After 9-1-1's Eddie Made That Shocking Romantic Decision, I Might Be Rooting For The Wrong Character

9-1-1 has delivered some major romantic twists in Season 7 so far, ranging from Bobby and Athena's honeymoon gone wrong to then Maddie and Chimney tying the knot to Buck acknowledging his bisexuality and starting to fall for a great guy. Now, Eddie has made a move to prove that ABC's drama isn't sticking solely to wholesome romantic moments, because the latest episode revealed him ready and willing to cheat on the lovely Marisol, and not in a "heat of the moment" kind of way. And honestly, I might be rooting for the wrong person now as the 2024 TV schedule continues.

What Eddie Did In The Latest Episode

In the latest episode of 9-1-1 Season 7, called "Ghost of a Second Chance," Eddie got a shock during an outing with Marisol and Christopher when he spotted a woman who was the spitting image of his late wife, Shannon, played by Devin Kelley. And for good reason – Kelley is playing the new character as well. It was already a bit off that Eddie was staring at this other woman while on a date with Marisol, but I could excuse it as him being taken by complete surprise to see a woman who is more or less Shannon's doppelganger.

But then he paid the woman, Kim, a visit at the shop where she works. Although he didn't seem to feel great about it at first, he told the woman that he didn't have a girlfriend and that it was just him and his son. They flirted a bit, in a scene intercut with a flashback to Shannon.

And it seemed like it might not go any farther, although a shot of Eddie and Shannon in bed together initially tricked me into thinking that Eddie and Kim had hooked up. He was actually flashing back while having dinner with Marisol, and while he didn't tell her what he had been thinking about, he did start gazing at a photo of Shannon over Marisol's shoulder.

The kicker came at the end of the episode, when Eddie dropped Christopher off at Buck's for the evening, with Buck asking what time he was meeting Marisol, then noting that Eddie was wearing the good cologne and he and Christopher shouldn't wait up for him. All good, right? Eddie was going to go the extra mile to do something nice for Marisol after being distracted by another woman. What a great guy!

Nope. The very last scene showed that Eddie wasn't meeting Marisol for a date, but Kim. Whatever second thoughts he seemed to be having while they flirted in the shop were evidently gone, and he is poised to cheat on his girlfriend. For all that Eddie is a series regular whose journey fans have watched through highs and lows since Season 2, I'm rooting for somebody else entirely.

Why I'm Team Marisol

Marisol seems to completely trust Eddie, and even stuck by him when he more or less uninvited her to move in with him after he freaked out that she'd almost become a nun years earlier. She's lovely to him and Christopher, and Christopher seems to have a great bond with her. She has done nothing wrong.

And while Eddie being distracted by Kim is surely tied to his trauma from losing Shannon rather than just being on the prowl to have an affair, 9-1-1 didn't do Eddie any favors by including Marisol in some of the scenes where he was thinking of other women. How am I supposed to side with Eddie when he's flashing back to sleeping with Shannon while he's having dinner with Marisol in the present and then proceeding to lie about it? I don't know when he decided to go on a date with Kim, but none of it reflects well on him in the slightest.

Honestly, he's being very unfair to Kim as well. We haven't seen enough of her to know what kind of person she is, but she did fish to find out if he had a girlfriend before she started flirting in earnest. Normally, I wouldn't root for a situation to blow up in a main character's face, but I feel like that has to happen for Eddie in this case.

Of course, this could be deliberate self-sabotage for his relationship with Marisol, since it already seems like he could be setting himself up to get caught. Buck and Christopher knew he was heading out on a date; could one of them mention it to Marisol, and she could connect the dots?

I'd particularly be interested in seeing Buck's reaction, after what Oliver Stark told us about the importance of the Buck/Eddie relationship. Unfortunately, the promo for this week's episode doesn't give away what's next for this storyline, although it does look like a juicy one for Bobby. Take a look:

All in all, I do hope that 9-1-1 explores the root of why Eddie is cheating on Marisol to really flesh out that it's due to his lingering issues about losing Shannon, because I'd like to start rooting for him in some form or other again this season. New episodes of 9-1-1 air on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, ahead of Grey's Anatomy at 9 p.m. and Station 19 at 10 p.m. You can also revisit earlier episodes streaming with a Hulu subscription.