Heartwarming / Atypical

• When Elsa and Julia meet for the first time since Julia yelled at Sam, Julia tells Elsa that she pregnant and that might be the reason she yelled at Sam and that she's sorry. Elsa tells her that she knows she didn't make things easy for Julia and that Julia was good for Sam. Then Elsa congratulates her and the two hug it out.
• When Zahid is caught doing marijuana at work for the third time and about to be fired, Sam lies and says it's his and saves Zahid's job.
• Sam makes a hand drawn comic staring him and Casey for her birthday every year. Casey even says it's the one part of the birthday ritual that she actually likes.
• Sam invites Zahid to his graduation which Zahid is all to happy to accept.
• After Paige gets laryngitis and can't give the speech she had been preparing for graduation, Sam, who's terrified of public speaking, takes her note cards and gives her speech for her. And he actually does pretty well, speaking clearly and perfectly and when the people are laughing, they are laughing with him instead of at him. Casey, Doug, Elsa, Zahid, and Julia are all very proud of him.
  • Casey even holds Elsa's hand during the speech.
• When Paige is thanking Sam for giving her speech for her, Sam causally says that the reason he keeps doing so many nice things for her is that he's in love with her.
• When Sam sees Casey and Izzie kiss, Casey goes to talk to him to make sure he's okay and not weirded out. Sam tell her that he's fine with it and compares them to Sphen and Magic, two male penguins at the aquarium who are in a relationship and were given a baby penguin to take care of when the baby was abandoned. He even draws a picture of Sphen and Magic and leaves it in Casey's backpack for her to find at her track race.
• The plot to rescue Zahid from his elopement to Gretchen, which involves not only Sam and Casey, but two people who had recently had negative interactions with him: Abby, who had just met him at the Art Jam and was highly annoyed with his loud music and smoking; and Paige, who had accidentally seen his penis during the dinner party debacle. However, the four are able to locate the wedding venue and are genuinely heartbroken that Gretchen dumped him. This results in Sam locating Zahid in the casino's batting cages, and a reconciliation:
  Sam: You may have unhomied me, but I never unhomied you.
  • Later, we learn that Sam ditched his ethics midterm in order to stop the wedding and get Zahid back in time to take his nursing midterm, thus keeping his promise that he would not let Zahid screw up nursing school.
• The whole series finale is this. Sam and Paige share a very sweet moment despite the two ultimately needing to break up, since they will be living in completely different COUNTRIES for a while, Casey returns to Newton High School, makes amends with Izzie and, in a hilariously dorky way, has her friendship with Beth rekindled, Zahid not only finds a girlfriend but shows a genuine interest in her as a person, rather than simply seeing her as a sex object, and most importantly, Sam is able to go to Antarctica... with Elsa giving her firm approval and Doug coming along with him!