#i sent a version of this to the gc but this is a post meta

[lover-of-mine]

I'm thinking about the shaving scene and the possibility that it will be attached to the scene Oliver mentioned about just sitting in the silence and I want Eddie to be shirtless in it so bad. Eddie being shirtless would be interesting because Eddie is introduced shirtless inside a glass box, putting on the uniform, being described by his accomplishments when Buck asks who he is, graduated top of his class in the academy, army vet, medic, silver star, right? We also have a literal costume being ripped out of Eddie during the bachelor party, and that means a lot because it is the first time we see Eddie let loose (and we know Buck was involved in that one even tho the show didn't show it to us), but it is one step closer for him to free himself. Season 3 we have Bobby telling Buck "[the uniform] is not a costume, it's who you are" as Buck saves someone without the uniform, then in season 5 we have Bobby stopping Eddie from coming back before he's ready because what Eddie needed wasn't the job, the job was very much part of the things that were killing Eddie, his answers weren't the job so much so he just has to accept them while in a uniform that doesn't even have his name on it, because Eddie is not being defined by being a firefighter. But Eddie does define himself as father and husband as a combined thing even though his wife is dead and he's a fantastic single father, he keeps trying to fix mistakes he made with Shannon with someone else while playing pretend with these women he picked for Christopher, not himself, right? And that's the thing they keep saying, that Eddie needs to find out who he is without being defined but that. I feel like Eddie being freed from the boxes he contained himself "army vet, medic, has a silver star, best of his class, single father" when he already worked through most of the boxes he put in his own life could be very literal and callback to that initial shirtless moment. He needs to get out of the one that makes him think his life is supposed to go a specific way so he can actually do what he wants with his life. I feel like getting him out of that final box would need for him to be shirtless like in that first moment, because then he's not wearing a costume in any way. And the actual shaving would be symbolic as hell in this context too, because there would be no costume, no mask, just Eddie, for the first time.