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stagefoureddiediaz · 26 days

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I’m literally sitting here with a rainstorm raging around me thinking about every single relationship (of any type) of Eddie’s that we’ve been shown. And I hope this makes sense after my app deleted what I had previously written for this meta!

Nearly every single one of them has been easy for him - except for a few, those with Buck, his father, Taylor and Josh (and arguably Ana which is a whole other interesting conversation point that I'll get to!) I'm not going to go into the Buck and Eddie relationship and its lack of ease - its a whole post on its own and I want to focus on the other aspects of Eddies journey through these other relationships he has.

Because he easily befriends Hen and Chim, there’s an easy relationship that develops with Bobby, and even with Athena. We’ve seen an easy friendship between him and Karen, easy friendships grow with the people at dispatch (lindaand May espeically). We saw an easy friendship with Michael (and David) and then at the firehouse with Lena, with Ravi and with Lucy (the two minutes of it we saw!)

He has a good realtionship with Abeula nad with Pepa - they're his family yes, but the show takes the time to show us that their relationships are close and good ones.

He even makes friends with the woman Pepa sets him up with (even if they have no further contact beyond that awkward date it was still friendly and reads like they could’ve pursued a friendship if they had wanted to beyond that meeting) even Marisol is easy and requires very little effort or energy on his part.

Even with Shannon - there might be a bit of suspicion initally, but he falls back into bed with her pretty easily, and then back into some form of a relationship with her. He re-finds that magic and it’s pretty easy for him, even if what we see heavily implies its all surface level and sex.

And now we have Tommy and this easy friendship that just clicks, but more on that a bit later.

If we look at the difficult or more complicated relationships he has, well they tell their own story and the subtext is delicious.

Let's start with Ramon. It not an easy relationship and Eddie feels a lot of resentment towards him. There are a million heart metaphors in play around this relationship and the moment we see it being repaired and beginning to heal is telling. Eddie has spent his entire journey through fatherhood scared of ending up the same type of father as his own and the moment he recognises and accepts that he isn't following the same path and that he doesn't have to/wont in the future, is the moment we see it heal and Eddie is able to move forward. from then on we're shown that relationship as being in a much more positive light and we see his own relationship with Chris improve as well.

Ramon is a mirror for Eddie and fatherhood.

Then there is Ana - while they had a good initial meeting it quickly turned sour when Chris fell of the skateboard and got injured. Ana stops being Christophers teacher and leaves the school and then when they meet back up in s4 it became easy once they’d cleared the air - but easy in the fact that Eddies heart wasn't really in it and he was ultimately sticking it out or Chris.

I find the Ana thing interesting because there is the fact that it doesn’t read to the audience like Eddie would’ve pursued anything with her had he not been pushed by his friends. and this plays into the theme surrounding Ana - she is a parallel of Shannon.

From what we know from what Eddie has told us - he met Shannon and it was magic, then she got pregnant so they go married, Eddie signs up and things turn sour. Eddie gets injured and comes home - they are at loggerheads with one another until she leaves. then they meet back up again once Eddie has moved to LA an they fall back into bed with one another and essentially pick back up their relationship. its easy, but again they are not truky in it for themselves or each other - they're sticking it out for Chris.

See where I'm going - the ups and downs of Eddie and Ana's relationship hits the same points at the same moments as Eddie nad Shannons relationship did.

So like Ramon, Ana is a mirror, just she is a mirror to Shannon rather than Eddie himself. Because the moment Eddie breaks up with Ana is also the moment he accepts the reality of his relationship with Shannon was about Christopher rather than about himself. from then on we see him building a more positive experience about Shannon for Christopher (we know as an audience that they have probably been talking about Shannon etc, but its actually from this moment on when we are shown it - its when start to see pictures of Shannon more explicitly being shown in the Diaz house outside of Christophers bedroom)

Then there is the Taylor Kelly of it all and this one is a fascinating one to me. Eddie dislikes Taylor because she is pretty damn similar to Helena Diaz. I know that sounds a bit far fetched, but they have the same personality traits and hit similar beats. Taylor is loud and forceful, her personality is domineering and we are shown her taking over and or inserting herself into every scene scene she's at and into places she does't belong. She has next to no qualms about throwing people under the bus for her own benefit and to ensure she stays the centre of attention.

Helena is the same - pretty much every scene we see her in she pulls focus she is domineering and controls the conversations and the narratives. She thinks she knows best and inserts herself into places she shouldn't be (the scene from Eddie begins where she sends Eddie back to get a juice box for Chris is a prime example of this and its implied by Shannons reaction and words that its a common occurrence) even down to making all the food for Ramon's retirement party because she doesn't trust the caterers. She, like Taylor, has no qualms throwing people under the bus to be the centre of attention - even her own son - at her husbands retirement party - an event manifestly not about her and yet she makes it about her.

And the thing is Ramon, personality wise, is very similar to Buck. This is particularly true when it comes to his relationship with Taylor - it mirrors Ramon a fair amount - going along with Taylors wants and needs rather than his own and allowing her to control things. Letting her be the centre of attention and dominate the relationship. The fact that things come to a head with her in the same episode (hero complex) as Eddie begins to reconcile with his father and we are shown Helena throwing Eddie under the bus (in the same way Taylor did with Buck (I can't reiterate enough this is in the very same episode).

One of the reasons I personally think Eddie dislikes Taylor as intensely as he does is because of these similarities between Ramon and Buck and Helena and Taylor. I couldn't say if its on a conscious or subconscious level, but Eddie knows that his parents marriage isn't perhaps an especially happy or good one, that they are fundamentally not really right for one another. I think he perhaps sees his father as downtrodden and under the thumb of his mother and that he's essentially trapped and won't get out because it's too late and he doesn't want that for Buck. Like I said its not necessarily on a conscious level, but it makes sense with the context we have that even if he isn't fully cognisant of his feelings/ the depth of his feelings for Buck, the last thing he would want is for his friend to become a shell of himself in the way his father has at the hands of a woman who is exactly like his mother.

This is such a choice by the show to parallel Ramon and Buck, especially if you entertain the concept of people marrying versions of their parents (generally taken as men marrying women similar to their mothers but it can also be applied to a queer relationship and the idea of a queer man marrying a man who is similar to his father), so Eddie ending up in a romantic relationship with Buck would play into this as a trope/ concept - one that I would actually love the show to explore.

Finally - Eddie has a difficult relationship with Josh at dispatch that we never really truly see resolved. So as far as we know, while the last time they interacted showed them in a slightly more friendly light, it was still evident that they are not friends and there is still tension there. the reason this is super interesting is that Josh is the only single gay guy on the show (and is loosely friends with buck and the show riffed on the idea of Maddie setting them up) and because Eddie hasn’t reckoned with his queerness yet, he can’t become friends with Josh. If the show continues the way it has - reconciling those relationships that are not easy for Eddie once he has accepted/confronted/ reckoned with that aspect of himself, I think we might see him become friends with Josh once he’s actually accepted he’s gay!

The fact that the Josh relationship hasn't been resolved is what makes this friendship Eddie has struck up with Tommy so interesting - it's looking like its going to play out along a similar (extended over multiple episodes) line to the Buck/Red friendship for Eddie (I'm not going into the Buck aspects of Tommys appearance in this meta). Its about Eddie reckoning with himself so all the dialogue that has seriously queer undertones to it and the directorial choices of bro high fives etc that are all just a little too much and trying a little too hard - its all about Eddie facing up to himself and looking in the mirror and accepting all the parts of himself.