9-1-1’s Ryan Guzman on Eddie’s Shocking New Love Interest and the Consequences He’ll Face [Interview]

Please note this interview contains spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 7.

Eddie Diaz is playing with fire in a way that no one could have seen coming. 

On 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 7, “Ghosts of a Second Chance,” Eddie notices a woman working in a store who instantly reminds him of his ex-wife Shannon. In fact, she looks just like her. And there’s a good reason for that: she’s played by Devin Kelley, who also played the role of Shannon Diaz.

Eddie watches his ex-wife’s doppelgänger from afar at first, and memories of Shannon come rushing back to him.

He returns to the store again later, and the two have an instant flirtation. Then, at the end of the episode, when Buck and Christopher think Eddie’s going on a date with Marisol, it’s revealed that he’s actually having dinner with the woman from the store, Kim, instead.

So, obviously, when I spoke with actor Ryan Guzman about this episode and the season overall, we had plenty to discuss, including Eddie’s justification for cheating on Marisol and how the affair will affect his everyday life.

Guzman also shared his thoughts on Buck and Eddie, and what he thinks audiences are so drawn to when it comes to the Buddie pairing. 

On Eddie’s new love interest and the effects of the affair:

Guzman began by saying that Eddie is “trying to live in a dream-like scenario” when it comes to Kim.

“To Eddie, and the way I had to justify his behavior, is he’s getting a second chance at what he thinks is glory. I think what we all kind of do is fabricate what happened in our past to better suit whatever it is that we’re feeling at the moment.”

“Whether that be an idealization of what he and Shannon had or not, I think that this is his opportunity to say, ‘Okay, these are all the feelings and thoughts that I never got to express.’ This is an opportunity to see her once again; even though her name is Kim now, she’s still Shannon in his eyes.”

“She looks and sounds exactly like her. I think that’s all it is for him, and that’s all it needs to be. As far as mannerisms and characteristics, I don’t think he could care less. At the end of the day, it’s just like, ‘I’ll make it out to be what I need it to be.'”

Guzman added that keeping up this lie to everyone around him will be Eddie’s “true obstacle.”

That lie, of course, includes his current girlfriend Marisol. The two of them are just now starting fresh after nearly moving in together way too soon, and now, Eddie is beginning an affair.

“Marisol, I feel bad for her because she’s done nothing wrong. She literally is a nun — or an ex-nun,” Guzman laughed.

“For all intents and purposes, I believe that it was heading toward a very healthy direction up until this very moment where he sees a version of his ex, and his world comes crashing down again.”

“So Eddie is just balancing the old meets new. And I’ve said this prior — how far can you really get when you’re holding on to the past? You can only grow so much.”

“One of the last conversations that Eddie and Shannon had was him asking for her hand in marriage again, and she turned him down,” Guzman added. “So there’s a lot of repressed trauma there.”

“I think he wants to, in a sense, fill that void with happier times, even if it’s just with a person that kind of looks and sounds like her.” However, this affair will become “the weight that he’s going to have to bear in his day-to-day life.”

Guzman noted that it’s going to be difficult for Eddie to balance “living in this new sense of lust while loving somebody else,” as well as interacting with everyone else in his life.

“I think, like all of us, when we take on too much, things tend to slip through the cracks. And I think eventually we’ll see that with Eddie,” he hinted.

In addition to keeping up the lie around Marisol and his friends, he also has Christopher to consider.

“I don’t think there’s a right way to tell your son that you’re gonna go on a date with a version of his dead mother,” Guzman said.

“I believe Christopher will be the last to know — if anybody gets to know. He is the person that Eddie is going to try and safeguard from all of this craziness. Because he knows, at the end of the day, this is delusional.” 

On watching Christopher — and Gavin McHugh — grow up over the years:

Of course, it may be because of Christopher that Shannon was at the forefront of Eddie’s mind in the first place.

Devin Kelley appeared as Shannon early in the season as Christopher read one of her old letters. Now that he’s older, Christopher is dealing with new feelings about his mother as he also navigates a new phase of his own life.

As Eddie has watched Christopher grow into a teenager, Guzman has been watching the actor who plays him, Gavin McHugh, grow up as well. Guzman shared a bit about their connection and what it’s been like seeing McHugh develop into a teenager.

“I was just staring at a picture the other day filming in Eddie’s house, of Gavin as a little kid,” Guzman said. “He barely was up to my waist.”

He said the photo reminded him of a pivotal scene where Eddie sends Christopher off to school, which was at a time before he had children of his own and could only imagine what that feeling would really be like.

“It just brought so much to my heart and my head to now see him as a 14-year-old. We just celebrated his birthday the other day. A 14-year-old!” he exclaimed.

“He’s so much a teenager now. He has this teenager vernacular, and his teenager jokes,” Guzman laughed. “I love that guy so much. It’s incredible how you can work with somebody as their father on screen and, in a way, have that weird connection off screen. I want only the best for him.”

“He’s got an incredible family, mind you. His dad, his mom, his brothers, his sisters, all very loving individuals, so it’s just — yeah, it always brings a smile to my face.”

On the vulnerability between Buck and Eddie:

Guzman also discussed Eddie’s reaction to Buck coming out as bisexual earlier this season. 

“[Buck] coming out as a bisexual man to a person who is, not necessarily machismo, but a typical heterosexual individual with all these accolades behind him, that could be very scary for a man like Buck to come out to,” he noted.

However, when Buck reveals to Eddie that he and Tommy had been on a date, Eddie’s reaction is one of acceptance and love.

“Partly why I love that specific scene so much is because it was an opportunity to showcase to the world [that] this is how you handle that situation — that sexual preference doesn’t dictate how we should interact with each other and how I should treat you as a human being. And that doesn’t make me love you any less or think of you any less,” Guzman said.

“It just shows me what you like. I’ve already shown you what I like… and clearly, it’s my dead wife,” he laughed.

“Oliver [Stark] and I are aware that everybody has their own renditions of what Buck and Eddie are to be,” Guzman continued, referring to the hope many fans have that Buck and Eddie will eventually develop a romance.

“We love the love. We love that they’re invested so much into these characters,” Guzman said.

“Everything has to fall in its own truth, and at this moment, I think the beauty and the truth is that a man saw another man in need and was seeing another man be so vulnerable in front of him. And what he did was say, ‘Hey, I got you, brother. Don’t worry.'”

Speaking of the possibility of a Buddie romance, Guzman said that while he didn’t want to speculate, his feeling is that audiences are drawn to the vulnerability between the two characters.

“I can’t read the audience’s mind, and I don’t want to speculate on anything that I don’t know, but I think that people tend to lean on the vulnerability side. That’s something that I’ve always tried to explore in this character specifically because I can relate to it,” he said. “A lot of people feel that just because you’re vulnerable, it means that you’re a certain thing or not. And I’ve always wanted to dispel that a little bit.”

“You can be a very macho man and be vulnerable at the same time, but it’s who you’re vulnerable to. Because vulnerability is a gift. You just don’t share it out to the world. And if you do, you better have strength in that vulnerability and confidence in that vulnerability. It’s gotta be tried and true.”

“So, I think that this is another great opportunity to showcase that men can be vulnerable with each other and allow for that space of growth. And we might’ve met each other at one time in our lives, but it doesn’t mean that we have to hold each other to that point,” Guzman said.

“To allow the other person to cohesively evolve in front of our eyes is the true message.”

—

9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!