I've been seeing some of the discourse that Eddie is currently not being treated like a main character, and it made want to share what I was thinking for awhile, which is that this isn't new to season 8 even if it feels more obvious now.
My biggest 911 hot take is that Eddie Diaz is the main character who is the worst integrated into the found family dynamic.
You might be saying, "how? he is in the 118, the 118 is a found family!"
I raise you that Eddie really only talks to two members of the 118, Buck and Bobby.
Eddie doesn't have his first one on one conversation with Hen until 2x13, 13 episodes after Eddie joins the 118. Chimney and Eddie don't have a one on one conversation until SEASON 3. Everyone jokes that Eddie never interacts with Maddie, which is true, but I also cannot think of a single time Eddie has had a one on one conversation with Athena.
Let's compare that to the rest of the cast. Every season you can count on:
Buck having a one on one conversation with: Eddie, Maddie, Bobby, Hen, and Chimney. (Athena? I can't think of a one on one conversation they had a conversation in season 7 but they do every other season)
Hen having a one on one conversation with: Chimney, Bobby, Athena, Buck, Karen
Bobby having a one on one conversation with: Buck, Athena, Chimney, Hen, Eddie
Chimney having a one on one conversation with: Maddie, Hen, Bobby, Buck
Athena having a one on one conversation with: Bobby, Hen, Maddie, and maybe Buck. (see above note.)
Maddie having a one on one conversation with: Buck, Chimney, Athena
And then you get to Eddie, and the only people you can count on him having a one on one conversation with are Buck, Bobby, and Chris.
Don't believe me? Try going to youtube and searching "911 Eddie and Hen" or "911 Eddie and Chimney" or "911 Eddie and Athena" you get maybe two scenes only of each pairing and every other result either has a ton more people in the scene, or is missing one of the characters you searched.
The show tells us Eddie is a part of the found family but they don't show it. He almost never speaks to members of the 118 (besides Buck) outside of the firehouse. He doesn't even interact with the members of the main cast who aren't in the 118.
Anytime they show us Eddie participating in a hobby that he supposedly does regularly, it is something specifically shown away from the rest of the found family, like the poker game, or basketball (which they say Chim doesn't go to often), or even his hobby montage in season 6.
Nearly all of Eddie's storylines take place away from the 118, and have to do with his family or something unrelated to every other character. So in a sense he just feels detached. Somehow, because they only really talk at work, and even then still mostly on calls, Eddie seems like a coworker friend to Hen and Chim, instead of the member of the found family he is supposed to be.
There have been so many opportunities for Eddie to talk to other characters that never get used. Why didn't we get a scene about Hen and Eddie talking about what it means to get shot as a bystander, and what that trauma means? If that's part of Hen's backstory, it is right there for them to have an actual conversations about how they have dealt with a very specific event! Why haven't Chimney and Eddie talked about being parents in a high risk job? Or when Maddie was getting treatment for postpartum depression, talk about (temporarily in Chim's case) unexpectedly becoming a single parent?
The best Hen and Eddie content we get is in season 5 when they are temporary partners, and even that only lasts a couple episodes, and their conversations are almost entirely work related. Once Eddie goes to dispatch, they barely talk again.
Let's put this a different way, if you watched 911 only through Buck scenes you'd have a pretty good sense of every single character. If you watched only Bobby scenes, you'd have a good sense of every 118 character and Athena. But if you only watched Eddie scenes, you'd get a good sense of Eddie and Buck, and a decent sense of Bobby, but barely anything on any other character.
And that is a problem when you are trying to say he is just as integral to the found family as everyone else. The show tells us this, but we don't see it. I can think of one time Eddie and Hen hung out and had a conversation outside of work, in season 3 the Christmas episode when Buck is helping Christopher and Denny make gingerbread houses. I can't think of a single conversation between Chimney and Eddie that takes place outside of work.
People get attached to characters through their relationships, that's why shipping is a big deal, and most likely, your favorite character in the show is part of your favorite ship of the show.
One of the reasons Buck is so popular as a character is because he interacts with everyone and no matter who your favorite character is you will see him have a meaningful relationship with them.
It's frankly ridiculous that Eddie has been on the show for over 100 episodes and if you compiled all of the Eddie and Hen one on one conversations or all the Eddie and Chimney conversations, it would probably barely (if at all) last the length of one episode.
Eddie has been sidelined from day one on this show, it may not be as obvious as it is now, but the show has never done the work to fully integrate him into the found family dynamic. He is constantly isolated in the way that he is written, even when they aren't trying to isolate him as a character. This isn't new, and the disconnect between how we are told Eddie fits in with the found family versus what we are shown has honestly been one of my biggest frustrations with his character.
ellievsbear
origamiaround
stormborns
germansingergirl
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
prguitarman