#pattern theory

Hey thanks for clicking read more! Okay so onto the theory - It has to do with characters wearing patterned clothing. 

Now you may have already read my Buck costume meta, where I spoke about how he’s been wearing a lot more patterned clothing in season 5 and that he’s nearly always wearing it around Taylor - if not, click the link above and have a read! We do see him wearing them around others, but only twice - once in the firehouse when he’s talking to Ravi - before he goes home - to Taylor (so technically it doesn’t count because the scene with her was the main scene for that costume - shown below) and the other time was in 5x10 at the big cookout Christmas party and we all know what happened there with Eddie! 

As I said in my Buck post, patterns tend to represent a characters internal confusion or turmoil - because something is/has happened or is not right. this is not specific to pattern, it could be the check/plaid, but it could equally be the one shown on Buck above, a busy spotty pattern, flower prints etc. 

Onto the specifics of this particular theory. during my many rewatches of 911 I’ve been able to spot a pattern (forgive the pun 😂) and it has to do with characters wearing plaid/check clothing (especially shirts/tops) as a form of foreshadowing of impending existing trouble - either in the form of an emergency, or something happening in their personal lives. 

If it’s an emergency dealing with multiple people (such as the earthquake or the tsunami)  - there is usually one character who is involved in the incident who is in a check shirt of some kind. - you can see in the screenshot below from season 3 episode 2, that Charlotte (the girl with the drone) has a check shirt tied around her waist.

I’ve been rewatching and keeping a log of every time this plays out and its pretty consistent - there are a handful of times where it doesn’t and most of those are in series 1&2 when we had different costume designers. 

in series 1 - Helen Huang was the costume designer

Series 2 - Bryan Kopp (ep11-18), Elizabeth Lacaster (ep2-4), Helen Huang (ep 6-10) and Paula Elins (ep5)

Series 3-5 - Alayna Bell-Price

It is much harder to pick up on things like this theory when you have multiple designers, I always thought the costuming in season 2 was a bit hit and miss in terms of consistency, and this is why. However Alayna Bell-Price has been there throughout most of it - working as a trailer costumer and assistant costume designer on series 1 and the first half (ep1-10) of series 2 before taking oer as costume designer in series 3 - when we see a real settling in style and my theory becomes much stronger in its execution.

So let us explore my theory a little bit deeper. When I say impending trouble, it doesn’t actually have to mean a call 911 type of trouble, it could also represent their internal trouble or struggles and the check pattern doesn’t have to be glaringly obvious either. 

A great example of this is actually in season 1 - when Buck is attending Devons funeral in episode 2 - the black shirt he has on has a check pattern (hopefully you can see it in the below screenshot, if not the scene is timestamped at 20:28. Buck is struggling to come to terms with the first death he’s experienced on the job. Helen Huang has shown this through the costume generally - its a mix of colours - a dark navy jacket, black shirt, dark grey tie - he’s looking for closure and  better understanding of why Devon wouldn’t take his hand. He doesn’t find it at the funeral, but he does find it later on.

Another addition to this theory is that it isn’t always the character in trouble who wears the pattern, but someone tied to them - such as a child - this is a clever ploy to make it less obvious that the plaid check is a signal. And occasionally its changed up so that it is less obvious, or because the character isn’t wearing a top. 

I should point out that its not true for every single incident, but there are a couple of other factors at play, one is another theory I have (which I’m still working on the post for, so you’ll have to wait on that one), I’m also still doing a bit of comparison work to see if the incidents where there is no obvious use of check patterns in the costuming are incidents that are less important to the overall story of the episode/season (so there may well be a follow up post to accompany this one at a later date when I have finished comparing!). The final factor is uniforms - if it involves characters at their place of work, in a job where a uniform is worn, then obviously the uniform will take precedence over the check/plaid and sometimes alternatives are used - there are a couple of different ways of doing this, which I’ve shown with pictures below.

Bobby talks to Chimney in the locker room about his special blood - there is a shirt hanging on the wall behind him (actually theres two different shirts, because theres a continuity error!!)

as the family get out of the car to enter the hotel, there is a check blanket on the middle seat next to where Kat is sat - she’s the one in danger from this family during the earthquake!

The stupid picture limit on posts means I can’t actually show you pictures of all of them - but what I’ve decided to do -  is make a post for each season with some select images where a character is wearing a check or plaid item of clothing so you can see for yourself in a bit more detail - the links are below and I’ll update this post once I’ve actually posted them - they’re lined up so sorry for spamming you feed!

I do have a full timestamped list of every scene in every episode, with breakdowns of check shirts (an a couple of other things I’ve spotted which I’ll be posting over hiatus) if anyone is interested. 

I also have a costume plot - a breakdown of whats being worn item by item, scene by scene - for each character and I’m happy to do a post explaining how it works in a wardrobe department if anyone is interested in learning a bit more about that? Mine is not as detailed as the actual costume plot would be, (because I don’t have the script or the benefit of a meeting with the production team to gain more insight into motivations and info that needs to be conveyed) but I’m happy to go into a bit more detail and create a fake one to show how it would all work, but only if you’re all interested in the inner workings of a wardrobe department for film and tv?!!

Ok links to each seasons check highlights below and I’ll add all of these (and this post) to the costume meta pinned post on my page 😎

Season 1

Sesaon 2

Sesaon 3

Season 4

Season 5