* The episode "And Then There Were Two" started out with Rico still not trusting T'Phai. By the end, they work together and save the other squad members. The best part comes after T'Phai's suit is damaged [[spoiler:He tries give Rico a good farewell and FinalSpeech. But Rico ain't having none of ''that''. So he goes from trooper to trooper, looking for somebody among them who can help.]]
** Earlier in the episode, T'Phai is looking at pictures of his family, clearly missing them. He's especially worried about his wife, who is a soldier like him and has not heard from her for some time. Brutto comes up to him and shows a picture of his own son who's back on Earth, letting the alien know that they share a common goal: keeping their loved ones safe. Moreover, Brutto is clearly proud of his son, bragging about how he would be worth a whole squad of MI.
** And before that, in "No Substitute", T'Phai spends the majority of the episode being rejected and ostracized by the Roughnecks save for an empathetic Higgins (likely because he's been in that position before). When the T'Phai distracts the Hoppers from detecting the squad, Higgins is the first to rappel down to save him.
* A FlashBack in one episode shows Rico going through [[TrainingFromHell Boot Camp]], with DrillSergeantNasty Zim badgering him the whole way, daring him to quit if he turns out not to be tough enough to get through it. During Rico's final test, he is too exhausted to make it over an obstacle and finally gives up. Zim refuses to accept that, and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold helps Rico through the final part]].
* When Rico is stuck in a coma, Dizzy visits him as much as possible to confess her feelings to him and try to bring him out of it. Carmen does the same. When he finally pulls through and gets some proper sleep, Dizzy leaves him a kiss mark on his recovery tube.
** And before Rico even wakes up, a storm threatens to wipe out the base, and he's in too delicate a state to be moved, so the roughnecks stay behind to keep the place running.
* Higgins, afraid that one day he and his team might not go back home following the war requests everyone to say their farewells to family and friends.
** Dizzy sends a message to her brother, telling him that she hopes he's alright and that she loves him.
** Carmen sends one to her father and apologizes for going against him when she decides to be a trooper.
** Gossard has a few loving words to his disabled sister.
** T'Phai gives his loves to his two children and that he'll always be with them, even in death.
** And what's Razak's message to his family? None. Because the Roughnecks are his family.
* During the Homefront Campaign, Dizzy and Rico start bumping heads. When Dizzy gets thrown off a cliff, Rico immediately goes to rescue her. Razak had already given a retreat order, but [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind gives Rico a few minutes to get her]]. When he and Dizzy make their way back up, he tells her that seeing her fall over the edge woke something up in him, and he realized that he loves her. Unfortunately, Dizzy invokes the CartwrightCurse, telling Rico that she's bad luck for anyone she cares about too much.
* After [[spoiler:the death of Razak]], SICON doesn't have a replacement available and intends to break up [[TrueCompanions the Roughnecks]] to reinforce other units that have suffered losses during the current campaign. During the funeral, Bugs attack and capture General Redwing and prepare to use a Brain Bug to learn everything she knows about the human war effort. Rico is able to rally the Roughnecks through the situation and rescue Redwing, who while appreciative of their actions tells them they should have killed her to keep the Bugs from being able to learn what she knew. Rico tells her that option was on the table if there was [[ShootTheDog no other choice]]. All the efforts of the Roughnecks together in this incident leads Redwing to declare the unit is too effective to be broken up, and she believes Rico has earned command even though he isn't formally an officer.