The road to healing isn’t linear. At the beginning, it’s a lot of backwards, even when you try to move forward…and as you heal, each time, you manage to go forward further than you step backwards. That’s what the process is. You will always be held back to some part from the things you’re healing yourself of, because mental and emotional scars go nowhere. Just like Bobby said, it’s good to be grateful for what you have now, but it doesn’t mean you have to stop missing the things you lose.
That’s Ana’s role here. Eddie has literally just tentatively placed his foot back into the dating pool. He’s not going to go for any big fish (i.e. marriage/life-long commitment) instantly. I personally do not think that Eddie’s gonna jump straight to rings with the first person he meets because that’s not quite realistic, is it? It’s not even in character for him to jump like that. He’s healing, learning, maybe opening his heart up again.
He was happy; nervous, but excited about it. We saw his moment of doubt mid-episode before the bell rang, but he worked past it and took a chance. If it works, cool, if it doesn’t, then also cool, at least he’ll know if he’s really ready, or he’ll learn that sometimes, things just don’t work out. Which he’s had a lot of already but y’know — lessons are lessons, sometimes.
Also, we have zero character development for Ana, outside of what she can do/contribute to Eddie and his storyline. You really think if it was gonna last, this would happen? We’ve seen this same thing with other women in the show (which is a whole other fish to fry) and I genuinely don’t think she’s gonna last.
None of that above has anything to do with Buck, but for the Buddie stans:
Buck…is one of those big fish I was talking about. Buck is so involved in Eddie’s life, including with his son, that it’s a huge risk for him to even experiment the dating pool with him (whether they can bounce back or not isn’t the point). Not to mention that Buck has his own stuff going on with his parents, which is referenced at the beginning of the episode. Whatever happens in 4x07 remains to be seen, but even then…neither of them are in a place where it would feasibly make sense to have a healthy relationship without putting everything on the line. And by everything, I mean everything.
Christopher is the most important thing in the world to Eddie, and he’s an extremely important part of Buck’s life too. Not to mention Eddie and Buck being partners and best friends. That’s already ties that bind them closer than anyone else on the team. There’s a lot to lose, even if objectively there is a lot to gain if they get together. They’re just not in a place where they can see that gain.
Also? Sometimes, the hardest thing is being able to see what’s been in front of you the whole time…and with Buck and Eddie, they’re always in front of each other, literally and figuratively.
This is what a slow burn is. It’s about stoking each and every spark until it flares between the people involved without risk of it snuffing out. So be patient with it…I genuinely think we’re gonna get something great out of this, canon Buddie or not.