#8b speculation

Buddie is being mentioned not only in regular articles, but in interviews with multiple cast members in a way that is being hugely publicized along with the rest of the PR for the show.

It's not coming off as a joke, or something silly a significant portion of the fandom supports; We're not being made fun of in any of the PR that's been happening (ad far as I can tell). The questions and responses are sincere and respectful. Obviously Ostark has been supportive for years, but it really hits when we're getting these questions asked on freaking GMA of all places.

I'm legitimately hopeful in a way I never really was during my time watching SPN live because it was very clear back then that we explicitly did not have the support of the network & the Powers That Be. (In fact we were often the butt of many a joke.) For Buddie questions to keep cropping up & for real answers being given (even if they're neutral and/or diplomatic ones that literally have to be that way at this moment because they can't go around spoiling any plot, potential or otherwise!!!) is fucking huge.

For me, it's a huge indicator on whether or not Buddie Canon is actually on the table. Has it been for sure decided? Obviously none of us know one way or the other, and we aren't going to until it's explicitly addressed on the show. Personally, I think they're gonna use the season 8 finale to gauge whether or not it's a truly viable option to us viewers (both shippers and the general audience).

I think we're gonna get a closer taste of it than we ever have had before in tomorrow's episode, especially given all the PR of the last week. I think the subtext is going to become textual while still keeping the ability to backtrack in s9 in case the reaction tomorrow (or over the summer hiatus) isn't positive. Which, again, I don't think it will be, but like I said before, I lived through The Horrors with Supernatural so I'm hesitant to actually be fully optimistic about having a mlm queer ship being recognized officially while not ending with one of them going to Super Gay Hell.

That said!! I really do feel confident saying Buddie Canon is a "when", not an "if" at this point. Not even talking about the show parallels and how it's obviously set up to be that way just from a media literacy standpoint because Destiel was undeniably set up in the same manner (haters can hate but it's literally all right there for anyone with eyes, so go kick rocks). I'm saying this simply from the way it's been treated recently with all the PR because if Tim or ABC didn't want Buddie to be even considered a possibility or have the audience thinking/talking about it like it was, then it'd be blacklisted from any and all questions/interviews. Which it cleary has not been!

Q. Help! That episode feels too good to be true. Did we actually just see all of that play out? The interviews scared me though because I don't know why any of them chose to talk like they did after everything we just watched. I just want some reassurance. I'm dying.

A. Okay I have a very big meeting today that I have to concentrate on which is wildly unfair because my brain is full of Buddie and I'm afraid I'm going to say it out loud accidentally at some point during the meeting. But because of that meeting I don't have the time today to answer everything in my box so I'm going to cover it all here. Here goes nothing.

I don't want to hear about the interviews. They're mostly irrelevant for now. Neither Oliver or Ryan said anything they wouldn't normally say when answering a question they can't fully honestly answer right now. And as for Tim, Tim likes to hear himself talk. And Tim also very much enjoys the game where he uses the episode post mortems to play with the audience. He likes to make people crazy. He likes to watch the spiral. That's it. This is fun for him. The GA is not reading these articles. He knows who he's speaking too. Giving you assurance means spoiling the story. He's not going to do that. Stop taking every word he says as literal. In the same breath he said he didn't want to lead people into thinking they're doing something they are not doing, he also said he was going to let the episodes speak for themselves. This episode spoke LOUDLY. This episode was basically shouting in our faces (shout-out to the prominently displayed artwork of the guy with the megaphone hanging on Eddie's wall). How loud was this episode? Let's take a look. Take the opening scene and the last scene for instance. The first scene shows Buck and Eddie on the same side of a wall, a glass wall, literally meaning you can see through it. When they start talking about Eddie moving away he physically moves himself to the other side of the wall, directly opposite of Buck. Visually showing a division of the pair, so their differing ways of dealing with their impending bigger separation. At the end of the scene though Buck opens the door to meet Eddie on his side of the wall. Signaling Buck's reluctant willingness to try and do this Eddie s way, but I'll come back to that. At the end of the episode we see the two of them again separated by another wall. However we cannot see through this wall. This wall indicates a separation of the two that will remove them from one another's line of sight, Buck in L.A. and Eddie in Texas. The wall has artwork from Buck's loft, including the pic of the guy with the megaphone, and Buck asks Eddie how he feels about tearing down the wall. The wall represents everything that stands in their way. Texas and everything Eddie has to do there before he can be ready. And this episode proved Buck is not there yet either. Buck needs to work on himself as well. They can't be together until they figure out how to remove their walls. They don't have to be healed, but they have to acknowledge the walls they've each created for themselves. If the episode only had those two scenes it would have been insane enough. But not only did we get those two scenes, we got everything that came in between.

Buck had genuine intentions when he offered to help Eddie show his house, but Buck doesn't want him to leave so he inadvertently, maybe slightly intentionally, sabotaged every single showing. This scene was heaven. This was straight out of a fanfic. They looked like husbands. They acted like husbands. BUCK WAS HOLDING A BASKETBALL WHILE ACTIVELY SABATOGING ONE OF THEM. Having Eddie say to one of them that the only things that matter are in Texas and having Buck overhear that was an amazing choice because it plays into Buck's biggest fear and the part of himself he desperately needs to confront and deal with. Using an actual dog to represent Buck's abandonment issues was genius. The dog was clearly Buck. When the family came to claim the dog Buck's conversation with the dog was for Eddie. He was talking to Eddie, but it was easier to hide behind the dog. Eddie not babying Buck is also huge. I don't know why people want him to make Buck a baby. But Eddie didn't owe him an apology in this episode. Buck was out of line repeatedly. And it's important in their dynamic that Eddie continues to call him out when he gets like that. Because he does listen to Eddie above anyone else. Buck broke my head in this episode but so did Eddie. They're both hurting and trying to deal with it in different ways.

The dialogue choices were jaw dropping. 'I'm sorry I outed you in front of cap and everyone'. That line being canon is bonkers. Because that wasn't nearly the easiest or cleanest way for Buck to say he was sorry. The obvious line would be I'm sorry I told everyone before you were ready. They actively made it more of an awkward line specifically to work a coming out reference into the dialogue. Eddie telling Buck if he's asking him to choose between him or his son he will lose every time was also next level insane because Buck has never, and would never ask Eddie to make that choice. But it's clearly what Eddie feels like he's having to do and right now ,for him, it's easier to make it sound like Buck is the one forcing him to choose. It's a coping mechanism. And not something Eddie is ready to unpack or examine yet. Then there's the fake name Buck gave himself: Freddie Fakeman. It's very on the nose but Freddie = Eddie and Fakeman = Eddie not being who he's supposed to be.

Buck gave up his loft. Just walked away. Because he loves Eddie in a way he doesn't fully understand or realize yet, but it's coming. Buck is close. And he wanted to ease the burden for his person. Eddie has never been loved like that. And right now he doesn't believe he's deserving of love like that. And probably doesn't understand why someone would love him like that. But his face at the end when he realized he doesn't have to ask for it. Buck will just always be there to help in any way he can. He just sometimes takes the more difficult route. That episode was stunning in every way. The Abby parallels are giving me life. Abby left and Buck moved in to wait for her to come home. Eddie is leaving and Buck is moving in fully believing that Eddie is not coming home. This is all intentional and done with purpose. There's no way to put the lid back on this box, anon. There is only one way out and that is getting Eddie out and them together. Things are going to happen between now and then obviously because neither one of them is ready yet but they've started both of them on the journey towards one another and it's not going to take long. This episode was LOUD.

Thank you Nonny!

I feel like I've been talking about this episode all day long now, adding new interesting tidbits to my observations and to my initial episode reaction.

All of the topics Ali touched upon here are so true. I agree with all of this. This is definitely the true point of no return for Buddie. The arc has been set in motion. No stopping them now! 😏

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buck is so depressed about eddie leaving that his subconscious finally puts two and two together and he has a sex dream about eddie

he freaks out, tells everybody EXCEPT eddie, while gnawing off his own metaphorical paw by helping eddie get ready to move

he and eddie get into a fight that's basically eddie being like 'you're hiding something from me. WHAT,' and buck being like 'noooo i'm not,' and eddie's like 'you don't want me to move. I'm sorry, but I have to go to Chris,' and buck being like 'no no no eddie i know i know' but they're both frustrated and finally buck reassures eddie that it's just that he thinks maybe he has feelings, and he's had them for a long time, and he knows that's not how eddie feels, and he's ready to let eddie go, it's just going to hurt saying goodbye

and eddie's eyes get enormous and he gets really quiet and he says buck, i'm sorry, and buck's yeah no i know i know, and it's awkward as hell when they say goodnight

and then buck comes to see him off the next day, and eddie says 'you know you're my best friend in the whole world,' and buck says i KNOW, eddie. you go take care of that kid, even though he's dying inside, and he runs back to the truck to get eddie the cookies he baked for him for the drive, and then they hug

and buck's whole chest feels like it's splitting apart, and he's suddenly crystal clear that even though he's done the healthy, mature, grown-up thing, this is going to hurt worse than every breakup he's ever had. this is going to hurt worse than abby.

and then eddie lets him go

and buck makes himself smile

and then eddie drives off, leaving buck standing there smiling in the rain

and then

and then!

a couple episodes go by

will eddie come back

we don't know

is he off the show?

are we safe?

are we okay?

AND THEN

the episode's titled 'el paso,' a clear callback to 'boston,' and it's all about eddie and his family, trying to reconcile with chris, trying to make his old life fit, but it just doesn't fit.

and there's a part where eddie's talking to his sister, or his dad, or his high school best friend we've never heard about before, and he's like 'i feel like. i don't know. i feel like my whole life i've been trying to make up for something,' and they're like 'for what?' and he's like. 'i don't know. for being me?'

and then there's a big fight between eddie and chris at the lake where they fix things, and chris is like 'dad, what do you even WANT,' and eddie's like 'i want us both to be happy!' and chris is like 'what does that MEAN' and eddie's like 'i think we both need to find some joy'

and then we cut to los angeles

buck limping home from a terrible shift

he's exhausted, things have gone badly, he's gonna order a pizza and collapse. he gets home. he orders the pizza.

the doorbell rings

and it's eddie and chris

and we don't even see them kiss at this point!

we just see them looking at each other while they cry and hug

but eddie's home

and he's looking at buck like he fucking loves him

because he fucking loves him

1.5k || 8b spec || no warnings || read it on AO3

***

"Buck!" 

The shouts of the rest of the 118 couldn't stop Buck as he ran into the fully engulfed house. Hell, he wasn't sure that he could stop himself if he wanted to. That seemed to be par for the course for Buck lately, taking off without caring even if the whole damn building was collapsing. 

All he had heard was the little girl crying for her dog that still inside and he was gone. 

Maybe it was the breakup or the Eddie of it all. Maybe it was the fact that everyone kept on leaving him, and he just couldn't keep caring about himself when it seemed like the world was crumbling around him. 

He couldn't fix his love life. He certainly couldn't fix the Diaz's problems or the idea of losing Eddie and Christopher to Texas. But he could save this dog, even if it killed him. 

Eddie Diaz is coming out all right. The New Year's Buddie post, the hug 'leak', the Ryan interview and now this. All of the focus is on Eddie.

Q. Do you really not think the show will label Eddie as gay? How do you see his realization going if he doesn't realize he's gay?

A. Hi anon! I personally don't believe they will label him as gay. I could be wrong but I think the show is going to simply frame it as he was in love with Shannon and now he's in love with Buck. And I think they will write it as that being enough for Eddie. Also remember that Buck has yet to use the word bisexual so Eddie not coming out as gay would not be a surprise. I am still very much team some part of Eddie knows he wants Buck. Until the narrative tells me that's false I will believe Eddie knows he loves Buck, on some level, but doesn't know how to let himself have Buck. I think that's why they've framed Eddie's arc around allowing himself joy. He already knows it. He just has to give himself permission to have it.

Eddie's storyline is about allowing himself joy. The tangible object the show chose to represent joy is juice. Juice shows up in the very first episode of the season. When the group runs up to the roof Buck is seen without a bottle of juice. Eddie, Hen and Chim all arrive with bottles of juice, but Eddie gives his juice to Buck. So Buck is the one who actually drinks it. The bottle is then placed on a table between Eddie and Buck. Later on in the season we see Eddie pick up another bottle of juice only to replace it with a bottle of water instead. Father Brian is the one who tells Eddie, and by extension the audience, that the bottle of juice represents joy. The show has told the audience to make that connection. An episode by the way that ends with Eddie allowing himself a moment of joy, his risky business dance, a moment that Buck is part of by the end. We later see Buck open his refrigerator showing a large bottle of water and juice side by side on the top shelf. Buck is the juice. The juice represents Buck. I say all of that to say that I think Eddie will tell the audience at the same time he tells Christopher. They will simply have a conversation where Eddie will be seen drinking juice. That doesn't mean he will say he's in love with Buck. But I think the conversation will start by Eddie telling Chris that he's willing to stay in El Paso if that's what Chris wants even if it's not what Eddie wants. So for instance Christopher believes that Eddie ruined everything. He doesn't understand the KimShannon situation and I think we will learn Eddie's truth as Chris leans it while Eddie is attempting to explain the Kim situation.

Forget the vertigo nonsense that Kim was introduced with. That didn't work on any level and even Tim has admitted that so it won't be brought up again, I don't think. There were lots of things Eddie never got to say to Shannon before she died. Conversations that they needed to have. Things he needed to say and things he needed to hear her say. But they never got any of those conversations. He never got any closure. I think Eddie blames himself for everything that went wrong. He wasn't the husband, father, and partner that he believes she deserved. But instead of allowing himself the grace to acknowledge that they were both kids themselves and neither one of them were ready for the situation they found themselves in, while also acknowledging that Shannon made her own mistakes, he takes the blame and responsibility for all of it. He feels broken and undeserving of happiness because he couldn't be what she needed him to be. And he doesn't understand why he couldn't make her happy. He was 14 when he met her. She knew him better than anyone and he wasn't enough. So in Eddie's mind that means he's defective. If he wasn't enough for the one person who knew him best how can he ever be enough for anyone else? And as fucked up as it sounds Kim was a way to absolve himself of his own perceived sins. He couldn't fix it with Shannon but if he could get a kind of do over with a form of her he was going to try. Sort of a he needs her blessing to move on kind of thing. And not feeling forgiven was also a way to continue to deny himself Buck. It was an excuse to not examine things too closely. Which would inevitably lead to the Marisol of it all and why he feels the need to sabotage his relationships when they turn towards serious. He can say that he never intends to sabotage them, but when he thinks of their family he never saw Marisol or Ana in those images. To him his family is himself, Christopher, and then he can kind of hesitate for a moment before softly adding, and Buck. And that's all it would take. He can say that he doesn't know what that means for him but that he sees Buck as part of their family and for now that's enough for him. Because Buck has filled that role. The audience has seen it. It doesn't fill Eddie with panic or dread. Buck is just a part of their family. And when whoever he's dating starts to step into that role, a role that Eddie has already allowed Buck to fill, that is when Eddie panics and sabotages the relationship. Letting Eddie acknowledge that out loud is important. And it allows Christopher some understanding that he didn't previously have, at least not fully. It would be very fitting for Eddie to say that he hates the idea of a life without Buck, in some capacity, but that he cannot do a life without Christopher, so if Christopher wants to be in El Paso then that's where Eddie will be. And the audience will know. Everyone will know. And he doesn't have to identify as gay to accomplish that.

This got very rambly and I'm not sure it even makes sense, lol. But to me he doesn't feel worthy of allowing himself Buck, or joy. And Shannon was a good excuse. But a big enough part of him really wants to be happy so he saw Kim as a kind of messed up path to that forgiveness. Does that make sense at all?

Thank you Nonny!

This is some great meta and YES it does make sense Ali! 😋 This all seems very plausible. I've been reading a lot of Eddie meta lately and everyone has their own theory about this. I know that a lot of people are hoping he'll eventually step up and come out as gay.

Truth is that we won't know until the show gets to his storyline and then we'll just have to accept whatever they decide to do with him.

Personally I would love it if Eddie would turn out to be demisexual (and bi). It would make sense for him to only be attracted to people he feels extremely close to and with whom he has a very intimate friendship. He had that kind of relationship with Shannon at first, but later reality and them being too young to cope with a baby and struggling for money, made them crash as a couple.

Now he has that special friendship again, this time with Buck.

Whatever happens though, whether he'll be gay, unlabeled or demisexual, I'm just glad that Eddie will finally be able to escape the confines of that glass closet he's been locked in for years now. He deserves all the love that is coming towards him.

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Q. I cannot believe they waited for rain. They filmed the rest of the episode weeks ago but waited for the rain to film the goodbye scene. They waited for the rain!! My only niggle of complaint is that Eddie is already back by episode 13 which means it's going to feel rushed. I was hoping to have several episodes of focus. I don't want Buddie to feel rushed in any way.

A. No seriously the fact that they purposely waited for the rain makes me light headed. They intentionally want that scene to be in the rain. Rain is such a powerful Buddie aesthetic. It's been used in every one of their 'goodbye' scenes: the well collapse, the lightning strike, and now the Texas move. Rain is often used in scenes to convey sadness, sorrow, anguish or dread. Setting that scene in the rain adds to the emotions that both characters are experiencing in that scene. The fact that it is just the two of them and not the entire 118 family is also a really loud choice. They have done that with Buck and Eddie from the beginning. Yes they are part of the 118 family as a whole, but they, along with Christopher, are a separate family unit of their own, and I love that they make a point of emphasizing that. Putting them in the exact same colors as the day they met is a god tier brain choice. That is genius work. I'm obsessed with everything about it. I also completely believe that the goodbye scene is in rain so the reunion scene can be sunlit. I think one of the big reasons why they wanted the goodbye scene to be in the rain was so they could contrast that scene with a sunlit reunion scene (separate scene of course but the first kiss needs to be at sunset. I need a sunset kiss for the payoff of the 'there was construction on sunset' scene that both Oliver and Ryan have referenced. I need a sunset first kiss). They have felt inevitable for some time now but that BTS video just reinforced that belief so strongly. Everything about that scene was romantic coded, not best friend coded. That kind of feels like a legitimate 'it begins' moment.

Giving a storyline multiple episode focus doesn't guarantee a satisfactory story at all. They can absolutely accomplish everything they need from Eddie being in Texas in one episode if they make it a bottle episode. It needs the complete episode focus. They can open the episode at the 118 with something like Buck staring down at his phone and Chimney or Hen can make some wisecrack about a watched phone never ringing and Buck can then say he and Eddie talked last night and today is the day Eddie and his parents are supposed to talk and Eddie told him he would call him when it was done. Then cut to Eddie standing in front of his parents house and the rest of the episode takes place in Texas in Eddie's old house. They don't have to do more than a single episode of focus that way because you have Eddie and his parents, we one hundred percent have to see a conversation between Eddie and his parents, and then Christopher joining in at some point. That's everyone you need to accomplish the Texas stuff in one central location. It would not be hard to do and it would not be something 911 isn't capable of doing. It doesn't need multiple episode focus as long as it gets the appropriate focus. If Buddie is the ultimate goal this season, something that looks more and more likely by the day, they have to fix the Christopher situation first. He is too big a part of their unit. They cannot move forward on the Buddie front until the Christopher situation has been addressed and dealt with in some capacity. They cannot move forward on the Christopher front without Eddie acknowledging and addressing the issue of his parents wanting to be the ones who raise Christopher. Those have to be addressed prior to any major Buddie movement. I do think episode 118 is the episode where they want some kind of major Buddie movement to occur, or gay/queer canon Eddie to occur. So that doesn't allow a ton of episodes to play with. They have to be focused and disciplined in the storytelling. A bottle Texas episode gives them the best chance to advance everything forward in the most satisfying way possible given the time they have to work with.

We are seven seasons into the Buck and Eddie thing, anon. It is not possible to consider them rushed in any way at this point. Do you know the relationship that was rushed? Bobby and Athena. That relationship had no build up whatsoever. She sat with him on a curb in one episode and he asked her to go to church with him then BAM making out between fire trucks. Zero build up at all. They did all of the build up after they got together and it worked. Neither character was really ready for a relationship. Bobby was downright suicidal but no one cared. No one cared how quickly it happened. No one cared that when held to real life standards they had absolutely no business embarking on a relationship with one another at that point. No one cared. No one complained. No one said it was too fast to be believable or to be good. Their relationship is beautiful and messy because they're beautiful and messy. The fact that it happened when the timing wasn't perfect is irrelevant in every way. So I'm not going to play the 'I want Buddie but A B C D needs to happen first or else it's wrong' game with people. Not that that's what you're saying, I'm just tired of seeing the I want it but takes. We have seven seasons of build up. Why do people not get that? We have countless scenes that are just waiting to be used in a montage signposting their inevitably. Who else has 7 seasons of build up? They are hitting every rom com trope imaginable: found family, Christopher has two dads, enemies to besties (yes the enemy part lasted half an episode but it still counts), forced proximity (Bobby forced them to be partners when Eddie first arrived and the bomb removal in the ambulance), opposites attract ( hello golden retriever and black cat energy), idiots in love who aren't aware of the fact that they're in love, sad pitiful parting in the rain, and finally building towards friends to lovers. They are truly the entire package. There is nothing fast or out of the blue about what's coming. It has quite literally been building towards this for years. I am going to soak up every single drop they feed us. If that video taught me anything it is that I honestly might faint when they kiss for the first time because the energy from the goodbye video alone was enough to give me palpations. And look at the social media activity it generated. They're going to break the Internet when it happens and I cannot wait. It's time. It's clearly where it looks to be heading. And it's the right way to go. If someone doesn't want it for whatever reason that's their prerogative, but I am not entertaining the arguments about why the timing doesn't feel right because that's nonsense. It is absolutely time. Let's go 🩷🩷

Thank you Nonny!

YES YES AND YES to everything that Ali wrote here!

I just want to add something. I'm not sure we'll get actual canon Buddie that soon. I think we'll get both of their realisations very early on in 8b and we'll see them struggle with the reality of that, which will come with different difficulties for both of them.

But actual Buddie canon? I'm betting that Tim will show us the talks with Maddie and Hen, the pining and the longing throughout 8b and then in the two last episodes something major will happen and everything will come to light. And then their first kiss will happen, in the final episode of 8b, in the light of the sunset in Eddie's kitchen and it'll be perfect. ❤️❤️❤️

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