This is How You OTP: 9 Swoon-Worthy Moments on TV

There is love, and then there’s the love we see on TV. The passionate, desperate, all-consuming one that’s made of quiet moments and grand gestures alike. The I can’t live without you kind of love. The quiet mornings making breakfast together sort of thing. The you make me a better person sort of feeling.

In short, the love we want. The love we crave. The love we dream of. And, of course, the one we watch television for.

For the sake of this list, I spent the past week binge-watching shows I’d never seen before. I asked around, took into consideration all the comments from previous articles, and I sat down to do my homework. The results were even better than expected.  I cried, laughed, and threw things at the screen, but yes, I also swooned. Repeatedly. In fact, by the time I was done, narrowing this list to nine seemed like an impossible endeavor.

Still, I persevered. Love is everywhere, especially on TV. But only a few can make your heart stop, your breath catch, and your knees turn wobbly. So, here are my nine most swoon-worthy moments on TV this past year.

1. “I love you.” — Arrow

Yes, Oliver had bigger romantic moments. In fact, Oliver was the one proclaiming his love all over the place this season, which is why Felicity’s declaration is the one that made my heart almost pop out of my chest. Oliver was in. Well, he wasn’t really in, in the I’m actually willing to give this a shot way, but he knew Felicity was the one. He wasn’t budging.

Felicity’s arc was different. She knew, long before he did. So, when she finally got all that she wanted just for Oliver to take it away without asking her opinion, Felicity was done. She moved on (or at least tried valiantly). She didn’t just want to be a woman Oliver loved. She wanted to be the woman he chose.

Oliver has yet to make a choice when Felicity utters these words. In fact, you could say she utters them just as he’s making another choice to leave her – possibly for good. But the stakes are different this time. Felicity already let him walk away once without telling him how she felt. This time, Felicity chooses to be brave. She chooses to believe in their love. She chooses to fight, even when Oliver doesn’t want her to. This is Felicity making a stand.

See, I’m having heart palpitations, and all I did was write about it.

2. “Don’t you know, Emma. It’s you…” — Once Upon a Time

Emma Swan has been loved before. Neal loved her. Walsh loved her. Or at least they claimed to love her. But Emma Swan has never been anyone’s first choice. She’s never been the most important person in someone else’s life. She’s never been anyone’s happy ending. Not until this very moment.

You could argue that she’s been Killian Jones’s choice long before this, but this is the first time words to that effect have been exchanged. It’s not an “I love you,” but, if possible, it’s something bigger, because it’s framed in a way Emma will understand. Regular words don’t mean much to Emma. Words have let her down before. She puts her faith in actions. And her boyfriend has been proving, by just being there, that he’s all in. This is just the cherry on top. This is Killian putting Emma first, and not being afraid to state that she is his happy ending.

If that doesn’t make you swoon, then it’s quite possible you don’t have a functioning heart.

3. “Does it ever stop, the wanting you?” — Outlander

There are probably ten moments that are more important to the plot that I could have chosen, but even looking at the gif, this is the moment that makes a little strangled noise escape out of my throat without my consent. There’s just something so raw and strangely intimate in Jamie’s question, not only because he’s really asking, but also because of the feelings behind the words. He’s saying everything without really saying it.

He’s saying you’re mine. He’s saying I’ve never felt this way before. He’s saying you make me happy, so deliriously happy that sometimes, I can’t believe this is real. He’s saying I love you. And he’s saying all of this with his mouth, and his heart, and his hands.

I have many FEELS. I’m drowning in FEELS here.

4. Jane asks Lisbon to marry him — The Mentalist

For all the steps these two have taken, from colleagues to friends to partners and then to lovers, this was the moment of the last season of The Mentalist. It was Jane finally letting go of his past and embracing his future…with Lisbon.

I might have teared up a little bit. Or a lot. Who can blame me? This scene was a long time coming.

From the start, the thing we loved about Jane was that he was great at figuring everything and everyone out – except himself. We recognized a wounded soul, and we agreed to go on a journey with him, a journey to happiness, not to revenge.  It just happens that Jane got revenge first, and then had to fight hard for the happiness he didn’t think he deserved. Lisbon waited for him for many, many years. And then she was done waiting. And so he ran after a plane and declared his love.

The rest, the rest is made up of baby steps that got us to this proposal. To Jane taking off a ring that represented his past and gifting it to the woman that represented his future. To finally choosing to heal.

*swoons*

5. The wedding — Castle

Castle and Beckett are the perfect example of a couple that works, well beyond the will-they or won’t-they that procedurals specialize in. Maybe it’s because they had time to grow together, to learn to trust each other, to become partners – and yet they didn’t have enough time for fans to curse at the screen every time they seemed to almost and then not quite confess their feelings for each other. (I’m looking at you, Chris Carter. I’m looking at you). Rick and Kate did things in their own way, figured out who they were as individuals, and then, they came together at the perfect moment to figure out what they could be as a unit.

It all comes to head in this wonderful wedding, and the vows, oh, the wows. My heart grew three sizes as Kate told Rick that when she met him her life became extraordinary, and Rick told Kate that she was the joy in his heart. Then, it continued growing as they embraced with the sun setting in the background. What can I say? I’m not usually a girly girl, but I do have a heart.

May all fictional couples in this list get to be half as wonderful as Richard Castle and Kate Beckett. Amen.

6. “All in” — NCIS: LA

The nicest thing about this was that it was so unexpected. Deek and Kensi have been flirting with, well…this, and each other ever since he first joined the team back in Season 1, but to have it all laid out, like this, in the middle of an episode that wasn’t really focused on them was like a nice surprise gift that you never expected to get.

Kensi being the one to cut through the BS and lay it all on the line? That’s was just the icing on the cake. Because Deeks has always been the one who seemed all in. He’s always been the one looking straight at his partner without blinking. Kensi has been the one to move away before things got serious. For such a brave woman, Kensi has always been the one who’s afraid.

Except there comes a point in your life when you realize that playing it safe is the worst possible way to live — a point where you decide to be bold. And for Kensi, that means opening up to a life with Deeks. He’s always been there, waiting for her. She just had to catch up.

7. The reunion — The 100

Don’t try to tell me there’s no romance here. There’s a lot of romance in The 100, and it’s not all between Bellamy and Clarke. In fact, you could even argue that there’s no real romance between them. But boy, is there love. Real love. Love that didn’t take me binge-watching the first two seasons like a crazy person on Netflix over one weekend to figure out. Love that’s obvious in promos and gifs and most of all, in this fifteen second hug. Because you don’t hug your brother like that. You don’t.

Still, this seems like a weird inclusion to my list of swoon-worthy moments. No love declaration, no kiss. Why is this here? It’s here because though I was actively shipping them BEFORE, it was in this precise moment that I fell in love with the pairing. With the way she breathes him in. With the way he hesitates at first and then hugs her so tight he might as well be crushing them. I fell in love with the possibilities of Bellamy and Clarke.

And, in this particular case, there’s still a lot of story to be told. A lot of stuff to look forward to.

8. “You know I love you, Donna.” — Suits

I mean, it’s not that we didn’t know — it’s that we didn’t know if Harvey knew. But boy, did he know. Even if he was an ass about saying it. And about owning up to the words once he said them. And about everything else, really. The King of Emotional Maturity Harvey Specter is not.

But he loves Donna. He’s said it. It’s out there in the universe. He can’t take it back now, and that’s big. It doesn’t solve all of their problems (in fact, it probably creates even more), but it’s a step forward in a relationship that, for the longest time, felt stale and unoriginal.

Of course, we still need Harvey to grow up. We still need them to find who Harvey and Donna are when they’re not together. But honestly, that feels like the easy part. The love’s already there after all.

9. First kiss — Jane the Virgin

I watch Jane the Virgin to suspend disbelief and laugh for a while. I don’t expect realism. I expect flower petals falling from the sky when the two main characters kiss for the first time. And that’s exactly what I got!

There’s nothing more perfect than a show that’s not afraid to be different and over-the top and just …what it was conceived as. Well, nothing like Rafael’s face as Jane tells him that she broke up with Michael. You can see them thinking, trying to not get ahead of themselves. You can see them failing too, as the voice-over starts. Yes, he kisses her. And she responds. She even does the fairy-tale leg raise. Because this is that type of show, dang it. That’s why we love it.

Agree? Disagree? Have another moment/couple that made you go weak in the knees? Share with us in the comments!