If you’ve ever watched 9-1-1 and thought, “Wait, are Buck and Eddie…?” — congratulations, you’re not alone. You’ve joined a proud and passionate fandom that has been shipping “Buddie” since Eddie Diaz swaggered onto our screens in season two like a romantic lead who just got lost on his way to a Nicholas Sparks adaptation.
For eight seasons now, 9-1-1 has kept viewers on the edge of their couches, clutching throw pillows and screaming at their televisions every time Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) so much as breathe near each other. It’s a tale as old as time: boy meets boy, boy saves boy’s kid, boys share flirtatious sparring metaphors and emotionally intimate conversations in kitchens. And then… nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even a longing glance in a rainstorm to make it official.
But just because Buddie isn’t canon (yet), doesn’t mean they’re not legendary.
Take, for example, that scene in season three, episode nine (“Fallout”). The setting: a kitchen. The mood: extremely homoerotic. The dialogue? Oh, it lives in the heads of fans rent-free.
“I thought for sure that day in the grocery store you were going to take a swing at me,” says Buck, throwing the kind of challenge that only sounds straight if you squint from across the room.
“But you didn’t deserve it,” Eddie counters, a little too tenderly. “I wouldn’t do that. You were on blood thinners.”
Buck fires back: “I’d still take you.”
“You think so?”
“I know. You wanna go for the title?”
And the collective LGBTQ+ response? A nationwide chorus of “Kiss already!”
Well, it turns out the gaydar wasn’t malfunctioning. On a recent episode of the Smith Sisters Live podcast, Oliver Stark himself weighed in after a reading of the scene:
“Yeah, that was super gay.”
Everybody cheered. Naturally.
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He continued, offering a little behind-the-scenes sparkle:
“When that scene was written, Tim Minear, who is our showrunner, said to the writer of the episode, ‘This is just two guys talking to each other?’”
“And the writer said, ‘I wouldn’t talk to my best friend like that.’”
Cheering resumed. Presumably, so did the collective scream of a million Buddie stans.
The Buddie fandom has always done what queer communities do best: survive on crumbs and turn them into a five-course fanfiction banquet. Sure, maybe they haven’t kissed (yet). Maybe there’s no official couple’s montage set to Hozier (yet). But in a world where subtext is currency, 9-1-1 is printing gay money.
And frankly, it’s refreshing to see actors like Stark acknowledge what viewers are picking up on — and not just acknowledge it, but laugh, cheer, and lean into it. He didn’t just give us confirmation. He gave us camaraderie.
So as season eight continues to unfurl every Thursday on ABC and Fridays on Disney+ in the UK, the Buddie hopefuls remain seated, hopeful, and fully hydrated — because queer representation might be a slow burn, but when it lands, it scorches.
Until then, we’ll keep replaying that kitchen scene, not because we’re desperate (okay, maybe a little), but because in a world that too often tells gay viewers “this isn’t for you,” 9-1-1 gave us a wink, a nod, and a full-blown flirt-off between two men in a kitchen — and Oliver Stark saying, “Yeah, that was super gay.”
We see you, Buddie. We see you.
Source: Smith Sisters Live Podcast
I have never thought that while watching the show. They’re simply two best friends, one queer and the other straight, and everything else is just fanon. The actors and show keep having to state that is not where the story is going. You know, you could write about the actual gay couples in the show, but I guess that doesn’t get enough clicks for you. As a queer person getting betrayed by actual gay outlets is incredibly heartbreaking especially in the year 2025 when the media would rather talk about the fanon relationship cultivated by a group of fans that act more and more like a cult each day.
Relax it’s just fiction
I agree with Elle 100%. There is no fandom more toxic than Buddie fans. This article doesn’t say a word about how the Buddie fans wished death on a canonical gay character (Tommy – Buck’s (ex)boyfriend), how they sent threats to actor Lou Ferrigno Jr who plays Tommy, how they threaten the screenwriters and so on. The actors have said so many times that Eddie is straight that they don’t want to cater to the cliché that the queer character is in love with his straight best friend, they’ve even said within the show that Buck is not in love with Eddie. “As much as everyone wants me to be hopelessly pining for my straight best friend it’s not like that”. Buck and Eddie are best friends, brothers as Ryan Guzman says. Buddie only exists within an echo chamber of fans who ignore reality and behave like a cult.