what about the "treat as white coat procedure" or whatever it was they said as they carried the body bag out of the lab?? you know, the reference to Operation Whitecoat where they tested vaccines against biowarfare agents????
i'm tired of the doomerism speculations and i want writing dissertations on one 12 second scene and silly little crack fics and 17 billion gifsets of the same scene and edits of characters in flowercrowns!!!
okay i've been waiting to put my thoughts into words but trust me i'm having them
first off, people closing on buddie after 8.18? how!? like i understand but also throwing in the towel when we're this close is wild to me. i get that it feels like we've been queer baited for years and i would argue that yes, fox queerbaited y'all (i didn't start watching until august after spending years absorbing the fandom through tumblr posts and tiktok clips). fox played the buddie aspects while never planning on making them canon after their bid failed in s4.
that said, abc is a new network. s7 was cut short because of the strike which dis-regulated the pacing and s8 was off because of that but we cannot ignore the strides they have made since taking over the show. here is an incomplete list of moments that have me doubling down on buddie s9
buck is canonically queer and dated a man
that man was shocked that buck was trying to get his attention (implications being buck was trying to get eddie's attention)
that man broke up with buck because he "knew" he wouldn't be buck's "last" (implications again being eddie would be)
eddie moved away which buck supported 1000% because he loves chris and knows it was right for eddie. yes he had his RSD spiral when he was trying to ruin eddie's plans but he worked through it and supported him unconditionally, even giving up his loft—the first place he lived on his own feeling truly at home—in order to sublet from eddie
when that man found out eddie was gone, he hooked up with buck and was ready to move in and build a life with buck which tells us for certain that the reason he broke up with buck is he knew eddie was a threat
"now that the competition is out of the way" you're telling me you forgot that? they lined eddie up as "the competition" and have him move back to LA at the end of the season. they introduced the idea of eddie as buck's love interest canonically and you're closing??
"it's not nothing"
"i hope you know; you do matter to me"
"are you?" "in love with eddie?" another setup to eddie as buck's love interest
"i don't have to sleep with everyone i have feelings for and i don't have to have feelings for everyone i sleep with" which is buck admitting he has feelings for eddie (and not for that man)
eddie going to the airport and buck assuming he's been left again only for eddie to not only return but to bring his entire family (well the good ones at least) to buck to apologize for taking his anger out on him?
eddie saying "if bobby taught me anything, it's that we always have a choice" in the same season that he was told to choose joy for himself?
buck's reaction to eddie's voice on the radio?
THAT LOOK!? the one on the parking garage rooftop? yes we have gotten the characters looking at each other that way before but this was edited to bring our attention to it. to bring the general audience's attention to it. the music swell? the fact that eddie didn't see ravi coming to hug him? the fact that buck didn't even try to assist everyone helping him get the rigging off because he was too busy being enamored by eddie's very presence?
the fact that eddie claims his plan was inspired by what buck would do? lining them up as being more and more alike? a season after buck's coming out?
then there's the press of it all. i know this feels like queerbaiting after waiting so damn long to get anything canonical but i would like to posit that it's simply ship baiting until proven otherwise. what i mean by that is that we cannot officially call it queer baiting until the story is over. if the show ends without them ever dating, it will have been queer baiting but i don't believe that's the direction we're going. they have finally unlocked the buddie content in interviews. they're being allowed to talk about it. that's big. and they're doing the same press they would do with a straight couple that's in the same situation
i wholeheartedly believe that we're on the precipice of watching their relationship grow slowly and authentically. we didn't get an explosive prideful Moment of Realization but i would argue that's better. if we got that moment, all the firsts and relationship growth would happen in the hiatus and we wouldn't see it. this way we get a true will they/won't they dynamic given the same respect (and disrespect) as a straight relationship on network tv
ultimately i cannot tell you how to feel. i can't tell you not to quit but i will remind you what fandom is supposed to be; it's supposed to be a space to double down on the love of something. it's meant to be fun and joyful and so i'm choosing to love what we do have instead of being angry and hurt by what we didn't get. i have big hopes for the show but i at the same time will be okay with most anything they give us because i want to hold onto the joy and community that this show has given me
side notes:
weird plots that were dropped through the season like the bottle of champagne that man put in the freezer? that should come back at some point and if it doesn't i'm rioting. they had the opportunity for buck to bring it out when tia pepa and chris showed up so he could celebrate eddie's job offer which would have been wholesome and sweet (and a redirect of that man's plans with buck to buck's support of eddie would have been beautiful) but maybe it will come up in s9
buck pulling that man out through the wardrobe (closet) instead of pick it up off him (which wouldn't be hard for him, i could pick that wardrobe up)
i also have Thoughts on bobby being alive but that will have to be it's own post
also yes i am pissed at oliver for the fake script. that was bullshit and he owes an apology
and don’t get me started on eddie having tia pepa cook for buck
buck is the most acts of service guy known to mankind, especially with his cooking and baking, which is something that ties him to bobby. coming home and having someone else have cooked for him? in a comforting and familiar way? after his dad who taught him to cook passed away?
there’s literal poetry in there somewhere i‘m just not eloquent enough to point it out properly
Here's the thing – there was so much nuance in the Buddie kitchen fight. There was no 'good guy' or 'bad guy'. There was just two men who care deeply about each other who both just experienced a terrible loss and not coping well and aren't communicating with each other about it.
They were both shitty and mean. Every moment of that fight was so steeped in grief and loneliness and a feeling of disconnection between them because, again, they have not been communicating with each other.
Fans of certain characters or ships (who like their ships or characters more than the show itself) will never see it as nuanced. They'll latch on to the part that makes their character the victim or their ship the 'winner'. That's fine. Let them do that. If that's how they enjoy the show that's their prerogative.
But them feeling that way doesn't make the fight any less nuanced. And it doesn't make the apology and Eddie admitting that he was mean and Eddie calling himself a dick any less impactful. Eddie realized that he went too far – that can happen when you fight with people you love – and then he made it up to Buck in a way he knew would be the most helpful for Buck. Just saying sorry wouldn't have gotten Buck to smile like he did when he saw Chris. It wouldn't have gotten that awed expression when he realized Pepa was there.
That fight was a really stunning example of what grief can do to different people and Eddie's apology was a beautiful example of how well he knows Buck and how he knows how to show Buck that he's sorry and he didn't mean to be so mean.
I hope you realize that excusing TK repeatedly shoving Carlos with the fact that his emotions were running high while not giving Eddie the same grace for getting in Buck's face because "there's something about Eddie that makes you believe he would hurt Buck" is the definition of being racist.
i don’t know how to keep trying to explain to people that ON TELEVISION, WHICH IS NOT REAL LIFE, explosive conflict has a cathartic quality to it and is often necessary for plot development. there is no story without conflict. you’re watching a soap opera that’s at its absolute best when it digs into the meat of the relationships between the characters, it thrives when there’s something at stake emotionally. and it takes years to develop that kind of deep and intricate relationship between two characters where a fight like this one actually makes sense, immediately pays off, and doesn’t turn one of them into a villain. even though some of you clearly wish it would have. get real
screaming, heaving fuckery of the world @heaving-buckery - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
