"If Buck and Eddie stay perpetually platonic, 9-1-1 season 8 will feel like an intentional and borderline cruel misdirect." - Yeah, agreed! I will it I'm pretty surrounded by Buddie shippers online but I never really saw it myself until season 7. Season 8 definitely leaned into it even more heavily, and if they don't go through with it at this point, it just feels mean towards the fans who really want it to happen and have been asking for it for years. Those fans are such a huge part of the fan base, and do so much to draw in new viewers, so being cruel to them just doesn't sit right with me.

If nothing happens after this they'll have to try and convince us that we were making things up this season, when to me at this point it definitely feels like it's being written into the script specifically to keep the people who want it to happen watching, because they hope those moments are actually a sign they will get to be together eventually. I believe there is a term for that...

Long comment but I've been thinking about this for a while and it's nice to have it validated in an article.