Second season, that conversation resulted in Emily Cutler saying, “What if you just found out toward the end of the year that Jeff and Britta have been doing it the whole time, and it was no big deal?” And I thought that was genius because the audience might not believe you if you just tell them on camera in real time that it’s possible for a relationship to not eclipse everything, but they won’t believe it in their hearts, because they haven’t seen any evidence that it’s possible for a relationship to not eclipse everything. Guess what, as many of you in the audience have been doing at various points in your lives, particularly the broken points, two of these people have been, in an ungodly middle finger to our fairytale perceptions of monogamy, using each other as sex toys. Presenting the idea that you’re full of shit believing that, too, was intriguing to me because that’s how the relationship with my girlfriend and virtually betrothed mate happened. It started as friends with benefits. It started with this ironically romantic concept that romance didn’t need to be in the equation. It made it exciting. Love always finds a way. If two people have been hurt enough, they trick themselves into falling in love through a different door. They just need to protect themselves with a certain chant beforehand, like “This is bullshit.” And, for that reason, what I love is when the show doesn’t presume any factual positions on things that have any binary truth to them. “Is there any such thing as true love?” The question is the important thing. There’s no answer.