Season 8, episode 6 of the ABC drama saw the star’s firefighter discover new truths about his boyfriend — whom he invites to move in and then is broken up with.
Well that didn’t go as expected.
Thursday night’s episode of 9-1-1 began with Buck (Oliver Stark) and his boyfriend, Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.), celebrating six months of dating and ended with, well, ending their relationship.
“Buck’s head is definitely spinning,” Stark tells Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a lot, and it sends him spiraling, as Buck can do.”
Here, the actor and 9-1-1 co-creator and showrunner Tim Minear break down the break down of Tommy and Buck.
OLIVER STARK: It didn’t make the final cut, but when Tommy says it’s fine to look, he even points out himself that “Look, that guy over there, I think he’s hot.” And I think that’s lovely to be safe enough within a relationship to be like, “Yes, there are other attractive people in the world and that’s very fine.” But it is, I think, the first time for Buck that we are seeing, “Hold on, that’s a woman and I’m attracted to her and I’m on a date with this man. And all those things can be true at the same time.” I think it’s just a part of him deepening his understanding of his newfound bisexuality.
TIM MINEAR: Did I have this planned out for eight years? Are you kidding? Of course not. But I almost did it last year. I remembered that Abby was coming off a bad breakup with her long-term boyfriend, which I sort of retconned into being a fiancé, whose name was Tommy. That idea just tickled me.
STARK: It rocks his world a little bit and kind of sends him in somewhat of a spiral. We’ve come to know Buck as a hugely protective person — of strangers every day in his job, but even more so of the people he loves and cares about, Abby being one of those people. They’re not together anymore, but she was somebody hugely important in his life. To know that Tommy really hurt her is hard for Buck to deal with. It just makes him take pause and look at Tommy slightly differently — which is unfair, but is a very Buck thing to do. Knee-jerk reactions are very much a part of his character and sometimes he just has to slow his roll and wait for a little more context.
STARK: In itself, thats quite a knee-jerk reaction. From zero to 100. I think that the talk with Maddie and Josh is obviously pretty instrumental. Buck is new to this lifestyle, new to understanding himself and the queer experience. And Josh being able to guide him a little bit, I think, was a really nice moment between the characters. That conversation makes Buck realize how lucky and happy he is.
