9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 11 “Holy Mother of God,” doesn’t feature Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzman). Instead, at the end of Episode 10 “Voices,” the character said goodbye to Los Angeles and his best friend, Buck, and left for El Paso to be with his son Christopher. The episode, however, turns out to be an important Eddie one as it’s the first episode of the show to truly address the subtext about Eddie’s sexuality.
Is Eddie Diaz gay? Many fans have wondered that before, and not just because they shipped him with his best friend Buck, but because many queer fans have identified elements of queer coding in the character. There’s also the fact that Eddie, a conventionally attractive man, has only dated three women in his life.
There’s Shannon, his childhood friend whom he was pretty much pressured into marrying because he got her pregnant. Then there’s Anna, a woman he specifically dated because he thought his son needed a mother, but then proceeded to have panic attacks about it. And Marisol, whom he rushed into a relationship with, once again trying to find the perfect mom for Christopher or the woman his parents would approve off, and then ran away from—straight into the arms of a Shannon doppelganger. We’re not actually counting that last one as a relationship.
MORE: Have you read our review for this episode? Check out our 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 11 “Holy Mother of God” review!
So, three actual relationships, one weird one-week situationship that screwed up his relationship with Marisol and worse, his relationship with his son Christopher. But this isn’t about Christopher right now, it’s about Eddie’s romantic life, which he has pretty much screwed up over and over again. In fact, Eddie could not have messed up his romantic relationships more. That probably makes sense, considering he once referred to dating like a “performance” that he puts on.
Of course, this is all in the context of dating women. And Eddie Diaz has never actually dated a man. Or, at least, he doesn’t think he has. But with the new context “Holy Mother of God” gives us, we have to reconsider every interaction Tommy and Eddie have had within the context of Tommy not thinking Eddie is actually straight. So, that probably means all those times Tommy took Eddie out, you know, to a fight in Vegas, and to karaoke, he was trying to take Eddie on a date. Eddie just didn’t realize he was being taken out on a date.
And, actually…it seems like Eddie might be better at dating a man than he is at dating a woman.
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We’re going to ignore the obvious ‘they kinda both dated Tommy’ because, because in the end, it turns out Tommy did help get us here. Or at least, get the audience here, because Buck is still telling himself he’s firmly not in love with Eddie, and Eddie is probably crashing out in Texas over how much he misses Buck without understanding what missing Buck to the extent he does means.
But the fact that the show is asking these questions, that the subtext has stopped being subtext, is important. Eddie told us he was straight a few episodes ago, and back then, I said that was the beginning. That a character never states their sexuality like that out loud unless he’s about to start questioning it. Here we are, a few episodes later, with the narrative expressly questioning it. Now it’s time for Eddie to do so to himself.
For far too long in 9-1-1, it has felt like talking about Buddie was taboo. It was spoken in fandom whispers. The characters themselves didn’t consider it a possibility outside of fanfiction. Now they do. Buck spoke it aloud to Maddie, and Maddie didn’t dismiss it as a joke. Instead, she said it wouldn’t be so crazy because, why would it be? She fell in love with her best friend too. Why couldn’t Buck? And she, like us, has eyes. She sees how Buck cares about Eddie.
MORE: The cinematography of the Buddie goodbye in 9-1-1 “Voices” is something we can’t stop thinking about.
And Tommy put it out there in the universe first. In fact, Tommy saw it from Season 7, Episode 4. Tommy stood in front of Buck, and when Buck told him he was trying to get his attention, he looked confused because Tommy understood before anyone that Buck was never trying to get his attention; he was trying to get Eddie’s attention. But hey, Buck is an adult, so Tommy took him at his word back then. The worry, however, was always there, in the back of his mind. Am I the second choice? Will he leave if Eddie ever figures out that he wants Buck?
The most important thing about Tommy is that he scoffed at Buck’s suggestion that Eddie is straight because Tommy always knew not just that Eddie was hiding his true self, but that there was going to come a point where Eddie was going to figure it out. Perhaps there’s something about repression that recognizes repression, but Tommy saw something in Eddie. And from what he saw, he understood that when Eddie figured himself out, Tommy had no shot with Buck. He was not Buck’s last; he was Buck’s first. Eddie was always going to be Buck’s last. Tommy put both Eddie’s sexuality and Eddie & Buck’s real feelings, tied the two together, and got Buddie.
So no, we don’t have an answer to the question of “Is Eddie Diaz gay?” Not yet. This is only the beginning of the journey. We have yet to even see Eddie since he left Los Angeles. But, surprisingly, particularly considering this comes after an episode where we didn’t even see the character, we do have something we haven’t had before on the show, an open question—one that now feels fair to ask out loud.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 11 ‘Holy Mother of God’? Read our review and share with us in the comments below! Check out our Tales From the 118 podcast if you want to listen to our ‘Holy Mother of God’ review. On Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Plus, if you want to leave your own rating/comment about the show, you can do so in our 9-1-1 hub!
9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.
