Absolutely fascinated by Ryan Guzman’s (correct) belief that Eddie is entirely unaware of the romantic undertones that are peppered through his relationship with Buck. Or he’s not exactly unaware, but all those pieces of pepper are individual details and he can’t see the bigger picture, like putting a puzzle together while only looking at the pieces but not at what he’s got so far. He’s too naive to put things together. He’s never once considered it. If Buck were to confess to him, he’d be genuinely shocked. And Buck won’t, of course, confess, because if Buck is in love with Eddie, that’d break all the rules he’s set for this relationship. So Buck is ignoring the elephant in the room and Eddie is so zoomed in on specific parts of the elephant that he doesn’t even know it’s an elephant. He thinks that microscopic view of maybe-skin-or-an-iris is normal best friendship. Buck is “I’m not in love with Eddie obviously but if i was i wouldn’t be able to care about that rn bc I have a job and it would ruin the friendship rules I mentally gave us if he knew”. Eddie is “I want Buck to be with me all the time and I often think of him as my husband in my head and I want him to touch me and stay with me and I’ll do anything he asks of me and I worry about him a lot and whenever I think of growing old Buck is right next to me every step of the way also growing old. We’re such platonic best friends :)”. And that creates their wonderful dynamic where Buck dances around it all and Eddie is taking his hand and dancing with him because yay, they’re dancing. He loves dancing with Buck. Buck’s such a bad dancer. Ha ha.
Hi, hi, hello, and welcome to did Tim Minear decide that episodes 17 are the ones to callback to all things buddie. (817 is full of callbacks too, here's what have caught so far, it's funny to me that this is happening on another 17 lol)
I'm actually buzzing, I can feel my brain vibrating, so let's break down the callbacks and parallels I've seen so far in 917 with Buck and buddie before I go crazy. Usual shoutout to @stagefoureddiediaz 💜
So, we have what I'm gonna call the ladder truck of life-changing events from now on.
This parallels 102 and 610 in a more intense way. It's also very similar to 811, and if we stretch definitions here, also 202.
All these events are around something that's going to permanently change Buck's life. His first loss on the job, dying, the Eddie of it all from 811 that he refuses to acknowledge, and finding out about Chris. It all kickstarts life changing stuff.
Buck is also crushed by a ladder truck, and the truck is also the thing that's damaged that makes the well collapse, so... ladder truck of life-changing events.
The ladder truck also leads buddie to the shooting.
Someone has already pointed out the splatter on Buck's shirt as foreshadowing. But not only that, but Buck also changes to the parenting maroon, aka the color he is wearing when he steps up with Chris, both during the tsunami and 414. (Breakdown of the blue and red and parenting here)
So, in the same way the shooting makes Buck a parent on purpose, he makes the choice to be there for Chris without anyone asking him to, this could also lead to Buck making the choice to be the one to adopt Theo if he goes into the system.
Theo's sneakers and the balloon make him the red for Buck and Eddie's blue in a similar way Chris' glasses and that borrowed hoodie do for Chris in 303.
In the same parenting colors, the show uses blue and red for parenthood. Hen and Karen decide they want another kid in a blue and red playground. Same as the discussion about Buck's lack of involvement with Theo because he would get attached.
Fitting into the Buckley Diaz family color wheel theory, part of the blue and yellow of it all, explained here, Theo has blue, red, and yellow on him for 2 out of 3 outfits.
The 3rd being Theo fully becoming the red element to Buck's blue, similar to Eddie rushing to Chris in 303.
The conversation Buck and Eddie have in the playground parallels the sentiment of one of the fights Eddie has with Shannon in 315. The feeling of not knowing your kid, your kid not knowing you, the helplessness of not knowing what's best, also, they imply that Theo is the same age Chris was when Eddie came back and became a single father. That conversation also parallels 210 and the fountain scene, where Eddie explains the way he was running in a similar fashion Buck ran from knowing Theo.
Visually, the crash is a mirror of Shannon's death.
I don't know why, but I'm stuck on this.
Lately, there's been a focus on buddie inside the ambulance, and it keeps bringing me back to 201.
Everything about buddie goes back to the choice to walk into that ambulance together and taking care of each other ever since.
Obviously, there's the blue and yellow of the bridge. Both of them are surrounded by their own colors, both of them wearing both blue and yellow.
But this also attaches this life-changing moment for Buck to the event that defines Eddie, since Shannon's death is blue and yellow. Which, paired with the way we see Eddie frustrated about Theo's emergency placement, attaches Eddie to this, too. Eddie becoming a single parent changed their dynamic, it made them stronger, the expectation would be that Buck ending up in the same situation will have the same effect.
Also, Shannon dies in 217, leaving Eddie to be a single father, 917 leaving Buck to be a single father. 218 with Buck almost dying, 918 with Eddie in danger, the parallels are paralleling.
Like I said a couple weeks ago, it's all shaping up to be a repeat of what makes them meet, but this time they have all the tools to help each other already. Buck is living through the concept of Eddie Begins, but unlike Eddie, Buck has someone in his corner. So it seems like we are about to see a "what happens if they do it all again, but without the distractions that make them stop looking at each other". Because Eddie stepping up with Buck for this, while both of them are single, there's only so much you can still rationalize before you make them crash together. So, in a similar vein to how 704 is "what if Eddie had grabbed Buck and kissed him in 201" this kinda feels like a "what would happen if both of them were single and weirder about each other and queer when they stumbled into coparenting." Everything about this can lead to the realization that they are family and they already have the partnership they crave.
Also, because, well, Buck, Eddie, their teenager, and their toddler is too much. The plausible deniability has left the chat.
But what I'm trying to say is that this episode feels like Tim finally getting back as many triggers Fox censored as possible. So I'm intrigued. We'll see how this unfolds in s10.
Anyways, if I figure something else out, I'll add to this, and if you read this, I love you.
A nurse – young, from the geriatrics ward, probably never thought he’d be caught in the middle of an active shooter situation at work – accidentally bumps the elevator call button. Chimney’s busy barking into his radio, waiting to hear the rest of the team answer back, when –
“Oh, shit!”
He turns, and there he is.
Eddie.
There’s so much blood. On his abdomen, his hands, the floor. There’s a long smear of red all down the wall, like Eddie had stumbled into the elevator and become too weak to keep standing, sliding down into his current position slumped against the back wall.
Chimney rushes to kneel beside Eddie, his shoes sliding in the river of blood. A part of him wants to quip about how many times one guy can get shot, but the joke dies on his tongue as he assesses the situation. Eddie’s got to have lost at least a liter, likely more.
"We need a gurney!” He shouts, pressing his hand against the wound in Eddie’s side. "It's okay, Eddie, we've got you."
Eddie barely acknowledges his presence aside from a slight wince when Chimney’s hands attempt to staunch the bleeding. He’s ghostly pale, a thin sheen of sweat on his brows, eyes glossy.
More medical personnel crowd into the elevator with them. There’s a flurry of activity, voices shouting orders, but Chimney hears none of it. If that elevator hadn’t opened …
Stop. He can’t go down that road, not yet, not while Eddie’s heart is still beating. “Stay with me, Eddie. C’mon, focus on me.”
But Eddie doesn’t look at Chimney. Instead, he focuses all his attention on the doctor kneeling on his other side. A ghost of a smile tugs at his lips. "Buck."
Buck and this doctor look nothing alike, aside from their hair color, but Chim will forgive Eddie in this moment for being a little fuzzy on the details.
"You're in the hospital," the doctor says. "You've been shot, Mr. ..."
"Diaz. Eddie Diaz," Chimney supplies.
"Buck," Eddie repeats, reaching forward and fisting his hands in the doctor’s shirt. The doctor gently untangles them.
“I’m here, Eddie. I just need you to stay calm,” the doctor says, shooting Chimney a look. Chim can’t blame him. Better to play into Eddie’s delusion, keep him alert and talking.
“No, Buck, I need to … need to tell you something.”
His speech is slightly slurred and his breathing labored. Yet the look in his eyes is fierce. Manic. Like he’s determined to get all the words out now.
Like he’s worried he won’t have another chance.
“Save your energy for me, Eddie,” the doctor replies.
“No, Buck, I have to – should’ve told you before. Long time ago. But you’ve got to know, please. Please. I – I love you. I love you, Buck. So, so much.”
Oh. Chimney had had his suspicions over the years, of course; they all had. Buck and Eddie’s whole weird codependency thing. The stolen glances. Buck practically raising Christopher as his own. But to hear it declared so openly, so explicitly, is something else. He never thought either of them would ever make that leap. But here Eddie was, laying it all out there.
And it’s to the wrong fucking person.
Someone pulls up outside the elevator with a gurney. “All right, let’s move him,” the doctor declares, standing up to get into position to help lift Eddie.
Eddie whimpers when Not-Buck leaves his vision and grasps weakly at the spot where he used to be.
"No, Buck, I love ..."
And then he fucking codes.
~
They manage to get Eddie back (although more than a few of Chimney’s hairs turn grey in the process), and he makes it through surgery with no complications. Buck is, predictably, a wreck, pacing a hole in the floor of the waiting room while they wait for news, leaving only to bring Christopher to the hospital, and then keeping vigil at Eddie’s bedside.
Chimney, meanwhile, feels like he’s going to explode with the enormity of what he knows. Tries to avoid Buck or Maddie or Hen or anyone, really, who he could accidentally blurt out this huge secret to.
Buck and Eddie.
He finally ducks back into Eddie’s room after Maddie convinces Buck and Christopher to head down to the cafeteria for a snack. He takes a seat beside Eddie’s bed and listens to the comforting, steady sound of Eddie’s heart monitor. He’s lost count of how many times he’s been in this position, either as a visitor or as a patient. It has to be some kind of LAFD record for most near-death experiences. Maybe they could get a trophy for the firehouse.
And then, because the universe has a sick sense of humor and hates him, apparently, Eddie wakes up.
“Chim?”
Chimney starts. “Hey, you're awake! Welcome back to the land of the living."
Eddie smiles weakly and gestures to his bandaged side. “Third time's the charm, right?"
"What, uh – what do you remember?”
Eddie shrugs. "Not much. Getting shot. Making it to the elevator. Then it all gets a little hazy.”
"Oh, good,” Chim mutters under his breath.
He forgot Eddie has excellent hearing.
"Good? Why's that good? Did - did something happen?" Eddie’s heart monitor starts to pick up. Chimney watches the little green lines become erratic.
"No! No, just, you know, pretty traumatic experience, probably good you don't remember most of it. I should go find your doctor." He quickly stands and rushes toward the door.
"Chim. What aren't you telling me? Is everyone okay? Is - is Buck -"
"Buck is fine. Everyone is fine,” he says reassuringly. But Eddie is still looking at him suspiciously, heart rate still elevated.
Ah, fuck it.
Chimney sighs and crosses the room, places a comforting hand on Eddie’s shoulder. "Look, just … just tell Buck how you feel. I've got a feeling he'll feel the same. But I'd do it fast, though. You know I'm terrible with secrets."
And then, like the coward he is, he flees the hospital room before Eddie can recover from his shock and say anything more. As he speed walks down the hall, he shoots a quick text to Buck about Eddie being awake, then makes a mental note to look up the department's policy on fraternization.
As he rounds the corner, he stops to chuckle to himself.
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