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On paper, a Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) roadtrip sounds like a dream. Hours of effortless banter, deep chats, shared snacks, and carefree karaoke? Yes please! But on 9-1-1, dreams can turn to nightmares at the drop of a dime. And that’s what happens in Season 9, Episode 13, “Mother’s Boy.”
After an exciting 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Nashville crossover saw Buck and Eddie travel to Music City to compete in the National Firefighter Games, their flight back to Los Angeles gets canceled, so Buck suggests a cross-country road trip. “We did this crossover, and it felt like an opportunity to not just cram Buck and Eddie into an episode of Nashville. I wanted it to feel like it had ramifications for 9-1-1 as well,” co-creator/showrunner Tim Minear told DECIDER over Zoom. “And how can you not want to do a road trip?”
Putting Buck and Eddie on the road gave Minear, who wrote Episode 913, the freedom to explore their fan-favorite dynamic. “I didn’t have to worry about cramming in three other character stories and six emergencies. I could really just live in those scenes and let them ping off each other. And that’s super fun for me,” the showrunner explained.
The time in the car offered an intimate look at the comfort and ease Buck and Eddie feel with one another. They ranked Arnold Schwarzenegger films, reminisced on old adventures (the Lone Star crossover episode), munched on cheese balls, and repeatedly belted “Carry on Wayward Son” by Kansas. Though, sadly, the needle drop wasn’t a reference to Supernatural.
“There were a couple songs I had in there. I don’t remember the original ones. But I was like, ‘What about Foreigner?’ I wanted it to be a true dude song. [9-1-1 EP/director] Brad Buecker mentioned ‘Wayward Son,’ and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s perfect,'” Minear recalled. “These guys are younger, so I didn’t know if they knew who Kansas was. But in fact, Ryan Guzman was going to pitch that idea, too. It was great. And then [9-1-1 EP/writer] Kristen Reidel is like, ‘This is a big song for Supernatural,’ which I have not seen. Apparently they open or end every season with that song. So I was like, ‘OK, the armchair critics are going to be reading a lot of meaning into this, when really there is no meaning.’ I just thought it was a cool song.”
Photo: Disney/Christopher WillardIn true 9-1-1 fashion, what started as lighthearted excursion quickly turned dark. The firefighters got lost and started bickering like an old married couple, a truck ran their car off the road, Eddie landed in the hospital, and Buck got kidnapped by a grieving mother (Melinda McGraw) in a horror story inspired by the 1990 film Misery, adapted from Stephen King’s novel.
“I think [writers] James Leffler and Molly Green had mentioned, ‘What about Misery?’ So I just took that and ran with it. It needed to be a story that you could tell economically, because we only have 43 minutes… I just really wanted to put Buck and Eddie on the road and then have them have a disaster,” Minear said.
While writing the epic adventure for 9-1-1‘s best friends, Minear also got to team up with his own pal, director Jonathan Lawrence, who he grew up with in Whittier, California. “We’ve been making Super 8 films together since we were about eight years old. And Jonathan went off and did a lot of independent stuff, but he’d never directed television. So I figured, I’m powerful enough now. I can afford to hire my childhood chum,” Minear said. “The fact that he directed this episode was perfect. It really felt like we were 12 years old again. It’s me and Jon, but it’s also Buck and Eddie, and it’s Ryan and Oliver. So it’s that best friend thing. It was kismet.”
Observant 9-1-1 fans may recognize Lawrence’s name as director of Season 8, Episode 17, “Don’t Drink the Water,” which featured a heated Buck and Eddie kitchen fight. So is Lawrence the official Buddie Fight director? “I think now he will definitely have cemented his place in the lore with that, because there’s more bickering in this one,” Minear mused.
Photo: Disney/Christopher WillardThe Buddie fight in “Mother’s Boy” climaxes in a roadside diner booth, where Buck dramatically shouts, “We get a little lost, a little off track, and suddenly you’re all dark, and gloomy, and I deserve to die? Here’s a fork, put it in my neck! Put me out of my misery. Kill me, Eddie! Kill me now, why not?!” The outburst draws attention from nearby tables, including a man who tells Eddie, “We don’t get a lot of your kind around here” and calls him “princess,” implying that he believes Buck and Eddie are a couple.
In Season 8, we saw Buck’s ex Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) question his incredibly close relationship with Eddie, too. After talking the idea of possible feelings for Eddie through with his sister Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Buck said, “As much as everyone seems to want me to be hopelessly pining for my straight best friend, it just isn’t like that.” But could the diner interaction inspire Eddie to consider the idea?
“I don’t think it’s something that’s on Eddie’s mind, particularly. Or even Buck’s. The fact that that just keeps happening, I don’t know if that’s maybe the writer?” Minear said with a chuckle.
As far as Minear is concerned, the major concern right now is Buck’s wellbeing. The “Mother’s Boy” kidnapping drew an emotional, almost primal response out of the firefighter — one that had the showrunner praising Stark. “Oliver was fantastic. I could not be happier with what he delivered. When he first wakes up in that room and he’s trying to figure out who the hell this woman is, that was a beautiful marriage between the way Jonathan directed and the way Oliver and our guest cast performed it. [They] put you into Buck’s head. So you were really with him.”
Photo: Disney/Christopher WillardIn exploring parent/child dynamics for the second week in a row, 9-1-1 also pushed Buck to confront his grief over Bobby (Peter Krause) and admit that sometimes, he doesn’t know who he is without him. “The whole thing kind started in the previous episode, when Buck realized, once again, that his real family is the 118, and that even Bobby knew Eddie would be back,” Minear said. “All season, I’ve been trying to put a spotlight on individual characters and their grief about Bobby. And now it’s time for Buck.”
Since Buck and Eddie spent the episode fighting to get back to each other, Minear promised they’ll emerge from the experience “closer.” But lingering trauma, grief, and possible medical complications will also follow Buck home.
“How does he come out of this? Not all injuries are visible on the outside and there will be ramifications to what has happened. And we actually we start to pick that up in the next episode. And it is not over right away.”
Stay tuned for more 9-1-1 Season 9 teases when the second part of our interview publishes.
New episodes of 9-1-1 premiere Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC with next-day streaming on Hulu.
English (US)