Love Life Problems
‘9-1-1’: What Should Buck Be Looking for in a Love Interest? Oliver Stark & Aisha Hinds Weigh In
For the most part, the first responders of 9-1-1 have figured out their personal lives. When the series premiered, Hen (Aisha Hinds) and Karen (Tracie Thoms) were already married. Bobby (Peter Krause) and Athena (Angela Bassett) got together between the first two seasons (and we’re still not over losing them as a couple after his death). Chimney (Kenneth Choi) and Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), after a lot of trauma, finally got it together and are going strong. However, Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman) love lives are a completely different story.
And so the question had to be raised when we recently spoke with both Oliver Stark and Aisha Hinds ahead of the Season 8 finale: Who has been his best love interest, and what should he be looking for in one?
“I loved his and Abby’s [Connie Britton] relationship just because it kind of grounded him. In the beginning, he was all over the place and she kind of extracted, I think, some of the best parts of him,” Hinds shared. “I think that the relationship that he kind of goes back and forth with Tommy [Lou Ferrigno Jr.] is something that is kind of a beautiful opportunity for Buck to explore all the facets of himself. But I don’t think that relationship is the landing place for that exploration.”
She continued, “I would actually love to see Buck grounded in a relationship and experiencing it in the fullest way, someone who would probably extract that best side of him like an Abby, but with the freedom that he now has to be the fullest version of himself with a Tommy.”
Stark was on the same page. “I actually agree those two would be the most pivotal, Abby in the sense that there was so much growth for him through that relationship. If we look at Buck in the pilot compared to Buck at the end of the first season, Abby is the one that has been shepherding him through that journey, and then equally the same Tommy, obviously that relationship was hugely instrumental in Buck unlocking a part of himself and freeing that aspect of himself up,” he said. “So yeah, those are certainly the two relationships that I think helped Buck find the kind of most authentic version of himself.”
We’ll have to wait to see what that means for Buck going forward. It was in Season 8 that Buck and Tommy broke up, then after running into each other again, hooked up. But the morning after, Tommy remarked about Eddie being the competition, leading to a conversation with Maddie about whether or not Buck has feelings for his best friend. He insisted he didn’t.
“He’s telling his truth in the moment, for sure. I don’t think he’s trying to lie and hide anything from [Maddie],” Stark told TV Insider at the time. “He’s never even considered this before. He’s telling his truth, for sure in that moment. This is something that’s been brought to him from Tommy and something that he was not, as I say, having any kind of prior thoughts about.”
But what do you think? What are you hoping to see from Buck’s love life? Let us know in the comments section below.
9-1-1, Season 9, Fall 2025, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC
