#buck just said that’s biphobic TO ME

[ayo-edebiri]

#This show is definitely a comedy, fr 😭

[daisysmalia]

Why are people so insistent on claiming Tim was lying when he says the ‘no Buck was actually into Tommy?’

Like he says it here;

And someone on twitter tried to tell me this was him still saying Buck was confused? Like I’m sorry but if you watch the ep objectively it’s all about Tommy. Buck wants to hang out with him, he felt he clicked with him, he wants to see him. I understand you can have your own interpretation but please don’t try say that the creator has a different one than what he intended. Eddie was the misdirect, the twist was ‘oh I guess it was you.’ And Buck and the audience had that realisation at the same time.

[nicxxx5]

i have a couple thoughts that maybe buck actually hasn't fully processed his bisexuality? and like that's why we haven't explicitly heard him call himself bi?

we remember the conversation he had with maddie about how he's "always loved women" and doesn't know how long he's been "leaning in the other direction". and he literally didn't know he was attracted to men until tommy, the first and only guy he's dated.

maybe he doesn't actually know yet what to consider himself. maybe he was just going with the vibes of "okay, i liked all these women and i like tommy" and just going along with his current (at the time) relationship.

i just feel like maybe buck hasn't fully processed what it means to him to be attracted to both women and men now. he's just seemed really unsure of himself in that regards in the last two episodes. for example, when he felt conflicted of noticing that those women at dinner were attractive, and when he says he doesn't know which pond to jump back in.

i'm just thinking that maybe he knows he's attracted to men but doesn't know what that means for him in the grand scheme of dating and his identity.

[gaytommykinard]

i dont care what canon tries to tell me and i don't care for how other people are trying to analyze 8x06

like I'm not buying into the idea that buck "idolised" his boyfriend and "didn't really know him" if you want me to accept buck has been dating a man for half a year and took no time to think about his own or tommy's identity and labels (yes even if he was to reach the dreaded “i don't care about labels” conclusion because ryan murphy productions are apparently allergic to the word bisexual) we're not going to get along idk

or whatever bullshit it is that buck couldn't say i love you but "rushed" to ask tommy to move in (and the idea that he was "inconsiderate" about tommy's house, sorry but that's literally all fanon, we don't know shit about Tommy's living situation other than that he has a big ass garage apparently. i promise you the writers were throwing "masculine" hobbies at tommy and trying to find common ground between him and eddie, you (we) have spent 6+ months thinking about tommy's house, the writers have spent 0 of that time on it) or that buck wouldn't be understanding of a closeted repressed gay man entering a heterosexual relationship with a woman as either an act of self preservation or succumbing to societal pressures. Michael Grant has been part of the canon storyline since s1. give me a fucking break.

like maybe I'm the only person who doesn't see this narrative as consistent with buck's character especially with the development it has gone through in s6 and s7 (and obviously i was foolish in hoping that canon would follow through with the development and not just uno reverse everything they've spent time setting up in previous seasons).

i feel like i have talked about the tommy side of things and the bottom line is that no matter how much meta we read and write the writing as it was presented to us in the episode is that tommy believes that because he is the first man that buck has dated he won't be his last and that their relationship is doomed because buck thinks everything is "new and exciting" and is essentially treating tommy as a shiny new toy. the only reasonable, plausible explanation for the things tommy said is that he's been in buck's position before and hurt someone he dated when he first came out. but again the writers aren't thinking about it as much as we are.

and while these lines are extremely biphobic, at least you can say it was the writing that was biphobic (just like the misogynist writing in the restaurant scene). you can say tommy was insecure (because he obviously is) so at least it doesn't butcher tommy's character.

buck, on the other hand? i don't know what happened to buck. we know that buck is tuned in to his loved ones’ struggles even when they don't voice them, he's shown this time and time again. he's perceptive and compassionate and non judgemental. buck cares so fucking much. nevermind the inconsistencies in the storytelling from 7x05 to 8x06. ignoring those. but this isn't the character we've seen for 8 seasons.

[teambuddie]

when i started to watch 911 i already liked buddie, but i wanted to give b*ckt*mmy a chance, i really did, but honestly, i just couldn't and i'm gonna explain why.

1. eddie was haunting the narrative.

after watching 6 seasons of buck dating women i'm not gonna lie i was pretty excited to see him flirt with tummy because yay bisexual buck!!! and the very first scene i was filled with joy until... eddie was in every corner of the relationship. i know, the writers were using buddie as a diversion, they wanted to surprise us that hey he was jealous of tummy not eddie! but then they kept eddie haunting the narrative through the whole relationship. every bt scene eddie was there or was mentioned and obviously the writers did that on purpose, because we're supposed to keep thinking about eddie, we're supposed to know buck is still thinking about eddie even if he's dating someone else. to me the writers made bt impossible to exist separated from eddie and buddie and that made it impossible to me to truly give bt a chance even if i was already biased.

2. tummy is BORING.

look, i was so happy buck was gonna date a man and figure out his sexuality, i really was, but holy shit tummy made it almost unbearable to watch some scenes. how can a man be so boring??? he has zero personality, zero charm, zero everything. every LI from both buck and eddie had at least SOMETHING going on, you know? even natalia and ana had more personality than tummy and that's a bit insane like how a character who showed up for like 5 episodes is more well developed and interesting than you?? and again, to me the writers did that deliberately, they wanted us to feel like something was missing, they didn't want us to get attached to tummy because he wasn't going to be a constant, he was a plot device and he was treated as such. no personality, no complexities, nothing, a blank state.

3. the acting.

this is probably gonna sound mean, but i have to be honest. one of the things that made it even more impossible to enjoy bt was l*u's acting. imo 911 has fantastic acting, like ANGELA BASSETT is on the show, the bar is high guys! even side characters act really well throughout the show and yeah sometimes there is overacting, but mostly is really good and expressive. and then there's l*u... he's so stale, so unexpressive, so bland is like watching a sixth grader acting on a broadway production (but a sixth grader would do a better job probably). i can't take tummy seriously as a character because not only is he boring but i don't feel like watching a "real" character, just a person pretending to be a character and i know that's what acting is but good acting makes you forget that what you're watching is fiction and makes you feel for the characters. l*u's acting achieves none of that.

4. b*ckt*mmies.

i understand when b*ckt*mmies say they can't enjoy buddie bc of the fandom, i do bc they just pushed me even further away from bt. the way they reacted to the break up was... something. some of them had valid reasons to be upset and ofc they were gonna be emotional about their ship breaking up, but the whole "this is homophobic/biphobic" discourse was too much. first they decide to simply forget michael was also an elder gay and say that bt was the only gay couple that showed someone older can be happy... like, are you serious???? "oh but michael wasn't a main character" but his storyline was very well developed and it just as a representation as bt. even better than bt bc no one was saying how he wants the other to have daddy issues (that irked me so much god WHY WOULD HE SAY THAT????). calling ostark biphobic bc he said he wants buck to sleep around again??? as if he said that bc he's bi when it's obvious he said buck should sleep around bc he's buck. ostark showed nothing but support to bi buck and he was always so excited about the storyline, but since he wasn't too onboard with bt and said he'd like for his character to sleep around a bit suddenly he's biphobic???? the way they decided to interpret what tummy said as him saying buck isn't sure of what he wants when it's clear he meant that buck should explore more his sexuality not to be sure but because that's what he probably did and he knows it's healthy and normal to get with new people to figure out what you like and what you want. nothing about the breakup and what ostark/tim said was prejudiced and while i understand feeling hurt and interpreting some stuff with a negative light, i don't think they were being fair to the writing and the crew.

maybe i'm biased bc buddie was already my ship even before i watched 911, but honestly i think if they wanted us to root for bt they'd make their relationship more compelling, they'd give tummy more personality, they'd not make eddie haunt the narrative, but that's not what they did and you may think that's "unfair" to bt and tummy, but honestly it was a warning sign b*ckt*mmies ignored... the sign that said: "this is not meant to be". when tummy called buck evan it wasn't without a deeper meaning, it showed us he was the odd one out, it showed us he didn't belong. and so, he's gone.

[saras-almanac]

So I’ve been sitting on my feelings about the BuckTommy breakup and handling of it for a while, trying to get my thoughts in order. And after a while of thinking on it—and the recent Lou interview dropping making me feel like my feelings are valid—kind of made me want to just blurt them all out and hope for the best. So this is that.

Ultimately the entire handling of the BuckTommy breakup feels cruel. And not just cruel in an intentional way, but cruel in a casually, not even given any thought cruelty, which is worse sometimes. And to be honest, I think that’s part of why I’ve been struggling with it so much. (That and the echoes of Magicians season 4, which if you know you know).

What I mean by cruelty is just the lack of any real effort or care put into this storyline, one that they had previously been handled with so much care and concern and were praised (rightly so) for at the time. It’s the way they introduce this Tommy as Abby’s ex thing, which makes hardly any sense at all, but also feels cruel in the intention of laughing at the invisible string of fate theory between them. It’s they way that they’re 6 months anniversary and not only have they not talked about this, but Buck (Evan Buckley) didn’t get him a gift that feels cruel because that feels so wildly out of character for him. It’s the way they had the break up play into some bisexual stereotypes at best and inherently biphobic at worst by having Maddie suggest Abby turned him gay or that Buck needs to “explore” things to figure out what he wants or that Buck “Doesn’t know what pond to jump back into” of it all. (Not to mention the comments from OS about wanting Buck to fuck—which I’m not getting into because I didn’t read it and as a bisexual woman, don’t feel the need to go and try to find something that might upset me more.)

All those reasons are why the breakup itself is cruel to the characters, but it’s also cruel to those of us watching, and especially to anyone and everyone who loved and/or related to the character of Tommy, who we see walk away much much worse off than when we found him. It’s the way the story (intentionally or not) is framing it like a romcom break up – make up – pining storyline which they apparently are not doing according to interviews. It’s the way they didn’t give any sort of closure to Tommy for the character or for the audience.

There’s a reason that people lose themselves in stories—it’s because they follow certain rules and contracts. It’s expected that stories do not match up to real life because while things don’t have bigger meanings in life or they don’t work out according to plan, in stories, everything happens for a reason. Because that’s the whole point of what you’re consuming. And along with that, emotional moments are meant to feel cathartic in a way, at least eventually, because you were able to see the bigger picture, to feel the finality to things, and to really understand what’s being said and what’s happening. This breakup does none of that and actually seems to have been included and rushed for shock value and that to me, is just shitty, lazy writing.

If you were going to break them up and have no desire for any sort of reunion or closure, why not make it intentional? Tommy could be the one who wants marriage and kids and settling down and Buck internally freaks out because theoretically he wants that but maybe it’s too soon and as much as Tommy loves Buck, he’s not going to wait around and hope that Buck feels the same for him because he’s been hurt too many times like that. Or Tommy could be leaving for another state because he’s no longer going to be a firefighter or needs to go for family reasons or gets a job at a different station that he applied for ages ago and he has everything all set up and isn’t going to ask Buck to leave his entire life for Tommy, so they decide to breakup even if it hurts both of them. In either of those cases, it’s sad and devastating, but at least there would be some closure to it and understanding of it for both the characters and the audience and some peace knowing that at least these two are going to be moving toward happiness in whatever way that means for them.

Instead, what we have, is a hail-mary last-second breakup that comes out of nowhere and feels abrupt and crappy in the way we leave Tommy specifically because we might never see him again. And that is the crux of the issue. Because the way this was written, the understanding is that they are going to get back together or reunion or at least have that final closure conversation—because that’s what happens in stories. We see this type of surprise breakups, breakups where they issue is they love each other too much and are afraid to go further (Athena/Bobby and Maddie/Chimney to name two examples we saw in universe) only to eventually fight to be together and realize that if they don’t take a chance they might never know how amazing it is. So the fact that it’s set up to follow this same path while nearly every interview is telling the opposite, again demonstrates that casual cruelty as well as an inherent failure on the writing. If you have to go in interview and explain what it is you wrote or are telling, then you have failed as a writer. It’s really as simple as that.

This breakup doesn’t feel set up or foreshadowed, it just feels like they added it on because they didn’t want to do anything more with it? And that feels incredibly crappy as a decision to so many people who related to Buck and Tommy and them coming out later in life and all those other things. I’m rambling and on my phone and feeling a lot of things that I can’t fully express right now, but the long and short of it: If this was always intended to be the final time we see Tommy, this breakup is even crueler than intended.

[pigeonxp]

ok now that bt is FINALLY bones, all i really have to say is fuck yall for real. there are some of yall that arent that bad, but the overwhelming majority of you guys are actually fucking awful. i have had twitter mutuals be harassed by yall, i have had friends harassed, ive seen people i dont even follow being called horrific things and insulting their appearances, and so so much more. one thing that really sticks out is the blatant misogyny that some of you guys present. the amount of men that have gone online and confidently called women bitches and sluts and whores and cunts and hoes is genuinely fucking deranged, and i hope you all know that. there have been bt stans in my replies and my inbox and in my business, telling me that IM in the wrong for stating my opinions on the weird ass shit theyve been doing, telling me that they "dont feel welcome" in this fandom, and that they feel like this fandom is toxic and etc etc etc etc I DONT CARE BRO. i have said it once and ill say it again and again. some of you guys are just not meant to be in fandom spaces. there are block buttons for a reason. you can block people and tags and literally everything under the sun but you continue to SEEK OUT shit that makes you mad or that you dont agree with just so you can hate on the OPs in their replies. you dont seem to understand that people can have opinions on what characters they like and what ships they enjoy, and that other people have the right to criticize them. i am NOT sorry and i will NOT apologize for how i may have reacted. i do NOT feel bad for you. we all told you that this wasnt going to last, the showeunner said it wasnt going to last. the ACTOR said it wasnt going to last. and instead of using critical thinking skills and media literacy training, you got tattoos for this ship, you spent hundreds of dollars on cameos from a nepo baby, and you spent days of your lives hating on and harassing people over a FICTIONAL TV SHOW. instead of being upset at LFJR for leading yall on, you attacked oliver stark for being "biphobic"??@?!?!??!!??!÷*×(!&×,@ for having an opinion on his own character, especially after he spent time becoming genuinely one of the biggest bisexual allies i have ever seen. after he told reporters that he was planning on playing buck as bi anyway, after he made post after post saying how excited he was for bucks storyline, and after he advocated for this character he loves so dearly. you jumped down his throat for no reason. i have absolutely no sympathy for you. i really do hope you follow lfjr back to SWAT and i truly hope he gets every single line and every single scene just to keep him off of my fucking screen. 🫶

[mintedwitcher]

my only theory is Buck spooked him with the "move in with me" thing. because THAT was the tonal shift in that scene. and ykw yeah I get it, its only been 6 months and Buck's breaking out the uhaul but like.

anything else. anything else would have been acceptable. if Tommy had said "its too soon" or "you might be ready but I'm not" then that would've been good.

but to coat the whole thing in biphobia and echo the shitty biphobic sentiments that the loudest and nastiest members of fandom have been screaming for months? that, to me, is unacceptable. that is shameful.

my only fucking hope right now is that Buck goes after him anyway. because how do you get us that fucking close to an ily moment and then rip the ENTIRE thing out from under us like that.

(one more thing. if lfjr is leaving the show, then I wish him nothing but happiness and success in his career, I really do, I just wish that he could've stayed.)

a real power move would be to have Tommy leave LA and have Buck decide to leave with him, and for Oliver to leave the show in protest of the way he's been treated by his supposed "fans" for the last several months working on this storyline that actually excited him. can't have b-ddie if Buck's gone off to Vegas to shack up with his hot pilot husband can you?

[epiphainie]

people will probably disagree with this and it probably doesn't even matter now but to me tommy agreeing to go to madney's wedding after two weeks of knowing each other and tommy with his heartbroken breaking up with buck are not incongruous character beats. i'm setting aside the biphobic reality of that type of assumption for this post, just talking about tommy's characterization. because to me tommy agreeing to go along with buck at the beginning even when he thinks the other shoe will drop at any minute just shows how much he was taken with buck? believing he was probably gonna be heartbroken at the end of this but liking this dude so much and getting caught in his pull and simply not being able to say no.

and then flashforward six months and he's so much deeper in this than he'd initially thought, he's the guy buck allows to take care of him when sick, he's the guy buck looks at with heart eyes, he's the guy who has heart eyes of his own, but then buck brings up moving in together as a double down on his spiraling and that's a reality check for tommy. not literally because the reality is that buck has done this many times before, enough to know he wants this with tommy (even though the moving in is jumping too ahead imo) but tommy doesn't. it's a check for the reality that tommy has convinced himself for all these years, that these things end, and if he goes along with this one thing, takes this huge step, when it ends he won't be able to come back from the pain of it. i don't think he's leading buck on, i don't think at any stage he actively thinks this will fail till buck brings up a possible scenario where it failing means immeasurable amount of hurt.

and i think that's a good story. that'd be a good story, especially after josh's words about queer people from a generation before buck's making questionable choices out of fear and a need to protect themselves. like i said, doesn't matter now i guess, but i'll take tommy with this episode and i'll continue loving him.

[kinardsevan]

Why does everyone have Buck grovelling for Tommy back in their fix it fics when Tommy was the one spouting biphobic talking points and walking out?

Clearly you didn’t read my breakdown of Tommy’s reaction. Also there was no actual shouting so

The reason people (me) have him “groveling” is because his whole speech literally steamrolls Tommy. Theres no point at which he admits his feelings (to his BOYFRIEND), he just leaps with both feet. And yes, we as the viewers know Buck is like this. To some degree, Tommy does too. But if you pay attention to Tommy’s reactions throughout the entire scene, he’s not reacting in a way that’s intentionally biphobic. He’s not making Evan’s bisexuality the entire issue of their relationship. If that was truly the case, we would’ve seen an issue with his reaction at dinner. What we get in the breakup scene is a trauma response and immediate shutdown after Buck effectively throws at him the attitude of “let’s just be together because you’re so good at being gay”. There’s no point at which he questions whether Tommy was prepared for him to say all of those things, or if Tommy was in a place to want to move in together (let alone discuss marriage or getting engaged).

I think the natural reaction is to take Bucks side because he’s the main character and he’s the one being broken up with, but personally, from a trauma-informed point of view, Tommy’s reaction makes SO much sense. He’s been hurt, he’s been burned, he’s been alone his whole life. Then he finds this boy who swept him off his feet. Based in Lou’s acting, Tommy has been in it from that first kiss. He fell hard and fast. But I think you can be in something for love and also be terrified when the prospect of finally getting what you want with the person you want not feeling attainable. I think there’s something to be said about Buck having lived with Taylor and how that whole relationship panned out, how I Love You and moving in together was used as a form to keep her from leaving, and he ultimately figured out he was trying to force pieces together.

By relation, if he tells Tommy he loves him, it’s not coming from a malicious place because we’ve had the groundwork laid that tells us Buck DOES feel this way even though he hasn’t pieced it together yet. Going after Tommy isn’t from a place of “stay because everyone else leaves”. It’s “stay because I love you and I want things with you I’ve never wanted with anyone else”. At least from my POV.

[thoughtslonglost]

I am too emotional to find the receipts I need rn, so I may come back to this but hear me out important discourse i remember from recent weeks and post-episode: 1. I remember discourse about someone from the show saying Bucktommy was a romcom 2. Oliver wants Buck off the dating hamster wheel 3. Oliver likes a slow burn 4. Oliver wants Buck to have to work for a relationship 5. Oliver said there might be some 'Should I call him', and 'Should I move on' occurring 6. LetBuckFuck THEORY Rom-coms have a few formulas but one common formula is Act 1: Meet cute, getting together Act 2: Honeymoon period followed by a big breakup Act 3: Pining, wallowing, a major event that causes a reunion, happily ever after Following this structure would mean: 1. Buck gets off the hamster wheel and finds his forever person 2. getting to happily ever after is a slow burn 3. Buck had to work for his relationship Additionally: 1. Debating on calling LI or moving on is a common rom-com trope 2. Sex montage following the breakup is also a common trope, especially in movies where the male love interest is a reformed playboy as he goes back to his old ways after having his heart broken. her, point two makes sense for Buck's development, Buck 1.0 used Sex for casual intimacy before discovering true intimacy with Abby. He has seen sought meaningful relationships, he just said Tommy is the most meaningful and life-changing relationship since Abby and literally got dumped right after bearing his heart and soul, reverting back to 1.0 for a period makes sense I could be delulu here, but I need there to be a logical reason behind this breakup otherwise it feels like bad writing at best and 'bury your gays' at worst, and I need to believe Oliver is not as biphobic as he sounded in that interview

[azaharinflames]

Also while I am at it.

I have to confess something.

From the moment Oliver said his last scene in 6 was with Eddie and how they didn’t need to say words, but just be there for each other… I knew a break up was a big possibility.

I let myself be convinced of the contrary by all the nice theories, and by backing it up with canon. Some of his answers in interviews were also giving me hope - how he said ‘if they were ever on a break’, which seemed really positive, how he teased the relationship deepening.

(Yeah wtf was that about btw? Because he’d filmed 6 at the time. Why would you ever say that, it’s cruel imo)

But I also saw everything else. How Oliver teased there was a lot of change for Buck. How there was suddenly a lot of possibilities - to be honest, that lowkey was a death sentence to me. Because I saw the biphobic undertone, but I didn’t want to bring myself to believe. It is clear what he meant now, but I find it in poor taste. And of course, his last scene being with Eddie and both supporting each other in their issues.

If it had been mid ep, no problem. But from the moment he said it was at the end, I knew things weren’t looking good. I had hope it was just Buck supporting Eddie, but the inclusion of Buck’s own problems made me think it was mutual. And that it didn’t look good.

Eddie’s SL will probably receive good feedback. So will Madneys. But I will be extremely surprised if they don’t face backlash for this shit and for the way they’ve treated the fans and even Lou these past weeks.

As for me, I will not be watching live anymore, because it’s not worth it. I don’t even know if I will watch until the whole season is over, save from clips here and there. I won’t abandon this space because I love the community we built and how safe it feels, and I will follow Lou in his career. But I’m partly done with 911.

[saras-almanac]

So I wrote this post the other day about my feelings on the handling of the BuckTommy breakup (which you can read here if you want). And @parrishjeanna reblogged with a link to an article from Tim. I wrote out a reply to it but it became so long I needed to put it in a separate post because it’s over 3k and I need to put it until a readmore.

Okay so I did read that article thank you @kawaiifacesong for linking the not generating revenue clicks because I don’t like reading any articles for 9-1-1 because it’s literally all buddies who can’t ask anything about the show. (Case in point, in this particular interview, the interviewer brings up “The Couch Theory” because Buck and Eddie sit on a couch.)

So this interview was trash for many reasons but I’ll narrow it down to three for the sake of this response: Biphobic nature of the breakup and aftermath, what’s being said in interviews isn’t what we’re seeing, and Tim writes as he goes so there’s no actual plan going forward.

First: The Biphobic Nature of this breakup is still moving full swing.

The idea that Buck is “still figuring himself out” and needs to explore is insulting in so many ways—especially to myself as a bisexual lady in my 30s. Firstly, being in my 30s, the idea that you need to figure yourself out still is absolute bullshit. Yes, you can still find new things out about yourself and make some changes, but usually by this point in your life, you have a pretty decent handle on who you are as a person. Which Buck does have… and we’ve seen that? So it has to be a reference to his newly discovered and realized sexuality.

Which, AGAIN is so biphobic and plays into incredibly harmful bisexual stereotypes that bisexuals need to “explore” to figure out what or who they want. This means either they need to fuck around and make sure they’re really bisexual. OR they need to get enough experience with their same gender to then be able to have a same-gendered relationship. Both of which are insulting and harmful. This idea that Tommy couldn’t possibly be a lasting relationship because Buck just came out as bisexual is wrong. It’s fine if they didn’t want Tommy to be a long-term love interest or even an end-game love interest, but why couldn’t they have done it differently, to hopefully not play into these harmful stereotypes that are still incredibly prevalent today.

Now do I think they fully intended it to play out as biphobic as it is? Not really, but I do think that the heart of what they wanted—Buck exploring his sexuality—is inherently biphobic because of the way they have chosen to go about it. There’s a world of difference between having Tommy break up with Buck so Buck can go exploring and having OS and TM saying similar things in interviews and Tommy and Buck breaking up and Buck getting back out there and dating around. Which if they had given it just a smidge of thought, I have to hope they would have come to that same conclusion and maybe gone about it in a different way.

Second: What Tim’s saying in interviews about what’s happening on the show and in these storylines doesn’t match up to what we’re seeing

I’m going to paste the few paragraphs related to BuckTommy break up here, just to read. I have bolded what I thought was important and what I’m going to talk about after it.

“Look, I think the breakup was premature, but that was by design. For me, the story that I was trying to tell was here’s a guy, Tommy. He’s not a main character on the show. We haven’t done ‘Tommy Begins’ or something. But you do see him in the ‘Begins’ episodes, in flashbacks, and by the time he leaves in ‘Bobby Begins Again,’ he’s turned over a new leaf. He’s feeling more comfortable. He’s hanging out with the new people at the 118 once Bobby takes over, and they throw him a party and bake him a cake when he goes off to his new post. There was even a reference in Broken when Chimney calls him to do the water drop,” Minear explained. “But Tommy’s a guy who’s in a different place in his life than Buck is. And I think what Tommy realizes is exactly what he said, which is, ‘I’m not your last. I’m your first.'” Minear referenced the coffee shop scene in Season 7, where Buck asked Tommy to give them another shot and come to his sister’s wedding, as a point when Tommy thought, “Alright, this guy’s kind of great. He’s super hot and he’s sweet. And this will be nice. And I’m going to be vulnerable for this.” As the relationship grew stronger and the stakes grew higher, however, Tommy reevaluated things. “I think Tommy, in the end, understood that this was not forever — that Buck is exploring himself. He’s still figuring himself out. And even if Tommy doesn’t know it, he might sense the fact that Buck likes to jump in with both feet a little bit precipitously,” Minear mused. “So was the breakup premature? Yes. Because Tommy was put in a position where he had to be honest. And once he speaks the truth, which is, ‘I think I know where this ends, and I can’t move in with you,’ he’s kind of breaking the spell — the spell of that honeymoon. Tommy even says, ‘I didn’t see this coming either.’ I don’t think either one of them did.”

Okay, lots of things happening in this quote but ultimately there’s a massive disconnect in what TM thinks is happening or what he’s saying is happening and what is actually on screen—and that’s a huge problem. You can’t rely on interviews to explain things, it needs to be in the actual text of the episode.

I think the real crux of the issue is this: “Tommy’s a guy who’s in a different place in his life than Buck is… Tommy, in the end, understood that this was not forever… he’s kind of breaking the spell—the spell of that honeymoon.”

Let’s break this down a bit. Tommy being in a different place in his life than Buck… How? Buck has, since the pilot episode, been looking and searching for a stable romantic relationship—he’s always craved that and wanted that. Even in the breakup, he was thinking about their future and marriage and moving in with Tommy. Is that not what the next logical step of a relationship might be? So doesn’t that—regardless of whether it was premature or not—prove that Buck and Tommy are in the same place of clearly wanting a long-term, committed relationship? So if this wasn’t the case, why didn’t you show that? Show them having that disconnect or make it clear that Tommy’s dropping hints about their future and Buck is not in the same place so he’s not picking up on them at all. Because what we saw was Buck wanting and seeing a future with Tommy and Tommy basically telling him that the doesn’t actually.  

“Tommy, in the end, understood that this was not forever — that Buck is exploring himself. He’s still figuring himself out.” This is my villain origin point—for real. Because this is also not what we saw! What we saw, was a Buck who was so secure in himself and his relationship, arguably for the first time on this show, that he didn’t panic or second-guess anything really. He was all-in with Tommy and enjoying himself and being with Tommy. He even said that being with Tommy makes him more comfortable with himself—aka what a lot of couples say when they’re in committed and reciprocal, healthy romantic relationships—that being with you makes me happy being me. (Paraphrasing here, but hopefully my point gets across.)

Because what is there for Buck to figure out yet? He knows he’s bisexual and incredibly into Tommy. He’s happy and content with his work life and seems pretty happy with where he’s living. His relationships with his friends and family are all as good as they usually are. So what is there for Buck to still figure out? I’m left to assume that this is again only about his sexuality, which just keeps adding more to the pile of shit that makes me feel crappy and uncomfortable with this storyline.

Also, why couldn’t Buck and Tommy last? Why is that assumed to be the correct conclusion to come to? How many high school sweethearts get together and last? How many people who don’t date until they’re in their 20s-30s find someone right away and stay together? How many people come out as queer later in life because they have found someone they click with and it just makes them see more of themselves and they stay together? Sure, this is not the case with every single person in these situations, but it’s not unheard of. To me, this just feels like the show and Tim are acting like Buck is a young, 20-year-old child and now a grown man in his 30s…

What we actually saw on our screens, was two people who genuinely seemed to enjoy each other and spending time together. That had an easy and sweet relationship, where they both felt settled and comfortable together. It’s why the weird change in 806 felt so abrupt—what do you mean these two people who had amazing communication up until that point, have not talked about their past relationships at all? I think that was done as a shortcut for the writers and TM to say, “Look, see, they’re not compatible, they can’t last because they’re not talking about anything serious.” But again, my point is: then you should have showed us that beforehand, given some foreshadow or lead up to it. Instead, they chose to blindside the audience for the “shock value” and it didn’t work. Shock value for shock value’s sake never works for the audience. They don’t want the rug to be pulled out from under them, they want to see you building something and only after it’s built can they see what you were doing the whole time.

Now, I understand that they just wanted to break them up for “story” reasons (which I have no faith is going to be anything good). While I personally hate that because I feel like there would have been much more storylines and things for Buck to be involved in and it would have opened up a lot more potential stories for the future, I get that it’s not my decision to make. But why couldn’t they actually make this make sense in the actual context of what we’d seen already? If you wanted to break them up because they’re in different places, then having Buck ask Tommy to move in could have caused more of an argument of Tommy saying that Buck doesn’t really see him and doesn’t seem to understand that Tommy has a whole life outside of Buck. O Tommy could have been the one to propose moving in together and Buck freaks out because it’s too soon—which leaves Tommy to come to the conclusion that they want different things right now and he can’t just sit around and hoping Buck will catch up because it would be too hard for him to let go of Buck later. Or have Tommy literally going to a different place—whether temporarily or permanently—and so they have to break up because Buck has a whole life here and Tommy wasn’t about to ask Buck to uproot himself for Tommy…

There’s so many other ways this breakup could have gone instead of the route they went—and they would have made much more sense contextually. Instead, they went this cheapest way possible and have Buck now acting like a child about calling Tommy, when in reality and with the growth we’d seen of Buck in the past 8 years, he would have reached out to Tommy already. At least to talk things through. The baking thing was cute for an episode and it would have been okay for longer, but I’m just sitting here wondering exactly why Buck can’t call Tommy… If it’s because he’s hurt, then they needed to say that because right now, it just seems like Buck is literally being forced to not call him but the audience isn’t really sure why.

All this brings me to my biggest point. Third: I don’t trust anything that’s being said in interviews or by TM because he doesn’t write in advance and that’s a major problem

Before we get into it let me make a disclaimer: I’m gonna need every single network and studio to start requiring all the white men who write for them to actually be getting them scripts. We cannot rely on their “genius” to make sense because these scripts—especially season 8—should have had a few more passes before what we’ve seen. The only episode so far that actually felt like a complete episode was the Halloween episode.

And if this season has taught us anything, it’s that Tim not having any real plans or anything written is actually a massive problem for this show.

Now me not believing TM is not me saying that I 100% believe Tommy is coming back (though I feel like the chances are higher now with the reaction from the GA for ABC to suggest some things or at least give a closure beat to this character and relationship) This is more, nothing that TM has said in interviews up until this point for season 8 has really actually happened on screen except for Eddie shaving his moustache… Granted, I don’t read every single article with him so I might have missed something, but I just feel like he’s got no interest in setting anything up and actually paying it off in any real way.

So many people were so excited for season 8 because it was the first season in years where we actually knew so many storylines going into 8—that weren’t told to us in interviews; they were introduced in the actual show! We had Bobby/Athena’s house hunting, HenRen fighting Ortiz and trying to get Mara back, Madney fostering Mara in HenRen’s place, Eddie dealing with Christopher leaving, and Gerrard back at the 118. Any one of those storylines would have been so amazing to really see explored and fleshed out. Instead, everything was basically settled and done by episode 4—apart from Christopher and Eddie resolution and Bobby/Athena actually moving in / building. To me, as a writer myself, that decision to rush though those other stories was a massive massive misstep. There was so much there to explore and delve into that could have been so satisfying to watch and really reap the emotional payoff.

Instead, we had like 2-4 minutes max of processing HenRen not being able to see Mara again before they were all reunited. Not that I wanted to see HenRen struggling again in this way, but it would have been different and they could have put some humor into it with Karen suggesting they tail Ortiz and try to find things out about her—or Hen comes back from a shift to find Karen has stayed up for 38 hours tracking every single facebook post from Ortiz and her family to try and find something they could use and she’s the one who uncovered the link between Ortiz and Gerrard, which then promts Hen to ask Buck as Gerrard’s specialist boy to ask for a favor or try to convince Gerrard to help them deal with Ortiz.

And Maddie and Chimney having Mara would have been so interesting to see them actually having conversations about what they want for their family going forward—do they want more kids, do they not? Are they wanting to try naturally or adoption? And then Mara being with Chimeny could have also added another layer of tension between Hen and Chimney with Hen being jealous that Chimney is raising her daughter.

I mean Eddie… the fact that it took 8 episodes (basically) for him to actually acknowledge that he needs to do something to be a part of his son’s life is a major problem as well. It makes me not want to root for Eddie to reconcile with Chris because he has shown hardly any initiative in actually confronting what he did and the actual reason why Chris is so upset and feels betrayed. There was a little in 6, but that’s sort of it.

Bobby and Athena, they just don’t seem to know what to do with them anymore. And that’s a shame because there are so many things they could do—namely my favorite thing which is give them more comedy to do! They are so funny together (cruise ship is one of my favorite things). Or they could have had the first few episodes be them sort of couch surfing through the firefam and be a fun little runner of “we really need to figure out what we’re doing.” Even their storyline of their house burning just doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore.

Buck, it would have been so amazing to see him dealing with the work stuff more and having Tommy to lean on, to see Buck who’s been pretty secure in his work for the past few seasons now dealing with Bobby being gone and Gerrard there, just really gets him thinking about the future. Or even the comment about budget cuts, why was that never brought up again? That would have been so interesting to lead up to the midseason finale, which of the 118 is going to get laid off? And Buck being in such a secure spot maybe he volunteers because he wants to explore something outside of firefighting and/or because everyone else has kids and a family and he knows it’s easier for him to not have a job? And then he’s saying his goodbyes and the midseason act out is Bobby announcing that Eddie is going to be leaving them instead.

Instead of really exploring any of that, it’s all been rushed through to move on to the next thing, but the honest truth is: I don’t trust what TM’s great next thing is because he absolutely squandered all the potential he had going into season 8. So all these “amazing things” he has going forward I just don’t trust they’re going to happen or even be slightly interesting. Instead, I assume they’re going to be something that’s like an episode opening and then never mentioned again if they do happen.

I just don’t understand what is going on in his head other than ego right now and I’m just… I deal with too many egos in my life to deal with another one like this.

[nqueso-emergency]

I want to have faith. I really, really do.

But Oliver wanted this breakup:

And add to that the fact that 8x05 was written the way it was specifically to make the breakup hurt more, in addition to the smugness that Oliver is radiating online and in interviews, compared to Lou's tone of sadness and almost disbelief...

I think they're trying to keep it ambiguous because they know already that they messed up. They want that door slightly open just in case this is too big of a fuckup to smooth over (and with the way the GA is reacting, I think they've finally hit that point) so they can try and reel Lou back in. But if we're looking at brass tacks here: Oliver is done with the bucktommy storyline. Nothing he's said so far has convinced me that he wants it to continue. He's been dismissive and blase and smug about the breakup, cheering for Buck to "find out what he likes" by sleeping around (as if that's not a class A biphobic stereotype right there), and barely giving bucktommy, Tommy, or Lou ANY kind of peace with his PR.

I don't trust him with Buck's story anymore. I don't trust Tim with Buck's story anymore. I wouldn't be able to trust a Tommy return or a bucktommy reunion because Tim and Oliver have shown their hands, and they've shown that it's too easy for them to just toss out a good storyline on a whim, especially for Buck.

It's just really really hard to have any kind of faith in a "getting back together" arc when this is the behaviour we're seeing right off the bat.

That's fair.

I have a different take on that interview. Not to defend it, not at all, but I think there's things Oliver says to different people for very different reasons. That's the only interview that he openly says this biphobic shit and it makes me think about why.

I spoke to someone recently about this as well and we came to the conclusion that if Oliver really is sending that to Tim and practically begging to let Buck fuck, he's clearly not seeing that in his scripts.

I don't think Oliver likes playing Buck sad. But, he'll just have to get over it.

[fromkenari]

Sorry, y'all, but Lou saying this was meant to end (it just ended earlier than he anticipated) makes me agree with Oliver, Let Buck Fuck. I can't handle him getting his heart shattered again. He needs to break the cycle. Let him be messy. He is not a saint. And I'm tired of shows relying on bisexuals to be the moral compass. It's not biphobic to say you want your character to explore their sexuality with other people and not have a predetermined end game. Bisexuals have been bound to end games across so many shows, and that's fine. Yes, you can realize you're meant to be with one person. But not everyone, no matter their sexuality, necessarily has that happen in their first relationship, let alone their first queer one. Bisexuals with end games introduced early on have happened multiple times, and way too often, it has been said, "They can fuck around, but they have to come to their senses that this past love is THE ONE," and holy cow, that is totally not the norm in real life. So, Let Buck Fuck. Please.

[mochiminniee]

After crying myself to bed last night and trying to organize my thoughts and feelings today, I think that what hurts me the most about all of this is how carelessly something that I love was treated.

The break up wouldn’t have affected me AS much if it was handled with the love and care I think it deserves. And not crumbled up like a useless sheet of paper. It feels like every writer in that room went “ugh, whatever.” Which doesn’t feel very fucking nice.

I also feel for Lou who did treat it like the special thing it was for a lot of us. I honestly hope that IF he ever does get a call back, he just says no. They don’t deserve him after blindsiding him like this.

I also saw some posts being upset that now Buck was probably going to end up with a woman, which is perfectly fine? Buck is BISEXUAL. Let’s not start being biphobic because we’re hurting. That helps no one.

And don’t even get me started on the people who interviewed him.

Anyways, I love all of you. I hope we can still continue to enjoy Bucktommy despite what we’re being put through.

Now that I’ve said my peace, I’m off to lurk and read fanfiction again ✌🏽💜