We need to talk about “SkyMed”.
(Spoilers ahead and click ‘Expand’ for sexy GIFs and more!)
The show is Canada’s answer to “9-1-1” (right down to the distinctly iconic way they reveal the emergencies and even the transitional/theme instrumental music is reminiscent), minus the actual dispatch scenes, and with the addition of a little bit of “Grey’s Anatomy” (with one of the nurses moonlighting as a nurse in the E.R. of the local hospital, one pilot moonlighting as a bartender at the local bar, and, thus, there being slightly more of a focus on the characters’ sex lives) with medevac planes instead of firetrucks and even more racially expansive representation in its forefront. Now, if you already have any further context, you probably know what specifically I want to discuss about in particular here. Yup. Tristan and Nowak. Buddie does not make “9-1-1” what it is, but the “SkyMed” writers weren’t stupid enough to not have their own version of it, and Tristan Green (a medevac. medic) and Miłosz /ˈmi.wɔʂ/ Nowak /ˈnɔ.vak/ (a medevac. pilot/bartender) are that. Do the writers drag out whether or not they’ll get together? Not really. Do either have a kid they raise together? No. Are they both written as explicitly queer? Yes. Then, other than both being first responders, how are they like Buddie? They spend 3.5 episodes poignantly not liking each other (at least on Tristan’s end) because they like each other. Tristan flirts with a firefighter whom Nowak previously knew, Nowak gets jealous, and Tristan thinks that it’s because he’s not good enough for the firefighter only for the following to happen.
… which immediately cut to …
(You’re welcome and get in to this song while you’re at it as its chorus starts as soon as their lips first meet and plays over all that you have now seen that came after that between them in that episode)
Tristan starts the next (5th) episode trying to play it off like a one night stand (claiming to be the kind of guy who doesn’t do serious relationships), but, after mutual shirtless gawking after Nowak had made it clear that he doesn’t want to be friends during survival training, and Nowak soothing (read: full-on spooning) Tristan over an episode of PTSD, having been triggered by having single-handedly save the life of a jumper at a scene, having lost his younger brother as a kid to a fall, recounting his past while being spooned after being catatonic since the save until then in the 5th episode. Nowak is having raspberry pancakes [his favourite as suspiciously noted by Lexi (small shipper tangent inside of this giant tangent: shout out to Mercedes Morris who also played Rose on “Eyewitness”)] made for him in the next/6th episode with him kissing Tristan in thanks in front of shocked members of their team, complete with Lexi, Nowak’s best/only friend, giving Tristan the shovel talk (she calls her fists Ronda and Rousey, the connections are there people), which Tristan is surprisingly amenable to receiving. Tristan spends the rest of the first season supporting Nowak through his own PTSD from a car accident he got from falling asleep at the wheel while on the phone with Tristan after trying to juggle both of his jobs (Tristan and Lexi subsequently raced to the scene to get him out where Nowak downplayed it at first, despite having dislocated a shoulder and crashing his car), and they end the nine-episode season sharing I love yous after Tristan had the opportunity to cheat and didn’t take it.
This, this is how you do enemies to lovers same-sex first responders, Kristen! You have the sweet, yet cocky, medic who doesn’t do serious relationships and the self-assured asshole pilot who doesn’t like any one but his best friend giving each other shit, have the self-assured asshole pilot who doesn’t like any one but his best friend raise his eyebrows at the sweet, yet cocky, medic who doesn’t do serious relationships offering him his sloppy seconds and tell him that it was an amateur mistake to let the twink stay the night, have the self-assured asshole pilot who doesn’t like any one but his best friend have an exception for the sweet, yet cocky, medic who doesn’t do serious relationships to the point where it puts a smile on his face for the sweet, yet cocky, medic who doesn’t do serious relationships to wrongly assume that it was some one else (an actual nice person) who found and bought him the special creamer for his coffee, start peppering in backhanded flirting (to which Nowak denies knowing any thing about when Lexi calls him out on it) and humble confessions of jobs well done between the two (starting to sound familiar yet?), and have the sweet, yet cocky, medic who doesn’t do serious relationships make an exception for the self-assured asshole pilot who doesn’t like any one but his best friend because they are each other’s exception. You know what else is nice to have? Have that best friend inform the sweet, yet cocky, medic who doesn’t otherwise do serious relationships that he’s in love with her best friend, that’s why he can’t fully understand how wrong it was for Nowak to even ask her to not tell their Captain about his panic attacks (Nowak did end up telling their Captain himself and got the help that he needed), and have Nowak being attacked (alongside the on-flight nurse) by a psychotic patient while flying (just one reason why copilots exist) being what prompts Tristan to, instead of giving in to a chance to cheat, confirm the affection by saying “I love you, Miłosz” and kissing him when he finds him safely landed at the hanger, and, thereby, calling his man by his first name for the first time (… yeah and just FYI/ICYMI: Nowak replies with a whispered “I love you, too, Tristan” as they hug). Yummy angst, yummy angst, yummy angst!
Would Buddie be more of a monumental serve as the years-long slow burn that it would be if it does go in that direction? Absolutely. Are the stakes higher considering that they are raising a child together and the show airs on a major US network? Undoubtedly. Plus, I could argue that Tristwak’s burn was as swift as it was because the stakes were so low with neither character having responsibilities to other people (precisely children as one of the other pilot’s drama is centered around having a child), but I just want to thank “SkyMed” for throwing me a freaking bone.
… This hiatus is killing me. I’m so sorry if you’ve actually read all of this.
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