jake and [Cara’s] relationship and how we came to this place of potentially getting engaged. I think it’s a lot more to explore there,” she said. “I think there’s more to explore with mine and Bode’s relationship when we were kids.”
Gadecki also shared her hopes for Bode and Jake’s futures as they try and navigate being father figures to Gen without Cara. “I hope that they can really come together, and I believe that they can and that’s why I [as Cara] let go,” she explained. “I know that they’re good people and I think that they’re going to be her family.”
Reminiscing on her final days as Cara, Gadecki said, “It feels like home when I’m on that set for sure.” She added that her sendoff, which included a funeral for Cara in the closing scene, felt right.
“I feel, like, nothing but love and joy in my heart for where my character was able to go,” Gadecki revealed. “So I feel thankful for that.”
Fire Country airs on CBS Fridays at 9 p.m. ET.
