#it’s the intertwining of Shannon and buck and the connection to Chris

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Something something trapped kid in a pipe at a home renovation and his older brother going in to save him Eddie and saving his sisters from their parents and Eddie reconstructing his life in the aftermath of Shannon…

[matan4il]

Buddie 615 meta

Before we really get into it, I’m just gonna snicker for a second over the fact that the death doula is named Natalia. Why? The name is related to the Latin term for Christmas Day, which is the holiday when Jesus was born. So the word that the name comes from is related to birth, natal. There’s a touch of irony there, that they gave this name to the girl who is not just a death doula, but who looks like she’s actually into death (who thinks dying for a few minutes is cool or amazing. I have to say, it’s not. It’s a good thing to accept death as a part of life, one that heightens life’s meaning, and help others do the same, it’s another to think that the physically and emotionally scarring experience of being dead for a few minutes is “cool”) and I think that’s an interesting tone to choose when introducing Buck’s new Love Interest. (if you’re into it, you can find more name meanings for 911 characters here) ~~

The scene of Eddie and Chris at the cemetery was very touching. It also spoke volumes on how Buck has taken the same role in Christopher’s life as Shannon. We saw in eps 611 as well as this one that Chris is hoping to be heard by the parent that life has taken away from him (Shannon for good, Buck temporarily). What I find interesting is that with the hospital visit, Eddie must understand this on some level. Even with the guardianship reveal, no one has ever explicitly referred to Buck as Chrstopher’s other dad. But he is, and moments like this cement it. We talk about these parallels, but Eddie gets to live them. He witnesses with his own eyes his son talking about Buck in the same way he does about Shannon. Eddie KNOWS what Buck is to their family unit and it’s not just an emergency guardian. ~~

Which connects me to something I touched upon in my 614 meta, Eddie’s journey. He’s supposedly been okay with dating again since 406, but in the last ep we discovered that he’s still held back by past trauma from his failed relationship with Shannon. She’s featured heavily in this ep, too. Her being Christopher’s mom means she’s a presence in Eddie’s life who will always be there. A reminder of how things can go wrong, meaning romantically, but also just in terms of how unexpected death can be.

It pained me to go from Eddie admitting in 614 that he didn’t want to be alone, to him echoing the words of their deceased vic, “We’re all gonna die alone.” That’s something I’ve heard people saying not so much regarding the question of whether there would be someone by your side when you pass away. More like, when death claims us, we all embark on that last journey into the dark unknown on our own. Whether there’s something after death or not, we’ll all discover that completely by ourselves. That’s such a deeply lonely thought, and we see Eddie trying to deal with it in this ep by not postponing seeing his parents. He realizes he was wrong to assume they got time, because death might come for us at any given moment, just like it happened with Shannon. It’s a continuation of his journey, which is obviously not over yet, but to me it’s quite surprising how this week’s ep actually joined Buck and Eddie’s with the common theme of death, but specifically death intertwined with their romantic life. I think each of them is such a fascinating character in its own right, so why the need to connect their journeys like this? I am staring at you, 911. ~~

I was happy that Eddie brought up what a bad idea it is for Buck to be dating someone they helped on a call. This has been a theme with Buck since he meets the snake lady on a call in 101, through Ali in 202, Taylor in 206 and now Natalia. In other words, this has a big, red sign al over it that says it’s doomed to fail, but our Buck is once more failing to notice that. Hopefully the rest of the events in 6b will help him learn and stop making this particular mistake, where he connects his idea of having self-worth only as a firefighter with thinking he can only be romantically desirable to those he helps on calls. ~~

I wrote in this ask reply about the insanity of how Buck and Eddie seem to always start dating again in consecutive eps. As if 911 is not unhinged enough about that, we also have Buck and Eddie being obstructive with the other guy’s dating attempts, first Buck suggesting ghosting to Eddie as a way of blowing off his date with Vanessa in 614, and now Eddie right away pointing out that it’s not a great idea for Buck to be dating Natalia.

We have seen Buddie dating multiple people over the course of almost 5 seasons now, and not a single time have we seen either man on screen approve of their best friend’s romantic partner. Almost like there’s just no one who’s good enough for the man they love so much, right? No one, because on some level, they know what we do, too. That no one else can compete with what the two of them have together. Which is why none of these LIs feel right and acceptable as partners for their best friend. ~~

I love that right off the bat, we got a reminder that Eddie knows Buck better than everyone, on very intimate levels. Just like Eddie knew when Buck was having an emergency session with Dr. Copeland back in 404, while even Bobby as their captain didn’t, we now saw Eddie knows how well Buck handles his taxes. It’s such spouse behavior. Most of us do not have best friends who keep tabs on how we handle governmental bureaucracy, right? But then the end of this ep circles back to this idea and gives us that scene at the cemetery where Eddie proves that this is true not just when it comes to the small things of daily life. He sees Buck, knows him, understands him and Eddie accepts him in every possible way. Which is why he can say that Buck has indeed been different since the lightning strike, an awareness we don’t hear from anyone else, not even from Maddie, Buck’s very close and loving sister.

It reminded me of how Buck said in 309 that Eddie can be honest with him. Then in 511 Buck repeated a variation of that, saying Eddie doesn’t have to pretend with him. In 513 and 514, Eddie got to be indeed fully open with Buck, just as this was paralleled in 612, where Buck was honest with Eddie. This ep continued to expand on this theme, with Eddie reassuring Buck that he doesn’t need to be anything for anyone. And I loved that in an ep where Buck has just started dating someone new, where he thinks she sees him better than anyone, the person who still gets him the most is Eddie, and that’s the person Buck shares himself with the most, too. There is not a single thing Natalia said to him or that he said to her during their date that can rival the intimacy of the cemetery talk. And if Buck still needs a wake up call to see that, well. I do think there’s a good chance he’ll get one, maybe even very soon.

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~~ I'm so thankful to the beautiful @eddiediaaz​ for the meta gifs this week! Not only did she step in when my regular giffer couldn’t do it this week, she also made so much effort to make sure the gifs are made as soon as possible, so the meta can be posted as early as possible as well. She’s just amazing and I hope everyone gives her a big round of applause! Merci, cherie!

~~ Thank you to anyone supporting these meta posts. I could never express enough how grateful I am and that they continue to exist thanks to you!

[matan4il]

Buddie 402 meta

Let’s start with some Buck and how this ep is reminding us all along of his progress. Remember him at the start of season 1, rash and reckless and told off by Hen for solving everything by smashing things? Well, he still gets to smash things, but now we also see him cool, collected and resolving problems by figuring out awesome and smart solutions (the baby monitor feedback, the chimney). All this parallels his emotional progress, where he went from being the “dumbass kid” as Bobby refers to him in ep 101 to giving Chim advice on his relationship with Maddie from a mature place.

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I loved the bit with the roommates and the feelings realization during lockdown together. A comical wink at what Buck and Eddie might have gone through if Eddie did quarantine at Buck’s before he went home to Chris? ;) IDK, but it’s a fun thought. *gasp* And they were roommates!

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I mentioned this in the 401 meta and I’m keeping up my promise to follow this, how Buddie are a team with preferred roles, infinite coordination and mutual reliance. Just one ep later, we have it again, down to Buck rappelling down a rope while Eddie holds him, even attaching the equipment on him instead of Buck doing it for himself, passing him the ax and being so in sync with him. Battle boyfriends!

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Ok, I title these posts ‘Buddie meta’, focusing on anything related to Buck, Eddie, them as a ship and the characters/couples that parallel/connect to them, because that alone is way too many words already. But I have to mention the scene where Chim and Athena’s story arcs climax in intertwined cuts. Everything about that is amazing, not just the acting, but the editing, the music, the build up to how we get to this moment to make it so effective, even the way they managed to create two totally different scenarios that both culminate in the need to ‘push!’ It’s masterful. It’s the show telling us, ‘look at me, look at how well I know my craft, at how I build a story and its meanings and parallels, at how good I am when I do it.’ This is the show earning our trust and our love, proving that we’re not just wasting our time when we give it credit and invest time and thought into analyzing it.

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Chim isn’t paired up with Eddie in this ep, but I had to think about their parallels. Chim comes to see he’s been scared and that’s why he ran away, but he figured it out and came back to his child, just like Eddie did. But Chim came back to his kid and to Maddie, realizing it’s gonna be better if they’ll be scared together. Eddie returned to Chris, but how sad is it that at the end of the day, he didn’t have a partner to be scared with? When he was discharged, Shannon felt she had to go. And even later on, she didn’t feel she could stay and be with him, asking for a divorce. How wonderful would it be if in Buck, Eddie finally found a partner he could be scared together with? Because in practicality, that’s what’s been happening since 204, when Eddie was overwhelmed by and terrified of the bureaucratic system and Buck found a solution for him (Carla… don’t get me started about her speaking of invisible strings of love to Chris with Eddie right there, that scene was too sweet, and just think about the fact that it exists thanks to Buck), or another example of how Eddie went to Buck when he was scared about having let Chris down in ep 312 and Buck is there to listen, as well as to help with a solution. Just another reminder that in all ways but one, they truly and fully are partners.

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The mystery woman turned out to be a therapist, no surprise there. However, Buck’s exact words to her were a pleasant one, as was the way Oliver delivered the line. So I’ll step into speculation territory again (please don’t allow me to keep doing this). TBH, I actually don’t think this will immediately lead us to Buddie or a bi!Buck. I think this will first play out in the context of telling Maddie and his parents how he really feels when they will come into town. We already knew from 316 Buck sometimes holds back on some of the things he feels, like how it’s taken him years to tell Maddie about his feelings of loneliness and abandonment, so this falls in line and I do believe he will have to go through this family drama first to figure himself out. He will have a crisis, it’s not going to be easy to get through, but it will be so very important. But then, later on, I think the show might return to these words and build upon them as a parallel. Because if we are getting Buddie, then this is a slow burn. Gotta throw in a couple more obstacles first, like going through an identity crisis… those obstacles will only make the journey that much more worthwhile when we get to the final destination. And I do see over time more and more of a possibility this destination is that Buddie will be together canonically.

Thank you so much again to the incredible @bicepsie​ for doing the gifsets for this meta, I know that these are a lot of work and you get bombarded with my messages in what is in our time zone the small hours of the morning, when the ep had just finished airing, and you do it with love and so beautifully. I really feel like I can’t thank you enough, love! xoxox