If Buck or Eddie Was a Woman, Buddie Wouldn’t Feel “Out of Character” at All on ‘9-1-1’

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 15.9-1-1 fans (with a few exceptions) tend to fall into one of two camps: you see it or you don’t. The it in question is, of course, ‘Buddie,’ the fan pairing between Oliver Stark’s Buck and Ryan Guzman’s Eddie. Since Eddie’s introduction to the series all the way back in Season 2, fans everywhere have pointed out the immediate chemistry between the two characters. Seven seasons later, the ship is objectively closer than ever to becoming a reality, as both Buck’s sister Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and his ex Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) have pointed out to Buck that his feelings for his best friend don’t seem strictly platonic. Still, many fans just don’t see why these two characters are anything more than friends or ‘brothers’. To those fans, I urge you to consider something: would you still view Buck and Eddie’s relationship as platonic if one of them were a woman?

Buck and Eddie Mirror Famous (Heterosexual) TV Couples

When you think on iconic network TV romances, I’m sure a few come to mind: New Girl’s Nick (Jake Johnson) and Jess (Zooey Deschanel), Parks and Rec’s Ben (Adam Scott) and Leslie (Amy Poehler), and Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Jake (Andy Samberg) and Amy (Melissa Fumero), to name a few. These couples all started as friends and gradually evolved into romantic relationships in a textbook will they/won’t they scenario, but what makes Buck and Eddie any different? In fact, there are some pretty clear parallels between these relationships and Buck and Eddie.

In the case of Ben Wyatt and Leslie Knope, the couple started off as workplace rivals – Ben’s Season 2 arrival (sound familiar?) as a budget auditor who had to cut some of the funding allocated to Leslie’s beloved parks department caused the eventual couple to clash. Ultimately, however, the couple formed a friendship, and by Season 3 of the series, the couple admitted their feelings for each other. Similarly, upon Eddie’s introduction, Buck immediately developed a rivalry with him, feeling threatened by a new young, and attractive firefighter in town. Of course, things changed, and the two quickly became inseparable, bringing us to our next couple. Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Jake and Amy share many similar traits to Buck and Eddie, from Jake and Buck’s hyperactivity and close relationships with their captains to Amy and Eddie’s pragmatism and struggle to let loose.

Finally, what might be the most clear parallel of all: beloved sitcom couple Nick and Jess. When Nick and Jess become best friends, Jess’ best friend Cece (Hannah Simone) is quick to accuse Jess of developing feelings, and Jess vehemently denies it. Of course, the two end up sharing one of the most passionate kisses I’ve ever seen on network TV, and have gone down in history as the perfect friends-to-lovers love story. Similarly, Buck was shocked when Maddie asked whether his feelings for Eddie were more than just that of friendship in the Season 8 episode “Holy Mother of God,” responding “in love with Eddie?” I’m with Maddie on this one, Buck: “it wouldn’t be so crazy.” Fans have no trouble accepting that famous heterosexual couples with similar story arcs to Buck and Eddie are destined for romance, so why is it viewed as platonic when they do the same exact things?

9-1-1 Excels at Friendship, but This Isn’t That

Okay, one could argue that the romantic subtext between Buck and Eddie is a misreading by overzealous fans who look for romance in any close friendship. However, 9-1-1 has already proved that they are very capable of writing close friendships without any romantic undertones, and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone “shipping” these friendships as hard as many do with Buck and Eddie. Take Chim (Kenneth Choi) and Hen (Aisha Hinds) for example. The pair have been close friends since the start of the show, and have supported each other through everything, from Chim’s decision to propose to Maddie to Hen and her wife Karen (Tracie Thoms) struggling on their adoption journey. Their relationship is one of the strongest on the show, and they’re undeniably the best of friends. Yet, the pair have never been mistaken for a couple by a bystander, gotten in-universe shipped on an accidental live stream, or been accused by a significant other of having feelings for the other.

It’s also easy to chalk up “Buddie” to the fact that it may be difficult to write a bisexual man who shares a close on-screen relationship with another man without things veering romantic. It may have been a few seasons, but the 9-1-1 writers have already tackled friendship between straight men and queer men with Peter Krause’s Bobby and Rockmond Dunbar’s Michael. Despite Michael being Athena’s ex-husband, Bobby and Michael formed a tight-knit friendship that led to the pair Rear Window-ing their neighbors with a telescope and confiding in each other about everything from parenthood to health struggles. Still, Michael’s sexuality never caused anyone to think that his feelings for Bobby were anything other than a close friendship. 9-1-1 has always excelled at writing friendships with the same gravity as romantic relationships – Hen and Chim, Maddie and Josh (Bryan Safi), and Chim and Bobby’s relationships are all some of the most important to the show. Yet, they’re still missing something that leads audiences to liken Buck and Eddie more to a couple than to a couple of besties.

Eddie and Buck Have Been Acting Like a Couple All Along

Let’s face it: the main reasons audiences see Buck and Eddie as a couple is because… well, they act like one. Friendship is a lot of things, but I generally don’t know too many friends who FaceTime daily, rent out each other’s houses to deal with them moving away, and crash games for a sport they hate out of jealousy that their friend has a new friend. Eddie and Buck trust each other with everything, even the most sacred things in their lives. When Eddie was left a single dad, Buck stepped up to care for his son, Chris (Gavin McHugh), and has since formed his own special relationship with him. The relationship was so vital, in fact, that when Eddie was confronted with his own mortality in his Season 4 shooting, Eddie chose to assign guardianship of Chris to Buck over his own parents.

Chris has been a major point of contention in Eddie’s romantic relationships, as he has both started a relationship in hopes to fill a void in Chris’ life (his short-lived romance with Chris’ teacher) and ended a relationship in the name of putting his son first (his brief dalliance with his dead wife’s doppelgänger). Yet, Eddie has never struggled with allowing Buck access to the person who matters most to him, because the two share a bond much deeper than most best friends.

Buck, too, has put Eddie above all else, so much so that when Eddie moved to Texas to be with Chris, Buck was faced with the realization that he doesn’t exactly have too many friends outside of Eddie. His attempts to fill the void by hanging out with Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) ended up a bust, too, when he just couldn’t stop talking about Eddie. This ultimately led him to a rebound with his ex, Tommy, who then revealed that he had broken up with Buck because of “the competition.” Guess who that might be? It’s not every day that best friends have rebound flings to cope with missing each other, and that’s because Buck and Eddie have never just been best friends.

Buck and Eddie’s Relationship Would Be the Obvious Next Step

All in all, Buck and Eddie share a very unique bond. With a narrative arc akin to a slow-burn romance, a dynamic clearly different to 9-1-1’s other friendships, and a history of behaving like a couple, it’s pretty clear to see why so many fans of 9-1-1 are hoping for these two to become an item. Even if you’re not aboard the “Buddie” ship, it’s clear as day that their relationship certainly isn’t your typical brotherly friendship. Without the lens of heterosexuality, these two have all the makings of a classic love story, and it’s time to face it: ‘Buddies’ certainly aren’t as delusional as you might think.

New episodes of 9-1-1 premiere on Thursdays on ABC in the U.S.