IDK enough about when scripts for S7 were written vs knowing 10 eps only and S8 renewal, but I kind of feel like eps 1-5 were written with Eddie/Tommy leading to Buddie in mind and then when the switch happened they changed a couple of things in eps 1-3 (not much, just Buck speaking to Tommy before he headed off after Eddie) and then ep 4 became a mish mash of what was originally planned with Eddie (his whole meeting someone and clicking thing and their "dates"). I feel like they were going Buddie (making Buck jealous while Eddie figured out he liked men in 7a and then going to spend 7b with the fallout of that leading to Buddie) but then found out they had only 10 eps and the woman who played Natalia couldn't come back so they switched it to Buck because it was easier to make him bi/they didn't have a storyline for him anymore if Eddie wasn't dating Tommy, making Buck question everything while still dating Natalia. And THEN they got renewed so instead of pushing Buddie to end S7 they moved it to S8 to give Eddie a better coming out arc, but then had to come up with a storyline for him beyond the nun thing and TM happened to watch Vertigo late one night... IDK maybe I'm crazy, but I just feel like S7 was planned buddie (starting with Eddie/Tommy as catalyst) - even including how they marketed the season before it aired with a lot of Buddie stuff and talking about it in interviews, etc (and that Family Feud ep) after filming the first 5 eps that had been written - and then between only 10 eps and a S8 renewal the plans changed. Does that make sense or am I delusional?
If you're delusional, we both are delusional because I'm right there with you. They already had episode 6 recorded by the time of the renewal but not anything past that, and assuming that the renewal allowed them not to rush things doesn't feel crazy to me. Also I think they switched things around because they realized Buck was more straight forward to get out of the closet than Eddie along with the actress availability, I don't think they planned on shoving Buck on the back burner, they just happened to not know what to do with him because Natalia couldn't come back so they couldn't use her for whatever plan they had about his death, and then they gave him something they had planned for Eddie, because the switch happened while they were filming the cruise, and just kept him in Eddie's storyline for the rest of the season because they didn't plan that far ahead lol the vertigo thing was very clearly a last minute decision because if they had thought about it earlier, they would've expanded the situation to happen all season, imo they could've used Kim in 705 for the conflict with Marisol instead of that nonsense of moving in/moving out, along with actually giving us the backstory on Eddie and Shannon. That deleted conversation with Chris adds a lot and it would be interesting if we had seen some version of it during 701 when Chris is having his crisis about Shannon and talking to 5 girls, and if they had laid the groundwork from the beginning of the season, that storyline wouldn't be so out of pocket. I think it was a combination of the way the actress couldn't come back, the show was renewed early and the way that Buck bi was well received, they kinda realized they could use Eddie being queer to bring the same type of buzz to s8 as biBuck brought to s7, and looking at it from a business perspective, to cram both storylines into one season when they could milk the exposure is kinda dumb, so we ended up with them not knowing what to do for the back half of the season and just winging it. And Ryan said they were getting scrips hours before shooting, so like, it was very clearly we did not plan for this but we need 4 more episodes so they let Tim play in his sandbox of madness.
