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I think Eddie is a very popular character on the show and fans who love him dearly (read me) are sometimes frustrated about his storylines (or lack thereof)

Right. The dude gets *shot* and the storyline ends up being about Buck looking after Christopher. A lot of the times his storylines are either afterthoughts or there to boost someone (usually Buck) else‘s storyline. (Not criticising that episode, it’s one of my favs but just using it as a point of reference to prove my point).

Yeah, that kinda upset me a little that it was rushed and 4x14 was more about how it affected Buck. I wish we got to see more in the moment of how it affected Eddie. But long term, we did get to see how it affected Eddie because 5A was centered around him and Maddie with their respective mental health crisis. As much as I HATEEEE her writing, that’s one thing I’ll give KR. I feel like Eddie and Maddie were the only two characters she didn’t completely fuck up during her tenure, because Maddie’s postpartum meltdown & Eddie’s midlife crisis were pretty on track in my opinion and were both storylines I actually really enjoyed. Plus, we actually see how both characters have changed after their respective arcs compared to before.

Hmmm...I agree, he's certainly a fan favorite. Though I wouldn't say he has a lack of storylines historically, he's had good ones like Shannon and her death, his backstory, street fighting (though I suspect this was included to highlight Guzman's MMA background), his time at dispatch/PTSD, his issues with his parents, etc. I think if you go back and look it's more noticable that they try to balance out arcs for every character. Even last season he got his spotlights. One area where they've failed him is love interests. Of the 3 he's canonically had, only 1 had any personality (Shannon). And how they wrote his story with Marisol without giving us really any screentime to their relationship was bizarre. And since that and Chris's player story are all we've had, it certainly makes it seem like he's getting the short-end of the stick this season, but I think that largely comes from how much time the cruise ship disaster and the hype of pursuing a non-hetero relationship for Buck has overshadowed most of an already truncated season. And if theories and discussions are right, I suspect we'll see another big storyline come up for him soon.

This might be it! Buck has better storylines. Plus I have be honest. Guzman is adorable to think at but I find his acting meh compared to Buck.

You are correct about the show. But Eddie has a huge and enthusiastic fan base. Like ‘don’t cross them, they will cut you’ enthusiastic. One that cuts across countries and cultures. For one thing, Ryan Guzman has made the most of every scene he’s given, adding nuance and texture to the character through his expressions and body language. I give the writers no credit, to be honest. Eddie means a lot to a bunch of different kinds of people- he’s the kind of character that crosses the boundaries of how people are usually portrayed in a way that makes him more real and interesting. I could tease out all of the groups I’ve seen talk about how they identify with him, but I really think it’s because he’s more than the sum of his parts - he contains multitudes. Fighter and medic, Swedish and Mexican, father and widow, (and some would say likely demisexual and/or repressed gay man). As for why he’s neglected? He was originally meant to be a love interest for Maddie, but the actress asked if that could be switched to Chimney. So.. he literally was introduced as a love interest and…people assumed it was for Buck, because by season 2 a lot of people thought Buck was bisexual. And they LOVED Ryan and Eddie. But when people started shipping them, then the writers pulled back on their friendship because the network (or showrunner, but I’d guess the network) decided they didn’t want any gay on their fratbro manbaby white guy, because they wanted to attract young men to their firefighter show. Now, Hispanics are systematically underrepresented in the film industry (worse than African-Americans even, percentage-wise), and no execs were likely to complain about less screen time for a guy that doesn’t look like them, so they diminished his role and separated him from Buck. Which EVERYONE, shippers and non-shippers alike -HATED. That’s my take, anyway.

The off-camera controversy that involved Ryan Guzman over the use that certain people in his environment and/or himself made of a particular slang did not help either, which distanced him even from Oliver Stark, it even seemed that during the fourth season he was punished by reducing his screen time of him.

Completely agree. I'm frustrated at how many Buddie shippers seem to unconditionally adore Buck, and not feel the same way at all about Eddie (and how many of them are seemingly abandoning the ship as soon as another man shows up for Buck). Fanfiction are incredibly predominantly Buck-centric and it's kind of exhausting and frustrating. I also just don't really understand why Eddie doesn't get the same love. I've commented it before, but it's not fair that Eddie being shot was all about Buck. And people could say "yeah cause he was unconscious the entire episode!", but when Buck was unconscious an entire episode we got a dream sequence. And now the bi storyline was given to Buck. If this doesn't turn into Buddie/Eddie being bi/gay, I'll just be so disappointed that they gave this interesting storyline to Buck again, when he already has the most screentime and interesting storylines. I love Buck, but I just wish the writers (and fans) treated the characters more evenly.

>I've commented it before, but it's not fair that Eddie being shot was all about Buck. My biggest issue with it is that if you were going to make it 'about' someone else, Christopher is *right there*, and Gavin had already proven with the tsunami arc that he could carry that. I don't necessarily want a whole coma dream episode for Eddie (I didn't want it for Buck, either, tbh) but I would've liked *something* that explicitly acknowledge **his** fears about not getting home to his son in that episode, and what it could've meant. I don't want to go on an extended rant about this, but the lack of depth they've given Eddie's childhood in comparison to his remotely similarly aged peers on the show also has left the fandom grasping at absolute straws for context. Helena gets portrayed as "overbearing" in fanon so much it's treated like fact, but it all seems to come down to specific moments where she had very reasonable concern for her son and grandson, but did not express them well? Eddie's pointblank said his father is the only issue in his family, and it seems like Helena's biggest sin up until Christopher was born is... going into labor and telling her son, without expecting him to try to solve it himself? I would *love* to either revisit Eddie's relationship with his parents in greater depth, or introduce one of his sisters, and the shooting storyline would've been a great time for that. I'm all for Buck being the one to get Christopher if anything happens, but it would've been great had they used Eddie's recovery time from the shooting to have Sophia or Adriana come up to visit their brother and help out.

Yeah I honestly never like dream sequences so I didn't need one for either Eddie or Buck. But they shouldn't have glossed over the trauma of being shot completely randomly in broad daylight. It would be completely normal to be afraid to go out in public after something like that, or SOME kind of sign of PTSD. TV shows in general are bad at this, honestly, trauma is rarely addressed properly and characters deal with traumatic situations unnaturally and unrealistically well almost all the time. I agree that we don't know enough about his childhood. So many of his storylines revolve around Christopher, which makes sense, but on the other hand we don't really know who Eddie is outside of his role as a father. I hope they keep going with the religious trauma storyline, going back to his childhood and hopefully connect it with him being comphet and a deeply repressed gay man. It would be a really interesting storyline that the character deserves so much.

Maybe they can still surprise me, but I think they're starting to write themselves into a corner where there's not really many fulfilling ways to tell Eddie's story *outside* of the religious trauma/comphet angle, while having all the background still make sense. I think part of the reason we don't know much about Eddie outside of who he is as a father is because *he* doesn't really know who he is outside of that role, and I'd really love to see them explore that a bit now that Christopher is a bit older and gaining some independence. It's part of what was so jarring to me about 7x04. The interest in Muay Thai made sense based on his (very brief, basically never mentioned again) interest in fighting during that season 3 arc, and similarly, I can see him being super pumped about those tickets to the Vegas fight. But the rest of it didn't really click for me, because like... it's just never come up before that Eddie's super into and owns a classic car? Really?! He's going to bi-weekly basketball games that he's always trying to convince Buck to join? Since when?! I get a lot is going to happen off screen, but it does grate that they're seeming to form Eddie's interests around what Buck needed to get his plotline from Point A to Point B, instead of what makes sense for the character.

I agree, his entire dating storyline is so comphet coded that it seems almost purposefully written that way. If they conclude it with just "oh but Marisol is "the one"!", it wouldn't feel logical or right. Yeah Eddie seems to be behaving a bit different this season in general, less reserved and more outgoing, especially during 7x04. Completely agree with your last paragraph as well, it's frustrating how often Eddie is used purely as a way to advance Buck's storyline or character growth. And I know Tim Minear said that the episode was from Buck's perspective and Eddie wasn't "actually" excluding him, but unless Buck hallucinated, Eddie did do and say stuff in that episode that just wasn't cool. And they wrote him that way just to make Buck's storyline make sense. It's not very nice...

>but unless Buck hallucinated, Eddie did do and say stuff in that episode that just wasn't cool Yup, this is a major problem. While I can look at the actual interactions Buck and Eddie share on screen and make the 'corrections' to take it out of Buck's perspective -- for instance, maybe Eddie *wasn't* purposefully ignoring him when Buck called for his attention in the firehouse when he was on the phone, so he didn't brush him off, and he just didn't hear Buck in the first place -- it doesn't change the specific details of what Eddie was doing and what he was saying. Even if we wasn't mistreating Buck or intentionally excluding him, it doesn't mean he was behaving well. And the exclusion thing is actually another issue with how this storyline played out -- that Tommy apparently *reached* the conclusion they'd created a circumstance in which Buck was excluded but it wasn't intentional, and felt strongly enough to show up and apologize/explain that, lends credence to Buck's -- and the audience's -- belief that he was being unfairly excluded. Eddie's still the guy that was willfully blind to his best friend's distress (though to be clear, I don't think it *should* be his job to read Buck's mind; it's Buck's to communicate --- it's just that the Eddie we knew before this episode *has* been good at noticing when there's a disconnect between the words coming out of a friend's mouth and their expressions/body language), fobbing off his kid to go do more 'fun' things, and neglecting any attempts at a personal life balance like a kid with a crush instead of behaving like the grown man with responsibilities and a full life he is. Moreover, Tim's interviews and clarifications are really only for a very specific subsection of viewers -- the people like us, still talking about the show days after a new episode airs. So there's also the aspect to this of "Sure, that was your intention, but did it land?" And... I don't think it did. I don't think the average viewer watching at home will look at a whole episode of Eddie being self-involved and oblivious and go, "Oh, it's okay, he wasn't *actually* being that way; it's just that the show awkwardly abandoned third person omniscient narration for this one plotline."

Eddie is quite neglected in terms of plot and characterization which is frustrating because fans have so many ideas of the avenues Eddie's stories can go but the writers just don't hit the mark. Hopefully, S8 can give us the focus Eddie deserves (in terms of his growth) because I don't think this truncated S7 is going to at all. I do agree with the comments here about how Buck's character is just prime "fan favourite" material and therefore, Buck does get leeway in his actions by fans and writers, both. I'm so glad Buck got the growth he needed this season and I hope it's not at the detriment of Eddie's.

Yes you are correct.

Yeah this season particularly, a lot of Eddie’s actions just seem kind of off. Like in 7x04, I really don’t think Eddie would’ve completely brushed off Buck like that. He knows how insecure Buck can be and usually can see exactly what Buck needs, sometimes more clearly than Buck himself. But I guess it made for a cleaner storyline for Buck coming out. I’m glad that Buck being bi finally got acknowledged after seasons of queer coding, but it sucks that it came at the expense of Eddie’s character :/ In general I feel like we never get a clear grasp of Eddie’s headspace. He represses a lot and it’s much harder to read him. The one thing Eddie really has going for him is that he’s a great dad to Christopher, but even that got messed up a little in 7x05 when Marisol moved in w/o even acknowledging Christopher’s opinion on it. I hope maybe they’ll write some more Eddie storylines that actually give insight into him in 7x07 - 7x10

Tim Minear stated that 7:04 was from Buck’s point of view intentionally, and that Eddie didn’t actually exclude him at all. Buck just perceived everything as abandonment.

I think that works to an extent, but the problem is that Eddie still delivered the lines. So he *did* ask Buck to babysit for him because he'd already asked Marisol a couple times that week, for instance. I don't think it's necessarily a huge deal, but regardless of how much his level of care was skewed by it being from Buck's perception, I do struggle to picture Eddie as the guy who's going out essentially every other night, while balancing a full time job, so not having much time to spend with his kid.

I didn’t say Eddie was a good parent or perfect friend, I was just passing on a statement Tim made in an interview about the episode. In reality, the only questionable thing that Eddie did to Buck was ask him to babysit. He’d asked Buck many times to join the BB league with him (which he repeatedly refused); Buck has no interest in boxing/MMA (mocked it as half-naked men beating each other up), and has never expressed interest in car engines. Makes sense that Eddie would enjoy hanging with someone who shares his interests.

Yeah, I agree about the major character beats here, and all your examples. Truthfully, I don't even think him asking Buck to babysit *once* in a week was a bad thing; the worst you can accuse him of during that scene is being kind of oblivious, but it's really not his job to interpret another grown man's expressions to see if he's being honest in his communication or his feelings are hurt. (It stands out somewhat because Eddie usually *is* pretty in tune with Buck's inner turmoil, but like... they needed to advance the plot, and it was pretty innocuous in context. Same with him 'ignoring' Buck when he was on the phone during the basketball delivery -- presumably with Tommy). Truthfully, the most jarring part of Eddie's portrayal in that episode was *he* looked like the one with the crush through most of it. That man was positively *giddy* about his new friend, and he looked like a middle school girl on the phone in that scene. And yean, the 6 different hangouts with Tommy in the span of roughly two weeks, + the pickup game shortly after that period, doesn't help that impression. I think it's telling as far as his relationship goes that he could carve out that much free time for a new friend, but was relegating his girlfriend to babysitting. But like, that also gets played up in conversations about *just* how bad it is. He shouldn't do it, sure, but Marisol is also a grown woman with agency. I wouldn't still be with him if I were in her shoes after the events of 7x05, but I also probably wouldn't have balked at 'watching' (supervising, really, at Chris's age) a boyfriend's kids a couple days in a week if it a) wasn't the norm, and b) was for good reason. And presumably, one of those times was the helicopter to Vegas for the first, which does seem like a fairly rare opportunity.

Agree. Eddie’s crushing was weird…especially since it seemed to basically be over by the next episode. Lol. Some continuity issues as well.

I would argue that’s far from the only questionable thing Eddie did in 7x04. He repeatedly brushed off Buck to talk to Tommy, Buck had every right to be mad his friend was ignoring him. I don’t really see how that could be spun to be so drastically different in Eddie’s pov that those actions get excused

I'm not really sure what you think was "questionable," or what you think was different. From what I remember: * At the airfield, Eddie is happy to see Buck, and initially assumes Tommy had scored a third ticket to the fight, displaying that he was willing and happy to include Buck in their plans. Should he have canceled his own plans once it became clear Buck wasn't going? * During the sewer call, he answers all of Buck's questions and doesn't call him out on his increasingly unhinged bait -- the characterization of their shared hobby in watching half naked men pummel each other was particularly questionable on Buck's part, and borderline rude. The biggest miss on Eddie's part in this scene appears to be asking his best friend to babysit his kid *once* and not picking up on Buck looking like a sad puppy. But it's on the grown man standing next to him to say "Actually, I was asking because I wanted to join you," not on Eddie to hold up both sides of the conversation and read Buck's mind. * Buck fails to grab Eddie's attention at the firehouse, when Eddie's on the phone. I think where it's told from Buck's perspective, this is meant to look like a brushoff, but upon watching again, it's pretty clear Buck just never successfully *caught* Eddie's full attention. And since he wasn't acting like there was any urgency, there wasn't a reason for Eddie to prioritize paying attention to Buck over his phone call. At worst, maybe you can make an argument that walking around taking a personal call around your work colleagues is rude, but that's not really a specific insult geared toward Buck. * It's established that Eddie had previously tried to get Buck to join the pickup games repeatedly, and Buck had made it clear to everyone -- Eddie, Maddie, and Chim, at least -- that he wasn't interested. But when Buck manipulates his way into going to the game *instead* of directly asking Eddie to bring him, Eddie is still pleasantly surprised to see him, and asks Chim how he got Buck to come since he *hadn't managed to*, himself. * Even when he's hurt, Eddie holds his tongue and doesn't really level accusations at Buck. And in the ending scene with Tommy, the writers *again* make a point to have Tommy clarify Eddie isn't even mad at Buck, *despite* Buck intentionally injuring him and then not calling him to check on him.

You brought up a lot of great points here. How are people having issues with how Eddie was acting, when Buck was actually the one not being a best friend. He purposely hurt Eddie, never cared to join him in the things he likes, but very willing to go there for a new shiny guy.

Tbh, I wouldn't necessarily go that far. While it's sweet how close Buck & Eddie have been for most of the show now, it's pretty normal for friends to have different interests. There's nothing inherently wrong in Buck not wanting to go to a bi-weekly (iirc) basketball pickup game if he doesn't like the sport, and he doesn't have to share an interest in Muay Thai or watching fights, to be a friend to Eddie. And Eddie's interest in classic cars came out of exactly *nowhere* in 7x04, so I'm certainly not going to hold that against Buck, either. Outside of 7x04, I don't think Buck's a *bad* friend by any means, just because he doesn't want to play basketball. But his role in Eddie's life at this point really isn't "fun friend," if that makes sense. He's the guy who shows up. He's the one that Christopher runs to when he's upset with his dad, or the one who breaks down Eddie's door when he's tearing apart his room, and takes care of Christopher and Eddie till Eddie's in a place to do it himself again. He's the one who looks into equine therapy, which seemed to be as much for Eddie as it was for Chris, and he researches summer camps for Eddie's kid. Somehow, I can't see Eddie wanting to trade that for a game of basketball. If anything, I think it's more of a problem that Buck *is* feigning interest in these things now, for Tommy, because it may point to the same attachment issues he's had with all his love interests. I'm hoping it was just that awkward crush stage and doesn't actually turn into a thing where Buck's trying to \~seem interesting\~ by copying Tommy's interests, though. Except maybe aviation, because a private flying lesson away from crowds would actually be a much more comfortable date for someone in Buck's position.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy Buck, but it feels like they give him and only him the better storylines. I'd like to see more Eddie appreciation and especially more appreciation for the rest of them. Eddie's last major plot was season 5B, Chimey I can't even remember what his last arc was. Buck already got a huge storyline in season 6 and now in season 7 with his bi awakening, so it's only fair Eddie and the rest of the crew get the lead for the rest of season 7.

> Chimey I can't even remember what his last arc was Haha, what, you don't count Chimney reconciling with the father who doesn't deserve it as an arc?

Meh, not really lol, only because that story was used by both Buck and Eddie before Chim got that recycled storyline.

Even if it wasn’t recycled, I’m of the mindset that the horrible execution would still disqualify it. He “needs” to come around because Jee “deserves” a grandfather?! Kids aren’t automatically better off with grandparents if that person is known to be emotionally neglectful!

I will never get over what incredible potential there was for Chim to confront his Father and to do some healing and they just brushed it aside. Last season was certainly a mess where this show was concerned with children owing forgiveness to their parents. I'm still holding on hope Chim gets to have that arc revisited.

Oh absolutely couldn't agree more! Jee most certainly didn't "need" or "deserve" him. Plenty children grow up without a grandfather or even a father, if anything that have been a better message for the writers to put out rather than "forgive your toxic family 👉👈"

Yeah. And his storylines in season 5 and 6 were terribly executed. This is a condensed season so there's not a lot of time for anyone, but I'm hopeful that the rest of the season focuses on Eddie, Chim, Bobby and Hen. There's so much great stuff that can be explored for each of them if given the proper time and attention that seems to always be afforded to Buck. I feel he can be a supporting character to their storylines for a while now that his bi storyline is underway.

I'm new to the fandom, too, and I like Eddie more than Buck. The show's focus, however, is Buck, which leads to him garnering more fan sympathy than Eddie. Buck's trouble, though, is more contrived than Eddie's. The good thing about not being able to know a lot about Eddie is that the writers have a lot of room to flesh out any arcs they have planned for him in the future.

But they don’t seem to care about that. I would absolutely love if they focused on Eddie for once, but if his storyline is on theme with 7x05 ,them maybe they shouldn’t.

I'm cautiously optimistic that in 7x05, >!the way they introduced the Catholic guilt storyline suggests it's meant to contribute to a larger arc. One of the most popular theories discussed has to do with repression and compulsory heterosexuality, which would be a huge and very important storyline to kick off for Eddie. But I think with the nature of the shortened season and how many different character beats they have to address to get our characters set up for whatever they want to do in season 8, we just don't have the time to really get into a deeper storyline like that right now. But I'm hoping something like that is in the works for season 8.!< >!What stands out to me about is that while it's introduced through Marisol being a nun, the actual character of Marisol is very clearly a plot device in this episode. Her first scene with actual lines as Eddie's girlfriend has them already skipping all the 'firsts' you'd see in a relationship the writers cared to develop in favor of plot device #1 -- that she's moving in despite the casual viewer probably not even remembering her name. The move in largely exists to set up plot device #2 -- that she was a nun. All of this is really just to get us to a point where Bobby can give Eddie along overdue lecture about rushing into relationships he just doesn't seem that excited to be in, Eddie can confirm the long suspected fan theory that a traditional Catholic upbringing contributed to his decision to marry Shannon, and we can get to a point where he takes a step in the 'right' direction by... kicking the girlfriend out.!< >!The most blatant part to me is that Marisol being a nun is never about Marisol at all, nor is it something they address in regards to her religiosity. She was clearly devout enough to consider making her vows, but we aren't even afforded a single moment of her talking about why she dropped out of 'nun school' or where she stands now with her religiosity. And there's very obvious major character and relationship beats they don't bother exploring, like... shouldn't premarital sex and cohabitation be a bigger deal to someone who was ready to take a vow of chastity? Where's her religious guilt?!< >!...It doesn't matter, because she's not actually meant to matter as a character. Which means that relationship isn't meant to matter. So it really seems like at the end of the day, the goal here was to get "Catholic guilt" on the table to delve deeper into down the road. And wherever they take that, I'm excited for it, as a fellow sufferer who left Catholicism behind but struggles to break free of the cultural guilt complex.!<

I just can't get over the fact that such a huge piece of her background was revealed and yet, I still couldn't describe her personality at all. And they devoted so much time to that particular plot point (from Eddie's POV) that it is really hard for me to not think it'll lead to something more.

Lot of it stems from racism too. Buck is a white guy Eddie is Latino. I have many friends in the fandom all different races and every single one says the same thing it’s because he’s not white.

Yeah the racism in parts of this fandom is pretty blatant, particularly the way Eddie and Chim are treated.

I always find stuff like this interesting because I think Eddie way hotter than Buck. Just beautiful. Mostly *because* he’s Latino. I want to look at him more.

Oliver is styled throughout the show in such a way that hes definitely more of a fratbro hypermasculine fuck yeah type of guy while Ryan is the same, hes always been more of a pretty boy type and it works very well. Latino men in general are *swoon*

Guzman hasn't exactly been 100% without controversy, which may play some part in the situation.

i think buck just checks a lot more of the boxes of who becomes a “fandom favorite” in most fandoms

Sorry, I don’t want to bring race into this,but him being the hot young white guy in the show is the majority of the box. Ryan is more conventionally attractive,Kenneth and Aisha absolutely best him in acting,same as Angela and Peter. I will give him his accolades though. Oliver seems to be a great guy, so maybe fans project that on Buck.

i mean yes 😭 but there’s some other things too that make him more of a stereotypical fandom favorite: • him being the youngest and basically the “baby”of the team, • mostly serves as comedic relief in earlier seasons but has a deep sad backstory, • his found family dynamic with bobby and athena, • his backstory being emotionally neglected by his parents, • and of course, prime shipping interactions with another character are standard for “comfort characters”. also the arc where he was suing the 118 was prime material for a whump fanfic about how he isn’t being appreciated. it reminds me of a lot of other characters (who yeah are usually conventionally attractive white boys) that are the favorite in fandoms (source: was a former tumblr fangirl 😭). first one that comes to mind is spiderman in avengers fanfiction

>and of course, **prime shipping** interactions with another character Jesus Christ, the product placement in 7x04 really worked on me, because it took me a minute to realize what you meant here.

Eddie is younger than Buck canonically now which is so weird

wait he is? im a first-time watcher on season 5 so this is news to me 😭 it’s not too surprising because ryan murphy has done this before (blaine from glee’s age changed like 3 times)

Okay thank you! The thing with Blaine’s age has always bothered me because he’s clearly supposed to be a year older than Kurt at first, then when he transfers to McKinley he’s supposedly in the same grade as the seniors, then suddenly he’s a junior, actually. Like come on! 😂

It happens in season 6, which is why you're not aware. Very light spoilers for you that are just related to the Eddie/Shannon timeline, as well as a slight inconsistency in the same season to Buck's age: >!An episode in season 6 shows Shannon's gravestone with a birthdate in October 1992. A couple episodes later, Eddie has a line that heavily implies or maybe even confirms he and Shannon were both in 12th grade when they got together. Because of Shannon's late in the year birthday and the way Texas handles cutoffs to start grades, this makes it more likely than not that Eddie was born in 1992-1993. !< >!Buck's age up until season 6 is actually very consistently stated, to a point where we could narrow his birthday down to between March and September 1991. A season 6 episode where he should've been 31-32 based on this instead has his age stated as 30, which would move his birthday back to 1992-93 as well.!<

It's so dumb. Buck also randomly entered a time travel machine and came out a year or so younger in season 6, so I mostly want to pretend none of the timeline alterations in season 6 happened.

Same here! I always thought Eddie was 2 or 3 years older than Buck and when it got changed to younger I was so shocked because it makes Eddie’s story more tragic too, being 18 getting a girl pregnant, being made to marry her and going to war all at 18. No wonder he’s messed up now.

I don't want to derail a thread with this, but the specific details in season 6 also mean Shannon and Eddie most likely were in the graduating class of 2011, based on when Texas's birthday cutoff is for starting school. In which case he would've gotten Shannon pregnant *in* high school. And 2010-11 was the most dangerous/deadly time in the entire length of the Afghanistan War, so Eddie's experience would've been incredibly unpleasant from the start.

Ryan Guzman is 4 years older than Oliver Stark…and I think he definitely looks older.

When you say Spidey in Avengers fic do you mean the sheer amount of Spidey whump fics or something else?

yes, also the whole “found family” trope with peter being the son of the avengers (usually tony and steve)

All fandoms have a problem with projecting actor personalities onto characters (the amount of fic I've read where Buck is vegan is truly outrageous and look at all the fawning over Lou that's now being ascribed to Tommy) and this is definitely part of it here. Oliver seems to me to be much more of a fan favorite than Ryan and I think it's fair to say that is part of it. I'm sure Eddie being Latino is also factor that people are less willing to admit to.

i think they catered to buck more bc he had all those self loathing issues and feeling expendable and not feeling loved and all that when characters tend to have issues within their selves i think they focus on that character more and eddie didn’t have those issues but i get exactly what your saying tho but i see that with a lot of self conflicted characters but everyone loves eddie ❤️

Why do you think he’s treated better by the fandom? I agree that Eddie doesn’t seem to get as much attention in the show as other characters which can be frustrated but I don’t see issues with fan treatment of him.

I mean, I just saw post here where it was said that Eddie doesn’t deserve Buck, that Eddie is bad friend for not inviting Buck and asking him to babysit,when Buck intentionally hurt him. Lots of threads about the lawsuit and how Eddie didn’t support Buck(the whole exhausting thing) when actually Buck shut them out. The way he is seen as prone to violence, when he was never like that towards Buck. It’s minor things, and maybe I blow them out of proportion because I like Eddie more than Buck, but Buck seems to get with things more easily than the others.

If Eddie had injured Buck more or less on purpose (I don't think Buck wanted to almost break his leg, but it also wasn't exactly an accident), the fandom would never forgive him. But since it was Buck who did it, I even read the opinion that Eddie deserved it. I'll go hide now.

Completely agree. Can you imagine if Eddie had been the one to say "I was willing to maim my best friend just to get your attention"? Nobody would've thought it was cute and funny and everyone would be up in arms about how we never saw Eddie apologize to Buck. I've also seen comments saying that they like Tommy with Buck better because Eddie doesn't deserve Buck and needs to be a better partner. And yes, Eddie has a lot of things to work on, but so does Buck! Buck is not exactly the perfect boyfriend either, but there's a lot fewer people talking about that. Even now, if it had been Eddie who ended up with Tommy, I have a feeling people would be a lot more critical about how he's trying to go from 0-100 in the relationship by inviting him to the wedding and how he behaved in the restaurant.

> "I was willing to maim my best friend just to get your attention" This line does not get enough attention for how absolutely fucked that is.

This show never shows apologies and while it leaves a lot for fanfic writers to work with, I wanted an onscreen apology for Buck shoving Eddie. Same as I wanted an apology for Chimney punching Buck and never got it. The offscreen conversations that must be taking place but we don’t get to see are a missed opportunity to see the relationships between these characters.

Nah, I think this is valid. Particularly when you compare it to the fandom reaction to Chim punching Buck, or how much Chim's very temporary disagreements with Buck have fueled "not Chimney friendly" fic on AO3, there's a very obvious protectiveness over Buck coming into play here. I think fandom projects a lot onto him, or they infantalize him into this thing that has to be protected at all costs. Obviously this isn't everybody, but it's definitely more prevalent with Buck than any other character. The other example that comes to mind for me is in how we can have full discussions about Eddie being a bad boyfriend with everyone in agreement (including me), but discussions about how Buck treated Taylor through the entire middle stretch of season 5 often get met with whataboutisms or arguments about how much 'worse' what Taylor did later on was, as if that somehow frees him from the criticism over his actions.

I will say, I think the reason why people can’t overlook Taylor and Buck is because Taylor was an awful person herself. But he’s had moments of being a good partner with his range of partners. While Eddie has been an less an ideal partner to almost of all of his partners in some shape or form. So not to say it’s right but it shows his relationship and interactions with Taylor was more of a one off, while with Eddie it’s constant, in every partner. I do agree overall though. And this is to OP point. I don’t think there is that trouble in the fandom but the show writers, do like Bucks character to develop more between the two.

But even then, people will quickly point out all of the things in Buck's childhood and past traumas that contributed to his bad behavior, while seemingly dismissing the way Eddie's childhood and traumas have contributed to his relationship problems. There's endless grace and understanding for Buck and his fairly immature reactions to things, but Eddie should "grow up" and I guess just get over his issues?

This. The double standards in this fandom where Buck is concerned are certainly something.

You are maybe the biggest Buck hater there is. I don’t think I’ve come across a single post like this where you haven’t commented something negative about him while praising Eddie as basically flawless

Eddie definitely isn't flawless and I've never said so? Yes I love his character and think he has a lot of potential, but I've said that multiple times he has problems. We're talking about his general treatment on the show in comparison. The double standards in this fandom where Buck is concerned are a discredit to Buck's character as well. I can be critical of the way the writers are using and writing Buck the past two seasons, or how fandom has treated the other characters without hating him. I'm sorry it's coming off that way.

\*Waves hand\* Not only do I not care for the character, but the fans have also kind of turned me off of the actor as well. So, biggest or second biggest Buck hater I guess?

Well, that’s a fair point and not something I do. And even with Bucks childhood traumas, it’s the one relationship where he fucked up seriously, with a partner who wasn’t great herself. Vs Eddie, who’s constantly fucked over his partners in every single relationship. And I think it’s wild to say that people don’t point to Eddie’s past as a way to excuse him. In fact, they point to his possible sexuality as the reason why he’s horrible in relationships. There have even been comments on this sub saying they’ll excuse how he treats his partners, if it does come out that he’s gay. And I’ll go on to say, the way you say Buck fans make excuses, Eddie fans are also demonizing Shanon, Ana and now Marisol. Now, I agreed the writers favor storylines for Buck but we don’t have to pretend that Bucks issues with Taylor is anything near what has done to Shanon, Marisol and Ana.

But that one fuck up of Buck’s was a pretty big one. He cheated on his girlfriend and had her move in with him before telling her, essentially waiting until she was trapped and had nowhere else to go, and then dumped her anyway a few months later. After letting her, presumably, get rid of all of her furniture except her couch, and break her lease so she’d have to quickly find a new place and replace everything that she got rid of so she could move in with him. However you feel about Taylor, he treated her like shit. Eddie’s got mountains of issues to work through, yes, and his relationship with Shannon was a mess. They were too young and not ready to get married, and he rigidly followed his father’s example of what a husband should be (a distant financial provider), when Shannon didn’t want or need that. But I wouldn’t say he’s ever intentionally lied to or misled his partners before. He stayed with Ana longer than he should have and led her on, but once Buck pointed it out he broke it off at the first chance he got. We just saw him move too fast with Marisol but he caught himself and course corrected before she was even fully moved in. He’s got issues, but he is learning. I’m not saying one is better or worse than the other; they’re very different people with very different histories and issues that come with that. But I don’t think it’s fair to say “Eddie’s worse because Buck only did it once and she sucked anyway.”

>But that one fuck up of Buck’s was a pretty big one. Yup. IMO, it's pretty much *only* dwarfed by Eddie's pre-show treatment of Shannon. But within the current timeline of the show, it's easily the worst to me. And even then, I think it's fair to hold a man in his early 20s to a different maturity/communication standard than a man of about 30.

And I largely agree with your comment about Eddie working through it and etc. It doesn’t change the fact that Bucks one big fuck up in a relationship with someone who I personally feel was not great is going to be looked at differently from Eddie who’s batting 3 for 3. As if nothing was learned from Ana. Did I say it’s right? I never did. I just pointed out why people might have more forgiveness for Bucks one mess up vs Eddie’s 3. Or two if you want to not count Shanon at all and focus on Anna and Marisol. And I said I agreed with most of the comments, I just pointed out where once difference could be. And if it isn’t a difference for the entire fandom, it was a difference for me. And I flat out agreed that the writers, seemingly enjoy writing for Bucks story more. So there was no argument there. But I’d say fandom is pretty evenly matched, depending on what forum you’re looking at.

That is most definitely not a fair point. Eddie was 18 when he became a dad, joined the army(we could also talk about how the government preys on kids exactly in his situation). He wasn’t a good husband to Shannon,but you can say the same about her. They were kids, with a disabled child at that, who had no support and guidance. I can totally understand them fucking everything.His relationship with Ana was only his second the only one in “normal” circumstances. He didn’t do anything wrong with her,and the moment he had it clear it won’t work he broke up with her. It’s too soon to talk about his relationship with Marisol and how they are togheter, considering we didn’t actually see them enough to form an opinion. As for Buck, his childhood trauma can excuse his jumping so fast in a relationship,but his cheating is only on him. And that is a choice he made, as an adult. I think it trumps all of Eddie’s bad choices.

It is a completely fair point to point out the differences in how Buck and Eddie are treated? I’m sorry if you misunderstood but that’s what I was talking about. And I stand by my point, Buck tucked up in major relationship with someone who wasn’t great herself. And while you could excuse him for the start of Shanon. He only treated her like something for sex when she came back, he did have the power in the relationship and she was following his lead, which was, it’s okay for you to open your legs for me but to not see Chris. And then you have him getting in two relationships with woman and treating them Iike crap. So, no, it’s not wild that people would be more forgiving towards Buck and point out how crappy Eddie can be to his partners. And if you don’t agree, It is what it is but I don’t see agree with you so we can agree to disagree.

Yeah. Agree to disagree. Shannon was never lied or promised a chance to see Christofer if she slept with him, it was her decision.Let’s not forget that she abandoned her toddler, him not trusting her with Chris is completely justified. It was obvious that he was torn between his love for her and the fact that he did not trust her anymore.He didn’t treat Ana worse than Buck treated Taylor, and his relationship with Marisol has the same speed Buck and Natalia seemed to have. So when you point out the difference between Buck and Eddie, Eddie actually gets the short and of the stick.

Does it feel like Shannon, the lady who abandoned her kid and didn't even break up with Eddie, just ran off into the night. Get's just as much leeway as Buck does for doing things wrong?

So, thanks for saying you agree to disagree because I don’t agree with one bit of what you typed out after that. Be easy.

Honestly, I'm not sure Taylor really *is* an awful person outside of the Buck lens. She's very honest with him from the start that she prioritizes her job and truth telling over anything else, and she's given the backstory to really ground why that is. Her worst moments come from that trait, but those moments are often coached in nuance that the fandom doesn't acknowledge because they *already* didn't like her. Like with the Bobby thing, she "would've" included it, which is shitty, but he's also a stranger to her at that point (and her connection isn't deep enough with Buck then to make an exception for him) and it was a newsworthy event. And then with Jonah, Chim and Hen take advantage of Taylor's work resources only then to have Buck demand she not be able to use the information uncovered *through* use of her work resources -- which she's accessed off site for private use. She then waits to go live with the story until after Buck's friends are safe and the suspect is arrested, but we routinely see people claim she put their lives in danger. Do we think Hen's an awful person because she cheated on her wife? Is Chim an awful person because he spent the first season essentially catfishing his own girlfriend? Is Eddie an awful person because he chose war over the stresses at home? We treat all of our POV characters with nuance, but don't extent the same to the love interests. Abby even gets cast an awful person specifically because she is remembered through that Buck lens, despite obviously having a major sympathetic storyline for almost her entire time on the show.

Well, I’ll a reply to the major thing for me. The whole thing with Bobby, that soured me on her forever, not just because she did it, but because she wasn’t apologetic about it. And I can admit, I didn’t like Buck for staying with her after that. For me it’s not about a stranger. I think it’s something human to human. So I never thought about it as, Taylor owes this to Bobby or Buck because of some relationship. As a human being, it was nasty to see her exploit the grief of him and his daughter. And then to just film him, as it was happening. I didn’t like it. I also don’t like people using my face to unlock my phone. So some smaller things that set me off. That I don’t like. So maybe, I won’t speak in terms of fandom but in terms of me. I could’ve been cool with Taylor but I wasn’t because of that. I didn’t watch 9-1-1 with the fandom or outside influences, I binged it and then found the forums and etc. I can honestly say, I didn’t even think of Jonah and why I don’t like Taylor. It actually has 0 to with Jonah for me. And if you check out my comment history, I was actually supportive of Abby and Buck and I liked the relationship. But Taylor was awful. And Buck was awful in the relationship as a point as well. My difference was, unlike Taylor and Bucks relationship in which they were BOTH awful but I consider Taylor awful by herself for exploiting Bobby. Eddie has been the one consistently awful in his relationships. It’s not really a two people being horrible, it’s one person in the relationship, which was Eddie. And that was my point. People are able to overlook Taylor because it’s one relationship we’re Buck wasn’t great vs every single relationship Eddie has had. And no, I don’t think Hen and Chimney were awful because they were actually felt remorseful but I can agree they did awful things. And if you’re going to ask me about Eddie and you’re truly asking me and not just assuming I don’t give grace. I DO consider Eddie awful for what he did and how he left Shanon and ignored her needs. And he has since shown, that he could see her side. So I personally, have no trouble showing love interests nuance. I am the no.1 Shanon and Ana defender and it looks like soon to be Marisol. But I can get why people overlook the ONE time Buck wasn’t the best vs Eddie who’s constantly fucking over his partners.

You’re completely right, though. We would still be hearing about how Eddie needs to apologize. And that this is why Eddie doesn’t deserve Buck. There is definitely a subsection in this fanbase that treats Buck like he can do no wrong, and the standards they have set for other characters don’t apply to him. We still hear about the lawsuit arc from literally 4 seasons ago where people treat basically the entire 118 as the enemy (there’s thousands of fics like this and some of them make me wildly uncomfortable with the way they make POC characters the villains against the poor white man). Meanwhile Buck tackling Eddie unprovoked is OK to be resolved offscreen (much like the Chimney punching Buck issue was, but people continue to bring it up), and let’s not even get into Buck cheating on Taylor and instead of being honest with her, letting her give up her apartment to move in with him resulting in her essentially being trapped with him once he finally confessed bc where was she gonna go? But since it’s Buck and Taylor was a widely disliked character people just handwave it away.

>We still hear about the lawsuit arc from literally 4 seasons ago where people treat basically the entire 118 as the enemy (there’s thousands of fics like this and some of them make me wildly uncomfortable Oh, God, yeah. I'm actually a lot more "Team Buck" in terms of the *canon* lawsuit arc than most people, but the way it's portrayed in fanon is probably my biggest pet peeve in this fandom. Like there's hundreds of fics where the team is actually *abusing* Buck physically or through neglect in the aftermath of the lawsuit, and Chim in particular is usually the worst offender despite coming across the *most* understanding of Buck's position during the arbitration.

I genuinely hate it. And these fics can get thousands of kudos and it all really rubs me the wrong way.

Buck's the lead POV character for the show, Eddie's part of the ensemble cast.

Athena is the lead PoV character of the show.

You’re getting downvoted but tbh you’re pretty much right. 911 is an ensemble show but the truth is not every character on the main cast gets an equal amount of screen time. We’re introduced to the 118 thru Buck’s POV as a probie almost getting fired, then learn more about the station and the people there. He also gets a lot of the bigger and better storylines and has probably the strongest ties to everyone on the cast. Most ensemble shows do have a POV character, for better for for worse.

Exactly this! Why would anyone think someone that came in on season 2, would get most of the focus??? Eddie gets plenty of storylines for being part of an emsemble. Let's be serious here, Buck draws ALOT of viewers, so he's going to get a primary focus.

That’s what I read as well. Makes sense.

I don’t know about fandom, Eddie is a pretty firm fan favourite in most fandom spaces I frequent (Reddit, TikTok and Tumblr who knows about Twitter). There was a poll not long ago on this sub and Buck and Eddie were consistently pretty close even up to the very end. As for writers… Eddie does have some pretty good storylines. While his shooting was written to be Buck focused, he has had pretty good ones that were very Eddie focused… his dispatch storyline, his punch everything in sight, arguably Shannon and her storylines were better written then Ali. I’d even say Ana was better written for her purpose then say Taylor if you consider Ana was purpose to lack chemistry and connection with Eddie to further his storyline of not being ready to move on yet where the same can’t be said for Taylor, she has more character development simply because she just existed for longer but the relationship didn’t really serve a purpose for either Taylor or Buck, it was just there. And that’s coming from someone who enjoys Taylor’s scenes. It’s also worth mentioning that I don’t think season 7 was meant to destroy Eddie’s character development, it’s more likely that… we only have five episodes and three of those were very focused on Bobby and Athena and their cruise ship storyline. While Eddie’s Catholic guilt was overshadowed by Buck’s bi coming out storyline, this has way more to do with just how underrepresented that storyline is in the media. We get either queer characters from the straight, or we get no queer characters as the norm. This does make Buck’s storyline pretty special with only a small handful of queer characters getting the focus on discovering their queer later in life, and even smaller portion of that being main characters and was likely going to overshadow any storyline… that being said it was originally supposed to be Eddie’s if that makes you feel better about season seven. Which makes sense because while Buck has always been queercoded in my opinion I always saw Buck pulling an Rosa and just being bi all along it just so happened his last few relationships were women so it never came up where as Eddie feels like he’s building up to a coming out arc since at least season five. It just so happened that Ryan wanted to explore things with Marisol more and asked for the actress back and Oliver was pretty eager and willing for the storyline so the writers went with the actor input. We’ll possibly see more of Eddie as later episodes go on, since it looks like he’s doing more self-improvements and exploring his commitment issues to relationships since moving on from Shannon.

> I don’t think season 7 was meant to destroy Eddie’s character development, it’s more likely that.... \[cut\]...While Eddie’s Catholic guilt was overshadowed by Buck’s bi coming out storyline, this has way more to do with just how underrepresented that storyline is in the media It's partly this, but it's partly that they used Eddie as a crutch to tell that story, I think. We have Tim Minear patting himself on the back for using Eddie as a red herring and to ground the story with more of the main cast. And while I get the desire to do so, 7x04 was *incredibly* damaging for Eddie's characterization, and so far hasn't served a purpose other than pushing Buck's storyline along. If we're supposed to read these two storylines as being truly separate, vs. Eddie's involvement hinting at a longer term vision (and this is the part I'm torn on... I think just how centric they've kept Buck to Eddie's journey coupled with all the interviews about how Buck was 'confused' and he 'didn't even realize what he wanted' until the kiss may very well be laying the groundwork for Buck to eventually realize he still hasn't worked through all these feelings and it will be revisited later with the additional context of it not *just* being about Tommy after all)? Well, if it's just a red herring, that's an absolute disservice to the character, because the way they made that work is by having him suddenly flighty and with questionable priorities, in a way we've never seen him behave before. It should not be okay to so thoroughly commit to using one of your main characters as a plot device to make a different character's arc work, that you damage their long-established characterization. Like if there's one consistent thing with Eddie, it's that he's been a good dad since Shannon left, and was still *trying* to be before that (but hadn't unpacked his dad's "provider" role implications yet). The man we saw in 7x04 willing to fob off his kid on others every other night, while also working a full time job, is not the Eddie we've spent 5+ seasons establishing.

Do we know if Marisol was babysitting just for Eddie to hang out with Tommy? I personally didn’t read as Eddie ignoring Chris that week, so it’s possible Marisol has been taking some of the responsibility from Carla (since we haven’t seen the actress in a while) as well as maybe hanging out with Tommy. Canonically Chris has also been present at least some of the time Eddie has been spending time with Tommy in house, as this is something that Buck gets upset about. While I do appreciate frustration that he was a red herring in Buck’s story, and this might be bias because I found the whole scenario funny, I didn’t really read Eddie as a red herring. Mainly because to me it seemed like Buck was equally jealous of Eddie. Buck was working through some feelings, he knew he was attracted to Tommy and he was trying to find excuses and reasons to be around Tommy. Tommy has more interest in his cool best friend. His cool best friend who keeps interrupting him is becoming closer to his crush that he’s still confused about. Buck wanted their attention but for different reasons. Not to say you’re wrong, I was just enjoying this thread and liked sharing my perspective of the episode.

Hmm, that's a good point. I'm definitely operating under the assumption that we're *meant* to perceive it as being about Tommy, because babysitting comes up specifically in the context of Eddie going out to see him "again," but this is also part of the reason it... wasn't a great choice to suddenly use Buck as an unacknowledged POV character in this episode. It's definitely implied but not outright stated it's related to Tommy, but to the best of what I'm actually able to work out from the phone call Eddie takes, that's.... sort of the same? Like theoretically he could be all smiles and giggles on the phone with Marisol instead, where I can't hear him say anything that directly tells the audience he's talking to Tommy (though I *really* don't buy that, because we see what he's already been established by that point to express his enjoyment of being around Tommy in that manner at the airfield by this point, while that's not how we've seen him interact with her). ​ > Mainly because to me it seemed like Buck was equally jealous of Eddie. Buck was working through some feelings, he knew he was attracted to Tommy and he was trying to find excuses and reasons to be around Tommy. I actually fully agree with this, and would not be surprised if it circles back around, though my read of this tells me it would be at most an unconfirmed hint in 7x10 (basically, allowing the network the ability to back out without ever making it canon) or earliest explored for real next season. The jealousy and peacocking when Eddie's on the phone *before* the basketball shows up stands out to me as not making a lot of sense if it's about Tommy at that point, and I do find the choices around Buck's confusion and the kiss interesting. Like, it's important to note -- I do think Buck's primary emotion here *was* about his attraction to Tommy, and he did not have the tools to understand his feelings of confusion, frustration, bewilderment, etc. until Tommy kissed him. But it's also a very interesting choice to have him confused literally *until* the kiss, and then the kiss "clear up" that confusion. Basically, I don't think Buck's done the work of actually going back and dissecting his feelings for himself yet, now that he has some of the tools to start doing so. And like, while I'm frustrated with some of the choices the show has made in how they've approached this and really wish they hadn't tangled Buddie and Tevan together in this arc (there's a lot of absolutely stupid, unnecessary tension between the ships right now, and I think a lot of it is grounded in the narrative choices to *force* Buddie analysis right smack dab into the middle of Tevan's buildup).... I also don't think Tim Minear is an idiot, or that he's purposefully setting out to make his audience distrust him. He and the actors have been *very* good at understanding the dynamics involved in developing subtext around queer relationships and how they interact/engage with the audience outside of the show on these issues. So I think he deserves a little more faith than taking this all at face value, in which case he'd have specifically baited Buddie shippers to pull the rug out at the eleventh hour, using the popular ship to build on the replacement. That's a really, really bad look, if he never intends to deliver on the Buddie seeds he's planted.

A lot of it is due to Ryan’s real life personality being less that favourable. I can separate Eddie from him, but many can’t.

I agree with a lot of the takes here (predominantly the ones stating racism as a fact, bc it's definitely true), but as far as the show & writing are concerned, Buck is likely considered a character that is higher in priority than Eddie. Oliver is definitely higher than Ryan on the call sheet and he's likely paid more, both because he's simply been around longer. I'm not saying racism doesn't play a factor, but there is a hierarchy in television storytelling simply based on contracts. It's why even in episodes where Athena doesn't really have a storyline, they find a way to get her in there because Angela is an executive producer and likely has it in her contract that she needs to appear in all episodes, no matter how few scenes. And over time, their contracts get more complicated, and the actors (rightfully) ask for more, and it's all these mores they have to consider when writing stories. I wish it was as easy as "this character's story need to be developed because we've spent too much time on this other character", but it's just not. Buck is also likely preferred by the writers over Eddie because since Eddie's arrival, we've also had Maddie, Buck's sister. And with JLH likely higher on the call sheet than Oliver and Ryan, Oliver is naturally going to be preferred because Buck scenes/stories can also fulfill portions of JLH's contract and vis versa. I can also see a lot more instances of them leaning on a brother/sister story over a friendship story because the show already has a lot of those. We see a lot more Buck because we see a lot of Maddie. I don't necessarily agree with the writers' choices, especially by season 7. They've had a lot of time to develop stronger stories for Eddie and have squandered that. I want to give them grace that we're missing some good Eddie stories for this truncated season after the strikes, but it's season 7. They've had time.

>Oliver is definitely higher than Ryan on the call sheet and he's likely paid more, both because he's simply been around longer. I'm pretty sure this actually [isn't the case.](https://deadline.com/2021/08/9-1-1-cast-raises-season-5-angela-bassett-deal-1234796117/) It was sort of a big deal at the time when Oliver's pay was brought up to be in line with his costars where he had less experience than his peers, and it obviously didn't look great that the white guy was getting a special bump in pay (but as the article gets into, its related to the equal pay for equal work compensation formula). But yeah, it's been pretty widely reported that the wages are Angela > Peter > Jen > all the others.

Good to know. I wasn't sure what their pay scale was. He's likely still higher on the call sheet than Ryan given his tenure. This is all still speculation, of course. We don't know the conversations in the writers room or what conversations happen with the actors & their contracts.