Tommy Kinard Is An Absolute Icon. Using The Age-old Fake Radio Interference On The Chief Of The LAFD?!

Tommy Kinard is an absolute icon. Using the age-old fake radio interference on the Chief of the LAFD?! No one else could. I need more.

Chimney coming in clutch with the alliteration "so I'm your basketball beard? I feel so bonded" during the alliteratively titled "Buck, bothered and bewildered" in which the the title character Buck goes on an arguably alliterative journey to do with basketballs and bisexuality. Magnificent.

This episode was absolute perfection! The writers are geniuses, the actors are geniuses, the directors, camera people, lighting, editors, everyone who worked on this episode are all geniuses and they deserve a MASSIVE round of applause.

There's so much to talk about but I wanna start by talking about the staging of the scenes where Buck is feeling jealous, because ugh it was so well done.

It's so simple but they just isolated him. And it's not that noticeable in some of the smaller scenes but I know many people noticed it with the teaser and stills at the airfield. It became obvious to me after Eddie gets injured, but here are some examples:

In all these scenes Buck is obviously in his feels (but when wasn't he tbf) and he's stood by himself, opposite to everyone else.

I found this really clever, because yeah, Buck does express that he feels like he's being left behind, but he's done that before so what's new? What's new is the very confusing feelings of romantic jealousy being thrown in the mix. But romantic jealousy over a MAN. This has never happened before.

Finding out you're queer can be so scary and isolating because your entire view of yourself is changing and if that's changing how are you supposed to be yourself around others who've only known you as heterosexual up until this point? Add in the fact that Buck is somewhat oblivious to why he is acting the way he is towards Eddie (his bestfriend who's done nothing wrong) for a time and he's going to feel even more isolated. It gets to a point where he's lashing out because he doesn't know why he's feeling like this. And even when he's hurt Eddie he doesn't even ATTEMPT to move towards him, he's just stuck where he is.

By isolating Buck at all these moments, both the initial problem that sparks the jealousy and Buck's subsequent internal struggle are portrayed to the audience in a such a simple way. Doing this allows the audience to truly understand what's happening. Queer audiences will recognise themselves in Buck's isolation and heterosexual audiences will gain a further understanding of how troubling a queer realisation can be, allowing them to empathise more.

Even when Tommy comes to the loft Buck still starts out isolated:

They move to either side of the kitchen and put two (2) tables in between themselves. Then as they work through their issues and Buck starts to realise just WHY he's been so standoffish about Eddie and Tommy hanging out they get closer. Then they start to connect over how cool they thought the other was and how annoying that was and end up toe to toe:

Buck's finally accepting what he's feeling and then BAM! They kiss and everyone screams with joy!

I don't know, l just loved all the little nuances they put into this episode that were subtle indicators of their endgame (bi Buck), and it made it feel like the creators really cared about this storyline and wanted to do it properly for the fans but more importantly for THEMSELVES, and not just randomly giving Buck a throwaway line of 'yeah I've slept with guys before' to establish his bisexuality purely for fan appeasement. So, to that I want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone involved with creating this episode because I was sobbing for 10 minutes straight after it aired from being handed bisexual representation in such a loving but also unfussy way and seeing myself reflected in my favourite character. So on the off chance someone involved does see this, THANK YOU!

*Buck and Eddie holding Tommy's arms tugging him back and forth between them*

Buck: He's MY new friend!

Eddie: No, he's MY new friend!

Buck: Nu-uh! He's MINE!

Eddie: Nooo you're just jealous of our bond!

Buck: *outraged gasp*

Eddie: Ha! See! You aren't denyi-

Buck: *screaming in bothered and bewildered and basketballs*

Eddie: oh shit-

Buck, bothered and bewildered: not in fact a bi awakening but rather the 118 finding out Buck's bi and Buck being so BEWILDERED at the fact they don't know that it BOTHERS him to the point of him trying to act gay with every remotely attractive man he and the 118 come across because look, i am engaging with the same sex in a flirtatious manner, because I am bi, I like women but I also like men, have done this whole time, it's actually baffling how you don't know considering my past and how I am obviously in love with my very male best frie-

I know lots of people have been saying that 7x04 is going to be the tipping point to whether buddie will go canon or not and the new stills are really backing this up. But I'm slightly(very) concerned it's not gonna turn out how we want it to (buddie canon).

Like, from what I personally am getting from the stills, Eddie seems to befriend Tommy without Buck knowing which leads to Buck's 'envy'.

The stills from the gym with Buck and his emotional support basketball are giving 'we were going to play now but oh look my new bestie is calling and wants to show me round the helicopters that's much more cool let's take a raincheck'.

Then you've got Buck just gatecrashing that and Tommy and Eddie having already bonded and having inside jokes and Buck being all :( about it.

THEN you have the basketball court which could either be Buck and Chimney going for a 1v1 game and bumping into Eddie and Tommy OR Eddie inviting Tommy along to a group game without telling Buck. Either way Tommy is once again taking up Eddie's attention. Which causes Buck's abandonment issues to rear their head resulting in The Incident.

Now this could very well be Buck realising his feelings for Eddie in a very roundabout way, but I'm concerned they're going to play it platonically, especially with the way they've been speed-running Buddie's best hits the past couple eps. They could easily pass it off as Buck worrying Tommy is replacing him as Eddie's BESTfriend, allowing the writers to really solidify their friendship to the new audience.

But hopefully, with Oliver's excitement over the episode and the general attached-at-the-hipness Buck and Eddie have had over the past 3 eps, maybe just maybe, Eddie could just be making friends outside of the 118 (which is probably a good thing tbh)(also another of their greatest hits) which prompts Buck's feeling realisation, getting the ball rolling on future buddie canon, which would leave this nice bestfriend-shaped gap in Eddie's life when it eventually happens that Tommy can just slide into, allowing him to be around more often, leaving everyone happy.

But that's the perfect scenario. I still think we're clowning HARD and it's just gonna be the aforementioned reassertion of Buck's position as Eddie's bestie. But one can hope.