As we near the end, I want to praise how well the creators have handled Darius's love for Brooklynn and how they avoided all of the pitfalls.
Some of this could still go poorly, there are a lot of risks with a heterosexual ship in anything, but thusfar, they've nailed almost every test.
First, the writers (and Darius) were very clear that Brooklynn and Darius weren't having an affair or anything (not that this would be Irredeemable or Inexcusable, there's its own drama theere). Darius wasn't pining for Brooklynn or being jealous of Kenji...that lad is Innocent. He was caught off-guard and terrified by his adolescent feelings, as many are...but there's no sense of entitlement from him. This isn't him being a Nice Guy and Expecting Something, he genuinely just wanted his friend to stay over and recover from her breakup and then got hit by the Hormone Hammer. Man's a victim of biology.
He falls into a minor pitfall of "well now that she's gone, he stops taking care of himself and becomes a mess", but also, he's still taking care of himself, and he's depressed because he let his best friend died so yeah he's going to be a little suicidal about that. He's allowed to be Sad.
But when she comes back from the dead...he's not excited because He Has Another Chance and he can Feel Better. They even changed the original script where he's smiling and changed it to him locking in and keeping his crew together--as much as he loves her, he's still able to stay focused. Then, even though she's gone away, he says this:
He's literally just happy that Brooklynn's alive. Oh, she's evil? Oh, she's with a scary woman? Oh, she's in trouble? Whatever, that's cool, she's not dead, they can work with that! She's got her life! She's doing well! Or...doing! That's what she's doing! If she's with a hot older woman, that's okay! She's figuring herself out! She's got a lot on her mind! She had her reasons!
But that then goes to the next stage, which was the absolute master stroke:
So many stories would write their hero into the "Will drop everything and compromise everything to rush off for his woman" slot to showcase his love. Most famously illustrated by Mako in Legend of Korra, who took one episode to go from "I'm the sour one of the group" to "I will burn down this whole city to save Korra NOBODY ELSE TOUCH HER I'm the only one who can care about her!", and it was awkward. It's just logical, right? You need to show that this man loves this woman, so until she's safe, he will never rest.
But Darius dodges that bullet.
He's not posesssive or intrusive, he has his doubts and his weaknesses. He's not built to be Brooklynn's Perfect Man, this is a Manfailure...but he's got The Heart. And he trusts Brooklynn, even in his doubt. He's not going to rush to her when she's not inviting him...but when he realizes "Oh, she's Actually In Over Her Head", he's still going to go help her.
Yet they still wait for her to find them.
And when she does come back to them...he's just astonished and happy to see her. As they reenact the scene from a thousand romance films that preceded them: he sees her sitting across the street, waiting alone at the cafe. And, most importantly, he follows Yaz's advice:
And, ultimately, when he goes after her, when he chases her down at the airport (ANOTHER Vintage Romance move, the children are being TREATED), he doesn't want her to come back to him or come with him...
He offers her her arm which she was given by someone else because he couldn't do that for her, but now he's doing the most he can, and he's begging her to stop running away because he knows she doesn't want to, and he just wants her to come back, it doesn't matter if she hurt him or if he failed her, that's fine, they can worry about that later, but later needs her to come home now.
And he then reveals that this was all just a stall tactic, as well...and that he knew she'd be able to make it work. He knew they could win together, and so....they do.
They'll tease each other, they'll help each other, they'll keep saving each other, because they love each other.
Even if the love is different.
