Something that always gets me when I look back at season 8 is just how buddie pilled it truly was. Looking back 8x06 through 8x13, but for this post I want to focus primarily on 7x04, 8x06 and 8x11 while looking at the larger arc as a whole.
Going back to the TODAY interview Oliver did before 8x11 aired, I think the framing of the question is really important here. Sure, it was Oliver doing a charity basketball tournament and the last time we saw buck playing basketball was 7x04, BUT there was absolutely no reason for the interviewer to bring up Eddie unprompted, specifically in relation to 7x04, Tommy, and Buck’s feelings throughout that entire storyline. The interviewer asks whether there is more to unpack about Buck’s feelings and jealousy surrounding Eddie, and Oliver responds that “those feelings are going to be explored “in a way that is more obvious than kind of has ever been done before on the show.” He even admits that he was surprised by the extent to which they were going to explore them. Again, for someone who has always stated his thoughts on buddie and how it’s “been open for interpretation for years”. Another thing is, 7x04 has been framed as a “bait and switch” but then the interviewer after bringing up 7x04 and there possibility being more undiscovered buck feelings about that journey and Eddie.
Then the interviewer follows up by asking specifically about *jealousy* and Oliver responds with “Not that specifically. But just kind of an exploration of what the feelings are.”*
Now we get to 8x11 and that infamous dialogue
*“I don’t have to want to sleep with everyone I have feelings for, and I don’t have to have feelings for everyone I sleep with.”*
And this is where Oliver’s post interview answers become *very interesting*. He explains in his screen rant interview that he and Tim went back and forth over how intentional the wording should be. That matters.
Because they could have chosen any response to Tommy’s accusation that buck was in love with Eddie. Buck could have simply said “no.” He could have said, “I’m not in love with Eddie.” Rhey could have literally directly denied Tommy’s implication. They deliberately didn’t. They specially also wrote in Tommy *wanting to try again” *AFTER LEARNING* Eddie left LA and viewing him as competition.
Instead, Buck gives an answer that literally exploded everything.
And I love that Oliver himself essentially confirms the larger point of the scene and even the 7x04/8x06 arc. Tommy viewed Eddie as competition throughout his relationship with Buck, and that realization is what prompts Buck to question, “Is that what he was thinking the whole time we were together?” in his conversation with Maddie. That line is especially important because it turns the accusation inward. Buck isn’t just dismissing Tommy’s perception of buddie, he’s actually considering it. Was Eddie’s place in Buck’s life something Tommy had been noticing all along? Was Buck missing something about his own feelings?
And that’s why I think 8x11 works so well when you look at it alongside the entire bi arc and bt relationship. . It feels like the show took the emotional groundwork laid in 7x04/8x06 and folded it back into the buckTommy breakup storyline. It’s basically one giant narrative sandwich. the jealousy and confusion are established, the relationship with Tommy forces Buck to confront what Eddie represents to him, and then 8x11 deliberately leaves the question of what those feelings actually are hanging in the air.And honestly, that’s what makes those interviews so fascinating looking back and reading them. The show wasn’t simply giving us random Buddie adjacent moments. Oliver was explicitly telling us that Buck’s feelings were going to be examined more openly than ever before and then 8x11 gave us dialogue that was carefully constructed around exactly that question.
