My thoughts on why Evan Buckley wasn't going to give his apartment to Taylor Kelly

There was a running theory among some 9-1-1 fans who thought prior to the fifth season finale Starting Over airing, that when Evan "Buck" Buckley and Taylor Kelly broke up, he would give her his apartment. It was due to what Taylor said in the episode Fear-O-Phobia. After Buck told her about him kissing another woman, she was mad and left the apartment. However, she also mentioned that she didn't have anywhere else to go in regard to him asking if she was coming back. However, since they broke up in the season finale, she must have found some where to go because she moved out of the apartment.

(Buck and Taylor      9-1-1 season 5 episode 7: Ghost Stories)

I never thought Buck was going to give her his apartment because I think he truly loves living there. In the fourth season episode Buck Begins, it showed that he had spent a lot of years traveling around the country and South America going from one random job to another. He eventually found his way to Los Angeles and became a firefighter. In the first season, Buck was shown living with a lot of roommates and by the end of the season he had unofficially moved into his then girlfriend Abigail "Abby" Clark's apartment. And in the second season, he finally moved out of Abby's apartment after he realized that his relationship was over. Especially since Abby, who had left to go traveling around Europe at the end of the first season finale A Whole New You, had yet to return and communication between them was non-existent.

After moving out of Abby's apartment, I was surprised that he moved in with his good friend and co-worker Howard "Chimney" Han and not with his older sister Maddie. However, he didn't live with Chimney for long. Because Buck turned out to be that unfortunate sloppy roommate that as much as you might love and care about them, you can't live with them. He then ended up moving in with his sister until the end of the season when he finally found an apartment of his own.

I included all of this as a way to get a better understanding of Buck and why he wasn't going to give Taylor his apartment. Because after years of being unsettled, he finally had a job he loved and a place of his own. That's important to Buck and I couldn't see him giving up his apartment unless he got married and wanted to move into a bigger place. However, he doesn't seem to mind sharing his place because in the second season finale The Life We Choose, his then girlfriend Ali Martin was going to help him decorate his place and would stay with him whenever she wasn't traveling for work. But they would eventually break up and he would continue to live by himself in the third season.

(Buck with Christopher and Eddie Diaz      9-1-1 season 3 episode 9: Fallout)

It wasn't until the fourth season during the pandemic that it was mentioned that three of his friends and co-workers (Chimney, Edmundo "Eddie" Diaz and Henrietta "Hen" Wilson) stayed with him for a few months to quarantine for their jobs as firefighters. Those three eventually went home but then he had another temporary roommate, Albert Han, Chimney's younger brother who stayed with Buck for a little while. When the fifth season started airing it felt like Taylor was already living with Buck because most of her scenes took place in the apartment. So despite not officially living together, they practically were. When she did finally move into the apartment in Fear-O-Phobia, it was rather anticlimactic. Because all the time she had been there made it feel like she was already living there.

(Taylor      9-1-1 season 5 episode 5: Peer Pressure)

I'm also really surprised that there are a lot of fans that don't like his apartment. Many say it's not his style but I think it fits him rather well. I may have to write another post about his apartment (and some of the other characters homes on 9-1-1) because I really like it. Anyway, prior to Taylor moving in, he had a lot things that perfectly reflected who he was such as a lamp that was a refurbished fire extinguisher. In Fear-O-Phobia when Taylor moved in, she wanted to get rid of his couch for hers and I also noticed that his fire extinguisher lamp was also gone. I'm sure when they merged their stuff there were other things of his that were gone which is why I was wondering if maybe Buck put all of the stuff that he got rid of in storage?

I found it funny that when Taylor moved in she had so many boxes along with so much stuff yet the look of the apartment didn't really change. I noticed quite a few pictures around the place and her couch and a lamp but aside from that not much else had changed. I figured she put the rest of her stuff in storage as well. With so much stuff I was expecting to see more of her style. I guess that should have been another clue that this relationship wasn't going to last because the set decorator/designer didn't really include pieces that reflected Taylor.

(Taylor      9-1-1 season 5 episode 13: Fear-O-Phobia)

It wasn't hard to notice how relieved he was after she returned her key to his apartment. He was now back to having the place to himself. I would love for the showrunners and writers in the sixth season to let Buck relish living alone. And now that he's not in a relationship it would be a good way to show that just because he's alone doesn't mean he's lonely.

(Buck      9-1-1 season 5 episode 18: Starting Over)