Exactly. I had some hopes for their relationship when she was liking him as Rodney and standing up to him. But she'd rather have him nicer which is... understandable, it is, but he's not going to be nicer. It's not the way he communicates. And his team (especially John, but all three of them) understand that. They wanted to say good-bye to him as himself, assholishness and all (the team-love made me so happy in this episode).

In the meantime, I'm perfectly happy to handwave it and go back to making crazy dolphin noises at the GOD SO CANON LOVE between Rodney and John. That's the way you write romance, folks.

Yes! The way he just instinctively turned to John when he needed reassurance. The way we opened the show on him asking where John had gone and calling for John, even though Jennifer, his love interest, is already there with him! The pier scene! In so many ways, they showed us that the one person that remains in Rodney's mind no matter what is John, and that John cares very deeply about Rodney. And this is always there for them, under the banter. And it makes me want to hug the show and then carefully explain to them what 'show' and 'tell' means and what love story they've actually been telling for the last five years.