A couple of weeks ago, Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark) came out as bisexual in 911’s 100th episode. It was a big moment for many reasons but the main one is this — a seemingly straight character discovers his bisexuality long into the run of a show, while in his 30s, on a popular network procedural. While 911 has been “the gay firefighter show” since Day 1 with its multiple canonically gay and lesbian characters, Buck’s coming out is the ally-to-queer pipeline journey at its finest.
However, press surrounding Buck’s sexuality keeps shifting focus away from this important story. The questions inevitably turn to one thing — whether or not Buddie, the popular fandom ship between Buck and fellow firefighter Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzman), is on the table now that Buck is canonically bisexual.
Setting a precedent
This is not the first time a fandom non-canon ship has infiltrated the minds of a show and its actors. Destiel, the ship name for Cas and Dean from Supernatural, dominated the show’s fandom for years. Eventually, Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles started playing into the ship during fan conventions and on social media.
Destiel ended up half-way becoming canon, but not in any satisfying way. Cas declares his love for Dean in “Despair,” the third to last episode of the entire show, then he dies. The moment plays heavily into the bury-your-gays trope, leading to a lot of fan backlash, of which Collins was disappointed.
The swirl
Now that Buck is bisexual, it seems as if the stars are aligning for Buddie to become canon. At least, according to the shippers. Said shippers who are reading interviews done by people asking actors questions about a non-canon relationship popularized by the fandom, but of which, as of right now, has no basis in what’s happening on screen. But the swirl that happens when the press brings fandom business to an actor just doing a job creates a vicious cycle of misinterpretations, baiting, toxic fandom habits, and deciding that there’s only one way to interpret something. The more this cycle continues the more we get away from the actual stories playing out on screen. This is why it’s time for the press to divest themselves from bringing fandom into their interviews.
The short answer to the Buddie question? In the many times he and his co-stars have been asked since Buck’s coming out episode (and it’s been many), Stark consistently makes it clear: only if it fits the story naturally, and not ever for fan service.
And yet interview after interview keeps bringing up the possibility of a non-canon ship becoming canon, spending valuable time during an interview asking for reinterpretations of scenes from five years ago. Retroactively, Buck’s jealousy of Eddie when they first meet in Season 2 could be because of some subconscious attraction, but the textual reason is that Buck feels inferior to Eddie’s all-around traditional masculinity. That’s how it was written back then, and that’s how it was played. Stark’s answers to those questions are also consistently clear: yeah, potentially, that could be the case.
Look to the screen
But these responses, perpetuated by the journalists asking them, are just speculations themselves about scenes already long past. Shoe-horning meaning after the fact does not make for good storytelling. In response to questions about the budding relationship with recurring character Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr), there’s more substance to Stark’s answers. In an interview with Out Magazine, Starks says “I really want to see Buck continue to explore what it is that really speaks to him, and what he’s into … He’s obviously going to continue down this path with Tommy for now. I don’t know what that story is going to end up being, but I would really like for Tommy to stay a part of Buck’s life, regardless.”
What’s in the text?
However, venture into the 911 hashtag on Twitter or on Tumblr and you’ll find that, apparently, the only correct interpretation to Buck being bisexual is actually that Buddie is on the horizon.
That conviction leaves little room for other interpretations, as well as the real canon of the show that is six seasons deep. It also leaves out one crucial character to the discussion — Eddie. Just because Buck is bisexual doesn’t mean Eddie is. And indeed, is not the plan as of right now. The insistence of the press continually asking about Buddie and editorializing about Buddie as if the subtext is correct reduces Buck’s beautiful coming out journey to be about one person and a ship that textually is platonic friendship.
To the journalists, to the fans
Journalists exist in an interesting space in the entertainment world. Some of us, like myself, spend time in fandom spaces. But when those two things start to collide, when journalists begin bringing things they read on tumblr into cast interviews, the fourth wall gets thinner and thinner, until it breaks into ridiculous expectations and assumptions all just centered around clicks and engagement.
There’s a duty one has when sitting down for an interview with a cast, and that’s to inquire about the show that they have worked hard to bring us. And they definitely shouldn’t be used as an opportunity to validate a fandom ship. That road just leads to disappointment, and an unfair insistence that if anyone disagrees, then they’re wrong. That’s not what fandom should be about. And it’s certainly not what entertainment journalism is about.
911 returns from its mid-season 7 hiatus on May 2 on ABC
Images courtesy of Disney, Chris Willard, and Mike Taing
Feature illustration by Katey Stoetzel
