Buck-Tommy Deer-Cat Oli-Lou parallels and contrasts I cannot get out of my head
1. The strongest parallel I see is- the deer looks like the more vulnerable animal, but the cat is the one who is harder to approach.
Evan Buckley is our deer. Emotionally visible. Alert. Big eyes, heart on display. He startles, he runs toward things, he longs for connection and when he trusts someone there is almost an earnest 'here I am, please see me' quality to him. A deer is prey-coded, so we instinctively read vulnerability into it, but deer are also powerful, fast, capable of surviving injury and continuing to move. That's very Buck to me.
Tommy Kinard is the cat. Not because he's small or cute, but because cats control access. A cat can want affection desperately and still move away when the hand reaches for it. It approaches on its own terms. It sits nearby before it sits against you. It watches. It assesses. Sometimes, the moment it realizes it has become attached, its instinct is almost: 'oh no'. That's Tommy.
This gives a gorgeous BuckTommy metaphor- the deer thinks the cat doesn't want him because the cat keeps retreating. The cat retreats because wanting the deer has made it vulnerable.
2. There is another layer I really like. Deer are herd animals. Buck's entire emotional arc is built around finding and keeping his herd- Maddie, Bobby, Eddie, Christopher and the 118. His deepest wounds repeatedly circle abandonment and belonging. He moves toward family.
Cats are more complicated socially. Domestic cats absolutely form attachments and social groups, but their affection can be subtle and selective. Tommy, especially as fandom often interprets him, has learned to be self-contained. He has people. He has a life. But he doesn't necessarily build his identity around being indispensable to a group the way Buck does.
So Buck-deer looks at Tommy-cat and thinks- come into the herd.
Tommy-cat looks at Buck-deer and thinks- you don't understand. If I come close enough to belong, you can hurt me.
3. There's also a physical/body-language parallel. A deer expresses alarm through its whole body- head lifting, ears turning, muscles preparing to flee. Buck is emotionally kinetic. His feelings tend to inhabit his body. He paces, gestures, talks, moves.
A cat can become frightened and go completely still. It compresses. Watches and calculates. Tommy often reads to me as someone whose distress would make him quieter, not louder.
So in a visual narrative, when something threatens their relationship, Buck-deer bolts toward the problem while Tommy-cat disappears under the porch.
And Buck is standing in the forest going, WHY DID YOU LEAVE?
Meanwhile Tommy is six feet away in a bush thinking, I am handling this extremely well.
4. A deer cannot chase a cat into trusting it.
Buck's instinct is pursuit. Explain more. Love harder. Show up. Fix. Reassure.
But with a cat, pursuit often creates more distance.
The deer has to stay quietly without demanding that the cat come closer.
Eventually the cat emerges because it has learned something profoundly important: the deer is still there.
That feels extremely Buck and Tommy to me, especially if drawing from the breakup and imagining a reconciliation.
Then, on Tommy's side, the cat has to learn that the deer startles too. Buck's openness can make him look emotionally fearless. He isn't. Abandonment terrifies him. The cat can't keep vanishing and assume the deer will always remain in.
So their mutual lesson becomes beautifully symmetrical:
Buck has to learn not to chase. Tommy has to learn not to disappear.
The deer stays. The cat comes back.
Eventually they learn how to lie in the same patch of sunlight. 😭
5. With the obvious caveat that we're only seeing their public-facing selves, Lou often comes across as the more openly goofy, excitable, slightly chaotic one, while Oliver Stark often seems more measured and composed in interviews.
Then they walk onto 9-1-1 and somebody has apparently hit reverse. 🤣
Buck is the deer going: HELLO. I HAVE A FEELING. MY ENTIRE BODY IS NOW PARTICIPATING IN THE FEELING.
Tommy is the cat sitting six feet away like: I have assessed the situation and will be providing one facial microexpression. Good luck.
Meanwhile, public-vibe Lou feels like he'd be the cat who misjudged a jump, knocked over a lamp and immediately looked delighted with himself. Oliver feels like the deer standing nearby with an expression that says, I cannot believe I'm associated with this animal. 😂
6. It actually makes me wonder whether that is part of why their onscreen contrast works. They're not simply playing extensions of their apparent public personas. Oliver puts so much physical emotional transparency into Buck- his face, posture, the way Buck's entire body seems to react before his brain catches up. Lou gives Tommy a much more contained, economical energy. So the deer/cat thing gets even funnier when the actors' public-facing energies seem almost inverted.
Actor Oliver's public vibe: discerning cat
Actor Lou's public vibe: golden retriever who has somehow obtained cat privileges
And the fandom calls Buck the resident golden retriever of the 118. 😭
8. A cat-coded man canonically named Tommy, as in tomcat.
A deer-coded man canonically called Buck- as in literally a male deer.
The writers may or may not have intended any of this, but fandom symbolism has been handed an absolutely ridiculous gift here. 😭🐈🦌❤️
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