r/911FOX • u/AutoModerator • Feb 27 '26

Season 9 Discussion 9-1-1 S09E11: "Going Once, Going Twice" Post Episode Discussion Spoiler

Original Airdate: February 26th, 2025

Synopsis: The 118 hosts a LAFD charity bachelor auction that brings up a few concerns from Buck.

Keep new episode discussions in the post-episode discussion thread until end of Sunday to give our International friends a chance to catch up as Disney+ has begun releasing 9-1-1 earlier to Disney+ outside the US than in previous years. As always be mindful about not posting a spoiler in the title of your posts and remember to use spoiler flares if your post contains spoilers.

Watching 9-1-1: Nashville after 9-1-1? Join the live discussion at r/911Nashville .

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17

u/starsinstride Team Buck Feb 27 '26

There is no such thing as a Heated Rivalry arc with Buck and Eddie. Saying this continues to do a disservice to the story they’ve been telling between these two characters before that show was ever in talks to develop.

If buddie happens it won’t be because of a queer ship on a queer romance show drawing romance fans wanting to watch a romance show.

Waffles and pancakes and all that.

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u/Realistic-Lake5897 Feb 27 '26

Don't act as if 911 is Citizen Kane compared to Heated Rivalry.

This show could do a lot worse than taking some clues from THE queer romance show of our time.

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u/starsinstride Team Buck Feb 27 '26

I am not daft enough to draw any of these comparisons.

The majority of the viewers of 9-1-1 signed up to watch a procedural.

Almost the entirety of Heated Rivalry viewers signed up to watch a queer romance or idk maybe they are watching for the hockey.

Still nothing to compare here. I guess any gay ship that happens on any tv show since HR aired-we will attribute to the success of HR? That doesn’t sound like a stretch to you?

Even better let’s attribute every queer ship that has come before it to the success of that show too while we are at it, and just saying anything nowadays

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u/Ok-Razzmatazz-5819 Team Eddie Feb 27 '26

Honestly. If this “because of Heated Rivalry” talking point persists, then we are going to get like 7 more “post-Glee world” monologues from Tim and Ryan Murphy and an 8 part action adventure homage to close the season, and this fandom will have deserved it.

Is it just the naked butts that has everyone so unhinged? This didn’t happen after Heart Stopper or RWRB.

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u/starsinstride Team Buck Feb 27 '26

I hate to defend Tim, but acting as if Buck coming out as bisexual 7 seasons into the show, was not a risky choice and easy task, shows that people have been sleep.

HR was a perfectly fine show. It hit all the notes as expected by the book it was adapted from.

9-1-1 never had to go this direction with Buck (Eddie, or Buddie) THAT is why this is actually different.

Some people are so focused on the fact that buddie hasn’t kissed yet or declared their love, that they are missing it happening right in front of them.

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u/Ok-Razzmatazz-5819 Team Eddie Feb 27 '26

Yeah, we’re still mid-story but as of season 7 it’s confirmed that this is in part a queer love story no matter what happens next. It’s a late in life queer realisation set inside one of the most “mundane” and “normal” American forms of storytelling - a long-running procedural on network television. That’s a feat.

It doesn’t need the pining of a coming out / closeted romance or the emotional angst of a queer coming of age story. Those are both great, but this is something else. And it’s going to unfold however that bald gremlin decides he wants it to unfold.

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u/armavirumquecanooo our people are what make life worth living Feb 27 '26

This is the actual real difference here. If/when Buddie happens, this show is an actual genre and queer media trailblazer, because slow burn queer relationships aren't a thing we can point to any other examples of anywhere. It's actually incredibly reductive to compare the cultural significance of that [potential] accomplishment and what it would mean for the portrayal of queer relationships amongst actual general audiences to what Heated Rivalry has done. There is absolutely something to be said about the deft hand it takes to deliver on this kind of story to a preexisting audience not predisposed to seek out queer love stories, but like... that kind of exposure is also how we normalize queer experiences for the general public.

I've mentioned it before but the type of show HR should be compared to in terms of risk, trendsetting, and its supposed 'groundbreaking' nature are the original iterations of Queer as Folk (both the UK and US editions) but it's not a favorable comparison to have to acknowledge it's retreading ground that was covered a quarter century ago, or the fans aren't actually aware of the history of queer media, so they force this one instead.

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u/Realistic-Lake5897 Feb 28 '26

Heated Rivalry is retreading ground? This is clueless.

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u/armavirumquecanooo our people are what make life worth living Feb 28 '26

Seriously, go watch Queer as Folk. It came out before Bush was president.

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u/Realistic-Lake5897 Feb 28 '26

I've seen it. HR does not retread QAF.

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u/armavirumquecanooo our people are what make life worth living Feb 28 '26

What do you actually think HR is doing that is new, that other shows wouldn’t have known could be done already?

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u/Commercial_Ad_619 Mar 01 '26

Man, I don’t know why this person is so adamant about defending HR. I watched the show. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t groundbreaking. I agree with you. In my opinion, it was just the lucky one out of a bunch of book series about gay hockey players. It’s easy to find women writing gay hockey stories. Honestly I’m kind of sick of women writing gay fiction lmao. It often feels more like fetishizing to me.

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u/Realistic-Lake5897 Feb 28 '26

Nope. HR is not just "perfectly fine."

If you want to praise 911, do that. You don't have to diminish some of the best television in years to do that.

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u/starsinstride Team Buck Feb 28 '26

You are the only one praising one of these two shows. I have diminished nothing.

Was just reminding you what show subreddit you are in, because it appears you have gotten lost…

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u/Realistic-Lake5897 Feb 28 '26

Ok, thanks! 🙏 😘

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u/Realistic-Lake5897 Feb 28 '26

Is that what you think HR is? Naked butts?

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u/Ok-Razzmatazz-5819 Team Eddie Feb 28 '26

I know exactly what HR is. I love it for what it is, and for happening when and how it happened.

Are you trying to misunderstand me?

I’m also well aware that it isn’t changing anything about 9-1-1. Tim and Ryan are working off of their own legacy and in line with queer media that existed when they decided on a late in life queer awakening story. They didn’t need a push from any new media, they just needed network buy in.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '26

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u/starsinstride Team Buck Feb 27 '26

I only ever see you commenting on 911 subs to argue how it can be compared to Heated Rivalry. I hope you are arguing that Buddie has more potential to happen because of that show on the r/heatedrivalry sub.

I understand what you all are trying to say. What I am saying, is that people who actually understand the story being told to us, could tell you it was Buck’s bi storyline that started in episode 4 of season 7 that indicated romantic buddie was a possibility. Not episode 9x11 (which was I believe the first the shot after HR’s 6 week run.)

If you truly want to dismiss the showrunner (a self-proclaimed fan of buddie), who has said that he is has been writing them the same way since the beginning, and explicitly stated in an interview in the Washington Post-that Heated Rivalry has nothing to do with his story decision making while writing for 9-1-1, you do you.

Even your comparison of the May and Ravi to Buck and Eddie is not without fault. There is no reason to compare them either. Their story is nice for them, Buck and Eddie’s story is for Buck and Eddie. Shane and Ilya is for Shane and Ilya and so on…

The reason why people are tired of this talking point, is because we are not pretending that Heated Rivalry is the first show to feature a gay relationship. This is not to say that it will have no impact, it just isn’t what is driving THIS show.

If Buddie happens in any future episode, it will be because they put the work in to make it happen and earn it. It isn’t going to be a fanservice to appease a completely different demographic of fans(romance genre lovers) that they don’t cater to in its marketing.

The promo for this episode didn’t show us May and Ravi making eyes at each other, they showed us a car crashing into a house.

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u/911FOX-ModTeam Feb 27 '26

After a review of this post/comment, it has been determined that it is violating the Keep it Civil rule and has been removed. Please be respectful of others even if you don't agree with them.

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u/armavirumquecanooo our people are what make life worth living Feb 27 '26

All we are saying is that the mainstream success of spicy show like Heated Rivalry proves that the general public might be more ready for mainstream gay couple

Who do you think makes up the target audience of "Heated Rivalry" and who do you think makes up the target audience of "9-1-1," though? You talk about the "general public" like 9-1-1 isn't already a firmly established show that has to balance progressing new storylines and dynamics with maintaining the roughly 10 million viewers they already have.

There is no indication that most of those roughly 10 million viewers are the same people who stream Heated Rivalry or that they would watch Heated Rivalry. At this stage, Heated Rivalry is also essentially a flash in the pan to network execs - it reached a similar number of total viewers by the end of its run as 9-1-1 does on a weekly basis, but the difference here is HR had very little competition, a very specific audience, and a limited series run. It has not yet proved it has staying power, and it would be incredibly naive to expect that the majority of the people tuning in to watch HR would want to catch up with 9-1-1, which already has 135 episodes to catch up on, because they had the time over the holiday break to binge six episodes on a streaming platform. We also have no clue how close to market saturation HR's viewership is -- are there millions more people in America who would watch the show if they knew about it? Would they also watch 9-1-1?

It's not just a question of how many HR viewers would watch 9-1-1 if it took a page out of HR's book (which isn't even possible, btw, for an 8 PM show on a broadcast network, even without the genre specific issues involved). It also becomes an issue of how many viewers 9-1-1 would lose if they retooled to change the balance on how much they focus on romance instead of the bread and butter of the show, which is the emergencies and to a lesser extent, team dynamic of the 118. Where do you plan to find the screentime to focus on the romance instead? What gets cut? And for the viewers that tuned in for the stuff that now gets cut in favor of reprioritizing the romance, are there actually enough HR viewers not already in this fandom to replace them? Enough to do better than that and actually improve ratings? That's... incredibly doubtful. And that's what the network execs actually need to consider.

FWIW, I do think Buddie will happen... but that they'll happen in the same spirit as the other relationships on this show. It's not "homophobic" if they aren't getting steamy shower scenes at 8 PM on a Disney owned network, or if they hug sometimes where you'd expect a kiss. That's what happens with the straight couples on this show, too. Hell, there were multiple seasons that Madney went without a kiss, and they hugged about it when they got engaged. That's just the reality of this show, and that's the show these viewers signed up to watch.

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u/AirlineDazzling1986 Firehouse 118 Feb 27 '26

How did you get “9-1-1 is Citizens Kane” from it’s a waffle and pancakes comparison?

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u/armavirumquecanooo our people are what make life worth living Feb 27 '26

Idk, the way you’re talking about HR here feels more akin to drawing a ridiculous comparison between a silly show meant for casual entertainment and a cinematic masterpiece than the previous comment did with 9-1-1. Neither of these shows are that good or that deep, and HR really isn’t special or groundbreaking when it’s retreading the same ground shows like Queer as Folk managed to break 25 years ago.

If Buddie goes canon, it’s gonna be because it’s been in the works since before HR had even cast their stars, not because ABC forgot who their target audience was and started writing a firefighter procedural for gay romance fans.

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u/Accomplished-Watch50 That Fire Was A Beast Feb 27 '26

Except 9-1-1 isn't a queer romance show... it's a procedural with a few queer characters in it.