Buddie really is all about playing Scrabble, guys. Let's rearrange HILDY, and play it "on Scrabble"!
....
Chris: HILDY? Are we getting Hildy 😁?!
Eddie, scared: No, we are definitely not!
....
What could HILDY be? Play Scrabble. Rearrange the letters. Y hid L! "You hid love". That's the love story of buddie, "buddies".
Scary love. Hidden love. The kind you avoid admitting. Even to yourself.
Because it sparks between two men. Two "straight" men. Men who just telling themselves they are... Allies.
And because it's the kind of love that freaks you out anyway - falling for a friend. A buddie.
And because you've already experienced grief, and are scared to love again.
------
Buck and Chris are playing video games. It looks super domestic, like a little family.
Then Eddie freaks out about talk of "Hildy" and disconnects the game from the server.
Chris: "😐 Buck, can we go to your place and play video games?"
Buck: "Uhh sorry, kid. I think we're gonna be playing it "old school" for a while...
Chris: "What's "old school"?
Buck: ...Have you ever heard of Scrabble?"
Rearrange the "letters", folks. ✉️🎬 See what "HILDY" is. Moments out of order, love that's still hiding.
....
Eddie: Somehow, we became a ready-made family... And I... I don't know if I'm ready for that.
....
Buck: Eddie. I have been Ana. I know what it's like to be in love with someone who is not all the way in.
...Deep down you know it, and it hurts. It hurts worse than the truth. So if you don't want to hurt Ana, you owe it to her to be honest.
...
Eddie: I don't know. Just feels like a lot, man!
Buck: Well. Go to sleep. No need to decide right now! It's not like we're going home anytime soon!
...
Then these two themes that come up, repeatedly."I see you"/"I don't even know what that means!"
"Isn't that what we all want in a partner, to be seen?"
(Lola threatening to jump off a bridge, next to a sign she made: "SEE ME NORMAN!")
"Lola! Lola honey, it's me! I'm here. And I see you, just like the sign says!"
"Liar! You look right through me, Norman. You don't even notice me!
I'm just around to... To collect the mail!" (Or... Male? Go listen to the very queer love triangle coded song Copacapana by Barry Manilow. There's a famous "Lola"...)
"I don't even know what that means! ... I'm the one who brings in the mail?
... I see you, Lola! I notice you!"
.....
(The song lyrics: Don't go chasing waterfalls... Please stick to the lakes and the rivers you're used to...)
To Buck, still in the closet: "Don't go chasing waterfalls, Buck!"
Buck: "I don't even know what that means!"
------
That scene with closeted Tommy:
He's asked if he's ever considered that maybe he is more "team Jacob" than "team Bella"?
Tommy: I don't even know what that means!
-----
Then the concept of finding true love, and cherishing it.
"Love, actually... is all around..."
Buck, Actually:
Thomas: "He can't go! He's my heart, my everything...
Thomas: ... When we got married? We thought what the hell. We have so little life left. Might as well live it.
That was Mitchell - always daring the clock. And I, always following along. All those foolish things we did... We only ever wanted to go together. That's love.
Buck: "I guess I can only hope to find something that good."
Thomas: "You don't find it son, you make it."
-------
Thomas dies of broken heart syndrome.
Buck: "....That's love!"
----
And then love being SEEING. "I c u."
The scrabbled letters we've been watching, of falling in love, stupidly, in the closet.
Falling for a friend, not realizing it. Refusing to admit it.
Hiding it, even from yourself. Being afraid to see it. Running from it... The way you really feel about this "buddy".
Their almost instant connection, promising to have each other's backs:
Here's Eddie, having a panic attack at the fire station in the dark due to a power shortage. Looking at Buck as his most current girlfriend, Ana, says this line:
Buck's line about looking good even in bad lighting, the first day they meet.
Now, many of these scenes are from Buck's episode Buck, actually. An obvious reference to the movie Love, actually.
Quote from Love, actually;
"When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love.
If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually... is all around."
---
That scene with the old men, deeply in love, dying together? The one left behind saying love is something you make, together. Saying love is everything. Saying life is short.
..…
Buck and Eddie. Buddie. The ship name really fits them. It's a love story but of "buddies", friends, falling for each other. Confused, scrambled. Playing Scrabble. Refusing to admit it.
Sometimes you fall like that. Sometimes love materializes in the dark, before you're ready for it. It scares you. It avoids your notice. You hide it, even from yourself.
But it's there, waiting to be discovered. A hidden treasure. Something precious to you, buried. And slowly, you open your eyes, see it, without flinching from it. Gather that courage. Even if it scares you... You open your eyes. Because you must. Because love is everything, and life is short.
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