If you’ve been waiting for Buck and Eddie to have their own dedicated episode, a Buddie episode if you will, then this one was surely marked on your calendar.
Buck and Eddie, hitting the road unexpectedly as they made their way back from Nashville to Los Angeles, had the potential to be a good time for the pair, and for a little while, it was.
But things went downhill VERY quickly, making 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 13 an experience Buck and Eddie won’t soon forget.
One factor that has always set 9-1-1 apart from other procedurals is its ambition. Unlike many series, it rarely plays it safe. Instead, it pushes boundaries and colors outside the lines, as evident in this episode.
They’ve never been content to just feed their audiences small fires every week; instead, they’ve delivered large-scale disasters and situations that put all their main characters in high-stakes scenarios as they navigate being first responders in one of the biggest cities in the world.
Over time, 9-1-1 has mastered episodes that push characters to their limits and create a foreboding atmosphere, reinforcing its status as a standout in its genre.
There’s no use in ever playing the ‘Who has it worse?’ Olympics, when it comes to 9-1-1 characters, because they’ve all had their fair share of trauma and pain.
It was just a short time ago, during 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 11, where Eddie thought Christopher was missing and then was jumped and nearly stabbed by Abigail’s scary father.
Coming off the high of Nashville, Buck and Eddie set off on their cross-country road trip with a pep in their step and a commitment to enjoying the ride. And while doing so, a million gifs were born.
It’s not as if we haven’t gotten Buck and Eddie content during 9-1-1 Season 9, but we certainly haven’t seen them cut loose as they did in the early part of their trip.
The Buck and Eddie pairing has become so popular over the years for numerous reasons, but one of which simply boils down to the infectious chemistry between Oliver Stark and Ryan Guzman.
I was vibing right alongside the two of them as they bopped in the car, screaming “Carry on Wayward Son” at the top of their lungs and dangerously throwing cheeseballs while driving.
Their relationship and dynamic have always felt lived-in and real, with an effortlessness you don’t see everywhere on television.
Within that Buck and Eddie dynamic, for as much fun as they can have, there’s also the very real and relatable irritation that comes with knowing someone so well. It’s the kind of dynamic that comes with having someone in your life who often knows you better than you know yourself.
I’m pretty sure everyone has had the experience of getting lost on a road trip, but when it happens to Buck and Eddie, they’ve been in the car for hours, and you can tell they’re both a little bit at the end of their ropes.
Nobody pushes your buttons more than the person who knows you best. Their entire diner encounter centers on that reality. And they know exactly what to do and say to get the other one to snap.
Can Eddie get a little gloomy and cranky at times? Sure. But does he need to be reminded of it after they’ve been driving around aimlessly with no service? Well, no.
But on the flip side, Buck’s only been trying to help since he got them a rental car back in Nashville. Does he have to take the brunt of Eddie’s perceived gloominess? Well, also no.
This wasn’t a case of one of them being right or wrong, but just frustration boiling over, which sums up most of their arguments.
The diner seemed like one of those off-the-beaten-path places I certainly would never stop at, but Buck and Eddie do, and are quickly greeted by an audience for their fight and by an ignorant, homophobic man with a death wish because he’s never seen Eddie Diaz during his fight club days.
Side note, how many times are Buck and Eddie going to be mistaken for a couple on this show, and will it ever be addressed in any meaningful way?
I get it can just be a thing to do because the two DO fight like a couple that’s been married for twenty years, their kids no longer have time for them, and they’ve never met someone more insufferable yet lovable in their entire lives.
Surely there’s a reason people mistake them for a couple. Surely there’s a reason Buck’s ex-boyfriend thought of Eddie as competition while they were dating. Surely these things mean something!
If it walks like a duck, and it talks like a duck, or however that saying goes.
However, the good times don’t last too long for Buck and Eddie. When they’re run off the road, the tone of the trip immediately shifts to something much darker.
Perhaps my brain is still in the world of Tracker, where recently the protagonist on there was shot in the shoulder and then drove his car off a mini-cliff, only to survive and still save the day, so even though it looked like a terrible accident, the idea of one of them dying or something like that was never on the table.
Yet, the story took a surprising turn when Eddie woke up alone in the hospital, only to be questioned about Buck’s disappearance (and looked at as a suspect!), which was completely unexpected.
It was a clever storytelling trick to create an obstacle for Eddie: the local police. Instead of him just waltzing out of the hospital to start the search for Buck, he had to phone a friend, as well as get creative regarding how to even get out of that hospital room.
Due to that dramatic ass diner argument, Eddie got branded as some kind of angry spouse, and I can just say I’m a little tired of that being something that gets slapped on Eddie at every turn.
Someone was directly insulting him, and Buck and his confrontation with the guy don’t inherently make him this violent entity that would then turn around later and kill Buck because they had an argument.
Buck was so CLEARLY being dramatic, Sheriff!
Anyway, the story could have easily remained isolated to just that desert town, but bringing in Athena, Maddie, and Chimney was a genius move to connect Buck and Eddie back to their family at home, and it was also essentially the only way Eddie could start making connections.
With the most obvious question being: who the hell took Buck?
Harley, the ignorant diner man, being the one to take Buck would have been way too obvious and anticlimactic, so the reveal that the waitress, Bonnie, not only took Buck but wanted him to take the place of her son was not necessarily a jaw dropper, but it put everything into perspective.
Bonnie was a grieving mother who saw Buck and immediately latched onto him in this sick and twisted way that had her believing she could turn this grown man into a replica of her son.
Bonnie didn’t try to ease him into anything or talk to him first; she just went full steam ahead, challenging Buck to accept his new reality as he lay up in bed with any number of injuries.
Buck looked rough when he woke up, and I kept wondering if this was going to turn into a situation where his health deteriorated so much that Bonnie was essentially forced to do something besides just leave him in that room.
But no, the story more or less just built up to Buck having to figure out a path forward, and it had to be one that wouldn’t get him killed.
As time went on and Buck tried to adapt to Bonnie’s desires so he could get a leg up to escape, my spidey senses were telling me that someone else had to be involved in Bonnie’s delusions because there’s no way she was able to drag Buck’s body from the crash and get him propped up in her home.
Did Bonnie have another son out there who was powerless in the face of his mother’s plight? Or maybe it was the Sheriff! He was more than just small-town strange, and more like shady as hell.
When Buck fought Bonnie off and got out of that room, one of the more anxiety-inducing moments of the whole hour was just Buck racing around the house and looking out into a desert oasis that was not going to be able to save him.
The camerawork and increasingly ominous music were great touches, heightening the gravity of the situation. They also helped transition into the steady beeping of the machines and the big Derek reveal, which then gave way to Earl’s appearance.
I gasped loudly when Buck was knocked out due to being so immersed in his palpable fear.
There was truly so much to process throughout, as the pieces slowly came together and we learned more about Bonnie, while we also had the outside world of Eddie traveling by horse and car to find Buck.
To be fair, he probably would have hitched a ride on someone’s back if that’s what it took to find Buck.
Another side note: the heart of Buck’s story was building to the moment when he found common ground with Bonnie in her utter despair over losing Derek and his own grief over losing Bobby.
But it was also, simultaneously, Eddie pushing through pain, indifference, lack of travel, and any other setback in his quest to find Buck.
It’s Eddie jumping through hoops and never giving up on finding Buck; that’s such an essential key to this whole thing and at the heart of the story, similar to Chimney’s journey during 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 10.
The parallels, people. The parallels!
But back to Buck, my goodness, he looked on the verge of giving up when Bonnie and Earl had him tied up in the shed or whatever it was. You could hear both the pain and just the overall dejection in his voice because he knew that he missed his window to get out of there, while also knowing that even if he had gotten out of there, there was nowhere to go.
The thing is, Buck has been carrying a lot this season, as has everyone in the aftermath of Bobby’s death, but we haven’t been too privy to seeing too much outside of random beats where Bobby is remembered or spoken about.
The idea that Buck’s been walking around since Bobby died, feeling like a piece of himself is missing, is equal parts heartbreaking and hauntingly relatable for anyone who’s ever lost someone who’s had a monumental impact on shaping who they’ve become.
I’d often lamented how the show would pick and choose its moments to highlight the father-and-son bond between Buck and Bobby, but no matter whether it was shown every week or when the story dictated it, it was real.
Buck met Bobby at a time in his life when he was lost, and Bobby was an essential guide, someone whose advice and steady presence made Buck better.
It’s soul-crushing to think he’s been sitting with these feelings of emptiness, while also recognizing, much like he told Bonnie, that he has to move forward from that loss.
How do you move forward from the thing that makes you feel whole?
Bonnie has been unable to do so, and that’s precisely why she has her son in the bedroom next door with machines keeping him from truly being gone.
I desperately need a deep dive into Buck’s feelings as the season moves on because this simply can’t be something Buck puts into the universe and then nary touches on it again. There’s simply too much to unpack.
Let’s also unpack Buck, ready to protect Eddie at all costs, by agreeing to be Derek or even potentially die if it meant sparing Eddie and Christopher.
Was this episode trying to kill me?
It was such a contrast to Buck earlier telling Eddie that he had a death wish, and then at the first chance to sacrifice himself for Eddie, he didn’t even hesitate. Not a death wish, but the kind of love and devotion that makes survival secondary to the people he cares about.
It’s second nature for Buck and Eddie to protect each other, and it’s one of the most special things about their dynamic.
Everything about the final minutes of the hour was iconic, from Eddie screaming into the oasis for Buck, to Eddie running away from the sheriff to go to Buck, and the two of them comparing notes on who looked worse when he was clearly Buck.
It was such a great coda to the whole story, with the two of them saving each other, as they always have and always will.
I recognize that 9-1-1 cannot be this every single week, nor should it be. Episodes like this almost feel like their own standalone stories, operating more like short films than traditional episodic television.
This was such a brilliant showcase for the actors and the characters, and it’s the kind of hour that you’ll still be thinking about far beyond just this initial watch.
Loose Ends
- Chimney going above and beyond to ensure there was something in place for Hen’s birthday, following the debacle that was 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 13, was great. I love continuity, and I lowkey love that Hen and Karen did their own thing for her birthday.
- Eddie getting hit on while at the diner while looking for Buck got a small chuckle out of me.
- Buck and Eddie all beat up, and having to get in that busted car to drive home was devious. Someone should have come and picked them up!
- We were robbed of Eddie on a horse gallivanting around town!
9-1-1 Season 9 is on a run of truly entertaining episodes, and with only five hours remaining, let’s see if they can end this one strong.
It’s no secret that I enjoyed this one, but I’d love to hear from you guys in the comments!
What worked for you? What didn’t?
Where do you see things going from here?
Let me know below!
You can watch 9-1-1 on Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.
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