#abc give us more bobby and buck scenes

[mischiefbuckley]

when Eddie finally gets Buck down to the ground and the team goes to him and the first thing Bobby says is “come here, kid” because he views him like a SON AND THEN IN THE NEXT EPISODE WHEN MAY IS TELLING BOBBY “MOM BROUGHT TWO KIDS INTO THE MARRIAGE. YOU BROUGHT ONE” AND BOBBY RESPONDING WITH “YEAH, I SUPPOSE SO. THAT’S A GOOD KID” I CAN’T EVEN WITH THESE EPISODES 😖💔

[honestlydarkprincess]

hypothetically if we get longer seasons and therefore more episodes these are my requests, abc are you listening:

firefam barbecues - i want bobby and athena hosting dinners for their fire children

captain dad bobby going around checking on his countless adopted children (ravi: uhhh hi bobby? i didn't realize you were coming over? bobby: you are my son now get used to it)

GIVE ME AN INVESTIGATION EPISODE WHERE THE WHOLE FIREFAM IS ON THE CASE AND BOBBY GETS TO BREAK OUT THE BOARD AND MULTI-COLOURED STRING AND BUCK AND EDDIE CAN SIT SHOULDER TO SHOULDER JUST PRETENDING THEY'RE DOING THEIR LITTLE PODCAST

i very much would like to see buck take christopher to the zoo

eddie and karen wine nights, nonnegotiable i need to see it

maddie and eddie friendship!!! let them interact more please!!

i would like to see buck taking christopher to school with all those cookies for the bake sale

give me another chim and karen drunk scene i am begging

i want several episodes dedicated to the chaos that is the Madney wedding

the list could go on but i am out of thoughts

[buckevantommy]

i don't think we're getting a scene with buck and tommy in bed together as much as i'd like that, but i would love to see them arrive together at the hospital so the implication that they were spending the night together is there

i’d take that. the plot is obviously focused on other characters atm and bucktommy had their time in earlier eps, so i get not having room to give us much in the finale. but we know at the very least tommy will be at the hospital, so the question is: when does he arrive? either he and buck arrive together, or tommy meets buck there after a shift - and unless that shift plays into the plot somehow i think they should arrive together, especially if we don’t get anymore tommy in the ep. i also think it would be strange if tommy was the only other partner there, but maybe that's just me craving tommy scenes with maddie and/or karen.

i had some thoughts on what kind of pda we might get from the ceremony [here] which we got none of, but after watching the episode i’m not mad about it: 7x09 was more focused on bobby, henren, eddie, and how the 118 has grown. the scene where bobby tells buck that tommy is good for him? that means So Much, and their scenes together at the ceremony were such a treat. to give us that much in an otherwise emotional and drama-heavy episode was really great to see. so with that in mind, this tearjerker finale having some element of bucktommy isn’t out of the question, but it’ll probably be scraps - and i’ll take it.

looking to season 8 and beyond: i think we will see them in bed together in some way, whether sleeping, or just one of them in the other's bed, or indeed for sex; i actually think it’s necessary: buck is a sexual guy, so to remove any kind of bed/sex scene with tommy from his storyline would be censorship - sex scenes with women are fine but not with men? that’s not the vibe ABC are going for by finally giving viewers (and buck) bi!buck. i think we can look to queer couple examples like henren kissing in bed, or tarlos over on lone star and all their kisses and intimate scenes, to reassure ourselves that eventually we’ll get some sexy scenes for bucktommy.

[lover-of-mine]

to be totally honest, i think a lot of 'they should get a slowburn!' stuff is from people who are nervous that they're not gonna do buddie at all and are preemptively looking for reasons why hope will not be lost if it doesn't happen in s8.

like, i get it, i'm still not 100% convinced it'll happen (i hope it will!) but sometimes you just gotta accept the possibility of disappointment, y'know?

Look, I'm no one, I'm a girl with a hyperfixation and a blog who happens to watch too many procedurals. But Buck and Eddie have been following the procedural slowburn format since season 2. It's worse now with the added context that Buck is bi. So the impression is that buddie is building up to something. There are meta elements during 704 that make me go 👀 like the blue and green and the way they had Eddie ask Buck if he's jumping ship and Buck explicitly say he's not. I think they set a plan in motion during 704. And I think that plan has an actual timeline based on the amount of episodes they had confirmed at the time the episode aired, so the rest of season 7 and season 8. Could I be wrong? Absolutely. I'm wrong most of the time if it's not about patterns on the show. But every interview we had this season makes it seem like they have been trying to tell this story but fox wasn't letting them and abc did. It took them 4 episodes to make Buck bi. They left the opening disaster and the first thing they did was make Buck bi. They didn't have to. To keep Buck and Eddie on the impossible will they/won't they if they're not planning on getting them together is smarter. Now they're actually possible. If they're actually possible, our very annoying side of the fandom is just gonna get more annoying asking for them to just get together already. Everyone involved could've given up. They were being blocked by the network. The writers could've given up. Buddie is a story about love even if they never get romantically involved because the writers made a conscious choice of writing how much those men love each other. And they spent a significant amount of a reduced season making sure we knew that will always be the case. The amount of buddie we had this season is absolutely completely insane. Both of them were in relationships with other people. I made a post about that earlier in the week, but they could've made different choices and separated them. And it's not like all their scenes were at the firehouse and where just getting coworker time. The camera panned to Eddie. Bobby's goodbye tour had them together all the time. They were explicitly put in a co-parenting position. Eddie is the only person they made a point of showing Buck come out to because he comes out to everyone else accidentally. It's a love story no matter how you look at it and not getting them together would be such a miss of a narrative that has been set up like this. Because legit, if they accidentally set up what could be one of the greatest slowburns in television, someone in that writers room needs to take a good look at their life. They want to tell this story. Why would they gamble on not being able to deliver and honest to God go down in television history by dragging it out when the pieces are already in play? During season 6 I get it, they didn't have all the pieces, they didn't have the time. Now they have most of the pieces and a whole season. Madney was set up in 12 episodes. And they had to work through a kidnapping and a murder attempt. A MURDER ATTEMPT. Why is Eddie being messy suddenly something that's gonna take seasons and seasons to resolve? Give me both of them single and I can get them together in one episode. All they need is one conversation. Just one. It's not like it's an impossible task to create an arc that's gonna use 12 to 15 episodes next season to work out the last bits and get them together in a nice way. The only thing they necessarily need to "fix" before getting them together, is Eddie not being queer. Everything else can be worked through while they're a couple. They're so close. The idea of dragging it out just to drag it out is so........... They've been a slowburn the whole time. This would just force them to stand on the fire.

Obviously, they don't have to go there. But for me we're at a 90% chance of them going canon next season. But if they don't, that's life. It's just that those men are somehow closer than they've ever been. And they are in a great position to explore what their relationship looks like because Chris was removed from the play, and it's so close I can taste it. That storyline writes itself. And I really hope they see that and that kicking Eddie back to the ground had a purpose. Because Bathena and Madney also started once Bobby and Maddie decided to drag themselves out of their trauma and stop letting it define how they live their lives. It's RIGHT THERE.

Anyway, I got carried away. Yes, all we have is hope and it might not happen, but I will continue to make noise for it to come because if there's one thing I do is live for the hope of it all.

[lemotmo]

Ooof that finale was…..not it. Like my first issue was they for some reason let Kristen write it. I honestly thought we were free of her with the move to abc but alas apparently not. And she very much made her presence known with how off the finale felt in terms of pacing and just how ooc some of them felt at times. Not to mention the continuing saga of her former reign in making Buck an over sexualized character by turning his dad trauma into a way for Tommy to make jr into a daddy kink joke which was just…. No thanks. Otherwise it just was such a….lackluster finale? And I found myself bored at moments.

And then the season over all I’m left wondering what was the point of half of it ? Like Bathena didn’t get to enjoy their honeymoon. They have no house now. The Amir plot which while I loved the character, ultimately led to nothing? The cartel storyline didn’t need to happen and bringing them back was boring. Bobby being dead for 14 minutes and coming into the station at the end perfectly fine was such a wtf moment even for tv standards.

Henren didn’t get to adopt their baby. They got a foster daughter instead only to then….lose her ? And have her be given to Madney instead for them to visit like truly this was just drama for drama sake and ultimately pointless pain for them.

Madneys wedding got rushed and ultimately turned into a 2 minute hospital room scene. We didn’t even get to see ant build up to the wedding.

Buck: He came out as bi which yesssss 🎉🎉🎉 only to then immediately be forced back into his hamster wheel, stuck in yet another relationship with someone who doesn’t seem to even like him, and is rude to him. And then turned into essentially a background character the rest of the season. I truly feel bad for Oliver because he was so so so excited for bi buck, and so happy and hopeful they would do it right and with respect and not over sexualize it and this is what he gets. A boring rude generic LI making daddy kink jokes and no real development into this part of himself. It’s truly no surprise he did nothing to promote that relationship or this finale.

Eddie and Chris. We hardly saw Chris. And then the way they rushed him leaving at the very end was so… not it. Not to mention so out of sorts for him? Like we have seen when he’s mad at Eddie he always goes to Buck. But this time he calls his grandparents at 2 am and asks them to come rake him to Texas indefinitely? Then the Buck Chris talk. I love their scenes together but even it felt off? And then they systematically undid any progress with Eddie’s parents with Helena often coming off filled with glee over it, and Ramon taking his own guilt in Eddie to make him accept it. Then we have Eddie himself. What was the point of Marisol? There doesn’t seem to be one. And why we had to suffer Edy all season remains a mystery since Tim said she came back because he didn’t want two off screen breakups. Only to then do two off screen breakups. What was the point of Kim? I had hopes they would actually use her to move Eddie along and then they just…didn’t? Even Ryan said he thinks all she did was make it worse.

I will give the show credit because they did stick to the try for buddie scene in every episode. And they had some good scenes. Ryan and Oliver knocked their scenes out in the finale especially but once again we are at the finale and it’s left in a…. Now what ? No real movement forward. Once again all of us going oh next season for sure! And no real clear path toward it. and based on Ryan’s interviews tonight, where it once again sounds like they have no idea what to do with Eddie next season due to the vast amount of directions they seem to want to take him, including apparently Ryan saying in one of them that Tim seems to want to lean more into the Bobby Eddie similarities next season and have Eddie focus a lot more on religion, but Ryan does say he doesn’t think Eddie will become a priest. But still it’s just like… what are we doing. It’s given more we don’t wanna say yes to Buddie and follow the clear narrative direction butttttttt we want the views sooooo let’s make it open ended enough to draw them in. Again.

They said at the start they were going to give, or try to give the fans what they wanted this season and truly, I’m utterly baffled how anyone thought any of this is what we wanted. Like we wanted Henren to get their baby. Madney to have the best wedding. Bathena to thrive and get their honeymoon and have some adventures. Buddie to become buddie and enjoy the Buckley Diaz family in an official capacity. And instead we got circles upon circles with lazy choices taken where they could and next to no real character growth or movement. I’m so sorry for how long this got 😅😅😅

Oh Nonny, how I agree with everything you said here. You get me.

I just posted my episode review and most of the things I talked about are the same things you highlighted.

It was written by Kristen? Ah, that explains a lot actually.

I didn't mind the Diaz parents though. I really do think they were trying to help out in their own way. But all the rest of this post? YEEEES!!!!

I can still see the Buddie of it. I'm still hanging in there. There were too many strange choices made in season 7 to make me believe that Buddie isn't going to happen in season 8. Not to mention the amazing chemistry between Buddie compared to whatever it is they are trying to show us with BT. However, they are on thin ice here. I agree. Things need to start moving along. If not... after season 8 I will retreat to my little nook of Tumblr living off good Buddie fan fiction.

I didn't read any of the Ryan interviews yet. Him leaning into religion and the parallel with Bobby I did see coming. The prayer book was too obvious. I wonder why they had 6 interviews lined up with Ryan over this episode? I get that his storyline is important, but it doesn't warrant 6 interviews, not even the religious aspect of it. I'm going to read some of them today to try and get a clearer image.

I just feel like all of my beloved 911 characters don't have any clear direction at this point. I was surely hoping for some more insight, but all we got was superficial storytelling and no real breakthroughs for anyone.

I don't understand what all those journalists that screened this episode were talking about when they said they saw clear directions for season 8. For me it is the opposite at this point. Where are they taking all of this???

[buckera]

I love these character-driven episodes and I can't wait to see what angst they have in store for us but I am mourning the missed bucktommy moments a little 🙃 if we had a longer season, I'm sure there would have been more reactions, more room to play with this. Missing the father son moments between buck and bobby especially, it would've been so cute but of course now it doesn't fit what's about to happen with bobby

yeah, it really is a shame! we are losing out on stuff and rushing through certain bits to get to a point which Tim can work from to his every whim in the next season (if he stays on, that is, which I desperately hope for)

there isn't much time for stuff that don't move the story ahead one way or another, but I think if we had a short season like this on fox we would've been in such deep shit.

while abc is supportive, helpful, promotes the show well and clearly has a great social media manager on insta too, not to mention the budget... god. they are absolutely giving their all to this show and the people working on it and I am so grateful, I think I kind of just let centrain things slide easier now.

because this season gave us SO MUCH. so what if the editing makes my head spin in some episodes? what if a lot of things are just implied instead of shown? what if I got to wait until september to see them slow down and breathe and give us these more tiny moments that are just for the characters and just for us and not for plot progression? I'll take it, for this season, in exchange for everything we got and all the hard work, I'll take it.

(that being said I would kill for just one single scene of Bobby and Buck being the domestic father-son duo they are... maybe just Buck at a bathena dinner? with or without the rest of the 118 or even Tommy? like they did it in season 2? please 😭)

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here friend and I don't know about you but I'm so, so tired. Amazing how the rush of excitement I got at seeing the promo pics for an actual dramatic emergency could instantly be taken out by a 7 second promo. I feel like KR got the news well before the official announcement and said "I'm going to turn this finale into everything I want", and basically decided to push everyone but Buck to the sidelines and make them observers while pairing him with her failed self-insert. And ugh, the only thing equally as bad as the prospect of L being involved in saving everyone is the prospect of the emergency just being like a quarter of the episode and us wasting the rest of the time on wrapping up Buck's many, many, many storylines. I know we don't know for sure this is what would happen, but KR has given us no reason to think it won't. Frankly I think we should let ABC know that should they, in taking over 911, choose to retcon anything (or everything) from the last two seasons we're okay with that, and no questions will be asked.

And yeah, I can definitely agree that while Buck taking over during a crisis would be a nice way to get closure on his doubts from episode 1, the path there (if one can call it a path, which implies it goes somewhere) makes absolutely no sense. I don't even want to think about how they are going to shove Natalia (I think she's around next episode?...still) and a baby into the whole mess. I honestly would have easily taken 50% less Buck this season if they had just taken the time do the leadership arc well and have this grand emergency to show that off.

So while I'm kind of resigned on the finale for OG, I have a bit more hope for the LS one, though I too am hard side-eyeing the "earn the wedding" comments. Who exactly has to earn this wedding? The audience? They make the effort to tune in regularly despite some pretty shitty writing choices, I think they're owed a debt. The characters? Not sure how two people being in an long-term relationship and seeing each other through hardships hasn't earned them a wedding. We'll see what happens, but at this point its the odds are 50/50 that this "tragedy" will involve either a hospital or a crime scene (or both)

Hi my friend! I have been under the weather this week and ended up being out of town all day today so I am *literally* tired, but also I am WITH you on my excitement for the finale getting sucked away by half that promo being of L and her once again butchering line delivery on something as minimal as "mayday" 🙄 I already got my hopes up for a good firefam feels focused episode and got let down by 6x11 SO HARD, so I'm just going to operate under the worst assumptions that way I can, hopefully, end the episode with a "could have been worse I guess". Although I went into 6x17 with zero expectations and the show still managed to let me down anyway soooo 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm sure KR knew something was up, the negotiations were *rough* last year so I'm sure they were all told to prepare. And since it's something the show usually does, wrapping up nicely each season, it won't feel out of place, however I'm also worried the emergency won't be that long. Seasons 2-4 all had a cliffhanger in the penultimate episode to get people to tune in to the finale but 6x17 did NOT give people a lot of reason to HAVE to tune in. At least s5 made the effort of showing that firetruck crash like 8000 times over the week and making it look like Bobby was in danger, even if it was just a 5 min emergency that ultimately didn't do anything at all or affect anyone. They couldn't even be bothered to give a promo until Friday and without a cliffhanger, what's the hook to draw everyone in for the finale? Because you know those casual viewers are scouring the internet for news about the show, hell, most of them probably figured with no promo that 6x17 WAS the finale! Madney got engaged which is usually a season finale thing so I wonder how many of them though that was it!

"I honestly would have easily taken 50% less Buck this season if they had just taken the time do the leadership arc well and have this grand emergency to show that off." 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 SAAAAAAAME. They should have spent less time trying to turn everything about his storylines into a joke and actually delved into HIS emotions more. Instead we got the whole sperm baby now being about some rando characters we don't even know or care about's emotions for some reason?! His death being turned into "haha funny math skills for ONE episode only!" And this whole death doula thing where we haven't even heard them actually really talking about anything and what we did see was her being DEEPLY insensitive and unempathetic for her line of work, and then a parade of Buck's awful choices to remind everyone of them for??? What reason exactly? To give her a reason to leave? When after what we've seen we....didn't even need her in the first place? Like, WHAT has she actually said or done that has actually been meaningful or addressed Buck's death? We saw some of the aftermath in his talk with Eddie at the cemetery but what purpose besides giving Buck another LI he met on a call is she actually serving? Anything important could have been imparted by a victim at a call, and that triggered Buck to talk to someone in his firefam (OR HIS THERAPIST FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST!), and given us a peek into Buck's head about it. Instead we have wasted all this time on what? An excuse to bring two of the most audience hated characters back? WHAT?! Like, literally, who allowed this to happen? WHOMST in that production team looked at this absolute mess that KR presented as an idea and said "yeah, that works!" ?!?!?!?! Sorry, I'm too grouchy to try and make sense of this, it's just SO stupid and such a waste of time, the ONE thing KR is good at.

As for LS, I still haven't gotten to watch last week's episode. I'm hoping to watch it tomorrow but at this point I'm just watching that show with an "eh. This might as well happen I guess" because I'm out of energy for much more than that. I've seen some of the spec floating around but mostly I'm just excited that we were all right and Paul is officiating. Bobby is gonna be sooooo jealous. But for real, WHAT is this idea on shows that characters have to "earn" happiness and that always meaning that someone like, dies, or they have to be miserable in 98% of the episodes to get one or two happy scenes before the next tragedy strikes? Because I think the WRITING should have to earn the payoff and neither show has managed to do that this season.

Here's expecting the worst so we aren't TOO disappointed, while holding space to be happy if Andrew manages to get around the nonsense KR insisted on to give us a decent emergency because I doubt we'll get a satisfying wrap up for anything else on the Buck or Eddie front. Maybe we'll get extra lucky and the backlash after this week (and on that TVLine article, seriously what did they expect with that question?) will get L's scenes cut as much as possible again. For old times sake. Pretty much every article comment space, review space, and SM space I've seen has been pretty clear about KR needing to be gone so here's hoping ABC is taking notes! At the very least, their promo team can't possible be worse, right?

[johanna-swann]

Watching the finale now!

Loved the first couple scenes. Connor needs to grow a pair, Henren domesticity and Bobby trying to work with literal children (give that man a break). Don't remind me of landlord Ravi though.

Getting to that bridge accident quicker than I thought and the cause of collapse is already incoming.

So they gave us a woman and her best friend's daughter like that and didn't even let Eddie say "I get it" or something?

That is one shitty bridge. One truck hits one support beam and the whole thing just comes down? Engineer Christopher Diaz would never. 😤

Buck, you're awake! Omg, Hen and the tissue. Chim. Why the fuck did you pull it out? Ofc that'll bleed! Oh thank fuck Bobby's alive.

Okay, Chim's rescue was way less dramatic than expected. But I'm glad he's okay.

How has it already been 30 minutes??? This feels so rushed. I've barely had time to appreciate my blorbos being in danger.

Eddie "I'm fine" Diaz. 😂

Why is Natalia back? Oh god Buck wants this so much. He wants a family like that for himself so much. I'll cry now.

Nope, not a fan of Buck/Natalia. Not at all.

Meditation group. 😂

Christopher is so cute. Eddie is so cute. Henren, yesss.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? You used the couch metaphor for THIS???

Okay, okay. Conclusion: They should've dragged out the bridge stuff longer. I know they tried to give everyone a happy ending, but it took up so much time. The pacing felt way off, I feel like I just watched a 10 minute preview instead of an entire ass episode. They just kept throwing stuff at me and suddenly 40 minutes were gone.

That was seriously underwhelming. Also not gonna lie, the basketball kid being there gave me Jenny the Vampire flashbacks. Why was he there? It served literally no purpose and took up even more time.

Everything that happened after 6x12 just left me rather unimpressed and bored. Help us abc whoever the fuck you are. You're our only ho.

[homerforsure]

Whumptober No. 21

bleeding thru the bandages / pressure / blood-matted hair

Whumptober No. 31

disaster zone / trauma / prisoner

Tour Guide Buck AU

(This one is a little messy, I’m afraid. I used it to play with the vibes I might use for Eddie in this fic and also I let the night get away from me so I’m a smidge sleepy)

*

It’s chaos in the wake of the wave. So many voices are begging at once, screaming, trapped, dying, that they start to blend together, a symphony of suffering. The streets that Eddie is finally starting to recognize are suddenly familiar in a different way. He can feel his gait change as he moves through the city. No longer just single-mindedly charging towards a lone emergency, Eddie has his head on a swivel, constantly scanning for victims. For danger. Like slipping on an old coat, he’s Staff Sergeant Eddie Diaz again. 

Because it’s exactly who he needs to be, Eddie doesn’t fight it. The ABCs he learned in paramedic training give way to the MARCH of the army as the 118 responds to trauma after trauma: crushes, lacerations, compound fractures, traumatic head injuries, and more than one impalement. There are an uncountable number of drownings, all of them over and final by the time they arrive on scene, and the hopeless bodies they leave behind in pursuit of ones they can save are going to haunt Eddie for years. 

Despair is paralytic so he puts it aside for now, refuses to allow the anger that would make him reckless and unfocused to kindle in his chest and falls back hard on his training. Tourniquets and pressure dressings, bags of fluids and piles of shock blankets. None of them know when any of these people are going to see a real hospital or a real doctor so Eddie’s job is to give them the best chance of living long enough to get there. 

“Good save, Eddie,” Bobby says, clapping him on the back as Hen and Chim work to stabilize the teenager that Eddie saw buried under what used to be the brick façade of a bookstore, only his fingertips visible and moving under the rubble. His praise is fainter when Eddie climbs a half-uprooted tree to untangle a woman trapped in the upper branches and then performs a needle thoracostomy to decompress a pneumothorax. By the time he’s performed an emergency tracheotomy on a man with severe facial trauma who can't receive oxygen any other way, his captain’s mouth is pressed in a thin line. 

Eddie thinks he knows what Bobby’s seeing. He knows the way he gets in a warzone, the way he has to get to survive it. There’s a ruthlessness to field medicine the same way there’s a ruthlessness to a surgeon’s scalpel. It’s not just leaving your feelings about a case at the hospital doors, it’s never letting them in at all. Terrified last breaths and bloody faces and mangled limbs are the purview of nightmares. Eddie can’t process them, can’t see them, right now or he’ll never be able to do his job. And Bobby sees Eddie not seeing them.   

“Get some air,” he says finally, after Eddie responds to a case of secondary drowning at the field hospital. The kid is young, younger than Christopher, and there’s a moment when Eddie thinks it’s too late and all of his careful detachment slips and Bobby sees.

“Cap-”

Bobby fixes him with that gaze that’s less captain and more dad and says, “Eddie, this shift isn’t going to end at seven. We’re going to be on search and rescue for days and it’s not gonna get easier. Call home. Rest for an hour, okay?”

It’s a direct order which means that Eddie says, “Yes, sir,” instead of “I’m fine.” 

He goes outside, but it’s too late to call home. He shoots a text to Carla, asking if she can get Christopher to school in the morning and back home again after and hopes he can keep enough charge on his phone to follow up when she replies in the morning. 

After that, Eddie should lie down. Rest is essential and he’s learned how to grab it at any time and in nearly any condition. But he can’t stop scanning. He’s watching other first responders rushing around, treating the victims that just don’t stop pouring into the field hospital, grabbing each and every one and directing them to the type of help they need most. There’s something soothing about it. Like LA’s a giant ant hill that got washed out by the wave, but here its people are, out and rebuilding right away. That’s the part that was missing during his service. The thought that there might be an end to it. 

He sees something. 

Eddie doesn’t quite know what it is. He’s scanning and then something trips his senses so he scans backward. Forward. No one is moving in panic. The scene is chaotic, but in a predictable way. Nothing really stands out as-

A flash of orange. 

If he hadn’t spent so much time looking for that flash in a crowd at some of the busiest tourist attractions in LA, there’s a chance it could have escaped Eddie’s notice. But his heart lurches and he knows he’s not imagining it. 

Eddie loses sight of it in the crowd as he leaves his position next to the tent and he raises himself up on his toes to see over them. He starts panicking, thinking he lost him and then the crowd parts and Eddie almost loses his breath. 

“Buck.”

His voice is too soft and Buck doesn’t hear him. He looks a little lost in the crowd. Worn and disheveled and, fuck, he looks beat to hell. That ridiculous orange tour shirt is ripped and filthy, wrinkled beyond belief. 

“Buck!” Eddie calls again and Buck just gets his head up before Eddie makes it to him, his blue eyes bewildered and cloudy.

“Eddie?” he asks. 

There’s a child on his back. A girl in a purple t-shirt, less than ten and just as exhausted and bruised as Buck is. She’s clinging to Buck’s neck, her legs around his waist, and Buck is somehow holding both of them upright. But not for long. He takes a staggering step forward, saying Eddie’s name again and Eddie grabs for Buck and for his radio at the same time.

“Hey, I need some help out here.” 

“I think she twisted her ankle,” Buck says. “It doesn’t look broken but I-I-I don’t really know how to tell.”

“Okay,” Eddie answers, cataloging the deep gashes on Buck’s face, the red soaked rag around his arm, and the painful stiffness to his walk. When he gets close enough to take the girl in his arms, he can see that what he thought was just water dampening Buck’s hair is actually blood, half dried in places, but still oozing a little from the part in his hair. 

“It’s okay, kiddo,” Eddie says to the girl who protests as she’s shifted from one perch to another. “You’re safe now. We’re going to take care of you.”

Buck seems to fade as the weight is lifted from his back, like that purpose was the only thing keeping him upright and he says, “Violet. Her name is Violet.”

Hen emerges from the tent at Eddie’s call. She finds him quickly, taking in Violet, listless in Eddie’s arms and noting Buck staring at both of them from a few feet away. “What do we have?” she asks. 

“This is Violet,” Eddie answers, passing the child over again. “Can you take her inside?”

“Where are her parents?” Hen asks.

At that, Eddie looks over at Buck who shakes his head. “Missing,” Eddie replies. “Check out her ankle, okay? Buck thinks she might have sprained it.”

“Buck?” Hen says, looking up at him with a different expression on her face. “Is he-?”

“I’ve got him,” Eddie answers. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Violet whimpers in Hen’s arms and that’s the end of the conversation. She hurries away with the little girl and Eddie watches them go until he sees Buck start to crumple in his periphery.

“Whoa, easy, I got you,” Eddie catches him just in time and Buck sags against him, boneless and shaking. Gripping tight, Eddie bears him up and says, “Don’t worry, Buck, I got you. Can you walk with me a little bit? I gotta get you inside, okay.”

It takes a phenomenal effort, but Buck puts weight on his feet again. He’s still leaning heavily against Eddie, but he lets himself be led slowly inside toward one of the few empty cots left. As Eddie helps him to sit, Buck groans pitifully and tries to lay down. Eddie doesn’t let him. 

“Hey, hey, hey, stay with me, Buck, okay? I need to check you out before you can sleep. Can you tell me what happened? Can you tell me what hurts?”

Buck looks up at him and his expression is distant.

Concussion, Eddie thinks. Exhaustion. Blood loss. It could be anything. His skin is cool under Eddie’s hands and everything is so wrong. Buck shouldn’t be here like this. He’s meant to be happy and carefree, shining in the sun and not limp and broken.

“Where’s Violet?” Buck asks, frantic without warning. “She was just here. She-”

“She’s okay. My friend’s got her right over there and she’s going to take good care of her.” He points out where Hen has Violet on a cot across the way, lying down as Hen listens to her chest. Buck sees and relaxes a little and Eddie keeps talking, “Where did Violet come from, Buck? What happened to you out there?”

When Buck lifts his gaze to Eddie’s again, it’s all Eddie can do not to reach out and stroke his fingers gently over his matted hair. He settles for gently turning his head to take a look at those gashes on his cheek and confirm that they don’t reach all the way to Buck’s eyes. As he does, Buck answers, “We were on the pier.”

“The pier?” The pier is destroyed. There is no pier. There aren’t any survivors from the pier except for the few they managed to pluck from the ferris wheel. 

But Buck nods, “Santa Monica tour. The water left all at once and I told everyone to run. Her dad, Max, he handed her to me and said he couldn’t run. He said I had to get her out. Eddie, the water. It came so fast. I lost them. I lost all of them.” 

“Not Violet,” Eddie answers. “You got Violet out.” 

Buck looks toward the girl again to reassure himself and then back at Eddie. He frowns, “What are you doing here?”

Somehow, Eddie actually laughs, “I’m here to take care of you.”

“Okay,” Buck answers. “Good.”

Someone gets him a med kit and Eddie gets fluids into Buck’s arm right away. Buck blanches at the needle, but he lets Eddie do it, just like he lets Eddie clean his wounds and check his pupillary response. Buck’s a quiet and compliant patient and every little flinch he gives, sends a matching prick of pain through Eddie’s chest. The head wound is especially nasty. It opens back up again as Eddie tries to clean it and the fresh blood trickling down Buck’s cheek makes him finally moan a little. 

“I know. I’m so sorry,” Eddie says, encouraging Buck to fall against him, running his hands over his back and whispering soothing nonsense into his ears. “We’re almost done. I’ve got you. You did so good today. You’re so good, Buck.”

He can’t imagine it. Buck crossing the city, escaping the landing site of the tsunami, and carrying a little girl on his back the whole way. Eddie knew that Buck was someone special and finding out that, actually, he’s a real-life hero isn’t that surprising. But there’s a price to be paid for heroism. Buck’s seen all of the carnage that Eddie’s seen today and then some; it’s no wonder he’s exhausted. All Eddie wants to do is gather him up and take him home. To shelter Buck from any more horrors. 

Against his chest, Buck is trembling. His fingers are wound in Eddie’s shirt and his head is tucked into the crook of Eddie’s neck. There are other things to do, other patients to treat, but Eddie doesn’t let go until Buck’s grip on him starts to loosen. 

“Where’s Violet?” he whispers again.

Eddie turns to look and he doesn’t see Hen anymore. He doesn’t see Chimney either or Bobby. But Violet is asleep on her cot, a rough blanket tucked under her chin. “She’s okay. She’s sleeping.”  

Nodding, Buck pushes himself back a little to look at Eddie’s face and Eddie can’t help it, he reaches up and brushes a thumb over Buck’s brow. “You should sleep too.” he says.

“You have to get back to work?” Buck murmurs, his eyes drifting closed.

He does. His shift won’t be over for another four hours and, like Bobby said, they’re days away from this being over. But with Buck drained and hurt in his arms, Eddie doesn’t think he can drag himself away.’

“I’m not going anywhere,” he says. And when Buck’s entire body shudders in relief at the words, Eddie knows he’ll do anything to make them true. He scoops Buck close again and kisses the unmaimed side of his head. “I’m staying right here with you.” 

[onceland]

Fairy tale ending: Inside the magical Once Upon a Time series finale

To read more scoop on this year’s season finales, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands Friday, or buy it here now. Don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

“Oh, man, I’m fired. Guys, I think this might be my last day!” Once Upon a Time is in its final days of production, and Ginnifer Goodwin is feeling particularly punchy after flubbing a line during a pivotal scene. Her Snow White stands before our beloved heroes at a massive war-room table, giving a rousing speech about hope as it seems all but lost. A great evil threatens to steal their happy endings once and for all — if it sounds like a moment from the pilot, there’s a reason for that. As actress Jennifer Morrison puts it, “The heartbeat of the show has always been hope.”

Despite being the brainchild of Lost writers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, Once’s premise — Snow White and Prince Charming’s (Josh Dallas) daughter Emma Swan (Morrison) returns after 28 years to rescue a variety of legendary literary characters, like Jiminy Cricket (Raphael Sbarge) and Little Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory), from the Evil Queen’s (Lana Parrilla) dark curse — seemed a lot to swallow when the series launched in 2011, and many critics expected the fairy-tale mash-up to fail.

Instead, OUAT went on to become one of ABC’s top performers, bewitching audiences with emotionally grounded and relatable stories that resonated with adults and children alike for seven seasons. “Even though it’s about fairy-tale characters, the writers have written [the show] in such a way that really goes to the heart of everybody,” says Colin O’Donoghue, who joined the show in season 2 as Captain Hook. “That’s hopefully where it will endure.”

Part of the show’s initial appeal was the OUAT bosses immediately bucking age-old expectations, setting a game-changing tone of female empowerment with a very simple, if not monumental moment in the pilot: sticking a sword in the hand of Disney princess Snow White. “When we wrote it, we didn’t realize,” Kitsis says. “We wanted her to pull a sword and not be a damsel in distress, and that is what people respect about Snow White — she’s a fearless warrior for good.”

“At the time that we made the pilot, no one was doing anything like this,” says Goodwin. “Honestly, these guys wrote a truly female-driven show. It was instrumental then in my choosing to take the part.” Goodwin notes OUAT’s female-forward approach was also used behind the scenes — she was No. 1 on the call sheet for years until Parrilla took the top spot in season 7. “I hope that Once is remembered as being groundbreaking, that it’s remembered as being representative of the strongest kinds of complex and beautiful women.”

That was never more apparent than with the character of Regina Mills. She started out as the show’s ultimate villain, unleashing a curse that trapped everyone in a land without magic, where Regina could live out her own personal happy ending. But it was one that turned out to be anything but happy, evolving into a Groundhog Day-like prison of her own making until she adopted Henry (Jared Gilrmore), eventually leading to the arrival of Emma Swan, who went on to wake the cursed characters.

Slowly, but surely, Regina conquered her own demons, becoming not just an ally to the Charmings, but family. “Regina is a very hopeful character because she’s so flawed and complex,” says Parrilla. “Following Regina’s journey over the years, we’ve seen that she’s made some mistakes, but she picks herself back up. I think she’s an inspiration to many, including myself; I’ve learned so much from her.”

Aside from its compelling leads, the show’s fortitude also stemmed from its ability to reinvent itself from season to season, sometimes multiple times within. The Onceuniverse expanded into a playground sandbox where characters like Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) and Belle (Emilie de Ravin) could cross paths with Tinker Bell (Rose McIver), the Wicked Witch (Rebecca Mader) or Dr. Frankenstein (David Anders). The show even birthed a short-lived Wonderland-set spin-off.

The biggest reboot came last year when — after the exits of six major cast members — Parilla, O’Donoghue, and Robert Carlyle (as Rumplestiltskin) were left to take center stage alongside Andrew J. West as an older version of Henry (Jared Gilmore), Dania Ramirez as a new iteration of Cinderella, and Rose Reynolds as Wish Realm Hook’s daughter Alice. But audiences waned without the original cast, seemingly losing hope at the worst possible time. “It makes me sad that something so positive on television is being taken off the air when we need it most,” says Parrilla. “It breaks my heart.”

Even the characters of Once may come to lose hope as the series heads into its final episodes. Despite developments in Hyperion Heights that could signal a brighter tomorrow, an unleashed villain intends to follow through with a dangerous plan, the painful effects of which would be felt by our cherished characters for eternity. “I would definitely say the last episode is as epic as probably any episode that Once Upon a Time has ever done,” O’Donoghue teases. “It’s like taking the best of all seasons and jamming it into one — literally.” West concurs: “The finale is maybe the single most massive episode that the show has ever done. And I mean that in all sincerity.”

Though their future may look bleak, Snow White would (and does) tell our heroes to keep hope alive, a notion Morrison attributes to why the show “had such a strong connection with the audience.” It didn’t hurt that the show launched in a time when social media allowed fans to share in the characters’ experience, cheer their triumphs, and criticize their missteps in real time, creating a community of fans who have cemented a strong bond over the years. “It’s brought a lot of people together that maybe never felt seen,” says Mader, who joined the show’s ranks in season 3. “These people will now be friends forever, because of a TV show that we made — that’s really special.”

For some, it’s much more than that; the mark that OUAT has left is indelible. “There’s been a couple of times where people have said that they were so desperately alone that they’ve considered taking their own lives,” O’Donoghue says. “Through the show, they’ve met other people who felt the same way and realized they’re not alone. That blows me away.”

Sometimes, even the OUAT actors can forget how much the show has affected fans, something season 7 addition Reynolds learned while filming the final episodes. “It didn’t really hit me, the impact of this show, until I went to Steveston,” says Reynolds of the real-life Storybrooke set that the show will return to before series end. “We had people coming out to see it, and even just being on the street I saw in the pilot, that is when it really hit home for me that this is a big deal and this show is epic. Working with [returning stars] Ginny and Josh as well has hammered that home even more.”

Though the Once bosses depicted their originally planned ending in the season 6 finale, they have cooked up a particularly magical final chapter that brings the show back to the beginning in a number of ways — keep your eyes peeled, as there are Easter eggs galore. “The pitch for the whole show was ‘What would a world look like in which the Evil Queen got her happy ending?’ I feel that we’ve finally figured out what that would look like,” says Goodwin, just one of the season 6 departures who returns for the finale. (Read who else is returning here.) “We saved Regina’s happy ending for the end,” says Kitsis. “Her journey has really been watching somebody confront the demons within and emerge on the other side a better person.”

“I know everyone’s been waiting for Regina’s happy ending and no one really could define what that is, and no one really knew what it was going to look like, and nor did I,” Parrilla says. “Once Robin died, it was really hard to foresee another love in her life. But I’m happy with where her happy ending is at.” Parrilla remains coy about the specifics of Regina’s happily-ever-after, only teasing that it takes place “in the same location” as the opening of the pilot.

O’Donoghue, meanwhile, offers that Hook’s fate is intrinsically tied to Rumple’s. “I remember thinking [the ending] was just such an amazing way for this relationship that Bobby and I have invested in over six seasons,” O’Donoghue says. “It’s been so integral to both of our characters, so I thought it was a really beautiful moment and very, very important to me for that to be the happy ending for Hook.”

The notion of happy endings has been vital to the success of the show, particularly Once’s central message that no matter who you are as a person, good or evil, everyone deserves a happy ending — all three of this year’s legacy characters initially entered the show as villains. “It’s so important to send that message,” says Dallas, “particularly in this day and age, when we have so much negative in the world, and to know that you do have a second chance, that you can have redemption, is super-powerful.”

But the question remains whether Once will get a second chance in the future, someday joining the pantheon of shows getting the reboot or revival treatment. “Look, you never say never, but for now this is our ending and the end of this show for us,” says Horowitz. “But if in the future something else happens with the show, we’ll be excited to see what that is.”

Once Upon a Time’s series finale will air over two weeks, starting Friday, May 11, and concluding Friday, May 18, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

x

[efnewsservice]

May 4, 2018

“Oh, man, I’m fired. Guys, I think this might be my last day!” Once Upon a Time is in its final days of production, and Ginnifer Goodwin is feeling particularly punchy after flubbing a line during a pivotal scene. Her Snow White stands before our beloved heroes at a massive war-room table, giving a rousing speech about hope as it seems all but lost. A great evil threatens to steal their happy endings once and for all — if it sounds like a moment from the pilot, there’s a reason for that. As actress Jennifer Morrison puts it, “The heartbeat of the show has always been hope.”

Despite being the brainchild of Lost writers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, Once’s premise — Snow White and Prince Charming’s (Josh Dallas) daughter Emma Swan (Morrison) returns after 28 years to rescue a variety of legendary literary characters, like Jiminy Cricket (Raphael Sbarge) and Little Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory), from the Evil Queen’s (Lana Parrilla) dark curse — seemed a lot to swallow when the series launched in 2011, and many critics expected the fairy-tale mash-up to fail.

Instead, OUAT went on to become one of ABC’s top performers, bewitching audiences with emotionally grounded and relatable stories that resonated with adults and children alike for seven seasons. “Even though it’s about fairy-tale characters, the writers have written [the show] in such a way that really goes to the heart of everybody,” says Colin O’Donoghue, who joined the show in season 2 as Captain Hook. “That’s hopefully where it will endure.”

Part of the show’s initial appeal was the OUAT bosses immediately bucking age-old expectations, setting a game-changing tone of female empowerment with a very simple, if not monumental moment in the pilot: sticking a sword in the hand of Disney princess Snow White. “When we wrote it, we didn’t realize,” Kitsis says. “We wanted her to pull a sword and not be a damsel in distress, and that is what people respect about Snow White — she’s a fearless warrior for good.”

“At the time that we made the pilot, no one was doing anything like this,” says Goodwin. “Honestly, these guys wrote a truly female-driven show. It was instrumental then in my choosing to take the part.” Goodwin notes OUAT’s female-forward approach was also used behind the scenes — she was No. 1 on the call sheet for years until Parrilla took the top spot in season 7. “I hope that Once is remembered as being groundbreaking, that it’s remembered as being representative of the strongest kinds of complex and beautiful women.”

That was never more apparent than with the character of Regina Mills. She started out as the show’s ultimate villain, unleashing a curse that trapped everyone in a land without magic, where Regina could live out her own personal happy ending. But it was one that turned out to be anything but happy, evolving into a Groundhog Day-like prison of her own making until she adopted Henry (Jared Gilrmore), eventually leading to the arrival of Emma Swan, who went on to wake the cursed characters.

Slowly, but surely, Regina conquered her own demons, becoming not just an ally to the Charmings, but family. “Regina is a very hopeful character because she’s so flawed and complex,” says Parrilla. “Following Regina’s journey over the years, we’ve seen that she’s made some mistakes, but she picks herself back up. I think she’s an inspiration to many, including myself; I’ve learned so much from her.”

Aside from its compelling leads, the show’s fortitude also stemmed from its ability to reinvent itself from season to season, sometimes multiple times within. The Once universe expanded into a playground sandbox where characters like Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) and Belle (Emilie de Ravin) could cross paths with Tinker Bell (Rose McIver), the Wicked Witch (Rebecca Mader) or Dr. Frankenstein (David Anders). The show even birthed a short-lived Wonderland-set spin-off.

The biggest reboot came last year when — after the exits of six major cast members — Parilla, O’Donoghue, and Robert Carlyle (as Rumplestiltskin) were left to take center stage alongside Andrew J. West as an older version of Henry (Jared Gilmore), Dania Ramirez as a new iteration of Cinderella, and Rose Reynolds as Wish Realm Hook’s daughter Alice. But audiences waned without the original cast, seemingly losing hope at the worst possible time. “It makes me sad that something so positive on television is being taken off the air when we need it most,” says Parrilla. “It breaks my heart.”

Even the characters of Once may come to lose hope as the series heads into its final episodes. Despite developments in Hyperion Heights that could signal a brighter tomorrow, an unleashed villain intends to follow through with a dangerous plan, the painful effects of which would be felt by our cherished characters for eternity. “I would definitely say the last episode is as epic as probably any episode that Once Upon a Time has ever done,” O’Donoghue teases. “It’s like taking the best of all seasons and jamming it into one — literally.” West concurs: “The finale is maybe the single most massive episode that the show has ever done. And I mean that in all sincerity.”

Though their future may look bleak, Snow White would (and does) tell our heroes to keep hope alive, a notion Morrison attributes to why the show “had such a strong connection with the audience.” It didn’t hurt that the show launched in a time when social media allowed fans to share in the characters’ experience, cheer their triumphs, and criticize their missteps in real time, creating a community of fans who have cemented a strong bond over the years. “It’s brought a lot of people together that maybe never felt seen,” says Mader, who joined the show’s ranks in season 3. “These people will now be friends forever, because of a TV show that we made — that’s really special.”

For some, it’s much more than that; the mark that OUAT has left is indelible. “There’s been a couple of times where people have said that they were so desperately alone that they’ve considered taking their own lives,” O’Donoghue says. “Through the show, they’ve met other people who felt the same way and realized they’re not alone. That blows me away.”

Sometimes, even the OUAT actors can forget how much the show has affected fans, something season 7 addition Reynolds learned while filming the final episodes. “It didn’t really hit me, the impact of this show, until I went to Steveston,” says Reynolds of the real-life Storybrooke set that the show will return to before series end. “We had people coming out to see it, and even just being on the street I saw in the pilot, that is when it really hit home for me that this is a big deal and this show is epic. Working with [returning stars] Ginny and Josh as well has hammered that home even more.”

Though the Once bosses depicted their originally planned ending in the season 6 finale, they have cooked up a particularly magical final chapter that brings the show back to the beginning in a number of ways — keep your eyes peeled, as there are Easter eggs galore. “The pitch for the whole show was ‘What would a world look like in which the Evil Queen got her happy ending?’ I feel that we’ve finally figured out what that would look like,” says Goodwin, just one of the season 6 departures who returns for the finale. (Read who else is returning here.) “We saved Regina’s happy ending for the end,” says Kitsis. “Her journey has really been watching somebody confront the demons within and emerge on the other side a better person.”

“I know everyone’s been waiting for Regina’s happy ending and no one really could define what that is, and no one really knew what it was going to look like, and nor did I,” Parrilla says. “Once Robin died, it was really hard to foresee another love in her life. But I’m happy with where her happy ending is at.” Parrilla remains coy about the specifics of Regina’s happily-ever-after, only teasing that it takes place “in the same location” as the opening of the pilot.

O’Donoghue, meanwhile, offers that Hook’s fate is intrinsically tied to Rumple’s. “I remember thinking [the ending] was just such an amazing way for this relationship that Bobby and I have invested in over six seasons,” O’Donoghue says. “It’s been so integral to both of our characters, so I thought it was a really beautiful moment and very, very important to me for that to be the happy ending for Hook.”

The notion of happy endings has been vital to the success of the show, particularly Once’s central message that no matter who you are as a person, good or evil, everyone deserves a happy ending — all three of this year’s legacy characters initially entered the show as villains. “It’s so important to send that message,” says Dallas, “particularly in this day and age, when we have so much negative in the world, and to know that you do have a second chance, that you can have redemption, is super-powerful.”

But the question remains whether Once will get a second chance in the future, someday joining the pantheon of shows getting the reboot or revival treatment. “Look, you never say never, but for now this is our ending and the end of this show for us,” says Horowitz. “But if in the future something else happens with the show, we’ll be excited to see what that is.”