The drama on the set of “Euphoria” seems to have spilled over into real life. Ahead of the season three premiere, a video was released featuring its major stars, but Sydney Sweeney was noticeably left out of it.

It comes amid her rumored “bitter” fallout with her co-star, Zendaya, who allegedly “refused to stand next to her” while they were on press calls for this series’ third season.

Meanwhile, fans took to social media to spell out how glaring Sydney Sweeney’s omission was following the controversies that plagued the actress in 2025.

Sydney Sweeney Absent From ‘Euphoria’ Group Photo

Sydney Sweeney is noticeably missing in a group photo that was part of a teaser for “Euphoria,” ahead of its season 3 premiere in April. The teen drama follows the life of a group of girlfriends and the routines they pick up while transitioning through adolescence, especially as it relates to sex.

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Rumors of a “bitter feud” between the “Housemaid” actress and the lead star Zendaya previously surfaced, with a source claiming the latter didn’t even want to “stand next” to her in press tours for the new series.

Now, HBO released a new teaser for the series and captioned it, “Taking the smallest moments and dreaming them up into something bigger. #Euphoria.”

At the start of the clip, Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Alexa Demie, and Maude Apatow can be seen all cozied up and affectionate with each other, but Sweeney was nowhere to be seen.

Fans Share Mixed Reactions To The Omission Of Sydney Sweeney From The Group Photo

Fans took to social media to point out the obvious omission, with many speculating it had something to do with their rivalry.

“Perioddd Sydney didn’t make the group photo,” a fan wrote, throwing in a crying emoji, while another said, “Notice how Sydney wasn’t in the group photo.”

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Someone else said, “I’m not even mad about Sydney being excluded from the group photo, it’s Barbie I’m missing. BRING BACK KAT.”

“Sydney being too iconic to show up with these newgens omg,” another person speculated as to the cause of her absence.

“The fact that Sydney Sweeney isn’t with the girls has me,” someone wrote, while another added, “lmao Zendaya said NO promo with Sydney, and she meant it.”

One user said, “WTF? Euphoria S3 promo lookin’ fire but where tf is Sydney Sweeney?? They leavin’ her out on purpose or sum drama brewin’ with Zendaya [?]”

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Politics Might Be The Factor Dividing The Actresses

A source told the Daily Mail that tensions between them on set reached fever pitch, and they don’t see eye to eye anymore because of their different political views.

Last year, Sweeney was discovered to be a registered Republican and received praise from President Donald Trump and other top MAGA supporters after she found herself at the center of a controversial ad for American Eagle, where many accused her of promoting white supremacy and eugenics.

On the other hand, Zendaya has voiced her disapproval of the billionaire politician, even posting “Vote this MF out” during the 2020 election.

“It’s no wonder she’s refusing to do it. If she even stands next to Sydney on the red carpet, it can be read as her excusing Sydney’s views,” a source told the news outlet.

Source Claims Zendaya Doesn’t ‘Trust’ Sydney Sweeney Around Tom Holland

Zendaya’s partner, Tom Holland, could also be a reason why the actresses are not on speaking terms, as a source revealed in January that she “doesn’t trust” Sweeney around him.

“Zendaya wasn’t thrilled when Tom and Sydney would strike up conversations during filming last year,” the source shared, per Star Magazine. “It feels unnecessary at best and disrespectful at worst, given that Sydney and Zendaya don’t get along and actively avoid each other.”

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“Tom is naturally very friendly and chatty, so when he’s around, he makes an effort with everyone — that’s just who he is,” the insider continued. “Zendaya isn’t trying to tell him who he can talk to, but with Sydney, she doesn’t want someone who she doesn’t necessarily trust getting close to her fiancé.”

“In so many words, Zendaya has warned Sydney to stay away from Tom,” the source added, explaining that her romance with music exec Scooter Braun doesn’t change things. “Even though Zendaya trusts Tom completely, she doesn’t want any lines blurred. It’s about boundaries.”

The Third Season Of ‘Euphoria’ Comes With Several Twists

The trailer for season three of “Euphoria” was released in January, but many fans were not happy with the twist some of their favorite characters encountered, particularly Cassie, played by Sweeney, who is now addicted to social media and operating an OnlyFans account.

The new season, which features a five-year time jump, sees Cassie engaged to her high school sweetheart, Nate (Jacob Elordi), despite her being an OnlyFans model.

Zendaya’s character, Rue, struggles to pay off her debt owed to dealer Laurie and is on the run from drug dealers, and Maddy (Alexa Demie) is reportedly working at a Hollywood talent agency and is fed up with how every other girl she meets is a “sugar girl.”

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On the other hand, Lexi (Maude Apatow) has become a professional and is reportedly working as an assistant to a high-powered television showrunner played by guest star Sharon Stone.

Speaking about the upcoming series, showrunner Sam Levinson promised that it would be “our best season yet.”

Explaining the time jump, he said, “Five years felt like a natural place because if they’d gone to college, they’d be out of college at that time,” per Variety. “We basically pick up Rue south of the border in Mexico, in debt to Laurie, trying to come up with some very innovative ways to pay it off.”

“Euphoria” season three is set to premiere on HBO and Max on April 12, 2026.

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Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Elsbeth Season 3, Episode 13.After a rare misstep last week, Elsbeth is back to form with “Murder Six Across,” with Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) looking to solve the puzzling murder of a crossword editor at the annual crossword championship. While she’s there, she comes across guest star Steve Buscemi, playing the elite puzzle solver who took the editor down. But the question is, can she see through the enigma that is her beau, mayoral candidate Alec Bloom (Ivan Hernandez), or will she remain clueless?

Steve Buscemi Edits Out the Editor in ‘Elsbeth’s “Murder Six Across”

“Murder Six Across” opens on the National Crossword Tournament mixer, where a small group of elite solvers talk about the state of the puzzles in the daily paper. Simon (Buscemi), a piano tuner by trade, decries the work of crossword editor Morris Long (Richard Robichaux) who, in an effort to keep the puzzle relevant, has taken to adding contemporary slang into the puzzles, words like “cheugy” (outdated or uncool). Talk swiftly turns to Simon’s immaculate grooming, with the others teasing him about his crush, fellow solver Elaine (Allison Guinn), who will be arriving at the tournament as a recently divorced woman. But when she arrives, Simon gets tongue-tied and starts stammering.

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Buscemi will appear as a master cruciverbalist in this week’s episode, “Murder Six Across.”

Luckily, the tournament is about to begin, sparing Simon from further embarrassment. Morris, who founded the tournament, welcomes the competitors before starting the timer for the first round. Those that solve the increasingly difficult crosswords with the best times advance to the semifinals, he explains to the public radio commentator covering the event (“please consider donating”… hilarious), eventually whittling the field down to the top three who will vie for the championship. Simon finishes first, followed by the other elite solvers. Afterward, they talk about the puzzles, with Simon harping on the TikTok dance clue as being particularly insulting. “Someone,” he says, “should really talk to Morris.” Elaine suggests that she could, sometime over the dinner Morris invited her to.

The revelation stuns Simon, who claims it’s an abuse of power on Morris’ part (secretly upset that Morris beat him to the punch), but Elaine doesn’t mind, seeing it as an opportunity to get to know Morris better. Simon marches to Morris’ room to confront him, reminding him about the rules that state judges can’t date competitors. Morris reminds Simon that he wrote the rules, and while sharing meals isn’t one, badgering judges is, and penalizes Simon with 15 seconds added to his time. That opens the floodgates, with Simon calling Morris out on his lazy clues and subpar pop culture references, “bending to the will of a generation that gets their news from an emoji.” That’s the final straw for Morris, who disqualifies Simon permanently. But as he’s about to call for security, Simon puts a swag bag over his head, choking him to death. He takes Morris’ phone, texts the other judge that he’s fallen ill, and walks out the door, the Do Not Disturb tag on display.

Elsbeth Reluctantly Reenters the World of Crosswords in ‘Elsbeth’s “Murder Six Across”

But Simon has a tournament to win, so he continues competing while putting ice on Morris’ body in the bathtub. With his place in the finals complete, he stuffs Morris’ body in his big trunk – the one he carries past puzzles in for studying – rents a cabin near Stillford with Morris’ phone, and takes Morris’ car there, where he dumps the body in the forest, taking a train back to the city, deed done. The body is found three days later, and Elsbeth, Wagner (Wendell Pierce), and Detective Edwards (Micaela Diamond) meet with the Stillford deputy at the precinct. Curiously, Morris never checked out of the motel, but did check into the cabin, despite having his own cabin nearby.

Wagner puts Elsbeth on the case, which she reluctantly accepts, having sworn off crosswords and their little empty boxes that need to be filled. They’re off to interview the people who knew him best, those elite solvers, one of whom discloses Simon’s crush on Elaine, and his righteous anger at Morris for asking her on a date. Elsbeth and Edwards meet Simon in the hotel bar, where he claims to have really liked Morris, had no issue that he had asked Elaine out, and how personally he loved pop culture, and was pleased they were now in the puzzles. He pays his bill with exact change, a compulsion of his to always have on hand, and ends the conversation. Only Trudy, another solver, laughs that off, saying not only did Simon not like pop culture, he liked it the least out of the group, and raised such a stink over the inclusion of a Survivor clue that the paper issued an apology, vowing never to reference the reality TV genre in the crossword again.

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But is it a cut above the rest?

Without Morris around, Simon and Elaine have grown closer, but it’s Elsbeth who spots her off to the side, alone and visibly upset, and goes to comfort her. Simon spots the two together and comes over – it’s a great moment we’ll get to – but if he was hoping it would drive Elaine into his arms, he’s mistaken. Still, Elsbeth notes it’s a love triangle nonetheless, and the swag bags at the tournament could match the fibers found during Morris’ autopsy. As she digs deeper into the last ten years of puzzles, she notices that the earlier ones are far more intellectually challenging than the recent ones, with their youthful slang and pop culture… except today’s puzzle, which has turned to its old, challenging ways.

According to Morris’ coworker, he would have emailed the weekend’s puzzles on Monday morning, problematic given he was dead, meaning someone had accessed his email accounts, and texting as Morris. Security footage catches Simon in the elevator with his trunk, but that doesn’t prove anything. So Elsbeth heads to Stillford on the off chance she can find the trunk. She doesn’t, but she finds something better: the answer to the puzzle in a train platform newspaper box.

Elsbeth Solves Simon’s Puzzle in ‘Elsbeth’s “Murder Six Across”

Image via CBS

It’s the championship round, and Simon is on stage, ready to compete, when Elsbeth, Edwards and a host of police officers call him outside. Elsbeth calls him out for having an argument with Morris around Elaine, one that got so heated that the clasp they found from Simon’s lanyard broke off, and the swag bag, with matching fibers, was used to suffocate Morris. He kept Morris’ body on ice while continuing the tournament, and his alibi for taking the trunk home in a taxi was ruled out earlier. But the final nail in the coffin was Simon’s own compulsions. He couldn’t resist buying the Met Tribune at the train station to do the crossword puzzle, and, because of his penchant for exact change, his fingerprints were on the quarters in the box. As he’s escorted away, Simon tells Elaine that he did it because he’s in love with her.

“Murder Six Across” is another hit for Elsbeth‘s third season, and guest star Buscemi is a huge part of it. It’s the perfect match of character with actor, especially in the scene referenced earlier where Simon goes to comfort Elaine. As he walks over, he says, “Come on, Elaine, cheer up — we all have to go sometime.” It’s hard to imagine anyone else besides Buscemi even saying it in that awkward, insincere manner he does so well. The crossword puzzle competition angle is fun, and seeing Elsbeth jumping right back into crosswords, having missed out on the Eiffel Tower because of finishing crosswords in her hotel room in France, is humorous and, for those of us who understand the need to “fill in those boxes,” accurate.

Which brings us to our friend Alec. Earlier in the episode, Elsbeth and Wagner watch an attack ad on TV branding Alec a liar, an ad sponsored by Winnie Crawford’s group. Elsbeth doesn’t believe he is and tells him so, but then comes dinner at the end. Teddy (Ben Levi Ross), his boyfriend, Elsbeth, and Alec are enjoying dinner at Elsbeth’s, laughing and joking, when the subject turns to movies, specifically E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. Alec claims that the ending always makes him cry, which are the exact same words she said to him earlier about the movie, where he claimed never to have seen it. And when Teddy pulls her aside to let her know he’ll play nice, she stops him and says, “I think Alec is a liar.” See you in two weeks, friends.

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Release Date

February 29, 2024

Directors

Nancy Hower, Robert King, Lionel Coleman, Rob Hardy, Robin Givens, Ron Underwood, Rosemary Rodriguez, Aisha Tyler, Bille Woodruff, James Whitmore Jr., Joe Menendez, Kevin Rodney Sullivan, Lily Mariye, Nick Gomez, Peter Sollett, Sam Hoffman, Tyne Rafaeli, Darren Grant, Fong-Yee Yap, Mary Lou Belli

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Writers

Jonathan Tolins, Erica Shelton Kodish, Bryan Goluboff, Sarah Beckett, Michelle King

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Pros & Cons

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• Another strong antagonist with Steve Buscemi, further proof that great actors make great villains.
• After last week’s disappointing resolution, the newspaper box clue is far more plausible.
• Longer than expected, but glad that Elsbeth finally dropped the blinders at the end.

• Elsbeth partnering with Edwards is good, not great.

Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan is all for confidently embracing her body — just don’t call it body positivity.

“The thing I say sometimes that pisses people off is [that] I have no interest in body positivity,” Coughlan told Elle UK in March 2026. “When I was a kid growing up, I never thought about that. I didn’t look at actors and think about their bodies. So, I actually don’t care.”

She continued, “There’s a lot of things I’m passionate about, it’s not one of them. That’s someone else’s thing. It’s not mine.”

Without putting a label on it, Coughlan is still a fierce proponent of self-love and confidence. Keep scrolling for her most impactful quotes:

Related: Redefining Beauty: Stars Paving the Way for a New Era of Self-Confidence

Us Weekly is celebrating the stars who are changing the conversation when it comes to body
standards. “Body image and body positivity have become major buzzwords and part of the cultural conversation,” Lexie Kite, Ph.D. and coauthor of More Than a Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament, tells Us in the latest issue […]

Dealing With the Haters

Bridgerton season 3 dropped in 2024, in which Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington took the lead opposite Luke Newton (Colin Bridgerton).

“You know what was really bizarre was, when I was shooting that series, I was exercising a lot because I knew I had to,” Coughlan told Elle UK in March 2026, referring to the pair’s nude scenes. “I had lost a bunch of weight, [and] I was probably a size 10 and one of the corsets was a size 8.”

Despite the Irish actress’ weight loss, she was subjected to multiple comments about her body type.

“People talked about how I was plus size,” she said. “I was like, ‘How f***ed are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?’ I remember this really drunk girl once talking to me in a bathroom being like, ‘I loved [Bridgerton] because of your body,’ and started talking about my body.”

Coughlan added, “I was like, ‘I want to die. I hate this so much.’ It’s really hard when you work on something for months and months of your life, you don’t see your family, you really dedicate yourself and then it comes down to what you look like. It’s so f***ing boring.”

Embracing Her Body on ‘Bridgerton’

Nicola Coughlan even requested to film nude scenes on Bridgerton.

“I specifically asked for certain lines and moments to be included,” she told Stylist magazine in May 2024. “There’s one scene where I’m very naked on camera, and that was my idea, my choice. It just felt like the biggest ‘f*** you’ to all the conversation surrounding my body. It was amazingly empowering. I felt beautiful. I thought, ‘When I’m 80, I want to look back on this and remember how f***ing hot I looked!’”

A ‘Perfect’ Body

“You know, it is hard, ’cause I think women with my body type — women with perfect breasts — we do not get to see ourselves onscreen enough,” Nicola Coughlan joked during a June 2024 panel discussion about Bridgerton. “I am a very proud member of the perfect breasts community, and I hope you enjoy seeing them.”

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Related: Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley Defends Nicola Coughlan After Body Comment

Simone Ashley has defended her Bridgerton costar, Nicola Coughlan, after the actress recently shut down a comment about her body. During a press conference at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in Monaco on Saturday, June 15, Ashley, 29, discussed Coughlan, 37, who was told at a fan event in Dublin, Ireland, on June 6 that she […]

Stop the Conversations 

In an impactful social media post in January 2022, Nicola Coughlan implored fans from speaking about her body altogether.

“Hello! So just a thing — if you have an opinion about my body please, please don’t share it with me,” Coughlan tweeted at the time. “Most people are being nice and not trying to be offensive but I am just one real life human being and it’s really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look — being sent directly to you every day.”

The Derry Girls alum continued, “If you have an opinion about me that’s OK, I understand I’m on TV and that people will have things to think and say but I beg you not to send it to me directly.”

Judge Her Work, Not Her Body

Nicola Coughlan penned a June 2018 essay for The Guardian, stating that she’d rather be critiqued for her work than her physique.

“The focus was on me, not my acting,” she said, referring to her X post slamming a review of a play that called her overweight. “I know I’m not alone; women in my industry are put under constant scrutiny for their looks. It affects male actors as well — I had messages from them — but the vast majority of feedback was from women. Something in our society tells us that women’s bodies are fair game for scrutiny in a way that men’s simply are not.”

Coughlan concluded, “I hope in the future that more people will talk about our work, our inspirations, our drive, rather than our looks. A revolution is happening, and I want to play my part in it.”

It seems that Gina Carano still might have some bad blood with Disney, even though they reached a settlement in August 2025 after she was fired from her role as Cara Dune in “The Mandalorian,” seemingly after controversial comments that she made during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Ahead of her MMA return against Ronda Rousey this May, Carano was asked to name a “Star Wars” actor who could survive a round in the octagon. Instead of naming one of her Mando-verse castmates, Carano decided to name a Marvel actor instead.  

Gina Carano Seemingly Shades ‘Star Wars’ In Viral Exchange

TMZ caught up with Gina Carano outside of the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, where she was holding a press conference with Ronda Rousey to promote their May 16 MMA fight. When she was asked what actor in the “Star Wars” universe could last a round in the Octagon, she replied, “I don’t know anybody in the Star Wars universe that could, but I think Chris Hemsworth could.”

“I met him before, and he’s got a Muay Thai background,” Carano explained, before noting that Tom Hardy also does jiu-jitsu. It’s worth noting that although Chris Hemsworth is best known for his role as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Hardy actually has a secret link to a galaxy far, far away that Carano might not know about.

Tom Hardy filmed a cameo as a stormtrooper (FN-926) in 2017’s “The Last Jedi,” where he appeared in a scene where he recognizes Finn (John Boyega) in an elevator. However, this scene was cut from the final theatrical release. The deleted scene is available on the film’s home release, as per IMDb.

Inside Gina Carano’s ‘Star Wars’ Role

Although she has not appeared in any of the movies, Gina Carano played Cara Dune in the first two seasons of “The Mandalorian.” Cara Dune was from the planet Alderaan, which was famously destroyed by the Death Star in “A New Hope.”

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She served as a Rebel shock trooper during the Galactic Civil War, but later became a mercenary who became a close ally of Din Djarin, the name of the titular Mandalorian. By the end of season 2, she was deputized as a Marshal of the New Republic of the planet Nevarro.

Lucasfilm originally planned a spinoff series called “Rangers of the New Republic” that was supposed to be set around Carano’s character; however, the series never materialized after Carano and Disney parted ways.

Disney Parted Ways With Carano Over Controversial Social Media Posts

In February 2021, Lucasfilm announced that they were no longer with Carano following a series of controversial social media posts. As NPR reported at the time, one photo featured a woman being chased through the streets. The comparison seemingly compared the suffering Jews faced during the Holocaust to the polarizing political climate. “How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” the post asked.

After #FireGinaCarano began trending, Lucasfilm reportedly parted ways with the actress. “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm, and there are no plans for her to be in the future,” a Lucasfilm spokesperson said. “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

She was also dropped from United Talent Agency, as reported by Deadline.

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Gina Carano Sued Disney Over Her Firing

Today is an important day for me–I am filing a lawsuit against @lucasfilm & @Disney
 
After my 20 years of building a career from scratch, and during the regime of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Lucasfilm made this statement on Twitter, terminating me from The Mandalorian: “Gina…

— Gina Carano 🕯 (@ginacarano) February 6, 2024

Carano argued that she was being targeted for her conservative views and argued that other costars, like Pedro Pascal, were not disciplined for their more liberal-leaning statements, but to no avail.

Years later, Elon Musk pledged to fund legal fees for users treated unfairly by their employers due to their posts on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. This prompted Carano to officially sue Disney and Lucasfilm in federal court in February 2024, alleging wrongful termination and discrimination. She sought at least $75,000 in compensatory damages and asked to be recast in her role as Cara Dune.

Disney tried to get a judge to dismiss the case, arguing that they had a First Amendment right to choose who represents their brand. However, in July 2024, a judge denied Disney’s motion and a trial date was scheduled for 2026.

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Disney and Carano Reached A Settlement In August 2025

Months before their 2026 trial date, both Gina Carano and Disney reached a mutual settlement in August 2025. Although the financial details have not been released, both sides agreed to dismiss the case “with prejudice,” which means she cannot refile the lawsuit at a later date.

In a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter, a Lucasfilm spokesperson said, “With this lawsuit concluded, we look forward to identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future.”

“We have reached an agreement with Gina Carano to resolve the issues in her pending lawsuit against the companies,” it continued. “Ms. Carano was always well respected by her directors, co-stars, and staff, and she worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect.”

Despite claims that they “look forward to identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future,” she is not expected to reprise her role in “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” which hits theaters in May 2026.

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Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 13.9-1-1 has had an elephant in the firehouse for quite some time now. This elephant is shaped like a pair of best friends who are deeply attached to each other, can’t ever seem to make their romantic relationships work, and have essentially been raising a kid together for the better part of the show. This week’s episode, Season 9, Episode 13, “Mother’s Boy,” promised an installment that would finally properly focus on both Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman), and that would give them space to exist together away from the firefighting world.

Sure, the promo for this episode teased that they would get into a car accident, in which Buck would be abducted, and Eddie would be left in a hospital room by himself to worry about him. Still, though, it looked like “Mother’s Boy” was going to be exactly the episode that this dynamic needed at this point in the season. Instead, “Mother’s Boy” is a disappointingly surface-level episode that doesn’t feel new or fresh for 9-1-1, and that resolves everything in predictable and cookie-cutter ways.

‘9-1-1’ Season 9, Episode 13 Gives Buck and Eddie Generic, Surface-Level Conflict on Their Road Trip

Image via ABC

The episode opens with the car accident that was teased in the promo, in which a badly-injured Eddie is pulled out of the crash alone. It then goes back in time to Buck and Eddie at the Nashville airport, where all flights have been grounded due to a software issue (which is probably setup for 9-1-1: Nashville‘s episode this week). They’re in a rush to get home for Hen’s (Aisha Hinds) surprise birthday party, which is a do-over after almost everyone forgot her birthday last year. Buck suggests they just drive, which leads to a really fun Buddie road trip sequence where they sing along to the music, rank their favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, and toss snacks into each other’s mouths. It’s a breath of fresh air to see them acting like silly best friends together, but of course, the fun is short-lived.

Buck and Eddie’s conversation in the car stays surface-level, touching just on their previous 9-1-1: Lone Star crossover, and then turning into a fight after Buck gets them lost when he suggests an unconventional route down south through New Mexico. Buck loves the food and gets along very well with the waitress, Bonnie (Melinda McGraw), while Eddie is just angry, and then they get into an explosive argument right there in the diner. Their argument is very generic and standard, with Buck getting mad at Eddie for getting “gloomy” like he says Eddie always does, while Eddie is only mad about being lost. It’s not specific enough for two people who have been best friends for eight years, and even their loud and vicious diner fight doesn’t feel detailed or cutting enough for two people who know each other that well.

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The most compelling part of their argument is Buck expressing his anger that Eddie is mad at him for a choice that they both made. Buck is frustrated that Eddie doesn’t speak his mind and say what he wants, while Eddie admits to taking the “path of least resistance” with Buck most of the time to avoid arguments. This had the potential to touch deeper on their dynamic, but it just skates along the surface and instead turns into an over-the-top argument that has Buck dramatically holding a fork to his own neck and screaming at Eddie to kill him. A group of homophobic truckers mistakes this for a lover’s quarrel, and one of them tells Buck and Eddie that “We just don’t see a lot of your kind around here.”

When Eddie asks what the trucker means by his and Buck’s kind, the trucker says, “You tell me, Princess.” It’s a deliberate narrative choice to show homophobia being directed specifically at Eddie, but the episode never unpacks this further. Buck and Eddie both apologize to each other and cement their position as a team, then they get followed by a truck on the road. They believe that it’s a homophobic hate crime, and they’re driven off the road, which turns into a car accident. Eddie wakes up alone in the hospital where he’s told that he was the only person in the car. Meanwhile, Buck is trapped alone in Bonnie’s house, where she believes that he’s her son, Derek, who has been brain-dead since a motorcycle accident 15 years earlier (and is still on life support in her basement).

‘9-1-1’ Season 9, Episode 13 Doesn’t Give True Emotional Payoff to Buck and Eddie’s NDEs

Buck’s predicament this episode feels generally low-stakes, because Bonnie is clearly just grieving and unwell, and there’s no doubt that he will make it out alive. The much more high-stakes storyline this episode is Eddie’s. Eddie tries to get the local Sheriff to listen to him and take Buck’s case seriously, but Eddie is instead met with racist and homophobic microaggressions from the Sheriff, who very obviously thinks that Eddie killed Buck in an act of intimate partner violence (which is a baffling choice when this, alongside the homophobia from the truckers, is the only time the romantic undertone of Buck and Eddie’s dynamic is addressed this episode). Eddie turns to the team back home for help, and Athena (Angela Bassett), Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), and Chimney (Kenneth Choi) do their best to assist from afar.

Athena calls the Sheriff, who is still set on Eddie as a suspect, and who doesn’t want to actually do his job. With Buck trapped in a locked room and nobody else around to help, Eddie has to be the one to save him. Eddie is hesitant to break out of the hospital and make himself more of a suspect, but Athena pushes him to go save Buck. This is a disappointing writing choice considering how close Buck and Eddie are, but Eddie’s concerns are understandable due to the Sheriff’s obvious racism, even though the episode doesn’t ever explore this further. An injured Buck and Eddie are paralleled with one another as they both escape to try to get to each other. Buck gets caught, first by Bonnie, and then by her ex-husband and Derek’s father, Earl (Jeff Kober), who’s also the cook at the diner. Eddie’s search for Buck takes him to the diner, where one of the waitresses flirts with him, and Eddie, of course, shows a lack of interest. She offers her his number, and he nods with a serious face, presumably because he wants to be able to contact her in the search for Buck, but that’s the last we see of this odd detour.

Eddie goes to Bonnie’s house, where Earl now has Buck tied up in the basement. Bonnie knows that Buck isn’t Derek now, and she knows that there’s no way out now, so she tries to convince Earl to kill him. Buck talks to Bonnie one-on-one and shows compassion for her, relating her loss of Derek to his own loss of Bobby (Peter Krause), and encouraging her to let Derek go. She almost kills Buck, but Eddie shows up right on time to ask her questions about the truckers, whom he believes has Buck. Buck asks Bonnie and Earl to convince Eddie to leave, willing to sacrifice himself to save Eddie. He appeals to Bonnie as a parent, telling her about Christopher (Gavin McHugh), and saying that Eddie is all Chris has. She tries to steer Eddie away, but he sees the truck and knows that Buck is there. Eddie gets into a confrontation with Bonnie and Earl, where he has a gun to Bonnie’s head, and Earl has a gun to Eddie’s. Buck then escapes and tackles Earl, saving Eddie.

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The cops interrupt at that point, and the Sheriff sees that Eddie was right. Buck collapses and Eddie rushes to him in a moment that should have been the emotional payoff that this episode so desperately needed, showing just how much they mean to each other. Instead, the moment is undercut with a joke, and Buck and Eddie never get a moment to properly debrief either what they just went through together or the argument that they had. It felt like this episode is trying so hard to avoid stepping into anything romantic with Buck and Eddie, that in doing so, there is a massive lack of emotional payoff for what they just went through together. Even if this was supposed to be played as platonic, they could’ve at least had a scene like Hen and Chimney got at the end of “Hero Complex.”

Instead, that’s it for Buck and Eddie, and the only emotional payoff is for Maddie, who’s been terrified for Buck all episode. She drops everything, ready to go find him herself, until she gets the call that he is alright. Even Eddie’s phone call after with Chris takes place off-screen, and we never see Buck proven wrong about his own place in Christopher’s life. The episode ends on a joke, as it’s revealed that the whole thing was pointless, because Hen missed her party for a surprise trip with Karen (Tracie Thoms). The episode is uneven throughout, but it had a lot of potential, if only Buck and Eddie’s emotional conflict and concern for each other had been given proper emotional payoff. Ultimately, though, 9-1-1 seems afraid to let Buck and Eddie have a real conversation, and the episode shoots itself in the foot because of it.

9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8:00 P.M. on ABC.

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Release Date

January 3, 2018

Showrunner

Tim Minear

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Directors

Bradley Buecker, David Grossman, Brenna Malloy, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Jann Turner, Jennifer Lynch, Marita Grabiak, Sarah Boyd, John J. Gray, Barbara Brown, Robert M. Williams Jr., Kristen Reidel, Marcus Stokes, Tasha Smith, Millicent Shelton, Juan Carlos Coto, John Gray, Greg Sirota, Alonso Alvarez, James Wong, Kevin Hooks, Varda Bar-Kar, Shauna Duggins, Sharat Raju

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Writers

Tim Minear, Andrew Meyers, Brad Falchuk, David Fury, Ryan Murphy, Christopher Monfette, Nadia Abass-Madden, Nicole Barraza Keim, Erica L. Anderson, Matthew Hodgson, Stacey R. Rose, Taylor Wong, Tonya Kong, Adam Penn

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Pros & Cons

• Eddie’s storyline this episode is high-stakes and frightening, as it shows the bigoted Sheriff not taking him seriously, leading him to have to save Buck himself.
• This episode remembers how close Buck and Maddie are, and allows Maddie to be terrified for him.

• This episode has a major lack of emotional payoff, making the whole storyline ultimately feel shallow and pointless.
• There is a lack of stakes in Buck’s half of the storyline, which feels repetitive for ‘9-1-1’ and doesn’t bring anything new to the table.
• By refusing to let Buck and Eddie have a real conversation, this episode in turn sidesteps any deeper meaning and misses the opportunity to pack an emotional punch.

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