‘9-1-1’ Star Oliver Stark on This Past Turn, Tommy’s Choice and Why Buck Went to Eddie for Comfort

SPOILER: This story contains spoilers for Thursday’s “Confessions” episode of ABC’s “9-1-1.”

After this week’s episode of “9-1-1,” Buck (Oliver Stark) and Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) are no longer sitting in a tree. The hour began with the young couple celebrating their one-month anniversary and ended with them breaking up after Buck learned that Tommy was once engaged to his former great love, Abby (Connie Britton), who left Los Angeles (and “9-1- 1″ ) several years ago.

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But it wasn’t Buck’s reaction to this revelation that ended the relationship, as Buck worked through his concerns about Tommy’s previous relationship with a woman and Buck’s first relationship with a man and eventually asked Tommy to move out. In fact, it was Tommy’s choice to break up with Buck when he decided that while Buck may think he’s ready to make the move, Tommy believes that Buck will want to date other men or women later and Tommy won’t be the one to he will graduate in the long run.

After this heartbreaking twist, Buck goes to Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman) to drown his sorrows with his best friend and teammate from Station 118, who just had a breakthrough in his recent depression.

In the following interview with VarietyStark dives into Buck’s latest “9-1-1” storyline and where things are headed for him from here.

Why Buck Didn’t See Glee — And He Did you seen “Glee”? Choose your words carefully because Ryan Murphy is listening.

Look, I’m not in a hurry to think this through. I’ve seen the episodes—I haven’t seen them from start to finish. Don’t look at me like that. I’ve seen episodes. Buck is my age, so Buck was probably in his teens, early 20s, and he was traveling the world. At that point in his life he was in Peru bartending and they weren’t broadcasting Fox! At that time he did not find himself. And maybe if he had watched Glee, he would have come to his bisexuality sooner. Watch Glee and learn something about yourself.

When you saw that part in the script, did you laugh and talk to the writers about exploring that in Ryan Murphy’s production?

Actually, it doesn’t happen too often, but it was about this scene that Tim called me earlier and said, “I think I really want to emphasize that, and I want Josh to do it.” And he explained it to me in almost the same terms that Josh uses. And I think I said to him, “Are we going to put it this way — the world after and before Glee?” He says, “Absolutely!” And actually, I think that was a very smart way to do it. It’s a pretty deep and meaningful message, but using “Glee” in this less serious tactic to present that message actually means that it’s being received by more people and understood in a wider sense.

In this episode, the writers bring up Abby, a character who hasn’t appeared on “9-1-1” in a long time, in a very unexpected way. She turns out to be the ex-fiancée of Tommy, Buck’s current boyfriend. What was your reaction to that storyline and how did you work through it in this episode, and what did it mean for Buck and Tommy’s future that he was evaluating his past sexuality?

Abby was such a big turning point in Buck’s life, as he recalls in the episode. So even though he’s largely moved on from the experience day by day in his mind, I think it’s fair to say that finding out your new partner has been engaged in this all-important relationship is a bit overwhelming. least. And initially we saw a couple more scenes where Buck was dealing with this new information, one of which was a big conversation with Pete Krause, with Bobby, and Buck was just trying to unpack it all. It was this wonderful coincidence in the first season that Abby remembered a groom named Tommy. I don’t think they knew at the time that they would be introducing a character named Tommy for many seasons – but it seemed like a missed opportunity not to make that connection and feel a little bit of a joined universe. I believe that such an opportunity has arisen, and it would be foolish not to take advantage of it and not give Buck the opportunity to develop, as he often does.

After this spiral, Buck comes to terms with Tommy’s past and his own, and even asks Tommy to move out, leading to a very sad ending to the episode. How do you feel about Tommy’s decision to break up with Buck, reasoning that since he’s the first man Buck’s dated since coming out as bisexual, he won’t be his last and Tommy doesn’t want that to continue? Where did Tommy think this relationship would eventually go if he felt this way?

It’s actually funny when you put it that way. Well, what did you do in this relationship then? It seems a little unfair to Buck. But don’t get me wrong, I understand someone wanting to protect themselves. Obviously, he is afraid of being hurt. I would say that maybe the way to do this is to be guided by what your intention is. So Buck ends up on the deck in this particular scenario and stays at the end of the episode. And I was really intrigued by how that scene would play out because I knew maybe two episodes before this episode, I knew they were going to break up, but I didn’t know how. And I think it’s appropriate in the sense that Tommy is trying to protect himself, and I think that’s quite fair. And I think that line that Tim wrote about, “I’m your first, not your last,” is really quite meaningful and beautiful. And he will always be Buck’s first, and that’s why he will always be such a significant person in Buck’s life. And now Buck has to take some steps on his own and really find out who he is and who he wants to be with.

Buck shows up at Eddie’s house after the breakup, unaware of all that Eddie has made up his mind in this episode. When he arrives, Eddie acts out a “Risky Business” style scene, but quickly notices that something is wrong with Buck, and then they sit and drink in silence for the rest of the episode. How does Buck feel at this moment and why did he leave Eddie?

I think it says a lot about their relationship that when Eddie opens that door and he’s standing there with his collar up and in his underpants, Buck is looking him over and over and he’s taking it in and it’s like whatever. You do your thing, I do my thing – we don’t really even need to talk about it right now, let’s just keep company and be there for each other. I think it shows a lot about who they are to each other, and that not everything needs to be said, and that they can both handle things in their lives very differently at this point. Eddie is a very big moment of joy and liberation, and Buck is obviously very depressing. But they can still be there for each other while they work things out in different ways. So, I think that really speaks volumes about the strength of their bond.

This interview has been edited and shortened.

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