Okay, hi, hi, hello, and welcome to Anna tries to use human words to explain the thought process that made it so this picture forced her to take an actual lap around her house to put the energy somewhere, then lie down on the floor doing breathing exercises to bring her heart rate back to normal. As always, shoutout to @stagefoureddiediaz 💜 for the thoughts and analysis and for understanding what I mean when all I have to give is 3 words in all caps.
We don't have enough context for me to speculate on the actual contents of the scene, BUT we do have a LOT of patterns that make the possibility of this being a buddie scene an incredible thing.
I'm gonna get the easy thing out of the way first: this tank top is green.
Last week, someone posted this picture of him on set. It's the same style shorts, same style tank top, and since Oliver shoots with film, he will need a few days to develop a picture, so the timing makes sense.
Obviously, Oliver being on set taking pictures of Ryan doesn't necessarily mean Buck is in the scene. Ryan has posted pictures Oliver took of him in scenes where Buck is not involved, but they are at the station, it feels safe the assume Buck is there in some way, shape, or form.
And that leads us to freak out #1: The uniforms are blue. And even if Buck isn't in uniform, we have precedent of him wearing a random navy shirt to work out.
That means a high chance for a blue and green buddie scene. (Masterpost on the use of blue and green and couples on the show can be found here if you want the full-blown explanation and how it applies to buddie, but I will touch on the basics in this post)
And even if he is wearing another color, this still could constitute a blue and green scene, since we count every element of the scene, and the last gym scene is a blue and green scene completed by other elements, since Buck is wearing a green jacket, and Eddie has a blue towel and water bottle.
So it ends up creating the visual unity attached to the use of analogous colors anyways. Blue and green are right next to each other in the color wheel, and that category of color is used to create harmony, about being cohesive together, and 911 plays a lot with that concept with the romantic pairings, especially with how matchy they make the colors when it comes to the main pairings.
It's different from what they do, for instance, with Buck and Tommy, in the 2 scenes that could be blue and green, since the greenish brown Tommy is wearing doesn't fully go with the stripes on Buck's shirt (cream stripes that match the color Eddie is wearing) and since the mint Buck is wearing clashes with the navy Tommy is wearing, and it is once again exaggerated due to the fact that Buck is literally wearing a matching costume with Eddie.
But it could be a scene where they are grouping buddie together visually.
The green is also important, even if Buck is just adjacent to the scene, because of the speculation behind the game theory game we believe they are playing with Eddie (full explanation on that on the blue and yellow masterpost here). The green means movement anyway. The green lately has been very attached to Eddie being stuck in the past, for instance, that green is the same green Eddie was wearing in 709 during the breakup with Kim, so it ends up attached to the concept of Eddie holding on to the ghost of Shannon, so he won't have to confront the part of him who is in love with Buck.
But Anna, why would that be good for buddie? It seems like more of denial!Eddie.
Well, that's because of the patterns surrounding Eddie's love life and the conversations Buck and Eddie have at the station. Specifically, in the gym space.
Since Eddie is wearing color in this, unlike the other gym scenes, that he's wearing black, I'm gonna assume, at its core, this scene is about Eddie. (But I'll explain the patterns behind conversations about Buck in a minute too, don't worry.)
I know he's always in black when he is at the gym, BUT if we are thinking about the long game with Eddie finding his yellow, getting a scene he would be expected to be wearing black, in color, is major progress.
That being said, we have 2 conversations in the gym space about Eddie. The panic attacks conversation in 502 and the pent-up Eddie in 705.
Yes, 502, there are cots everywhere instead of gym equipment, but it is still the gym, they are just pushed to the sides. The space is what matters.
So, what do these 2 conversations have in common? They're both about Eddie's love life. But they are specifically about Eddie's love life failing. He's having panic attacks about Ana, he can't get it up with Marisol. In 502, we see Eddie basically asking for permission to break up with his girlfriend, and in 705, Eddie is in fact ready to leave, until Buck comes out and he blows up his own life about it, but details.
But in general, talks at the station with buddie, are about them talking around the problem.
The gym scenes are a lot more confrontational, one of them is pushing the issue, and the other isn't really talking about the actual problem. In 201, Buck's insecurities are getting the best of him, in 404, Buck doesn't want to talk about the issues with his parents, in 502, Eddie refuses to acknowledge that Buck is right until 503, in 705, Buck is lying to Eddie about the date.
Then we have middle of the station talks, the 306 one and the 510 one sorta resolve the issue, but in 306, Eddie is lying about the fight club and the real reason he was upset about Buck leaving, in 510, he's talking to Buck but it does lead to Eddie quitting, and in 809, Eddie is lying about wanting to go, Buck is lying about being supportive, and well, the "I don't need you" is the biggest lie Buck has ever said lol.
(If they are in the locker room, it's about informing the other that they are single now) (I'm not counting the scene in 809 here because they don't stay inside the locker room for the duration, not like in 503 when Eddie says he's gonna break up with Ana, and in 701, when Buck says he broke up with Natalia. The movement in 809 gives it different rules.
But the thing is, conversations at the gym lead to movement. 201 fight leads to the "you can have my back any day", 404 leads to Buck opening up to his parents, 502 leads to Eddie letting go of the relationship that's not serving him, 705 leads to Buck coming out. So it leads to big personal moves for the one who's lying.
So the way that the scene has Eddie in the holding onto Shannon green, BUT in the space that leads to them breaking out of a bad pattern is great. It means MOVEMENT.
But there's also the fact that Eddie isn't wearing a cutout tank top.
Kym and I talked extensively about this, but I'm not sure if either of us made a post about it. The cutout tank tops play a part in Buck denying his attraction to Eddie.
It works in a symbolic way so that he's cutting out a part of himself, it plays a part into the game they are playing with the fit Buck's clothes (you can read about that here), too big clothes when he's making it about Tommy, because Tommy doesn't fit in his life, and the lack of sleeves when he's denying the fact he is in fact attracted to Eddie, so that he can pretend that doesn't matter.
Eddie has the lack of sleeves for the juice conversation, the move to Texas, and when he's working at the house and going about it the wrong way with Christopher.
And it ends up playing in the same space of denial as Buck's lack of sleeves, because Eddie is, in fact, denying himself of what he truly wants.
Unlike regular tank tops, that end up having the connotation of Eddie opening himself up to the possibility that he is going about something in the wrong way, like 304 when Lena makes him realize he's going about it wrong with Chris and the tsunami, in 502, when listens to Buck and doesn't push something he doesn't believe in, 604, when he realizes he might in fact be babying Chris, and 607 when he's literally talking to Abuela about what she sees in his future even tho he spent the whole episode denying the posibility of something mystical having any powers.
And the addition of color to it, Eddie finally leaving the black, along with everything else surrounding station talks and the gym specifically, means movement.
If this is a buddie scene at the gym, one of them is hiding something, and it's gonna lead to a catalyst that forces them to be honest.
Not to speculate, but speculating anyway, with this and the restaurant bts, with Eddie being in the room, and Buck having the stripes that usually mean he figured something about himself out and is running the other direction because he doesn't like what it means (Kym's meta on that here), and Eddie in the being pushed to do the right thing for himself combo, I just really like where this is going.
This is so important to me because Theo, who needs control, who needs plans, who needs routines, is willing to sacrifice all of that to love Liam, and Liam, who is not really capable of loving himself, is willing to trust Theo enough to believe that he can do it for him, too.
