‘9-1-1’ Star Oliver Stark on That Ex Twist, Tommy’s Choice and Why Buck Went to Eddie for Comfort

Following this week’s episode of “9-1-1,” Buck (Oliver Stark) and Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) are no longer sitting in a tree. The hour started with the young couple celebrating their latest monthly anniversary and ended in their breakup, after Buck found out that Tommy was once engaged to his former great love Abby (Connie Britton), who left LA (and “9-1-1”) several years ago.

But it wasn’t Buck’s reaction to that revelation that ended the relationship, as Buck worked through his concerns about Tommy’s previous relationship with a woman and Buck’s first relationship with a man and ultimately asked Tommy to move in. In fact, it was Tommy’s choice to break up with Buck when he decided that, though Buck might think he’s ready for that step, Tommy thinks Buck will want to date other men or women later, and Tommy will not be who he ends up with in the long run.

After that heart-wrenching twist, Buck heads over to Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman) place to drown his sorrows alongside his best friend and Station 118 teammate, who has just had a breakthrough in his recent depressive state.

In the below interview with Variety, Stark dives into Buck’s latest “9-1-1” storyline and where things are headed for him from here.

Why hasn’t Buck seen “Glee” — and have you seen “Glee”? Choose your words carefully because Ryan Murphy is listening.

Listen, I’m taking my time thinking this one through. I’ve seen episodes — I haven’t seen start to finish. Don’t give me that look. I have seen episodes. Buck is my age, so Buck was probably in his late teens, early ’20s and was off traveling the world. He was in Peru being a bartender at that point in his life, and they weren’t streaming Fox! He was off finding himself at that time. And maybe if he did watch “Glee,” he would have come around to his bisexuality sooner. Watch “Glee” and find some things out about yourself.

When you saw that part in the script, did you laugh and talk to the writers about the fact you were going to explore this on a Ryan Murphy production?

Actually, this doesn’t happen too often, but that scene in particular was one that Tim called me about prior and he said, “I think I really want to make this point, and I want to have Josh make it.” And he explained it to me in pretty much the words that Josh uses. And I think I said back to him, “And are we going to phrase it like that — the post- and pre-Glee world? He’s like, “Absolutely!” And actually, I think it was a very clever way of going about it. It’s quite a profound and meaningful message, but to use “Glee” in this less serious tactic for presenting that message, is actually something that means it’s taken on by more people and understood in a more broad sense.

In this episode, the writers invoke Abby, a character that has not come up in a long time on “9-1-1,” in a very unexpected way. She’s revealed to be the ex-fiance of Tommy, Buck’s current boyfriend. What was your reaction to that storyline and how did you work through that in this episode and what it meant for Buck and Tommy’s future that he was evaluating his past sexuality?

Abby was such a big turning point in Buck’s life, as he mentions in the episode. So even though, day to day in his conscious mind, he has very much moved on from that experience, I think it’s pretty fair that finding out that your new partner used to be engaged to this hugely important relationship is somewhat jarring, to say the least. And originally, we actually saw a couple more scenes of Buck dealing with this new information, one of which was a big talk with Pete Krause, with Bobby, and Buck kind of just trying to unpack it all. It was this wonderful coincidence that in Season 1, Abby mentioned a fiance by the name of Tommy. I don’t think at the time, they knew they will be introducing many seasons later, a character called Tommy — but it felt like it would be a missed opportunity to not, kind of make that link and make the universe feel a little bit joined up. I think the opportunity presented itself, and it would have been silly to not take advantage of that and present Buck with an opportunity to spiral, as he does so often.

After that spiraling, Buck makes peace with Tommy’s past and his own, and he even asked Tommy to move in, which leads to a very upsetting end for the episode. How did you feel about Tommy’s decision to break up with Buck with Tommy giving the reason that because he is the first man Buck has dated since coming out as bisexual, he will not be his last, and Tommy doesn’t want it to continue? Where did Tommy think this relationship was going to go ultimately if this is how he felt?

It’s funny, actually, when you phrase it that way. Well, then what were you doing in this relationship? It does kind of feel a little unfair towards Buck. But don’t get me wrong, I understand somebody wanting to protect themselves. Obviously, he’s scared of being hurt. I would say maybe the way to go about that, then, is to lead with that that is your intention. So Buck ends up on the chopping block in this particular scenario, and is left at the end of the episode. And I was quite intrigued to see how that scene would play out, because I knew maybe two episodes before this episode, I was aware that they were going to be breaking up, but I didn’t know how. And I think it’s kind of fitting in the sense that, Tommy’s trying to protect himself and I think that’s a totally fair thing to want to do. And I think that line that Tim wrote of, “I’m your first, not your last,’ is really quite meaningful and beautiful. And he will always have been Buck’s first, and always be such a meaningful person in Buck’s life because of that. And now Buck has to take some steps on his own and really find out who he is and who he wants to be with.

Buck shows up at Eddie’s house after the breakup, not knowing everything Eddie has resolved within himself this episode. When he arrives, Eddie is doing a “Risky Business”-style scene, but quickly notices something is wrong with Buck and then the two sit in silence and drink before the episode ends. What is Buck’s feeling in that moment and why is Eddie the one he went to?

I think it speaks volumes of their relationship that when Eddie opens that door and he’s there with his collar popped and in his underpants, Buck looks him up and down, he takes that in, and it’s like, whatever. You’re dealing with your stuff, I’m dealing with my stuff — we don’t really even need to talk about them right now, let’s just have some company and be there for each other. I think it’s very much a show of who they are to each other, and not everything needs to be spoken and that they can both be kind of dealing with the things in their lives in very different ways in that moment. Eddie’s is very much a moment of joy and release, and Buck’s is obviously quite a downer. But they can still be there for each other while they’re dealing with things in such separate ways. So, I think it really speaks volumes to the strength of their bond.