When Nikki Deloach told us that "Pick Me, Choose Me, Love Me" would be Lacey’s redemption episode, she wasn’t kidding.

The title of the installment, in fact, had very little to do with Jake and Matty, but rather Lacey and Jenna; however, the crafting of the hour threw me for a loop (a good one) because most of our time was spent at the school, witnessing the blowback Jenna received from publicizing her blog.

While Jenna’s blowback was nonexistent, the blowup wasn’t. The entire school rallied around her story. Everyone had his/her opinions. Jenna went from little known to well known, and Tamara and Ming basked in the proxy popularity. All of it, though, was just a ploy to take our focus away from Lacey after we saw some kids giving her grief over writing the letter.

The harassment didn’t stop when Lacey left the parking lot. It had been going on all day while our focus was at the school and Lacey just endured it.

For all of the confidence that Lacey likes to project, if this season has taught us anything it’s that Lacey very much regrets her choices, regrets how she handles things and continually fears she’s not living up to her side of the bargain in her marriage or her parenting. Yet as we’ve watched this season bloom and open up the characters, it became evident early on that Lacey has been the only person who is keeping up her end of the bargain.

Lacey was willing to sacrifice her image if it meant Kevin had a better one in Jenna’s eyes. Can we take a moment and let the significance of that settle in?

It’s unconditional love when one parent is willing to sacrifice that much for their child, letting themselves be negatively impacted if it means their kids are better off.  Lacey recognized that Jenna would benefit most from two parents versus one, and she willingly let Kevin use everything she had developed with Jenna so he wouldn’t run out or begin to detach from Jenna when he held her. Nothing was off the table.

Kevin understood the significance of Lacey’s sacrifice as well. He knows that Jenna wouldn’t think of him as a hero without her - and she’s a hero to him because of that.

Jenna was finally armed with all the facts and her reaction to all of it brought me to tears. The song that was once her father’s song was really her mother’s. She used it to calm her Lacey’s crying.

Other thoughts:

• If Jenna decides to play the single life I can’t say I’ll mind. I would love to see her find herself some more, and it would give Matty and Jake some time to grow outside of Jenna’ orbit a little bit.
• I was hoping Sadie would get herpes for karmic purposes.
• Val broke things off with Lacey! I hope those two can work out their differences soon.

Most of the lines tonight are far too long to single out as a single winner, so head over to our Awkward quotes section to see all of them in their heartfelt entirety!