Fitz or Jake?

Duncan or Logan?

Logan or Piz?

Dean or Jess [or Logan]?

Angel or Spike? and all the good vampire/bad vampire pairings since?

Choosing which couple to back in TV relationships used to be the easiest thing in the world. Your version of easy might be the complete opposite of somebody else's (hence the push to pick sides in the first place) but you'd know. You'd more than know--you'd feel. You'd jump up and down, glued to the screen every time a new episode aired, and hope upon hope, after all the trials and tribulations of anticipation and held breath, at least the final episode would close with your chosen couple living happily ever together. The investment is always real, even if the relationships "technically" aren't.

Yes, fictional love endorsements were my specialty...until "Once Upon a Time" threw my guy picking confidence for a loop. Scratch that: after the season two episode, Tallahassee (which remains my all-time favorite episode of the show), Neal "Baelfire" Cassidy was my guy. He didn't even have to steal a keychain to win my heart. I completely understand why he was Emma's first love and waited excitedly for the pair to reunite in Storybrooke, if snail mail ever got to informing Neal that the town's curse had been broken.

But Tallahassee didn't just act as the formal introduction of Neal (and in hindsight not even a complete one at that, due to the left out, "Hey, I'm Rumplestiltkin's son" connection). No, Tallahasse had Captain Hook and, more importantly, Hook and Emma's first one-on-one interactions over the bonding experience of climbing a beanstalk. Like anyone with eyes, an appreciation for talented actors and favorite childhood villains, Colin O'Donoghue's casting as Hook was a slam dunk...but the question I kept going back to was why? Why did he have to be Emma's love interest, too? She already had one of those, and a keeper at that. Why couldn't Neal be enough? The worst part was that, in liking Hook and wanting him to be happy, a conflict of interest was introduced where supporting Hook at all meant a breach in my loyalty to Neal. I hated the show for stranding me between the two, instead of providing Hook with his own soul mate where he didn't have to leech off of his friends instead (because, oh yeah, turns out they knew each other back in Neverland).

The battle for Emma's heart was resolved for good with one of the show's few permanent character deaths. "Once" offed Neal and it was really lame. Admittedly, like most viewers, I'm a big fan of Captain Swan now but this wasn't what was supposed to happen. Or maybe it was. Given the number of people who fully embraced Captain Swan before I did, I may be speaking of a more personal struggle than one that reverberated throughout the entire fan community.

"Jane the Virgin," though? That show has got everyone, but the awesome cast members themselves torn.

There is no killing their way out of this one either (I repeat: no killing love interests, Jane writers). Never before have I seen this level of discord. or plain indecision, exist in an audience over who a protagonist should be with. Sure, the history of love triangles is long and vocal (especially the closer they fall to tween demographics), but even in the most publicized cases there is usually a side that carries the edge. Here, when Jane blurted out in a recent episode that she is in love with both guys, it didn't come across as purely a stall tactic. Unfortunately, it seemed pretty reasonable.

Michael--Jane's ex-fiancée. A cop and all around decent guy, their relationship started to fall apart when he initially had trepidations about his future wife having someone else's child, even if the circumstances were outside her control (the classic "artificial insemination instead of pap smear leads to unplanned pregnancy" story).

Most Recent Act of Sweetness: After following the well-meaning but ill-conceived advice of Jane's father to play it cool with Jane ("cool is sexy," after all) he realizes cool's not for him. Thus when Jane confronts him about his recent string of odd behavior Michael's one step ahead of her: the "diary" (word choice in contention) he'd been keeping of everything he'd really wanted to say to her during his coy and aloof phase was already in her room waiting for her. From the snippets we're given in voice-over, it's pretty great.

Rafael--Jane's rich baby daddy. After being artificially inseminated by mistake, Jane is shocked to discover that the child's father is none other than her old crush (did I mention the show is derived from a telenovella?) and their chemistry's still electric as they consider the prospect of being co-parents together. Always supportive of Jane's dream to become a writer, their relationship wasn't without its share of tiffs and disagreements, but it was also refreshing in proving couples can have adult conversations and serious arguments that don't result in immediate break-ups. They eventually do break-up, but that isn't the cause. When Rafael starts to question himself after a family crisis, he makes the stupid and emotionally rash decision to call things off with Jane. It's a decision he comes to regret not too long after making it, but the damage (for now) is done.

Most Recent Act of Sweetness: Going on their first date since son, Mateo's, birth, his monologue answer to Jane's simple question of "where's the best place to get french fries" is delightful. A silly conversation, sure, but given the recent high drama that's consumed their lives (another plot line for another article) it's exactly what the night called for and acts as a great reminder of how great they are together when Rafael's still-in-love-with-him ex-wife and time-consuming job don't get in the way of their cute banter.

Push comes to shove Rafael is probably my guy, if for no other reason (though I can think of more) than this: Rafael's break up with Jane was stupid but largely stemmed from his being in a bad place between family and the hotel business. That doesn't change the fact that he was stupid but it's a mistake he quickly realized after shaking out of his funk and wasn't directly made because of Jane. Jane's break-up with Michael was a deliberate choice on her part. She still cared about him a lot but decided to be with Rafael instead and, even if Rafael isn't the final guy for her either, I don't think there's a long-term future between a couple where a choice like that has been made.

Still, I'm ready for the old, easy love triangles to make a comeback. These fairer fights are much more tense affairs.