The love triangle between Sean Cameron, Emma Nelson, and Toby Isaacs began in Season 1 when Sean and Toby both liked Emma at the same time while she was only interested in Sean. Emma was in the center of the love triangle.
Love Triangle History[]
In The Mating Game, Mr. Simpson calls the class to order and reminds them that they are to begin building a website on an animal of their choice. Emma decides to do hers on an endangered turtle from the South Pacific. As Mr. Simpson talks about the project, Toby falls into a dream-like state, watching Emma. From his viewpoint, she appears to move in slow motion, tossing her pretty blonde hair and crinkling her blue eyes. His daydream is interrupted by Sean who comes up to him to thank him for borrowing his notes. He snaps out of it, trying to hide his crush from his friends.
Toby and J.T. join Emma, Manny and Sean at the table and they discuss their project for Mr. Simpson's class. The others are a bit startled to learn that Toby is doing his project on a turtle, since Emma already signed up to endangered turtles for her project. Toby looks a little uncomfortable with the attention but Emma is pleased that she inspired him.
Toby suggests that he and Emma get together tomorrow night to watch a documentary on endangered species. J.T. is surprised and reminded Toby that they were supposed to be going to see a film. Toby elbows him to get him to shut up. Manny jumps in, suggesting they watch it at her place and then Emma invites Sean to join. Toby's face falls just the slightest fraction and he stares at Sean imploringly. Sean looks like he might accept but when he sees the look on Toby's face he gets it, and claims he has other plans. Toby breathes a sigh of relief.
The next day at school, Emma is in the computer lab trying to find information for her project but nothing comes up on the search engine. Toby notices her frustration and offers to help. He punches a few buttons and a slew of sites come up. Emma is impressed. Toby slips into another daydream about her but Emma snaps him out of it. She happily finds another site on turtles with lots of information but Toby just looks bored. In the hallway, the gang are about to head over to Manny's house to watch Toby's DVD on endangered species. But just as they are about to leave, Liberty walks up to them and reminds Emma that she promised to help proofread the issue of The Grapevine. Emma looks torn, but she did promise. She tells her friends she'll be there in an hour. Toby watches her leave.
At school, Liberty and Emma are still going over the copy for the next issue of the paper. Liberty suggests going for a smoothie but Emma says she can't. Liberty takes off and Emma heads to the media immersion room and sees Sean working on his project. Sean shows her that he's working on Springer Spaniels. She's surprised by his choice of animal and Sean explains that he used to have one but he had to leave him when he moved in with his older brother. He seems sad about it, which touches Emma. Emma decides to stay and help Sean work on his project.
Emma still hasn't shown up to watch the DVD at Manny's house, and Toby is sad. He, Manny, and J.T. are sitting outside her house, while Toby frets glumly. He can't believe she never showed. Manny tries to calm his hurt feelings, by telling him that she probably couldn't get away from Liberty. J.T. comments that Emma is lucky she missed the documentary because it was so boring "it almost put me on the endangered list." Toby looks angry. "I rented it for her," he says. The others look uncomfortable with the admission, and Toby gets up and leaves.
At school the next day, Manny and Toby are joined by Emma in the hallway. She apologizes for not showing up to watch the DVD. Toby asks her if Liberty kept her but Emma admits she ran into Sean and they started talking. Toby is furious. He can't believe she couldn't even be bothered to call them. Emma is surprised by his anger, especially when he says "What kind of friend are you, anyway?" He stalks off, leaving behind an open-mouthed Emma and a knowing Manny. Emma's confused but Manny's explanation clear it right up. "Uh, he's got a major crush on you." Emma is shocked.
In Cabaret, Emma takes part in Cabaret and does an interpretive dance to symbolize illegal poaching of endangered animals. She asks Sean to participate in the dance with her, but he refuses saying that he does not dance. Seeing this as an opportunity to really impress Emma, Toby agrees to help her. When they are made fun of during their performance, Sean defends Emma and tells everyone to "Shut up and let them dance". After performing, Emma thanks Sean for defending her and kisses him, leaving Toby crushed.
In Jagged Little Pill, Ashley and Toby's parents leave for the weekend and they are both allowed one friend over. J.T., who has noticed Toby has been swooning over Emma the entire year, invites Sean to come over and hang out to teach Toby how to be bad. They only convince him to come when they lie that Emma will be there. When Sean arrives, J.T. finally calls Emma, Manny, and Liberty to come to the party. When the girls arrive and head to Toby's bedroom, Emma sees Sean and starts leaving. Sean calls after Emma and starts following her. Emma stops and says that she wouldn't have come over if she'd known he'd been there and goes outside. After hooking up with Ashley, Sean walks outside and he finds Emma crying now aware of what Sean did at the party. Just as he is about to comfort her, Toby goes to Emma and he says he's sorry about what happened. Emma starts hugging Toby and hugs her back. Sean walks away sadly.
Trivia[]
- They all witnessed Rick Murray's death in the school shooting (he attempted to shoot Emma, when Sean intervened).
- They were all friends with Manny Santos, Liberty Van Zandt, and J.T. Yorke.
- Even though Emma was in a relationship with Sean at the time, Toby would still try to win her heart.
- They all attended J.T.'s funeral in The Bitterest Pill.
- In White Wedding (2), they all attended Archie Simpson and Christine Nelson's wedding in January 2003.
Timeline[]
- Start: The Mating Game (106)
- End: Jagged Little Pill (115)
- Reason: After Toby noticed that Emma was hurt from her break up with Sean, he decided to just be a friend to her.
