Here They Be. Dressed Like Bernard From Megamind.

Here they be. Dressed like Bernard from Megamind.

I don't think you know what pain my now bricked computer just gave me.

Oh my little shipper heart ❤️ it is accurate Rupert, you know it is.

This is based on @yramesoruniverse’s brilliant post, and I promised to write an essay based on everything I’ve been thinking about Buck in 5A regarding his relationship. This is more a collection of rambling thoughts than an essay, but the main question I’ve been having about Buck and specifically his relationship with Taylor is one several others have echoed: where is all the fun in Buck’s relationship? 

I get that Buck’s going through it right now. Maddie and Chimney and Jee-Yun aren’t near him. Eddie’s being weird, to quote Buck. They showed us snippets of Buck and Taylor’s relationship for the first half of 5A, where the general theme was loneliness. Buck comes home to an empty apartment. Taylor is busy with work when they’re together. Even the scenes in 5x05 where Buck confides in Taylor about how the 118 might blame him for Chim being gone, Taylor’s advice doesn’t do anything to calm Buck down, and then they showed us those pre-packaged sad breakfast scene where Buck and Taylor hug and we see his smile dropping. 

5B definitely had more substantial scenes, but the general themes are: indifference on the part of Buck when Taylor is trying to solve the case in 5x07, casual acceptance in 5x09 when Buck thinks Taylor is going to break up with him, and then the whole Past is prologue of it all with Buck chasing after Taylor, finally ending with the I love you scene, which I can’t think about any further without spiraling about Buck saying it because he thinks it’s what he’s supposed to feel when someone finally tells him they love him. “Good.” You know what that reminds me of? Eddie’s “It’s all good” in 5x03 right before he breaks up with Ana. More parallels between these two relationships, where things might be perfect on paper but that doesn’t translate to what you’re feeling and it certainly doesn’t translate to love. And then we get 5x10, where Buck gives Taylor a panic button as a gift, which I maintain is the worst gift ever as it’s the literal opposite of “Get her something that shows how well you know her.” 

So back to the fun of it all, or the lack thereof. To paraphrase, I know Tim says he can’t write happy relationships, but while every major relationship on 911 has its fair share of drama, you always see them also have fun! Hen and Karen, Chim and Maddie, Athena and Bobby, it’s extremely obvious that they’re in love and that they like each other and have fun together. Now, relationships don’t have to follow a certain trajectory to be successful, but enjoying time spent with your partner is usually a good thing! In ten episodes of Buck and Taylor being a couple, I don’t remember a single scene or mention of them actually enjoying the time they spend with each other. There isn’t even any mention of familiarity, not like they make a point to do with Buck and Eddie. No “Taylor feels this way about this thing” or “Taylor loves that” or anything. In comparison, just in this season we got “He takes Christopher to the zoo all the time. Got the place memorized” and “I know you watch (telenovelas) with Chris”. 

These are deliberate choices, and I don’t believe that Tim’s fondness for creating conflict between couples needs to be mutually exclusive with showing that two people who are supposedly in love like each other. We also know this is not how Buck is in relationships with people he loves: he wouldn’t shut up about Abby when he was dating her, and everything about him screamed how much he loves her whenever he talked about her. We see him have fun with Ali, and there seemed to be genuine affection there the little we saw of them. The times he’s spoken about Taylor to others have had him sound so indifferent that I’m sometimes shocked at how blatant they are about how this is not a working relationship. Even Bobby’s advice to Buck in 5x09 is resigned and not really advice (”you jump into these things with no idea how you got there”). Bobby’s face when Buck and Taylor separately ask him for advice on what to get each other for a Christmas present is amused, and my head canon is that he’s thinking “So you two really don’t know each other at all.”

I also think this whole relationship is interesting given the context of Tim’s recent comments about how a central theme of his writing is people reuniting and going back to the people they belong with. He used the lawsuit era and then Chris and Buck in the tsunami as an example. Now you can argue that he keeps creating conflict in Buck and Taylor’s relationship (huge wrench coming up soon, remember?) in order to strengthen their relationship. But you can’t build on a virtually non-existent base. In order for stories about people finding their way back home to feel fulfilling, you need to show that there’s a lot worth losing if they don’t make it back home. I can easily see this with every other relationship on the show because the show has explored why these characters belong together. Instead, when faced with the loss of Taylor, Buck seems very casual and frankly not all that bothered by it. I know a lot of people think this is shoving the relationship down our throats, but I think this is very deliberate long form storytelling.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this except that I think it’s very telling that Buck’s first relationship where someone told him they love him is also one where he’s shown to be lonely, isolated, and just a shell of his former, fun self at times. Again, I reiterate that he’s going through a lot. But life doesn’t occur in vacuums of complete sadness or happiness. They could’ve easily mad that last scene in 5x09 be a genuine exchange of I love yous and even imbued some sense of Buck finding solace in this relationship even when other aspects of his life are in turmoil. But I can’t look at this Buck who finally got what he wanted from a relationship and say that he’s happy. The fleeting moments of true, unfiltered happiness we’ve seen from Buck so far this season have all been around Eddie or Chris, and sometimes with someone else on the 118. So the question Buck posed in Stuck—which is a general theme of his overall arc— still remains unanswered: How long do I have to wait before I get to be happy too?

I think it’s soon. I also think Buck’s character arc this season fits in very well with the fractured and disjointed nature of 5A. Everyone’s lives are in disarray and they aren’t where they are supposed to be, but they’ll eventually find their way home. I think that’s where 5B is going to go.

I will say, I do think Evangelicals kinda have a point about Catholic idolatry. Like, every Catholic I've ever met is way more into saints and their ancestors than Jesus or God.

Imagine thinking idolatry is bad

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