9-1-1's Season 9 Episode 13 Fails to Deliver on Buck and Eddie

Season 9, Episode 13, "Mother's Boy," promised a chapter that would finally focus on Buck and Eddie and give them space away from the firehouse. The episode opens with a car crash and then rewinds to a road trip after flights at the Nashville airport are grounded by a software issue; the early scenes — singing along to music, ranking Schwarzenegger movies, and tossing snacks — offer a welcome, playful Buddie moment.

Tension soon surfaces in a New Mexico diner when Buck suggests an unconventional route and a flirtation with the waitress, Bonnie, leads to a loud argument. The fight reads as generic and surface-level: Buck accuses Eddie of getting "gloomy," Eddie complains about being lost, and an over-the-top moment has Buck holding a fork to his neck.

A trucker’s slur — "You tell me, Princess" — introduces homophobia that the episode largely fails to unpack. Eddie wakes alone in a hospital while Buck is trapped in Bonnie’s house, where she believes he is her brain-dead son, Derek, kept on life support in the basement.

United States, Nashville; New Mexico

9-1-1, season 9, episode 13, buck, eddie, buddie, road trip, new mexico, homophobia, nashville