Tierra del Fuego’s Diana Farr told me that Vince and Walter’s conversation will affect the rest of Season 3, and I have a theory about how it will happen

Spoilers for Fire country Season 33 series ahead! If you haven’t caught up, you can stream the series with a Paramount+ subscription.

Episode from Fire country which aired on TV schedule for 2024 this week may not have had a major incident, but it sure was full of explosive personal events. While we’ve seen Bode train and deal with his relationship with Gabriela, we’ve also seen the return of Vince’s dad, Walter Leone. The combination of these things led to an important conversation between Billy Burke’s Vince and his father, and I spoke with Diane Farr about the significance of that and how it might affect the rest of the season.

Diane Farr talks about the importance of Billy and Walter’s conversation

After Jeff Fahey appeared in a season 1 episode Fire countryhe returned as Vince’s father Walter in season 3 to support Bode during his studies. However, he did not really help his grandson. He gave him the cheat and Vince got mad about it, opening the floodgates for more problems between them. After the fight, Vince returned home to find that Walter had accidentally set their house on fire.

So while talking to Farr, who plays Sharon and directed the episode, I asked about all of this and she shared the significance of it, saying:

As soon as I got the script, I called Billy and said, “You’re going to be so excited.” You have all the things, all the things we talk about all the time. It’s all character and a minimum of incidents.” This is our dream as actors in a very fire-fighting show. And he asked, and he asked. And then when I got Billy and (Jeff) together, I basically said, ‘It’s a changing of the guard.’ In this episode, Walter admits that he’s no longer in charge of the family, but Vince doesn’t understand that yet.” How can one generation see what’s going on and the next can’t.

As Walter left, his last words to Vince were to help Bode succeed. He noted that Max ThieriotThe character has a grandfatherly fire, and Burke’s fatherly figure shouldn’t try to dampen it. As he walked out the door, Vince was left wondering what he was going to do next after this heated and potentially life-changing interaction with his father. Farr confirmed that this will have an impact going forward, as she said:

I was just excited to show vulnerability and I think they were too. We all leaned into it and the ramifications of that game all season long seem to never end between what you said, grandfather, father, son, and in many ways I’m a witness.

Farr went on to say that she enjoys watching this dynamic play, and so do I. Season 2 Fire country ended with Bode’s talk chasing his legacy Leoneand obviously Vince is trying to figure out how to help him do that. I think this conversation will help him a lot as we move forward into Season 3.

How this conversation might affect Vince as we move forward into Season 3

For what the majority feels Fire country run, Vince and Sharon struggled to figure out how to support Bode without over-parenting him.

In fact, in this episode, they admit that they bought the Smokies to shift their desire to help from Bode to something else. But they clearly love their son and want to help him.

The obstacle Vince often faces is finding a balance between taming Bode’s fire and allowing that spontaneous and impulsive energy to work for his son’s benefit. While Walter seems to know he’s not in charge anymore and he sees the potential in his grandson, Vince is still trying to figure out how to run his family. I think this conversation will make him think about the way he raised his son and it will hopefully point him in a good direction.

Now there is also a challenge Manny announces to Vince and Sharon that they shouldn’t let Bode and Gabrielle get together. So I guess we’ll see more of all these parents trying to tame their kids. However, I think this confrontation between Walter and Vince will change the way Billy Burke’s character approaches all of this, and I’m excited to see that.

To see how this important moment affected the story of Vince and his family during season 3, you can watch the new episodes Fire country every Friday on CBS at 9:00 PM ET or the following day on Paramount+.