Fox’s first responder drama series 9-1-1 had its midseason premier last Monday. In its latest episode that aired on Monday, March 13, Oliver Stark’s (Into the Badlands, 9-1-1: Lone Star) character Buck was fighting a different battle than what he usually faces in his everyday life as a first responder, and in an interview with Variety,Stark talks about the challenge that he was faced with.
This article contains spoilers for Fox’s 9-1-1.
9-1-1 is a drama series on Fox that explores the high-pressure experiences of first responders — including police officers, firefighters and dispatchers — who are thrust into the most frightening, shocking and heart-stopping situations. These emergency responders must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in their own lives. Stark’s character is Evan “Buck” Buckley who works as a firefighter that takes lots of risks, is very prideful, but he puts his family above all. In the season premiere, “In a Flash” his character was the victim of a lightening bolt strike leading to what was assumed to be a sudden and unexpected death. But in this past Monday’s episode, “In Another Life”, Buck’s mind is alive and the episode unfolds from his comatose state as he journeys through an alternate life of his in which he never became a firefighter and explores what the lives of his loved ones would look like if that was the case.
When asked about what the nicer things in his different life looked like, like having his dead brother alive, Stark tells Variety that, “In life often there are sacrifices that are made. So if you want one aspect of your life to be really nice, then maybe sometimes you’re giving up another aspect.” In his alternate reality his brother may be alive, but his sister remains in an abusive marriage. Stark believes that though this world the character created is nice, Buck is at peace and fulfilled by his real life and is “choosing his real life every single time.”
Variety also asked Stark about where he sees his character’s life going from this point on in terms of Buck’s personal life and returning to work. Stark says that this close encounter with death will weigh on Buck’s mind heavily, and that “it’s not necessarily going to be the smoothest of roads back for him. ” His character is known to be very prideful, and Stark recognizes that Buck is likely going to make it seem like he’s fine when he’s really not. But that while it may take Buck sometime to get back in the field, saving lives, he will come back and “find himself with some new skills.”