So I’ve seen a lot of discussion of whether Jemma returns Fitz’s feelings and what about her actions in the final Fitzsimmons scene does or does not indicate that, and a lot of it has been really interesting, but I’ve noticed an element missing that I want to address, and it’s this:

Fitz never actually says the words I love you.

It’s pretty clearly implied, yes, but he doesn’t say the actual words. He also doesn’t ask anything of Jemma; he doesn’t ask for ‘a kiss before dying,’ he doesn’t ask for her to tell him anything about her feelings, he doesn’t even ask for the hug that Jemma gives him.

He only says something about his feelings once two arguments (You’re the stronger swimmer and I couldn’t live if you didn’t), a logical argument and an emotional appeal, fail. It’s possible that he planned to tell her before he hit the button even if she had agreed easily, but he does not immediately jump into a dying confession of his feelings for her.

Fitz knows that Jemma loves him. He doesn’t know if she returns his feelings, but he doesn’t make it about his feelings for her until it feels like the only argument he has that might convince her to let him sacrifice himself for her. He is not making that dying confession in order to get her to admit to returning or not returning his feelings. And since he is pretty convinced he’s going to die, he’s not saying it in expectation of being rewarded for it later. He is making it because he thinks telling her that might mean he gets to save her life.

In that moment, Fitz doesn’t ask for her to tell or show him how she feels. He says that he’s scared, that he couldn’t find the courage to tell her, which seems to indicate pretty strongly that he is very much aware of the possibility that she doesn’t feel the same way and that him admitting to these feelings might hurt their friendship. So he asks that she let him show her.

And he doesn’t say it because he wouldn’t have died for her prior to developing those feelings. He knows that she knows that he’s loved her for a long time, in the completest way possible, and that he would have died for her before, romantic feelings or no; it’s just never been as big of a possibility as in that moment.

So, no, Jemma doesn’t kiss him on the lips, and she doesn’t return his confession. But Fitz doesn’t ask her to. Neither of them want that moment to be about who feels what; the only reason Fitz brought it up when he did was because he absolutely had to find someway to get her to let him save her. He was showing her how much he loved her, whether he told her that she was more than that to him or not; admitting it may not have even been part of the original plan.

Whatever new issues the two of them have to deal with in season two, they both have some figuring out to do about their relationship, not just Jemma. Fitz chose to qualify his feelings for her only after he needed another argument after the first two failed to convince her.

But I think it’s really important to recognize that both Jemma and Fitz wanted that moment to be about and chose to make it about how much they loved each other, with no labels or qualifications.