***SPOILERS FOR 9-1-1 SEASON 8***
9-1-1 has an Eddie problem.
Well, to clarify, the problem isn’t with Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzman) himself; rather, it’s with how the ABC procedural drama tells his story.
Eddie, a beloved single dad and army medic-turned-firefighter, first joined the L.A.-based first responders show (renewed in April for Season 9) in its second season and has been a series regular ever since–although it didn’t feel like it this past season.
Season 8, which aired its finale on May 15, had Eddie spend three of the eighteen episodes entirely offscreen, more than any other main character. In universe, Eddie’s absence was explained by his Episode 10 return to El Paso, Texas to reunite with his teenage son, Christopher (Gavin McHugh), but in reality, there was no legitimate reason to exclude him from the narrative for so long. The show did spend two episodes with Eddie in Texas (in between cutting back to the rest of the firehouse crew in L.A.), but his mid-season relocation meant that he completely missed the two-part “Contagion” event that ended with the untimely–and highly controversial–death of Captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause).
Both fans and journalists alike widely criticized 9-1-1 for unceremoniously killing off their patriarch, and part of their criticism included Eddie’s lack of involvement in the whole ordeal. On top of missing both “Contagion” episodes (Episodes 14 and 15), when Eddie did return to L.A. for Bobby’s funeral in Episode 16, his screentime amounted to exactly one minute and six seconds (yes, fans did the math). If Bobby’s death was such a massive deal–particularly for a show that, over eight seasons, had never dared to kill a main character–then why wasn’t Eddie present for it?
Bobby’s death wasn’t the only major storyline Eddie missed out on in Season 8, though–he also missed most of his own. The character had plenty of interesting material to work with this season, but we didn’t see most of it play out onscreen.
Eddie informing Chris of his decision to follow him to Texas? Offscreen.
Eddie reuniting with Chris after being separated for several months? Offscreen.
The two of them working through the reason why Chris decided to leave L.A. in the first place (see Season 7 Episode 10–it’s too much to explain here!)? Offscreen.
Eddie learning that his firehouse captain and father figure had tragically died? Offscreen (at least, it was, until the show seemingly realized this glaring oversight two episodes later and retroactively included a split-second look at Eddie getting the phone call).
Eddie reuniting with his best friend and essentially Chris’s co-parent, Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark), after Bobby’s death? Offscreen.
Eddie and Chris choosing to permanently move back to L.A.? Offscreen.
Eddie seemingly kicking Buck out of the house he’d been helpfully subletting from Eddie the entire time he was in Texas? Offscreen.
When it’s presented like that, the question becomes which parts of Eddie’s story did we actually get to watch this season? This vast collection of missing moments, not to mention Eddie’s exclusion from arguably the show’s biggest storyline to date, signifies a greater problem that’s been plaguing the character for several seasons now: 9-1-1 doesn’t know what to do with Eddie.
And I think I know why.
Ever since his Season 2 introduction, but especially during his late Season 4 and early Season 5 arc, there’s been speculation that Eddie Diaz is not as heterosexual as he may seem. Sure, the character has a son, and yes, his onscreen romantic entanglements have been exclusively with women thus far, but there remains a subset of fans who believe Eddie is heavily queer-coded–and I’m one of them.
Fans mainly cite Eddie’s strict Catholic upbringing, military background, unplanned teenage pregnancy with his first-ever girlfriend, and general anxiety surrounding relationships with women (for example, he has a panic attack in Season 5 when a store clerk mistakenly assumes his girlfriend is his wife, and later in Season 6 laments that dating feels like a “performance”) as convincing evidence that the character is deeply repressed, especially when it comes to his sexuality.
This repression, coupled with Eddie’s extremely co-dependent and at times homoerotic relationship with his best friend, Buck (who is canonically bisexual as of Season 7), has led to the theory that Eddie might be queer (specifically gay) but just hasn’t realized it yet.
Pop culture YouTuber Jane Mulcahy pleads the case for gay Eddie in a comprehensive 9-1-1 video essay she filmed ahead of the Season 8 premiere. As she explains, “It seems like Eddie has a tendency to repress his true feelings, an inability to acknowledge past or present problems in his life, and an untapped ‘reservoir of Catholic guilt,’ perhaps exacerbated by his fraught relationship with his father, who apparently pressured him to be ‘the man of the house’ when Eddie was growing up.” Later in the video, Mulcahy even declares this about gay Eddie: “At this point, I actually feel like it might be the only way to salvage Eddie’s character and retroactively make all his behavior and hangups make sense.”
I concur with Mulcahy, and I believe Eddie’s sexuality is the primary reason 9-1-1 has hit a wall with his onscreen character journey. Especially after watching Season 8, during which Eddie’s sexuality was mentioned on three separate occasions (including once by Eddie himself) for no apparent reason, I suspect the show is either intentionally delaying–or, God forbid, actively avoiding–the seemingly inevitable moment when Eddie finally realizes his true identity and comes out of the closet. They're dancing around the subject, and as a result, Eddie's story is suffering.
Even if we never know what’s really going on behind the scenes with 9-1-1's creative team, there’s no denying that they’ve written Eddie into a corner, and the only way out is to let him come out, rather than struggle to craft compelling onscreen narratives for the character for yet another year. Heading into its new season, 9-1-1 only has two options: either continue to ignore Eddie’s queer coding and continue to force him into unsuccessful and dissatisfying storylines and relationships, or actually lean into this aspect of his characterization and let his story progress properly.
I’m begging 9-1-1 not to waste any Season 9 screentime (a finite resource, at least in Season 8) on Eddie-centric plots that don’t relate to his queer awakening. Eddie overcoming his decades-long repression is so clearly the next step in his evolution that the longer the show fails to address it, the more blatant it will be that they’re avoiding it intentionally, which would be extremely disappointing–both from a queer representation standpoint and from a storytellling one.
Simply put, Eddie can’t move forward until he realizes he’s queer.
I know that sounds reductive, since Eddie is of course far more than just his debatable sexuality, but the truth is, this is TV. More than that, this is network TV, which caters to the general audience (GA) and tells overt stories (9-1-1 in particular is not known for its subtlety). And finally, this a procedural drama, which means it lives and dies by its single-episode arcs (with a few exceptions).
If we assume for a moment that 9-1-1 intends to course-correct and actually address Eddie’s suspected homosexuality in Season 9, we need to consider how they could accomplish this in the span of one or maybe two episodes. That may seem fast for something this monumental, but there is precedent: Buck’s bisexual awakening occurred over the course of a single episode in Season 7, and he was arguably less queer-coded than Eddie ahead of this reveal.
I’m especially desperate for Eddie’s coming out arc next season because I'm convinced it would be relatively easy to pull off. In fact, I’d argue that 9-1-1 only needs to follow six simple steps to successfully execute a “gay Eddie” episode and make it explicitly clear to the GA that this is Eddie’s new reality.
Step one: at the top of the episode, show Eddie enjoying a moment of quiet domesticity with Chris and Buck (nothing 9-1-1 hasn’t given us countless times before). Step two: have the 118 firehouse encounter a close male friend from Eddie’s childhood while out on a call. Step three: make Eddie and this friend catch up over drinks, and reveal that this man is openly queer and actually credits his bond with Eddie for retroactively helping him realize he wasn’t straight. Step four: have this man also mistakenly assume Buck and Eddie are in a romantic relationship after hearing Eddie talk about him. Step five: present a similarly domestic scene with Eddie, Buck, and Chris late in the episode, but this time linger on Eddie’s heightened awareness of how his relationship with Buck looks to outside observers, and end the scene with him coming to a realization as a result of this new perspective.
In some TV shows, this could be where it ends, leaving exactly what Eddie realized up to interpretation–but since this is the procedural drama 9-1-1, we need to remove any ambiguity or plausible deniability for naysayers. This brings us to the final, most crucial step.
Step six: have Eddie verbally come out to another character onscreen. The options for this scene include his son, Chris, his Aunt Pepa, his Abuela, fellow paramedic Henrietta “Hen” Wilson (Aisha Hinds), or even Buck himself, in a cruel twist of irony given Buck’s past excuse for not having feelings for Eddie (“As much as everyone seems to want me to be hopelessly pining for my straight best friend, it just isn’t like that,” Buck boldly declares in Season 8 Episode 11).
This final, potentially redundant step is imperative because of network TV’s existing heteronormativity, where viewers assume the characters onscreen are straight unless explicitly told or shown otherwise. To directly communicate to the GA that a character is queer, shows typically make a character state their sexuality, or they show them engaging in an unambiguously romantic act (such as a kiss, or implied intercourse) with a same-sex partner.
In Buck’s coming out episode, 9-1-1 chose the “show” option: at the end of the episode, Buck shares an onscreen kiss with firefighter/helicopter pilot Tommy Kinard (Lou Ferrigno Jr.). To avoid being repetitious, then, 9-1-1 should utilize the “tell” option for Eddie. It’s also the clearest option–some viewers still complain that Buck “suddenly turned gay,” likely due to 9-1-1’s failure to verbally clarify Buck’s bisexuality onscreen. The perfect end to Eddie’s coming out episode would be to have him actually come out, leaving no room for debate or misinterpretation.
I know this whole stepwise plan of mine might be wishful thinking, but I genuinely believe it would be a win-win scenario. With 9-1-1 set to return for its ninth season this fall, I’d like to make a humble request to ABC and showrunner Tim Minear: please, for the love of God, let Eddie out of the closet!
Oh, and make sure it actually happens onscreen.
New episodes of 9-1-1 will start airing again on Thursdays this fall on ABC at 8 p.m. ET. The first eight seasons are currently streaming on Hulu/Disney+.