Oliver Stark’s “9-1-1” character, Evan “Buck” Buckley, has a big storm coming (again).
So far in Season Eight, Buck has dealt with a wrathful new captain, a curse, a breakup — which occurred right after asking his boyfriend to move in — and now, his best friend has announced he’s leaving Los Angeles.
To add to all of that, a teaser for the back half of Season Eight, which returns March 6 on ABC, previews that his pregnant sister, Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), is about to be kidnapped by a serial killer.
“It’s going to be quite a fraught and intense atmosphere for a good healthy portion of (Season Eight),” Stark tells TODAY.com.
Episode Eight left Buck stunned by Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman) plan to reconnect with his teenage son, Christopher. Christopher has been living in El Paso with Eddie’s parents since the Season Seven finale, a period of several months. The 14-year-old left LA after walking in on Eddie having an emotionally charged moment with a woman named Kim — a dead ringer for Shannon, Christopher’s mother and Eddie’s wife, who died at the end of Season Two. (Both Kim and Shannon were played by Devin Kelley.)
Christopher’s absence has left Eddie — and Buck, Christopher’s legal guardian in the event of Eddie’s death — reeling throughout Season Eight.
In the Nov. 21 midseason finale, Buck arrives at Eddie’s house armed with scones from all the baking he’s been doing to cope with the breakup with Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.). As he rifles through Eddie’s cabinet looking for ingredients, he notices Eddie quickly flip his tablet face down. Buck grabs it and sees that his co-worker had been looking at houses.
“Where are you going to find a place like this in LA at your price point?” Buck asks.
“They’re not in LA. They’re in El Paso,” Eddie responds.
“I’m tired of missing out on all my son’s big moments before he grows up,” Eddie later says.
So, Buck plasters on a smile and offers to help look through Eddie’s options. He goes to sit in Eddie’s living room, and once he’s alone, his smile instantly drops.
Stark says the rest of Season Eight will have “a ton of different stuff going on.”
“There’s a lot of tension in the upcoming episodes between characters that we don’t often see tension between,” he says.
“We’re going to be looking at what happens when you kind of start to tug at a thread, and, you know, it keeps on pulling and pulling, and you kind of watch a lot of things unravel as that goes,” he adds.
TODAY.com spoke with Stark ahead of his appearance in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game Feb. 14. The actor previewed the rest of Season Eight, from the status of his character’s relationship with Christopher to the episode Stark is looking forward to the most.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
How has it been returning to acting as a firefighter amid the LA wildfires? How has that impacted the tone of set?
It was really tough, everything that was happening in Los Angeles. We were obviously during our workday when it started happening. And, you know, we have cast members and crew members deeply, deeply affected by it. So it’s been a really emotional time.
And, you know, we do make this show with the idea in mind of paying tribute to what first responders do, and this just goes to show exactly why the show is there to do that. Because it’s very easy to praise and think about the impact of first responders when dealing with such a widespread, media-covered emergency, but we don’t always think about them in quieter times. And so it’s just a reminder that the show is there to try and make sure that that spotlight on them is constant, because they are always there at the ready.
Where we left off with Episode Eight in November — that last look as Buck hears that Eddie’s planning to move … if you could give voice to Buck’s inner monologue with that expression, what is he thinking right then?
I think it’s a case of a huge part of his world being taken away and, you know, something that he’s placed a lot of stability on, I would think. So, realizing that the removal of that is possibly going to cause a number of things to crumble around him.
I think he obviously wants to be there for Eddie and be supportive, but it’s hard not to also think about yourself in that situation and what he’s losing in the fight that Eddie has to go and get his son back.
It’s a recurring theme for Buck — abandonment, people leaving. How will this parallel that? How will this feeling compare?
I think those feelings are going to be amplified as well, in especially the first episode of the season. And Buck’s really going to be put into that place of feeling abandoned, and he’s going to react to it in a really — and I don’t say this about myself, I say this about the story — a really cute way, that I think will go down very well with viewers of the show.
Where we’re at with Episode Eight, I’m curious about Buck and Christopher’s dynamic right now. In your mind, do you think they’ve been in contact? How is Buck handling the loss of Christopher?
I guess if I was to think about it, I don’t think they necessarily would have been really in contact. You know, I feel like maybe that would feel like going around Eddie, or going behind Eddie’s back, maybe. Or even if Eddie was aware of it, maybe just making Eddie jealous, because Eddie can’t have that relationship with him. So I think Buck has kind of not tried to intervene too much in the situation, or not insert himself into the situation, because as much as he is a part of their life, you know, that is his son, and I don’t think you would want to overstep too much. So, yeah, I actually don’t think that Buck is in contact with Christopher and that he’s kind of letting Eddie handle his business and just being there at the ready if needed.
How do you think Buck is handling that loss?
I think we’ve seen — and obviously Buck is also post-breakup, you know, he has a lot of things and he seems to just kind of be running, not from them, but through them. Keeping himself busy, whether it be the baking, whether it be work — just keeping things happening so that maybe he doesn’t have too much time to stop and think, which, you know, always catches up with you eventually. But I kind of feel like that’s where we find Buck at the moment. He’s just keeping himself occupied so that the silence and the thoughts don’t creep in.
As you’re actively filming the show, having such a … growing fandom, does it infiltrate at all? Does it affect the filming, the performance? How do you experience that?
I have experienced that in some of the earlier seasons. I think it was hard to quiet that noise. And then once you read one thing or another, it’s difficult to not let it seep in, you know? But I’ve kind of found the balance, and I don’t think, as an actor on the show, I don’t think you should be involved in fandom of the show, and I don’t think you should read fandom of the show. I think your job is your job, and you have to make the thing, and then it gets given over to the fans to do whatever they want with it. And so, actually finding that boundary between the two has been really, really healthy for me.
When would you say you found that boundary?
Season Eight, this season. It’s definitely a newer thing for me. But, you know, listen, anytime I’m on a social media app, and anything “9-1-1” or anything Oliver Stark-related comes up, I gleefully (click) “not interested in this post” and get it out of my algorithm. And it’s really helped me just kind of think more positively about it. So, yeah, it’s a newer thing, but something that I’m really happy that I made a step towards.
Is there an episode in the back half you’re most excited for people to see?
Episode 11 I think is really special. Not even just because of story, but one of our own directed it. One of the cast directed it, which is the first time that’s happened on the show. So that was a really special experience for me. Not me the director, me the actor on the show. It’s not me.
I think I’m really excited for that to air, just because, I just think it’s a really special moment, and it’s this particular actor’s first time doing it. So, yeah, just, it felt like a big moment.
