Buddie 607 meta
I thought Felisa’s introduction was an interesting one. She’ll be closely associated with Eddie throughout the ep and by the end of it, we’ll see more layers to her, but the intro still presents her life as being to a great degree fake and shallow, very much revolving around putting on a show for her audience. Not to mention, Athena letting us know that Felisa at one point acted in such a violent and even life-endangering manner isn’t there for nothing. I found it an interesting choice to clue the audience in from the get go that this is not someone who is greatly compatible with Eddie, but even more so, that she’s not exactly someone who has room in her life to co-parent a kid with CP. And once again, it hit me hard, how in comparison, from 201 already we saw how similar Buck and Eddie are, and from 202 how much Buck would adore this kid,care about him, be a good co-parent and make all the room for Chris in his life.
~~ We saw in previous eps that when something is up with Buck, Eddie always notices it. So it came as no surprise he was the first to raise an eyebrow at Buck’s diet change. However, I had to scream a little about the shot that reveals this (and had to gif it). They could have focused on Buck’s glass after he was seated, they could have filmed him torso up. But no, they let Buck sit down as the camera follows him, and more than that, they had him sit down in profile, which emphasizes the crotch area way more than if he were to sit down normally and we’d get a frontal shot. This is intentional as all heck, and the framing expressions on Eddie’s face as he watches him, making it seem like Buck’s crotch is what he’s noticing, it’s too much to all be coincidental. ~~
But back to Eddie being THE team member with Buck senses that tingle, this ep showed us that it’s not just us thinking their bond is unique. The fact that we get a zoom in on Bobby looking at Eddie with an inquiring expression and gesture with Athena also turning his attention to him to get his reaction, and that Eddie without even a pause says he doesn’t know what’s up with Buck, it once again demonstrates that the trope of “everyone sees it” is true for Buddie. Everyone around them is completely aware that these two are married. ~~
Okay, regarding Buck’s sperm donation, the universe was CLEARLY screaming at him that this shouldn’t happen. In an ep that directly references back to 406, where Buck first tells Eddie that, and in doing so reveals himself to be someone who believes in listening to signs, and who reaffirms that this hasn’t changed because when his secret comes out he mutters to himself, “Stupid bracelet curse,” it’s very interesting that he ignores it all and goes ahead with the donation (at least for now). I do assume that the point is whatever he chooses, it will be his choice. He’s not being superstitious, or latching onto excuses, he’s choosing his own path, and that will play into the rest of this storyline in terms of his growth as a person. ~~
Small side note from a gay person who knows a lot of gay couples that had to use sperm donations: men have to abstain from masturbation to do a sperm count, it’s not a personal choice, and the period of time to abstain is 2-7 days. Anything above that makes the sample worse in terms of sperm quality. My point is, Buck was trying to make things better, but he actually made them worse. I trust the writers did their basic research and they know this fact. ~~
The oblivious Eddie vibes were strong in this ep. While we got the background story for his disbelief in the supernatural, it also generally demonstrated that Eddie doesn’t tend to believe in that which he can’t see with his own eyes. He needs palpable proof, and neither emotions nor their significance can be proven that way, which might explain why he keeps missing the signs regarding what he and Buck really have. ~~
Something that got to me (and can also be counted in the “oblivious Eddie” column) was Felisa telling him that Alexis is all she has. As Eddie suspects this assistant of wrongdoing, he will later in the ep tell Felisa he knows Alexis is the only one she feels she can count on. It was just really loud to me, Eddie can try and talk to Felisa about what this means because he knows exactly what it’s like to have someone like that, Buck. So the subtext parallels Alexis with Buck, which means I was watching with interest to see what will we discover about this assistant? Even though everything seemed to point to her being guilty, if she was subtly paralleled with Buck, I was pretty convinced it would turn out she wasn’t the one hurting Felisa. I loved finding out that this ended up being the case. And I also thought it was interesting that in this context, Eddie brings up the tsunami in the ep’s last scene. The only way he thinks he can turn this woman’s POV around is to give Chris as an example. And that is exactly what he was doing for Buck as well, in 301. Not to mention, Buck embraced the insight Eddie was offering him during his chat with Chris in 302. Even in terms of the character’s name (yes, the name geek is about to strike again), Felisa comes from the Spanish version of the Roman name Felix, which means “lucky,” but also “happy” (for example, ‘felix finis’ means “happy ending” in Latin), and who do we know who’s been on a quest to find his happiness this season? This ep might not have been Buddie heavy in the text itself, but Buck was there, between the lines of Eddie’s storyline, the whole time.
(apologies for my own inferior gifs for this one section of the post) ~~
And that can also be seen in the moment when Eddie expresses his notion that he’s starting to think he might be the one who’s cursed. It’s the dramatic turn point in that arc and, despite Hen and Chim being the ones more closely associated for most of the ep with the whole thing (the ones who talk to Eddie about it, expresses their fear and superstition, trying to keep a distance from the bracelet), it’s Buck that Eddie says those words to. That’s the show telling us it recognizes that everything has more potency when it’s between those two. Plus, it’s also a reminder that even in the middle of his own trouble with his sperm donation, Buck will always check in on Eddie. ‘Coz that’s just how soulmates roll.
~~ Thank you to anyone reblogging! Y’all give me life. And for any show of support. I also wanna thank wholeheartedly @whosoldherout, who not only produced fabulous gifs for this meta as always, she did so while dealing with some stuff, and I just want you to know you’re a hero! xoxox
