“Buck (Oliver Stark) is going to be spinning like a top by the time we come back,” 9-1-1 showrunner Tim Minear told Decider when previewing the second half of the ABC drama series. He was referring to Buck’s realization that Eddie (Ryan Guzman) was moving to Texas to be closer to his son, meaning Buck would lose his best friend. “As soon as Eddie turns his back, Buck looks like he’s been hit in the head with a baseball bat, and that will figure in mightily when we come back,” Minear added. How much does it figure in? Stark told Today that he “was actually surprised” by the extent to which 9-1-1 will be exploring Buck’s complex feelings regarding his best friend. The actor talked to the outlet about his character’s arc in the second half, which begins airing on March 6.
“Definitely, and I think they’re going to be kind of explored and looked at in a way that is more obvious than kind of has ever been done before on the show,” Stark said when asked if the show would specifically focus on his feelings of jealousy that first emerged in Season 7. He revealed that jealousy won’t be what’s explored, but Buck’s feelings in general. “To an extent where I was actually surprised by the extent to which it’s going to be explored. So, yeah, no, absolutely, that is to come very soon,” he teased.
‘9-1-1’ Season 8 Resumes in March
Stark also discussed the characters’ dynamics in the midseason premiere. “There’s a ton of different stuff going on,” he said. The actor added, “There’s a lot of tension in the upcoming episodes between characters that we don’t often see tension between.” He teed up a unique turn of events that viewers are not customarily used to saying:
“I think the stories across these (episodes), it’s going to be quite a fraught and intense atmosphere for a good healthy portion of it. And that’s not something that ‘9-1-1’ tends to do, right? In general, our main cast, our main characters, are a pretty tight knit group, whereas 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.”
Tune in to ABC on Thursday, March 6, to watch 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 9, “Sob Stories,” and see how Buck deals with this significant shift affecting his life. Catch up with past episodes on Hulu in the US.
