This may be an unpopular opinion, but I am curious what everyone’s take is: I think that the portrayal of Buck as not realizing at all that he’s into men until after Tommy kissed him is OOC. Throughout the show, he’s always been portrayed as a self-reflective kind of person, who yea has a lot of issues but after Abby has learned to work through them in a thoughtful way. So, after years of being around a power gay couple (Hen and Karen), all of the scenes where he encounters gay people (“That’s true love”) - it never ever occurred to him at all? It just doesn’t seem to align - at least in my mind. But I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this, because I’ve only been watching the show on and off for the past 7 seasons.
Good point. Being self-reflective and bad at it would be consistent. You are right he’s portrayed as an unreliable narrator, and the hyper fixation leads to tunnel vision
I don’t think it’s that out of character. Like for example, I have a friend who’s a bisexual man who didn’t realize he was bi till he was in his mid 30s mostly thanks to comp het. He knew he liked women, and he just sorta assumed that the undercurrent of attraction that he also felt toward men must be how all straight men feel. Because so many bi people, especially bi men, even if they’re around queer people all the time (as my friend was as well), there’s so little bi rep (again especially of bi men), that they don’t even consider that their attraction to men is not the normative experience of straight men. Essentially they go, I like women, so that means I’m straight. End of story.
And that’s how it was for my friend until similar to Buck, a guy came along and sorta smacked him in the face with that attraction in an undeniable way. And he realized wait, all straight guys DON’T feel the way I feel about men. And then eventually realized he’s bi.
This is all to say, I don’t think it’s that unrealistic that Buck didn’t know.
He admitted he would look at a hot guys asses. That could be in an objective sort of way, (that guys attractive, but I have no desire for a romantic/sexual relationship), or something?
Wondering about Eddie too, because to me it looks like he's staring at Bucks ass, Chim and Hen (shes been cut off the gif) catch him.
As much as the Buddie shipper in me thinks that he is staring at Bucks ass, I also thing it could have been a coincidence.
I mean that whole line “I mean I’ll check out a hot guy’s ass every so often but that’s normal,” sorta goes to my point. He’s saying that he did register that he had some attraction to men but just didn’t compute that that level of attraction to men wasn’t in fact normal for a straight guy.
Yes - that line suggests he has some awareness. But then why not bring up the realization full notch because of Eddie? With all the development of their relationship for 6 seasons, this never even crossed his mind? Repression I guess. But being sexually repressed is not really consistent with Buck’s character.
Bisexuality is a whole giant spectrum; if Buck's been more easily attracted to women for as long as he can remember and only admires exceptional men -- Tommy is absolutely built and Eddie is such a specimen he's canonically been treated differently by all the other characters on the show as like, a particular type of beautiful; his introduction was legitimately a bunch of straight guys and a lesbian staring at him shirtless in slow motion, lmao -- it can be as simple as he's never really thought about it beyond "I can acknowledge the aesthetics of an attractive man."
I do think it would still make more sense for him to have always known he was attracted to men but just hadn't previously felt strong enough to also want to date one, but I don't think it's out of character, either, for Buck to not have figured it out. He'll hardly be the first bisexual person to think he's just jealous/"admiring" the physique of same sex crushes because he's put himself in a box or heteronormativity and not bothered to think any further on it.
I can see what you mean.
If he was still seeing that therapist lady, I can see him asking questions on if the feelings he as could possibly mean that he's might not be straight.
Haha yeah - he’s looking at the folder in Buck’s hands. But yeah, why not his ass lol
I honestly don't think he was looking at the folder. And Chimney's reaction kind of supports that.
I have always kind of thought it was Ryan looking at those gangly long legs of Oliver's. Not anything too deep or personal just a moment and a look and it was caught on camera. Kenny just recently did a quick vid where he had Oliver stand up to show how long his legs are in relation to his body.
That boy does have some legs on him!
I don't think it's that out of character even though I had lots of friends who were queer and was ok with queer people it took me a minute to realize I was bisexual.
I hear that and I know that happens. I’m queer as well. But that’s just half of it. What I’m saying is portraying him as a very self-reflective person and not realizing something very important about him seems incompatible. If he was a totally living-for-the-moment, don’t think too much and just act, kind of guy, then it would align more.
If he was a totally living-for-the-moment, don’t think too much and just act, kind of guy
He does this quite often, especially when it comes to his own safety, he just don't stop and reflect if what he's doing will actually help the situation or making it worse.
I think Buck has a bit of a blind spot when it comes to reflecting on his own life sometimes. But the thing that gets me is how in all his Buck 1.0 sexcapades, travel, bartending, etc he never realized it. As a good looking guy he must have been hit on by more than a few men (and plenty of women). Was there really never one who caught his attention that way, at all? Or maybe there were just so many women interested that he never looked past that to consider the men? 🤔
Just another thing I'd like him to reflect back on as he explores his sexuality (which hopefully will get some coverage in S8 after they totally glossed over it in S7).
That is what gets me. Buck 1.0 really never tried kissing a guy? Not even in some stupid context like to girls say they’ll kiss if the guys do? I just don’t find it believable that he never realized.
I absolutely think Buck 1.0 kissed guys, but I would also buy that he didn't realize that kissing guys had anything to do with actually liking guys.
Yes, this! And I agree that it will be nice to have see more depth on how Buck sees his past through his new lenses. The writers could sprinkle it along scattered conversations and comments in S8.
Right!?
Honestly I've been told I'm really self aware by more than one therapist, but didn't realize I was gay until a friend full on asked me if I was 😅💀 so... Sometimes you just don't think about those things and that's that
There is a difference between self-reflective and actually actively taking that self-reflection and changing your behaviour. So is he really that self-reflective?
Every single one of his relationships have followed a very obvious and predictable pattern. He is still impulsive and reckless when it comes to protecting his loved ones or to save a patient (Yes, he has calmed down and thinks about things a lot more than he used too, but it is still his nature to act first and think later). So it's not that big of a leap to think he just truly didn't think that he was behaving in a queer way. After all this is a guy who think him checking out guy's asses was completely normal so his behaviours around Connor and his other patients and HenRen and even Michael wouldn't be something he would have thought o be strange. He thinks the way he acts with Eddie is normal. The guy isn't the best at actually self-reflecting and then using that self-reflection to think how he behaves.
I take your point, but I would disagree that self-reflection has to lead to a change in behavior. In between those two, there has to be a decision made. And the time for the decision making could be years. Buck could have been well aware of his latent attraction to men, but chose to never act on it until Tommy. But the rest of what you say makes sense, esp. the part where he thinks the way he acts about Eddie is normal
Edit: typos and clarification
I think it was fine. I do really hope we get a later scene when he wakes up in the middle of the night and be like “OH MY GOD, I WAS IN LOVE WITH MY BEST FRIEND IN HIGH SCHOOL”
I also REALLY wanted a scene from Maddie saying “Buck… I knew you were queer when we were Checking out the same guys at the pool when we were kids”
The high school gay trope is literally my friend after 30 years lol
I thought he was just bi and not mentioning it from the beginning of the show. Now we know better. So now I think he’s one of those people who have experiences with other men, but put it down to drinking or hijinks or messing around and don’t absorb it into their self identity. Partly because he only dates women.
6 seasons of self aware Bi Buck tossed off a cliff because Tim waited too long to get things together then lost his mind over casting problems and whatever the Eddie/Tommy script glitches were.
Ugh.
Ultimately, I think that’s the tl;dr summary
Maybe he was debating with himself about the not so straight feelings he ask, and maybe Tommy kissing him kinda... cemented his at least romantic attraction to other men (so far I don't think they've had sex yet). Still leaves the question (at least to me) on if there's a sexual attraction to other men too.
This is an internal debate that happens constantly to us queers, before we even accept it for ourselves, let alone letting it be known by others. It would have been more organic if Buck has been having this internal debate about Eddie, and then deciding it’s not gonna happen. And then Tommy gets in the picture. I just don’t get why Eddie is not Buck’s realization. Doesn’t make sense the way they’ve been portrayed in previous seasons. So, I’d like to think that maybe they deliberately glossed out the nuances of Eddie’s role in Buck’s sexual awakening in S7 because this is what’s at store for S8.
I think I came out to my mom first a few other places might take it
It's not the way I expected it to happen! But I like how it was done:
People do have queer awakenings later in life and it's an important story to tell
If Buck 1.0 had experience with men it would feed into the stereotype that bis are promiscuous (or worse that bisexuality isn't even real, we're just so extra slutty we'll sleep with anyone).
TBPH, it had to be a bit of a retcon since FOX wouldn't let them tell the story. It made more sense for Buck to be so surprised - the other option was for him to know he liked men but somehow didn't know he liked Eddie? As if!
- It also makes sense for Buck's and Eddie's coming out to be very different. Both for representation and for entertainment value. I fully believe Eddie has known he's gay from an early age and has repressed it so effectively he doesn't even know where to start. I think his story will be a lot more angsty. So it's nice that Buck's story is cute, more like a rom-com as Oliver said.
It's very in character for Buck to have the other person make the first move.
Queue the angst for Eddie! Not just from a storytelling standpoint but for relationship development - that it was “easy” for Buck to accept will add another layer to how he could understand and support Eddie as he struggles with it. I really hope they go this route next season.
We’re talking about the guy who thinks raising a child with someone is just helping out a friend… yeah it makes sense to me that he didn’t realize he was technically queer until being kissed by a man. And I bet he’s had ‘gay’ feelings for a long time but because he is also into women he just thought it was normal for straight people to have those thoughts (as a bisexual myself this was exactly what I went through for years). Of course, everyone’s different but there are people that don’t come out or allow themselves to explore their queerness until they’re older bc heteronormativity (I’m looking at you Edmundo Diaz). I definitely think the dialogue and writing in season 7 could’ve shown us that better (literally just a scene of Buck talking about his queerness with Hen and/or Karen would’ve instantly elevated the storyline), but I fear we’re expecting too much from this writers room LMAO either way, I am always appreciative of seeing characters realize their queerness later on in life (like in the Japanese show ‘old fashioned cupcake’)
I disagree with you in certain aspects and agree in others. I fully believe back when Buck was 1.0 he "experimented." However he shelved that with Abby. I fully believe Buck is in love with Eddie and Tommy is the next best thing.
If Eddie comes out, either Buck will quickly break up with Tommy or they'll end up being a triad/throuple.
I think Buck might just be bad at being self-reflective? He's not a terribly reliable narrator of his own life, for one thing, and for another he tends to hyperfixate on stuff that you could argue is not the point.
Like, this is the man who straight up followed a dude he barely knew across country lines and then later helped that dude have a baby. There's being friendly, there's being a good friend, and then there's whatever the hell that was. Same dude is also co-parenting a child with another man. Maybe it's baby fever, maybe it's being bisexual and bewildered.
He's oblivious and a bit ridiculous and is definitely in love with his best friend and has never noticed. It's very Buck to just not register he's doing something no one else is.