the thing that gets me about Mother's Boy every time is that Buck's storyline leading up to it is about him not being sure if people accept the changes in him and that he struggles with knowing who he actually is vs. who he thinks people want/expect him to be, and then he's faced with a woman who literally wants him to be someone else because she thinks he'd be good at it. and he says no and plays along just to escape and tries to talk her out of it...up until he hears Eddie, and then he's willing to put aside all that growth to save him. He'll do it, he's ready to be Derek.
the thing that gets me about Mother's Boy every time is that you have Eddie who has struggled for seasons with people assuming the worst possible outcome about who he is. just in season 9 he had the lawyer touting that he's some violent, angry man and Abigail's father thinks he's taking advantage of her (fuck him, by the way), and the sheriff thinks he killed Buck. And then you have him trying to find out about Buck. He apologizes for taking Hector's clothes, he pays money for that shitty car. Until he's faced with what he thinks is a situation where Buck is in danger or already dead and then he's ready to embrace that false reputation he's been trying to disprove. He's ready to shoot, kill, fight to save him.
and finally, the thing that gets me about Mother's Boy every time is that in the end...neither one of them has to give up their individual journeys because the other has their back. Buck saves Eddie from embracing that false interpretation of him. Buck is the one who does any of the actual damage by using the cattle prod on Earl. Eddie was willing to shoot. He had the gun ready. But Buck stopped him from having to. And Eddie saves Buck from falling back into being what others want him to be. He screams "Buck", Buck's preferred name, loudly and repeatedly. Buck was willing to "be Derek" but Eddie made sure he didn't have to be. Eddie stopped him from having to.
