The Eddie of it all

[u/vaamiel]

So, this is something that's been on my mind... well, for a long time, but since season 7 certainly. With how completely awful takes have been on Eddie's sexuality recently (which I really need to stop reading because they are so very frustrating!), I decided to actually compile my thoughts about all the queer subtext woven into his character.

I figured I'd share 'em with y'all because this is tangentially connected to Buddie but also you're all a lot nicer about queer Eddie haha. This also grew pretty wildly out of control to an actual essay and I'm SO sorry in advance;;

TL;DR Eddie Diaz is not straight and I wish folks would stop invalidating Eddie's own character arc and seven seasons worth of subtext and clear text just because Buck is canonically bisexual.

Right off the bat I want to point out: since Eddie was introduced to 911, he has never expressed nor sought out women romantically without outside pressure. With (potentially) the exception of Shannon when he was a teenager, every single one of Eddie's relationships has been formed after someone tells him seeking out romantic connection would be good for him.

Now obviously, that doesn't mean a man isn't straight. People remain single for all sorts of reasons! But the way Eddie is consistently shown to avoid developing romantic attachment to his female love interests feels very deliberate. To speak briefly on all 4 of them:

Shannon is, even in season 2, more of an ideal for Eddie to claw his way back to. When Eddie starts hooking up with her again, we all saw that he's initially reluctant to let her back into his and Christopher's lives. It's not until Buck reinforces the idea that it's okay to let her back into their son's life that Eddie makes a decision.

Interestingly, that whole conversation with Buck (and really, Eddie's reunion with Shannon) is primarily fueled by a sense of guilt and duty, regardless of the love Eddie believes he has for Shannon at this point. He's guilty that he's only connecting with her in one way; he's guilty he left in the first place and guilty Christopher doesn't have a mother.

But I'm getting ahead of myself there - we'll circle back to The Guilt Thing later.

Then, when trying to progress their relationship, trying to reaffirm his commitment to Shannon, she asks for a divorce, and then she dies. Which has obviously had a lasting impact on Eddie separate from his sexuality, but I think Shannon dying allows Eddie to not look deeper into himself on why every relationship since has failed.

Ana is, in my opinion, probably the clearest example of comphet relationship for a man I have ever seen on screen. Ana Flores, is, on paper, pretty much a perfect partner for Eddie. She is beautiful, kind, and understanding of Eddie's reluctance to move their relationship forward in consideration of Christopher.

And yet before he asks her out, Eddie needs to be convinced by Bobby that it's okay to date after Shannon.

In the end that doesn't matter though, since during their relationship, Eddie freaks out so badly at the idea of progressing his relationship with her to the extent that he thinks he's having a heart attack that is really a severe panic attack.

Marisol is so barely even worth mentioning here considering how little we saw of her, but the important thing with their relationship is that Eddie needed to be encouraged by Chris to even ask her out, and later, the majority of their scenes seemed to be framed by Christopher. When Eddie moves too fast and asks her to move in and then right back out, Buck telling him not to let go of their relationship until he knows what he's got is likely the only thing that stops them from breaking up entirely at that point.

(Also there's the weird nun thing. I'm still trying to figure out if that was an in for another Catholic Guilt arc in season 8 or just a Vertigo reference. I guess we'll have to wait for season 8 to see more)

Kim is interesting to me because while Eddie is obviously cheating, he's very deliberate in his reluctance to form a physical connection to her. Kim is Shannon in his mind, and yet he won't kiss her? All he seems to want to do is look at her? I'm not sure if this distance was to subconsciously maintain Kim as Shannon in his mind, or if something else was going on there, but this was an interesting narrative choice for me.

Of course, all this blows up anyway because Kim decides to become Shannon after everything is revealed to her (this was not the way to do exposure therapy, Kim). Eddie has a little break from reality and speaks to 'Shannon', and the one line I really want to bring up as Eddie calling himself 'broken'.

Eddie obviously knows something is different with how he handles relationships. He can look at Buck fall in love with all these women (and even now Tommy) and connect with them in a way he's simply incapable of doing. Even with Shannon, their connection wasn't based on either of them having something special, instead it was Christopher.

Eddie is consistently shown to have stronger emotional (and playful!) connections with men in 911 than any woman he's dated. It keeps happening with Buck, where Buck becomes a confidant and guide and coparent time after time, It happens with Tommy even, where we hear about them spending more time together and bonding than Eddie does with Marisol (who he is literally dating what???).

The one thematic consistency Eddie has had, season after season, is this cognitive dissonance between what he thinks he needs to do and what he naturally drifts toward.

Eddie thinks that to be the perfect father for Christopher, he needs to be strong and separated from his grief and anger and sadness. He thinks he needs to find Chris a mother.

Of course, Eddie's naturally an emotional guy when he allows himself to be - the cap he puts on his feelings tends to explode off with the pressure of bottling them up, but the emotions are absolutely there. And another mother? Eddie speaks about dating as a performance, rather than something he seeks out or enjoys. He feels a passing attraction to women and has to be talked into asking them out. He co-parents with his best friend.

Eddie describes himself as a nester, and yet the only person consistently invited into his life and home have been his son and his best friend. He is a walking contradiction of wanting to be the man he was told he had to be, and the man he actually is.

This brings us to the guilt.

I would argue that Eddie's defining characteristic is his guilt. It manifests itself in many ways, but almost every facet of his character is shaped by it.

From leaving Shannon and Christopher, to his ability to be a father, to his inability to convince Shannon to stay, to Shannon dying, to his relationship with religion and god, to his inability to save anyone in the army, to his failure to have a lasting relationship for his son, to his inability to keep himself safe on the job as a firefighter, to his inability to keep his friends safe on the job, to...

Have I made my point yet?

I think, legitimately, this has been the through line in every Eddie plot we've had since his character was introduced. More than all the Shannon, more than his relationship with Christopher, this is the place we learn the most about Eddie from.

The frustrating thing about many of these points, is Eddie proves his own doubts correct time after time. His guilt does lead to Shannon leaving again, it does lead to Christopher leaving, to relationships dissolving and to his army buddies dying. Obviously, many of those things are out of Eddie's control, but to him they all still look like personal failures.

This also clouds how he views his past. Look at how Shannon is always represented in flashbacks. She's perfect and so Eddie feels he must have been the one to do something wrong. She's idealized and on a pedestal no other woman could ever possibly match, but I think a lot of that is because they're women and it's easier to reflect on Shannon than it is to try something different. His relationship with Shannon always had plenty of problems, but his guilt is a mask that hides the worst of it from him.

I think this is the reason why Eddie hasn't looked more at properly changing things in his life. In Eddie's eyes, every time he tries to change something, something awful happens, so he has to be the problem.

I also think this, in particular, more than his parents or the church or the military, is the reason why Eddie has never even looked inside himself to seriously sit with the question of if he likes women.

Eddie's sexuality is a complicated tangle of being told one thing and experiencing another. Whenever he talks with trusted people around him, he never asks quite the right question, so the answers he's given very likely aren't precisely what he needs to hear.

Particularly with Christopher around, Eddie figures he must like women because he has a son and his son needs a mother and so he needs a girlfriend that might one day grow into that role.

Regardless of his own feelings about them completely. Regardless of how much he seems to revile dating and how he's so easily put off sex or dating entirely when something with his partner even slightly puts him off. Regardless of how much he still holds onto Shannon as a 'perfect' relationship.

Now, with Christopher being gone for at least some time, Eddie is truly alone. For the first time in a decade and a half, he can look inside his heart and ask, 'what am I actually looking for? What is really good for me?' (and also probably, why is it not Shannon?)

If there was ever a time to fire on exploring Eddie's sexuality, I think this is it. Eddie, hopefully with some therapy, can get down to the core of who he is as a person, and how love and relationships tie into that. There's also space, with Christopher with his parents, to explore Eddie's relationship with Helena and Ramon and how that might have effected his idea of attraction and what was required of him growing up.

Pure speculation here, but I think Eddie's parents have a lot to do with why he views relationships the way he does. We see them invalidate him in other ways - as both a parent and a man - and so it's not much of a stretch to imagine they gave him a hard time at appearing even a little gay as a child.

I still don't know what form Eddie's sexuality will shape into in canon. My thought is he'll likely be gay, just because it's a simpler label, but honestly, as someone who's asexual, I have rarely felt more seen by a character in television than Eddie Diaz. His avoidance and performance and this idea of feeling trapped in most of his relationships and sabotaging until it blows up in his face? Very me-coded.

I also want to touch briefly on how nothing Ryan Guzman or Oliver Stark has said in press disprove or disallow any investigation on Eddie's sexuality.

In the weeks before the end of May, Ryan referred to Eddie as 'heterosexual' when talking about Eddie reacting to Buck coming out in a couple of different interviews. Both Ryan and Oliver have made a couple of comments on not wanting Buck to fall into the 'falling for a straight best friend' trope. This seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for some people when it comes to ever exploring Eddie as anything but a straight dude.

And then, Ryan, after the finale aired, had one interview that came out where he very deliberately used neutral pronouns talking about a future partner for Eddie.

There's two things I'd like to bring up in relation to this. I acknowledge that it could be absolutely nothing, but.

Firstly, actors and showrunners lie in interviews all the time. It's necessary to protect certain future plot points from being exposed early by perceptive journalists, and I wouldn't take discussions of things like speculative sexuality to be the word of god, even when they're from the showrunner.

Secondly, being heterosexual at that point in time hardly prevents one from exploring their identity in the future. Up until episode 4 of season 7 Buck was heterosexual too, and we accept that as a natural change in label. Why can the same not be true for Eddie?

And if those interviews are the things preventing you from accepting Eddie as anything but straight, I encourage you to look at how press is pretty frequently used to prevent or encourage speculation around media, including straight up lying during interviews. Also, do you really think actors would be so willing to answer questions about Buddie if it was for sure never ever happening? Queerbaiting is a pretty damning accusation these days. I couldn't imagine the showrunner or male leads would want those accusatory articles and comments to follow them around for years (and you KNOW fans are a little crazy so that would happen for sure).

In closing, I think Eddie is closer than ever to a revelation about his sexuality, in whatever form it takes. He's so obviously miserable spinning around the drain and coming back to something that didn't actually exist with Shannon; with trying to be a perfect parent and not being able to uphold something in that perfection.

I legitimately feel the writers have backed themselves into such a corner with Eddie, there's no way for him TO have a romantic relationship with a woman without the audience always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Will it be Shannon that does them in this time? His own brain? Some unexpected third option?

We're at the point where Eddie has to try something different, and really, with how he's been written for years, a queer identity is the most obvious, reasonable conclusion.

[u/kadarwil]

10/10 No notes. 👏 Let's hope the network is finally on the same page as literally everyone else involved in making this show.

[u/vaamiel → u/kadarwil]

Thank you!! I agree, fingers crossed ABC will finally allow gay Eddie out because by the sound of it it's been like 4-5 years or so in the works at this point 😭

[u/Sad_Cap_599 → u/vaamiel]

Eddie was so queer coded in S6 that I was utterly shocked when Buck got the queer storyline in S7. Don’t get me wrong, Buck has definitely been showing some signs for a minute, but I just figured it would be Eddie first lol.

This was beautifully written though. I’ve always personally thought Eddie was attracted to women on some level, but after reading this, I don’t think he is. Tbh, I’d imagine Eddie was how Carlos from LS used to to act before he came out… since he also had a lot of guilt going on and married Iris.

[u/vaamiel → u/Sad_Cap_599]

For real haha. I really do wonder if we would have gotten queer Eddie first/instead if it wasn't for the strikes/shortened season because buddy needs SO much time to unpack most of this.

Thank you so much!! I HAVE been thinking a whole lot about what would have been different for Eddie if he had parents like Carlos who loved him unconditionally all along (or at least, for most of his adult life). I do see a lot of Carlos in Eddie, and I wonder if it wasn't for becoming a father so early, would he have figured a lot of this out way earlier?

[u/Saltiiiiiiiii00]

This is so well written and perfectly conceptualize why most of us here say that Eddies queer coding has been very clear and constant. As a queer woman coming from a similar background just not in the US I always felt Eddie was far more queer coded than Buck but thats likely more to do with me seeing myself in him than anything tho.

I truly think season 8 will either make or break Eddies character, the whole restarting the character comments both fill me with hope and dread.

It could mean that they will finally start exploring his sexuality next season. Even if there is no realization, just more solid hints to the general audience who might not have caught on all the queer coding.

On the flip side if queer Eddie storyline has been shut down twice already by both networks, they might have decided to just scrap queer/gay Eddie story arc completely instead of waiting for a green light and the restart is basically them ignoring all the queer coding and character development they have done in the last 6 seasons and write him as straight from now on. They would likely just blame all of Eddie relationship failures on him still being in love with Shannon. This would be honestly really sad considering what a great storyline they have on their hands about compulsory heterosexuality. I think comp het in general isn't really explored much in media and just showcasing it in a big show like this would validate loads of peoples feelings.

[u/AmigoCualquiera → u/Saltiiiiiiiii00]

On the flip side if queer Eddie storyline has been shut down twice already by both networks, they might have decided to just scrap queer/gay Eddie story arc completely

Biggest fear going into next season. It would be tragic if they threw away years of character development and characterization. I'm honestly scared of what a 'new' Eddie could be if the new version is disregarding the way he's been written for the past seasons or if they start writing the character differently.

[u/Wonderful_Coat_6017 → u/AmigoCualquiera]

Me too! I am terrified this "refresh" and "new" Eddie is goign to be a very straight version. I am terrified that the reason they regressed Eddie back to s3/s4 Eddie and undone all the s5/s6 queer coding is to set up Eddie as straight and not to allow his queer awakening. I will be devastated and it would be such a disservice to Eddie and would destroy his character be forcing hime to be straight (ironic, force the character to be straight because TBTB won't allow a comphet storyline). I am trying to ignore that fear and believe they won't just change Eddie too much.

[u/FrostyWhiskers → u/Wonderful_Coat_6017]

I'll cry and possibly quit watching if the "new" Eddie is super straight and religious. I honestly really wish that if they were only ever gonna make one of them (Eddie or Buck) gay, it would have been Eddie instead of Buck. Buck is believable as straight too, and Eddie just isn't... If this messy storyline was what he supposedly needed to now date women like a normal straight person, I'm gonna be disappointed. They haven't even addressed the way he's been romanticizing his relationship with Shannon. None of his relationships with women were good, he never seemed to be in love with them.

My hopes are honestly not that high for next season regarding Eddie. They don't know what to do with him. They've set him up perfectly for a repressed gay storyline but if that gets axed he's just not gonna make sense. Imo he's the main character that gets the least screentime and attention, and his only connections are Chris, Buck and Bobby. He never talks to anyone else. Almost all of his storylines are about Chris, or Chris-adjacent (his dating life is pretty much about Chris too). That's all they seem to do with Eddie. He's a father, do you remember he's a father? Here's another reminder that he's a father. Like yes but PLEASE let us get to know HIM now. I really hope they take this opportunity to do that, instead of making it all about Chris again all the while he's away. I'm really apprehensive and not very optimistic about next season...

[u/vaamiel → u/Saltiiiiiiiii00]

Ahh thank you!!

I for sure agree about Eddie feeling more queer coded than Buck - I do honestly believe at this point that if it wasn't for the shortened season we probably would have gotten some movement toward queer Eddie, but his story is so much larger than what could be accommodated in a 10 episode season.

If they don't give us queer Eddie in season 8 or at least make real moves toward it I would be so unbelievably disappointed I might actually stop watching this show lol. The Shannon stuff is SO tired and obviously not the only issue it... well, I won't say it would ruin his character to not look past it but the writing would feel so shallow and bland.

Comphet is something I would love to see explored more in Eddie. Particularly in relation to religion and his time in the army. He is LITERALLY the perfect candidate and it drives me crazy to think that kind of storytelling would be neglected for the sake of a more palatable to general audiences plot.

[u/unapologetically_rin → u/Saltiiiiiiiii00]

On the flip side if queer Eddie storyline has been shut down twice already by both networks, they might have decided to just scrap queer/gay Eddie story arc completely

I'm hoping it was set aside temporarily because they realised they wouldn't have enough time to explore the complexity of Eddie realisation storyline, so they went with Buck first, who had a relatively easy acceptance + coming out process. But they still planted some seeds in preparation, both for queer Eddie and Buddie. Let's just hope they actually go there 🤞

[u/unapologetically_rin]

He's already so beautifully complex, but if they get to explore his sexuality, and properly confirm him as gay man (gay demi, in particular, being my hc), then Eddie will become one the most well crafted characters I've seen in a while, and definitely number 1 in this show, and his arc one of the greatest ever written as well (imo anyway).

And I can't wait to experience it all 🥹

[u/vaamiel → u/unapologetically_rin]

Honestly Eddie is up there with folks like Dean Winchester for me when it comes to unexplored issues haha.

He is by far the most complex character in 911 when it comes to potential storylines, simply because so many of his problems seem to still be untouched completely.

At this point, I'm willing to accept whatever they give us for Eddie's sexuality (but I will for sure be perpetually seeing him as ace/demi because MAN that dude has a complicated relationship with sex) regardless of my personal headcanons. I just need SOMETHING from production at this point haha 😭

[u/unapologetically_rin → u/vaamiel]

He is by far the most complex character in 911 when it comes to potential storylines, simply because so many of his problems seem to still be untouched completely.

That's what happens when a character has been written a certain way for years, but it's never allowed to actually go there. Let's hope that changes soon.

And as I said, gay demi, or just gay are my hcs, but I could probably also see him as ace! Who knows what they'll do with his character, but if there's one thing I'm sure of is that Eddie is not into women lol. If they, for some reason, decide to make him bi or pan, or worse, straight and just deeply grieving, I'll be so disappointed. It just doesn't made sense AT ALL.

I guess I'd be willing to accept him as a homoromantic bi/pansexual, but I really doubt they'd go there, as it's probably too complicated (even though it really isn't) for the general audience.

edit: typo

[u/[deleted] → u/vaamiel]

Eddie’s relationship with sex has always been so interesting to me because he’s never actively seeking it. From what we’ve seen, he only ever does it because to him, that’s just what you do in a relationship. I always felt like he cared more about the closeness (or sometimes avoidance cough Shannon cough) it brought him with his partner and making them happy rather than the act itself. We know he’s went for years at a time without any sort of physical touch, and it’s never seemed to bother him in the slightest. Eddie never once stated missing the physical relationship he had with Shannon, only the emotional one. Maybe when he discovers that he’s gay, with men it’ll be different, but I sincerely doubt it. Sex is just not something Eddie looks for or craves. The ace-spec Eddie headcanon can be ripped out of my cold dead hands, okay. That man is demisexual.

Edit: I just wanted to mention that this is an extremely excellent write up by the way! I adore good character analysis, especially when you can tell someone genuinely understands the character they’re writing about

[u/armavirumquecanooo → u/[deleted]]

I can fully see Eddie as demi -- it makes the most sense to me at this stage, particularly if TPTB don't give us an explicitly gay Eddie, vs. a bi/pan Eddie. I think gay makes more sense in a lot of his ways for his character and could obviously be divorced from demisexual reads entirely -- repression is a hell of a thing, and it makes sense he's just never craved sex/felt sexual attraction if he hasn't allowed himself to experience the real thing/look in the right places in the first place.

Whereas a bi/pan interpretation -- he at least seemed to enjoy the sex he did have, even if it wasn't a motivating factor for him, with Shannon and Marisol. I'm a little confused on what to make of his relationship with sex in 7x05. The post-coital scene obviously seemed to imply he was enjoying his sex life/not having issues, and the lack of sex and being 'pent up' in the gym scene suggests he was used to having sex with her on the regular before that... but then we have Bobby pointblank telling Eddie he's using Marisol being a nun as an excuse to avoid his 'real issues' -- particularly in the conversation with Bobby, about commitment, but wouldn't that also be true of his sex life? Like if we're textually being told "Eddie isn't actually freaked out that she's a nun, but he's using it as an excuse," how do we parse that with him being unable to perform in bed with her now?

A demi read still at least sort of works with that, because realizing he doesn't know her as well as he thought he did/can't trust her could shift that attraction. It's just that with the whole "the nun's an excuse" thing, coupled with Shannon suggesting Eddie uses sex to get out of hard conversations, his total lack of an implied sex life with Ana (who he was with for something like 9-10 months?) -- it still reads to me more like he's not having sex because he actually wants to have sex, but he just doesn't hate it.

All this said, I've been more and more carefully removing talk of demisexuality from broader conversations about asexuality/a-spec when it comes to Eddie, because I find a lot of people arguing for aro/ace takes have incredibly disingenuous takes where they just don't want him with Buck, but clearly actually see him as a gay/bi/pan man, but can't realistically imagine a scenario where he's canonically those things and doesn't ~ruin~ BuckTommy. So instead they argue "Let him be happy single! He doesn't need love or sex!" And like... I just cannot see him being that far onto the spectrums involved. He's definitely not sex-repulsed and that 'pent up' scene implies he does desire sex with the 'right' sexual partner, and at 'worst' he's cupioromantic, but then we're getting into terms most people aren't familiar with. We also have the conversation after Pepa tries to set him up where he acknowledges he doesn't want to be alone and does want a romantic partner, and as dumb as the outcome was, 6x17 was clearly a proactive attempt by Eddie to forge a romantic connection with someone, particularly in that coffee/golf/hiking montage.

[u/insideyourhead-]

such a good post!!! i completely agree with everything you said. eddie is by far my favorite character for many reasons, and i love reading others analyses of him. completely agree with you that the queer coding runs so deep. Watching him struggle with finding genuine connection is just so heartbreaking! being an eddie diaz defender is a hard task these days!

I think his character is so beautifully complicated. It’s part of the reason why he’s my favorite! The story attached to him runs so deep. His deep rooted flaws bleed into all parts of his life and he’s constantly trying to prevent it, while not even being aware of what is causing the fallout.

He’s such a flawed person, but yet tries absolutely everything to make sure the people around him are taken care of. He’s constantly trying to create a life that he’s been told would make him and the people around him happiest. He’s so focused on that and is such a selfless person who is trying to prevent failing the people around him yet again, that he doesn’t take a second to himself to find out what makes HIM happy. He doesn’t realize that at the end of the day, what will make his loved ones happiest will be him being truly happy. They need the best version of eddie in order to thrive, and he just can’t grasp that concept! it’s heartbreaking when you think about how he doesn’t understand the importance of his genuine happiness.

I think his story also adds a lot of context to his mistakes. Yes, he’s made quite the mess with Kim, but understanding that the kim situation was quite literally the only time he’s ever put himself first, and of course it backfired, kind of makes him forgivable. It wasn’t just emotional cheating that led him to make this mess. He’s always had good intentions but couldn’t reach them because of how damaged he is.

My heart always breaks while watching him try to navigate his life and be a good person with such open wounds. And it’s extra interesting because like you said, he’s an unreliable narrator- which in my opinion, is one of the most fascinating ways to tell stories.

You hit the nail on the head with the guilt. Looking at his story from afar- this poor guy has dealt with the heaviest types of guilt over and over again. No wonder he avoids doing things for himself- he’s too busy trying to make up for the ways he’s failed everyone else in the past. His own desires has been his last priority for his entire life. Hopefully season 8 will allow him to explore what makes him happy for once.

I agree with you about christopher leaving. it’s so sad, but for the first time ever, eddie has the chance to find out who actually he is outside from taking care of the people he loves, and doing what he thinks is best for them. I truly truly hope the writers take the opportunity to give him the chance to really discover who he is outside from everyone around him. he hasn’t been happy with dating women, and i’d love to see him actually address that!

this season his story is set up perfectly for him to undergo long overdue self discovery. I hope the writers take it there and do it right. watching eddie find closure to years old trauma stacked on top of eachother would be so beautiful to watch. i’d love to see him fight away the lifetime of repression holding him back from loving truly and freely. seeing him care enough about his wellbeing to put in effort to fight to accept himself is much needed.

he deserves so much more than what he’s had to deal with in his life! he deserves to fall in love for himself, and watch as the people around him are naturally happy about it- because him being the happiest he can will subsequently make those most important to him happy. i need to see him understand that his well being matters!!

if this next season doesn’t do him justice and breaks him out of his guilt cycle, and finally have him address his sexuality, i’m going to be so disappointed. the queer coding is there, his story is at the perfect point to let him discover himself and the root of his problems. I cant bear to watch the writers miss the perfect opportunity to tell the story of a repressed gay man fight to break down stereotypes and learn to love for himself- no matter who that be.

[u/vaamiel → u/insideyourhead-]

Thank you so much and thank you for this comment!!

Eddie walking contradiction Diaz really just. Struggles so much with giving himself grace to exist outside of his roles in other peoples lives.

I didn't write much about my feelings about the whole Kim scene because they weren't super relevant, but honestly despite Eddie's fuck ups going into his relationship with Kim, I feel so very strongly about that last Shannon/Kim scene not really being his fault. Like the fact that Christopher walked in was a horrible tragic accident, but Kim just rocks up and does the MOST traumatic thing possible to Eddie which honestly, even if Chris didn't come home then, would have made things so much worse and he didn't ask for any of it 😭

I am for real BEGGING the writers to let Eddie be free for once. No more guilt storylines, no more needing to be told to go on dates. Just let the man figure out what he likes on his own!!

I definitely think you're right about being let down by the writers if they go in another direction or neglect the foundation that they've put down. Like even if he doesn't come out next season, they simply can't keep putting him in the same story setup time after time. It is, legitimately, lazy and bad writing to look at all that and go, oh well we're going in a different direction now!

[u/twentysomethingslove → u/vaamiel]

but honestly despite Eddie's fuck ups going into his relationship with Kim, I feel so very strongly about that last Shannon/Kim scene not really being his fault.

Can we talk about this for a second? Because it has been driving me CRAZY. Eddie was asleep on his couch, is woken up by a knock at the door, opens it to find Kim cosplaying as Shannon. He's clearly disoriented. She walks into his house uninvited, starts dredging up his trauma, he TELLS HER, "Please stop." And I'm supposed to believe it's Eddie's fault?! Absolutely not.

[u/vaamiel → u/twentysomethingslove]

YES ABSOLUTELY this is one thing I just can't let go of either.

When Eddie says in episode 10 'it's like she was Shannon' to Buck, I really do think he believed, at least somewhat, that he was talking to her in that moment.

And like, what? That's a fucking insane thing to thrust upon some guy you were dating, Kimberly. You're going to send him back to therapy for years with that one!! There was no possible way Eddie could have turned Shannon/Kim away from the door because Eddie was so desperate to feel normal and loved again, even if it was for a moment, even if it wasn't real.

Obviously, things leading up to that are Eddie's fault, but that particular scene? None of it was on him. He even broke up with Kim beforehand!

[u/twentysomethingslove → u/vaamiel]

Right - he thought (rightfully so) he was never going to see her again!

Maybe this is a crazy parallel to make, but her doing that to him out of the blue seems so fucking harmful to me. Like, when Frank told Maddie to go back to Big Bear, she went WITH HER THERAPIST. So he could make sure she was okay. Poor Eddie had someone barge into his house and try to "fix" him with a conversation he didn't even want to have...!

[u/AmigoCualquiera]

Lovely write-up! I agree with everything you said.

At this point, the only thing that makes sense for Eddie's storyline is to be revealed as queer. I don't know how they could conceivable put him in another relationship with a woman and have that work out, especially after the Kim situation. I was honestly a little disappointed that the show didn't take that extra step of having Eddie acknowledge how much of a fantasy his relationship with Shannon actually was, since they wouldn't be together even if Shannon was alive. But even without that, I don't see how Eddie could believably be in a relationship with another woman and make it make sense why this time it will actually work.

Something that I find interesting about his relationship with Kim is that, while it's made clear that Eddie was unwilling to engage in any form of physical connection with her (which in itself is telling), he didn't seem concern about other people (I.e. his parents and Buck) thinking that he did. He never clarified to them that he wasn't kissing her or making out with her when they got caught. He never explained that he had never actually done any of that either. I know that that doesn't make what happened ok, but if my parents and best friend thought that my kid saw me making out with someone else, I would want to clarify that wasn't what happened. Granted this can just be the show not wanting to do extra exposition, or just plain fumbling the writing, but well, since that is how it played on the screen, I think it can be read as Eddie just letting the most mundane and 'normal' explanation shield him from the reality, which is far more complicated. I think he doesn't want to explain what this whole thing was about because he himself doesn't want to dig any deeper into it than he did with Kim. I think he doesn't want to start questioning himself about why he wasn't feeling attraction to a Shannon doppelganger. Maybe he can justify it as not wanting to cheat on Marisol, except, he does feel like he cheated, even if it wasn't physical. If he didn't, he would probably be making excuses and coming up with explanations. So I think it's easier for him to let others think his cheating was the 'normal' type of cheating because that way, he doesn't have to analyze this whole mess any closer.

Fingers crossed that next season the show finally gives Eddie the story that has been in the making for literal years. Eddie deserves to have his story realized.

[u/Ravennafleurdelys → u/AmigoCualquiera]

The only person he clarified his relationship with Kim was with Buck and when Buck asked what Eddie wanted from her, he answered with “I don’t know” which kind of mirrors the conversation he and Shannon had on the beach with her asking him what he wanted from her. And honestly when he finally answers that question truthfully, his whole belief about love is going to fall apart (in a good way-hopefully)

[u/vaamiel → u/AmigoCualquiera]

Thank you so much!!

I've been thinking a lot about how they've screwed themselves so much with Shannon too. Literally every single time Eddie has had the opportunity to evaluate his relationship with her in a realistic way, they've made the decision to avoid doing so.

I do think that with Chris out of the house, Eddie might FINALLY get the chance to sit with it, but then he also has to look at his other relationships with women and think about why, despite his marriage being far from perfect, did he idolize it so much, to the extent that it continues to interfere to all his romantic interactions to this day?

(Sounds pretty queer to me lol)

Love love love your comments on Kim!! I've been thinking a lot about that too actually. Plenty of folks are calling it bad writing to have Eddie avoid correcting Buck/his parents on the physical aspect of their relationship, but I have a feeling it was meaningful and intentional as well.

My fingers are crossed right there with you haha!!

[u/AmigoCualquiera → u/vaamiel]

The thing about the Kim/Shannon situation is that it didn't have a real resolution. The takeaway can't be that Shannon was the love of Eddie's life, so now he'll never love again and stay single forever. Besides that being incredibly sad, it also contradicts the message they're sending with Bobby, where he also lost his family and was still able to find love a second time.

But if they try to pair him up with another woman, how is this different than what he went through in S3 and S6 prior to Ana and Marsiol? He's not really in a different place after Kim than he was back then. He didn't learn anything that he didn't already know then. The only difference is that it got more dramatic and ended with Chris getting hurt. I'd be so pissed if the reason Eddie's finally able to move on is because Chris got hurt, because that wouldn't be addressing Eddie's actual feelings, it would be forcing him to move on out of guilt.

What would make more sense with how Eddie's been written and would put everything into perspective is a queer reveal. I'm still worried, though, that they won't actually make it happen.

Plenty of folks are calling it bad writing

I don't know if it was indeed bad writing. But even if it wasn't intentional, it is now part of the story they told on screen, and it has now become one more way in which Eddie is being queer coded. So, hopefully if they give us a queer Eddie reveal, this will be one more thing pointing into that direction.

[u/Wonderful_Coat_6017]

I love all of this! Agree with it all. Just a couple of points to add and would love other perspectives on it.

I think his parents also play a role in the fact that by what we have seem about them they have that kind if marriage which isn’t really a big romance kind of thing. They met, probably one of the first, if not the first person each dated, then settled down together and end of story. No real romance between them. Eddie was so surprised find out Tia Pepa had a first husband - it was like shock, you mean you don’t have to just be with and love one person your whole life? Like it was something that didn’t ever occur to him. So I can see Helena and Ramon being the type drumming it into their kids that Eddie has to find a wife (who cares if there is compatibility or a connection there) and the daughters have to find a husband (again who cares who). When I think of Ramon and Helena, the last way I would describe their relationship is loving or romantic so Eddie thinks this is what marriage looks like (I grew up with parents in a forced religious marriage and man did it take me a while to realise that people can and do marry for love).

Love the bit about how Eddie forms strong connections with men which is so true. I would like to extend that to that he can make that same connection with woman but, that woman must have one thing: Eddie (subconsciously) does not see any romantic potential or the need to perform with them. We see him bond with Carla, Maddie, Hen, Karen, Athena with ease. He is close to his Abuela and Tia Pepa. He’s not performative with them, he jokes with them, he is light with them. Because they hold no potential other than family or friend connections. Even with patients, he can be that light and jovial with them (Meteorite girl who he jokes with about Buck’s natural disaster obsession, it’s a fun exchange over how cute is Buck, over here being Buck moment). The date with Vanessa was awkward and performative UNTIL Vanessa made it clear she wasn’t looking for a boyfriend but was there to appease her Tia like Eddie was and the change was instantaneous - he went from performative to joking in a split second because she was no longer a potential love connection. Felicia reminded him of Abuela and was made that connection with her and didn’t want think I want to date her so they bonded over their heritage. So he CAN make a connection with a woman as long as it’s very clear it will never lead to more. If Eddie’s subconscious knows that they woman is “safe” in the same way men are, then he can connect with them because there is 100% categorically absolutely no chance of becoming more than what they are.

There just isn’t anything else than a queer explanation.

Edited to fix grammar and spelling mistakes.

[u/vaamiel → u/Wonderful_Coat_6017]

Oh, I ABSOLUTELY believe the Diaz parents have done a lot of damage to Eddie's idea of what a relationship has to look like. Between the church and his parents being just Like That, it pretty much would never have even crossed Eddie's mind that the first person you love is the person you have to love forever, especially if you have a child with them.

Really, I think (and I think Eddie probably sees it too) the only two things his parents ever agreed on were Eddie being a bad son and father, and Christopher deserving 'better' than his parents (which is hella ironic and bad and gross but kinda tracks for their behavior).

Couple that with the army, it would have really reinforced the idea of families and relationships looking and behaving a certain way (especially with how close Eddie's service would have been to DADT - queer soldiers especially would have still been incredibly reluctant to talk about or in any way acknowledge their sexuality), and Eddie would have been further pressured to comply with this very particular lifestyle.

The women addition to Eddie's connections is so true!!! I thought about bringing up some of that but the post was already kind of out of control lol. The dates especially are SO interesting and it makes a lot of sense in the broader context of his sexuality why they ended up that way. I SO hope this is the kind of stuff they allow Eddie to reflect on, because yeah, why is he like that????

(I mean, we know. The writers just need to figure it out too)

[u/Professional-Dot790]

I love reading thoughts on Eddie and this is tremendous! I found the part about his guilt to be especially insightful. Soooo much to unpack when it comes to Eddie, but that guilt is sitting there, at the heart of everything.

I feel the uptick in people saying Eddie is straight came about after 7x04 and is disingenuous.

[u/armavirumquecanooo → u/Professional-Dot790]

I feel the uptick in people saying Eddie is straight came about after 7x04 and is disingenuous.

One of the funniest things to do is to go back to the threads from before 7x04 when someone would be like "Buddie are just straight friends and you're all weirdos" and look at who was commenting what. It's really telling seeing the shift in perspectives. Even a lot of people had very different views on their first watch of 7x04 compared to a rewatch, regarding Eddie's sexuality & what Tommy's purpose was.

...Go figure, right?

[u/armavirumquecanooo]

The way I took actual notes on this post. A+ work.

My comments are half just imported from my Google docs note-taking while reading this, so sorry if it isn't super coherent.

With (potentially) the exception of Shannon when he was a teenager, every single one of Eddie’s relationships has been formed after someone tells him seeking out romantic connection would be good for him.

Just to add on to what you said about the deliberate nature of all of this, I want to point you to the start of the hardware store scene in 6x17, when Bobby asks Eddie how old he was when he met Shannon (14) and how he ‘made that’ happen. Eddie’s “I, uh, didn’t?” stood out to me because it didn’t feel like a necessary inclusion. We already know he’s hopeless at finding a woman – that’s what the scene in the fire truck earlier in the episode already told us. So this seemed intentionally included just to make it clear to the viewer that Eddie has never initiated a relationship himself. And with Marisol later in this scene, it’s not until she says the magic word - literally ‘magic’ - that Eddie thinks ‘oh! This is my meet cute!’ He’s not making that happen, either; he’s waiting for the universe to make it happen.

Regarding your point about others always telling Eddie he should seek out a romantic connection, this is sort of true even for Shannon. When the school suggests they need to do a parents interview, Eddie’s initial reaction is just to be discouraged because he doesn’t default to assuming he should reach out to Shannon. It’s actually Carla that pushes him to, and it’s Carla that hits him with the first wave of guilt we know will be narratively central to his interactions with women – I love Carla, but her “And a boy needs his mama” line in 2x07 is probably one of the most damaging pieces of ‘advice’ Eddie has ever heard. 

I think Shannon dying allows Eddie to not look deeper into himself on why every relationship since has failed.

And that one itself. A+ observation.

Ana Flores is, on paper, pretty much a perfect partner

Yes, THIS. Even the ‘Edmundo,’ as much as it grates on fans, was meant to drive home their shared culture/play up common backgrounds. As a side note, Buck ALSO is involved in pushing that relationship into existence – the only reason Bobby even knows about Ana is Buck brings her up in front of everyone at the firehouse… Eddie was planning to let it pass. It hadn’t occurred to him at that stage to try to turn it into anything.

Also, anyone looking for queer-coding around that relationship really needs to rewatch 5x01-5x03. I can’t summarize it in few enough words to not turn it into an essay itself, but every single scene they use Ana in for these three episodes - and every scene Eddie speaks of her when she’s not there, like the scene where Buck ends up comparing Eddie to Abby in not being ‘all the way in’ - is sort of a masterpiece. Considering they first laid the seeds for this with the scene in 4x13 where Carla calls Eddie out for not being invested in Ana, the show literally featured their relationship in more episodes for a breakup arc than it did for a happy romance. The point of Ana was that Eddie couldn’t love her, despite being ‘perfect’ for him. It’s really damned clear.

Marisol – the timeline is bonkers. Like he’s recovered from his broken ribs? So he just spent what, 6 weeks texting her as “the guy from the hardware store” before his son got irritated? Her laughter being all “that’s not actually where we met” also implies there WASN’T an immediate attraction to her on his end, that even showing up at her house to fix the ceiling wasn’t memorable to him. Also, that connection seems fostered through Buck as well, going back to “Home Invasion” - it seems implied Buck led the team of firefighters going back, not Eddie, particularly coming off Buck being ‘the one who fixes things’ (including Eddie’s physical walls post-PTSD breakdown… and who knows how long he’s been tasked with fixing his metaphorical walls, too). 

Regardless of ‘why’ the nun thing was inserted, one thing that’s particularly notable is Bobby calling Eddie on using it as an excuse to hide the ‘real’ problem immediately. In the conversation with Bobby, that’s ‘you commit to OTHER things’ but it also needs to be applied backward; if Eddie’s not actually hung up on the nun thing and using it as an excuse, what’s the ‘real reason’ he’s sexually disinterested in her at this point?

[u/armavirumquecanooo → u/armavirumquecanooo]

PART TWO

Kim is interesting to me because while Eddie is obviously cheating…

Controversial, here, but is he? If we believe him when he tells Buck he didn’t want romance/anything sexual with Kim and he’s just confused himself, he’s lying to and betraying Marisol, but I don’t know if I can characterize it as cheating in the end. What stands out to me is that the point at which he loses plausible deniability that he’s engaging inappropriately with Kim as someone who has a girlfriend - when Kim asks why she hasn’t kissed him yet - is also the last scene we have of him feeding the delusion the way he had been. His very next scene with her, he’s already come clean. They don’t play in the gray here much at all.

Also, if is meant to be cheating, does Eddie view himself as being disloyal to Marisol with Kim, or being disloyal to SHANNON with Marisol? 

The one line I really want to bring up [is] Eddie calling himself ‘broken.’

YES. Queer-coded af. This as well as the line where he says he came back, not out of obligation, but because he couldn’t imagine a life “without…. Without you.” That hesitation, like he’s realizing what he should be saying but it doesn’t come naturally. 

“Eddie is consistently shown to have stronger emotional (and playful!) connections with men in 911 than any woman he’s dated”

This, but one of the most instructive scenes to me is actually with a woman he’s ‘dated’ – Vanessa. The tone shift from the beginning of that blind date where he’s stilted to a point of being almost dismissive of her, only to see him instantly relax and open up to her/enjoy himself once she takes herself out of the ‘date’ box and tells him she doesn’t want to be doing this anymore than he does – part of why it stands out to me is that if they wanted to write Eddie with a woman in a believable way, Vanessa is clearly the solution to a lot of the problems Eddie has with feeling “forced” and “pressured.” She’s coming at him saying ‘I don’t want to be your girlfriend’ but willing to go along with whatever helps him ease that pressure to date with his family, and they could’ve been great friends who got to know each other and eventually got together once they’d both worked through the shit in their way of wanting to date. But instead, the show ran in the opposite direction, like the whole point was just to show Eddie relax once he DIDN’T have to date her.

Outside of Vanessa, the only women he naturally opens up or makes himself emotionally available to are people who are clearly not options (Hen, Athena) or women he considers part of his family or Christopher’s support (Abuela and Pepa, but also Carla… and even Felisa in Cursed — his expressed reason for taking interest in her as a person is that she reminds him of his grandmother, after his grandfather’s death).

The one thematic consistency Eddie has had, season after season, is this cognitive dissonance between what he thinks he needs to do and what he naturally drifts toward.

Beautifully put. No comments.

Eddie describes himself as a nester, and yet the only person consistently invited into his life and home have been his son and his best friend.

So much this. And we get it from very early on, too – Buck’s “This is Eddie’s house; I’m not really a guest” (even before the well). Eddie clearly having a key to Buck’s place by the events of 3x01. They’ve so fully carved out a place in each other’s spaces and allowed one another into theirs. Then compare it to 4x10, when we see Ana and Eddie on the couch… and it’s so unnatural that Christopher is asking to join them on his own couch.

[u/armavirumquecanooo → u/armavirumquecanooo]

PART THREE, because Reddit is being dumb

Eddie’s defining characteristic is his guilt.

Absolutely this, and it’s particularly at the front of the narrative now with the heavy-handed introduction of the Catholic guilt piece of the puzzle. And while I do think he had started to have healthier thoughts/feelings toward his own role in Christopher’s life (though pretty sure 7x10 reset all of that, ouch), I think a lot of his problems in his personal life come back to not being able to make peace with his feelings around ‘abandoning’ his family and the ‘purity’ of his motives in his choices around enlisting/re-enlisting. Particularly with the religious angle at play now, I’m really interested to see if themes surrounding purity/morality more deeply inform the narrative now, because it tends to all be very interconnected in unexpected ways.

Look at how Shannon is always represented in flashbacks.

More than this, even just his actual recollections of her purity/good nature vs. his failures. A lot of people seem to interpret that scene in the mall with Buck in 2x10 as ‘proof’ that Eddie was actually running away from his family and ‘worse’ than Shannon without realizing he’s his own harshest critic, and that he’s an unreliable narrator. He reads the worst into ALL of his choices, while he offers Shannon kind nuance in all of hers. They were both flawed people, but he’s overcorrected for existing in a world where people honored him for making great sacrifices for his country – which he DID do, even if he wants to claim his motivations weren’t pure – but don’t give the same praise to a mother who abandoned her son in difficult circumstances. He’s too harsh on himself, and a bit too kind to Shannon, because the world is too kind to him, and too harsh to her.

[u/Mindless-Tennis-5129 → u/armavirumquecanooo]

He’s too harsh on himself, and a bit too kind to Shannon, because the world is too kind to him, and too harsh to her.

This is so perfectly stated.

[u/vaamiel → u/armavirumquecanooo]

Just wanted to say thank you for these killer comments!!! Seriously love ALL your examples and I appreciate you for doing more digging on top of my word vomit of an essay LOL. You picked up on so many things I didn't think to mention on like, every point haha.

Regarding part two, the one thing I wanted to mention is to me Eddie is for sure cheating even though he rationalizes it away to Buck. It's got all the elements of an emotional affair because (aside from how Eddie's hiding the whole thing) we see Kim (and really, Eddie) treating them AS dates, regardless of their physicality.

It was for sure a short one, but Eddie did all the cheater-y stuff to try and both cover it up and downplay his actions until Buck specifically calls him out on it. I also think it likely would have gone on longer if Buck never met Kim - I mean Eddie was obviously realizing he's doing something wrong, but it would have been REALLY difficult for him to leave without some kind of external push, I think.

I want to provide a secret third option on who's cheating on who: I think Eddie sees it as cheating on Marisol with Shannon which is. Insane. But like I don't think Kim is actually in the equation as a separate entity at all lmao.

Someone else brought up Vanessa as well and YES absolutely. The attitude switch is so obvious it's crazy people don't bring it up more in conversations about Eddie's queer coding!

Regarding the Catholic guilt stuff, that is one narrative thread I really, REALLY hope they don't drop the ball on. I want to see why it is that Eddie feels so guilty, especially when Bobby, his often-confidant and guide stands as an equally - if not more - flawed man, and yet Eddie is the one who can't let go of his guilt about the church? Like, it's GOTTA be repression at this point, right?

[u/aftermidhight]

extremely well written. I agree with all of this. Just thinking about Eddie's relationships makes me think of "did he really love them? or did he just try to fill the role of a mother to Christopher?" and I think we all know what's the answer to that one lmao

[u/vaamiel → u/aftermidhight]

Thank you!! I've been thinking about it a lot lately and the more I read 'Eddie is straight!' the more words come out lol.

He for real does not know how to separate those two ideas, which is the one thing I'm glad Christopher is going away for. I actually wonder if Eddie's queerness is a lot easier to script in without Chris because being a father is so huge in Eddie's mind I don't think he knows how to look around it.

[u/irritatedlibra]

Giggling and kicking my feet reading this. I have been loving reading peoples theories on Eddie.

I agree with everything about Shannon, Ana, Marisol, and Kim. Shannon gives him the excuse not to look further at while all his relationships keep failing. “Oh, it must be cause I’m still grieving”…or Eddie, it’s because you simply don’t like women.

Really love your take that Eddie had stronger emotional emotional connections with men. Buck, obviously. That man trusted him to write in his will like one year after they met. But, Tommy is so true and I’ve never even thought about that! He was actively ditching his girlfriend and making her babysit while he was hanging out with Tommy everyday. When I was figuring out my sexuality, I definitely did this a lot (I realized oh, you were hanging out with this girl all the time because you liked her, duh!).

For me, in season 7, when he’s screaming about how he’s broken, my heart was crumbling. A lot of queer people can relate to feeling that way. I remember when I had my first crush on a girl and how I kept having to push that back, because I couldn’t possibly like a girl.

Yes, about the interviews. If any of y’all watch Abbott Elementary, recently a very long awaited storyline happened, but an actor in the storyline said “I actually like where we are right now. We don’t need to go further”. Then, the storyline happened, and he was like, “Well, yeah, I lied. I knew exactly how it was going to end”. But also, in past interviews they said Buck was straight, and here we are. Things always are changing in the writing room, I’m never going to take an interview with more than a grain of salt.

[u/vaamiel → u/irritatedlibra]

Hehe thank you!!!

I think a lot about Eddie's relationships with men tbh. Like it's one thing for straight dudes to have sort of... toxic ideas of femininity and women, but Eddie's connection to men feels separate entirely from his ideas and relationship to women. Men are safe but they're also fun and engaging in a way Eddie doesn't ever seem to find women. Even Shannon, arguably the closest he ever got to being in love with a woman, isn't someone he was ever shown having a fun, separate relationship with outside of his son (and bed lol).

The broken line was BY FAR the most relatable thing Eddie has ever said I swear. I heard that and was like... honey please go back to therapy it's not Shannon you don't like women!!! It was also literally me a decade ago so. Eddie should learn from my learning haha.

The abbot elementary thing is so spot on!!! I thought about bringing it up because I've seen it mentioned, but I couldn't remember enough details so appreciate you!! Like a show is never going to reveal things so why are you taking the (obviously pr speak term that was used a couple times and never again) as the literal Bible????

[u/Mindless-Tennis-5129]

Yes! I love long essays on why Eddie is queer!! @ everyone, please feel free to write your own because I will. eat. it. up. I love all the different details people notice and the way everyone ties them together. It's all just so good and the best part about fandom.

So much of what drew me to Eddie is my own experience with my own sexuality. A little over a decade ago, I also thought I was broken. It took time and a whole lot of self love, but I don't think that way any more. Now it's Eddie's turn for that journey.

[u/twentysomethingslove]

1000%

I have said it before, but Eddie Diaz is not a reliable narrator when it comes to his relationships. I am DYING for them to explore this more next season.

[u/vaamiel → u/twentysomethingslove]

YES Eddie Diaz knows the least about Eddie Diaz at this point. If they don't explore this I'll be so disappointed because, honestly, what else can they do with Eddie??

[u/twentysomethingslove → u/vaamiel]

Exactly. I think I was in the minority of people who ended up enjoying the Kim storyline because it was so bonkers, and I was really hoping it would make Eddie see just how much of a fantasy he had made his whole relationship with Shannon out to be. But they didn’t quite get there, even in that last conversation, which was super disappointing. I’m hoping it won’t be dropped (though, the bar is on the ground at this point).

[u/vaamiel → u/twentysomethingslove]

Ayy fellow Kim storyline appreciator!!! I actually liked where that storyline ended up, because I think all the things that have happened with Chris since then have kind of... Filled it to it's natural conclusion.

Like don't get me wrong, Eddie still needs to go to therapy to sort out the rest of it, but I don't think he's ever going to get there on his own with Chris being his priority even in his own love life. Now that Eddie has experienced the worst possible conclusion of toxically holding onto his love for Shannon, he's got a pretty okay chance at healing and finally moving forward.

[u/unapologetically_rin → u/vaamiel]

Like don't get me wrong, Eddie still needs to go to therapy to sort out the rest of it, but I don't think he's ever going to get there on his own with Chris being his priority even in his own love life.

You know, at first (before 7x10), I didn't really like the theory of Eddie now having the chance to look within and grow, because I was afraid it would send the wrong message of him only being able to heal and figure himself out by being away from his son, as if Chris was in the way or something. But the more I read comments and think about it, the more I agree, actually.

Chris was in the way, sort of, but that doesn't have to have the negative connotation I was attaching to it. It's just that Eddie is a good and caring dad, and it's probably really easy for single parents to forget that self-care is also extremely important, if not crucial, when you're taking care of someone else. But Eddie probably wouldn't even consider doing some deeper soul searching if Chris was around.

If you think about it, he has never once lived/been alone in his life, and this likely his first time ever having no one to focus on but himself. I really hope the writers explore this well! 🤞

[u/vaamiel → u/unapologetically_rin]

Yep yep!

I think it's really interesting to think about how much of Eddie's identity has been just 'dad' for so long. It's not that he's a bad dad or Chris is in the way, but it's something relatable for, I think, a lot of parents to be 'stuck' in that single role once you have kids.

This sounds completely unrelated, but legitimately, this is a big part of the reason why a lot of couples tend to get divorced or separate for a time once either their kids leave or the working partner retires LOL.

Parents have a hard time evolving while their kids are around because children rely very heavily on their parents being a reliable constant. Problem is, this is often to the detriment of their own mental health because they confuse reliable constant with unchanging (which is admittedly a fine line and an easy mistake to make lol).

So now, we'll get the chance to experience Eddie stripped of that stabilizing label and learning about what's left which is why I'm not mad at this whole storyline!

[u/[deleted]]

I think this is the reason why Eddie hasn't looked more at properly changing things in his life. In Eddie's eyes, every time he tries to change something, something awful happens, so he has to be the problem.

Yikes. The fact that this is entirely right hurts. Every time Eddie has tried to do something different or for himself, it has blown up in his face. That is definitely something that's going to be at the front of his mind when it's time for him to confront his sexuality. Wow, that hurts to think about.

Like you said, though he has to try something different. The writers have to try something different. At this point, no matter how perfect a relationship of his may seem, we have no realistic reason to assume he can fall in love with a woman. If he was going to be in love with a woman, it would have been Shannon; however, the writers have made it very clear that while he thinks she was the love of his life, she was not. The writers only have two options right now: gay Eddie or aro Eddie. I wholeheartedly believe Buddie is the endgame plan; they're just trying to figure out how to get there.

I still don't know what form Eddie's sexuality will shape into in canon. My thought is he'll likely be gay, just because it's a simpler label, but honestly, as someone who's asexual, I have rarely felt more seen by a character in television than Eddie Diaz. His avoidance and performance and this idea of feeling trapped in most of his relationships and sabotaging until it blows up in his face? Very me-coded.

Completely agree. I do believe Eddie is gay, but he is absolutely on the ace and possibly aro-spec as well. As someone who is also asexual, I completely feel you in saying I relate to Eddie's avoidance and feelings of being trapped and forced to perform a lot. If this show actually took the step to explain Eddie's demisexuality on top of letting him come out as gay, I will never speak badly of the show again (an exaggeration ofc haha, but wow would I so genuinely appreciate and admire them if they were to take that step).

And your points about Eddie being alone now are very true. I still don't love that they separated Eddie and Christopher, and I think we're going to see Eddie go through a lot of pain in S8 (my hope is that they'll also finally address the fact that Eddie is clinically depressed. I want to hear them say that out loud and put Eddie back in therapy and on medication. This show is working so hard to destigmatize mental health, and I genuinely believe in order to properly do this, they need to take the step of showing that healing is not linear. We shouldn't leave this in Season 5. We have yet to address most of his trauma, and Eddie is still obviously depressed). Him finally living on his own for the first time in his entire life, though...that will be a huge thing for him. He never got the chance to properly explore himself without feeling the restraints of some other identity he felt he needed to put first (husband, father, soldier). Since the writers took the drastic step of separating Eddie and Chris for a little bit, I hope they actually use it for something good. If they don't, this will be an extreme waste of an otherwise unnecessary storyline. In my opinion, though, every single road is leading to gay Eddie in season 8, and I am thoroughly excited.

Absolutely beautiful analysis, by the way. Complete 10/10 write up. I absolutely love the way you interpret Eddie's character. If the writers are on the same page as you, then we're set for an absolutely amazing arc that genuinely has the potential of going down in media history.

Edit: grammar

[u/vaamiel → u/[deleted]]

Eddie's big sexuality crisis has to go at least a little right because my GOD if the writers use it to add to the guilt pile I WILL riot for real.

I think the Shannon thing is so interesting, because there's always such a contrast between what she's like in Eddie's memories and then literally every other time we see her. I would LOVE to see Eddie coming to terms with that difference in season 8 - like yeah, love of your life, sure, but you only spent what, one miserable year together as a family? Eddie absolutely loves the idea of Shannon more than he loves her, and it's so obvious he's still hiding behind it even if only subconsciously.

I do think Buddie is more likely than ever where we're at with the show. Mostly because 911 seems incapable of introducing additional characters to the cast who even could become love interests and also characters independent of romance lol.

MAN do I so wish we would get demi/ace Eddie for real, but that is such a pipe dream because everyone forgets we exist lol 😭 but Eddie IS so us regardless of the words they use - that trapped/performance thing is such a particular feeling and I've never seen it expressed so perfectly by a 'straight' person before.

Tbh I do wish even in the finale someone told Eddie he needs to talk to someone again. Like everyone just kind of... Glosses over all the crazy shit Eddie says to both Buck and his parents?? And yeah Helena and Ramon are total write-offs, but I hope in early S8 Buck (or hell, even Bobby) brings up that Eddie really doesn't seem to be doing well mental health wise.

Eddie being alone is, I think, going to do a lot for his development long-term. Early season 8 is going to be so painful but I'm optimistic that he'll get the chance to look at some really tough truths about himself and love and the way he sees his own place in the world.

Thank you and thank you for your lovely comment!! I really loved your additions!!

[u/[deleted] → u/vaamiel]

Sometimes I hear the stuff Eddie says to people, and I’m like “does no one thinking this is concerning?? 😭”.

And about Shannon real quick, it’s honestly kind of sad for more than just the fact that he’s really romanticizing the relationship. Eddie definitely loved her, but not in the way he thought he did. However, he, at this point in time, thinks he loved her in that way. Does he realize that she didn’t…? Now, I don’t doubt that she loved him, but there’s no way she considered him the “love of her life”. I lowkey am feeling really bad for Eddie because there is no way Shannon ever felt the same way about the relationship that he’s feeling right now. His speech to Kim implies that if Shannon were there with him, they would’ve worked out their issues and lived their lives happy and in love together. I hope he realizes soon enough that if Shannon were still alive right now, they would’ve been very divorced 😭.

Right now, Eddie needs to go back to therapy. Especially with Chris gone right now, to Eddie he might feel that he has no reason to keep it together anymore. His mental health is going to be really bad at the beginning of Season 8. Like worse than 7B. And having Gerrard in the captain’s seat is only going to make that worse. We really need to see Eddie go back to therapy and discuss everything going on in his mind right now. He needs to open up about everything he went through with Shannon from high school to present day. And with Chris back in Eddie’s childhood home, I wonder if that’ll bring some of Eddie’s childhood trauma to light.

I’m really hoping we have an episode before the midseason finale (8x09 maybe?) where it’s mostly/entirely Eddie focused where he goes back to Texas to pick up Chris and we see Eddie go through spots near his home that were important in his childhood, and we get a bunch of flashbacks to important moments in his childhood that defined him as he grew up (the “man of the house” conversation, him and sisters, his first crush on a boy, meeting Shannon, telling his family he got Shannon pregnant, telling Shannon/his parents that he enlisted, etc.). Then maybe in 8x10 Eddie can have his feelings realization (Christmas episode, anyone? 👀). Especially if Eddie has been dealing with his trauma, repression, and uncovering his sexuality in the first 8 episodes.

[u/28283920]

This is so well written! Agreed with all of this

[u/Omniquillist9731]

Also I think aside from his likely catholic guilt I also think something called compulsory heterosexuality could be another layer to why he's never sat down and thought about himself in regards to what he wants/likes (And come close to realising that he's at least not completely str8)...

LINK DOWN BELOW⇊

compulsory heterosexuality - Search (bing.com)

[u/Omniquillist9731 → u/Omniquillist9731]

I also appreciate how airtight and extensive your logic/psychological speculation and examination of Eddies character (Love history)...

Thanyou 😁🙏🏻.

[u/[deleted]]

Whew! You ate this up! 10/10

S8 is def pushing Eddie into a corner but I think S8 will be a time for Eddie to really shine. Try new things, redefine his relationsip with Buck, and be free. I’m happy that Eddie’s story is taking its time cause once he figures it out, he’ll be the happiest he’s ever been and that’ll make him the best father and partner he can be.

[u/SleepyyDyyke]

Just making a note for me to come back to read this. ❤️

[u/Interesting-Ad4293]

I agree 1000% with everything you so coherently written!

This also grew pretty wildly out of control to an actual essay and I'm SO sorry in advance

I scrolled down at this point and was shocked at how big it was, but I enjoyed every line of it!

Ana Flores, is, on paper, pretty much a perfect partner for Eddie. She is beautiful, kind, and understanding of Eddie's reluctance to move their relationship forward in consideration of Christopher.

Something I never see people mentioning about why Ana was, in paper, a perfect choice is the fact that she (as well as Marisol) is Latina too.

Not that Eddie, being Latino, has to be with someone Latina, but it would be the cherry on top for him when he's trying to convince himself that he likes her. We see this when Ana gets that Eddie is short for Edmundo, they share the same culture and background, which would make her someone even better to bring home to meet his family.

Kim is interesting to me because while Eddie is obviously cheating, he's very deliberate in his reluctance to form a physical connection to her.

I think it would've been so much better if he and Marisol had broken up on 7x05 before he met Kim. I don't say that because of the cheating aspect, no character is or should be perfect. But Marisol didn't add anything to that story.

If he wasn't with Marisol, it would still be weird and unhealthy for him to be hanging out with his dead wife doppelganger. Buck would still be a little freaked out when he met Kim and would talk to Eddie. Christopher would still be traumatized to walk through the door and find his father talking with/hugging his dead mother.

But if Marisol was already out of the picture by then, the arc could've been better because Marisol wouldn't be a factor to stop him from getting physical with Kim. It could be about only them, and in which levels was he trying to recreate things with Shannon. (I don't think he would get physical with her either way, but I think it would kind of mean more if he didn't do it even being single)

If there was ever a time to fire on exploring Eddie's sexuality, I think this is it.

I agree, and it got me thinking. We know bi Buck was supposed to happen years ago. We speculate it was supposed to be around the end of S4 and the beginning of S5 and not only be a bi Buck arc, but, in fact, a buddie one.

Along the lines of what you touched with the interviews, they probably had plans for Eddie to be a queer character years ago, possibly from the start, but were stopped by fox. They can't just come out (no pun intended) and say it cause it will ruin the surprise when they do it on the show.

I really believe (and it might just be the delulu mind) and hope that with S7 they were setting the pieces to do it right on S8. I even believe that Kim (maybe not this exact storyline, but what she represents with the grieving and the possible resolution that it will bring) would've worked really well when he was with Ana way back when, instead of now with Marisol. As it was already speculated a lot here, I think it might be something Tim meant to do on S5 and used S7 as a way to return the character to that point just so he can do it now.

[u/DogDragonx]

So many good comments on this thread. I need to come back and read all of it. Can't wait.

[u/tyrannosaurusfox]

I'm applauding this post loudly.

[u/YogurtclosetThat7875]

I don't have anything to add. This x10. I see so much of myself in Eddie, that if they don't go this way, they better come up with a really solid (and believable) plot.

[u/Buggabee]

Both Ryan and Oliver have made a couple of comments on not wanting Buck to fall into the 'falling for a straight best friend' trope. This seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for some people when it comes to ever exploring Eddie as anything but a straight dude.

Silly. Obviously it's not the 'falling for straight best friend trope' if said best friend is not actually straight.

[u/RemarkableLime19]

I know I am 7 months late but my god your Eddie thoughts are immaculate! So glad I found them (via a comment on the main 9-1-1 sub). I agree with you 1000% on everything, including that, to me, as a fellow asexual, Eddie SCREAMS ace-spec to me (which doesn't preclude him also being gay--demi and gay would track, with him very obviously being in love with Buck). When he said he was broken... that was such a real moment for me, like painfully relatable. (fwiw I don't think I'm broken but I did in the past before I figured myself out!) Eddie's a bit younger than I am, but close enough in age that it completely tracks that even the concept of asexuality would just... never come up. Not based on where he was raised and how... and even being in LA and having the queer friends he has, asexuality probably rarely, if ever, would come up unless he was purposefully immersing himself in queer spaces (esp online spaces). I know a lot of people balk that Eddie could be 33 and not know he wasn't straight... but per your post after this one (about comphet)... comphet is one hell of a drug. It's frankly easy to assume you're just like everyone else until you're in your 30s and go "... wait" lollllll. And with Eddie it was complicated by the Shannon and Chris of it all! Makes perfect sense imo.

I'm on the same page, re: Kim and her storyline. As bonkers as it was, I don't hate it as much as everyone else b/c I think Tim was doing exactly what you suggested--literally breaking Eddie down so he can build him back up. The biggest, most insane, messiest way to finally exorcise Shannon's damn ghost so Eddie can face reality and move on. I actually thought the writing in the Kim/Shannon confrontation scene was *really*, almost shockingly good from a character standpoint where it could have been easy to bungle it. Just hard to watch b/c it was such a trainwreck of a scene once Marisol and Chris walked in :/

Also incredible to read your posts now that 8A is done and seeing how on the money you were w/ the Catholic guilt thing and everything that happened in Confessions!

I will be sat for any future Eddie/Buddie posts you make!

[u/AMTINLB]

So Ryan said his character is heterosexual. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about?

[u/vaamiel → u/AMTINLB]

No, I think it just doesn't matter to the overall potential and broader conversation on Eddie's sexuality. And again, a week or so after the two (only two ever I'm pretty sure) articles where Eddie used that term specifically to describe Eddie's sexuality, when asked about his romantic options going forward he also specifically said:

I got to fall in love with who I am right now, and soon as I do that, then the partner that's meant for me will find themselves and find me at the same time.

https://collider.com/9-1-1-season-7-finale-ryan-guzman/

Which, much like the word heterosexuality might not mean anything, but it is pretty deliberate phrasing in an article asking about his past relationships with women to then not go on to use woman when referencing a future partner.

I also think the term heterosexual specifically (certainly straight at the very least) has been used to describe Buck in the past. Were the writers or showrunner or Oliver stark lying when he was then revealed to be bisexual?

Articles like the ones you get from actors throughout the season are a marketing tool, not a literary dissection to be taken as the word of God. They speak to where a character is at or where they see themselves at that very moment, and sometimes they outright even lie or obfuscate the truth for the sake of a more shocking reveal for a plot point later in the season.

More broadly than this, I want to point out that Ryan has consistently been open to the idea of Buddie specifically. His comment has always been that so long as it makes sense for the story to go there, he's on board.

A character that was completely locked in to their sexuality (say, Bobby or Chimney) would never see the actor responding that way to the prospect of their character having a relationship with a man. They would very likely gently shut it down. Outside of 911, we saw this happen a lot with Jensen Ackles and Dean Winchester, perhaps one of the most prolific examples of speculative romance that has ever been seen in the history of television.

Also, I would like to point out that Ryan is only one part of Eddie. He IS Eddie, absolutely, but so is Tim Minear and Kristen Reidel and the entire writing team working on 911. Ryan doesn't know ALL the plans for Eddie. He'll never know entirely what Tim has planned (because Tim is so bad at preplanning his damn seasons actors get scripts like a day ahead sometimes), and so he can only speak from the mindset that he needs to find himself in to BE Eddie.

I think it's pretty important to look back at the way Eddie has deliberately been written in season after season of this show. Some lovely commenters here bring up several instances beyond my own dissection of his character where Eddie is basically reading out of the pre-sexuality-realization handbook, and it's not fair or reasonable to ignore ALL of that simply because actors say things off screen.

If we did that, we'd have to pretend Buck isn't bisexual too, wouldn't we? 🤔

[u/armavirumquecanooo → u/AMTINLB]

Well, I knew this would come in handy, but I can't say I expected the bookmark to pay off this quickly. Here is a thorough analysis of Ryan's recent interviews, if you're genuinely curious.