Maybe he wears contacts...maybe he got dirt in his eyes...
I have a friend who has a terrible time with his eyes occasionally...The last time he visited, I let him use my visine. Maybe it's an allergic reaction.
The red eyes. If he has rosacea or ocular rosacea, his eyes could have become extremely bloodshot if he was not taking meds for that condition (tetracycline, docycycline in low doses).
Some individuals suffer more from the ocular rosacea than they do with the facial rosacea.
If he had a lot going on, he may have forgotten to take his meds or just ran out explaining trip to pharmacy.