9-1-1’s Eddie and Tommy stay by Buck’s hospital bedside in exclusive preview of Halloween episode

Oliver Stark’s firefighter ends up “cursed” in season 8, episode 5 of the ABC first responder drama his bff and bf are by his side.

It’s not a 9-1-1 Halloween if Buck doesn’t think something spooky’s going on.

In a preview clip exclusive to Entertainment Weekly from season 8, episode 5 of the ABC first responder series, Buck (Oliver Stark) ends up in the hospital with a dislocated shoulder that he attributes to a “curse” on him after he accidentally brings an actual corpse to the 118 firehouse haunted house instead of a dummy. (Yes, you read that right.)

But Buck isn’t there alone. Eddie (Ryan Guzman) is already settled in the room when Buck’s boyfriend Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) finally arrives. Both Eddie and Tommy think Buck is being ridiculous, but Buck presents his argument the best he can.

When previewing the season ahead of the September premiere, 9-1-1 co-creator and showrunner Tim Minear explained that not much time had passed between the events of the season 7 finale and the season 8 premiere, so while there hadn’t been many developments in Buck and Tommy’s relationship, “we see that they’re more comfortable together. We’d definitely call them a couple. Obviously they’re comfortable hanging out with Eddie, but when you couple with somebody, it takes up some of your time, so that also leaves Eddie a little bit out in the cold. Well, not out in the cold, but Buck doesn’t have as much free time as he did before, let’s put it that way.”

That certainly doesn’t seem to be the case so far, with Eddie completely at home with the couple in the hospital room.

As for Eddie, Minear recently told EW that the firefighter is struggling with his son living in Texas with his grandparents. “Eddie is just floundering a little bit with his identity,” he said. “His identity has been wrapped up in being a father. He’s also a soldier and a firefighter, but really everything, whether it’s the job or his relationships, have all really been about Christopher. And the fact that Christopher has absented himself from Eddie’s life right now has thrown Eddie into a little bit of a…. He’s not on solid ground right now.”

He went on to explain that, with much of the outstanding season 7 drama resolved at the end of last week’s episode, “one of the next big pieces is really Eddie” as they move the story forward.