Welcome season 5, what a great kick off we got with ep 501!
Now, the first personal scene we have ends with Chim telling Maddie, “it’s gonna get better,” and her agreeing, but it makes it clear things at present aren’t good. We know this, that’s where we left Madney off last season. But then this scene transitions into Eddie being teased by the 118 about this step forward he’s taking with Anna. He looks very uncomfortable, just like we last saw him with her in 413. So even the way that it works, this transition between the introductory personal scenes for the season, tells us where Eddie is right now isn’t good, but it will get better.
And the 118 teasing Eddie scene is such Buddie fodder! First, we have Buck looking jealous and not the least bit happy for his best friend, like he should be when said friend seems to have found a love good enough to commit to. Then Eddie is SO highly uncomfortable (it’s even reflected in his physical expressions and tone) and very insistent this step he’s taking with Anna doesn’t mean anything. On top of all that, this type of scene is very common. Someone’s getting serious with a partner and gets teased by friends who are genuinely happy about this turn of events. The person brushes the teasing off, but secretly is really pleased and happy, as is revealed by hardly contained smiles and later scenes. That’s not the case here, and comparing this scene with how it would usually play out if this relationship was one Eddie and Buck are both content with is what highlights their reactions and just how unhappy both men are with Eddie becoming more committed to Anna. Almost like they’re secretly in love with each other? At the very least this suggests they both know Anna and Eddie are not the right fit. To make that really obvious, the scene mentions Shannon’s funeral when it didn’t have to in order to explain why Chris is getting a new suit, but it serves as a subtle reminder for the void that Eddie is trying to fill for his son by staying with Anna.
Okay, this is small, but I love it so much: Buck and Eddie work together underwater, which means they have to communicate wordlessly in how they operate to get the trapped vic out. I wrote a very similar scene in my Buddie AU, Blue Against Blue, because I felt it reflected a part of who Buddie are, which is essential to why we love them so much: they complement each other naturally. They get and sense each other even underwater, when they have no words and their senses are overloaded. And they can still work together so well, that they manage to save a life. These battlefield boyfriends ride again and I missed that hardcore!
That unhappiness we saw in Buck when Eddie talks about Anna, I find it interesting that we witness that before we’re shown his intimate scene with Taylor. The scene appears to present them really happy and fulfilled spending their night together, but because of the scene order, we already know that in the background, there’s what looks like Buck’s jealous reaction to Eddie and Anna. So are things as good with Buck and Taylor as they seem? The scene starts with Taylor more focused on a possible news story (not even a sure one, Buck makes that clear) than on him and it ends with her cutting off the whole make-out session for the sake of the same maybe-story. She doesn’t have to, there’s no emergency even if there is a story. Nothing wrong with that, she’s passionate about her work, but in a scene that is supposed to be about passion in the bedroom, it shows what gets her going more. (On a side note, she also taps into his private phone without asking for permission first, which is something that probably bothers me more because the show has a tendency to have women overstep boundaries with Buck, like the therapist in ep 102 or Abby getting Buck’s phone number from the incident report, and then not acknowledge that. This phone thing is obviously not as big, but I just really wish the show would address this repeated pattern at some point). It’s a small crack that we see through this scene. Taylor obviously cares about Buck. But her job does come first, even over Buck, which suggests that despite appearances, just like with Eddie and Anna, these two are together, but it’s partly because there are matters they’re not addressing. What’s interesting is that this brings us back to a theme from earlier seasons, of Buck and Eddie’s dating life paralleling each other. Not only does the theme continue, in a sense, this episode’s similarities of their love life make it run even deeper.
I have to give a small shout out to the scene with Bathena, Henren and Mavid. I love that these three couples, straight, gay and lesbian, are all treated equally and as a part of one extended family. Beautiful! And I think that in an ep co-written by the show-runner, it’s also a part of why we have faith that 911 can be courageous enough to give us Buddie as well, eventually.
The dressing room scene at the store truly vibrates with awkwardness. Everything about it is off, even the way Eddie reacts to Anna suggestively flirting with him, at best he’s humoring her (down to his “sure” at her wanting to add in a tie) and not very pleased about it. As we know, they’re there with Chris (why is she talking dirty when Eddie’s son there? So weird, especially as she’s an educator), the whole dynamic of these three together, I can’t help comparing it to Buddifer since we’ve seen that trio together more than once. Buddifer are so good together, happy, domestic, Buddie are co-parents effortlessly, Chris is beaming and enjoying himself, it’s all such a screaming contrast to how uncomfortable Eddie looks throughout the scene with Anna at the store, and how even Chris is highly unhappy. Anna isn’t directly interacting with Chris either (seriously, Buck is more Eddie’s co-parent than his own gf) nor is she that comfortable in this situation, since the second the shop worker calls her mom, she looks uneasy and denies both being Chris’ mom and even that she’s Eddie’s gf, calling herself “a friend” instead. Seriously, how have Anna and Eddie lasted together as long as they have?
Then we get the panic attack. Let’s take a second to appreciate that in 413, Carla told Eddie to ‘follow his heart’. Eddie the dumb denial boy still chose to stay with Anna, then lo and behold, he thinks he’s having a heart attack… But what stands out to me about this scene? Well, most (not all, but most) panic attacks don’t result in people physically falling down. The fact that Eddie did makes it visually similar to his fall after he was shot. But is his panic attack just about being shot? What triggers it is Anna being referred to as Christopher’s mom, not anything remotely similar to the shot, and as Anna comes closer to Eddie to check up on him, we actually hear his heartbeat going further up, not starting to slow down. Anna is the main issue. And how hilarious is that, given how quickly Eddie let Buck into Christopher’s life, made him a co-parent and even made sure Buck had a legal standing in Chris’ life? But then, this is even further emphasized by the specific way the panic attack echoes Eddie’s fall during the shooting. Being shot can be a contributing factor, of course, but there’s also the fact that when Eddie was shot, Buck was there, a steadying presence, maintaining eye contact with Eddie, watching him the entire time until Buck could save him. Once again, this is a choice. Because Eddie realizing he shouldn’t be with Anna could have unfolded in so many different ways, but the show chose one where it’s really emphasized how things are with Anna compared to what they’re like between Buddie…
The scene at the doctor’s is even more awkward than the one in the store, which has to be some kind of a new world record. “Any new stressors?” the doc asks and the camera shows us Anna. In addition to Eddie being highly in denial (even ending the scene with “I don’t panic”), we also get him saying “it’s been great,” to the doc. But he doesn’t stop there, he then asks Anna for reassurance, “Right?” while sounding like the least convincing human on earth. Interestingly, she looks back at him, also awkwardly, and doesn’t reply. Coupled with her earlier denying being his gf, this makes me think she’s not as in the dark about things not being right between them as she might have seemed at the end of s4.
I just have to stan Chris being a tiny, precious king, calling his dad out. “You got shot!” You go baby, show your dad what you’ve learned from your Bucky (as demonstrated later in the ep) about not taking any of Eddie’s BS…
I was sure the air traffic control scene would reflect Eddie’s panic attack back to him and it did. What I did not anticipate was Eddie, when noticing the second controller going into a panic attack, touching Buck’s shoulder on his way over. We have a long list of unnecessary touches and almost touches between these two on the job, the likes of which I can’t remember between any two other members of the team. HOW am I expected to think that this is all purely platonic? Please, they need each other’s presence and comfort on a physical level. The stuff of fanfic legend.
Of course Buck would notice that something’s off with Eddie. He always does, they both do, they’re so in tune with each other, always have been!
And of course he next gets the truth out of Eddie (which is significant, remember that at the end of the doc scene, Eddie was still in denial, but at the sight of Buck worrying so much about him, he has to admit the truth, that he didn’t have a heart attack), which is such life partners material right there. But what I love even more is Buck’s surprise that there could be something going on with Eddie that he’s not informed of. Literally, his indignant face screams, “Love of my life, you’ve been keeping stuff from me, your husband?” And then of course he proceeds to call Eddie out on his BS, demonstrating where Chris got this ability from (check out the gorgeous gifset that the amazingly talented @judsonryder made for this “like father, like son” take).
More than that, after the store scene proved how much better Buck is at being Christopher’s other parent, at the hospital he’s also acting like more of Eddie’s romantic partner than Eddie’s own gf did, even though she was actually present when the panic attack happened and Buck wasn’t. I’m done, I can’t with all of this obviousness! I swear to God, if Buddie never get together romantically, they will still canonically be the most married couple ever on 911. And that’s despite the fact that they have some serious competition from every other established couple on the show!
~~~ Thank you so much to the incredible sweetheart that is @evaneddie for the meta gifs! If you like my perspective on Buddie, you can find more of my meta and fics here. Thank you for reading and for any like, comment and of course reblog! These posts are never a sure thing and it makes me so happy whenever I see people enjoy them. xoxox
