#incorrect118

Eddie: 🙃

Inspired by: @veryincorrect118

This is going to be a relatively long article with my thoughts on whether queerbaiting really exists on 911 and whether such a presentation of a bisexual couple harms the community.

I don't want to argue about whether this show has queerbaiting. Undoubtedly, there are some factors that correspond to this marketing technique. 

two guys raise the son of one of them

call each other best friends

don't have restrictions on personal space for each other

stare at each other like newlyweds 

It is, and no one - not one - no none can deny it. There's a chemistry between Buck and Eddie that we feel on an almost physical level. And for this, actors get aggression for queerbaiting. Although, in fact, it should be aimed at screenwriters.

But I don't wanna talk about that. I want to talk about why I don't think Buck and Eddie's relationship is queerbaiting.

There's a concept of unvoiced feelings in fanfiction, and I think it is. Let us consider in more detail the main character-forming moments from the life of guys.

This is Evan Buckley.

Evan Buckley is 26 years old. Evan Buckley loves sex. Evan Buckley wants to try to build a relationship, but starts it off the wrong way - first sex, then a phone number and a date. Evan Buckley isn't a bad guy, he simply didn’t have a parent who would teach him to communicate with women, to appreciate them. He wasn’t taught to build relationships. His examples of relationships in childhood and adolescence (when the frontal lobes are forming) are parents who are too grieving to see that their living son needs them more than the dead one. And the sister who left for her husband, and from sunny Maddie Buckley, turned into a broken Maddie Kendall. Evan Buckley doesn't know how to be in a relationship.

Then he has Abby - it seems that this is his first serious relationship. And let's be honest, he's growing as a person. He respects Abby, takes care of her and her mother, supports them, makes them laugh and is just always there. And then Abby leaves. She doesn’t even leave him, but just leaves, and for several months Buck cherishes a ghostly chance for the return of the old relationship and the happiness that they had. And then Evan Buckley gives up. But it continues to grow.

He has other girls, but none of them accepts him for who he is: with his work, character, attitude towards family, friends and himself. Of course, you cannot be completely satisfied in your partner, but immediately trying to change him for yourself - this shouldn't exist.

This is Eddie Diaz.

Eddie Diaz has a son with a form of disability. Eddie Diaz went through the war and outlived many of his acquaintances. Eddie Diaz and his disabled son were abandoned by his wife, who cut off all ties for several years. Eddie Diaz is a wonderful father who takes his son on a West Coast adventure in hopes of changing their lives.

Eddie misses Shannon. Christopher misses Shannon. And I'm sure that as a child, Chris often asked at first where his mother was and why she wasn't coming back. And every time Eddie Diaz's heart broke from the words "she doesn't love me?" or "mommy just doesn't want to see me anymore?" And Christopher asked, because at his age, children measure everything by their own measure.

And then Shannon comes back. And it's damn hard for Eddie to pretend that there weren't those years of silence from his wife. That she didn't go anywhere. His broken a few years ago heart cannot believe that if he let Shannon back into their life, she'll remain and will always be with them.

“A broken pot can still hold water” - the amazing devil “pray”

And Eddie gradually begins to trust her with himself and his son. And then they both lose Shannon for the second time. Forever and ever. And again they are left alone, although she promised to always be with them. Of course, it's not her fault that she died. But when you lose a person, at some point, grief changes to anger. "You promised not to leave me!" and so on.

Eddie Diaz has years of service in Afghanistan behind him. In civilian life, Eddie Diaz gets shot at (such horrible sounds, he heard them in the service). Eddie Diaz has taken hostage (the feeling of fear and panic is almost like when they were under siege). Eddie Diaz finds himself buried alive under 12 feet of earth while rescuing a boy his son's age because he hopes that if he isn't there, someone will save Christopher (sand gets in his mouth and eyes, just like in the Afghan desert). For three whole minutes of his life, Eddie Diaz looks at his best friend, dying from the inside, and thinks that his most beloved person in the world died during the tsunami, and he was not to save. He saved others (it turns out that he put the life of his son below the life of a stranger?). Of course, he didn't, of course Christopher survived and escaped with nightmares, but for the whole three minutes of his life Eddie thought differently and tried not to die from a broken heart.

Eddie Diaz enters Evan Buckley's life at a time when he feels like his life is falling apart. That he's not good enough for Abby to stay and let Buck make her happy. He doesn't feel like he's good enough for Abby to believe that together with Buck, they can get through everything in her life. And of course Evan Buckley is wonderful and deserves the whole world, but now he doesn't believe in it, because again he wasn't important enough to stay with him.

Evan Buckley enters Eddie Diaz's life at a moment of stress from moving and the beginning of a new life for him and his young son. Eddie begins to associate Evan Buckley with a new beginning, a new life. He bursts into the lives of both of Diaz with a burst of laughter and his brightest smile. Evan finds a common language with little Chris, becomes for him the same parental figure as Eddie is. Buck cares for and raises Christopher along with Eddie. Not so much because he has feelings for Eddie and not because he pities the disabled child. But because Evan Buckley is a good man, perhaps the best in the life of the Diaz family.

They met each other in difficult moments of their lives, experienced the most terrible trials together, and they continue to hold on to each other, because they feel boundless understanding and trust.

And it certainly started with friendship. Strong and forgiving, about which books are written, and which one can only dream of. And then it develops into something more, and it seems to me that they themselves are not understand, at some point they stop looking at each other as at a friend. That is why none of them makes an obvious first step towards.

Once again, there are no clear first steps. Perhaps for each of them, those words and moments that they create together mean the first step, but it’s too scary to openly talk about feelings.

When you like your best friend, you begin to see his every word and action romantically. Even if it wasn't meant to be. And you're scared because you're afraid to misunderstand and let yourself cross the line of friendship. But what if your friend was just acting normal, but your loving mind decided to treat the situation as if the feelings were mutual? Self-deception and false hope. What if you decide that your feelings are mutual and take the first step towards meeting, and this turns out to be a fall in love brain perception error? Friendship will be destroyed. Not immediately, of course. But tension and awkwardness will snowball until it crushes both of them. It hurts when your dearest person doesn't love you back. It hurts when you can't return the feelings of your dearest person. This is a double-edged sword, and this situation hurts everyone. Of course, your feelings may be mutual and everything will be fine, but what if not? What if the confession destroys the friendship and takes the person closest to you? Both parties will feel guilty, but no one will really be guilty.

“No one will never fight for my son as hard as you. that is what I want for him“ - s4ep13.

“There’s nobody in this world I trust with my son more than you“ - s3ep3.

And this means that he infinitely trusts Evan in every sense. Because Eddie trusts him with the most precious thing in his life: his son. And Evan may like to think that Eddie's attitude towards him has changed towards romance, but he is afraid that this is just an illusion. Eddie only meant what he said: Buck is his best friend, and his best friend can be trusted with everything.

Buck spends hours looking for the missing Christopher in hysterics. Dive to pain in temples and burning in lungs. He does not notice the water and how heavy the debris that he removes to find little Christopher. He screams the name of the child until his voice is hoarse, in a panic rushes to every person he meets on the ruined coast in the hope of hearing that Christopher was seen alive and well, and now Buck will be able to hug him and exhale - Christopher is alive. And every time he sees similar hair, height, clothes, he rushes to the person, praying that it was Christopher. And every time his heart breaks when it's not him. Evan rushes around the camps, forces himself to look into the black bags, but Christopher is still missing. 

Evan meets Eddie in a moment of desperation. He needs to be told that he lost Chris. That it was his fault for not keeping an eye on Eddie's baby. That Eddie lost his son to Evan. And of course Christopher is fine and after just a couple of minutes of talking he is already in the arms of his father. But Evan thought all day that Chris died because of him. The child he raised, whom he probably perceived as his son.

Of course everything is getting better. And they go through all the difficulties together, but they only unite them. And this makes the possibility of losing each other because of three words even more scary.

Eddie doesn't know how Buck looks at him when Diaz isn't looking. 

He doesn't know how Buck panics when Eddie is in danger. He doesn't know how Buck dug the ground with his hands, although he knew for sure that he could not reach the man through 12 feet of earth. He doesn't know how Evan's heart broke when he found Eddie in a ruined room in tears and panic. Eddie doesn't know how willing Evan is to die for Eddie. He doesn't know how much Evan Buckley loves him.

And Evan doesn't know how Eddie looks at him when Buck isn't looking. He doesn't know how grateful he is for Christopher's smile. Evan doesn't know how happy Eddie is to see the smile on Evan's face. Evan doesn't know how strong Eddie's belief is that he can forgive Buck for literally anything.

And Evan is trying to add a touch of romance to his words and actions. Hoping that if Eddie like him too, then Diaz will realize that Evan is in love with him and say that it's mutual. And then everything will be fine.

But Eddie, who likes Evan so much, is scared that it's just his loving mind deciding to take every smile, look, and touch in a romantic context. So Eddie just adds a touch of romance to his words and actions. Hoping that if Evan likes him too, then Buckley will realize that Eddie is in love with him and say that it is mutual. And then everything will be fine.

And this vicious circle is inextricable. They both found each other at the moment when they were alone. Therefore, I think it is incredibly scary for both of them to feel rejected, abandoned and unnecessary again. And I think that's why their relationship revolves around innuendo and doesn't move forward. It's very scary. And we've all experienced it at some point.

In addition to a completely justified fear, we should not forget this: even if it’s the 21st century, we don’t know how our environment will react to the fact that your loved one and you are of the same sex. It's one thing when your friends make gay jokes or tease you about your friend. But another thing is the fear of how they will react to the fact of the relationship, and not just a joke about them. It's the same with parents. When you make coming-out, there is a big risk of losing a good relationship with your parents. They may love you but not accept the fact that LGBT is not a disease. Just because they've been told otherwise all their lives.

I'm bisexual and asexual myself. And I'm not afraid to talk about it to friends or, if the subject comes up, to strangers in a bar. I'm not afraid of their reaction, I can stand up for myself. In addition, I quickly and painlessly cross out people I don’t like from my life. I just can't attached with people. But! I still haven't told my parents that I had relationships with girls because I know that I will lose my parents' good attitude. Of course, I know that over time they will accept me for who I am, even if they do not understand. But the months or even years it will take for them to accept - it scares me. But there are other parents who can disown their children for this.

I think Buck (even though he says he doesn't need parents) is afraid to feel like a disappointment to his mom and dad again. And Eddie is probably afraid of being judged and that they will try to "fix" him, because his family looks quite traditional (and he also has a bad relationship with his parents).

Often in movies, we are shown how characters fall in love, and this is almost always mutual. If this is not the case, then the rejected person quickly switches to another person, and now, after a couple of weeks, he deeply in love with a new person. As if there were no those months or years of torment by unexpressed feelings.

In 911, we see relationships as they are in real life: awkward, reckless, intimidating. They give an ocean of emotions, and these emotions are not always positive. In 911, we see how people face the fear of rejection every day and choose to try to live the way other people live.

It's not queerbaiting, it's a different way of looking at the situation. I love it when the characters talk openly about their feelings to each other, when the writers introduce open LGBT characters. And it's right. But we should not forget about those of us who are afraid to speak about themselves and their feelings because their environment isn't understanding enough. We must not forget the people who choose a long life of safety over a short life that can be interrupted by an aggressive man on the street at night or a religious father with anger issues. Such people need to see that their love for another person is still real feelings, their sense of calm from the person next to them and the joint upbringing of a child is still a family, and sometimes you don’t need to talk about love in order to just love.

And I'm sure that the relationship between Buck and Eddie will develop further and at some point they will become a couple, they will live together and openly talk to each other about love. In the meantime, we are shown the development of the characters in the way that the relationship of real men would develop, whose hearts have been broken a million times, and who have experienced more than a person can bear and not go crazy.

We'll get everything we want, but it takes time. So I think the characters should get all our love. And also actors should receive our love, because their acting skills are at the highest level.

And the pairing fans need to stop cyberbullying Oliver Stark because he's acting out the script, and the only ones to blame for the relationship taking so long are the show's management team.

This shouldn't exist. He is a wonderful actor and a wonderful person. No one should feel or hear that.

Hen: He’s drunk.

Ravi: And?

Hen: He saw a picture of Buck's husband.

Ravi: But he’s Buck's husband.

Bobby: Maybe a bit tipsy?

Hen: Drunk.

Eddie: Wasted.

Eddie:

Eddie: I love you.