After Lea was forced to listen helplessly while Shaun faced a life-threatening situation trying to rescue a trapped woman for most of Season 3, Episode 20 ("I Love You"), Shea fans finally got the payoff they'd waited for. When the radio goes silent, Lea can do nothing more but wait and hope for the best while the rescue scene gradually dies down. When Firefighter Dan finally tells her "Lea, it's time to go," she refuses to leave. As rescuers announce they have found someone else, Lea rushes back into the brewery. There, she sees Shaun peering up out of a hole in the ground next to the woman he saved.
In the golden light of dawn, Lea walks up to Shaun and kisses him, declaring, "That was an 'I'm such a stupid idiot for not seeing it, but I love you with all my heart' kiss. And this is another." In a stereotypically magical disaster movie scene, the camera pans out with the dust-covered couple kissing passionately in front of a backdrop of fire engines and debris. For many fans, this moment was a long time coming and couldn't have happened without all the growth Shaun and Lea had experienced both individually and together over the course of the series. Fan Amy Danko summed the anticipation up, tweeting, "Believe it! They've been building to this moment since season 1."
