LOU FERRIGNO JR As Dave On NCIS

You keep using that word. I don’t think you know what it means. Plot Device Edition

What is a plot device?

A plot device is any technique used to move the plot of a story forward. Examples include:

Deux Ex Machina — An improbable event is used to resolve all problematic situations and bring the story to a (generally happy) conclusion.

Love Triangle — A conflict where two characters fight for a third’s love and affections.

Red Herring — Something that misleads or distracts the audience’s attention from something important.

Cliffhanger — An event wherein the plot is not resolved aimed to keep the audience guessing as to whether the conflict will be resolved in a manner they want.

Who was the plot device in 911’s “Buck, Bothered, and Bewildered”?

“Buck, Bothered, and Bewildered” is the 100th episode of the procedural, 9-1-1, on ABC. The summary for the episode was the following:

Upon her return to shore, Athena's son finds himself in trouble with the law. Meanwhile, Buck grows envious as Eddie forms a close bond with someone else, and the 118 rescue a woman who's stuck on receiving a rose at an iconic mansion.

The cold open (another narrative technique) for this episode is a rescue at the Bachelor mansion (crossover with The Bachelor) where a superfan has glued herself to the ground outside the mansion. The Bachelor is a reality dating show that sees women compete to win the “bachelor” for the season.

The cold open at the Bachelor mansion includes multiple attempts to foreshadow what lies ahead for this episode. Examples include:

A contestant vying for the attention of a bachelor does an incredibly ridiculous stunt to grab his attention.

A contestant named Ashley A says “Joey’s going to have to earn his wings with me” and then later asks Joey if he “believes in love at first flight” to which he says “you’re gonna have to take me airborne first.”

Contestants of the show approach Buck and Eddie saying that if they don’t get lucky in the mansion they may have a better chance at the fire station. Eddie immediately counters by saying he’s taken at the moment but Buck is single. Buck counters by saying he has a rule that he doesn’t date people he meets on calls. (Note the gender neutral usage of the sentence.)

Immediately following the opening title card, the show opens with Buck receiving a tour of Harbor Station by Tommy Kinard.

The scene establishes multiple things crucial for the storyline going forward. They include:

Tommy asks Buck, “Is that why you wanted the tour? Looking for a badass coffee mug?” Buck replies, “No. I’m happy where I’m at. I guess I just wanted to see the place during the day during the day. You know, when we weren’t stealing one.” Tommy pushes saying he knows Buck didn’t just want to see the toys, which he then asks, “You must be thinking of changing things up [emphasis mine], aren’t you?”

Buck asks what got Tommy into flying. Tommy says he was a pilot in the army. Buck says, “no way! Eddie was in the army.” Tommy replies, “Yeah, he mentioned that,” implying he’s had conversations with Eddie off-screen.

Buck then mentions he met an ex (note the gender neutral language used in this dialogue) responding to a helicopter crash “… which should’ve been my first clue.” Tommy replies that saving someone’s life and then dating them never turns out the way you expect it to (paralleling Buck in the cold open telling the contestants he doesn’t date people he meets on calls)

Buck says Tommy should let him buy him a beer, which Tommy says he’d love that but has to take a raincheck… enter Eddie who’s hanging with Tommy at a fight in Vegas. The scene ends with Buck looking pensively at the helicopter Tommy and Eddie fly off in.

So what does all of that do?

It establishes that the audience will move through this episode through Buck’s POV for his storyline.

It confirms Buck sought out the tour at the station of his own will without others with him.

It confirms Tommy is unsure why exactly Buck asked for the tour. (What’s driving Buck’s motivations in this episode?)

It introduces the main conflict of Buck’s storyline this episode: Eddie Diaz (the world champion cockblocker) and Buck’s insecurity/jealousy.

The next scene for Buck’s storyline involves a rescue with Buck, Eddie, and Ravi, and the scene furthers the conflict for the episode. Let’s work through this:

Buck asks Eddie how the fight in Vegas was. He asks how long it takes to chopper there. Eddie says Tommy’s friends with the promoter and got excellent seats. Ravi asks, “Who’s Tommy?” This confirms the fight has done and passed and that Eddie had not talked about the event with Buck until this rescue. It also reaffirms Buck’s jealousy (but at what? at whom?) and amps up the conflict as Buck feels left out versus Ravi who doesn’t even know who Tommy is.

Buck brings the conversation around the fight back up by saying he’s not surprised Eddie and Tommy had fun at the fight. He says Tommy and Eddie have a lot in common. (“Both in the army, both like watching half-naked men pummel each other.”) Eddie replies, “Tommy’s pretty cool. Been a while since I met someone who can go toe-to-toe with me in Muay Thai.” Buck’s confused and asks if they went to Muay Thai together; Eddie says Tommy has a setup in his garage and that they sparred a bit when he took the Chevelle over. Buck’s even more confused (“You-you took the Chevelle?”); Eddie confirms Tommy has a car-lift and made the engine purr. This relays to the audience information about Tommy (he likes MMA, practiced Muay Thai, works on cars) as well as how friendly Eddie and Tommy have gotten. This, to the audience, must mean that Buck’s jealous of all the time Eddie and Tommy are spending together. (But which one is he actually jealous of?)

Buck, very nervously, says, “Well listen. I think it’s great. You know you can’t have enough friends, right?” Eddie replies, “Right. You know it’s like that thing when you meet somebody and you just click. You know what I mean?” Buck replies, “I do… I really do.” You cannot say he’s talking about Eddie here because as an audience we know that Buck did not immediately click with Eddie when they first met. Therefore, Buck must be thinking about Tommy when he replies. (But will the audience catch this? Or will the audience forget exactly how Buck and Eddie’s friendship came to be?)

Buck follows up by asking when Eddie will see Tommy again. Eddie replies that there’s a karaoke bar trivia thing on Wednesday. He asks Buck if he’s free, to which Buck eagerly says “me? Yeah no I’m-I’m free! Totally free. Wednesday is a clean slate.” and it’s the first hint at the audience that the conflict will resolve by having Buck be included in trivia night. Only for it to be shot down when Eddie asks Buck to watch Christopher. The tension is therefore rising as the audience sees Buck be excluded once again, an insecurity the audience knows is a point of contempt with Buck’s character.

So what does all that accomplish? What’s the goal of that scene regarding the larger plot? Where exactly are we at with this plot?

Buck’s storyline begins in medias res (in the middle of things); we as an audience have to jump in and use the context clues the narrative gives to fill in the blanks. Buck’s already made the choice to reach out to Tommy for the hangar tour prior to where this episode begins. In that way, we as an audience are as in the dark about why exactly Buck has asked Tommy for a tour.

If we use the cold open, we can fill in blanks to catch up to where Buck’s story begins. The opening image of this episode entails a character vying for another’s attention and acting in the the most insane way possible. It also includes foreshadowing (“Joey’s going to have to earn his wings with me… Do you believe in love at first flight?” to which he says “You’re gonna have to take me airborne first.”) and establishes Buck’s status quo (“I don’t date people I meet on calls.”)

The hangar scene therefore operates as the catalyst beat. Buck’s status quo is being challenged by the presence of Tommy, a problem he aims to resolve by seeking out the tour of the station and attempts to get to know Tommy more by asking how he got into flying and by asking him out for beers. This attempt to resolve the problem however introduces the wrench to the plan for beers: Eddie Diaz.

The second scene then acts as the debate and break into two beats: Buck interrogates Eddie trying to get him to talk more about Tommy to learn more about him, and the dialogue where Buck says, “Well listen. I think it’s great. You know you can’t have enough friends, right?” Eddie says, “Right. You know it’s like that thing when you meet somebody and you just click. You know what I mean?” and Buck replies, “I do… I really do” serves as the debate story beat. Buck is debating whether it’s worth getting this jealous over Eddie and Tommy spending time together, and Eddie unbeknownst reaffirms that it’s worth it to Buck by reminding Buck that Buck met Tommy and immediately clicked on his side at least.

When Eddie asks Buck to watch Christopher, Buck must make the choice whether to agree and ultimately continue down the path that lies ahead. If he doesn’t agree, the narrative ends. If he agrees, we’re moving into Act II. Buck agrees, and we’re therefore shoved into Act II.

We’re now firmly in Act II, and the next scene is Buck at Maddie’s complaining. Let’s break this one down:

Buck is immediately complaining about his problems to Maddie. He confirms that according to Christopher, Tommy has been over at Eddie’s over three times after meeting him two weeks ago, and Christopher thinks Tommy is “so cool.” Maddie counters by pointing out Buck previously also called Tommy cool to her. The dialogue evolves to Buck saying that Tommy’s made an impression (on Christopher, but the audience should also see this for Buck himself) in a very short time.

Buck continues by complaining about Star Wars opinions, and Maddie clocks him by saying it seems he got a lot of intel just from one night of babysitting. Buck attempts to explain it away by saying Chris wouldn’t stop talking about him. Maddie replies, “Christopher wouldn’t, or you were pressing him for information?” Given the way Buck talks in the scene as well as the knowledge of what happened in the scene prior, the audience should assume Maddie is correct in that Buck pressed Chris for information on Tommy.

Buck then confirms that he dug for Eddie’s fridge calendar with a quick line pointing out that the calendar on Eddie’s fridge was under a take-out menu. The calendar points out that Eddie has a game of pick-up basketball with Tommy coming up. He points out Eddie keeps asking him to go, and Maddie replies, “Well you don’t like basketball.” Buck replies, “Which is why I say ‘no’, but now he’s going with Tommy… and he’s got it circled.” Maddie pokes at the reply by asking if it’s circled with a heart around it.

Chim then enters the room having been eavesdropping. He then gushes about how cool Tommy is while Buck is even more green with envy.

This scene is a part of the “fun and games” beat if we stick with Save the Cat! beats. Buck is clearly disgruntled and bewildered, but he’s committed to this path. He now knows Tommy will be at a basketball court with Eddie Thursday. But the audience now wonders how he’s going to handle that information. Will he just show up? Will he ask Eddie for an invite? They just established he hates basketball, so how will he pull this off?

Thus we move to the next scene:

Buck’s on a shift and clocks Eddie very animated on the phone. The audience doesn’t know who’s on the phone, but we can imply given the setup that it’s likely Tommy on the phone. The audience does hear Eddie say, “We’ll get him next time, alright?”

Buck, meanwhile, is lifting weights trying to get Eddie’s attention so that he will feel obligated to spot Buck and Buck can therefore ask about the basketball game he wants to go to… but Eddie won’t get off the phone.

Buck then gets a delivery from Amazon Prime (ad placement) that is a basketball. He tries to get Eddie’s attention with it, clearly telling the audience the goal of this charade is to get an invite to the basketball game. When Eddie doesn’t take the bait, Chim (who spots Buck with the basketball and asks what he has there) becomes the next best option, and Buck chooses to capitalize on it. “Hey what are you doing on Thursday?” clearly tells the audience what Buck’s goal with the lifting weights was: he wants a reason to go to the basketball game.

This scene acts as the midpoint: Buck thinks he’s finally cracked the solution and gotten what will clearly be a false victory. This is the false high before it all comes crashing down.

And now we’re on to the infamous basketball scene:

The scene enters with Chim asking why Buck’s suddenly into basketball, reminding the audience that Buck doesn’t like basketball, so why’s he here now?

And then we immediately see the real reason Buck’s there. You can immediately see Tommy in the frame. As the audience, your eyes lock on him before Eddie comes in frame. We also hear Tommy, further driving home the focus here.

Eddie asks Chim how he got Buck to agree (“He always says no to me.”) again reminding the audience that Buck didn’t get invited because he doesn’t play basketball. And after, Chim says, “So I’m your basketball beard. I feel so bonded.”

Insert Topgun-like montage where Buck is getting increasingly frustrated because here he is playing a sport he hates and likely losing to the team Tommy and Eddie are on. They include a scene where Buck bumps into Tommy (again highlighting how bad he is at this game and clueing the audience in to the source of why Buck’s acting like this). We then see Eddie and Tommy high-fiving in front of Buck, driving home even more that Buck’s failing epically. He hasn’t gotten the attention he wants. In all of this, the tension keeps amping up and we’re about to tip over…

Ladies and gents, we’ve reached the all is lost beat: Buck hip checks Eddie after Eddie taunts him (“You ain’t getting past me!” and then he steals the ball from Buck) and Eddie gets injured. Buck clearly feels awful and tries to resolve it by saying he’ll take him to get the foot x-rayed only for Tommy to say he drove Eddie and can take him. Chim’s “Well you really bucked that up didn’t ya?” reaffirms this is the lowest point for Buck. He’s been acting just like the person from the cold open and has hurt his best friend in the process.

Cue the dark night of the soul beat with Maddie:

We get confirmation that it’s just a bad sprain and Eddie will be out of commission for a few days. We also get confirmation that Buck hasn’t really talked to him. Buck assumes Eddie doesn’t want to hear from him since he’s the one that did this to him. Buck when confronted with the idea that surely he didn’t purposely mean to hurt his best friend replies, “I dunno… I was pissed you know? Seeing him and Tommy being such good friends after only two weeks. I felt left out, and I guess I was trying to get his [emphasis mine] attention.” Maddie immediately calls him out for it, and Buck reaffirms that he feels awful.

Maddie then reaches out saying she knows how he feels. Maddie, as the voice of reason, says that when she acted out in what she thinks is a similar situation, all it did was make her look desperate and pushed people farther away because she didn’t tell them how excluded she felt and it blew up in her face. Buck replies, “Well I’m not a 14 year-old girl,” and they both say “So stop acting like one.” This is thus the break into three needed.

And thus we have the final scene for the episode:

A knock at the door. The audience will assume it’s likely Eddie because he’s the one Buck just maimed… Instead we’re treated to none other than Tommy standing there. We can call this a bait-and-switch.

The blocking for this scene is crucial because Buck and Tommy start essentially on other ends of the room, physically demonstrating the distance that’s between them.

Tommy affirms he wants to clear the air and that he feels he’s the cause of bad blood between Buck and Eddie and that that was never his intention.

Buck replies saying there’s no bad blood only bad behavior on his part. Buck says, “You and Eddie as buddies makes perfect sense.” Tommy says, “Yeah, we do. And you know he can have more than one friend, right?” This parallels with what Buck was trying to tell himself at the beginning of the episode. Tommy follows up by saying it’s not like he could ever replace Buck because Chris for one would absolutely have something to say about it. In doing this, Tommy eases what the audience knows to be a major problem for character: being left behind/excluded.

As they’re talking, Tommy is slowly moving closer to Buck. Buck moves from behind the island, symbolizing that they’re physically getting closer as they’re finding common ground. The tension is finally being eased.

Tommy indicates he and Eddie talked about this situation and they both feel bad because nobody meant to exclude him. That them hanging out wasn’t about Buck. Buck replies that’s usually his problem because he can get pretty jealous… Tommy says he’s not the only one (and moves closer), that he was jealous of the 118 and how it’s like a family. He admits he wanted to be a part of that, which Buck immediately says he was and that he even made fake mouth static at the fire chief. By this point they’re closer than ever. They’re admitting their insecurities and bonding over it, and as the audience, you should catch on at this point that something is in the air. Buck here admits he thought, “Wow, that guy’s cool. I like that guy” and that this is why he called for the tour; he didn’t want to transfer, he just wanted to get to know Tommy. We now as the audience get an answer we had from the start because we, like Tommy, couldn’t figure out what Buck’s motivation in the tour was about.

They start flirting a wee bit more and as the audience you should be cued in and putting the pieces together that Buck’s done all of this for Tommy. Buck even affirms if when he says “‘Cause trying to get your attention has been kind of exhausting.” Tommy, then, is cued in like the audience that oh my god all of this has been about Tommy hence why Tommy’s shocked. He thought it was all about Buck feeling excluded (likely guided by whatever Eddie told him), not at all about him. And once Tommy gets confirmation, you can see him work it out and take the plunge to do what needed to be done (kiss the daylights out of that man).

Buck’s reaction (“yes, I—I am free”) and the breath of relief at the end of the scene shows the audience that the tension has been resolved and that the weight that plagued him has been virtually lifted.

So, now having looked at the entire episode, let’s go back to the question: Who was the plot device?

The episode employs multiple techniques to keep the audience on our toes. We’re not supposed to know that it’s Tommy he’s after (and neither does Buck fully understand, hence why he’s confused as to why he’s acting the way he does in this episode). This includes things like foreshadowing, in medias res, plot twist, and red herring.

We spend this episode assuming that Buck’s feeling neglected, left out, just like Tommy assumes in that scene. We assume that the problem is Eddie spending all his time with Tommy. In this way, Eddie’s presence operates as the red herring for the episode. We’re meant to put the pieces together as Tommy does when Buck admits he was trying to get Tommy’s attention.

We’re also supposed to then realize alongside Buck that Buck has been pursuing Tommy all along unknowingly wanting something beyond the platonic with him. Before the kiss, Buck couldn’t put that piece together.

And even more, we as the audience can go back and see it clearly mapped out for us:

Buck calls up Tommy himself to ask for a tour. He also brings up exes mid-conversation completely unprompted (sir, don’t talk about exes before you’ve even had a date!). He’s sad to have to raincheck beers, and all this happens before Eddie’s even arrives.

He prompts Eddie to talk about the fight in Vegas specifically so Eddie will talk about Tommy. And Eddie does: he tells Buck everything almost unprompted.

He clearly presses Chris to give him more intel on Tommy and then proceeds to dig around Eddie’s house looking for clues as to what he’s up to with Tommy. The intel gathered here gives him the idea to try and show up at the basketball game because Tommy will be there.

The episode makes it abundantly clear Buck hates basketball with a burning passion. Multiple characters point out that Buck doesn’t go to the basketball games with Eddie because he doesn’t like the sport. But Buck goes out of his way to find a reason to show up because Tommy’s there.

Buck’s frustration mounts during that game because the goal (get Tommy’s attention) is failing majorly because Eddie and Tommy are demolishing them, and he takes his frustration out on the person getting in the way: Eddie.

If any character acts as a plot device, it is Eddie himself because he operates as a red herring that keeps the audience confused about Buck’s actual intentions this episode. The contestants in the cold open can be claimed as plot devices as they serve to give the audience foreshadowing (love at first flight and then the episode ends with Buck kissing the character that’s a pilot).

Tommy Kinard is not operating as a plot device. The narrative arc of Buck discovering his sexuality has been completed and Buck and Tommy are still together as other narratives take the forefront for the back-half of this season. Buck wanted Tommy from the get-go and still wants him. Stop acting like Buck doesn’t understand his feelings when we literally watch his realization to all of this play out live in the episode.

Thanks for coming to this TED Talk.

And for the love of all that’s holy please learn 3-act structure and storytelling elements.

Oh and Tommy likely isn’t going anywhere in the next handful of episodes. The scene with Gerrard in 709 is a blatant attempt at foreshadowing where we go for season 8, what conflicts likely await at least Buck and Tommy since they’re both in that scene alongside Chim, and some of y’all are laughing at a man that literally called an openly gay man a slur.

He's certified.

Imagining Buck being so worked up over Tommy's bubbling and abrupt stopping that he comes up with absurd ways to try and find out if Tommy's okay.

First he downloads one of those texting apps, creates a secondary number and then texts Tommy pretending he's conducting a survey on behalf of the LAFD, and Tommy promptly replies to the text asking if it's a phone interview.

Buck panics and says it is and now he's downloading a voice changer app and asking Tommy all these bullshit questions like "when's the last time you were injured on the job, do you have any current injuries, do you like being a firefighter pilot..." and Tommy's answering the questions without a hitch, then Buck starts asking for "demographic information" like "are you married, single" and Tommy sounds a bit dejected when he says he's single so Buck chimes in and says "all heroes deserve someone special!" and Tommy responds with a dismissive "yeah, I guess they do."

Now Buck, being certifiably fucking insane, wants to take this further and asks if he can call Tommy to do additional surveys about his life as a firefighter pilot. Tommy obliges and asks the surveyor for their name.

Buck comes up with a name on the fly. "Aaron Baxter."

Tommy pauses, Buck gets nervous, then he's just like "okay, anything else you need, Aaron?" Buck tells him no and to have a good day.

Buck conducts a few more of these surveys with Tommy, just to hear his voice and how he's been doing on the job, trying not to dip too much into his personal life and make it weird.

On the third survey, Tommy mentions an injury that's kept him off duty, and Buck's so worried he's breaking character and Tommy's laughing, assuming this surveyor is flirting with him.

Buck doesn't know what to do so he kinda dances around the point but asks "what if I was flirting? you just sound so charming and interesting."

Tommy laughs into the phone and says he's flattered but his heart belongs to someone else and it probably will for awhile.

Buck thanks Tommy for letting him conduct another survey and tells him to get some rest.

Now Buck's scrambling around trying to figure out a way to make it seem like he found out about Tommy's injury a different way, without him finding out it was him conducting the surveys, so he asks Eddie to call Tommy and invite him to play basketball.

Eddie's asking Buck why he should do that and Buck doesn't want to tell Eddie about the survey thing either because he doesn't want his best friend to think he's a lunatic, so he just pleads, telling Eddie he just has a bad feeling.

Eddie eventually gives in and calls Tommy to ask how he's doing and see if he wants to play basketball. The problem is, Tommy never mentions the injury to Eddie. He just tells him he has a lot on his plate and he won't be able to come out for a few weeks.

Now Buck has to figure out another way to say he found out about the injury. He thinks and thinks and thinks, but he's got nothing. So he pulls out a secret weapon.

He'd been holding on to one of Tommy's shirts because it was the last thing linking them to one another. He hoped Tommy would come pick it up, or he'd ask for it, or something. So now Buck's in his car with this flannel shirt that he didn't want to let go of, but this shirt is the only way he can access Tommy.

He knocks on Tommy's door, and it takes him about 5 minutes to answer. They take a good look at one another, Buck immediately notices Tommy's crutches and starts profusely apologizing.

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea. I just wanted-"

"Come in."

Tommy invites him inside and they sit at the kitchen table having what feels like an endless staring contest.

"I, uh...I-I came to bring back your shirt."

"What shirt?"

Buck looks around, realizing he didn't even grab the shirt from the passenger seat. "Oh, damn it. I forgot it in the car."

Tommy snorts. "Sure you did."

"No I-I'm serious. It's in the car I'll go get it." He eagerly springs up.

"You wanna hear something strange?" Tommy begins.

Buck warily sits down, waiting for Tommy to continue.

"Some guy's been calling me every week or so, claiming he was conducting surveys on behalf of the LAFD."

Buck shrugged it off. "Yeah?"

"I asked my captain about it, he said there's no one conducting surveys on behalf of the LAFD. I started to think it was a scam at first, but the guy was only asking me about my well being and if I was seeing anyone and if I'd been injured on the job."

Buck was trying to conceal his nervousness. "O...kay?"

"I mentioned my injury, vaguely. And then Eddie calls me, asking if I wanna play basketball."

"B-but Eddie always plays basketball with you."

"Sure, but then, you suddenly show up here to return my shirt." Tommy cocks his head and smirks knowingly. "Something you wanna tell me?"

"I-uh-n-no." Buck falters. "I just...no."

Tommy laughs. "You have a very odd way of going about things, Evan Buckley. Can I offer you a little advice?"

"Sure."

"If you wanna lie, lie better, and if you wanna use a voice changer, use a better voice changer. I could still tell it was you."

Buck's mouth hung open. "I-uh-h-how'd you know?"

"I know you." Tommy responds in a quiet whisper.

"I'm sorry for lying to you. I just missed you so much and all I wanted to do was hear your voice again, b-but then you said you were injured and I-"

"Couldn't stay away." Tommy nods. "I would've done the same thing. I mean, not the voice changer, or the surveys, but...if you were hurt, I'd wanna be by your side too."

Buck sighs in relief. "C-can I ask you a question?"

"You've asked me lots of questions. What's one more?"

"When you said your heart belongs to someone else...did you know it was me you were talking to?"

Tommy shrugs. "Are you asking me if my heart belongs to you?"

"Well, I'm actually...hoping it does. Because Tommy...I can't let you go."

They smile at one another and Buck feels like the painful grip on his heart is finally loosening.

"How about I make us some coffee and we have a conversation? A real one. I wanna talk to Evan, not Aaron. Sound good?"

Buck agrees. "Yeah, that sounds great."

7x04 / 8x11

I take my job very seriously 😊

Sorry for the awful hand writing 😆

(Preliminary) Final Tally:

Trevor Project: $7,361.09 USD

Chosen Charities: $2,684.03 USD

Grand Total:

$10,045.12 USD

Wait can you share the video with him and the street actor dancing? I don’t think I’ve seen that one.

mr. jr, sir. i need you. immediately.

not sorry. this deserves it's own big gifset

got these homosexuals and this song stuck in my head. bon appetit

audio from here