9-1-1‘s Buck doesn’t handle change well.

The firefighter (played by Oliver Stark) is reeling from his best friend Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman) departure to Texas, and over the course of Thursday’s episode of the ABC first responder drama he ends up back in bed with his ex Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.), who questions if Buck’s feelings for Eddie are strictly platonic — something fans have been debating for seasons, well before Buck came out as bisexual.

Here 9-1-1 showrunner Tim Minear answers Entertainment Weekly‘s burning questions about season 8, episode 11, “Holy Mother of God.”

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What made now the right time to bring Tommy back?

TIM MINEAR: I think what Buck’s going through in this episode is just the immediate loss of a big part of his life, which is his best friend leaving. And it’s really hard for him to spend a night in that house, so he’s looking for distractions. [Jennifer Love Hewitt‘s] Maddie tells him, “You probably need to make some new friends.” So he tries to do that. He tries to befriend [Anirudh Pisharody’s] Ravi, who turns out is actually a fun guy, but Buck’s really never given him a chance. So he tries that, and then a thing happens, which I think most people can relate to: You run into an ex, and you’re in a place where you could just use some company and some distraction, and sort of one thing leads to another.

And why now address the nature of Buck’s connection to Eddie?

For me, whether Tommy is right in his suspicions or not sort of doesn’t matter…. Tommy is the person to bring up that subject more than anyone else on the show, because Buck is unnaturally dependent on his friendship with Eddie. He puts a lot of himself into that, and it takes up a lot of space in his id, and in his world. And so I think it would just be natural for the guy’s boyfriend to be like, “You’re really tight with that handsome friend of yours, and I think you might have a thing for him.” And it was also important for me to have Buck say, “Look, I don’t have to sleep with everyone I have feelings for, and I don’t have to have feelings for everyone I sleep with,” which is a direct reference to who Buck was in the first season or so. But that really stings Tommy to the core. The truth of the matter is, Buck is using Tommy as a distraction for the turmoil he’s going through. And exactly what that means is sort of left up to your interpretation.

Buck eventually tells Maddie he needs to call and apologize to Tommy. Will we see Tommy back soon?

You’ll see him again this season, but what I would say is that Tommy has a function in this universe that isn’t just to be Buck’s bed buddy, right? Tommy is a former part of the 118, and Tommy has particular skills that other characters don’t, and those skills will come into play very shortly.

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9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.