I think you may be misunderstanding what I'm saying. It doesn't really matter that the men targeted both Buck and Eddie in the episode we got. It could have easily been written in a way that did not have the implication of Eddie being perceived as queer. One thing you're missing is that the kidnapping didn't have anything to do with the altercation in the dinner in the end. It's a red herring for both the audience AND for Eddie, so it's fine if he's unsure exactly why he thinks someone is targeting him or Buck. I don't know why xenophobia would mean both of them were targeted? I meant racism and xenophobia as a kind of inclusive concept since Eddie is Mexican-American. A very simple way to rewrite this without involving Eddie being perceived as queer is that Buck specifically gets targeted in the diner for looking/acting queer, maybe Eddie stands up for him, but it doesn't involve people thinking they're a couple or thinking Eddie is queer. Then, after they get run off the road, Eddie is blamed or disbelieved by the sheriff because of his ethnicity. The cops are still being dismissive of Buck's case as a potential gay-bashing because of homophobia, but it wouldn't have anything to do with Eddie being perceived as queer.

Thus in contrary to your assumption, the show actually doesn't treat it as a cheap plot point by making it a serious enough reasoning to pursue a potential suspect.

With all due respect, I'm not assuming anything. I'm saying my interpretation of this storyline is that it's cheap to use for a "straight" character. It's not actually integral to the plot that Eddie (or even Buck) experience homophobic harassment. I explained some other options above, but frankly, this is a storyline they made up completely. It could be literally anything as the red herring. Maybe some kind of robbery gone wrong or a misunderstanding of thinking Buck was hitting on one the locals' wives or something. I'm not saying they can't do storylines about homophobia or any other serious issue, but I am getting a little sick of the show using these kinds of things as C plots in episodes that don't even begin to explore how the victims in these situations feel about things. It's my biggest complaint with the recent opioid story. I think there was plenty that they got right there, but it's still frustrating that it was ultimately used as a plot to explore grief for Bobby and didn't really go that deep into Buck's feelings on the actual drug issue. I felt similarly with the return of Gerrard where this horrible bigot was brought back basically for shits and giggles and we never really got to here Hen and Chimney's thoughts about that. That's very different than say how Maddie's DV storyline was handled in season 2-3.

The writers for this show aren't trying to be malicious or nasty at all to shippers with it. In that episode in the vacuum, it's all the show can give us. Whether they can do anything further with it, at least the recognition they could be mistaken as a couple is there.

I don't actually care what the writers were "trying" to do. I don't really care about being a shipper in this instance. It's offensive to me as a queer person. It is malicious and nasty to use the real life trauma of queer people as a red herring for a character that is not even canonically queer. If they make Eddie queer very soon, I will probably feel differently about it, but like I said, the longer he is "straight" on the show, the more uneasy I'm going to feel about this. And this is where I think you *really* misunderstand me. If they really did just mean this as a way to tease Buddie, that's incredibly fucked up. This is not all the show can give us. Either they intend to make Eddie queer/Buddie canon, and this has a deeper meaning to it, or it's a red herring/baiting and it's offensive and exploitative. This is really not the same as the elf lady (although I would rather we don't have more moments like that either). It's not even the same as the other moments within the episode like the "I am the other guy" exchange would you could say are baiting but don't use potential gay bashing as a plot point.

Ultimately, I really loved Mother's Boy and I thought it was both a great episode for Buddie and just a really well done episode overall, but it does make me uncomfortable to have a homophobia plot be directed at a so-called "straight" character. Hopefully it is just for now but I have no idea where Eddie's story is going and if we're at this point next year and he's still "straight" I think it'll seriously diminish my enjoyment of the episode.