Going into the "9-1-1" Season Eight finale, the 118 is more fractured than ever in the wake of the death of Capt. Bobby Nash. After Bobby (played by Peter Krause) died alone locked in a lab in a shocking ending to Episode 15, his team of firefighters found out about the tragedy separately. Ravi Panikkar (Anirudh Pisharody) broke the news to Henrietta "Hen" Wilson's wife, while Hen (Aisha Hinds) sobbed alone after being quarantined. Evan "Buck" Buckley (Oliver Stark) collapsed onto the ground and screamed, as Howard "Chimney" Han (Kenneth Choi) called his wife in tears. Finally, as revealed in the most recent episode, "Don't Drink the Water," Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzman), who is living in El Paso, received a call in the middle of the night and had to stifle his sobs as to not wake up son Christopher (Gavin McHugh). The last two episodes before the May 15 finale followed the characters through the funeral and their return to work. Each person has seemingly spiraled in a different way. Chimney was the recipient of Bobby's ultimate sacrifice. In the lab, they both were infected with a dangerous virus, but Bobby hid his symptoms. The only antidote was used to save Chimney's life, and Bobby succumbed to the virus. Chimney then struggled with how to accept Bobby’s actions. Eddie — who returned from El Paso for the funeral — questioned if things could have been different if he had been with his team. And Buck tried to provide support to everyone to honor Bobby's last words to him: “You’re going to be OK, Buck. Remember that. They’re going to need you. I love you, kid.” Oliver Stark tells TODAY.com that Buck is interpreting Bobby's last words as a task he's been charged with. But as the penultimate episode revealed, Buck has felt the team slipping away. "I think probably because of what Bobby left him with, he’s trying to take more control than is necessary, which is not working for him," Stark says. The disconnect between characters came to a head in Episode 17. Buck and Eddie, staying under the same roof for Bobby's funeral, have a fight that started over who was supposed to get the groceries and ended with Eddie accusing Buck of making his new job opportunity with an El Paso fire department all about himself. "You'd make it all about you. The trials and tribulations of Evan Buckley, a tragedy in 97 acts," Eddie said. "You've been spiraling since the funeral. And no one knows how to talk to you about it." "Sorry, I'm sad that Bobby's dead," Buck responded. "You’re not the only one who lost him," Eddie said. "We all lost him." Below, Stark unpacks what he believes Bobby's final words to Buck mean and what's at the heart of the most recent fight between Buck and Eddie. Bobby’s last words were, “They’re going to need you.” How is Buck interpreting that? How is that manifesting? He’s tried to be — the way I’ve always interpreted it is, he’s tried to step into the Bobby role. Not by any means captain, but in the sense of, they’re going to need somebody to say, “We’ve got to get through this.” And a scene that sticks out in my mind is from the previous episode (Episode 16, “The Last Alarm”), when Chimney is on the rooftop. I was very much like, I didn’t want to come be emotional with Chimney. It was — we almost have work to do by going to the service and the funeral, and it’s like, “Come on. Pull yourself together.” And this is out of duty more than anything. I think Buck has been trying to hold himself together because he feels like he’s been charged with this task by Bobby. And that’s why it was really nice to me this past episode, the confessional scene, to let that facade go. Buck says in the confessional scene that no one’s talking anymore, no one’s connected. But in the fight with Eddie, Eddie says, “No one knows how to talk to you.” So what is this disconnect? I think it’s the idea that everybody’s experience is their own. We’re all looking at things from our own point of view. So Buck doesn’t necessarily know that Eddie has gone to Hen’s house to have these conversations. All Buck knows is something feels different. He says we’re not eating together, which is obviously something that Bobby instituted into the 118. So it doesn’t have to be true for everybody. It just has to be true for Buck, that’s the way he is seeing things. And I think probably because of what Bobby left him with, he’s trying to take more control than is necessary, which is not working for him. And because of that, the juxtaposition between what he thinks it should be and what it actually is is so far apart that it must make things feel worse. There’s that very tense fight in the kitchen between Buck and Eddie, and it felt like two people just lashing out at each other. What is at the heart of this conflict, and what does it show about each of their grief experiences? Just, everybody’s hurt. And everybody deals with grief differently. And I don’t know if Buck necessarily lashed out in the scene, as much as was a bit already defeated, maybe. He’s not getting back in Eddie's face until the very end. He’s not actually being loud or complaining about Eddie going. To me, it just kind of feels like a piece is missing from Buck, and it’s left him a bit empty. And I think Eddie, obviously, having not been there for the death, has all this emotion and needs somewhere to put it. It’s a similar argument to the one in Episode Nine, “Sob Stories," in which Eddie alleges Buck is making Eddie's move all about himself. Do you think it was fair? Would Buck have made Eddie going back for the El Paso job about him all again? What’s different this time? Actually, no, I don’t think it was fair in that particular instance. But I think it’s fair in a sense that — so when we were shooting the scene, I was actually given the note of, “I don’t think you are making it about you. I think you need to be a bit more bratty or whatever.” And I said, “I don’t think that’s right.” I think for Eddie to say that, it’s actually just a culmination of past things that Buck has done that in the past. And so even though Buck is not actively making it about himself in this moment, it’s almost PTSD of Buck having done that so many times, so that’s what conjures up for Eddie. So it’s fair in the sense of, as I say, it’s just what he’s used to experiencing from Buck. But I think because everybody’s just going through such a tough time, like emotions are just all over the place, and something that doesn’t go the way you expected it to can trigger something completely different. And it’s just all up in the air, and everything is clashing and butting heads. The fighting between Buck and Eddie, that hasn’t happened since really Season Three. Was it new ground for you and Ryan to work with? What went into these fights, and where’s their friendship now? I’ll argue with Ryan all day, that's no problem. (Laughs). No, I mean, the whole cast, we have such a truly great relationship. Everybody is really close, and there’s so much trust that it’s easy to go to places with each other, because you feel safe as a performer and as a friend. Some people love to go to work, and everybody’s process is different. Some people want to feel that in real life, right? Like, “Oh, I’m not going to talk to you between takes. We’re going to let this really build.” But I think what has been the theme for our cast is, no, let’s have as much fun as we can, so that then when we go into these darker scenes, we can really go at each other, and we still know that afterwards, we’re friends. And it’s a safe environment. I was listening back to an interview you did in 2024, and you said that you always played Buck as looking for something, and that the discovery of his bisexuality in Season Seven could be one of those things. Have you changed your approach? Is that still a core question you have for Buck? I think in the early seasons, it was clear that Buck was always trying to, whether it be prove himself, or there was just an uncertainty in everything he did, an insecurity — and sometimes you combat insecurity by going too far in the opposite direction. And I think Buck had a case of that, and so when the question of the bisexuality was brought to me, it’s like, “Yeah, that could be the thing.” And I think post that, there’s been a more — for the most part, obviously, it’s not black and white — but there’s been a more settled and grounded Buck. And then something can come in like Eddie leaving, and that can unsettle him again. But he’s from a more grounded place. So yeah, I don’t think he’s looking for himself in quite the same way. But, I mean, I assume Buck is my age, so early to mid-30s, and still figuring some stuff out about his life and what he wants to do and be. There will always be similar questions, but I think they’re coming from a calmer, more settled place. The finale of “9-1-1” Season Eight will air on ABC May 15 at 8 p.m. ET and stream the next day on Hulu.
