On 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 6, it was a night of confessions, which changed several characters’ immediate futures.
While Maddie and Chimney will now prepare to expand their family, Buck suddenly found himself single after Tommy’s confession unraveled their new relationship.
And for Eddie Diaz, well, he found himself back in the church for the first time in many years, and what followed was a necessary and cathartic step forward for him as he continued to deal with the fallout from his son Christopher’s decision to move in with his grandparents.
This was the first hour that delves into Eddie’s psyche and complicated feelings about his current state of life.
Returning to church and confessing his sins, he sparked his own journey, ultimately leading to a moment of great importance for Eddie when he shed the mask he’d be hiding behind and allowed himself a moment of fun.
That fun was then interrupted (in the best way possible) by Buck, and what followed was one of the briefest yet heartwarming Buck and Eddie scenes to date.
It was a showcase hour for Ryan Guzman, who got to show off his incredible range and do a little dancing as well. And I just had to talk to him about everything, including what it would take to get Christopher home.
I need to know when Operation Bring Christopher Home is set to begin!
Guzman exudes warmth and is always great to talk to, as he feels such a connection to a character he’s portrayed for several years now.
Enjoy this one, 9-1-1 fans!
In this episode, Eddie decides to go to confession, which we discover is something he hasn’t done since childhood. So, why do you feel Eddie decided to go now, and what do you think he was hoping to accomplish and feel coming out of that confession with the priest?
I think that’s Eddie’s version of expressing a lack of answers. He doesn’t know where to go in his life; he’s lost his son, and his relationship is in the dump. He doesn’t want to run back to the 118 with a bunch of his problems again or go back to Bobby and figure this all out.
This is his version of, “Let me take this on my own.” He has this Catholic guilt about him, but he still involves himself with the Catholic Church somehow.
So, seeing somebody going to the church and then seeing somebody come out of the confession just instigates the catalyst to him going in himself and asking the right questions or even expressing himself to a priest again. And he gets so much from that scene, which is actually a lot of frustration.
You see the crux of where he is in his life, and it’s a good foundation for the priest to build from, and start asking his own questions later in the next scene.
In that other scene, Eddie starts talking about the mustache, a topic of much conversation. And we find out here that it’s basically been a mask for Eddie, in the aftermath of everything and his not wanting to see a failure.
Eddie’s grown up living this life of service, marrying young, and becoming a father young. Do you think he’s often struggled with the feeling of failing the people in his life and failing himself?
Absolutely. In the first season, he’s portrayed as an All-American wonder boy, like, “Oh, he’s climbed Everest. Oh, he’s got a Silver Star. Oh, he’s got this, that, and a third.” And I think a lot of that is based off of him feeling like a failure.
And I pull from my own life, but when you feel that feeling, you want to go above and beyond. And that’s how I would say Eddie became the All-American. It wasn’t something he wanted, but it was something that he had to show himself and others so he could say he was not a failure now.
Now, I see him being in a different position in life. So he’s being a little bit more introspective. He’s understanding his effect on other people, his decision-making, and what he’s running from.
So, in that scene with the priest at the coffee shop or the juice bar, the priest just asked some really insightful questions that allowed Eddie to pull from his own experience.
And when he says, “What have you done for yourself?” It’s like, “Wait, I haven’t even thought about that. What do you mean done for me? You can do that kind of feeling?” So, yeah, timing is everything. And Eddie had to go through the struggle he did and prove to himself that he was something he wasn’t.
Then, finally, he ends up where he is now, to go full circle and fall back in love with himself.
Since he eventually shaves and has that moment of levity in his home, what is Eddie’s next step on the continued journey of self-love? Is it just embracing himself more?
Yeah. So I’ve said this in previous interviews: it’s like anything you do in the beginning, you’re just not going to be good at it. So, if he has not had self-love his entire life, moving forward from this moment, even though he’s had an incredible breakthrough moment, this is just the first step of many.
And he’s going to stumble across the way, whatever path he chooses. So, it’s going to be him finding his footing in this new realm.
Is there anything you can tease us about what’s coming from Eddie, like a good scene? Anything without spoiling, of course.
Yeah. Yeah. There are a lot of funny moments coming from Eddie. And I don’t want to set myself up for failure, but I had some real fun with Eddie being awkward in a lot of situations. Again, he’s trying to find self-love; he’s not good at it, and he’s trying to figure out this new version of life.
He’s not going to be good. So, he leans back into being a little bit more childlike, letting go of the reins and not being in control so much. When it’s time to do his job, obviously, he’s medic Eddie. But outside of that, it’s just like a new atmosphere, a new environment for him.
Fans, everybody, we want Christopher to come home. But what do you think it will take for Eddie to say, “Okay, it’s time for my son to come home?”
He has to be solid within himself. When he goes to Christopher, he has to be mindful of what happened but also not play the card of saying, “Woe is me” or “I’m so sorry that this happened.” It’s ownership. And that’s, I think, the next step of maturity for Eddie.
It’s just ownership of what happened without beating himself down. And showcasing to his son like, “This happens in life. You will fall. And as you fall, you are going to have to sometimes pick yourself up or lean on your community.” And he’s your community.
So, I think it would be a beautiful opportunity to reconnect with his son and show him that he’s a human being.
We have to talk about the last scene, with Eddie dancing. What was your reaction when you discovered you would be doing a version of an iconic movie scene? I think everybody hears that song and thinks of that scene.
What were you thinking when you found out you were going to be dancing around in your underwear, like Tom Cruise?
I’m pretty sure I laughed at it. I’m pretty sure I had a little bit of fun, but then I was also a little scared because I’m like, “It’s such an iconic moment.” And I was like, “I don’t want to do a horrible rendition of Risky Business.”
Everybody knows Tom Cruise. But it came from Tim Minear and Kenny Choi. And knowing that, I was just like, “All right, I’m going to have as much fun as I can with it.” And I believe Tim asked me, he’s like, “Could you do this scene?” I was like, “Yeah, I got that. Let’s have some fun.”
And that’s what it was. That whole time we were filming that scene, I was just not trying to…I didn’t want to make this another Step Up rendition. It wasn’t going to be a perfect dance, a choreographed dance, because that’s a different character.
I wanted Eddie to really fall in love with himself again, let loose, not care about certain things, and just do his best version of that scene. And I think that shined through.
Yeah, I agree.
After Eddie’s dancing, Buck comes over, and they have this nice moment at the end of the episode where they don’t say anything to each other, but it’s kind of a great indicator of the strength of their relationship that they don’t have to say anything to each other.
How important do you think it is to Eddie to always know that he can lean on Buck and vice versa, that the two of them are always going to be in each other’s corners, they don’t have to say much, just to be able to provide comfort to one another?
This one I pull from my real life, my own experience. I would say that coming from Sacramento to LA, I found my community, my brothers, and my sisters. But in this industry, we’re always in passing. So, it’s like you never have that one person like you did when you were a kid. Just come over, hang out person.
And there’s comfort in that. I would say, in this season of my life, I do have those brothers now, and it’s made a world of difference in my personal life.
That’s the same thing for Buck and Eddie.
So, to have that, just one person is all it takes, too. But to have that in your life is something immeasurable. The fact that they didn’t have to say anything, solve each other’s issues, or go in-depth in some kind of conversation was a great showcase of that.
***This interview has been edited for length and clarity.***
You can watch 9-1-1 on Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.
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