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buck is going to do this to eddie's house :(

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buck in his head about being clingy since breakup so he's gonna fight against it via channeling it into something or someone else but he doesn't know. he doesn't know that eddie wants him to cling..... oh my god....

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this is such an unbelievable scene because there's two realizations happening simultaneously:

eddie is having the realization that he was never really alone through this whole ordeal and there has always been a we with him and buck.

while on the other hand, buck is having the realization that in the end he truly always just ends up back where he started. alone.

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buck recently broken up with for reasons he’s failing to understand. bisexuality NOT figured out. bestfriendcoworkerhusband is moving to texas to be closer to his son who buck is ALSO struggling with the loss of. his beloved sister kidnapped (again). the way this guy is about to go absolutely fucking nuclear on our screens cannot be understated.

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[Buck was quick to volunteer to help him find a place, but he’s got to be devastated. Take us into his head.]

Tim Minear: Oh, I think there are fire alarms going off in his head right now. You can see it in Oliver’s performance, too. As soon as Eddie turns his back, Buck looks like he’s been hit in the head with a baseball bat, and that will figure in mightily when we come back.

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ok im doing this rn im bored at work

as always sorry if u fundamentally disagree

im feeling that they might be positioning bobby and athena to move back a little bit-- peter and angela are both exec producers on the show but its sorta sounding like they're kinda looking to take a step back in interviews and stuff but they'd still remain involved ofc. idk how people would feel abt that bc a lot of the draw for some people is that the show features these veteran actors but this is me living in story world

someone on twitter pointed out to me the line about chimney referring to bobby as a "guest star," which could be taken as a bit of foreshadowing if they wanted to go that direction. plus athena and bobby rebuilding their house, athena getting a partner, etc etc. they've also been featuring chief simpson a lot more and showing his direct interactions with bobby

so if bobby was appointed as fire chief, that puts him in a role outside of the 118 house but still gives them the opportunity to feature him whenever. same with athena if she gets a partner. we already saw everyone struggle through a 118 without bobby in the beginning of s8, but that was under a bad captain. SO:

bobby becomes chief. hen becomes captain. this could present some drama as she weighs the pros and cons of going for it because being captain is obviously a bigger time commitment to the job. but it also gives her more control over the schedule too! also gives us storylines that can really dissect hens strengths and weaknesses. also this is the way to get karen denny and mara more in the spotlight like athena's family was in early seasons

we know that chimney won't really go for the captaincy himself, because he didn't even really enjoy being interim cap-- he prefers to be involved directly on scene rather than direct others.

this is also how we move mediceddie into hen's position...yes... how does this affect buck's partner on the job? in my world we bring ravi back and develop his backstory but idk if thats an option

also it gave me this idea for sometime down the line:

hen has to go somewhere (think like bobby and athena going to florida that one time. like maybe karen has a family emergency and then we get to explore more of karen's life!!). she has to appoint an interim captain. it's not buck, maybe it's chimney or she gets someone from another house. we basically do a repeat of buck's spiral of s6, but this time no couches, just buck feeling like he's entitled to the position. the show has also had hen and buck butt heads before, and i like when it happens bc its very interesting to me. the important part here is that hen's gotta be correct-- buck is not ready. but it seems like the show is pushing toward buck eventually gaining captaincy of a house at the end of the series (even if time jump or something) and this could start that journey for him but ultimately this choice would be about moving hen further into the spotlight

would anyone like to noodle with the idea of fire chief bobby with me...askbox is open.......

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would anyone like to noodle with the idea of fire chief bobby with me...askbox is open.......

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the day of metro dispatch fire do u think all the rando dispatchers heard eddie's mayday over the radio and were shuffling out of the building like wow i bet that freaking lafd liaison is SO excited that there's a fire🙄

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buck: love dog

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Buck + References to death/dying 9-1-1, S08

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ok need to talk about doomed bucktommy from 7x05 to 8x06 now. up top this is NOT a BT positive post and i dont want to hear any arguing rn so just scroll on by #peaceandlove

i said it in this post too but the theme of buck and tommy's relationship is "you don't know me". their relationship began in that episode and that's been the throughline the entire time. i'm gonna try to take the buddie hat off here and just talk about buck but you know its probably gonna creep in anyway

buck is a huge flirt, but he's passive in his romantic pursuits because he has abandonment issues. so he'll flirt until the other person makes a definitive move like asking him out or kissing him. once they do, he clings and overcompensates because he's deeply insecure. they deviated from this pattern with natalia but i consider that to be special circumstances bc logistics behind the scenes got in the way. and buck did break up with taylor but he clinged to her first with asking her to move in after he kissed lucy.

so we have tommy, who is NOT different at all! buck likes tommy because he's cool and confident. buck acts out and is possessive over eddie, who buck also clashed with because he was cool and confident and acted out toward because he was possessive over the 118. buck flirts with him (albeit unconsciously), and tommy kisses him. buck feels chosen, he clings. tommy is interested. tommy abandons buck when he realizes he "doesn't know him" after buck lies to eddie in front of him about their date. (EVEN THOUGH HE JUST TOLD HIM HE'S NEVER BEEN ON A DATE WITH A GUY BEFORE AND ISN'T OUT. OKAY fine) buck can't stop thinking about tommy because, again, he subconsciously thinks that being with him will allow him to absorb his "confidence." when they go for coffee, tommy points out that the two of them don't know anything about each other. they agree to start their relationship and do it "right."

they continue to misunderstand each other through the entirety of their relationship. tommy can't wrap his head around why buck wants him to dress up for the bachelor party. tommy points out buck's father is alive when he opens up about bobby. the two fundamentally dont get each other. but buck doesn't let tommy in either! he lets him call him evan (false intimacy), likely because he's too insecure to stand up for himself. until masks, when buck begins to push back.

buck brings tommy to family events, but he doesn't actually include him. tommy is quite literally not in the group chat. masks was SUCH an interesting episode about their dynamic through the billy boils story and maybe i'll make a post on it sometime but whew...

moving onto confessions...

this part has been pointed out tons but i feel the need to cover the whole ep so right up top in the episode we have buck, known gift giver in all of his relationships (freaked about getting taylor a sweater for xmas in s5, got kameron and connor a onesie for donorbaby, once bought eddie a $500 coffee maker as a "PRANK") does not get tommy a gift for their 6 month even though he's the one who brings up that it is the date. fascinating stuff there. of course then we have a callback to the basketball game when tommy gets him tickets.

like okay sure! maybe tommy just wanted to connect with him over something he's more interested in, it's a weird move to get your partner what is essentially a gift for yourself for your six month but it's not unheard of.

then the woman comes over and asks buck to take the photo, saying they're celebrating a divorce. buck does kinda check the lady out. i've said this before, but buck is usually pretty oblivious to flirting until someone crosses the line of physical contact. it happened with tommy, and it happened with the lady. once he realizes, he just becomes really uncomfortable and awkward. on a personal note i'm kinda mad that they cut tommy checking out hot waiter/making a comment about it but Whatever.

again, you dont know me: being 6 months in without having the exes talk is bonkers. they told us it was excusable on tommy's part bc of the heterosexuality performance of it all (still not a good omen for intimacy in that relationship). but buck??? that was his first real relationship, his "most transformative". it was obviously a fun coincidence that the writers realized they'd set up but if you look in universe it's crazy that they were together that long without buck bringing it up. so in the end their lack of communication is what kills them!

buck is correct about tommy being cruel/dishonest bc it turns out tommy knew for six months that their relationship wouldn't work and stayed anyway. josh misunderstood the convo and made it about performing heterosexuality. Hopefully this was just a segue-way to tip off audience to gay eddie struggle. god knows buck will not remember pre glee post glee but he will remember tommy's "i can't be your last because i'm your first".

so we cemented tommy kinda as buck's male "teacher" relationship. "i'm so comfortable with you because you're comfortable with you" buck thinks his bisexuality is wrapped up in tommy's approval of him. and the crazy thing is tommy is not comfortable with himself. but neither him nor buck ever opened up to each other enough to explore that!

Buck is gonna grieve hard because he's the Clinger but also because being with tommy made him feel confident. but not because tommy uplifted him, because he perceived tommy as confident, and that made buck feel closer to fully realizing and understanding himself. this is why coming back from s7 buck got a full gorgeous girl makeover and was totally on his game in those first few eps despite gerrard-- he felt confident. what buck needs to realize post breakup is that he can be all of that without tommy!!!

putting my buddie hat back on for a second there's a meta here about the parking spot line. it could be callback to basketball game bc after eddie's injury there was discussion of tommy's "i drove eddie and i parked close" versus buck "ill bring my car up to the court". or the parking spot out front is the easy close serendipitous option (as in tommy presenting himself as a surprise relationship for buck by kissing him) but either way tommy was the easy choice. eddie is not. but buck was willing to pull his car up to the court for eddie. buck was willing to be AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN THAT RELATIONSHIP. that's a break from his pattern. crazier too when you think about how buck attached himself to eddie because he seemed cool and confident but committed harder once he actually got to know eddie and his flaws. just sayingggg..

either way i want buck to explore his sexuality by himself for a little bit because i think that's what he needs as a character in order to actually get an understanding of who he is and what he wants. and also selfishly because i want a buck speed dating montage set to girls & boys by blur.

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can we talk about 8x06 confessions because id love to talk about confessions...

buddie analysis in this ep is well worn territory for good reason bc it was nuts so TRUST i agree w all of it but i wanna talk about eddie solo

first of all lets compare eddie's relationship with religion to bobby's:

in s1, when things become awkward in the confessional between bobby and father brian, bobby suggests that they move out into the pews and sit in the open, and that's where he confides in the priest man-to-man, not man-to-servant of god. and this is because bobby understands his transgressions, how the fire was technically not his fault because the building wasn't up to code, but it was also his fault because it was caused by his core issues (his addiction). Bobby's relationship with god is unwavering and he knows that god forgives unconditionally, but he craves human connection as forgiveness which is why he brings the priest out of the anonymity of the confessional box and out into the open pews. notably, once he opens up to buck chimney and hen about his past, he finds himself a lot lighter and no longer seeks the church for guidance as much even tho he remains explicitly religious. this is pushed further when he and athena bond over church, but it is essentially this human connection beyond his uniform, his "disguise," that starts his healing journey.

eddie, on the other hand, does not seek to connect personally with the priest. when things get awkward in the booth, he doesn't try to connect w him as a man because eddie is looking to be absolved by god. in fact, he pushes harder for the priest to reaffirm god's disappointment in him. he's been spiraling and cycling for so long that he doesn't know where else to turn other than the church. but then he hears from the priest that god provides unconditional love, and eddie doesn't accept that, so he leaves.

no one else around him knows that he's punishing himself in genuinely every aspect of his life so they can't absolve him (which probably wouldn't even make him start to forgive himself because neither chris nor his parents have and he feels like he wronged them personally) so it isn't until the priest, coming upon him accidentally outside of the church, not in uniform but dressed in white (like an angel) opens up to him man-to-man over the seemingly small punishment of choosing water over juice. and the priest is the only one who can connect to eddie in this way because he's also a servant by occupation.

and it's low hanging analysis but the obvious reference to the story of jesus and turning water into wine is invoked here, which is also a metaphor in the bible about balancing work and joy in life.

so eddie is absolved, not through some godly sign, but just by the priest coming to him as another human because god already forgave him because that's what He does. but only because it came unplanned from a Godly figure at a location OUTSIDE THE CHURCH does it work. and he takes off his disguise. This is crazy work because eddie considers himself to not be superstitious or religious yet is the deepest believer in signs and punishments …

the other thing this ep does is that even outside of eddie's storyline, a lot of it is About Eddie. The well call, the divorce call, the cold open call about being "haunted" by a dead woman. The well and divorce calls were for chimney and buck's developments respectively, but they're directly tied to eddie.

the well being the well #obvi but the divorce call first styling the wife like shannon, then featuring the man who sneezed (little outbursts) after telling lies, which resulted in him rupturing his sutures and spilling out. it's a metaphor for repression. i said that as a joke over on twitter a few days before the ep aired but then it actually rang true.. he tried to hold it in and still get away with lying, but it caught up to him and now he metaphorically can't take the truth back because its spilled out. CRAZY WORK. chad and andrew we may need to have words

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eddie diaz's emotional haircut

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no! streaming will kill the patient! she needs questionably written network tv show that airs weekly and goes on for 7+ years to live

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99% of ramblers quit right before they conceive of a coherent thought. KEEP TALKING

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hoping and praying and crying for gay eddie but tim minear is so unpredictable that i fear the mustache is just going to be the equivalent of a playoff beard

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sighs it really does suck to say it bc it feels like spitting in oliver's face lolz but yes buck's coming out does have something to do with eddie. it's true that buck is not bisexual Because of eddie and he's not bisexual Because of tommy but . his coming out is intrinsically tied to eddie. and until something Big happens, eddie's presence will haunt every single one of buck's relationships.

if they had created a new character and had him do what tommy did it would still be the same. and this is lowkey a narrative shortcoming because the truth is buck does not have friends outside of the 118, which is also his family. buck has no friends. especially no friends that are unmarried men around his age that we could be believably bait and switched with.

if they had done this storyline with ravi instead of eddie, could you imagine? no way would anyone believe that this was deep enough jealousy and attraction to make buck kissing tommy believable. because to buck, ravi would not be worth getting jealous over. because buck wants eddie to himself. because he's in gay love with him. duh

it could never not be about eddie.. and that's crazy... oh eddie..