#eddie and shannon

[simplylupin]

Vertigo and Eddie Diaz

because the connection has been made between eddie's current arc and hitchcock's vertigo, i thought i'd give my two cents on the topic as a mediocre film student whose had to study vertigo for two years of her life

so here's a basic (very over-simplified) summary of vertigo for those who are unfamiliar

The protagonist, Scottie, is a policeman who took a break/was discharged/retired because he couldn't save a fellow police officer from falling off a building to his death

Because of this he suffers from vertigo and/or fear of heights

He's hired by his old friend Gavin to follow Gavin's wife, Madeline, for fear that she's been possessed by someone called Carlotta Valdez

He does so, and slowly falls in love with Madeline - and her him

We also learn that Scottie's best friend Midge is in love with him, but he's too obsessed with Madeline to notice Midge

Him and Madeline go to a church bell tower where Madeline seemingly offs herself by jumping off

Some time later, Scottie goes to Madeline's old hotel room, and finds a woman called Judy who looks exactly like Madeline

She agrees to go on a date with him

We, the audience, find out that Judy actually is Madeline (and vise versa). She was hired by Gavin to pretend to be Madeline.

Scottie grows more and more obsessed, forcing Judy to change her appearance to look like Madeline

He makes the connection that Madeline and Judy are the same person, and drives her to the bell tower

He forces her up the tower, over coming his fear of heights

Once at the top, they have a confrontation

A nun appears, scaring Judy and she once more falls to her death (really this time)

So, from what I've gathered, the loose connection between characters is:

Scottie = Eddie

Madeline = Shannon

Midge = Buck

Judy = Kim

The Nun = Marisol

Scottie's unable to save his fellow police officer. Eddie was unable to 'save' the people he pulled out the helicopter: "I pulled them out. But I didn't save them." Because of this he suffers from immense guilt and PTSD (as seen in his season 5 arc). He's unable to move on and this hinders him to a certain extent - just like Scottie.

After Shannon's death, he's thrown through the loop again, with the added bonus of him not having been able to save her too. Scottie's job was to save Madeline, and he failed at that, resulting in her 'death'.

Eddie is constantly trying to find a woman to fill that role of Shannon in his and Christopher's life; we see this with both Ana and now Marisol. He's looking for her in them. Scottie does the same - he visits the places he went with Madeline, he goes to her old room.

Eddie finds Kim, Scottie finds Judy.

For a little while, Judy helps Scottie get over and get closure on Madeline. She fills that empty space and allows him to move on. This is what I think Kim is going to do for Eddie.

She looks so much like Shannon but she simply isn't her. We know in later episodes that Buck is going to meet her and proclaim that she's "nothing like Shannon." There's a clear distinction there - Eddie is only seeing Shannon in her because he wants to, because he's still holding onto that idea. I think Kim is going to be the closing point of this ongoing search for Shannon's 'replacement'; someone who looks exactly like Shannon should be perfect, right? But when she too doesn't 'fill' that role that surely must spark some sort of realisation in Eddie, because if not her then who.

For Scottie, he feels betrayed by Judy. He brings her to the last place he saw Madeline, and ultimately, indirectly, causes her death. Obviously I don't believe Kim is actually going to die, but more the idea of her. She's the final chapter of him pursuing Shannon's ghost.

Midge is Scottie's best friend. They met in college and were engaged for a few weeks before breaking up. They spend a lot of time together, staying at each other's houses and going out. She helps Scottie through his vertigo and acrophobia, and tries to 'bring him back' in his grief. At one point, Midge paints her face onto a painting of Carlotta Valdez, showing that she's there and ready for Scottie's love, if he's willing to give it to her.

I believe, in this scenario, Buck takes on her role (for seemingly obvious reasons). Him and Eddie are best friends, they do so much together, he helps Eddie when he's struggling etc etc. Midge is the idea of the 'other woman', someone who is right in front of Scottie's eyes, someone whose always been there for him. However, Scottie is too obsessed and fixated on Madeline that he can't see this and continually brushes it away. You see where I'm going here...

Although Buck potentially doesn't even realize it himself, he has taken on Shannon's role in the Diaz family for years. Eddie already has the 'replacement' for Shannon that he's so desperately been searching for right in front of his eyes.

In Vertigo, Judy and Madeline are the same person, whereas Shannon and Kim are obviously not. However, the comparison still stands.

Scottie meets Judy and immedietely latches onto her because she looks so much like Madeline (duh) and he is so desperate for anything that'll keep Madeline's memory with him. He makes her undergo a series of phsyical changes (dyeing her hair, changing her wardrobe, her style etc etc) so that she appears more like Madeline - so he can get that closure and pretend.

Eddie clearly isn't going to do this to Kim. However, whatever way you spin it, he is projecting Shannon onto her. He saw her, and thought of Shannon, he pursued her because of that, he's doing all this because of Shannon. He is chasing that closure and that moment were he can be like 'Ah. I've finally found someone who can be Shannon for me and Chris.'

I doubt Kim is going to be around particularly long. As much as it sounds diminishing, she really is just a tool for Eddie to have this realization that nobody can replace Shannon, and that that's okay. He doesn't need to find Shannon 2.0.

Now, in Vertigo, when Scottie and Judy are arguing on the bell tower, a nun appears from the shadows and startles them - causing Judy to fall to her death. It's a very abrupt and out of nowhere.

The character of the nun, I think could represent either one of two things. Marisol, as we know, used to be a nun (i'm still not over this btw). That's a pretty straight-forward, clear cut comparison. The nun causes Judy to die, Marisol causes 'Shannon', and the idea of Shannon, to 'die'. This interpretation leans more heavily on Marisol and Eddie staying together, however, so I'm not sure.

The nun could also just represent religion as a whole, and Eddie's Catholic guilt particularly. Eddie tells Bobby that he only really married Shannon because he felt like he had to, he felt pressured into it because of his religious guilt. Despite this, "There was still a part of me that loved being married to her."

There's no doubt in my mind that Eddie loved Shannon. He did, they loved each other, and he still does love her - he always will. I do think that the choice of focussing on his marriage to her and how he "loved being married to her" is interesting though, he doesn't try to clarify that he was in love with her. This could just be because it's a given orrr

Whatever, not really the point.

The point is, the fact he's now "awakened" his Catholic guilt by finding out Marisol was a nun, must mean something for his upcoming arc. In Vertigo, the nun kills Judy. Here, his religious guilt 'kills' the idea of Shannon??

I'll definitely have more ideas about this later but this was my word vomit for now! Let me know what you think please.

(Also something I find funny is that the actress of Madeline/Judy is called Kim!)

[eddiediazismyhusband]

sorry but shannon’s character/her and eddie’s relationship is written so diabolically badly… like i don’t think they writers even knew wtf they wanted their relationship to be so we got the most toxic fucked up fuckery (that they both played a hand in) and then she shows back up in s2 and it’s like “ooohhh nooooooo ofc eddie realistically is going to trust this woman with his son again even though she’s shown no genuine signs of reconnecting past reconnecting with his penis” just to have things get serious again and her be like “yeah no i never wanted this, lmao bye ✌️” to then KILL HER OFF and spend the next 4 seasons discussing how much eddie didn’t feel any real love to her and it was a fucked up sense of duty why he married her in the first place only to then bring her back in s7 (but not really) to have her literal ghost tell chris that she never wanted to be his mother further proving how toxic their entire family dynamic was (again not that it was entirely her fault but her s2 actions were fucking wack and ruined and possible redemption/reconciliation) and then to have a fucking SHANNON DOPPELGÄNGER SHOW UP TO BE LIKE “oh look she was the love of eddie’s life” like tim minear what the FUCK are you on…. like i get that this very much could be his twisted way of showing us that eddie has a very unhealthy obsession with the mistakes that he made in the relationship, but there are soooooooo many other ways that could have been done that didn’t once again fuck with the set narrative that we’ve been given for YEARS 😭😭😭

like to me it reads like tim didn’t actually know what he wanted for eddie in s2 after they made the choice to not have him be w maddie so they brought back his wife after building her up to be this villain, continued to villainize her through subtext, but also somehow tried to convince people that eddie would realistically do something like this when we’ve established how protective he is over his son??? and like also how manipulative shannon was in the whole situation yet it’s never brought up by ANYONE and the narrative still blames eddie while simultaneously trying to pave over its own portrayal of shannon as a bad mother by trying to be like “you don’t understand she was just struggling 🥺🥺”

idk it pisses me off bc shannon had the potential to be an amazing character for eddie’s development (especially his queer identity if they hadn’t tried to force them back into bed with each other) and she could have fallen into a real friendship with him (esp if she had been a lesbian and we got lavender marriage eddieshannpn but i digress) but instead we got…….. this mess that’s still going on after 5 years that even RG is getting sick of rehashing rather than them giving eddie anything new for him to work with

[salemsvlog]

I need more Shannon Diaz - Silver Springs edits.

Like, for yesterday.

[destielswhore]

911 gotcha for gaza prompt fill for @sweetesttaboosade / eddie and shannon to white ferrari by frank ocean @911actions

the actual event is over, but you can still donate!!!

video description: eddie and shannon to the song white ferrari by frank ocean. it follows them through their entire relationship (non-linearly) centering on the "white ferrari", which i've chosen to mean shannon's death. the entire video is accurately captioned!

[gayofthefae]

Thinking about Shannon saying "I needed someone to have my back" in reference to caring for Christopher and how angry Eddie was when Buck left him alone while Christopher was dealing with PTSD.

"I needed you to have my back."

"Do you even know how much Christopher misses you?"

[zahlibeth]

okay so if Shannon was only 26 when she died in season 3, and Buck was 26 in season 1, then how old is Eddie?! We've been assuming he's 3 years older than Buck to match Oliver and Ryan's age difference right?

someone do the maths on the ages that we know about. How old is Chris in season 3?

911 give us Eddie and Shannon's backstory I am begging you

[salemsvlog]

I like to think that a part of her was like “yeah, this is it”.

DID SHANNON KNOW. DID SHE KNOW ON THAT LAKE THAT SHE'D SPEND THE REST OF HER LIFE WITH HIM. DID SHE KNOW SHE'D GET PREGNANT AND HAVE A SHOTGUN WEDDING AND SEE HIM OFF TO WAR AND HE'D COME BACK DIFFERENT. DID SHE KNOW HER MOM WOULD GET SICK. DID SHE KNOW SHE'D LOVE HER LITTLE BOY SO MUCH. DID SHE KNOW IT WOULD BE THE SCARIEST THING SHE EVER DID. DID SHE KNOW SHE WOULDN'T EVEN MAKE IT TO 30. DID SHE KNOW? OR WAS SHE JUST HAPPY TO GET DRUNK ON THE LAKE WITH A CUTE BOY

[stolenkissesdiaz]

i hope buck, eddie and shannon are haunting helena through chris rn. i hope when chris rolls his eyes and snarks back helena freezes reminding her damn well who his father is. i hope when chris bites the inside of cheek and is suddenly really interested in his hands when he’s nervous about something helena scrunches her eyebrows in confusion bc she swears she’s seen it before and her eyes widen as she recalls eddie’s friend, the same friend who was there when they picked up chris, having the same mannerisms when eddie and his team came to texas. i hope when chris asks for the ice cream from the store 45 minutes from their house near the park and he picks rocky road helena swallows roughly bc shannon would do the same when she missed eddie and/or was sad. i hope she’s violently reminded no matter how much she pretends, that child will never be hers in the way she’s so desperately been trying to make it be for years. i hope she’s reminded of her damn place in chris’ life.

[hirakiyois]

you're laughing. beloved network tv show 911's resident single dad with repressed homosexuality is dating three people at once and you're laughing.

[thisshitisridiculous]

no one haunts the narrative like they do they've got the narrative in a chokehold 7 years later

[buddiebeginz]

I don't think he's lying to Chris so much as not telling him the whole truth. Which yeah, traditionally is lying but in a situation like that I'd say it's allowed. I also really do think there's the possibility that Eddie had a crush or some kind of relationship with a boy before Shannon. But I don't think he was ready to talk about that yet especially not with Chris.

Also Eddie didn't even have to mention that were was someone before Shannon.

Eddie: I know the first ones hard to get over but you will.

Chris: Did you get over mom?

Eddie very easily could have responded to that with something about Shannon. But instead he says:

Well your mom wasn't my first girlfriend.

He also seems a bit emotional when he has this convo with Chris. This is why as the audience you're expecting him to be talking about Shannon and yet he mentions there was someone else. Only for a minute but he still does.

About Eddie not being over Shannon I can see where you're going with that especially given when this scene was supposed to take place (and all the Kim stuff going on) but I think Eddie only thinks he's not over Shannon. I feel like a lot of the feelings we saw from Eddie in this episode (709) are about a lot more than his relationship with Shannon.

He will always love her and a part of him will always grieve her and she will always hold a special place given their history and being Chris' mom but at the same time I think Eddie has used her to hide behind. He's used their relationship and the idea of her as a way to not have to face what's really going on with him. He says at the end of 709 that he's broken. He feels that way I think because he sabotages all of his relationships and has never really stopped to examine why. He hasn't fully moved past that relationship because moving past Shannon means really taking an honest look at who he is and what he wants and I don't know that he's ever really allowed himself to do that. I'm hoping we'll get to see him do that in season 8.

So, I've been rewatching that deleted scene. I know we are all baffled by the whole 'Your mom wasn't my first girlfriend.'

Canonically, Shannon is Eddie's first girlfriend. So why did he say that?

Was it a continuity error? Or was he maybe trying to lie because he had a boyfriend? Or did he just have a sweet innocent childhood girlfriend?

All of the above takes are the ones that I have seen most on my dash.

But I've been thinking. If we put this scene in the right context, couldn't it be that he is just lying to Chris?

I mean... this scene is set before the Kim Shannon-cosplay. It's set in a time when he is still with Marisol, but he is secretly seeing Kim (aka the Shannon doppelgänger).

So when Chris asks him if he got over mom, he knows for a fact that he didn't. In fact he is meeting up with someone that looks just like her.

So, if he tells Chris that he will always love Shannon, but yes he has moved on, he feels like that's too big a lie to tell his son because it isn't true. How can he sit there telling his son he'll get over it when he still isn't over Shannon?

So instead he bends the truth by telling him his mom wasn't his first girlfriend. Basically telling and reassuring him: 'Yes, I did get over my first girlfriend and so will you.'

Does that even make sense? It does in my head. It's all about the context here.

[salemsvlog]

The fact that Eddie told his parents that HE started dating someone who resembles Shannon and Ramon start instantly blaming her for fuck his life again will always anger me.

LIKE- THE HELL. WHAT DID SHE DO? Look like a kid start in the 90s?

The Fuck

[alexisrosemullens]

9-1-1 3x15 | Eddie Begins 8x01 | Buzzkill

[fruitydiaz]

Eddie's selective memories vs the full picture

[gayofthefae]

Watching 512 and it’s not only interesting to think about the Maddie and Shannon parallels but more importantly, the respective Chimney and Eddie parallels. It speaks to the turmoil in their relationship before Shannon left that, unlike Chimney, Eddie, to our knowledge, didn’t go after Shannon or even attempt to contact her when she didn’t come back. While they were different situations, it’s still interesting to note that he doesn’t seem to even have called to ask when she was coming home or any other questions he likely should have had. This is not against either of them - more an observation on the relationship dynamic and their faith in it and willingness to work on it as a whole. He moved close to her when the time came, but he took no direct action.

[zahlibeth]

Season 2 down! I watched most of these a few days ago but i did it on my sofa with my knitting rather than at my computer ready to bingo so I mostly just have some scribbled notes here and there

Chimney saying he's "thus far unscarred" in 2x16 😭😭😭

Everything about Eddie and Shannon on the beach is spinning round my head, her characterising him as 'broody'!!! His own characterisation of himself as dumb but pretty!! His entire inability to talk about Anything. Fascinating to see this Eddie vs the Eddie who learns to Use His Words to reach for Buck, or to bring Bobby back in 5B. I'm also just screaming for more detail about "these last few months" what HAVE Eddie and Shannon been doing, did she meet Buck???

Also, my sympathy for Shannon as a mother is waning more this rewatch I think. I still feel for her in so many ways and absolutely she is correct to ask for a divorce and not try to be Everything. However. What does she mean by "if I try to do this again before I'm ready"? Is she leaving or is she going to keep co-parenting? Because frankly when is she going to be ready to be Chris' mom? Time away from your kid does not make you any more ready, you need to be in there parenting. Eddie has been fully single parenting for so long that this is the least stressful reintroduction to parenting you could ever have because they already have whole routines set without you. Anyway.

"Maybe it's all over" says Buck. Fool!

Also date!Buck with Ali is so fucking cute I adore him. I will never ever be mad when they put my guys on dates because they're adorable. He's all giggly and smitten and cute.