Valentine’s Day may not be one of the major holidays celebrated in Sweet Magnolias Season 4, but everyone in Serenity is still feeling the love — including one character for the very first time.

If you’ve made your way through most of the season by now, you know that we’re talking about Isaac (Chris Medlin), who finally gets some romance in his life, courtesy of an old college frenemy named Michael (Kyle Findley). He comes to Serenity in Episode 8 to assess the damage caused by the hurricane, and his interest in Isaac is obvious from the moment they cross paths — even if it takes the adorably clueless couple until the end of the season before they finally share their first kiss.

Showrunner Sheryl J. Anderson explains that Isaac’s relationship with Michael is all part of the character finally coming into his own after three seasons of not feeling like he belonged.

“It had been our thought in the writers’ room that Isaac wasn’t ready for a relationship because he was still figuring out who he was and how he fits into the tapestry of Serenity,” Anderson tells TVLine. “Even though [his paternity] came out in a different way than he would have preferred, once everybody worked through the revelation about Bill, we thought, OK, now he knows who he is. More importantly, he knows that everybody loves him. It was not the cataclysmic event he was afraid it would be.”

Anderson jokingly refers to this relationship as Isaac’s “reward” for everything he’s gone through. “He gets to have the rom-com arc in the second half of the season,” she says. “It’s not the full-on enemies to lovers trope, but we thought it was be fun to have somebody unexpected come into his life when he hadn’t even started to think about romance.”

Isaac and Michael’s relationship is also a bonus for the show’s LGBTQ+ fans, as it marks the first same-sex love story (with all due respect to Trotter and his husband Ashley, of course).

“It is very important to us that everyone be able to see themselves in Serenity,” Anderson says.

Are you glad that Sweet Magnolias is finally taking it easy on Isaac, letting him be — dare we say it — happy? Grade Season 4 of Netflix’s feel-good hit below, then drop a comment with your thoughts on life in Serenity