Eden Evelian

Long-running slow burns are not unusual in television. A late example that covers this trope is The Rookie, but Bones and The X Files are often considered as the most well known examples. What makes Buck and Eddie’s dynamic so notable is the sheer length of their development. Over the course of literally hundreds of scenes together, they have navigated several near death experiences, shared trauma, deep emotional reliance on one another, and their joint family dynamic with Eddie’s son Christopher.

Few tv show pairings have sustained this magnitude of attention in a show’s narrative WITHOUT resolving what their relationship actually is. Despite being established as each other's person, they've never sat down and discussed: What ARE we? Brothers in arms? Platonic soulmates? Romantic soulmates? The lack of resolution has allowed both general and fandom audiences of all opinions to develop a strong attachment to their bond. But recently, it’s gotten to a point where their relationship is so emotionally integral to the show, that the lack of clarification is starting to create tension in the writing itself, an ‘elephant in the room’ if you will. It is now impossible to engage in online discourse about this show without coming across discussions about the nature of Buck and Eddie’s bond.

The Show Has Acknowledged the Dynamic

Other than a few isolated moments in earlier seasons, Season 9 has begun to show a growing awareness of Buck and Eddie’s dynamic within the narrative itself. For the first time since Season 2, other characters are once again mistaking Buck and Eddie for a couple—but this time the moments carry narrative weight rather than existing purely as comedic throwaway lines.

In Mother’s Boy, Buck and Eddie are mistaken for a couple on two separate occasions, and these interactions contribute meaningfully to the episode’s story. Early in the episode, locals in a diner interpret Buck and Eddie’s disagreement as a domestic argument between a same-sex couple, referring to them dismissively as “your kind.” Later events allow both the audience and Eddie himself to infer that Buck’s kidnappers were likely these same hostile locals, suggesting that their actions may have been motivated by homophobia.

The episode continues this theme during Eddie’s conversation with the sheriff. When referring to Buck, the sheriff places noticeable emphasis on the word “friend,” subtly questioning the nature of their relationship. Eddie then corrects him, asking the sheriff to call Buck by his first name instead of “Mr. Buckley.” The sheriff responds by comparing this familiarity to the way his own wife calls him Woody, again framing Buck and Eddie’s relationship in terms that resemble a domestic partnership.

Through these moments, the episode does more than simply acknowledge the dynamic between Buck and Eddie—it integrates the perception of their relationship into the narrative itself, allowing it to influence both the tension and emotional stakes of the story.

Breaking the “Romantic Outlet” Rule

When writing a slow-burn story, shows tend to follow a convention that ensures that both characters of the pair maintain significant romantic relationships with other partners while the slowburn is taking place. These external relationships serve as outlets for emotional development while keeping the central pairing ambiguous. 

For a time, 9-1-1 followed this convention with Buck and Eddie, particularly during the Fox era of the show when both characters were dating other people. However, this structure has largely disappeared over the past year. Instead, Buck and Eddie have gradually become each other’s primary emotional support system. In moments of crisis, they consistently turn to one another first, and their personal storylines increasingly intersect in ways that position their relationship at the center of the narrative.

Once an unresolved pairing becomes the characters’ primary emotional relationship, the tension surrounding that dynamic becomes much harder for both the story and the audience to ignore. Season 9 repeatedly reinforces this shift. When Christopher goes missing after school, Buck is the first person Eddie calls. When Eddie is assaulted, Buck immediately rushes to the hospital. Likewise, Eddie is often the one pushing Buck to open up emotionally—whether about his insecurities, his parents’ divorce, or, in Season 8, when Eddie confronts Buck for shutting him out while spiraling in the aftermath of Bobby’s death.

Together, these moments highlight how deeply embedded their relationship has become in the show’s emotional structure, reinforcing the idea that their bond now functions as one of the central pillars of the narrative.

Breaking the “Separate Family Lanes” Rule

Buck and Eddie have also gone beyond another convention in developing slow burns: having separate family lanes.

Writers often avoid integrating a non-romantic partner deeply into a character’s family life. Doing so can make other future romantic storylines difficult to sustain, because any potential partner must compete with someone already embedded in the family dynamic.

However, 9-1-1 gradually integrated Buck into Eddie’s family life, particularly through Eddie’s son Christopher. Over time, Buck became a trusted adult figure in Christopher’s life and was frequently present in domestic settings at Eddie’s home.

In season 8, Buck also started having emotionally relevant conversations with Eddie’s Aunt Pepa, and for a couple of episodes in season 9, Eddie and Maddie have had meaningful (albeit one off-screen) interactions that don't involve the majority of the ensemble. In 9x11, Eddie messaged Maddie to ask her to bid on him with his money as a favour at the firefighter auction so that he didn’t have to go on a date with  a woman. Furthermore, Maddie and Eddie (along with Chimney) work together as a family unit to rescue Buck from a kidnapping (with Athena as the police consultant and close friend).

In narrative terms, Buck effectively became a co-parent figure long before any romantic confirmation existed, and Eddie is consistently paralleled alongside Chimney as a Buckley in-law. This level of integration typically occurs only after characters have already become a canonical couple.

As a result, the tension surrounding their relationship is no longer simply about whether they might date. Instead, the audience perceives them as already functioning like a family unit, raising the question of what label the story will eventually give that relationship.

Episode 9x13 and the “Romantic Bottle Episode”

Episode 9x13 intensified Buck and Eddie’s dynamic further by employing a storytelling structure commonly associated with romantic slow burns in procedural television: the romantic bottle episode. Bottle episodes typically isolate two characters from the rest of the ensemble to highlight their connection. This narrative format has historically been used in shows like The X-Files, Bones, and Castle to deepen the bond between slow-burn partners.

In 9x13, Buck and Eddie are separated from the rest of the 118 during a road-trip storyline, allowing the episode to focus almost entirely on their interaction. Several classic slow-burn tropes appear throughout the episode, including outsiders assuming they are a couple ( as specified earlier) and a mutual rescue narrative in which both characters risk themselves to save the other. Eddie is feral trying to rescue Buck in Mother’s Boy. He breaks out of hospital with stolen clothes, jumps out a window with injuries sustained from a major car crash. He rides a horse back to the diner where his attackers could still return to, he holds two people at gun point, even using one of them as a human shield, and runs to buck (still injured), totally ignorant of the cops and kidnappers surrounding them with weapons just so he can make sure Buck is okay. In return, Buck exchanges Eddie’s life for his own when Eddie arrives at the scene looking for clues, and accepts his fate until he hears a gunshot outside that could’ve hurt Eddie, at which point he quickly escapes and incapacitates the kidnapper who is about to shoot Eddie.

These elements culminate in an emotionally charged reunion scene. Eddie holds Buck's head gently and keeps his other hand on his pulse. They exchange quiet, light-hearted words that turn into giggles and whispers. The camera lingers on their faces in close up shots despite the chaos around them, both them AND the audience forget that there are two cops with guns, two kidnappers, and any opportunity for them to pick up a weapon and shoot. It is a hallmark of slow-burn storytelling that emphasises the character’s devotion to one another.

The Significance of the Ratings Spike

Whilst social media discussion often drives fan perception of a show’s success, TV networks primarily respond to more measurable audience engagement such as engagement from the general audience. And Mother’s Boy is currently the highest rated episode of the show so far. Multiple cast and crew members have shown their pride, with Eddie’s Ryan Guzman and director Jonathan Lawrence showing Collider’s article about it on their social media pages.

Ratings spikes tied to specific types of episodes provide valuable information to producers. When a character-focused episode performs significantly well, it signals that audiences are strongly invested in those characters and their relationship. Mother’s Boy is particularly notable because it relies heavily on character interaction rather than large-scale disaster sequences. For a show known for dramatic emergencies, an episode driven largely by two characters performing well in the ratings suggests that viewers are deeply engaged with their emotional story.

Additionally, character-focused episodes are often less expensive to produce than large disaster sequences. Tim Minear has already said in interviews that 9-1-1 is going through budget cuts (it was a reason why he decided to kill off Bobby), so when an episode that costs less to make performs especially well, it becomes even more attractive from a production standpoint, especially to 9-1-1 in its current circumstances.

In other words, the ratings spike surrounding this episode provides concrete evidence that Buck and Eddie’s dynamic is both a major driver of viewer engagement, as well as proof that they are the perfect strategy to provide narratives that are both critically acclaimed AND low-cost.

Conclusion

If the series were ever to explore a romantic relationship between them, it would generate significant audience attention, whilst keeping a low budget, and maintain the foundational theme of the show (found family). Historically, slow-burn payoffs often attract strong ratings when handled carefully, as seen in shows like Bones and Castle.

Buck and Eddie have proven through the success of Mother’s Boy that they are a powerful storytelling engine of the show, and through both following and breaking typical slowburn conventions, the writers are locking in on something. When a show isolates two characters, showcases their devotion to each other, keeps establishing their roles in each other’s families, and keeps showing other characters mistaking them for a couple, it will lead to more and more of the general audience to conclude that only one possible resolution for their relationship is plausible: Romance. It has already started happening, and as new audiences are being drawn in because of the online discussions, Buck and Eddie will continue to become more and more central to the show’s appeal.