#(lawsuit not included we shall not talk about that yet)

[taylorhawkins]

Alright. I’m saying it just this once because the comments on my videos/comments I see elsewhere/anons etc never seem to end...

Did Dave Grohl work Taylor Hawkins to death?

Shall we dive in? Let’s dive in.

This whole theory/idea comes from the May 2022 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine which was supposed to be a tribute to Taylor, but instead, ended up being a hit piece on Dave Grohl. The article claimed that many sources, including Matt Cameron and Chad Smith, said that Dave "forced" Taylor into playing these 3 hour long shows and he couldn't do it, begged him to stop, that it fell on deaf ears, etc... and then he died. From exhaustion. This is what Rolling Stone ever so lovingly printed about the Foo Fighters not even 2 months after they lost their brother/best friend (and made Matt Cameron deal with on the anniversary of Chris Cornell’s passing)… But - let's gather the facts here.

IMMEDIATELY after this article came out, both Matt Cameron AND Chad Smith came out and said that their statements were completely and totally skewed.

Chad Smith: "Taylor was one of my best friends and I would do anything for his family," Smith says on social media. "I was asked by Rolling Stone to share some memories of our time together, which I thought was going to be the loving tribute he deserved. Instead, the story they wrote was sensationalized and misleading, and had I known I never would have agreed to participate. I apologize to his family and musical friends for any pain this may have caused. I miss Taylor every day."

Matt Cameron: “When I agreed to take part in the Rolling Stone article about Taylor, I assumed it would be a celebration of his life and work. My quotes were taken out of context and shaped into a narrative I never intended. Taylor was a dear friend, and a next level artist. I miss him. I have only the deepest love and respect for Taylor, Dave and the Foo Fighters families. I am truly sorry to have taken part in this interview and I apologize that my participation may have caused harm to those for whom I have only the deepest respect and admiration."

Now, why would such a thing happen?

Because that's what Rolling Stone magazine does. They can't print the truth, because the truth is too fucking boring. This is their history. In 1997, they wrote a piece titled "Eddie Vedder: Who Are You?", in which they not only interviewed his high school bullies who sat there and said "oh, he lived in a nice house, his step dad couldn't possibly have been abusive!" and Rolling Stone AGREED with this, but they took those little interviews and formed an entire narrative about how Eddie is a master manipulator that has faked his entire persona throughout his whole life, and that he used his image as a "tortured soul" to “propel himself to fame”, just so he could “become the face of the 90s”. That he had a great upbringing, and is faking it all for the grunge. As if he knew that would happen and did it on purpose. Yes. They wrote this. I am not joking. They were not joking either. This is the same magazine we are talking about. That is some next fucking level conspiracy bullshit.

This is the same magazine that harped on Layne Staley and Kurt Cobain's drug use, despite being asked not to (not because they didn’t want to tarnish their images, but "because kids will think heroin is cool and it's not"). Rolling Stone printed cover after cover about them with titles like "the needle and the damage done" beside a photo of a distraught-looking Layne... instead of focusing on their music. Their music doesn’t matter. The gossip is what matters.

They even say it in their own documentary. “What's the story? What's the gossip?” No what’s the truth. The truth is far too boring. The truth doesn’t get people to gasp and click or grab the magazine off the shelf and pay for it. That’s why they do this.

This is the same magazine that had to pay out $1.65 million dollars in a lawsuit because of their defamatory articles. And yet? NOBODY lost their jobs. There were no warnings. They paid the money, and that was that. They can keep doing what they do. And people keep believing it their BS.

Here's the thing that's so odd: this article oddly parallels the article about Eddie Vedder I mentioned earlier. There's a tyrant leader of the band that forces everyone to bend to his will, and everyone is afraid of him. Nobody can say no to him.

Let me tell you why that's bullshit.

This frankly is a grotesque infantilization of Taylor Hawkins. Believe it or not, Taylor was a big boy who could call the shots in his own life. He was not a child at risk of getting beat over the head if he stepped out of line. Taylor's net worth in March 2022 was $40 MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS + written into ongoing royalties. I'm sorry, but this grown man was not beholden to an abusive boss because he was stuck living paycheck to paycheck. If it was that bad, he had the means to split.

(by the way, here is where I address the “dAve’S nEt wOrTh iS sO mUcH HiGhEr bEcAuSe hE’s gReEdY” - is it because of greed? or is it because HE WAS IN FUCKING NIRVANA? and also QOTSA????)

But was he exhausted, and just put up with it because he didn't want to leave?

Was he exhausted? Only Taylor knows that. But, we do have some concrete facts here. How does an exhausted person behave?

Do they get off the road with Foo Fighters and then immediately jump back on the road, or immediately get into the studio, with Chevy Metal, or The Coattail Riders, or NHC, or Birds, or just under his own name (see the Kota EP), or Nighttime Boogie Association? That's SIX side projects. Do they start taking on a bunch of other major commitments like recording with Ozzy, finishing a Dennis Wilson track, recording with Elton John, with Miley Cyrus? Shit, does that person fucking mountain bike EVERYWHERE, every day?

Not only that, but when he did jump back on the road or into the studio, HE TOOK DAVE WITH HIM. Chevy Metal live shows? There’s Dave. Dave with CM in Sydney. Dave. Look! More Dave. I could keep going. Taylor’s solo album parties - guess who joined? Multiple tracks on Get the Money feature Dave either singing with him or playing drums. Dave's not even a frigging member of these bands. Have you ever been in a relationship with a person that abuses and takes advantage of you? I have. Multiple times. You don't drag that person along with you at every opportunity, I can promise you that lmao. It's more like, I got some not being around you to do today, but I digress.

But let's go even further. Let's say Dave weaseled his way into all of that because he's a sneaky bastard and had to keep tabs. lmao

Do we really believe that NOBODY would say ANYTHING? "Oh, Chad and Matt did!" Chad and Matt not only called Rolling Stone out but they BOTH continue to hang around Dave. (Chad even joined a skit they did to introduce Josh Freese). Alison Hawkins put out a statement about how much Taylor LOVED "every single moment of his 25 years with the band". Would you say that about your husband's band if they killed him? How many of Taylor's friends continue to stay close to Dave and the Foos? His children? THE REST OF THE BAND????? Everyone just blows over the fact that Nate Mendel knew and loved Taylor as long as Dave did. Chris Shiflett knew and loved him since 1999. Pat Smear too - and this is the 3rd bandmate Pat has lost. Rami Jaffee knew and loved Taylor for years. ALL OF THEM witnessed EVERYTHING because they were all together through ALL OF IT. Do we really believe NONE OF THEM would have come forward? None of them would have stepped away from the supposed selfish murderer?? They can afford to. So can Josh Freese who was also buddies with Taylor. It's almost a year and a half later and nobody said ANYTHING? Not a soul? Not even anonymously?

No. Because Rolling Stone lied to you. Dave didn't overwork him. Dave did not "kill" his best friend. Dave cannot even keep it together without crying, after all this time, just mentioning his name. You just look at recent photos of him and you can see he took it HARD. You cannot fake that. This is the same guy that sat at Taylor's hospital bedside for 2 weeks praying for him to wake up from a coma in 2001 and refused to leave and broke down talking about it 10 years later. The same guy that said the happiest days of his life were the day Taylor woke up and the days his kids were born. And y'all really want to say he would've just blown past Taylor's pleas to play shorter shows because it was killing him? Or ignored the warning signs of exhaustion? Or anything else?

I've also heard he "killed Taylor" by "human sacrifice" to that I say what kind of crack are you fucking smoking? Straight up. For what? They were already one of the biggest bands. Because they made a stupid horror movie (I won’t watch it, but still) and Taylor gets killed in it, so now we are going to run rampant with the conspiracy theories that it was "a warning"? News flash: The WHOLE BAND gets murdered in that movie. How come they’re not all dead now if that’s the case?

I've also heard that Dave "forced him to take the covid vaccine and that killed him". Chris Shiflett addressed this with a simple two words: "Fuck you". And again, Taylor is not a damn toddler. If he didn't want the shot, he didn't have to take it. Nobody "made him" do shit. That whole thing about them mandating vaccines at their shows was a lie, too - which has perpetuated this argument that Dave made the whole band take it. There’s that big angry boss man again. That’s not what they did. They came through my city a month before Taylor died. There was NO vaccine requirement - because the venue didn’t have it in place. THE VENUES are the ones that called for that. Not that it really matters, but it’s just another lie that spread like wildfire.

But Dave is greedy! He replaced Taylor and now they're trying to get back out there like nothing happened!

If this is your argument, you aren't paying attention to their shows. They honor Taylor at EVERY SINGLE SHOW they have played since his passing. Dave sings Cold Day in the Sun and can't get through it without crying. They put out an entire album about him (save for some songs about Virginia Grohl) with some of the most heart wrenching lyrics you will ever hear about how missed he is.

When you're a musician, that is in your blood. You CAN'T just stop. Imagine not being able to do the thing you love most anymore in the midst of the most painful time of your life. What is going to carry you through? Music is what does it when it's part of you like that. Josh Freese is not a "replacement". Those guys - Dave, Pat, Nate, Chris and Rami - have been together almost 30 years (Rami not as long but still). It's not about the frigging money. It's them attempting to heal together.

Should they abandon each other and everything they have created together and look back on it with sadness at how it was all wiped out in an instant? Or should they let Josh Freese be the glue they need to move forward and keep playing to heal together and keep Taylor's memory alive at every show?

Finally - you don't look at someone the way they looked at each other if you don't love them or trust them. Straight up. All it takes is a quick google search to see that.

I also find it funny how Rolling Stone attempted to create a new narrative last October as if their first one didn't work. "Oh, it was an overdose". Oh, actually, it's none of your damn business.

Call me an idol worshipper or an elite sympathizer of evil (I'm literally a Christian) or a blind sheeple/obsessive fangirl too stupid to see The Truth, idgaf. Been called it all before. Stop beating down someone that is grieving the loss of their best friend. Open YOUR eyes.

Dave Grohl did not overwork or kill his best friend. I'm not having this conversation anymore.

#big sigh #foo fighters #taylor hawkins #dave grohl #rolling stone magazine #nate mendel #chris shiflett #pat smear #rami jaffee #taylor hawkins tribute #text #rant

[panevanbuckley]

after sitting through season 1 watching buck being mostly alone and excluded from the group it's so refreshing that eddie is finally here. buck never has to do a risky move on his own anymore. eddie will always have his back, through thick and thin 😭

#i'm emotional okay #i just...buck never has to be alone again #(lawsuit not included we shall not talk about that yet) #9-1-1 #evan buckley #eddie diaz #buddie

[himbo-buckley]

The Big Buddie for Dummies Guide

Hello party people and welcome to whatever this was supposed to be!

Quite a while ago I got an ask by someone about doing a guide on all the canon indicators for Buddie to explain the ship to non-shippers and about 5 anxiety attacks and four weeks later, I finally did it!

So read, enjoy, reblog, validate, disagree!

Also here are some notes before we get started:

Buddie has been around a while now and there are some incredibly people writing about them and doing meta posts for them, some of which I asked for their opinion which I will link at the end and some of which I am quoting in a way / have been inspired by (Also feel free to send me all and every post related and I will link it in the text as I will try to do the same)

This Guide is organised by the following themes we find in the show with Buddie: trust - coparenting - connection and love life - subtext

I’m not gonna lie, this is incomplete af because tbh? There is so much stuff that can be interpreted as evidence for Buddie but this is too long already so I left some stuff out, I hope ya’ll don’t mind … (also the reblog  option exists for reason, just add on what I missed, I’m not gonna bite!)

I’m gonna assume the person who reads this has a general understanding of the show and its scenes because I cannot explain every scene down to it’s very detail (I mean I can but that’s another 20000 words worth of meta and not sure anyone wants to read that … again) but I will try and link fitting gifsets (again, send them my way if you feel I should include sth.)

I should also add a warning for the fact that I, personally, think I am hilarious but others might not but fellas, Idc! (Also I cuss, some people don’t like that?)

So let’s get this show on the road then, shall we? I call this meta : „We might end up real close.“

(alternate title: „Buddie stans ship hard but canon ships harder“ or „This is Timbo’s story (of becoming more famous than Joss Whedon) and I’m just it’s vessel“)

Trust

We’re gonna start this off strong (I mean all of them are strong themes) by talking about the biggest theme with Buddie which is trust. It goes all the way back to 2.01 and the gym scene and Buck basically telling Eddie he doesn’t trust him (complaining about Eddie’s comfort level, anyone?) and that he needs to earn that - which rude but also I get it.

In fact there are two main themes which I combined into Trust which begin in 2.01:

„You’re my problem“ and „You can have my back any day“ both of which sort of sum up Buddie, because from the get go Buck decides hey, this guy is my problem and then he proceeds to make everything about Eddie his business. Eddie meanwhile tells Buck he’d love to have him watching his back - meaning Eddie trusts him and wants Buck to be his partner.

(Side note: isn’t it beautiful how that is a complete reverse of their usual attitudes? Usually Buck trusts way to easy and Eddie never does but with each other it’s the opposite!)

Let’s look at the episodes in order, okay?

2.01: „I think I’ve seen this happen in porn before“

- „You’re my problem“: I’m gonna talk about the gym scene later a bit more but this sort of establishes the dynamic Buddie has? Because both are fascinated by and focused on each other from the get go. I mean: Eddie got to the 118 and everyone seemed to be nice to him except this one guy and instead of giving him a few days, thinking he’ll come around , Eddie is like: nah, I’ll confront him! Why? Maybe it’s gay, maybe it’s Maybelline, maybe Eddie „I am not enough“ Diaz was just sick and tired of everyone putting trust in him because soldier and craved the vibe check?

- „You can have my back“: Basically what happened was, they got the bomb out (being partners and in sync even when they didn’t like each other yet) and they stood outside and Eddie tries a new approach cause for some reason Eddie decided out of everyone at the 118 he needed Buck to like him specifically and so he pays the guy - who was nothing but rude to him so far but who is also very competent - a compliment and Buck gets all flustered and thankful - and „You’re my problem!“ gets rephrased into „Or you know, you could have mine!“

(Also the look of pure elation on Buck’s face when Eddie compliments him, you know the person Hen has basically said is so awesome and pretty it transcends sexualities? And he picks Buck of all people to have his back? Buck has no choice but to stan!)

- In terms of Trust we also get the pool scene which is our second instance of them being in sync and partners by both jumping into the pool and getting the guy out basically at the same time

2.02 / 2.03: „Why Edmundo Diaz hates earthquakes part 1 and part 2 (of 2)“

- „Where do you want us, Cap?“: Now looking at the timeline of 2.01 they’ve known each other for approximately four days as this is their fourth shift together (we see) and yet Eddie is already comfortable enough to answer for himself and Buck several times. He’s the one who decides they will go in and he answers the roll call later for the both of them. This is our first real instance of them being in sync and just their whole interaction, from Eddie going along with Buck’s plan about the elevator to everything else just shows how much they already trust each other.

- „I, uh, I love kids“: Also Buck in this episode, why was it so important that Eddie knows you like kids? Please share!

- “Eddie, you’re kid is in the safest place he can be.“: Connected to this is a sub-theme I like to call: ‚They know each other better than anyone else does‘ which is established here with Buck realising that Eddie is full of shit when he pretends not to worry about Chris so Buck spends some time trying to assure Eddie Chris is safe at school.

- „Is everything okay?“: Of course, the fact that Buck was the only one to check in with Eddie’s mental state from the truck scene onwards is very telling, because everyone else likes and trusts him but they don’t really care (yet)

- And the episodes end with everyone reuniting with their families, including Eddie - while Buck watches from the car because Buck drove him there because he has his back (also see Subtext)

2.04: „Hearteyes, motherforker“

This whole episode is what made several people ship Buddie and well, I can see it and I will talk about a lot of it with the other themes but for now:

- „I just feel bad for him. (…) Eddie’s working on it“: This episode really leans into the whole „You’re my problem“ with Buck apparently driving Eddie to the hospital (or at least coming along) to Buck clearing Chris coming to the station with Bobby to worrying about them at home until finally he introduces him to Carla.

Mind you, they haven’t known each other that long, yet Buck feels the need to meddle in Eddie’s life and fix his problems for him which, yes, is very Buck thing to do but still: Considering Eddie was introduced to us as this super capable guy, it’s interesting that Buck immediately saw through him and decided: yeah, that guy needs me to take care of him.

Or you know, to have his back.

2.07: „*Tommy Wiseau voice* Oh, hi Shannon!“

- „I needed someone to have my back“: This episode establishes the significance of „You can have my back“ even more because in this episode Shannon comes back and you know what they fight about? Eddie not having her back. Shannon quite literally says „I needed someone to have my back“ which is almost the same exact  Eddie tells Buck in 2.01 and with that wording as well ...

In the same scene Shannon also says how Eddie always knows best and is the one to make the decisions which  is another parallel you can draw to Buddie where Eddie began like that in 2.01 (the scene at the mechanic’s) and then began to follow Buck’s lead (the elevator shaft) / let Buck help him (Carla))

2.10: „It’s all about ‚figured it was none of my business‘“

I love this episode very much because there are several Buddie hints in there.

- “I think it’s none of our business.“: Connected to the topic of Trust is the scene between Chimney and Buck when they buy the Christmas tree and Buck keeps talking about Shannon coming to the station and the fact that Shannon and Eddie hooked up while Chim seems exasperated by this and frankly doesn’t care and he tells Buck as much, saying it’s none of their business. Except it is because Eddie is Buck’s problem, remember?

- „So … not gonna say anything?“: And then the „None of your / my business“ gets repeated in the scene when Buddie sits at the fountain talking about Chris and Shannon and they both say it’s none of Buck’s business. Yet Eddie then still tells Buck all about it sounding all defensive.

- It’s also the first instance of Eddie willingly searching out Buck’s advice about Christopher.

- And related to the topic of knowing each other well, considering how surprised Buck is by all of this, one sort of has to wonder how often they hang out outside of work. Because the way Buck acts makes one assume it’s quite a lot, which is why Buck is so hurt he doesn’t know about it.

- Also the fact that they so casually go somewhere with Christopher and the way Buck talks about him making it clear they have done this before.

- „Trying to protect your kid.“: On the topic of Trust I also wanna mention the fact that Eddie doesn’t trust Shannon with Christopher. Which is a direct parallel to 3.03 when Eddie tells Buck there is no one he trusts more with his son. And also 3.09 when Buck gets to be back in Chris’s life after the lawsuit as soon as Buddie made up yet Shannon needs to really beg for it? I mean, yeah.

2.13: „ Evan *I colour coordinate with bae while my sister is abducted and my brother is dying* Buckley“

- „Oh, no, I know what you were thinking.“: The scene at the hospital between Buck and Eddie does have a bit of subtextual relevance but I do think we should note the fact that this scene was in the show at all like this because wouldn’t Bobby have made a bit more sense? After all they spent one and a half Season before that making him the guy Buck goes to for advice and he has sisters as well, yet here we get Eddie being the one to talk to Buck.

We get Eddie basically telling Buck exactly what he needed to hear and while not exactly condoning his actions, he is also not judging them. Instead Eddie is telling Buck he might have done the same, because Eddie and Buck know each other and see each other.

So I wouldn’t necessarily call that scene Buddie-hinting but it does definitely play into the whole ‚having each other’s backs‘ and ‚knowing each other well‘ thing they got going on.

Also compare it to 3.06 in the way that both times Buck did something wrong and it was Eddie who actually took the time to listen to Buck’s reasoning and be the one to understand him, which is a very important part of their dynamic.

And the line „I wasn’t worried about that.“ in response to how Buck thought he would get away with all of this might be one of the top 10 heartbreaking lines of this show for me and that is saying a lot with 911!

2.14: „‚It’s a miracle… bro #nohomo’“

I am not fully sure if the scene of Buck freaking out about Eddie going back in to save the kid really fits in here, but I’m also very unsure were else to put it, so Trust it is!

- „Eddie, what are you doing?”: It does fit into the whole having each other’s back thing with Buck immediately jumping into action to try and help Eddie

- But in all honesty prior to 3.14 this would have not made the cut as I would have been like: eh, that’s just who Buck is as a person - but as 3.14 will proof / has proven, he can be calm and collected even when his sister, his ACTUAL family is in danger and while I would argue it was in part because there was less he could do to actively help in 3.14, it still deserves to be mentioned now

- Side note: considering 2.13 / 2.14 and 3.14 / 3.15 this marks two occasions were Buck being worried for Maddie’s life was followed by an episode of Buck being worried for Eddie’s life and that too deserves mentioning

2.18: „insert *Jane Austen film*-gif: It’s about the hands!“

- I’m not really sure if this is really connected to Trust but Eddie holds Buck’s hand the whole time, even after he has dragged him out from under the firetruck until they disappear in the ambulance.

- Also the fact that Eddie, who is probably stronger than Chimney, is the one helping Hen drag Buck out from under the fire truck while Chimney helps lift it is … worth a mention.

- Definitely connected to Trust is Buck’s insistence to going to Eddie’s ceremony because this is Eddie and he has his back

3.01: „How you know he no sleep naked?“

Yes, this scene has a lot to unpack. In terms of *trust* / how well they know each other:

- „He’s just sulking, Cap“: Eddie says about Buck. In my opinion the phrasing combined with how before that they were talking about how Maddie can’t get Buck to leave the house and he won’t answer any of Bobby’s calls implies that either a) Eddie too has tried to contact Buck with no success or b) is actually in contact with Buck, has talked to him and has concluded based on what he saw that Buck is sulking - and yes, I am leaning toward b).

- “Maybe you’ll learn something.“: Which brings me to the fact that it’s Eddie who makes the  plan to get Buck out of his funk and prove to him that he still has stuff to live for, despite how dismissive he had been about Buck’s feelings before, calling it sulking and saying Buck should just brush it off. Because Eddie has Buck’s back despite it all and is there for him and trusts him.

- „He’s hanging out with his Buck today“: In terms of actual Trust there is the fact that Buck is very much depressed in this episode - and what does Eddie do? Puts his son in his care, you know, the most important person in Eddie’s life, convinced that Buck will be able to take care of him despite how low and bad he is feeling about himself. One) because it has been the case for Eddie probably. Two) because this is who Buck is as a person even while depressed and Eddie trusts that. And three) because even before the Tsunami Eddie was very sure about how much Buck loved Chris.

- „Honestly I don’t know how to help him.“: This also parallels Maddie with Eddie in an interesting way because Maddie spends the whole episode worried about Buck and thinking he cannot take care of himself, while Eddie trusts in Buck to not only take care of himself but also his son. Which yeah, interesting.

3.02 „Eddie hates earthquakes - the remix“

- The episode sort of proves that while the others may have known what Eddie was gonna do, Operation „Buck up Buck“ was his plan because he is the one who has Buck’s back. (Considering for example Maddie doesn’t know about it as she thinks Buck is home and had Chim been involved he would have told her beforehand meaning this was Eddie’s plan and he executed it and then told the others about it while at work.)

- Also in terms of literal Trust: LA is hit by a Tsunami and Eddie doesn’t worry about his son once because Buck said they are going to the movies next and also because Eddie trusts Buck to protect Chris like he would.

3.03 „‚Do it for the trauma!‘ - Buck-edition“

Once again a subtext-mill but there is some textual evidence as well:

- “How do you tell your best friend that you lost his son?“: At the VA hospital Buck calls Eddie his best friend when he talks to Maddie which I always found weird in this context? Because it should always be hard to tell another person about how you got their child killed (which is not my opinion but the way Buck sees it here, okay?), yet the writers choose to put in a reference to how much Eddie means to Buck.

- Which connects to another subtext and text thing which is the voiceover which has Buck say the lines: „To be seen. To be found. Isn’t that what we’re all looking for?“ after talking to Eddie, which no longer just implies this is about Eddie but actually straight up says it - and it connects to the sub-topic of how well they know each other, cause Buck says in this episode: Eddie is my best friend and he sees me for who I really am. Which, yeah, is stuff one usually finds in connection to a love interest. (Will talk about it more with Subtext though)

- Also before that the voiceover has Buck say „Sometimes being lost is not knowing how to get from where we are to where we wanna be, where we need to be.“ right as Eddie knocks on the door, which basically states that Eddie and Chris might be where Buck wants to be but also how Eddie apparently knows how to get Buck there. Because he knows him so well. (He literally calls Eddie his life raft in the voiceover!)

- „Buck, there is nobody in this world I trust with my son more than you”: Now the Trust theme in regards to the loft scene is interesting in how it compares Buck to two people in Eddie’s eyes / life: Shannon and himself. Shannon, as I already said, we have with 2.07 and 2.10, both of which talked about how she left Chris (and Eddie) and how Eddie no longer trusts her because of this and refuses to let her back into Chris’s life. Which is different to how he always lets Buck back into Chris’s life, even after the lawsuit with virtually no hesitation once they made up as far as we can see. Meaning he trusts Buck more than he trusts Shannon. Who is, you know, his wife?

As for Eddie himself, I’m gonna flashforward a bit to 3.08 and the conversation between Eddie and Bobby. Because in 3.03 Eddie talks about messing up with Chris, yet how he never stops trying and how he knows Buck is the same way - which is interesting considering 3.08 has Eddie basically say that he has not forgiven himself for all those mistakes. Yet he forgives Buck both for the Tsunami and abandoning them during the lawsuit.

And now I wanna say something very controversial and hurtful but also connected to how I read Buddie and Trust which is that in my opinion? Eddie includes himself here. Eddie tells Buck here he trusts him more or at the very least just as much as he trusts himself with his son. Which is pretty big, considering he barely trusted his wife, the mother of said son, who he has known for at the very least about 11 years during Season 2? Someone he himself said he loves? Someone he at one point planned his future with? (Meaning he most definitely plans his future with Buck in it now…)

3.04 „discount!Buck in the house“

- Two things are in this episode, both of which are very much not about Trust in the literal sense but how much time Buddie spends together outside of work:

“Can’t fight city hall.“ Eddie being the only one on board with the fire drill Buck’s leading because he is a boy scout who follows all the rules but also because Buck probably talked to him about his job as fire marshal beforehand and so Eddie knows how important what is happening here is to Buck.

„You don’t know math.“: now, you can think this is another dig at Buck’s intelligence but you also have to acknowledge that at one point Eddie might have either heard someone reference Buck’s math knowledge in front of Eddie or Eddie has seen Buck try doing math and has remembered that well enough to immediately be able to pull out that dig. (Which brings us to a parallel I will talk about later!)

- “Uh, who - who’s that?“: I also firmly believe that Buck would have not been as willing to go along with the lawsuit, despite Bobby’s betrayal, had Eddie not immediately rushed off toward Lena at the firehouse, making Buck think Eddie (his partner) has replaced him. Does no longer need him to have his back.

3.05: „What if we fight like a married couple in a grocery store downtown LA, bro?“

Ah, yes, that episode! Filled with Buddie signs!

- “And if Cap says he’s not ready, he’s not ready.“: What I find interesting in terms of Buddie and Trust is the fact that Eddie apparently trusts Bobby’s judgement more than he trusts Buck’s. Which I find OOC. Or not because Eddie is a soldier and Eddie grew up fairly authoritarian it seems his first instinct will be to follow the chain of command / do as the person in charge tells him to.

- Now everything else that happens after including and specifically the street fighting storyline? That was a direct result of the lawsuit and the deposition in which Buck betrayed Eddie’s trust by revealing the info about Shannon. Which Buck is aware of because up until this point we see him still looking up, yet after this he drops his eyes and doesn’t really look at anyone again during the deposition.

- “And I’m not allowed to talk to Buck.“: Yet. YET despite this massive betrayal in Eddie’s eyes what stops him from calling Buck later is the fact that he wasn’t allowed to do so! Nothing else. Also the phrasing is very interesting as it gives us three entities Eddie considered to call: his abuela, Buck and the 118, meaning Hen, Chim and Bobby - the people he will call his family about 6 episodes later - are an uniformed mass but Buck is his own person - because up to this point Buck always had Eddie’s back. And we all know he still would have had! (Sidenote: this line is what made me an actual shipper and why ya’ll can read posts like this, so maybe say thank you to Lyndsey Beaulieu? Or fuck you, depending on your opinion of me ;P)

- „And now I can’t even talk to you.“: This whole scene gives huge character exposition and I’ve talked a shit ton about the fight in the grocery store before as have a lot of other people, but basically what it boils down to is that Eddie is mad at Buck because he revealed things about them to his lawyer but mostly because Eddie thought they had each others back and trusted each other and apparently Buck doesn’t trust and care about him the same way Eddie does for him because he didn’t even consult Eddie about the lawsuit? And Eddie misses Buck a lot. And Chris misses Buck a lot. And Eddie is already mad because Shannon wanted a divorce despite how hard he tried and then she died, meaning she left him again and now Buck left him as well and why is Eddie never enough for anyone?

And of course, as always, Eddie is mad at himself the most because he wasn’t enough for Shannon and he wasn’t enough for Buck and he’s probably not enough for Chris who is struggling so much and Eddie just feels angry and lost all the time!

I think this is the moment Buck finally understands how much he means to Eddie truly. How Eddie meant every word in 3.03. How for once someone actually trusted him, depended on him - and he let them down. Which was never his intention because Buck never understood that he could (which is not the topic of this post though).

- “Why can’t you see my side of things?“: On Buck’s side, while he isn’t nearly as mad as Eddie, he does raise the question of why Eddie didn’t have his back - which is a very fair question but Eddie is still too mad at Buck here to hear it.

- What is also very interesting about this scene is that no one, not even Bobby who was actually sued by Buck, is as mad at him as Eddie is and no one dares steps between them. Probably because everyone recognises they are closest with each other, so the conversation hits a bit different and also is about a lot more than the „stupid lawsuit“. Yeah.

(Real talk I have been very mad at friends before and I am known to make scenes but damn, this scene does not read platonic at all, it reads ‘married couple fights in grocery store in LA - what happens next will surprise you. News at 11.’)

- In other news, Eddie didn’t come to the rage room in the end and Buck was very very sad about it.

3.06: „*cries about the framing*“

(Sidenote: I feel Eddie so much in this episode, I too would be too embarrassed to talk to Buck had I just screamed at him in a grocery store in full view of all our coworkers. I too would avoid everyone like the plague and maybe join a fight club just so I would not have to deal with those feelings. I get it, my dude!)

- “Whew, dude, are you okay?“: We’ll talk about it with 3.08 as well, but it is very significant and pointed that Buck immediately knows something is wrong with Eddie when no one else at the station had seemed to be aware of that.

- “I don’t know what you want from me, Buck“: The apology scene is very subtext heavy but what it comes down to in the whole having each other’s back / knowing each other well / Trust - column is the fact that after being mad and avoiding him all day Eddie still sticks around and more importantly actually listens to Buck - which, as shitty as that sounds, but considering how he acted before if Eddie hadn’t wanted to still be Buck's friend he could have said something shitty and left or stayed and not actually listened to what Buck had to say - but he didn’t because as hurt as Eddie had been by Buck’s betrayal he still trust him and he wants to understand, which I do think sets Eddie apart from everyone else because Hen and Chim forgive Buck but they don’t ever try to figure out where he is coming from while Bobby is … being Bobby about all of. Eddie meanwhile, who has the most or maybe the only right to actually be mad about the lawsuit, still trusts Buck enough to know that he had his reasons and actually takes the time to listen to them. Even if he is being sassy.

- And on Buck’s side we do have his need to reconnect with Eddie the whole episode and we have him notice stuff about Eddie no one else did and we also have the really beautiful and mature line of Buck saying: „I just want you to talk to me. Even if it’s just to say you’re still mad.“ Which I love very much and tells us a lot about Buck and communication, because Buck values openness so much.

- “And I just wanted to…“ - „Punch someone?“: Also while it was important for Buck to explain himself to someone - it was especially important for him to explain himself to Eddie, both because he considers Eddie his best friend and also because the grocery store scene showed him how much he means to Eddie which probably floored Buck because as we learned before and also after: Buck is not used to people needing him as much as he needs them.

3.08: „XOXO gossip (fire)fighters“

- “Whoo. Nice truck.“: One thing about 911 is that it’s a very plot and action driven show, meaning sometimes it will lack the time to actually show us certain things, especially when it comes to relationships, so it relies a lot on telling us things about characters and their relationships and as these scenes here show us they do a good job at it. Buddie talking about Eddie buying a new truck is very casual and banter-y / flirty (this is a Buddie post so I call it like I see it) and light and shows us: hey, they are friends again and close again and they know each other very well - while also showing us: Eddie still keeps stuff from Buck but Buck knows something is off.

- “Eddie too.“: Which brings me to my next point and the thing I love most about this episode aside from Heidi which is Buck running around and going: ‚something is wrong with Eddie‘ while everyone else is like: ‚Eddie? Are you sure? I haven’t noticed anything‘

Which leaves two ways to read this:

Eddie and the rest of the 118 aren’t as close as it seems and they do not care about Eddie that much - which considering all the deep talk between Eddie and Chimney in 3b especially and the fact that he calls them his family would be fucked up and also doesn’t seem like the vibe they are going for OR

BUDDIE! I mean, look at what has been going on with the street fighting storyline, essentially the writers went: okay, so Eddie can't talk to Buck so he goes completely off the rails but no one will know because Eddie hides it so well - EXCEPT Buck will realise sth is wrong the second he looks at Eddie and once the lawsuit is done he will spend two episodes running after Eddie and trying to figure out what is going on

3.09: „#tw: mild adult themes & implied sexual content / #pwp - porn without porn“

- “He’s kind of obsessed with natural disasters.“: Honest question: Is Buck really obsessed with natural disasters or does Eddie have earthquake related trauma and Buck has been googling stuff and telling him facts to calm Eddie down every time the earth vibrates a little because a train or something passes them by?

In any case it’s a very cute scene with Eddie once more revealing how well he knows Buck and the writers confirming to us that yes, these boys spent a lot of time with each other and talking to each other - without needing to show the scenes

- “I could still take you“: AFTER ALL they needed the runtime to do this other little scene this fandom has not talked about at all ever mainly because it is so very straight basically people stopped shipping after.

I’m just kidding, obviously the whole scene was very queer both in subtext but especially in text, I mean, what even was that line about still taking him, Buck? There is a child not even 15 feet away, where is your sense for decency and decorum? DO YOU WANT TO TRAUMATISE HIM EVEN MORE???

A few notes on this scene:

- It’s been pointed out to me that Maddie complains about how everything around there gets shared with the 118 and how Buck … turns around and shares everything about his sister with Eddie, which I love because it seems so normal and comfortable between them like they do that all the time, which is way cute and domestic!

Added to that considering the conversation Eddie had the week before with Bobby about Shannon and the throwaway reference about thinking his marriage having been complicated, I wonder: Did Eddie talk to everyone about the street fighting and Shannon after his talk with Bobby in 3.08? Did he just talk to Buck about it? Did Buck know about Shannon wanting a divorce all along? (Yeah, you know were I am leaning, right?)

- “Especially if you aren’t around to see that they need saving“: As for the apology in and off itself, I’m not gonna talk about the character implications again cause been there done that, send an ask if you wanna know more, but what it comes down to is: Buck acknowledging that he should have been there for Eddie and he didn’t consider the Eddie of it all when he sued Bobby, which is interesting because OFFICIALLY Eddie really is just his best friend and coworker at this point so did he really have to consider his feelings all that much?

Also Buck is saying - and Eddie is not contradicting this - that Eddie street fighting would not have happened if Buck had been around, which, to quote a good friend of mine: Uff!

I think we can admit that while Eddie was mad at Buck, his anger was not primarily about Buck but it was amplified by Buck abandoning him. We can admit that Buck was what ultimately caused Eddie to lose his control and considering everything that Eddie went through in the past year with Shannon and considering everything Buck went through in the past two years: this is as close to unconditional love as these two can manage at the time and that is very beautiful and does support Buddie 100%. They are each other’s anchor and person the one they turn to in a crisis.

Or well, Buck is for Eddie. Buck does have more people like that in his life with his sister there and I do think before the lawsuit he wasn’t fully aware that he could depend on Eddie so fully because Buck always doubts how committed other people are to him because abandonment issues.

3.11: „Bist du single? Nein, eher Album!“

- „This is Eddie’s house. I’m not really a guest.“: Incredibly strong indicator / implications toward how much time these two boys spent with each other, considering how comfortable both of them are in each other’s space (and I don’t mean physical but material space). Eddie has a key to Buck’s apartment and just let’s himself in willy-nilly, while Buck is around in Eddie’s place often enough to not think of himself as a guest there. (And while that might be normal best friend behaviour to some of us, Maddie’s words imply that it is not for her / the Buckleys.)

3.14: „Frank says ‚Thank you, this paid for my new house!‘“ / 3.15: „MY therapist also says ‚Thank you!‘“

I’m gonna group these two together, since 3.14 in itself doesn’t have any relevance considering Eddie isn’t even in the episode but it does become relevant in regards to 3.15!

- Basically what it all comes down to is the contrast between Buck’s reaction to Maddie being in danger and his reaction to Eddie nearly dying!

Now I already said while talking about 2.14 part of it was that Buck was aware he was in no position to help Maddie and might actually make stuff worse if he intervenes while with Eddie he was HIS ACTUAL LIFELINE! He was actually responsible for getting Eddie out of the well and home to his family. BUT (!) it’s still very pointed, especially remembering they apparently changed the order of episodes around? Meaning we are really hit with the contrast and we have to consider the implications of it all!

- Also just Buck’s reaction in general, even with Chimney and Maddie in Season 2 he wasn’t this frantic, he wasn’t freaking out like that! This really seems like all those scene’s shows like that usually do to confirm one person is in love with the other by having them completely loose it at the prospect of the other dying.

And damn, does 911 delivers here, not just with Buck literally trying to dig down to Eddie with his bare hands but also with his conviction for the rest of the episode before going sort of catatonic near the end. Basically Buck was going through the 5 stages of grief over Eddie during the course of this episode and we just? Let him?

- Of course we should mention Buck has Eddie’s back always, so he doesn’t give up on him and doesn’t entertain the notion of Eddie possibly being dead for even a microsecond because this is Eddie and Buck needs him!

- And to add to the list of heartbreaking lines we have Hen saying: „Why? So we have two cut lines?“ because yes, Buck would choose to stay down there rather than let himself be saved if Eddie was already dead - and if Eddie wasn’t he would force Eddie to trade lines with him so Buck could be the one to die because Buck thinks Eddie’s life is more valuable than his and also he is a selfless idiot who loves Eddie more than himself - which frankly is a mutual thing if we look at 3.03

Option #3 btw would be that Hen knows Eddie has a legitimate reason to cut his line and he would explain that to Buck and - considering who they are - Buck would immediately agree and cut his line as well.

Anyways, no matter which option the writers were thinking off this line is heartbreaking and the implication interesting!

To sum it all up, the episode basically said: Buck would die for Eddie and he loves him more than anything else

- The Eddie implications of this episode are mostly Subtext, so we’ll get to them later in case you thought I forgot!

3.16: „The rope was a metaphor after all“

Tbh I do not think that this episode was really about how no person can be happy / live without regrets / not be lonely unless they are in a relationship with someone or they would not have put that much focus on the relationship between Maddie and Buck and the fact that his abandonment issues stem from her leaving.

- “He’s not gonna do it alone“: As for Buddie, the episode goes back to them being partners and in sync with the roof thing and yay, it has a different ending then the reversed situation the episode before but also it features a metaphor we will talk about later

- “Hey, you’re more than welcome to come and celebrate with a bunch of 9 year olds.“: Just like we will talk later about Eddie inviting Buck to the sleepover! Because while I don’t think the invite was all that serious and I don’t think even considering everyone else, Buck would have taken him up on it because celebrating with a bunch of 9 year olds around isn’t what Buck had in mind, it’s very interesting that the first person taken out of the equation is the guy Buck is closest to and probably spends the most time with.

- And now let’s talk about the playing pool scene because it once again shows that 1) Buck and Eddie are very alike, 2) they know each other very well and 3) they care about each other the most!

Because for 1) I do wanna point everyone to the fact that Eddie doesn’t have anyone outside his family and the 911 either or they would have mentioned him staying in contact with his army buddies or something.

2) Eddie is the only one who actually listens to what Buck says and gets what Buck is really asking, while Bobby, Hen and Chim are all too focused on their own experiences to get that the reason Buck tries so hard to help Red is because he thinks he is Red (I mean they do get it, but they don’t really realise how serious this is for Buck - yet)

3) There is also a lot of focus on Eddie in this scene which we will talk about later as well but it picks up the whole ambiguous „us“ from the grocery store which technically refers to the whole firefam but the way it’s said still implies that it is about the two of them especially.

To anticipate a bit: every time the word „Us“ is used in this scene Buddie only looks at each other. When Buck says „I mean that would never happen … to us.“ he looks at everyone else but turns to look at Eddie as he very pointedly says „to us“ and keeps his focus there for a moment. Eddie meanwhile technically turns to the pool table while he says the word „us“ but he only focuses on Buck before this and doesn’t look at anyone else because to him: Buck is the important aspect here. And no one else!

Not to mention the intense look Buck gives Eddie (and only Eddie) when he says „Better not.“. Like damn, in 3 Seasons Buck has never sounded this threatening before!

Basically the way this scene is acted combined with the words that were written it sort of reads like them going: We’re all family here but you and me will most definitely never leave each other!

I mean there is a reason why Buddie used the ambiguous „us“ while everyone else talked about the firefam being friends or being family.

(And yes, that might be a bit of a reach but this is a Buddie guide after all, so we are going with the buddie-est interpretation!)

3.17: „‚Don’t say her name‘-challenge“

- “Uh no, someone else.“: More of a subtext scene but it does seem pointed that Buck refuses to admit that he was thinking about Abby here, considering Bobby most definitely knew that Buck was talking about Abby because he was there for the hot-air balloon date, so even if he did not remember right away he knew the second Buck said he didn’t know from Maddie and since Hen and Chimney weren’t there in the truck (and also, they probably would have known who Buck was talking about as well) the only one Buck was hiding from was Eddie.

Which makes sense, even if you only look at them as best friends, because Eddie only saw the aftermath and what we canonically know that he heard about Abby were things like Buck’s speech in 2.08, so … even as just Buck’s friend he must really dislike her

(Also there is that whole parallel one can draw between Abby and Shannon which I talked about here)

- „Buck invites Eddie“: So I’ve been going back and forth on what to write here for a few hours now and what it comes down to is this: despite being 6500 words deep into a meta on Buddie and knowing full well the writers so far have no intention of actively doing Buddie, I would not accuse 911 of queerbaiting. HOWEVER, if the show ends and Buddie doesn’t happen I will consider this scene queerbaiting because there would have been ways to write this that did not leave the implications it did because the way it has been written the text is:

„If I bring my romantic life-partner to dinner with my best friend he will bring his romantic life-partner who will invite her brother who will invite his best friend and then we have to invite this other couple we are all close with.“ and well, one of them is not like the others, right?

(Well, technically two but Maddie and Buck are most definitely siblings despite that scene in 2.01)

Because essentially what that scene did here was say: If I bring my wife the evening turns into this couples night with all our friends - except Buck and Eddie aren’t a couple.

And sure, just like all great queerbaits there is a reasonable explanation as well as a completely platonic way to read this because of course Buck would not wanna be all alone with two couple so he would bring his best friend and the we’d have to invite the other couple we know as well so they don’t feel left out.

EXCEPT - and this is why it feel pointed and queerbait-ey: We have already seen the 118 hang out without Athena and Bobby at Chimney’s birthday and it was never mentioned to us whether they were invited and didn’t come - or Chimney didn’t invite them. Both explanations sort of make Hen’s point moot because it does proof that they can hang out without their boss slash friend and his wife slash her best friend without it being a big deal meaning especially if this was a make-up dinner for Chimney’s birthday they wouldn’t have needed to be there.

There is also the fact that supposably Alfred is still in town? You know, Chimney’s brother? So if they wanted to avoid the Buddie implication they could have also thrown in how Chim might bring his brother like:

„I invite you, so he invites Maddie, Maddie invites Buck, Buck invites Eddie, Chim might invite Alfred,  and now we gotta invite Athena and Bobby“ - see how that has a completely different feel? Now there are three single guys and two of which are siblings of someone else in the group while the third is friends with the rest of the group, making this sound less like couples night out and more like a group of friends hanging out.

But they didn’t do it like that so now it feels like they are pointedly equating Buddie with the canon couples of the show which is quite queerbait-ey.

3.18: „TrainCRASH? More like train WRECK? *cries*“

Okay, so this episode is a little hard to do because there is so much going on and a lot of it is very hard to categorise! As for the topic of Trust and having each other’s back:

- I do think that a lot of Eddie here come down to having Buck’s back - even when Buck might not think that’s what Eddie’s doing like in the train car, but he probably realised later which is why we see Buck talk about it with Bobby but not with Eddie because they are at this point where you no longer need to have clarifying talks (about stuff like that, once romantic!Buddie hits they’ll have to do all the talking).

And that’s basically it when it comes to Trust because most of what is happening in the episode when it comes to Buddie is Subtext!

Coparenting

I think this theme needs less of an explanation - though I do wanna point out that while I think Buck has fatherly feelings for Chris and Chris loves Buck a lot, Buck is not actually his parent / father. He is slowly getting there and if or when Buddie happens he might become Chris’s other parent but right now he is not. So this theme is about Buck being a honorary member of the Diaz family in general and Eddie’s treatment of him most of all.

Because the way I see Eddie him dating anyone would always be tied to his son. Eddie has been shown to be someone who would do anything for family and his son in particular, so the fact that Buck is tied into this family is important. It also shows how much they are already a family without actually dating and proofs they spent more time with each other than we see and more than with anyone else.

I should also say that there is a very heavy overlap between this and the category of Subtext so some things will be repeated but all of them deserve to be repeated so there is that.

2.02 / 2.03: „Why Edmundo Diaz hates earthquakes part 1 and part 2 (of 2)“

- Like I already said when I discussed Trust Buck is the only one asking who Eddie is trying to reach, he is the only one trying to reassure Eddie and he does so even though Eddie is being sarcastic and pretending he doesn’t need to be comforted - also a staple in their relationship

And I think this is also were their dynamic of Buck being Eddie’s go to person when it came to Chris came from. Buck told Eddie he liked kids and then he proceeded to actually show Eddie he means it and he cares and considering Eddie says the mother isn’t in the picture and Chris has no one else (which as we learn throughout the show is not 100% true because technically Eddie's parents are there, even if they have no idea how to properly raise Chris, but in LA Eddie doesn’t really have anyone (yet) he feels comfortable burdening with his fears about Chris), so that must mean one hell of a lot.

- “Hey. Service.“: There is also the moment at the end of 2.03 when Buck immediately tells Eddie: hey, service is back! and then he drives Eddie to pick up Chris which is a scene that has so much subtext so we’ll talk about it later! It does however give us our first‚ Diazs plus Buck‘-family moment because while we see everyone reuniting with their loved ones, we see Buck with Eddie and Chris and yeah.

2.04: „Hearteyes, motherforker“

- One of my favourite things about Buddie is how they manage to be exactly what the other person needs - or in case of this episode figure out exactly what the other person needs and giving it to them. It’s happening here and again in 3.01 and 3.03 and some other smaller moments as well (see 2.01 honestly).

It’s also interesting that Buck is the one to drive Eddie again because we saw he has a car! So why is that? Maybe because he knows the way better?

As for the coparenting happening here, aside from Buck introducing Eddie to Carla because he knows she is what Eddie needs, we also have Buck clearing Chris coming to the station with Bobby which is something Eddie apparently hadn’t considered but Buck had and instead of telling Eddie he needs to do that - he does it for him! Because that’s who Buck is but also because Buck realised in this episode how much Eddie really needs someone to have his back and just do stuff for him.

2.07: „*Tommy Wiseau voice* Hi Shannon“

- And in terms of having each other’s back this episode really shows the significance of this phrase with Shannon pointing out, like I said before, that from her point of view Eddie didn’t have her back. She needed him to be her husband and her coparent and he wasn’t.

Now we can argue whether that is true or not but it’s still an important parallel and puts Eddie turning toward Buck for advice into a new light.

Because as Shannon points out Eddie was never good at letting other people make decisions for him or with him before yet we continuously see him turning toward Buck for exactly that: sharing the load with him. And to put that even more into perspective: Buck is the youngest from their friend group, he is the one considered immature and he is the one without kids or younger siblings, yet he is the one Eddie choose for helping.

2.10: „It’s all about ‚figured it was none of my business‘“

- The interesting thing here is that Buck as Eddie’s friend really doesn’t have any right to know about what was happening between Shannon and Eddie if Eddie didn’t want him to, but Buck as Eddie’s family does (a little).

But either way this episode gives us another instance of Eddie confiding in Buck about his family problems - problems he again is the one most inexperienced with. In other words Eddie talking to Buck about it was really about Eddie wanting Buck’s opinion specifically.

There is also the fact that Buck came to see Santa with Eddie in the first place which is most definitely a family affair as far as I know US customs? (We don’t do this in Germany / Bavaria, okay? We have the Child of Christ and around the 6th we gather in the town square and shoot at it.)

It’s even brought up in text with the Elf telling Buck they make a beautiful family - and Buck not disagreeing because honestly it’s just easier and he probably knows how they looked. But yeah. That!

- Also not to repeat myself but the topic of trust is important here! Eddie not trusting Shannon in 2.07 / 2.10 with Chris vs. trusting Buck in 3.03 / 3.09 / 3.10 is important!

Yes, sure Shannon is his actual mother so Chris has stronger feelings for her and the potential to get hurt is way bigger. Yes, Buck was only gone from their life for a few weeks while Shannon was gone for about 2 years. Yes, Buck apologised twice while Shannon just played the victim card tbh (even though she did have a point with some of the stuff she said). But still:

Eddie is very hesitant to let Shannon back into his son’s life (and really his as well) while he does have no such qualms about Buck once Buck apologises to him in 3.06. In fact their relationship returns to normal with Eddie asking Buck for help with Chris numerous times while say 2.15 makes it clear Eddie still keeps Shannon at arms’ length and out of a lot of aspects of raising Chris.

Of course, giving advice to Eddie is not the same level of involved as actually parenting the child and part of it is probably growth on Eddie’s side when it comes to Season 3 but right here: it’s a stark contrast and it deserves a mention!

2.17: „*fridges female character for man pain* Haha, we’re so random!“

- „Ice cream? Oh, I do not envy you putting him to sleep tonight!“: There is the scene here where Eddie facetimes with Shannon and she is out and about with Chris and Abuela and they are getting ice cream and Eddie is all like: damn you’ll regret that later - which is the same thing he says about Buck in 3.02

3.01: „How you know he no sleep naked?“

- Buck gets a card from Chris which is a child thing to do but also should be mentioned because Buck does not get a card from Danny or Harry. And considering how much Buck likes children and how good he is with them we do have to mention that we only see Buck interact with Danny once and never with Harry while it’s been implied several times before the tsunami already that Buck does spend a lot of time with Chris. (Of course, in part this is due to how much closer Buck is with Eddie than Hen and especially Athena but still)

After all the season ends with Chris giving a card to his literal father, tying these two scenes together. And pointing out once again how important Buck is for Chris and the Diaz family.

- Also as I mentioned during Trust there is that parallel / contrast between how Maddie and how Eddie see Buck with Maddie sort of treating him like a child who needs to be dealt with while Eddie is basically like: let’s give him something to do so he feels less useless! (Guess who had the right idea! Just guess! And you have one try!)

- „Are we the only one’s without kids?“: There is also the cut from Madney talking about being the only one’s without kids and then remembering Buck to Buck getting woken up by Eddie so he can babysit Chris which I won’t say confirms Buck being a father to Chris but does accentuate everything he does for Chris after and gives the vibe that Buck does indeed have some fatherly feelings for Chris. It does at least place the idea of the Diazs WITH Buck being a family firmly into our heads.

3.02 „Eddie hates earthquakes - the remix“

- „How’s operation Buck up Buck going?“: Buck sending Eddie updates and pictures of Chris and himself hanging out is just really cute

- Also Eddie isn’t worried about his son at all!

- And we do have that tweet from Oliver Stark about jumping into the receding water at the end of 3.02 being basically suicide but Buck still doing it because the director told him, he’d do it for his own kids.

3.03 „Do it for the trauma - Buck-edition“

- I talked about it before with Trust but basically Eddie, who has parents who are still alive and physically able and love his son very much, even if they have different ideas of how to raise his son, and a sister with at least one child not that much older than Chris and a grandma and an aunt and probably some more family in LA AND Carla who he literally pays to take care of his son, literally tells his best friend he is the one he trusts the most with said son. That is fucking meaningful!

3.05: „What if we fight like a married couple in a grocery store downtown LA, bro?“

- „You know how much Chris misses you?“: The fact that Eddie brings Chris up at all and to hurt Buck specifically is - in part about Eddie deflecting from himself but also about Christopher actually missing Buck, which says a lot about the relationship Chris and Buck have and how much time they spent together if that is something Eddie would bring up here.

3.09: „#tw: mild adult themes & implied sexual content / #pwp - porn without porn“

- „I’d rather be at home with my kid, enjoying the one good thing I got going on.“: Eddie says these words during therapy and where do him and his son spent the following evening or at least an evening that same week? With Buck at his loft. Because even though Buck wasn’t mentioned here as part of the family time Eddie would much rather have, apparently he is part of it.

3.10: „Parenttrapping for Beginners“

- „Well, I thought it would be nice to bring the boys together for a playdate.“ - „All three of `em.“: this speaks for itself, Buck being invited in the first place was … an interesting choice? A dig at Buck’s mental age? Exposition? What exactly, Tim? Like what was the vibe in the writers room here?

- „Hey, Buck? (…) Can I spent Christmas with you?”: The fact that Chris would rather spent Christmas with Buck than with his grandma and the rest of their family is interesting as well and again points toward Buck being an integral part of the Diaz family.

- The way Eddie looks at Buck here and the little head shake implied to me that Buck and Eddie had the same conversation Eddie and Hen have right then already.

3.11: „Bist du single? Nein, eher Album!“

- “Well, that’s what the 118 is. The family we chose.“: Again maybe more subtext than text but when Eddie talks about the 118 being his family the camera pans to *drumroll* Chris, his actual blood family, Albert, Chim’s actual blood family - and Buck, who is basically Chim’s little brother and Eddie’s, well, best friend? Coparent? Partner in work and life? SOULMATE?

Yes, it’s a little subtext, but it’s interesting that this scene shows only one character neither of them are related to and it’s Buck, emphasising once more that these two and especially Eddie (because he’s the one talking here) think of Buck as their family.

3.12: „There’s a horse loose in a hos… school“

- “(…) we should try it together”: Again with the emphatic inclusion of Buck in family scenes! (But this time Carla gets to be there as well - though only to record them?)

This episode introduces Ana Flores as a potential love interest for Eddie and then spends the whole episode contrasting and paralleling her with Buck, as one does …

In this episode as well Eddie gets advice about Chris from several people and it’s interesting that the one person whose advice he follows without disagreeing or trying something else first is once again Buck. 

The episode also maybe implies that Buck was the one to built or buy or find out about the skateboard.

But really what matters here is Eddie reaffirming that there is no one he trusts more with his son (because he refused to take Carla’s advice right away but he did listen and think about what Buck had to say right away - despite his joking) and Buck being included in the family scene.

3.15: „MY therapist also says ‚Thank you!‘“

- „I’m always gonna fight to come home to my family.“: I’m not gonna comment on the lack of Shannon in the montage because I do believe part of it was that they didn’t really have scenes that fit and would have had to film them specifically which would then have to fit into the timeline / storyline before and also mostly it was about Shannon already being dead meaning she is no longer part of the family Eddie can come home to, so it makes a hell of a lot of sense for her not to be included, guys!

That being said I do believe Buck being in it quite a lot means something about how much of a part in Eddie’s family he is! Which is a big part and something I love about them a lot!

- Also Buck was so very happy Chris came to visit and then immediately walked over, which doesn’t really have any relevance except I thought it was cute and this is my guide.

3.16: „The rope was a metaphor after all“

- Obviously it was meant jokingly, but Eddie would have loved if Buck came and not just because being alone with a bunch of 9 year olds is no one’s idea of a fun evening and Eddie could probably use the help (still hoping Carla was there with him and still surprised Eddie was in such a good mood during the pool scene after), but because he likes to spend time with Buck and he did wanna celebrate with him - but he was also very aware that spending the evening with 9 year olds was not what Buck envisioned so he said it jokingly.

3.18: „Traincrash? More like train WRECK? *cries*“

- “Whoa! Whoa! Two weeks from home? Isn’t Chris kinda young for that?“: I don’t think I need to say more about that scene really, I think everyone who saw it understood that it confirmed the 118 but especially Buck being fairly involved in Christopher’s life and how that confirms: Buck = part of the Diaz family.

- Also all the interactions between Buck and Chris at the party both with and without Eddie around I mean, yeah, again, meaningful!

- In conclusion: Eddie, Chris and Buck are family and dems the facts!

Connection and love life

Now, this is where we are slowly going subtext and also really interpretation heavy!

The title might be a bit missleading but I didn’t really know how else to sum all aspects up. Basically this theme is about their love live but also about the parallels between their storylines - especially when it comes to their love life!

Also this theme isn’t organised by episode but by subtopics because I summed up so many different aspects here.

Parallels in their storylines:

- 3.15 / 3.16 and the rope metaphor as a metaphor for their dating life:

Technically the rope is a metaphor for their lives and them letting go of things in general but especially about their dating life because for Eddie in my opinion this is when he really fully comes to terms with Shannon’s death while Buck finally admits to his abandonment issues, in part caused by Abby leaving.

(Side note: the fact that Eddie choose to cut his line just like he choose to actually do therapy to deal with his issues for Christopher’s sake while Buck’s burns away and he is literally forced to deal with his issues through being confronted with Red and running into Abby at the train crash is … something.)

Their dating life is being paralleled:

This really isn’t technically something that explains why you should ship them but I do think it’s interesting that from the get go their love lives have been happening in parallels / contrasts to each other? As if they were connected? Magnets?

So yeah, that and also it goes like this:

- 2.01: Eddie references Buck being single

- 2.02 / 2.03: Eddie first mentions Shannon but indicates a break-up / Buck meets Ali and seems to bond with her

- 2.04: both refuse to hook up with any of the girls at the bar and don’t want to date because they consider themselves taken (I know Eddie says it’s about Chris but Buck called bullshit here and text told us to trust Buck on what he says about Eddie)

- 2.06: Buck flirts with Taylor and Eddie acts a bit jealous

- 2.07: While Buck finally comes to term with his break up with Abby in her absence, Shannon returns and we learn that Eddie has sort of been holding out hope so far (they kiss in the end) (Also Eddie and Shannon and Buck and Taylor both happen in parking lots which probably only means they ran out of location money but still!)

- 2.08: Buck hooks up with Taylor, then meets with Ali and begins dating her

- 2.10: it’s revealed that Eddie has been sleeping with Shannon and Buck is miffed

- 2.11 - 2.16: we get a few mentions of Ali and some scenes between Eddie and Shannon reminding us both these relationships are happening and they are growing closer

- 2.17: Shannon thinks she is pregnant, Eddie wonders about their relationship, Shannon wants a divorce but dies before they can go through with it

- 2.18: Buck gets a new apartment because of Ali, their relationship seems ready to become more serious, then Buck gets hurt and Ali is traumatised by this and tells Buck she needs to rethink the relationship

- 3.01: it is revealed that Ali and Buck broke up

- 3a: both of them work through the trauma of the past few months, no references to either of them dating are made, romantic and / or domestic scenes happen between them instead, the ambiguous „us“ happens

- 3.11: they are asked about their relationship-status to remind us about them being single (AND THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHER? Wow.)

- 3.12: It’s pointed out again that Buck is single but he says he prefers it that way while Eddie meets Ana and shows some interest in her, then during a call Buck indicates that he might not be as happy being single as he told Madney and Josh while also seeming a bit happy Eddie won’t be dating Ana (probably)

- 3.15: Eddie finally fully comes to terms with his past, including his relationship with Shannon and her dying

- 3.16: Buck reveals he might still be hung up on what happened with Abby and he realises he needs to move on, the ambiguous „Us“ is brought back

- 3.18: Buck runs into Abby and actually moves on

- Side note: considering 2.08 and 2.10 and 3.09 and some remarks made throughout the show, Buck and Eddie are somewhat aware of the relationship struggles the other had which isn’t really relevant but also sort of is

Parallels with canon couples

This is TV and TV and especially shipping lives through tropes and parallels inside the story to subtext tell you something you need to know without actually having to say the words, but just to plant the idea in the viewers head.

For example, and please I am just spitballing here, you are writing a show about Lifeguards. And there are these two characters who are named … Paddie and Tucker. They have amazing chemistry and they are best friends and love each other a lot. Now, you, as the showrunner, are considering making them a romantic item but you need to do it slow cause while you do have queer characters and a queer following this show is fairly mainstream and also the characters have presented as straight in text so far. So you need to do crumbs, right?

Okay, so how do you best do that? Well, Tucker is known as this really caring guy and very open with his feelings and he freaks out when someone he loves is in danger - so you put Paddie in danger, right? Proofs he loves him, right?

But then you want it to have some deeper queer implications, right, in case you do decide on making them romantic? So how do you best do that? Well, lucky for you, Tucker has a sister. And you were planning on putting her in danger as well this season anyways, so you just have Tucker react a bit more subdued here, right?

But then you really want it to hit people, like you need people who are more casual and mainstream and might not have noticed the romantic undertones Tuddie has had to notice that, right? So you put these two episodes back to back.

Except „Paddie Begins“ is set to air first and well, Tucker IS known to lose his shit about people he cares about being in danger, so they might not actually notice anything more. Or they will just consider Tucker not reacting as hard about his sister, Sadie, being in danger bad writing. And you can’t have that!

So how do you fix that? Well, you just change the episode order! Now the episode with Sadie in danger airs first and people will spent a week complaining about how out of character Tucker was and it will be still on their minds when „Paddie Begins“ happens and Tucker goes feral and it will hit EVERYONE! Like damn, apparently Tucker cares more about Paddie than Sadie? Why? What makes Paddie so much more important?

Anyways, this is how you test out an idea in TV and why tropes and parallels are important…

Moving on:

- 2.14: „‚It’s a miracle… bro #nohomo’“: Now I have already written a bit about Buck’s reaction to Eddie potentially dying to safe the kid and while it is fairly tame for Buck it’s still something you usually see a guy do for a love interest (Any of ya’ll watch „Chicago Fire“? Because I watched like the first two Seasons and the main „Will they / won’t they“ - couple had a scene like that about once every three episodes. Cause it’s a trope!)

- 3.02 „Eddie hates earthquakes - the remix“: This is a teeny tiny bit of a stretch and there wasn’t even any nice cuts to anyone in the firefam to indicate they were referenced (which I found odd, considering this would have also fit for Bobby) but the guy who got impaled with his son in law said: „She‘s the love of my life but he‘s her‘s.“ which considering this episode has Buck doing everything to protect Christopher means a lot and I think about it once a day, okay?

- 3.14 vs 3.15 vs. 3.16 vs. 3.17 vs. 3.18 - Losing the love of your life and how to deal with that:

This may be the biggest parallel of all, and maybe I could have included 2.14 as well but I didn’t because it’s a whole season removed. It also seems meaningful that this episodes happen one after the other, making us naturally compare the scenes and see / look for patterns.

But to explain real quick:

In 3.14 Maddie is in danger and Chimney, who is her boyfriend and told her he loves her just one episode earlier, freaks out completely

In 3.15 Eddie might die / is considered dead by several of his friends already and Buck utterly looses it! We are talking frantic screaming and trying to dig Eddie out by hand and running around trying to figure out ways to save Eddie only to turn full on catatonic when none of that works. I mean, his mood turns faster than mine when I am hangry while on my period and that is saying sth!

3.16 could be considered a bit of a stretch but we do see Red lash out a lot when he realises that Cindy, the woman he considered the love of his life and someone he pined after for quite a while doesn’t exist like that anymore.

In 3.17 Athena is put in great danger and Bobby is forced / able to listen to it and while I am not sure if the blank look on Bobby’s face is bad acting, a deliberate but accidental acting choice OR done consciously in a way that mirrors Oliver’s acting in 3.15 - it’s there and it’s a parallel and we can watch it and compare it and see it.

To bring this whole thing home for us they contracted another outside player in the form of Connie Britton playing Buck’s ex-girlfriend Abby, who similarly to Red and Buck, turns frantic upon possibly loosing her fiancé and starts panic and lash out a little, which is fair and also part of a motherforking pattern, ya’ll!

- Another fairly obvious parallel between 3.14 and 3.15 is Buck telling Sue - as the watch Maddie and Chimney hug - that Maddie already has everything she needs when Sue asks him why he didn’t immediately rush toward his sister. Which can be compared to 3.15 were he does immediately rush to Eddie’s side and support and hug him!

-  I’ve already written about 700 words on 3.17 and the line „Buck invites Eddie“ so I’ll just point you back toward that part of the guide where I pointed out that Buddie was actively compared to the three main canon pairings here. Which is a lot and also could have been avoided and probably queerbaiting.

- Again, teeny tiny bit of a stretch maybe but like, we’re here to talk about anything in canon pointing toward Buddie and also this is my guide and I do what I want but in 3.18 we learn that Abby is now engaged to a single father and considering she was only gone for about two years (Season 2 takes place over the course of one year and in 3.13 we learn that Madney has been dating for just under 11 months so unless there was a time jump somewhere in the last 5 episodes we weren’t really told about, we clock in at about 2 years and maybe one or two months, tops, at the end of Season 3), they have been together for less than that time, even if we think Abby already knew him when she was still dating Buck. Which timeline wise puts them meeting maybe around the time Buck met Eddie, maybe a bit after, meaning Abby met and began dating and fell in love with and decided to marry a single father in the same timespan Buddie did … whatever it is they are doing! Which is meaningful because for the viewing of the Abby/Buck relationship which I am glad more and more people are realising was very unbalanced and provides an interesting parallel to Buddie because this means Abby and Buck met and developed feelings for a single father around the same time. Idk, I understand that the whole father thing was to make Buck care even more but damn, it’s a parallel so I mention it!

- Michael and Doctor Hale vs Eddie and Ana (3.17/3.18 vs. 3.12ff.)

Now, of course we need to realise that Eddie and Michael are fairly different characters and Michael has way less relationship related baggage than Eddie has which is why he goes after what he wants way faster (also, carpe diem, he just found out he won’t die). Also of course, there is no moral component to address in Michael dating some doctor vs. Eddie dating his son’s teacher, but still:

Michael and Dr. Hale had one scene together and it wasn’t even overly flirty and yet, we knew where it was heading, we felt the chemistry and everyone ended the episode saying: I ship it, more of that - which they did give us, just one episode later. They had some awkward moments, yet the show never left a single doubt in your mind where this is heading.

Now look at Eddie and Ana:

First of all we learned more about Doctor Hale in the two short scenes than we did about Ana in four scenes. That seems deliberate.

Second, while we do realise Eddie thinks Ana is attractive from the get go she repeatedly shuts him down by pointedly saying „Mr. Diaz“.

Third, every scene between Michael and Doctor Hale was romantically coded and we know where this was heading while aside from the initial scene between Ana and Eddie and maybe the second scene there were no hints of romance between the two. In fact in 3.15, an episode that is about Eddie moving forward in his life and letting go of the past she is both mentioned and actually appears, yet there are no hints of romance and romantic interest, not from Eddie and not in form of teasing from Buck and especially Carla, who pointed out Eddie’s interest in her previously. Soooooo…

Parallels with Love Interests

Now, obviously we also cannot talk Buddie without talking about them dating in general and then relating this to each other. In other news: there are parallels between each and every love interest Eddie ever had and Buck and also between Eddie and Abby.

(Side note: I could probably also find parallels between Eddie and Taylor and Eddie and Ali but tbh both of these barely qualify as love interests, especially Ali, who despite actually being in a relationship with Buck we know nothing about (hi, original Ana! You did good and I am sorry people hate you for having boundaries!))

Eddie paralleling Abby

I mean the truth is we don’t even need Eddie paralleling any other girlfriend of Buck cause there are so many between Abby and Eddie!

- Abby and Carla vs. Eddie and Carla:

The biggest one might be parallel that both employ Carla and why. Which is in part because Buck brought Carla to Eddie but goes deeper than that.

There is that conversation between Bobby and Buck about Abby and her mother in 1.09 when Buck wanted to break up with Abby and Bobby basically said: if you wanna date someone you have to love them baggage and all and should be there for them as well - and while Buck did try doing that with Abby, well, Patricia died before he could fully step into the ring and then Abby left, BUT he showed no hesitation after that to step right into Eddie’s life, into his issues, with him. And he even brought in Carla as a baggage carrier, isn’t that nice?

Also the whole reason why they need Carla around in the first place as both of them are taking care of a family member (plus the fact that Christopher is a literal child so even without CP Eddie would need help taking care of him working the hours he has).

Also tía Pepa quite literally calls Eddie a saint and I am pretty sure Abby was called sth similar by Carla and Bobby in Season 1 though I don’t care enough to check mainly because the implication was there all through the first ten episodes about how Abby was such a great person for taking care of her ailing mother.

But really it comes down to the parallels between Bobby telling Buck that a real relationship is about sharing the load and the conversation between Maddie and Buck as well as anything else in 2.04 where Buck is so desperate to be there for Eddie and help him.

- There is also a definite parallel to be drawn between the conversation Abby and Buck had in the Jeep while looking for her mom about how Abby hasn’t had sex in a year and Buck asking Eddie about dating in 2.04. It’s a little subtextual, but between the expression on his face and the topic and the teasing and the walking shoulder to shoulder it does feel alike to me so I mentioned it.

- street fighting vs. the apology: losing yourself

Now this one I love a lot because while it does happen half a season apart and isn’t explicitly expressed on the show: Eddie’s whole ark in Season 3a is about losing control and by extent losing himself because Buck wasn’t around. Abby meanwhile talks about how she found herself after she left LA and how she would have lost herself again if she returned to Buck (which is absolute bullcrap but not the point).

- There are also some parallels to be drawn between Buck, Eddie, Abby and Shannon (and technically also Maddie) and the whole leaving each other thing, with Eddie leaving Shannon for the army without consulting her about it while Abby left Buck for Ireland and then also the lawsuit where in a way Buck left Eddie like Shannon did, being so caught up in his own feelings he didn’t consider what Eddie (and Christopher) were going through.

But we can also acknowledge how it must have felt to Buck with Lena / Eddie taking Bobby’s side like he was once again replaced / left for someone else, much like Abby left him for Ireland and Maddie left him for Doug.

Buck paralleling Ana, Lena and Shannon

Buck on the other hand side parallels Eddie’s love interest a lot sometimes down to the clothes (and yes, technically Lena isn’t a love interest but Ryan Guzman thought she was and aside from the fact that he’s into women that could beat him up (which for once, not judging you, bro) and considering the parallels with Buck … that means if Buck was a woman, well, ya know?) so let’s talk about that

- Buck and Shannon:

I’ve already talked about that one a lot so I will only mention it here real quick but the whole Eddie not trusting Shannon vs. trusting Buck despite his betrayal again like right away once he apologised (which yes, what Buck did was not as bad and far more justified) and letting him back into Christopher’s life IS a parallel, considering for example how Shannon asks about Chris missing her (though it’s been over two years, at one point children just stop asking as we know Chris did) and Eddie telling Buck Chris misses him in the grocery store scene.

Also Eddie not trusting his wife and Chris’ mother with him fully even after they reconciled and him telling Buck he was the one he trusted most in the world when it came to his son is … something.

There is also a little parallel to be drawn between 2.17 when Shannon goes for ice cream with Christopher and Abuela and Eddie is all like, well, don’t come crying to me when he won’t sleep because sugar high and saying basically the same thing to Hen and Chimney in 3.02 when they ask about „Operation: Buck up Buck“ because Chris ate loads of pancakes.

Also Shannon in 2.07 said she needed Eddie to have her back and Eddie says he always did but Shannon disagrees (which might be a little how Buck felt with the lawsuit) and you know, Buck and him agreed to have each other’s backs just six episodes earlier.

- Buck and Lena:

 Now, with Lena, despite her being most connected to Eddie, the first (and second) time we actually see her is in 3.01/3.02 through Buck, which connects the two from the get go.

Eddie then finds out she was at the pier in 3.02 (before meeting her) just like Buck (though he doesn’t know that) and then meets her in 3.03 and she spends the whole episode running around LA trying to find her Captain while injured, much like Buck is doing in the same episode.

I also mentioned in my meta-series how I think one of the reasons why Eddie likes Buck so much was that Buck wasn’t impressed by his military background like everyone else (or his looks, I mean, it was probably more about his looks tbh) and how when Buck started liking him it was really about Eddie and not whatever he had heard about him - yet Buck was / is still never afraid to call him out bullshit, much like Lena from moment one.

There is also the fact that Eddie goes to her for advice and she literally uses Buck’s locker (and will I ever stop laughing about the tape? Probably not, I think it was hilarious, okay?)?

Then of course we have Buck in 3.04 reacting quite similar to seeing her for the first time as he did with Eddie in 2.01, even saying basically the same thing.

- Buck and Ana

Now, Ana is an interesting case because we see her a total of four times and she is mentioned two more times throughout the show and each and every single moment is connected to Buck somehow and sometimes so very unsubtle to.

In „Fools“ we cut from Buck saying he likes being single to Eddie doing parent-teacher conference and yes, meeting some other teachers first but also Ana, showing us that while Buck is fine with being single - Eddie might not be. And then Eddie introduces himself as Eddie and Ana knows immediately this is short for Edmundo - unlike Buck in 2.01 who guessed Eduardo? Also, Carla’s „big blue eyes“ line which is a little clown-y, so take it with a grain of salt that it could connect us to Buck.

Then of course her next scene is Eddie getting in her face about Christopher being hurt. Later in the episode we see Buck reference this on a call, meaning either Carla or Eddie told Buck about it (I am leaning a little toward Carla making fun of Eddie in front of Buck and Eddie then having to come clean about all of it, because I cannot wrap my head about the idea of Eddie telling Buck about having a crush, I’m sorry.) (And will I ever be over Buck being so gleeful that Eddie will now be dating the teacher after all? Because boy was close to cackling which even if he was in love with Eddie at the time and therefore happy he wasn’t off the market - still quite rude for a best friend if you ask me! Like, sure, do that but in front of strangers?)

Her next scene is Eddie coming to apologise to her and she gives her speech about limitations - which we can of course connect to Buck and Eddie talking about Christopher and his limitations before that and then afterwards going skateboarding with them. (It does feel a little deliberate.)

And then of course we have „Eddie Begins“ and you guys, they could have very very easily have either Carla or Buck make a joke about Mrs. Flores and Eddie’s crush in the firehouse scene, but they didn’t! And then we do get to see her at the end where she has one whole line and Eddie barely looks at her and you know what happens? They have a child ask the same question Buck asked at the beginning about ever just wearing the medal (which sounded very not straight in its delivery, Mr Stark, what were you thinking about?), making us think of Buck. Like, it would have been enough to establish Eddie doesn’t feel like a hero if the question was asked only once - twice in the span of 45 minutes constitutes a callback, meaning we are supposed to think of the other scene and that means thinking about the other person that asked, which was Buck.

Is this … flirting

Now, some of these are quite ambiguous but there are several scenes that imply they consider each other attractive or feel like flirting and here they are:

- 2.01: „I think I’ve seen this in porn before“

Now, we all know Buck’s initial dislike of Eddie was about Eddie being to good at the job and Buck being afraid of being replaced, but considering one of the first things we hear about Eddie is Hen saying that boy is so fine it transcends sexualities and considering they talked about the calendar which chooses them based on hotness just before and then all the references to the calendar throughout, it stands to reason that Buck considers Eddie attractive.

Also their whole conversation during the gym scene, what was any of that? I mean, Buck thinks the pictures of Eddie are professionally done which means he thinks they are good which means, yes, Buck thinks Eddie looks good in those!

Plus the whole scene is riddled with (sexual) tension. From Buck constantly increasing the weight he is lifting, while throwing looks at Eddie as if double checking that he sees he could bench press him and the way he gets in Eddie’s face to Eddie’s veiled barbs about the girlfriend breaking up with him and doing the same thing as a firefighter but he was getting shot at. I mean, what was that if not the beginning of a porno? (And here we have our first parallel between Buck and Eddie as we find out later because Eddie, too, has been left by a woman. Now the real question would be does he consider them broken up?

Not to mention that when Bobby tells him at the end of the episode that he wasn’t chosen Buck immediately assumes Eddie was and also is so very happy for his new friend, because he thinks he’s hot (right?).

- 2.04: „Hearteyes, motherforker“

In 2.08 Buck has a conversation with Chimney about his pick up technique and well, did anyone in production watch this episode because when Buddie walks away from tailpipe-girl-emergency he literally does everything he described.

Also Maddie says the words „Does this man crush on Eddie mean you are finally over Abby?“ to Buck and his only reaction is „Cute.“ meaning one) Maddie has teased him about his Eddie gushing before and two) maybe Buck does have a bit of a crush?

- 2.06: „Bucky Barnes murder strut - 911 edition“

Again with the Maddie and Buck scenes!

Basically what happened was Maddie talked about how cute Chimney was but Buck assumed she meant Eddie because apparently if someone says cute, Buck thinks Eddie. This is just a fact, okay?

- 2.14: „‚It’s a miracle… bro #nohomo’“

Like my name for the episode already says, there is this scene were Buck and Eddie stand next to each other and Eddie says „That was incredible!“ and Buck who is already standing in Eddie’s space leans in further to basically whisper the words „It’s a miracle.“ into Eddie’s ears and then lean back a little and I am not sure if that wouldn’t fit better with Subtext but also Buck looks at Eddie like he wants to eat him alive and Eddie looks like he would let him and say thank you after while still embarrassed because he cries during sex.

You know, acting.

- 3.04 „discount!Buck in the house!“

Listen, I am convinced this is all Ryan considering the reaction of Kenny / Chimney and Aisha / Hen but that doesn’t change the fact that they used a take which had Eddie stare at Oliver / Buck’s butt the whole time and I mean, what horrible things happened in the other takes that made production choose this one unless they want us to see Eddie looking at Buck’s butt while Chimney and Hen stand around looking amused?

- 3.09: „#tw: mild adult themes & implied sexual content / #pwp - porn without porn“

Listen, from the moment Buck says „Cause you would prefer working it out in the ring?“ and then does this dorky thing with his arms while Eddie smirks into his beer about how he fought in a cage not fenced in (which, I’m a little unclear on the distinction I think, but I am nitpicky af so who am I to judge? Probably just stuff getting lost in translation) that whole scene changes vibes, going from apologising to teasing. And I think it’s very interesting that this is when Buck chooses to come closer (and then keep coming closer until he is right in Eddie’s personal space while touching his belt which we all learned by now means he is thinking about sex) and they have this whole conversation about who could take who which happens in sort of half sentences and does not feel like they are talking about fighting each other at all.

I mean, Buck keep coming closer, while Eddie stands there rooted to his spot, leaning against the bar, smirking, like every hot guy in a bar ever who knows one smile and a bit of smolder and they will come to him (which Buck does, playing right into it, I mean, come on, bro, weren’t you once a serial dater? How do you not know how to play hard to get?) and holding the beer (you know, phallic shaped obj- okay, I’ll stop here, it’s a reach), occasionally drinking, like maybe he tries to draw attention to somewhere or he has a very dry throat and honestly: this is how porn starts!

I don’t think my writing (or anyone’s writing really, not that ya’ll aren’t talented af) can properly express how very not platonic and innuendo-heavy this scene felt.

- 3.13: „‚Bro, what if I flirted with you in a bowling alley while out on a call?‘ - ‚Bro, what if I invited you out to lunch after telling a friend to say I love you before it’s too late?‘ - ‚BRO 😍‘“

Again, the title gives everything away but like so many scenes between these boys that moment at the bowling alley when Buck channels Arnie and Eddie is all: you’re a dork and also wrong! and then later when Eddie invites Buck to get lunch (which is sort of Eddie’s thing, remember 2.01?) after earlier telling Chimney to tell Maddie he loves her if he has a chance because he might regret it. And to really drive the point home or maybe make it in the first place, after Eddie asks Buck - and only Buck - to have lunch with him, Buck then declines because of a little blood (Evan, come one, you’ve seen worse! I know I have!) - only for Chimney to consider this the push he needed to invite Maddie for dinner so he can tell her he loves her.

So, you know, platonic.

- 3.16: „The rope was a metaphor after all“

I mean, what was that scene in the locker even with Eddie leaning against the doorway all cheeky and grinning like: yeah, come hang out with me! - obviously it was about Buck never saying yes to babysit a group of nine-year olds when he could be out drinking (as someone who works with kids, I approve), but yeah, that’s not what it felt like? So unless ya’ll cannot act anymore this was deliberately a bit over the top and ambiguous.

Jealousy

Now, no good ship works without jealousy and neither does Buddie so here are some examples of Buddie being jealous.

- 2.06: „Bucky Barnes murder strut - 911 edition“

Now, your probably saying: Bucky Barnes murder strut? That’s a tall order! But damn, Ryan nailed that, okay? Listen, we’ve seen Eddie walk out of uniform several times at this point and NEVER before and never after has he struted this predatory. Eddie walks tall and military, you know, the way he stands, Eddie doesn’t strut!

Yet, here he does! And what I love about this scene is that we see him in the background while Bobby talks to Taylor, working out with no care in the world - and then Buck comes over and flirts with her, suddenly Eddie feels the need to be part of the conversation?

And he doesn’t even wait until he is standing next to them to talk, he calls over while still sitting on the lifting things.

So yeah, that one is him being jealous.

- 2.10: „It’s all about ‚not my business‘“

- Now 2.10 is a great episode for Buddie and in part it is due to Buck’s facial expressions in the background and out of focus of the camera when Shannon comes to the station.

I mean, Oliver always plays Buck very intense and expressive and with his whole face but that was a bit much, you’d think he just found out Eddie broke a vow of chastity or had an affair while being married (which technically is what Buck compares it to later so kinda makes sense he looks like that but also doesn’t, Buckeroo, what’s the big deal? Did Eddie show up at your doorstep a week earlier telling you what a punk ass bitch his wife was, or…?)

- 2.17: „*fridges female character for man pain* Haha, we’re so random!“

„Talk to Bobby. Maybe he can get you guys a discount.“: There is a point to be made about Buck just not liking Shannon considering everything he knows about her and has heard about her, the same way Eddie doesn’t Abby, but still. This scene and this line, Buck does not sound happy for Eddie or truly interested and yeah, it’s off and it seems jealous.

- 3.04 „discount!Buck in the house!“

It’s actually not just my interpretation, it’s actually - between the similarities to 2.01 and everything that happens after with the lawsuit and how Buck explains himself - literal text that Buck was jealous here with Lena. So there!

- 3.09: „#tw: mild adult themes & implied sexual content / #pwp - porn without porn“

Tim Minear please send me over some scripts or have someone call me and explain what they were going for with the „You had sex with your therapist?“-scene because Eddie was so huffy and offended and I need to know!

- 3.12: „There’s a horse loose in a hos… school“

Buck sounds awfully gleeful Eddie will probably not date Christopher’s teacher and while that might just be him making fun of his best friend being so very overprotective and short tempered when it comes to his son (Mr. Control has left the building!), still, it reads a little like jealousy over some unknown pretty woman Chris might have mentioned some time and Carla probably described in great detail when she told Buck all about Eddie losing his cool!

- 3.17: „LegsTM“

It’s technically not really a jealous moment because it’s not Eddie being jealous but Buck simply refusing to mention his ex-girlfriend here, but considering 3.18 and also and most importantly the fact that there are only two other people in the truck, one being an unknown firefighter driving the truck and the other Bobby, who very much knows how Buck was supposed to take a hot air balloon ride with Abby, for who but Eddie was Buck concealing her identity for because Bobby already knows?

There really is only Eddie left, who probably figures out what Buck was about as well because bro may not be Buck and his out of the box thinking smart but he is fucking smart and he can figure shit out as well! Yet Buck refuses to mention Abby’s name and for what? So he can pretend Bobby and Eddie don’t know he is still bitter about her? I mean, fucking hell, send over the motherforking scripts, Minear, I am done with you!

- 3.18: „Traincrash? More like train WRECK? *cries*“

While I think Eddie is being more protective than jealous here, he is awfully involved and he is uncharacteristically out of control and emotional here and I wanna know why? Does Abby being back remind you of Shannon? Is it jealousy? WHAT IS GOING ON??? WHY YOU SO MAD, ARMY BOY???

Subtext

Now, I am first gonna talk about Subtext things in general like clothing choices, music and cuts between scenes and I am gonna be honest, I probably missed quite a few!

- One of my favourite is that while Buck wears the same colours in 3.03 as Shannon does in 2.07, Eddie wears the same exact shirt - and considering the fact that Ryan got buff between Season 2 and 3 that was deliberate, someone bought that shirt again because we are supposed to connect these scenes with each other!

- As I wrote before in 2.10 we can see Buck and his reaction out of focus when Shannon comes to the firehouse to talk to Eddie and ya know, why?

- Tim Minear himself said the elf in 2.10 was an easter egg for us Buddie shippers and he also said we can make out of the fountain in the background what we want, so there, Buddie is talking about Shannon and Eddie having sex and how much that messes shit up while a fountain shoots water in the background and yes, that is an innuendo and subtext and I hate it a little.

- 2.13 has this hospital scene I love a lot and you know what? Buddie is basically dressed the same, because the subtext of this scene is these two are alike and connected and they GET EACH OTHER.

- Another scene I really love is in 3.01 when Buck comes in for the surprise party because not only does he not hug his sister or Athene but runs up to Eddie first, Bobby actually shoves Eddie at Buck so he is the first person Buck hugs (and then the hug itself, what was that? The way they hold onto each other for a moment just looking while their hips are still touching?! Is that how you two hug because I want in!).

- Also they are dressed basically the same, should we discuss this as well?

- And still in 3.01 when Buck thanks Bobby and they talk and Bobby tells Buck he’ll find someone better and then asks him if he is doing okay, the first person the show cuts to is - nope, not Evan Buckley’s sister who is also there but his best friend, Eddie! Jup!

- And still in 3.01 when the firefam talks about helping Buck in the firehouse, Eddie first acts dismissive but the scene ends with Bobby saying Buck has them even though he may not believe that right now and half of that is said while the camera is on Eddie’s face who looks thoughtful - only to cut from them to Maddie and Josh discussing the same thing and mainly how Maddie doesn’t know how to help Buck and what he needs from her. Which you know, the episode ends with Eddie basically giving Buck a swift kick in the butt like she though he might need (and then 3.03 has Eddie basically telling Buck everything is gonna be okay, so we see Maddie talking about helping Buck but never see her doing it and instead we get two scenes of Eddie being there for Buck and also no Maddie in relation to the lawsuit but an extreme focus on Eddie? Writers, I see you and you aren’t wrong!)

- Also worth another mention is the cut between Madney talking about children, saying Buck didn’t have any either - to Eddie waking up Buck so he can babysit Christopher and specifically calling Buck „his Buck“ to make us think on their relationship and let us know how close they are and also to tell us to not trusts everything Maddie says about her brother because she gets shit wrong.

- In 3.03 after Buck tells Eddie he lost Christopher and then Eddie sees Christopher and rushes over and and Buck collapses and while Eddie holds Chris after he checked for injuries and Chim and Hen and Bobby hold Buck and Bobby asks Buck if he is okay, well, this whole time Buck is staring at Chris and Eddie and Eddie is staring back at him and Bobby, if you wanna know about me, gotta tell you, I am not okay?!

- And then we have the loft scene and yeah, okay, this deserves 5000 words of his own, from the fact that they played „Photograph“ by Ed Sheeran which includes lyrics about how they will never be alone and how loving can heal and mend your soul and the fucking song ends on the words „Wait for me to come home“ just as Eddie knocks and brings Christopher over and tells Buck there is no one he trusts more with Christopher than Buck and I am sorry, what are we supposed to think here? This show is from the US, these people speak english, it’s not like these lyrics leave much room for interpretation!

Not to mention the whole monologue Buck did about being lost and not knowing how to get from where you want to be to where you need to be before Eddie showed up and then talking about how a few choice words can sometimes be the life raft one needs to get home and how we are all just searching for someone to see us? I love Maddie and I love the Buckley siblings, but damn, she’s not the one he has been searching for!

(And I keep bringing up Maddie here because as his sister she is the person Buck could feel closest to and should care about the most and be cared about the most by and yet all canon evidence points to Eddie being that person! Also she is the person next to Eddie Buck has the most scenes outside the firehouse with.)

- This one is a bit of a stretch but Buck looks very uncomfortable during the whole deposition in 3.05 but he looks everyone in the eyes until the lawyer mentions Shannon and suddenly his lap is so much more interesting and yes, after is when all of them get asked the really hurtful question but still, this is when Buck stops being despondent and realises, fuck, I went a bit to far

- Someone please find for me where the director talked about purposely framing them as romantic in the apology scene because I cannot find the post for the life of me, but never the less: In 3.06 during the apology, in the beginning of the scene we see Buddie from quite a distance and Eddie has his back turned toward Buck and there is a column in the shot to visually indicate the divide and yeah, the whole framing is quite something and the way the camera angle goes from far away making it seem like unbridgeable distance cutting to closer shots and how we slowly see alongside the words hey, they aren’t actually that far apart, like yeah, this scene was something else!

- Not a direct cut but during therapy Eddie talks about how he wants to be at home with Chris because he is the one good thing he has going for him and the one thing he gets enjoyment out of (because he is so fucking depressed and I cry), yet when we later see Chris and Eddie together it is neither in Eddie’s house nor are they alone, nope Buck is there as well, meaning Buck is considered a part of that one thing even if he wasn’t explicitly mentioned!

- During 3.10 when they take the photo with all of them Buck is grouped between Madney and the Diaz family, like right between and not just next to them. Also earlier when the eat Buck sits next to Christopher who sits next to Eddie and therefore on the opposite side of his sister and her boyfriend.

- Yes, they were probably amused by the meddling mom asking then „Are you boys single?“ in 3.11 but come on! They look at each other and smirk? For real? Hand over the script, Timbo!

- Also as mentioned before the fact that when Chim and Eddie talk about family and the 118 being the family they choose the camera is on Albert, Buck and Christopher, no one else is in the shot. And of course the song that is playing here, another song about home.

- The callback to Buck in 3.12 of Ana immediately guessing Eddie is short for Edmundo unlike Buck as well as Carla saying blue eyes (which Buck has) is also Subtext.

- Said it before but: the scene in 3.13 when they arrive at the hospital and Eddie asks Buck out to eat and then Buck changes his mind but Chimney runs off to call his girlfriend because he wants to have dinner so he can tell her he loves her like Eddie told him to do at the beginning of the episode is … interesting.

- I already explained why I think Shannon wasn’t in that many scenes in the video in 3.15 yet Buck was in most of them but it bears repeating. Also again it’s subtext that Buck is part of Eddie’s family and Buck is very important to Eddie and Eddie loves Buck.

- Also the question about the medal in 3.15 and the little boy at the end repeating the question, sorry, were we not supposed to think of Buck here, Tim???

- Also just in general 3.15 focuses very very heavily on Buck and Buck’s reaction - much like 3.18 later does with Eddie. All the non-Eddie scenes feature Buck and Buck freaking out about Eddie potentially dying and Buck making plans and being frantic and the driving force of hope cause homeboy cannot even for a second entertain any thoughts on Eddie’s passing.

- The rope metaphor in 3.15 / 3.16 is of course also subtext but I already explained that one and don’t have anything to add really.

- This one is a little bit of a stretch but I do think there is a reason Eddie was the first one to be taken out of the equation in 3.16 and because of his son and not a love interest.

- Also the pool playing scene in 3.16 there visually we see Eddie and Buck together in nearly all shots, there are two shots of Eddie without Buck in it but not a single one of Buck without Eddie in it and considering camera angles and actors literally being told were to stand it is deliberate that Buck is only seen with Eddie by his side here.

- I’m repeating a lot of things here but Buck refuses to say Abby’s name in 3.17 even though Bobby clearly knows who he is talking about.

- „No. He stopped waiting for me a long time ago.“ cuts to „Summer Camp?“ I mean sorry, what were we supposed to think here? Because this does imply he really did stop waiting because now he has Christopher and Eddie!

- Not to mention it sort of hammers home what I wrote before how Abby is dating a single father and Buck is sort of dating a single father.

- Also 3.18 puts a lot of focus in general on Eddie and his reaction to everything when say, Bobby, who actually knows Abby and was there for the relationship would have made more sense - unless they are pushing an agenda here!

The first person we have Abby interacting with at the traincrash is Eddie and then Buck joins them and the scene literally goes: Eddie *talking to Abby* > cut to Buck, coming closer > Buck: „Abby?“ > cut to both Abby and *Eddie* > Abby: „Buck?“ while the camera is still on her and Eddie > cut to just Eddie’s face having a realisation > cut to Buck

So sorry, why do we focus so much on Eddie here, Mrs. Lynch? Is there a particular reason, oh director, who art also directed 3.01 and which has also loads of Buddie subtext?

There is also Eddie coming to stand visually between Abby and Buck when Sam is loaded into the ambulance as if he is physically putting himself between them and then Buck running back toward the traincrash and Eddie following him after and all the shots of them and Christopher during the party together and once again having Bobby asking Buck if he is okay visually connected to Eddie, though in reverse this time because the scene goes from Eddie and Chris having fun to Buck and Bobby talking. (And should we talk about how this is the first time Buck actually answers the question because finally he has an answer or are we thinking about that right before sleep today when it’s easier to cry?)

- Also very interesting subtext is the fact that Buck and Eddie wear nearly the exact same colour and a similar cut pullover when Buck talks to Abby at the end and when Eddie says goodbye to Christopher and I mean, thematically both scenes are about saying good bye and letting someone go? But also it connects Buddie with each other and connects these scenes, which Idc, I probably wouldn’t have done without the clothes?

Not sold seperatly

- Also subtext / visual thing is the fact that Buddie is basically always with and next to each other at the firehouse and on calls (and before anyone says: well, they are partners, Hen and Chim aren’t as much), and that is a long list so I am just giving examples: in 2.05 they sit next to each other at the table while in 2.06 they sit next to each other on the couch and in 3.08 they sit next to each other at the table again and then we have 2.02 standing outside and 2.04 walking away from the scene together and Eddie handing Buck a weapon in 3.17 and walking toward the ambulance together in 3.13 and several other times, the point is there are a shit ton of scenes of them being right next to each other in case you thought that was a fanfic thing!

„The Buck lens“ / „The Eddie lens“

I’m pretty sure there is an actual technical term for what I am trying to describe here but basically there are several instances where we see Eddie the way Buck does, meaning while the scene shows us Eddie doing something the focus is on Buck watching this. Sort of POV but not quite I guess? Also the reverse is true as well, even if those scene aren’t as pronounced!

- Let’s talk about 2.01 once again as we have done for most of this meta and finally, finally look at Eddie’s first scene which we all know is sort of gay and the first time we see Ryan shirtless because Tim accidentally wrote a certain quota of shirtless scenes he needed to do into Ryan’s contract and he needed to get started on those right away.

Also please remember while we as well as the core four are watching Eddie get dressed „Watta man“ plays in the background, which, considering we are introduced to Eddie through Buck’s point of view might be the song playing in his head here? Anyways, back to the topic at hand and how we as the viewers don’t see Eddie until Buck turns around and sees him as well. Which is significant because several times through the conversation between Buck, Hen, Bobby and Chimney we see the locker room in the background so they could have filmed that differently.

Instead they had Chim, who stands off centre, noticing something while Buck banters with Bobby about how he will get to represent the 118 in the calendar, then the camera changes angle so we no longer stand between Bobby and Chimney but rather behind Buck, making him centre stage and putting a focus on his reaction to Eddie. In this scene we have Buck framed by two people commenting on Eddie’s attractiveness. Now we don’t get to see Eddie until we have gotten all reactions of the core four to him, with special attention to Buck, both in filming and text with everyone taking a jab at Buck before walking over to introduce themselves to Eddie which leaves Buck alone, watching.

(Now keep in mind this scene also has Hen basically say Eddie is so hot it transcends sexualities while „Whatta man“ plays as Buck slowly turns around and Idk, mate, that does seem shippy to me.)

- Another scene that focuses very heavily on Buck is when Eddie rushes and hugs Chris at the end of 2.03. In fact for most of the scene we see Buck in the car watching them.

- Also, the hospital scene in 2.04 and how once again we see Eddie interact with Chris while Eddie watches them because fuck knows why.

- Similar to the Buck lens we have 3.10 where Eddie talks to Hen about Chris while the two (or rather Eddie since he sits at the centre) watch Buck play with Chris and Danny. This is significant because Buck is also placed in the middle, putting him opposite Eddie and also making him the focus of the camera for most shots when the scene was about Christopher and Eddie feeling guilty. Huh, we say!

- Something similar happens in 3.11, which is the next episode several months removed when Eddie talks to Chimney about the 118 being their family and while this time Chris is the one sitting in the front, Buck once again is in the middle and also in focus in a scene shot from Eddie’s POV.

Other people reacting to them / commenting on them

Now, I am not sure if this is really Subtext but who knows where else it fits in? (This is a rhetorical question, only my opinion counts around here while I write!) So It goes here! And I think the title is self-explanatory enough.

- I’m a little on the fence on the Bobby looks because - no offence to Peter Krause - he doesn’t have that many facial expressions in general, but yeah, at the mechanics Buck watches Eddie and Bobby watches Buck.

- Our first real one of those scene is the truly savage tía Pepa who is a woman after my own heart because she says the mean shit to your face and the nice things behind your back because she loves you but she loves vibe checking egos more! And well, she is understandably confused by Buck’s being there at the hospital and asks Eddie who that is and why he is here and gives one of the best lines of the show by being so sarcastic, because oh, you work together? Damn, wouldn’t have guessed from the fact that both of you wear LAFD t-shirts! (I love her!)

- In the same episode Maddie comments on Buck’s boycrush on Eddie and while I am unsure whether that is supposed to make it sound less gay or it’s Maddie saying: Bro, you sound 12! but oh well! It’s a comment on them!

- I loath a little to include the elf in 2.10 because Tim has said that was an easter egg for Buddie shippers and a tongue in cheek thing but yeah.

- Also Bobby watches the whole „It’s a miracle“ exchange in 2.14 with that look.

- In 2.18 we get some text on the screen when they help instagram girl about how hot the both of them are and also how THEY should be dating which I’m putting into the same box as 2.10.

- The fact that Bobby shoves Eddie at Buck in 3.01, like sorry, why was it so relevant that this is the first hug?

- When Eddie / Ryan stared at Buck’s / Oliver’s ass in 3.04 we see Hen and Chimney grin about it.

- I know I have said myself that Maddie’s reaction in 3.08 was due to the fact that she just said: can ya’ll stop gossiping - and Chim and Buck were like: sure thing! and then started gossiping but still.

- There is Buddie flirting at the bowling alley in 3.13 and once again Bobby gives them the look and yeah.

- In 3.15 everyone seems very worried about Buck especially and they keep reassuring as if he were Eddie’s next of kin.

- Again a Bobby look I am unsure of but in 3.17 we see him giving them the look in the truck and yeah.

Other people’s heartache

Now, as I’ve said in the beginning, I didn’t wanna just include my perspective on Buddie, so I asked a few other people about this and while this isn’t a representative statistical number it’s still interesting, right?

(Also originally this Guide was organised by episode and I would have included the comments when the things came up but alas that didn’t work and I think I turned a little grey because of that)

@buckleysbabe:

When i first watched 9-1-1, I had no idea that Buddie existed (i hadn’t been on tumblr a lot at the time so I hadn’t seen gifs or anything) and when i started s2 I really thought they were just best friends, but then 2x10 and the ”you two have an adorable son” scene happened and Buck’s ”thank you” and the shy smile AND I WAS ON BOARD!! That was really the first moment, then I got the confirmation after 3x03 and the scene where Buck sees Eddie in the tsunami scenery, and then the whole Eddie saying theres nobody in this world....like in that moment I felt like they were seriously in love 😍❤️

About the 2x10: that scene has so many things. Like the water fountain in the back, Chris in the scene with them (like they are a family), then the elf saying what she said, Buck being for a second like ”huh?” and then you see the light bulb going on when he’s like ”ohhhhhhhh yeah” and then he says thank you 😍😍😍 saying HE IS CHRIS’S COPARENT. AND THEN THE SHY SMILE

@theleftboobgrabber

Right off the bat I thought they had chemistry but I think the entirety of 2×04 is when I genuinely started shipping it. Like.... the constant heart eyes, the support, Buck trying so hard to be there for Eddie and Eddie absolutely never questioning it, the look Buck gives Eddie at the fire house was absolute fire (when Bobby tells Eddie Buck asked for Chris to stay with them) like Eddie's like you did this for me??? And Buck has just this massive Big Buck Energy from where he's sitting like "get used to it" and I remember absolutely loosing my mind that Bobby got the hug and not Buck at the end of the scene like in what universe??? And yeah the rest of the episode is just the same but that feeling of 'that's the wrong man you're hugging' was the tipping point

@emotionalsupportfirefam

Okay so mine was kinda two moments?1) when Buck took Eddie to Chris' school after the earthquake and we see his reaction to Eddie's joy and relief as he holds Christopher and then spends the next episode trying to find ways to help Eddie with finding a suitable caregiver/ support for Chris and 2) the fact the took them whole of five minutes to go from 'rivals' to the 'dynamic duo' after the grenade call.

@evaneddie

Honestly? Literally every scene they have is romantically coded. The first scene of them, with Eddie being shirtless and us seeing it from Buck's perspective with „Whatta Man“ playing? That's subtext.

You can have my back any day? Yo.

The scene when the elf Blair(e) said they have an adorable son and Buck just said thank you instead of correcting her before he literally skipped away?

Eddie showing up at Buck's apartment and Buck not even questioning how he got in?

The way Buck is like a second father to Chris and protects him like one in the tsunami?

"THERE'S NOBODY IN THIS WORLD I TRUST WITH MY SON MORE THAN YOU"?! REALLY EDDIE? WHAT ABOUT LITERALLY ANY OF YOUR FAMILY? OR CARLA? Baby, that's love.

THE HALLOWEEN HUG?!

THE KITCHEN SCENE, THE WHOLE SEXUAL TENSION IN THAT SCENE?! BUCK'S HAND ON HIS BELT, THE GLANCES, "I'D STILL TAKE YOU", ON THE COUCH EDDIE LOOKS TO BUCK'S LAP, LIKE COME ON!

"You boys single?" *Looks at each other*

"This is Eddie's house, I'm not really a guest"

Buck's breakdown when he lost Eddie under 40 feet of mud. That was not the breakdown of losing a friend, that was the breakdown on losing someone you love. There's a meta I saw once literally just for this scene alone, the way Buck dug so desperately at the mud with his bare hands, the screams of heartbreak, the way he collapsed into Bobby, the pure dissociation as Bobby was giving instructions later on, Eddie's memories filled mostly with Christopher and Buck. Sure, the others were there, but, it was FILLED with Buck and Chris.

Then the ending scene of the season?! What was he trying to do with the necklaces? Thrusting his hips towards Eddie, hitting him in the face, then that soft touch on his face?

@adamngoodbuck

Hey! Nice question and for me really easy to answer. I started watching the show back in 2018 when it first aired but I was a casual viewer. Very casual. So casual I actually watched everything up to 2x10 and then I thought it was the season finale so I forgot about it. And then season 3 started. And nothing made sense. So I checked and welp, I had to catch up. And I did and something started brewing inside of me. I wasn't part of the fandom yet. And then. The THE SEARCHERS happened. And that scene. The there's nobody in this world I trust with my son more than you scene. My icon scene. And I was done. Hook, line and sinker.

@the-family-we-choose-118 

My main ones were all the big ones: the kitchen scene, the end of 3x03, the Christmas episode one where Buck is helping Danny and Chris make gingerbread houses and then plans a whole party for the firefam, Buck clawing at the ground in 3x15, Eddie interrupting Taylor Kelly when she came to the station to do the documentary in Dosed, the fact that Eddie was introduced from Buck's POV with „Whatta Man“, the entire earthquake episode where Buck is reassuring Eddie his kid is okay and then drives him to get his kid later on, and the scene where Buck introduces Eddie to Carla in (I'm pretty sure it's) the same episode where Maddie asks him if his boy crush on Eddie means he's over Abby (that was my main one). And I was fully convinced when Eddie walked in Buck's apartment in the beginning of S3 and ripped his blankets off him and was so sure he doesn't sleep naked/wouldn't have anybody over.

And the „official“ part of the guide is done but I do wanna say something else real quick which is:

You have just read about 20.000 words I painstakingly wrote over the course of several weeks and while I get that meta is even more harrowing to reblog than gifsets or fics because meta involves so much opinion and interpretation and what if you disagree with parts of it?

Well, again, I invested a lot of time in this and also: IF YOU DISAGREE TELL ME!!! TELL ME IN THE REBLOG OR IN THE TAGS!!! Because different to fics and gifsets meta is a dialog and I can’t have a dialog unless people talk to me! I’m not here to lecture you on right or wrong, I am here to tell you: okay, this is how the scene looks from my point of view, what do you say? So honestly, please consider liking and reblogging and tagging and maybe talking a little about it with me, because screaming into the void is so very boring

(And also in general: reblog reblog reblog! All these funny posts you see on buzzfeed and instagram screenshoted from tumblr? Half of them were made great by reblogs and all of them were noticed by these sites because of reblogs)

Anyways, before I (REALLY) let you go it would be hypocritical now to not talk about some people who inspired some of this (but ya’ll have to understand I cannot talk about everyone)!

I can however say these four especially helped me write this:

- @diggorypuff , who I have never talked to but whose posts about interesting parallels actually sort of got me into thinking deeper about this show: (X)

- @ingu, who fairly recently did a series of gifsets on Buddie and how Buck is framed as Eddie’s love interest which gave me life: (X)

- @matan4il, who is such an amazing friend and does the most concice and well thought out metas on Buddie without having to watch the show a million times like other people we shall not name have to (me, I am talking about me). Find her buddie metas here: (X) 

- And most importantly my girl, my babe, my love, @chimbuckleys who is the voice of reason between us and always lets me rant about stuff and was the sounding board for this and so much else I have written - I couldn’t do this without you! (ALSO I AM GOING TO BED NOW, BABE!!!)

AND DEAR READER, you made it! Now go have a blessed day and plant some trees because earth is dying and we with it!

#buddie #evan buckley #eddie diaz #buddie meta #eddie meta #buck meta #911 meta #911 #911 fox #textpost #meta #holy shit I made it but also I think this is actually quite literally too long to be posted at once and I cry????? #FUCK #my meta #the big buddie for dummies guide

[ddagent]

I know we just got it, but is there a chance of a follow-up to Brienne being able to read people's minds? It's sooooo good.

I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the response to telepathic!Brienne, and I truly hope you enjoy this follow-up! Thank you to @resthefuture​ for this AMAZING moodboard! 

Part One, “Noise” can be read here.

Brienne’s elbow jerked, and a nearby coffee cup tipped to the side; brown liquid spilling across the conference room table. Her colleagues scrambled to clear away the papers littering the surface; a flurry of thoughts bombarding Brienne as she suddenly became the focal point of the meeting. 

What a klutz. 

You’d think someone with arms that long would have better control over them. 

What is Tarth even doing here? She hasn’t worked on a proper case in months. 

Fuck; thanks a lot, Tarth! Why don’t you go back to the bridge you crawled out from?

She shouldn’t be here. She probably has a concussion. 

Brienne looked up at that last thought; Jaime Lannister’s voice cutting clear across the din. Despite the concern in every syllable, the senior partner sat in his chair, scrolling through his phone with disinterest. He seemed utterly oblivious to her mishap at the other end of the table. And, yet, Brienne was sure it was him. Sure it was his voice, filled with longing, that had called out for her to look at him for once. And, yet—

“Are you finished, Ms Tarth?” Brienne opened her mouth to respond, but Lannister didn’t allow her the opportunity. “Good. Stone: update on the Greyjoy case.” 

As one of her fellow associates launched into the latest legal battle between the brothers warring over their father’s will, Brienne dropped to her seat; cheeks flushed. On a normal day, knocking over a coffee cup and drawing the ire of a senior partner would rank amongst one of her worst. But her newfound...ability pushed it to the very top. Her colleagues barely tolerated her. Renly Baratheon used her. And Jaime Lannister— Well, Brienne wasn’t entirely sure what to make of him just yet. 

The meeting finally drew to a close, and her colleagues filed out one-by-one. Renly was the first to leave; he had an appointment with an intern at the advertising agency on five for some illicit fun in the men’s bathroom. Her colleagues had casework, calls to make, games to play. Brienne was the last to rise, and almost the last to leave. Jaime Lannister remained sitting; his manicured fingertips tracing the grain in the wood. 

“We don’t do injury claims here, Ms Tarth.” 

Her forehead furrowed. “I’m–I’m sorry?” 

He pointed at her face. “The bump on your head. This is a serious firm, taking on serious cases. You won’t find anyone here to take your case if you decide to sue.” A lawsuit is too good for whatever animal did that to you, anyway. A broken jaw would be better. 

“I—” Brienne was tired of half-finishing her sentences; so overwhelmed was she that words were far beyond her grasp. So she swallowed, straightened, and said: “I don’t intend to sue, Mister Lannister, but I do intend to press charges when the gold cloaks catch whoever was responsible.”

If she hadn’t heard his soft, aching thoughts, Brienne would have missed the taut line of his shoulders; the tightening of his grasp around the table. “You were attacked?” A broken jaw is far too good. I’ll call Tyrion; he knows people. We’ll have him buried by day’s end. 

“No!” Brienne blurted; Lannister’s eyes widening at her sudden outburst. Fuck. “I mean, I was attacked, but only because I was trying to save someone else from being mugged.” 

“Well, aren’t you the gallant knight.” Like Ser Blue. Tall, strong; I bet you could pin me–no, Jaime, not in the workplace. “We have an excellent healthcare policy, Ms Tarth; we here at Lannister, Baratheon, and Targaryen pride ourselves on it, in fact. I suggest you use it.” Please go home, Brienne. Get some rest. 

“Thank you, but I’m fine.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself. But this was me covering my own arse; if you decide to sue us later for breach of care or...whatever, your case won’t hold water. I’d get some ice for your head, though. That bruise makes you look even uglier than usual.” 

Lannister rose from his seat and made his departure from the conference room. He looked like the Warrior as he departed: expensive suit, well-cut mane, golden grin. But Brienne could hear his thoughts, and they betrayed a different kind of man. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why did you say that, you idiot? Now she’s going to think you think she’s ugly, and judging from last night’s— Brienne was grateful when Lannister disappeared from her eye-line, and she could no longer hear him. If she had any doubts that his thoughts were about her, they had evaporated some ago. Jaime Lannister, the most eligible bachelor in King’s Landing and a disgrace to the legal profession, liked her. 

Too many thoughts. Too many questions. Too loud. Too much noise. 

Brienne retreated to her office, adjusted the blinds and shut the door. She logged onto her company laptop and pulled up a search engine, deciding to start at the beginning. Hearing people’s thoughts brought up more than a few results about mental illness. Telepathy was a more prosperous search, although Brienne was led to more than one site promising to teach people how to read thoughts for a monthly fee. Her search came up with nothing as to how to control or stop it; the most useful advice she saw was not telling a maester she could hear other people’s thoughts. 

After a while, Brienne opened a new window and typed in Jaime Lannister. 

As expected, there was the firm’s website; a series of tabloid articles detailing his well-publicised affair with his step-sister. The images tab revealed numerous photoshoots for various magazines, including a charity calendar of various attorneys in the city. Renly’s month had been in Brienne’s kitchen all year round. The news tab made mention of cases he’d won – and the Aerys Targaryen debacle. He’d wrecked Targaryen’s defence on purpose; had almost been disbarred had his father not come to his aid. Jaime Lannister was deplorable. And he liked her. 

Before Brienne could fall down a rabbit hole about what that said about her, there were two knocks at the door. Renly didn’t even wait to be invited in before he came inside, throwing her that winning smile. “Hey, you.”

She quickly pulled down the lid of her laptop before he could see the pictures of Jaime and jump to the wrong conclusion. “Hello yourself.”

“So, earlier, I mentioned that very special job for you?” 

“Right.”

“Shall we head to my office? We can talk about the case, one-on-one.” Come on, you never miss the opportunity for some alone time with me, Brienne. Take my special job, so I can get some jobs of my own down at the Club. “I’ll get the tea – no coffee.” 

“I–I can’t.” Are you serious? Brienne was serious. She was better than this; a better lawyer than this. Now she knew the truth, she would not let herself be used in such fashion. “I’m afraid I’m working on another case already.”

Renly chuckled. “Well, as a senior partner, I’m sure we can move a few people around.” Are you really trying to play hard to get, Brienne?

“The case I’m working on is for a senior partner. Mister Lannister asked for my help.” 

Oh, fuck off he did. He can’t stand you. “He did?” At that exact moment, as if the Gods wished to test Brienne further, Lannister walked by her office. “Jaime, can I bother you for a minute?”

“Why stop at a minute?” Why couldn’t you have run the Storm’s End office? Your brother is a bore, but at least you know where you stand with him. “What’s wrong, Renly?”

“Brienne here says you’ve asked for her help on a case? I was rather hoping she could help with mine.” 

Lannister’s head swivelled towards her; one eyebrow raised, intrigued. “She did, hmm?” Don’t tell me you’ve finally wised up to this arse, Tarth. She had. And if it came down to it, she’d rather listen to his thoughts than Renly’s. What a sorry state her life had become. “Well, she is. Working with me on a case.”

Renly spluttered. “But–but Brienne and I have a special working relationship.”

Oh, I know all about your relationship. She does all the work while you galavant around town. “Well, this case requires Ms Tarth’s special skillset. Sorry, Renly. Guess she’s mine now.”

Brienne was about to voice an objection over being treated like property when she heard Jaime’s inaudible sigh. If only. 

#braime #jaime x brienne #brienne x jaime #anonymous #mine: paragraph prompts #ship: braime #fic: telepathic brienne

[videoassocdallas]

Bart Chat 2/23/19 Greetings all,   We are very excited about DOCUFEST coming up October 3rd-6th at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, but before we get to that, we have a program coming up this Saturday at The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth.  As you may or may not know, they have a great Gordon Parks photo exhibit going on there. Most People know Gordon Parks from Shaft fame but he was also a great photographer and seeing the show is worth the trip.  We are teaming about with Amon Carter to show his earlier documentaries, Diary of a Harlem Family (1968, 20 minutes) and The World of Piri Thomas (1968, 60 minutes). Parks tells the story of the Fontenelle family. He was inspired to make this film after photographing the Fontenelles for a Life magazine photo essay on race and poverty in an attempt to show that, regardless of race and class, families across America all work to provide for their children. This a rare opportunity to see these films so please check them out. The World of Piri Thomas gives an unflinching view of the “mean streets” of Spanish Harlem as told by one of its most noted inhabitants. In this film, Thomas, who was a painter, poet, author, ex-con, and ex-junkie, shares his experiences and reads from his book, Down These Mean Streets.   Now back to DocuFest.  We live in, shall we say, unique times when questions about what is real and what is fake constantly permeate decision making. Should I click on that? Can you believe what he said? Can that be true? In these titles, DocuFest presents fresh oasis of media that ascribes to presenting reality and framing reality in a way to make us better citizens, to create awareness, and make us whole in a time when the news makes us feel empty, angry, less connected to the world and in the end, less human. Come to the Angelika Film Center Dallas and spend four days with us and you can rediscover joy, brilliance, tragedy and be moved by it all. This fest is more than just a series of movies, it is a way to reconnect with your sanity. (Did I oversell this?)    The first two nights, we have two theaters. Opening night, we start with a preview of Flannery, a new feature film about the great southern writer Flannery O’Connor.  This is a really great doc by a good friend, Elizabeth Coffman, whose work we have shown before, but this is her best film to date. If you ever read O’Connor’s work, this film tells her fascinating story in a style that works with her style.  At the same time, in another world in the next screening room, we have Now or Never: A Tony Romo Story.  We have seen him play, we have seen him talk, now see how he attained success with interviews of family and friends who knew him back in the day. Then our late shows on Thursday have A Woman’s Work, by Yu Gu, a documentary about NFL cheerleaders who are fighting for their rights.  It follows class action lawsuits and the women who have the courage to stand up to the NFL for their rights. Then we have a classic: When DA Pennebaker passed away, we wanted to show one of his films to honor his memory and what he meant to documentary film. We thought of The War Room (directed by Chris Hegedus) because we have an election coming soon and we thought about Don’t Look Back, which is the obvious choice and we don’t do that, so we went with Ziggy Stardust to remember both Pennebaker and Bowie.    Pretty cool for opening night.   On Friday night, we start with a new documentary about legendary choreographer Merce Cunningham, in 3D!!!!!!!  It’s hard to imagine modern dance without the influence of Cunningham and his lifelong collaborator and partner John Cage. In his film, the filmmaker assembles dancers from the Merce Cunningham dance company to perform the classic works, in a new way. Often 3D can be a trick or a gadget but here with an artist working with moving in space, 3D brings it alive. At the same time (sorry, on Thursday and Friday night you will have to make tough choices) we are proud to show Midnight Traveler, the story of filmmaker Hassan Fazili’, who had a bounty on his head from the Taliban and had to leave with his wife and their two daughters. In this film, shot with a mobile device, he documents the everyday moments of family life interspersed with the peril of this dangerous journey. This film helps put a voice to the people who are having to leave their countries, seeing, knowing and understanding their struggles.   The late-night Friday program is just as special. Varda by Agnes is a film that was on many best-of lists from Toronto. Agnes Varda has had a long and fascinating career as a filmmaker, and she gets to tell her story in this doc. (We have been happy to show her work for years, including the great Beaches of Agnes.)  In this film, we see her in many different audiences talking about her work. It is a great way to hear her talk about and view her work. It’s a must-see.   And finally, the last program is controversial (Can you believe we would do that?) It is American Dharma, Errol Morris’ film about Steve Bannon.  This played a few festivals last year and Errol got blasted for giving Bannon some oxygen.  Indeed, I was not keen on the idea of the film and then I saw it. Bannon does get to put this burn it all down point of view in the film, while Morris does call him on things, it is not as much as most audiences would like. However, as we get into this next election cycle, it is good to see what made Trump’s campaign successful, at least from one person's point of view. Also, I think it’s better to get into the heads of an opponent than to think you know them.   And the actual film is fascinating. Bannon is very much influenced by films, and he has made films of his own.  He talks about 12:00 High, a classic film about the Air Force, heroism and WW2. Morris recreates the main set of 12:00 High and the interview takes place in the set. It brings a strange unsettling context to their discussion, and I think it works. That’s just the first two nights and there is so much more, which I will detail in the next newsletter.    Speaking of immigrants, last night I got to see a special screening of Detras de Realidad which will show in Frame of Mind October 10th at 10:00 PM. This program is made by women about their own journey to Texas and what their life is like here. Frank, honest and in their own voices. I really liked what they did, but I was so happy to meet the makers who learned how to control the image and use the medium to tell everyone their stories. Thanks so much to Amber Bemak who taught then and Ignite Dallas at SMU for making it happen.   Speaking of Frame of Mind we have a great new show on Thursday night at 10 PM. Each year on the series, we feature a retrospective of a Texas filmmaker and usually, they are old folk. This year, we took a different approach.  Explordinary is Sarah Reyes and Daniel Driensky. They are great at straddling the world of digital and analog media, as well as film as art and commerce. They have traveled the globe documenting, in their unique way, artists, skaters, film labs and many other things. They put together their own retro and it rocks. 10:00 PM Thursday, Sept 26th.   What else is happening around town?   On Thursday, there is a special screening of the Princess Bride as a benefit for Hope Kids of North Texas.  Next weekend, there is the North Texas Film Festival in Plano.  There is the Alice Cooper film that played at DIFF and things like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Poltergeist, and Reanimator, so if you are into these and many are, not so much me, go for it. My favorite film they are showing is Mack Wrestles, a short I saw at SXSW about the Mack Beggs, a local athlete who goes through a sex change and still wants to wrestle. This is a must-see.   As for The Texas Theater, on Wednesday, they are showing a film that has been getting lots of buzz (I have not seen it, yet) called Anthropocene the Human Epoch. It is one of those national we are all showing the same film tonight, programs.  On Thursday, they are showing not one but two Les Blank films (I love Les Blank films) called Chulas Fronteras and Del Mero Corazón. These are newly restored, so they should look great. They are some of the first films that showcase Texican border music, including Flaco Jimenez and they sound great. Then they are showing the Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool film that was on PBS, made by the great Stanley Nelson. We have an interview with him about this film and the rest of his work on the podcast The Fog of Truth. Then Friday night, Theater Cine Wilde presents a film that is actually wild, Todd Haynes' Poison. A really great film that showcased his voice is his Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.   On Tuesday night, The Magnolia Theater is showing Yentl, Barbara Streisand’s film about gender inequality in the Jewish religious community. Bart Weiss Artistic Director Dallas VideoFest

[rosecierraw]

When Should A Lawyer Fight?

A tough case out of New York’s Second Department yesterday shines a light on a tough subject: If lawyers believe they are legally right on an issue, does that mean they should elect to die on that hill?

This one deals with a quirky New York law that forces all potential litigants against a municipality to file a Notice of Claim within 90 days of an incident. In other words, the Legislature demands people run, not walk, to lawyers well before they may know the seriousness of their injuries.

The municipalities then get to take a deposition right away, though we don’t technically call it that since there’s no litigation yet afoot. It’s a 50-h hearing, so-named after General Municipal Law § 50-h, which births it into being, purportedly so that municipalities can investigate with a view toward early settlement, though that rarely happens. Basically, the munis get two bites out of the injured apple, because they get to question a claimant all over again after suit is brought and the injured are now called plaintiffs.

The problem? Few rules truly exist as to the extent of these hearings. And the claimant must go, for the penalty of not allowing oneself to be questioned is kissing your potential lawsuit goodbye.

So in Colon v. Martin, the lawyers represent two claimants, driver and passenger in a car thats rear-ended by a NYC-owned vehicle. Thus, the need for the Notice of Claim, of which the lawyers elected to file one for each client.

But come hearing time — and the hearings are scheduled to follow one after the other — the claimants’ lawyer insists that both clients are allowed in the room while the other testifies. The City, however, refuses to take the testimony unless the other claimant is sequestered outside the room. Eventually, after the lawyers put all their lawyer-talking on the record, the claimants and their counsel leave.

When suit is filed, the now-plaintiffs allege they they appeared and were available to be questioned, that the City refused to take their testimony, and that the hearings were therefore constructively waived.

On motion by the City for summary judgment, the trial court chucks the case into the trash can for failing to abide by the law for giving that 50-h testimony. And on appeal, the Second Department affirms by 3-2. While this means they may appeal this final result as of right to the Court of Appeals, there’s the obvious problem that they could lose.

But they shouldn’t. The Court of Appeals should reverse and reinstate the suit. And that’s for the simple reason that the statute that birthed these hearings gives no clear directive, one way or the other, as to whether a municipality can close the door to the hearing room.

There’s nothing in the statute that says a co-claimant can’t be there, or the press, or anyone else. While the statute gives some guidance as to who can be there, there is no exclusion rule.

The majority claimed that the bare bones statute should be interpreted to allow sequestration due to the “human nature” issue of one person tailoring testimony to that of the other.

The problem with that argument is that the Court is saying what they think the law should be, and not what it actually is.

The 50-h hearings are in derogation of the common law right to bring suit, and the law is clear that when a statute is in derogation of the common law that it must be “strictly construed.” You don’t get to add new parameters because of a poorly drafted statute. And since there’s no sequestration authorized by the statute, the claimants were lawfully correct to stand their ground. Here are the magic words of the statute, which envisions two parts, oral questions and a physical exam:

which examination shall be upon oral questions unless the parties otherwise stipulate and may include a physical examination of the claimant by a duly qualified physician. If the party to be examined desires, he or she is entitled to have such examination in the presence of his or her own personal physician and such relative or other person as he or she may elect….

…In any examination required pursuant to the provisions of this section the claimant shall have the right to be represented by counsel. 

So the statute says who can be there, particularly for the physical exam part, but it doesn’t say who can’t be there, particularly for the oral questions part. Since the statute must be strictly construed, a court can’t simply add a non-existing sequestration part for the oral exam because, perhaps, the poorly drafted statute might imply it for the physical exam part.

Now you may have noticed that I wrote “lawfully correct” above, notwithstanding that they are on the losing side of the fight right now.

This begs the question I asked at the start: Is this a hill to die on?

While I believe the claimants are correct, that doesn’t make it wise to walk out that hearing and potentially face years of unnecessary litigation that might follow, thereby delaying justice for the clients.

While it may be strategically advantageous to have both claimants in the room for some cases, that doesn’t appear to be the case here.

In this matter, the lawyers elected to represent both driver and passenger in a motor vehicle collision. Usually, that’s one big fat no-no, due to the potential conflict of interest if the host driver was even a teensy weensy bit negligent.

Since this is a fairly well known rule of the personal injury bar, and the potential is losing representation of both clients if a court finds a conflict, I will assume for these purposes that the collision was a matter of clear liability and that they two clients were advised of this issue and agreed in writing to the joint representation. (I assume this because otherwise the lawyer has yet more problems.)

But if there was clear liability, then the issues/concerns about having your other client in the room to hear what was said are pretty much moot. Assuming the clients told the lawyer the same thing – Wammo, hit from behind — there shouldn’t really be an issue.

The lawyers were legally right, in my opinion, to take their position, but strategically wrong. Their best case scenario now is that it cost their clients years of litigation and lots of time and money on the appeals. Their worst case is for the clients to walk away empty-handed and, potentially, sue the lawyers for malpractice if the Court of Appeals upholds the Second Department.

In the meantime, the Legislature would do well to clear up the ambiguity that surround these 50-h hearings, and make clear that questioning may not extend beyond that which would occur in an actual deposition. The ambiguity that exists leaves potential litigants at the mercy of unscrupulous examinees who may feel entitled to ask any old questions they want, no matter how much of a fishing expedition they may be, with the claimants being without easy recourse.

Since the time to file suit is just a year and 90 days from the date of the collision, the window of time within which a legal argument can take place in court over the extent of questioning is exceptionally narrow making judicial relief, at times, impossible or impracticable to obtain.

When Should A Lawyer Fight? published first on http://fergusonlaw.blogspot.com

[crackheadaonymous]

America Gets All the Good Killers: AKA Jack the Ripper as H. H. Holmes

In the most hair-brained, crack-head-y, out-of-ass-pulled, magic way I think I actually might have a decent theory on who Jack the Ripper was. Scrap my old theory because this one actually has some proof (albeit mostly circumstantial). So crack your knuckles and boil some fucking tea, this one’s gonna be long.

America Gets All the Good Killers: AKA Jack the Ripper as H. H. Holmes

Alright, let's set our scene shall we? It’s 1800’s America, the industrial revolution is finally booming and our new country is smack in the beginning of its birth. By this point most iron production is cheap and effective and so imports from other countries are minimal and we run almost completely independently.

That’s when a man named Herbert Webster Mudgett is born into New Hampshire. This man would later go on to become one of the most despicable, and first ever serial killers of America.

TL; DR: H. H. Holmes is Jack the Ripper

Now, to the real shit.

So first I’m going to go over H. H. Holmes (who I’m just going to call Holmes for the sake of simplicity). He was born in New Hampshire in 1861, he had a penchant for torturing animals and killing them and a talent for dissection that was only helped by the local doctor who took him in and began tutoring him at a very young age. This exposed Holmes to dead bodies probably way to early, and by the time he was 18 Holmes had married a woman named Clara and was widely suspected of killing multiple children in his town, including two of his own cousins.

Holmes was described as a charming but arrogant and handsome man with an incomparable lust for money who could talk just about anyone out of anything. He went to school, became a doctor, and in 1885 he runs from his hometown chased by accusations of murder and fraud. He leaves behind his first wife, Clara, and their son and he moves to Chicago, changes his name and becomes H. H. Holmes.

Chicago, Illinois at the time was a booming funnel. Thanks to the port and all the railways leading out, it was a hotspot for immigrants hoping to join the new free country. This is something it had in common with London, which was also known for it’s high immigrant and traveling population.

Holmes immediately takes up a job working at a pharmacy, where he’s suspected to have embezzled funds but remained working for a while. In 1886, not a year after running from his old identity, he buys a large and empty lot across from the pharmacy and begins drawing his plans for what would eventually become the deadliest building in the world.

See, the thing about Holmes, and the reason most people discredit the theory that Holmes is the Ripper, is that Holmes was extremely premeditated. I mean, he was so premeditated that he built a full on murder castle, timed it so that it would be finished in time for the Chicago World’s Fair, and equipped it with traps, a body disposal basement, and labyrinth-like hallways.

The Ripper just walked around White Chapel and sliced up prostitutes.

Or did he?

At the time London’s police were on a strict system. They were supposed to be at certain places at specific times that were extremely consistent and the punishment for not being perfectly in place on time was usually harsh. This meant that if anyone wanted to get away with a crime, all they had to do was figure out the exact times the cops would be around. Knowing this is makes the fact that Jack never got caught seem like much, much less of a coincidence.

Not only that, but most of the Ripper’s and Holmes’ victims do share something in common. Missing organs. Though with Holmes’ cases it’s harder to tell simply because few bodies were recovered but it’s a known fact that he would sell the skeletons and some of the organs of his victims to medical schools for a hefty price. And, if there’s one thing that Holmes loves, it’s money.

People do argue that if the Ripper was after money (i.e stealing organs from the women he cut up to sell later for an easy buck) then why did he leave so much? In most of the Ripper’s victims only the uterus or liver or –in one case– the heart, were missing. Personally I think this is just because he had less time because of the strict police watch. He probably took what he could get the most money from. Example: Uterus. I mean, now, a woman’s womb goes for $45,000. Though obviously he learns his lesson because in his later murders he steals the kidney (which now goes for around $500,000 a piece) and then the heart ($1 million).

Is it a coincidence that the Ripper never got caught? And started stealing the more expensive organs the more he killed (and sold)? Maybe, but it seems pretty unlikely. Especially when you consider that with the surgical aptitude needed to remove the organs so well, the Ripper would have had to be a doctor, or at least someone skilled in surgery.

*ahem* our very own H. H. Holmes.

And this all becomes even more suspicious when you realize that H. H. Holmes possibly could have been in London during the time of the Ripper murders. See, with all his fraud he left quite the paper trail, and through all the bank notes and lawsuits you can tell pretty easily where he is at exact points in time. The only problem is, his trail goes cold around the end of 1887 and doesn’t pick back up again until 1889.

That means there’s this entire year after Holmes starts construction on the murder castle that we have no idea what he was up to. And, this one year gap, 1888, guess who was slicing up prostitutes in Whitechapel at the same damn time.

That’s right, Jack the fucking Ripper.

So what we’re seeing is a progression, Holmes starts out by (possibly) murdering fellow children and covering it up, then moving on to start his plans for the murder castle before going to London to perfect his trade, and coming back to the U.S just in time for the World’s Fair in Chicago when a bunch of visitors would be showing up and wanting to stay in a cheap lodging and wouldn’t be noticed as missing for a while.

If that doesn’t have you convinced, we even have a regression. See, after the World's Fair when Holmes had murdered somewhere between 9 and 200 victims, he booked it. Again chased by accusations of fraud and murder, and that’s when he took his assistant Benjamin Pitezel and got him wrapped up in an insurance fraud scheme that ended with Benjamin dead and Holmes collecting his life insurance. Then, because Pitezel had told his wife, Holmes realized he’d have to kill all the Pitezels in order to keep his secret safe.

That’s when the murders of Benjamin’s two daughters and son happened.

Holmes convinced Carrie Pitezel to let him take three of her children in order to evade the police who could come looking into the insurance fraud (at the time she didn’t know that he had killed her husband) so Holmes took the three kids and gassed the two girls and strangled the boy. Though, he strangled the boy in Indianapolis, in a rental home that he had a wood stove installed in and disemboweled him before burning him in the new stove. Then he scattered the remains across the lawn and left with the two girls to Toronto where he gassed them. At this point, the cops hired the first group of private investigators, the Pinkertons (actually they were the people who coined the term ‘private eye’ and they were super cool but I’m not going to rant about them. Yet) and the Pinkertons caught Holmes before he could run to London and escape.

Then Holmes was put on trial, confessed to 27 of the murders (only nine have actually been confirmed but it also could have been up to 200 it’s a bit iffy) and hung at age 35 in 1896.

The reason I think that Jack the Ripper and H. H. Holmes are the same person is because of the time lines and the other evidence, but mostly the similarity in personality.

Both Holmes and the Ripper were perfecting their trade. I mean, with Ripper’s victims not only did he take the more expensive organs, but his cuts got more sure and he became more efficient. With Holmes, he actually planned on making a whole new Murder Castle in Texas, though with this one there were some changes to the otherwise identical plans. He was perfecting his trade.

Obviously by trade I mean murder which is obviously not a good thing and I definitely don’t condone the systematic murder of multiple people.

Holmes was an arrogant perfectionist, who also was a sociopath. Who’s to say that he wouldn’t leave to another country to perfect his killing methods before returning to the states to enact his plans?

In the end, most of the evidence is circumstantial, and without solid proof there’s no real way of knowing if H. H. Holmes and Jack the Ripper were the same person or just two sickos who managed to live at the same time and both have a penchant for dissection and fast killing.

Guess we’ll never really know.

(But I’m sticking to my theory)

[imjustthemechanic]

The French Mistake

Part 1/? - A Visitor Part 2/? - The Kulturhistorisk Museum Heist Part 3/? - Cutscene Part 4/? - The Marvel Cinematic Universe Part 5/? - Breathless Part 6/? - Escape at Last Part 7/? - Fox in Socks Part 8/? - Things Go Wrong Part 9/? - Downey and Out Part 10/? - Road Trip Part 11/? - Temptation Part 12/? - An Awful Reunion Part 13/? - Unreality Intrudes Part 14/? - A Call for Help Part 15/? - Loki’s Guests Part 16/? - Stan Lee Cameo Part 17/? - Reassessment Part 18/? - Midnight Invasion Part 19/? - Elevator Fight Part 20/? - Courage

In which Steve thinks way too much

“So are we still going to California?” asked Hayley.  “Or is that plan off the table?”

“I think we have to try,” said Steve.  It didn’t look good, though – the Chi’Tauri would almost certainly be there ahead of them, and then what?  Would they lie in wait for Loki, or simply tear the place apart when they found he wasn’t there yet?

“I have definitely gone crazy,” Downey remarked yet again.  He programmed the destination into his GPS.

“I don’t think there’s more than four of them, at least,” said Steve.  They needed some good news.  “The one that first broke into the room was the same one Natasha smacked with the fire extinguisher.  It had a bruise on its chest.”

“That’s good news,” said Thor.  “We know the number of our enemy.”

“And we might know something about how they got here,” said Natasha.  “After the last time they fought on Earth you’d think they would want to send as big a force as they could – if there’s only four, maybe that’s all they could send.  If so that’s good news, because it means they can’t call for reinforcements.”

“They hardly need them,” groused Loki.  “All we’re doing is running away.”

Before they could properly set out on the twenty-four hour drive back to Los Angeles, they had to stop for supplies.  At seven AM a Wal-Mart opened, and they were able to run in for coffee, breakfast, and more first aid supplies.  It was Natasha and Hayley who did the actual running, since they were the closest to being properly dressed – Nat was still in the t-shirt and leggings she’d bought at the airport, while Hayley was obviously in her pajamas but made it a little more modest by putting Downey’s hoodie on over her camisole.  Loki, in his pajamas, Downey, in Loki’s spare pajamas, and Thor, in nothing but one sock and a pair of briefs, waited in the van with Steve.

After what seemed like an awfully long time, the women returned.  They were now fully dressed in t-shirts, jeans, sneakers, and sunglasses.  Natasha had a McDonald’s bag in one hand and a tray of drinks in the other, while Hayley was carrying several plastic shopping bags.

“Uh, we left without our wallets,” Steve said, as they climbed back into the van.  “How did you pay for all that?”  He braced himself for Natasha to say they’d stolen it.

“I memorized Bob’s MasterCard number when we stopped to buy gas yesterday,” Nat replied.

“You did what?” asked Downey.

“Eat your breakfast.”  Natasha handed him the food.  “You paid for it.”

In the bags Hayley was carrying there were clean clothes for everybody in pretty close to the right sizes – Steve knew he could probably thank Natasha for that, too.  There was also another first aid kit, bottled water and deli sandwiches for the road, and a few other miscellaneous things, including a brace to give Steve’s ankle some better support than the ace bandages they’d been using so far.

Steve managed not to actually complain as Nat pushed the brace over his foot, but he held on tight to the headrest on the seat and he could feel sweat rolling down the side of his face.  His ankle was badly bruised and swollen in addition to whatever damage had been done to the ligaments, and it was the most pain he could remember feeling in quite some time. Steve had spent some time in the hospital after crashing three helicarriers into the Potomac, and the doctors had expected him to need months of physical therapy.  He’d been back on his feet by the end of the week.  Now, here he was, laid up for the foreseeable future with a sprained ankle.

“If you want to say ow, say ow,” said Natasha.  “Nobody here is going to think any less of you.”

“I’m fine,” Steve grunted.  “I’m just annoyed that I was stupid enough to get hurt in the first place.”

He was annoyed about a couple of other things, too.  He was still angry with himself for getting distracted by the Q&A panel, and that Hayley had to come with them because of that.  He was definitely angry with Loki for getting them all into this situation, and angry that he couldn’t have done anything to save anybody during the attack on the hotel.  The thing he was angriest about, though, was… well, he wasn’t exactly angry about it.  He was more confused, and deeply troubled by the implications, and potentially angry, if any of those implications bore out.

Why hadn’t he gone to save Wendy?

It was true that Steve’s injury would have kept him from running, and he already knew he couldn’t fight the Chi’Tauri hand-to-hand in this universe even when he was perfectly healthy… but that skinny kid from Brooklyn who’d been so desperate to join the army, he would have done it.  He would have known he would fail, that he would probably be killed and Wendy with him, but he would have done it anyway, for the same reason he’d once jumped on a grenade – because it was the right thing to do.

What had changed?  Could it be that after years in which courage was easy because Steve knew he was more or less indestructible, he’d forgotten how to be brave?  Could he really have decided to just leave that girl to die, because saving her would have hurt?

“There we go!” said Natasha.  “Nice and snug!”

Steve realized he’d tensed his shoulders and gritted his teeth, and relaxed both.  Nice and snug was an understatement, he thought, looking at his foot in the brace.  He felt like his toes were about to turn purple from lack of circulation.

“Thor,” said Natasha, “you’re next – let’s have a look at your back.”

Thor pulled off the t-shirt he’d only just put on, and turned to the side so Nat could see.  His injuries weren’t deep, but they were covered in scabs and Steve knew from experience that shallow scrapes to the skin, where all the nerve endings were, could be far more painful than they had any right to.  Natasha tore open a packet of alcohol wipes, and started swabbing.

Steve had managed not to whimper as Nat put the brace on him, but Thor did make a soft hissing sound as she touched him.  “I am unused to such pain from so small a hurt,” he confessed.  “I wonder if this is why mortals do not live long – any injury causes them such stress that their lives are cut short.”

Loki was watching with what appeared to be grudging admiration.  “You bear it better than I expected,” he muttered, low enough that Steve suspected nobody else had been meant to hear it.

“It is unseemly for a warrior to complain,” Thor said.  “I shall have to take better care, though.  Little as I like fleeing from battle, I did promise Elsa I would return her husband to her whole and healthy.”

Maybe that was it, Steve thought.  Maybe the reason he hadn’t gone to save Wendy was because he knew this wasn’t his body.  He was going to have to give it back to this Chris Evans at some point, and he couldn’t do that if he’d gotten killed – Evans was probably going to be upset enough about the sprained ankle.  That seemed like a pretty compelling argument, and yet it hadn’t been what was on Steve’s mind as he’d watched the alien drag Wendy into the hotel room.  What he’d been thinking then was that he couldn’t save her.  If he tried, he would fail.  That was true, but it was most definitely not the point.

Along with the rest of their purchases, Natasha and Hayley had bought a copy of that day’s Calgary Sun, a newspaper that looked to be on about the same level of as New York’s Daily Bugle as far as sensationalism went.  The events at the convention had made the front page, with a blurry photograph of the fight and the headline Out of Control.  Below that was a quote from one of the convention organizers: this is why the Marvel universe has Accords.

The actual article began on page two and everything it said made Steve winced in guilt.  People were speculating that it was a terrorist attack – the rest of the convention had been cancelled and all the guests sent home for their own safety. Half a dozen other events that were supposed to use the damaged space had to be rescheduled or moved.  Repairing the damage was going to cost millions and several people who’d been injured were already threatening lawsuits.

A few pages further in was an article about the destruction in the hotel.  Steve was relieved to see a note that a young woman had been found alive in the bathroom of the royal suite, but again there’d been extensive damage and many, many injuries. Reading it made Steve feel so powerless. As Loki had said, they couldn’t do anything but run away.

Once they were all dressed, patched up as best they could be under the circumstances, and had eaten, they got back on the road.  Within half an hour they were out of the city, heading south through rolling fields of yellow canola, or green pasture with cows and horses grazing.  Downey needed a nap, so Hayley was driving.  Thor and Loki were in the back set of seats, Loki glaring out the window at the world going by and Thor sitting awkwardly sideways so his scraped back wouldn’t rest against the seat.  That left Steve and Nat in the middle set of seats, with the newspaper lying in between them.  Steve tried not to keep looking at it, but he couldn’t help it, and every time he did, he had to shut his eyes to make himself stop.  There’d been nothing he could do.

“They’re right, you know,” said Natasha.  “That’s why the Accords exist.”

Steve opened his eyes again and turned his head to look at her.  “Really?” he asked.  “You want to talk about that now?”

“Not really,” said Natasha, “but there it is.”

“If we hadn’t been there, they would have taken Loki and none of us would stand a chance of getting home,” Steve pointed out.

“I know,” said Nat.  “Innocent people still got hurt, and they didn’t need to.  We’re not very subtle, Rogers.”

“You wanna hear something funny?” asked Downey.

“Nothing about this is funny!” Steve protested.

“I want to hear it,” said Nat, who must have meant it when she said she didn’t want to talk about the Accords – although if that were really true, she shouldn’t have been the one to bring it up.

“Chris was totally Team Iron Man,” said Downey. “We can probably find you the interviews on YouTube.  He said if there were real Avengers, he would want them to have oversight rather than just letting a group of vigilantes answer to nobody but themselves.”  He chuckled – apparently he really did find it funny.  “Nerdist called him a traitor!”

It took Steve a moment to remember that Chris was Chris Evans, the actor who played him in those movies and the man whose body he was currently borrowing.  The one he’d sort of hoped would try to live up to the ideals of Captain America, even if he couldn’t do so in the way Steve himself had.  He agreed with Stark?

“What about you?” Steve asked.  Maybe if the actor who played Captain America was really on Stark’s side, the one who played Iron Man would be on Steve’s.

“I always thought watching the fans freak out was way more fun than explicitly choosing a side in a fictional argument,” said Downey. “I gotta say, though, the guy in the room in Civil War who was making sense was Rhodey.  To think you always know what’s best for the world is arrogant and dangerous.  Somebody’s gotta be able to step in and say yes or no.”

“The problem is,” Natasha said loudly, “that this is a philosophical argument, and the thing with philosophical arguments is that there’s no one right answer.”

“That’s not what you were saying a minute ago,” said Steve.

“That’s exactly what I’ve been saying the whole time!” said Natasha.  “The Accords aren’t a perfect solution because there are no perfect solutions in an imperfect world, but they’re an attempt, and since they exist we have to go either around or through them in order to get anything done.” 

“You know where that got us?” Steve asked.  “That got us here.”

“That was the great thing about the movie, actually,” said Downey, “was that you could see both sides.  Tony’s got a point about regulation being needed, but Steve’s also got one about how it can keep them from helping people who need help. And people can discuss it all they want because it’s not getting in anybody’s way in the real world… until now, of course,” he added.

“Well, maybe now some people will change their minds,” said Steve.  He wondered… if Evans were, right now, in Steve’s body and in the hands of the Chi’Tauri, how did that make him feel about the Sokovia Accords?  Or was he even thinking about them?  Would Steve ever get a chance to ask?  Probably not, due to the nature of exactly how they’d passed between universes.  But if he did ever meet Chris Evans, he would definitely have some questions for him.

#fanfic #steve rogers #natasha romanov

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Minneapolis Police Injured Protesters With Rubber Bullets. The City Has Taken Little Action.

(Editor’s note: This is a follow-up to last year’s joint investigation by KHN and USA Today finding that police in several cities violated their own crowd-control policies during protests over racial injustice and police brutality.)

As police in riot gear approached the demonstrators, Soren Stevenson raised his hands like scores of others and called out, “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

This story also ran on USA Today. It can be republished for free.

Suddenly, tear gas canisters and rubber bullets rained down.

The demonstrators had gathered for a sixth straight day to decry Minneapolis police officers’ use-of-force practices after the slaying of an unarmed Black man named George Floyd.

On May 31, 2020, the protesters were under fire.

Stevenson, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs, lost his left eye after an officer fired a plastic-tipped round at him — even though Minneapolis Police Department policy bans the use of those munitions against nonviolent people.

According to a federal court complaint that cites video of the incident and witness accounts, Stevenson was unarmed, had committed no crime, posed no threat and was not in a chaotic crowd.

It wasn’t an isolated event. Dozens of people were seriously injured during the protests last summer, leading to lawsuits, promises of reform and calls to ban the use of rubber bullets for crowd control.

“This is a moment in time where we can totally change the way our Police Department operates,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said when the City Council banned chokeholds soon after Floyd’s death. “We can quite literally lead the way in our nation enacting more police reform than any other city in the entire country, and we cannot fail.”

Nearly a year later, there is scant evidence that Minneapolis has changed how its police officers use less-lethal weapons or strengthened its oversight. Instead, the city may be a study in stymied reform, unenforced policies and a lack of transparency.

The Minneapolis Police Department still has not given the public or the City Council a full accounting of how it responded to last summer’s demonstrations. The department has failed to disclose basic facts such as the number of protesters arrested or wounded.

No officers have been disciplined for their actions during the protests. The only discipline related to the protests was meted out to an officer who described the department’s toxic culture in a GQ story, despite not being authorized to talk to the media.

“I’m appalled by the behavior of our police during the protests,” City Council President Lisa Bender said. “For this to be the department in our city with the least amount of transparency is the opposite of what it should be.”

From New York to Portland, an investigation by USA Today and KHN last year found that police violated their own crowd-control policies during protests over racial injustice and police brutality.

Michelle Gross, co-founder of the nonprofit Communities United Against Police Brutality, said she’s seen no reform or accountability regarding Minneapolis officers’ conduct, including their use of rubber bullets. “I call it ‘cop exceptionalism,’” she said. “They do what they want.”

The Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution last month calling for an end to the use of rubber bullets, tear gas and other less-lethal rounds. It was merely a “statement of values” with no legal force.

Police Chief Medaria Arradondo rejected the resolution as “unhelpful and uninformed,” according to the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, saying if officers can’t use less-lethal weapons they would have only guns and batons to combat demonstrators “who are here to strike harm and chaos and destroy our city.”

Council Member Says Police Escalated Tensions

Floyd was killed May 25, 2020, by police during an arrest that was captured on video and seen worldwide.

In a city raw from complaints of officer abuses, outrage exploded into street demonstrations. Police responded with riot squads armed with tear gas and less-lethal firearms that launch 40-millimeter projectiles tipped with hard foam or plastic, commonly called rubber bullets.

For six days and nights, some peaceful demonstrations escalated into arson, looting and chaos, making it difficult for outsiders to sort out whether protesters or police triggered violence.

Steve Fletcher and other City Council members contended officers inflamed crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets. “The community gathered Tuesday night to mourn and express their outrage, peacefully,” he tweeted May 28 amid the violence.

“It was bad choices by Minneapolis police officers that escalated the situation to the point that it turned into a prolonged week of action,” he said later, according to the Star Tribune.

Officers used about 5,200 less-lethal munitions over six days, according to records provided to USA Today.

Frey told USA Today that officers faced unprecedented conditions in which violent provocateurs mixed with peaceful protesters. “Distinguishing between those two became increasingly difficult,” he said.

At least 57 people were injured so severely by less-lethal projectiles that they required urgent care during protests in Minneapolis from May 26 to June 15, 2020, according to the University of Minnesota’s medical school.

Of those, 23 were hit in the face or head. Ten were blinded or suffered severe eye trauma. Sixteen suffered traumatic brain injuries.

Minneapolis policy defines a less-lethal weapon as one that “does not have a reasonable likelihood of causing or creating a substantial risk of death or great bodily harm.”

The policy says officers may use less-lethal weapons against individuals posing a threat but “shall not deploy 40mm launchers for crowd management purposes.” It says shots to the head or neck are potentially deadly and should be avoided.

The study concluded, “Projectiles are not appropriate for crowd control.” Years ago, other researchers reached a similar conclusion. But the devices have been marketed for crowd control and, last summer, that’s how police across the country used them.

Frey acknowledged seeing videos of officers shooting nonviolent civilians and journalists — sometimes appearing to target the head. Though such conduct is “unacceptable,” he said, efforts to enforce policies have been thwarted by procedural requirements, union resistance and litigation.

Asked whether any Minneapolis officer has been disciplined for violating use-of-force policies during the protests, Frey said in April “quite a few cases” were under investigation, but he declined to say how many.

Mychal Vlatkovich, a spokesperson for Frey, said Saturday no discipline has been finalized, and the city can’t comment on open investigations.

‘We’re Getting Hit’

Terry Hempfling, 39, an artist who was raised by activist parents, said protesting injustice is a patriotic duty.

On May 29, she and her friend Rachel Clark joined a crowd near the 3rd Precinct police station. Around 11:30 p.m., police ordered protesters to disperse. Hempfling said she and Clark walked away and were unlocking their bikes when tear gas swirled in the darkness. They were trapped between two lines of police.

Hempfling said she was disoriented, eyes and throat stinging, as Clark blurted out, “We’re getting hit.” They climbed a fence to escape but not before Hempfling was shot in the back, breast and leg, leaving an expansive bruise that is still discolored.

Hempfling and Clark, who was hit by three projectiles, are among hundreds of plaintiffs in an American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota lawsuit alleging Minneapolis and state police have “a custom or policy authorizing the deployment of crowd-control weapons and/or less-lethal munitions in an unconstitutional manner.”

The ACLU complaint contends departmental restrictions on the use of rubber bullets are not enforced, so officers ignore them with impunity. At least a dozen other lawsuits contain similar allegations.

Stevenson, who seeks $55 million in damages plus court-ordered policing reforms, claims in his suit that a rubber bullet fired by a Minneapolis police officer fractured facial bones, ruptured an eye and caused brain damage. As blood streamed from the wound, at least a half-dozen officers allegedly did nothing to render aid — behavior his lawsuit says was not just a violation of policies but inhumane.

“MPD has allowed its officers to get away with policy and constitutional violations without fear of repercussion for decades,” the complaint says.

Ethan Marks alleged he was at a demonstration May 28 with his mother when he was “shot in the eye with a tear gas canister from several feet away.” It hit him so hard he was knocked out of his shoes.

Andrew Noel, an attorney who represents Stevenson and Marks, said police have yet to identify the officers who shot his clients, even though they tracked down suspected rioters with video and social media. “If you can locate those folks, you’d better be able to identify the officers involved,” Noel said.

Hempfling said she has taken part in more than 100 demonstrations and thought she understood how to exercise her First Amendment rights safely.

“I left feeling like I had no clue what a police officer might do to me, regardless of whether I’m being peaceful,” she said.

Attorneys for the city sought to dismiss the ACLU case based in part on a claim that officers faced a “rapidly evolving, violent, and dangerous situation” that required less-lethal force to repel and disperse “unruly individuals.”

A federal judge rejected the motion in March, ruling that plaintiffs plausibly allege city officials tacitly authorized police abuses or were indifferent to them.

ACLU attorney Isabella Salomão Nascimento said the Police Department remains in dire need of reform.

“We really hope this litigation will serve as a vehicle for that,” she said. “This was an outrageous use of force.”

Limited Reforms

In early June 2020, Minnesota’s Department of Human Rights filed an emergency action accusing the Minneapolis Police Department of discriminating against people of color.

The city promptly agreed to a restraining order. As part of that deal, the use of rubber bullets against demonstrators is prohibited unless authorized by the police chief or someone he designates.

Vlatkovich, the mayor’s spokesperson, said Arradondo authorized use of less-lethal weapons during demonstrations in August.

The court agreement included a provision requiring timely and transparent discipline for officers who violate use-of-force policies. Despite repeated requests from USA Today, neither police nor Frey identified any officer punished for misuse of less-lethal munitions.

Citizen complaints of misconduct and abuse by Minneapolis police nearly tripled during the second quarter of 2020, when the demonstrations took place, according to the Minneapolis Office of Police Conduct Review.

Gross, the community activist, said the data is almost meaningless because residents don’t believe police officers are held accountable and seldom bother to report wrongdoing. She serves on an advisory council with the Minnesota Peace Officer Standards and Training agency.

She said she witnessed an officer shoot a nonviolent protester in the face with a tear gas canister during last year’s demonstrations, but there was no point in lodging a complaint.

A nurse by profession, Gross referred to the conduct review office as “the place where complaints go to die.”

The city has an appointed Police Conduct Oversight Commission, described on the municipal website as an “independent body which assures police services are delivered in a lawful and nondiscriminatory manner.” The commission conducts audits but has no power over citizen complaints, officer discipline or law enforcement policies.

An analysis by the Minnesota Reformer, a nonprofit news site, found that fewer than 3% of the commission’s cases from 2013 to 2019 resulted in significant discipline of officers. It took an average of 18 months to resolve each case.

The news outlet concluded that the Minneapolis Police Department “is notoriously ineffective at removing bad cops from its ranks” due to a “pattern of mismanagement.”

A City Council bid to reorganize the roughly 800-officer Police Department is caught in a power struggle. The council and activists are pressing to let voters decide whether the department should be replaced by a public safety agency under council control.

Frey opposes those efforts and insists he is changing police customs and rules from within.

For example, he said, one new policy says only SWAT units can use rubber bullets for crowd control. It makes an exception if no tactical squad is available.

Frey said he made “overture after overture” to City Council members, asking for suggestions on what to change without receiving any.

Bender, the council president, said she’s seen no significant reforms under Frey’s leadership. “There is public debate about the use of less-lethal force for crowd control,” she said, “but no public decision-making. The mayor and chief make those decisions behind closed doors.”

City Won’t Say Whether Officers Followed Reporting Policies

The Minneapolis Police Department’s policy manual requires officers to file a report each time they discharge a less-lethal projectile. If someone is injured, an officer is required to notify a supervisor, which prompts an inquiry that must be documented.

It is unclear whether officers complied with those policies during May and June 2020. In response to a public records request from USA Today, the department supplied no records other than a spreadsheet summarizing how many munitions were discharged.

Frey said Arradondo compiled “a whole lot of data” about enforcement efforts during the protests. Asked in early April where that information has been disseminated, he said, “I am trying to get it right now, and we’re expediting the requests.”

Attorneys for shooting victims said the city has turned over few documents in response to their lawsuits, and it has secured protective orders to keep disclosures about police behavior out of public view. Among the records that Minneapolis lawyers want sealed: bodycam videos, internal investigative reports, misconduct reviews and personnel files.

Police agencies commonly seek independent reports that evaluate performance and tactics after major events. Minneapolis did not commission an after-action review of the George Floyd demonstrations until February.

In an email, city spokesperson Casper Hill said the review was delayed because there wasn’t money in the budget. The $250,000 study will not be completed until later this year.

Police Officers Nationwide Fired on Protesters

A nationwide survey by the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights counted 115 demonstrators who suffered head wounds from less-lethal projectiles during last summer’s demonstrations. That tally, based on news and social media reports, is believed to be a fraction of the total.

The organization concluded that rubber bullets “are not an appropriate weapon for crowd management” and recommended cities ban such use.

Minneapolis police were particularly aggressive, according to the study, firing more neck and head shots than officers in any other city except Los Angeles, which has roughly 10 times the population.

Though laws and regulations are important, policing experts stress that culture is crucial.

Mike Tusken, chief of police in Duluth and an executive board member with the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, said crowd control is difficult because civil disturbances are dynamic and there’s no playbook on how to respond.

Though policies set a framework, Tusken said, proper decision-making requires a “culture of discipline” that emanates from training and leadership.

As he watched news across the country last summer, Tusken said, he saw some officers de-escalate tensions, even showing kindness to protesters. A small minority fired on nonviolent protesters.

“Why are they still in policing? Why are they not being held accountable?” Tusken asked. “I’m outraged to see it. The narrative becomes ‘All cops: bad.’”

State Rep. John Thompson said the cycle never seems to end.

In 2016, a close friend, Philando Castile, was pulled over by an officer in a Minneapolis suburb and shot five times as his girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter looked on. The officer was acquitted.

At Castile’s memorial viewing, Thompson said, he vowed to change things. Four years later, as an elected official, he witnessed officers firing less-lethal projectiles at protesters outside the 3rd Precinct station.

“There were peaceful people there exercising their rights,” Thompson said. “There’s this big bang from a canister, and rubber bullets are flying everywhere.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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Minneapolis Police Injured Protesters With Rubber Bullets. The City Has Taken Little Action. published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[losbella]

[yakumtsaki]

Take your hands off me, I don't belong to you, you see, and take a look at my face for the last time, I never knew you, you never knew me, say hello.. ♪

WAVE GOODBYE. 

WHADDUP PPL. Much like Ronroneo, we’re back from the dead and ready for a whole new generation of Union fuckery. We’re also officially.. drumroll.. MIDDLE CLASS. Our shiny new house is based on this one by frottana-sims​, which I downloaded but dumbassly forgot to install, and since loading the game takes a hot half-hour I opted for this poor recreation instead. We start the extreme home makeover with an incredible budget of..

...Yea, I see the value of getting 6 pets to the top of their careers now. Included in this insane sum is the 20k+ that Wyatt and Jojo brought with them moving in, and at first I’m worried that we’re way too rich for only generation 2. Well, careful what you wish for, cause here’s our post-remodeling budget:

LMAO. It’s as if not a day has passed since Vic started this legacy with a dream in her heart and crap to her name. Let’s check out the new digs!

Everything was purple.. his pills.. his hands.. his foyer. 

As eagle-eyed readers may observe, both the hall and the living room were designed with nothing else in mind but whether they matched our cat paintings. Per legacy rules I use as little cc as possible, which isn’t that hard since I feel this bizarre, angular and hugely impractical couch really encapsulates Jojo’s essence. Like if he was a servant in Beauty and the Beast this would be his furniture form.

Apparently the only things I deemed important enough to capture were the cat portraits, so it looks like my Komeization is finally complete! Here’s some floorplan shots tho so you don’t get disoriented in our labyrinth-like mansion. Please note our amazing pink-blue-purple kitchen! Barbie’s Dreamhouse who??

And here’s the second floor, which also illustrates the exact point I ran out of money. Honestly looking back I don’t understand how the fuck this place cost 70k?? Like nothing is particularly expensive except the amazing vintage batmobile which was around 30-40k and some of the paintings? But I guess all the small things add up in the end + I’m super bad with money..

..and I’m not the only one. Jojo GET A FUCKING GRIP and A JOB. Literally no comment @ your cat wants, you inherited the jaw, wasn’t that enough??? ANYWAY. I know the question on everyone’s mind is how is Wyatt going to fit in with the Unions.. and all I have to say about that..

..is LOL. Truly the perfect career for when your mother-in-law is a criminal mastermind and your husband is a serial killer! I mean the jokes practically write themselves. At least he doesn’t want 10 kids or any shit like that, cause I’ve seen hell and it was the result of mixing Jojo/Wyatt genes in cas.

On top of gifting us with his future-probably-fug children, Wyatt also gives us the gift of our first ever kitchen fire when he decides to make dinner with 1 cooking point. His generosity really knows no bounds.

It’s all fun and games now but Wyatt deadass almost died in the inferno and was about to take poor, stupid Komei with him, who of course ran to the fire even though he was in the yard. Meanwhile Victoria was safely watching tv and didn’t move while Jojo..

..was doing this in the next room. Two types of sims I guess!

-So Wyatt, you’ve been here for almost an hour now, burned down our kitchen and I still don’t see any grandchildren. I thought you were a family sim!

-Haha oh mom, you’re hilarious! Ignore her, Wyatt, let’s enjoy your delicious pasta.. It was definitely worth almost dying for.

-Your mama is right, mon cheri, not only do you have an obligatión to your famille but I rolled the want to have a bébé the second we graduated!

-Well it’s still gonna be there when we aren’t broke, Wyatt, god!

-But.. bébés, mon cheri! Tons of bébés I can have but never interact with, in typical famille sim fashión!

-UGH thanks a lot for opening this gate, mom. If only you had found your love of children when I was living on cat food.

-Well it’s different when they are your children, everyone knows that.

-THAT’S NOT WHY PEOPLE SAY THAT MOM

-Honestly, Jojό, I’m prouder of taking down your répugnant suitόrs than I am of graduating with honors!

-Aww Wyatt <3

-And if I have to souffrir through a childless existence to be with mon amour, so be it (:

-Aw- wait what?!

-Really, c’est bien, Jojό, marriage is all about compromise, nό? I mean, not that I would know since we’re not even married yet!

-Wyatt we’ve been here for 3 hours.

-My point précisément.. C’est bien though!

-Can’t believe I’m saying this but I really regret murdering Ti-Ning. 

That makes two of us, Jo. Honestly even Francis would be better than this. Family sim spouse??? Tf was I thinking. 

Ah, some things never change <3 It’s a new day and someone very special passes by our lot..

UGH NO not you asshole, once again delivering bills at the worst possible time.

-Miss me bitch?? Lolol

ONE OF THESE DAYS DAGMAR. ONE OF THESE DAYS ISTG

No, it’s mismatched beard townie, whose regular outfit is simply iconic, and he’s waving at me! What a sweetheart! TAKE SOME NOTES DAGMAR YOU FROZEN-FACED FREAK

-Umm he’s actually waving at me, moron.

-WRONG, he’s waving at me!

Ok it literally doesn’t matter who he’s waving at. 

-Well c’est moi. 

OK WHATEVER WYATT GOD. Just go off to work in a position you’re criminally unqualified for and try not to die ok??

-Why would I mourir?

Hm let’s see, maybe because you’re a ‘SWAT Team Leader’ straight out of college with a shocking lack of skill points?? Jfc college degrees in this game are so fucking op it’s legit making me resentful of my sims.

In other news, major dicks Sophie and Victor have started constantly beating each other up and the only thing surprising about this development is that it took this long. Honestly these fights are peak #TeamNoOne. Please note Alegra who continues to give 0 fucks @ the bloodshed. What a gal <3

Burning with religious fervor, fundamentalist nutjob Sophie emerges victorious!

-I WALK WITH GOD BITCH

Tears. Literal tears. Victor is the most unbelievable creature I have ever played.

-The rampant violence in this house is a violation of human rights! I AM OUTTA HERE

Literally still cannot believe this happened, like the sheer NERVE is killing me. Victor has started every fight he’s ever been in for an astounding total of 40-50 fights, and as you all know he almost always wins. Like this one was what? The fourth one he lost?? AND YET HE RUNS AWAY LIKE HE’S THE VICTIM I HATE/LOVE HIM SO MUCH

Meanwhile this happens which, of course. Leave it to me to finally get a chance card right for the only sim who doesn’t even deserve the job he currently has.

..Police Chief Wyatt reporting for duty! And crime increased 80% overnight. 

In actual good and not lawsuit-waiting-to happen news, Wyatt brought Amanda, Vic’s only friend/lesbian crush with him! Amanda has the distinct honor of being literally the only non-Union non-Jojo person Vic has ever genuinely liked and hasn’t had an affair with. YET THAT IS.

Man, these are some fat fucking flies. I’m talking 10 plagues of Egypt teas. 

-I KNOW, where the fuck is Komei, what are we paying him for?

-I’m over here honey, talking to my least favorite son for the second time in my life, since apparently he’s sticking around.

-Yes, thanks for requesting a recount of the heir vote, dad. I will remember it when I decide where to scatter your ashes. 

-I TOLD YOU I WANT THEM MIXED WITH THE CAT LITTER 

Ugh Komei, please stop trying to bond with your son and do something productive instead-

-like finally convincing Neo to bang Sophie. She has refused 3 TIMES because there’s a rule I have to earn kittens by suffering. I mean Alegra refusing to procreate with Victor made sense, it was Victor, wtf is Sophie’s excuse? Waiting for marriage?

ABOUT TIME

YAS. CAT GEN 3 ON THE WAY. Human gen 3 will have to wait till I’m in the mood to deal with screaming infants aka it might take a while.

The science career FINALLY SHOWS UP after 5 fucking days, jfc. Love how Wyatt’s dumb ass started as a swat team LEADER but Jojo who has half the skills maxed starts as a science teacher. Also love the idea of Jojo as a teacher in general, I mean just imagine having him teach you science in high school. I would literally drop out.

Jojo returns from work, brings this rando with him and doesn’t get promoted. We can’t all be Wyatt I guess! We’re not completely broke anymore tho so..

It is time.

Gunther, Melody and Max Flexor on one side..

Craig, Brit Brit, Ti-Ning and Daniel on the other. What a bunch of assholes, Craig obviously excluded. Remember him? I invited him because he and Jojo are still semi-friends thinking he wouldn’t show up and yet here he is! What a good guy. 

-It’s at moments like this, watching your high school boyfriend get married.. that you really get to thinking..

Awww.

-..there but for the grace of god go I.

Less awww. You’re not wrong tho, definitely dodged a sociopathic bullet..

..not everyone is that lucky. WE GET IT WYATT YOU’RE CRAZY AND IN LOVE

-Mon bien adoré, I vow to aimer and honόr you and not cheat on you again or at least be more discrete about it <3

-And I vow not to kill you and feed you to the cats for as long as we both shall live <3 

Ah, true love, you guys. 

Too bad half our guests are inside dancing-

-OR HAVING COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATE AND UNTIMELY THOUGHTS. TI-NING SERIOUSLY GO TO HELL. I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU HOW DARE YOU

Well at least Vic is excited which is more than I can say for Gunther who is literally LOOKING THE OTHER WAY. 

Time to cut the cake with the sky as our only witness, since everyone has taken a plate from the buffet and fucked off inside. Seriously WORST GUESTS EVER 

Not one to be outdone by his guests’ questionable behavior, Wyatt takes the time to remind us who he really is. 

-And n'est-ce pas forget it!

Despite all the obvious problems, like one of the grooms literally going to sleep, our party score is ‘good time’ which is a truly rare and exciting occurrence. With less than a minute left I’m feeling pretty confident that nothing can ruin this wedding!

Weirdly no one has touched the champagne even though sims in general are obsessed with it?? My best guess is everyone is at a loss for words at having to toast this union and who can blame them tbh. Thankfully Daniel steps up and I find it super sweet because I’ve forgotten that he and Wyatt are mortal enemies and it’s only by chance they haven’t beaten each other up on this instance like they have countless times before.

-Let’s all raise a glass to my beloved brother, Jojo, who generously woke up to attend his own wedding reception! Just one of many examples of his fine, giving character. Too bad he’s committing his life to a complete waste of space adulterous loser like Wyatt, who I’m not even convinced is really french, since his ability to speak and understand english fluctuates according to convenience. Man, I promised myself I wouldn’t cry, but this choice in spouse is just too tragic. Oh well! To Jojo!

NOICE, still a good time. SO CLOSE

AND YET SO FAR. Goddammit do you two mind killing each other on your own time and not literally 10 seconds before our wedding ends??

-DIE WHORE, THIS WILL TEACH YOU TO STEAL MY MAN

-THAT’S MY LINE SLUTBAG

-HA! ZUMBA, BITCH

-Wow, so glad I woke up for this, really got my bloodlust going! 

Indeed a roaring success if there ever was one. I mean how can this night possibly get any better?

.............of course.

Oh nice, I remembered to install an alarm for once! I’m also desperately trying to wake up Wyatt thinking that he’s fucking CHIEF OF POLICE so he might prove useful in this situation..

..especially since we get this cop of a completely untrustworthy Bieber hairstyle. Talk about striking fear in the heart.

Sadly it turns out that Wyatt could not give less of a shit that we’re getting robbed and picks this moment to head for wedding buffet leftovers-

-while Bieber cop prevails! This robber is awesomely named Russ Bear btw and I wish that was my name, sounds like a slavic medieval folkore hero. But I digress. Please prepare yourselves because our first robbery is about to take a dark turn.

-Ehh, you get at a certain level on la force, you just become desensitized to la criminalité..

-Oh don’t worry Wyatt, I totally understand.. I mean I’ve robbed so many houses in my time, I hardly blink anymore..

-So it looks like you and I are not so different after all.. ;)

.............

.....................

............................why. why has the universe chosen me for the greatest suffering the world has ever known. i try and i try but incestuous relationships just keep sprawling like mythical strangler vines. i bet this wouldn’t happen to someone named Russ Bear. fml

#ts2 #gen 2

[airoasis]

Facebook Targeting to Get Law Firm Clients

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/facebook-targeting-to-get-law-firm-clients/

Facebook Targeting to Get Law Firm Clients

All correct. So the question is what facebook commercials technique from the direction can be first-rate used with a view to in finding plaintiffs for employment lawsuits for a distinctive corporation with a couple of locations. And let me show you exactly how to try this. The very first thing you are going to seem for is, let’s go as much as commercials. Prime here, you see there’s the hamburger menu right here. You are going to click all tools, you are going to go to viewers insights. Clearly hold on a 2nd. Let me try this. I’ll do command that’ll open the 2d tab. Reload. I do not know what company you’re talking about. So i am simply going to select a large enterprise in Florida. Let’s call it, shall we embrace Disney.Disney is in i am in Lakeland so Disney All right, so we wish to look at is trade and industry. Let’s have a look at. They modify this always, but let’s have a look at. Let’s assume Disney and see. Wait. Might be it is evolved. Here it’s. That is it. Okay. Job Title. Ah, they got rid of it. Ok. I say sorry. Facebook’s altering this always. Let me see. Disney, let me see if whatever suggests up for Disney. I have no idea if it does. It would not appear adore it does. All right. Change of plan. So that you can most effective do job title now. You cannot do a place. So there’s yet another way to try this then. It can be no longer that problematic. Disney’s an effortless one. So i will go something else. Shall we embrace Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is a significant enterprise, and sincerely they are everywhere the country, in every single place the world. Lockheed Martin areas. So shall we embrace you’re seeking to goal people in Florida.I do know they’ve got… I’m simply looking at their areas. Here they obtained… So they obtained three in Orlando, three in Tampa. So these are their locations. So what we’ll do is we will go to new campaign. Let’s simply go for site visitors. Well call this LM experiment. LM is Lockheed Martin. This is the foremost section down here. The best way we do this is we’re going to do a extensive advert and we’ll add these areas. So you’ve gotten acquired this one right right here, so 500 Sand Lake road.Still an investigation right here. Uh, come on, cancel. Lockheed Martin Orlando. Let’s have a look at that’ll deliver up my addresses. So here is the Sand Lake road vicinity. So we will go to commercials. Include, we’re going to do all people lately on this area. This is, everyone’s been at this vicinity with the final seven days. Now we acquired 10 miles is riding down to 1 mile. This is as target as we are able to get. So essentially, one mile. Now we’ll take… They usually received a bunch of areas. You might have to do this a bunch of times. I do this with personal injury attorneys always. We do that with hospitals. You just take all the clinic areas and also you simply put them into an address or sorry in to an audience like this.This is the second one. See that there, one mile. Lockheed Martin. Sorry, Lockheed Martin do not imply to get you sued. I’m definite they are able to take it. His one, circle 10 miles, there we go. All correct, so now we have now got basically anyone that’s been within one mile in the final seven days of any of those three addresses and that is area headquartered how we can slender it down. Now we are able to slender extra. There is almost always only a few, 18 probably or I don’t know what number of humans are there, however one can find proper now we’re at 150,000 persons. I imply, you could run this ad for a number of days after which what you’re going to do is for your inventive, you are going to assert, hey, Lockheed Martin staff or staff of Lockheed Martin, you want to do something that’s kind of going to get them to have interaction with the ad. So what you can do is you could run a video advert that might truly work beautiful well. So that you run a video ad, I perpetually tell people to create these pink bars at the top, on the prime it’ll say, whats up, Lockheed Martin staff. So what i would do is, i’m not going to head by way of this entire factor.I’d tweak these additionally. It is now not major for the needs of this video, however what i might do is you would do like a video right here. And i don’t even have a video for this demonstration. I will show you a video that’s… See what do i have in my library right here? This video just isn’t imperative undoubtedly. So what i’d do is i’d start with, hello, Lockheed Martin workers. Or you could say something like, Lockheed Martin has been stealing. I do not know.I’m just making up the content, the ad reproduction, from their employees. And this video shows you how they’re doing it. I have no idea, some thing like that. However essentially you need Lockheed Martin on the very prime due to the fact despite the fact that facebook goes to tell you that that is the headline correct here, I spelled that wrong. Even if fb says this is the headline, why is that now not showing up? That is fairly the first thing men and women see. After which you can also do like Lockheed, I think i’m spelling it right, Martin staff must see this. What’s it now not showing up down there? It is bizarre. I do not know why this is displaying up, however, oh, i know why, on account that there’s no link. Or right here google.Com Aha, there it is. So, Lockheed Martin staff must see this. And then that you would be able to mess around with the watch extra button, signal up, something it’s. And then what you are gonna do is you are going to enter audiences. I am no longer going to do that ad since i do not need to do that, but go away this web page.And then you’re going to create a custom viewers. Now in case you have a touchdown web page that you are directing people to, you’ll be able to just have or not it’s a custom audience of individuals that went to the web page and you try this by means of website visitors. And then certainly you have got to have the pixel on there and you then do people who visited this. After which we will be, if URL is google.Com/lmlawsuit, if that’s the URL, something the URL is. If you are doing a video, I do that a variety of time with movies on facebook.So what i will do is i will create a custom viewers situated on engagement. After which I click on video. And you then do men and women who’ve used as a minimum 10 seconds or you have got obtained various choices. Like you are able to do a 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 25%, 50%, 75% 95%. And the deeper you go into this, the extra certified the character’s going to be. Anyone who watches three seconds of your video, I mean, it might now not be that . One of the crucial watches ninety five% of your video is generally pretty interested. So i love to go at least 25% of a video and i like to make the videos like three or four minutes lengthy at the least. And then you definitely hit decide on videos and then you definately surely just go in right here, you go here and also you pick your videos. So this is the video I just talked about. Verify. Prior to now, if you want to 360… I think 180 is the max Oh, no, that’s for custom conversions. Or wait, what is that for? K, so 360 is the max. One hundred eighty is the max for some thing else but I can not remember what it’s. So maybe you say within the final 14 days, on account that if someone noticed this video six months in the past and hasn’t opted in, they regularly now not .After which truly what you do is then you call this, Lockheed Martin viewers. You save that. And then for your subsequent ad you do re-advertising, but you handiest goal individuals within the Lockheed Martin viewers. So what you are doing is you’re concentrating on 25% of individuals that watched this video, after which you are most effective showing the rest of your content material to this viewers. With a bit of luck that helps. With a bit of luck that makes plenty of experience. If in case you have to any extent further questions, just let me know. I’ll talk to you quickly. Thanks. .

[batterymonster2021]

Facebook Targeting to Get Law Firm Clients

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/facebook-targeting-to-get-law-firm-clients/

Facebook Targeting to Get Law Firm Clients

All correct. So the question is what facebook commercials technique from the direction can be first-rate used with a view to in finding plaintiffs for employment lawsuits for a distinctive corporation with a couple of locations. And let me show you exactly how to try this. The very first thing you are going to seem for is, let’s go as much as commercials. Prime here, you see there’s the hamburger menu right here. You are going to click all tools, you are going to go to viewers insights. Clearly hold on a 2nd. Let me try this. I’ll do command that’ll open the 2d tab. Reload. I do not know what company you’re talking about. So i am simply going to select a large enterprise in Florida. Let’s call it, shall we embrace Disney.Disney is in i am in Lakeland so Disney All right, so we wish to look at is trade and industry. Let’s have a look at. They modify this always, but let’s have a look at. Let’s assume Disney and see. Wait. Might be it is evolved. Here it’s. That is it. Okay. Job Title. Ah, they got rid of it. Ok. I say sorry. Facebook’s altering this always. Let me see. Disney, let me see if whatever suggests up for Disney. I have no idea if it does. It would not appear adore it does. All right. Change of plan. So that you can most effective do job title now. You cannot do a place. So there’s yet another way to try this then. It can be no longer that problematic. Disney’s an effortless one. So i will go something else. Shall we embrace Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin is a significant enterprise, and sincerely they are everywhere the country, in every single place the world. Lockheed Martin areas. So shall we embrace you’re seeking to goal people in Florida.I do know they’ve got… I’m simply looking at their areas. Here they obtained… So they obtained three in Orlando, three in Tampa. So these are their locations. So what we’ll do is we will go to new campaign. Let’s simply go for site visitors. Well call this LM experiment. LM is Lockheed Martin. This is the foremost section down here. The best way we do this is we’re going to do a extensive advert and we’ll add these areas. So you’ve gotten acquired this one right right here, so 500 Sand Lake road.Still an investigation right here. Uh, come on, cancel. Lockheed Martin Orlando. Let’s have a look at that’ll deliver up my addresses. So here is the Sand Lake road vicinity. So we will go to commercials. Include, we’re going to do all people lately on this area. This is, everyone’s been at this vicinity with the final seven days. Now we acquired 10 miles is riding down to 1 mile. This is as target as we are able to get. So essentially, one mile. Now we’ll take… They usually received a bunch of areas. You might have to do this a bunch of times. I do this with personal injury attorneys always. We do that with hospitals. You just take all the clinic areas and also you simply put them into an address or sorry in to an audience like this.This is the second one. See that there, one mile. Lockheed Martin. Sorry, Lockheed Martin do not imply to get you sued. I’m definite they are able to take it. His one, circle 10 miles, there we go. All correct, so now we have now got basically anyone that’s been within one mile in the final seven days of any of those three addresses and that is area headquartered how we can slender it down. Now we are able to slender extra. There is almost always only a few, 18 probably or I don’t know what number of humans are there, however one can find proper now we’re at 150,000 persons. I imply, you could run this ad for a number of days after which what you’re going to do is for your inventive, you are going to assert, hey, Lockheed Martin staff or staff of Lockheed Martin, you want to do something that’s kind of going to get them to have interaction with the ad. So what you can do is you could run a video advert that might truly work beautiful well. So that you run a video ad, I perpetually tell people to create these pink bars at the top, on the prime it’ll say, whats up, Lockheed Martin staff. So what i would do is, i’m not going to head by way of this entire factor.I’d tweak these additionally. It is now not major for the needs of this video, however what i might do is you would do like a video right here. And i don’t even have a video for this demonstration. I will show you a video that’s… See what do i have in my library right here? This video just isn’t imperative undoubtedly. So what i’d do is i’d start with, hello, Lockheed Martin workers. Or you could say something like, Lockheed Martin has been stealing. I do not know.I’m just making up the content, the ad reproduction, from their employees. And this video shows you how they’re doing it. I have no idea, some thing like that. However essentially you need Lockheed Martin on the very prime due to the fact despite the fact that facebook goes to tell you that that is the headline correct here, I spelled that wrong. Even if fb says this is the headline, why is that now not showing up? That is fairly the first thing men and women see. After which you can also do like Lockheed, I think i’m spelling it right, Martin staff must see this. What’s it now not showing up down there? It is bizarre. I do not know why this is displaying up, however, oh, i know why, on account that there’s no link. Or right here google.Com Aha, there it is. So, Lockheed Martin staff must see this. And then that you would be able to mess around with the watch extra button, signal up, something it’s. And then what you are gonna do is you are going to enter audiences. I am no longer going to do that ad since i do not need to do that, but go away this web page.And then you’re going to create a custom viewers. Now in case you have a touchdown web page that you are directing people to, you’ll be able to just have or not it’s a custom audience of individuals that went to the web page and you try this by means of website visitors. And then certainly you have got to have the pixel on there and you then do people who visited this. After which we will be, if URL is google.Com/lmlawsuit, if that’s the URL, something the URL is. If you are doing a video, I do that a variety of time with movies on facebook.So what i will do is i will create a custom viewers situated on engagement. After which I click on video. And you then do men and women who’ve used as a minimum 10 seconds or you have got obtained various choices. Like you are able to do a 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 25%, 50%, 75% 95%. And the deeper you go into this, the extra certified the character’s going to be. Anyone who watches three seconds of your video, I mean, it might now not be that . One of the crucial watches ninety five% of your video is generally pretty interested. So i love to go at least 25% of a video and i like to make the videos like three or four minutes lengthy at the least. And then you definitely hit decide on videos and then you definately surely just go in right here, you go here and also you pick your videos. So this is the video I just talked about. Verify. Prior to now, if you want to 360… I think 180 is the max Oh, no, that’s for custom conversions. Or wait, what is that for? K, so 360 is the max. One hundred eighty is the max for some thing else but I can not remember what it’s. So maybe you say within the final 14 days, on account that if someone noticed this video six months in the past and hasn’t opted in, they regularly now not .After which truly what you do is then you call this, Lockheed Martin viewers. You save that. And then for your subsequent ad you do re-advertising, but you handiest goal individuals within the Lockheed Martin viewers. So what you are doing is you’re concentrating on 25% of individuals that watched this video, after which you are most effective showing the rest of your content material to this viewers. With a bit of luck that helps. With a bit of luck that makes plenty of experience. If in case you have to any extent further questions, just let me know. I’ll talk to you quickly. Thanks. .