As much as I love Bucktommy and what we've been given, I have been noticing for a while now (with this last episode really hammering it home), how much the writers have treated Buck's relationship with Tommy differently to other relationships in the show. And not in a good way.
And it makes me worry, if they do get back together, if that trend is going to continue.
Explanation below the cut.
Buck has ALWAYS talked about his sex life. He has always talked about his relationships. We saw that once again in the last ep. Yet there was nothing about Tommy. Besides when he first got together with him, one scene with Bobby and right before they broke up, it was crickets - if Tommy wasn't in a scene, it was like he didn't exist. And yes, I get he's a recurring, but so is Karen, and they have always made an effort to remind the audience she exists, whether she is in the episode or not (eg. through conversations between Hen and Athena).
Chimney, Hen and Bobby all knew/were friends with Tommy before he got together with Buck, in some cases for YEARS. Chim was close enough with Tommy that he felt he could call up Tommy for help in a dangerous/potentially career destroying rescue and knew he wouldn't be turned down. Yet not once did any of the characters ask Buck how he was, or how their relationship was going. We never saw Buck asking questions about what Tommy was like before Buck knew him, or in the early days of the relationship, see him grill Chim for Tommy's likes and dislikes (which canonically, we know Chim knows at least some) in order to impress this guy that he is so obviously smitten with. I know this isn't the bucktommy show, and they can't monopolise the story, but was it so hard to throw in a line once in a while? They bothered with previous relationships of Buck's.
We never saw a bedroom scene with Buck and Tommy like we have with every other couple. And I'm not talking about a sex scene necessarily, I'm talking about seeing them in bed together. We've seen every other couple wake up/sleep next to each other, or have conversations in bed, or kisses that imply it's leading to more, and the best we got was Buck waking up next to an empty bed - and this was after they broke up. Nothing when they were actually together.
And the thing is, the writers KNEW they were treating the relationship differently, but gave us enough cute moments to distract us from it. And it damn well worked.
The scene between Buck and Bobby - we were all so focused on the aspect that Bobby approved of Tommy, that we didn't take note of the fact that the writers were using this as an excuse for why Buck wasn't talking about Tommy. Buck says he knows he hasn't talked about Tommy and Bobby waves it off as "well that's because he's good for you, so we haven't needed to," implying that the only time Buck ever talks about his relationships is when there are troubles. Except that this isn't true. But like I said, we were so focused on the "Bobby thinks Tommy is good for Buck!" part that we missed the "get out of jail free" card the writers basically used to excuse Buck never talking about Tommy.
The one time we see Tommy stay over Buck's, and they sleep apart. Again, we were so focused on the cute "Tommy is taking care of Buck!" part, that we ignored the fact that they weren't sleeping together - although the buddies noticed. And we fought back and justified the writers choices with "of COURSE they cant sleep in the same bed, with Buck's injury he does have to sleep upright" which is true - except the writers could have given Buck a different injury. They chose to give him an injury that kept them apart. Or, they could have done what they have done so often and just ignore reality and have them sleep in the same bed anyway.
And the ONLY time we see a conversation about their relationship with one of the 118 outside of them getting together/breaking up or Bobby's reasoning for why they DON'T talk about it, they cut. We were all so giddy about the Tommy and Henren deleted scene that we kind of ignored the fact that THEY CUT IT. The GA hasn't seen it. They don't know that anyone in the 118 talked about their relationship outside of the scenes I mentioned earlier.
The writers/showrunners knew bucktommy were popular - otherwise they never would have released that scene. They were more than happy to pat themselves on the back for Buck's bisexuality storyline, but then after the initial coming out, they decided to put zero effort into it. They got their initial praise, that was enough. And they kept feeding us enough cute little moments ("vision in a cone", "daddy issues" etc) that we were either blind to or chose to ignore the fact that they were treating this relationship differently to any other of Buck's relationships by giving us the bare minimum. They basically treated them like they were monks, never allowing Buck to discuss/explore/enjoy his sexuality with his boyfriend, that in the end they felt that they had to do so with hookups to "prove" Buck is bisexual.
Speaking of said hookups, let's compare his hookup with Tommy compared to this new guy. With Tommy, sure we got kisses, but the scene was so poorly lit gif makers had to crank up the exposure to produce super grainy images in order to see ANYTHING. A few outer layers of clothing were taken off and that was it - fade to black. With this guy, we get to see Buck AND his partner shirtless, we get close up shots of the two of them together, we get lingering touches on bare skin and we get to see them on the bed together. But hey, we get to see Buck shirtless and they threw in a couple of Tommy mentions, so people are focused on "yay sexy Buck!" and that rekindled hope of a Tommy return that it's forgotten that once again, we didn't get any of this with Tommy. Tommy was LITERALLY placed in the shadows in comparison, but Buck got to fuck a guy, so hooray! Never mind that he didn't get to do it when he actually had a boyfriend - the only sex scene we had between Buck and Tommy was when they were exes, not boyfriends. And even then, this scene was filmed after the backlash they received post breakup, where abc were inundated with feedback about how unhappy we were with the breakup - whether true or not, it feels like the hookup was done to appease an angry audience (and again, keep us hooked because "the door has been left open!! 🤞🤞🤞").
The writers have played us for fools time and time again, and we continue to fall for it. The fact that they mentioned Tommy's name does look like it was a deliberate choice - is it because they want to remind the audience about him because he will return? Or is it because, like he has admitted to buddie baiting, Tim knows there's a big bucktommy fan base and is choosing to keep dangling the carrot in the hope we stick around? I would love it to be the former, I am hoping it is, but I'm also not ruling out the latter.
And even IF Tommy does return, and he returns as a love interest, will things change, or are they going to keep giving us the crumbs that they know we were seemingly so willing to accept last time?
I sound so conceited rn but like, sometimes I reread my old work and I'm like...wow. thats some good stuff right there. I mean sometimes its absolute trash, but sometimes I'm like...I can't believe *i* wrote that, yk?
Anyways, here's a sneak peek of the next part to the Enemy medic fic
"Don't let me push your hand back." Simon grit his teeth as the physical therapist pushed his hand against his chest.
This was stupid. He felt like a baby deer learning to walk for the first time. All that time strapped to a table has atrophied his muscles. Everything he had worked for, all his training for strength and endurance, his careful diet, all if it was just gone. Ruined because of a stupid slip up on a stupid mission.
