Gavin McHugh and Ryan Guzman in “9-1-1.”
Fox
(This story contains spoilers for the season seven finale of 9-1-1“Everything collapses.”)
Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzman) is known for playing with fire in his personal life on 9-1-1. But he had always managed, somehow, to keep his son, Christopher (Gavin McHugh), from getting burned.
That all changed in the penultimate episode of season seven, in which Christopher and Eddie’s girlfriend Marisol (Edy Ganem) catch Eddie kissing another woman named Kim (Devin Kelley), who is actually a dead ringer for his late wife, Shannon (also played by Kelley), who died during the second season. It turns out that since seeing Kim through a clothing store window during a recent outing with Christopher and Marisol, Eddie has become obsessed with the idea of what his relationship could have been like. with Shannon, and he even begins having an emotional affair with Kim to keep this (albeit deceptive) fantasy alive.
This soapy storyline reaches a point of no return in the season seven finale of ABC’s first responder drama. After catching his father kissing a woman who resembled his deceased mother, Christopher locks himself in his room for the night and refuses to open the door. Eddie, who begins to spiral out of control due to guilt, calls his best friend, Buck (Oliver Stark), to help him defuse the situation with Christopher. But Eddie doesn’t know that Christopher himself called for reinforcements: after barricading himself in his room, Christopher calls his grandparents, Helena (Paula Marshall) and Ramon (George DelHoyo), to fly out. to Los Angeles and bring him back to Texas. for at least the summer.
The news doesn’t sit well with Eddie, who has raised Christopher on his own, with Buck’s support, for the past six years. But it’s not until Eddie sits down with his parents – particularly his emotionally distant father, with whom he has recently reconciled – that he realizes that the best thing he can do is let Christopher leave, even if their separation is temporary.
“I know you’re angry, but you have to listen to me: I love you, no matter what,” an emotional Eddie tells Chris, forcing him to look him in the eyes. “Do you want to go with your grandparents?” All right. I hate it, but I love you. So I’ll let you go, but you can always come back. If you change your mind in five minutes or five months, just say the word and I’ll come get you, okay?
Speaking about that devastating goodbye scene, Guzman says The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below: “I think it’s fully recognized that Eddie is no longer the best part of Christopher’s life, that he no longer provides the best, healthiest version for Christopher. This is not only crushing for Eddie, but now the acceptance of this fact is something I don’t think Eddie has really addressed (yet). We’ll explore that in season eight.
Eddie will have to face not only a new dynamic at home, but also a new professional life. Shortly after his team was honored in episode nine for their bravery during the massive cruise ship disaster earlier in the season, Captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) secretly tendered his resignation from 118, believing that he was unworthy of recognition for his leadership. Bobby’s decision stems from the guilt he continues to carry for starting a fire in Minnesota years ago that took the lives of 148 people, including his wife and two children. After saving himself and his now-wife, Sgt. Athena Grant-Nash (Angela Bassett), after a fire ravages their home and after surviving a life-threatening heart attack, Bobby realizes, once again, that being a firefighter is his true calling, and he decides to return to 118.
But there’s only one problem: the LAFD has already decided to fill Bobby’s position with none other than Vincent Gerrard (Brian Thompson), the fanatical former captain of the 118, creating a clear divide and a source of tension within the fire station.
Below, Guzman explains what this season-ending cliffhanger could mean for the show’s future, why he thinks Eddie and Christopher’s relationship has been irrevocably altered, and how he mined his own personal life to find the strength in Eddie’s vulnerability.
When we spoke a few months ago, you mentioned that you were relishing the opportunity to play a lighter Eddie team after years of turmoil, but you hadn’t yet read about what would happen in the second half of the season. How did Eddie’s latest storyline change your understanding of him as a character? What new layers have you been able to discover in his game this season?
These are excellent questions. I think we already knew who Eddie is, who he was, and who he’s trying to be. So we already had that sense of direction. But now, through all the obstacles that (co-creator and showrunner) Tim Minear wrote into this second half of the season, we were able to explore what we knew about him, so a sense of depth was given to Eddie. I like that the first half of this season was more light-hearted and humorous, and allowed us to introduce a successful and happy-go-lucky Eddie. But towards the latter half of this season, we were able to see the opposite and realize that even though Eddie seemed like everything was fine, it was more of a magic trick. He hid this lifestyle in one of his hats. It all unfolded when he divulged this dreamlike lifestyle of living vicariously through a woman who embodies the spitting image of his ex-wife or his deceased wife.
It’s funny how well reconstructive memory works: Eddie clung to the idealized notion of what he and Shannon could have been, but he seemed to have blocked out the fact that she wanted a divorce shortly before his death. Why do you think Eddie continues to have this romanticized view of the relationship, and how do you hope these meetings with Kim will help him move on from Shannon?
It’s funny, the psychology of it all. I think it is very relevant that human nature reworks our past in the best way that helps us cope with our present. I think the reality of him and Shannon not working out wasn’t going to allow Eddie to move forward, so he needed the idealization of, “Oh no, what if we just changed that , or if I had just done that, then we would have had a perfect life,” to allow him to move forward – or at least to fool himself into thinking he has moved on. Now, through this reality check and allowing him to have this cathartic conversation with his deceased wife through Kim, he is able to recognize that (his relationship with Shannon) was not what it had been all along. this time, and let the story speak for itself. He tried to ask her for her hand in marriage, and she said no. So I think it offers a new insight into who Eddie can be and who Eddie wants to be.
Let’s break down the two most devastating moments for Eddie in these last two episodes. First, Chris discovers his father kissing a woman who bears a striking resemblance to his deceased mother. And then in the finale, Eddie has to say goodbye to Chris and let him go back to live in Texas with Eddie’s parents indefinitely. What did you want to convey in the quiet moments to show the inner turmoil that Eddie is going through and that he has difficulty containing?
I’m going to touch on the first scene where Christopher sees a version of his mother. With this scene, I was playing more of the fact that “I just destroyed my son again” and the fact that “I can never come back or explain this (to Christopher).” I can’t explain why I’m talking to a woman who looks exactly like her deceased mother, and why I’m hiding it from her while connecting with this new woman I brought into her life. It’s just a change in the world that you can’t explain to a person who is going through this. At such a young age – 13 or 14 – you won’t be able to rationalize that.
So in cutting that last scene that we shot of Eddie finally saying goodbye to Christopher, I think there’s a full acknowledgment that Eddie is no longer the best part of Christopher’s life, that ‘it no longer offers the best and healthiest version for Christopher. . It’s not only crushing for Eddie, but now the acceptance of that fact is something I don’t think Eddie has really addressed yet. We’ll explore that in season eight. As an actor, I had to do a balancing act: “How can I convey that this breaks Dad’s heart?” But I know you’re making the right decision. I have to let you do what you have to do.
Eddie, at least in Chris’s eyes, was always seen as this perfect person who would never betray him, but that illusion was shattered. For me, it comes down to this idea that at some point in our lives, we realize that our parents are not perfect, that they too are figuring things out as we go along. What do you think it would take for Chris to forgive Eddie? And do you see letting Chris go as the first step toward that path of reconciliation?
That would be very, very mature of Christopher. (Laughs.) I mean, I think as far as human nature goes and especially as men, we age a little slower than women (emotionally speaking). It took me forever to look back on my own life and forgive my own father for things I should have forgiven much sooner. And (it’s important) to humanize your father. We always grow up with this idealization of “Dad is Superman, and he gives us so many answers, so he must know everything.” And when this harsh reality is presented to us, that no, it’s just a human being trying to understand, we can’t, again, rationalize that.
So I don’t think Christopher will have the opportunity to forgive Eddie. I think now it’s about…
Gn entert
News Source : www.hollywoodreporter.com
