#but looking at it through the lense of s3 and knowing all they've been through?

[sevensoulmates]

I love your analysis, so I wanted to ask you what you think of Buck's reaction when he hears Shannon tell Eddie that they always end up having s * x when they argue (I really don't remember the dialogue very well sorry) in that Christmas episode? (Also in that scene Chim looks at Buck's reaction), I have always found this moment interesting because of Buck's reaction and I see that almost nobody talks about this.

Okay, so I had to re-watch the episode to really ponder my thoughts on this. Because I think when Buck and Chim initially hear Shannon say that she and Eddie never have any conversations where they don’t end up in bed, their reactions seem equally as shocked given that this is the first either of them have ever seen or heard of Eddie having a romantic (or sexual) relationship with anybody. Up until this point Eddie has been turning down people asking him out left and right, has been as celibate as a monk, and has told Buck that the reason he doesn’t date is because of his son (and because they’re not his type). Now while “not his type” is SUCH a gay innuendo (like come ON) I also take it to mean that he doesn’t want someone flaky. He doesn’t WANT someone who’s just looking for sex. Or to use him for sex. He wants someone who will be there for him and his son, and at this point in time, he doesn’t believe anyone could be that for him. If Christopher’s own mother wouldn’t stay, then why would one of the random bar girls? 

But when Shannon comes back, Eddie thinks for a minute “hey, maybe we could have this connection again. Maybe we could build up something together for Chris again”, and he tries to make it happen quicker by jumping straight into physical intimacy with Shannon. If you wanna dive deeper into how Eddie uses physical intimacy as a way to connect I would highly recommend checking out @himbo-buckley‘s series on Buddie & Love, Sex and Intimacy. 

But by this point we know that Eddie has not been truthful with anyone about Shannon, about the mother of his child, and that includes Buck. So when Buck hears about this, as the person who’s always been curious about Eddie’s love life (writers, come on!) he’s like whu? Someone I didn’t know about? Is THIS the reason Eddie doesn’t date? Why did he lie to me about it?

In the scene where Buck is walking around looking at trees with Chim he says “[Eddie] is sleeping with her but he’s lying about it. It’s like he’s having an affair with his own wife! You don’t think that’s weird?” This scene tells us two things. 

1.) It’s happening in media res (in the middle of the scene), meaning we can infer that Buck was already talking about Eddie and Shannon prior to where we cut to them getting trees. And judging by Chim’s reaction (exasperation, wanting to change the subject), Chim has been trying to get Buck to shut up about it for quite a while before Buck actually does. And we know Chim. He’s a gossip! He loves to hear all the dirty deets of his co-workers and he loves to rib them about it, and yet he couldn’t care less about gossiping about Eddie with Buck. He says it’s none of their business (and he’s right). But Buck obviously feels like it is his business. Because Buck (albeit unconsciously) always feels like Eddie is his business. Has been showing us this since their first episode when he claimed Eddie as “his problem”. 

2.) Buck finds it weird that Eddie felt the need to sleep with his own wife--and hide it from everyone. She’s his wife. It’s well understood that people have sex with their wives. Nothing new. But it’s the hiding part, the shame part, the feeling the need to not tell Buck part, that makes Buck itch. Buck cares an awful lot about the fact that Eddie hid this from him. Because up until this point, Buck assumed that whoever Christopher’s mother was, she’s not in the picture. But now it makes Buck think more. Did Eddie turn down all those other women because he wanted to be with his wife? Even unconsciously? Or was he just holding out hope that one day his wife would come back to him and Chris? Just like Buck was holding on to the hope that Abby would come back to him? 

But why is Buck so invested in Eddie’s love life (and sex life) with his own wife? Why has he been invested in Eddie’s love life for a while now? I don’t think Buck knew why he was so invested. I think he told himself it was genuine concern for his best friend. But then, he never actually asks Eddie about her, as we see in the Santa scene. He plays it cool, acts like he doesn’t know what Eddie’s referring to right away when he brings it up. Says “figured it was none of my business”, he plays it off like he wasn’t badgering Chim about it forever the other day. Tries to look cool and nonchalant in front of Eddie. Almost like one trying to act cool in front of their crush? Not asking them anything about the people they like cause they want to come off like they don’t care?

And this kinda irritates Eddie. Eddie pushes Buck to ask more, he wanted Buck to ask him about it, he wanted to talk to Buck about it, and he was slightly upset that Buck didn’t ask. That seemingly Buck didn’t care enough to ask. Eddie feels the need to explain himself, justify his actions to Buck. And Buck continues to play it cool. Eddie then spills his entire guts, giving Buck all the information he wanted. It’s one of the first time we really see Eddie be vulnerable with Buck and it’s just beautiful. 

I have a hard time laying meaning to this episode beyond Buck and Eddie building up their friendship given how open Tim was about the elf scene being a joke, but even if the elf scene was a just a bone the writers threw to buddie shippers, the part before, where we really witness Eddie be honest for the first time about how he feels, and we see how much he had to have trusted Buck to open up in the first place about the thing he’s most sensitive about in his life? You can’t fake that kind of connection.