Foe Yay/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Topher: Hey, I could whip up a love slave anytime I wanted.
Whiskey: But that wouldn't be a challenge, would it? Slaves are just slaves, but winning over your enemy -- the one person guaranteed to reject everything you are -- that's real love. More real than anything up there in the world.

—Dollhouse, "Vows"

Examples of Foe Yay in Live-Action TV include:

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Other Examples

  • Two pairs in Boston Legal. Alan Shore and Melvin Palmer, but Jeffrey Coho and Brad Chase are more so.
  • Although they're not enemies per se, laid-back Hawkeye and strict Margaret from M*A*S*H qualify. In fact, this relationship has evolved over time, from being enemies, to respecting each other as professionals, to a one-time, spur-of-the-moment love affair in the Season 6 Cliff Hanger (which ended in a falling-out in Part 2, unbeknownst to the rest of the cast), to being passing friends for the rest of series, culminating in a long, heartfelt kiss in the Grand Finale.
  • Lex Luthor and Clark Kent on Smallville may be the epitome of this trope in distilled form.
    • Some of the original comics support this interpretation; notably, the Silver Age story where Superboy keeps a trophy room of mementos of Luthor before he turned evil, including some of his lost hair. Note that before he turned evil, Lex likewise had a Superboy room.
      • Plus, in the comics, they basically have a son together, in the clone-combination of Lex Luthor and Superman's DNA.
        • In the earlier seasons of Smallville, Television Without Pity kept a running tally of Gayest Looks of the Episode. Yeah.
    • Clark has it with both incarnations of Zod, too. (It didn't help that the first was borrowing Lex's body for their final battle.)
    • Lois Lane and Tess Mercer on Smallville. Exhibit A:

Lois: What is it with you and physical violence?
Tess: The last time you and I saw each other, things did get a little... physical, didn't they?
Lois: And then what happened, Tess? Inquiring minds want to know.
Tess: You don't remember?
Lois: Well, a three-week concussion can do that to you. But I think that you bonked me on the head and then held me somewhere.
Tess: Held you? That's wishful thinking, Lane. When I came to, you were already gone. We never did get to finish what we started, though. Little rematch?

    • Another time, she said she missed the French maid outfit Lois had once disguised herself in. It'd be easier to list the scenes with the two of them that don't scream "For the love of Rao, just make out already!"
    • Chloe Sullivan and Lionel Luthor. This one is canonical, at least according to Word of God, since John Glover, the actor who played Lionel, actually said he was putting attraction to Chloe into his portrayal of the character. You can see for yourself here.
  • Dr. Mohinder Suresh (good guy) and Sylar (villain) on Heroes. The subtext becomes so glaringly obvious at times that during an interview with both actors, Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder) himself jokingly suggested the idea of "Sylar and Mohinder: The Sitcom" as a fictional spin-off. (Mind you, he has also suggested a "Heroes: The Bollywood Musical" episode a couple of times.)
    • In fact, the actors named their own slash pairing in that interview, as in "Sylinder: The Sitcom". They liked "Mylar", too, though.
    • There's also Sylar/Peter. The breathy "You came for me?" and "I wasn't going to leave you."
      • Their fights and bickering in general have quite an amount of Foe Yay in them, especially with a shirtless encounter in Sylar's prison cell and a fight inside Primatech had then nearly touching noses in between punching each other's lights out.
      • It gets especially ramped up with a particularly nasty brawl between them that ended with Peter straddling Sylar to a table and using a nail gun. Cue the hurricane of "Sylar gets nailed" jokes.
      • The final two episodes of the series veers them right into Ho Yay territory with The Wall in which Peter and Sylar are trapped in a dream world inside Sylar's head where they are the only inhabitants and time moves much faster. They spent the majority of the time in there seething at each other. When a shocked and deeply annoyed Parkman demands how they escaped the mental prison in the following episode, they reply in unison, "It's a long story".
    • The writers certainly seemed to be playing with this with Sylar and Claire as well in the last episode of the third season, amping up the creep factor for all it was worth. Made at least a little less squicky by the fact that they're apparently not really related after all.
    • From the same show, HRG and Sylar. There both obsessed with one another, to the point that Sylar PRETENDS TO BE NOAH'S WIFE and break up with him. Just for kicks. Oh yes, did we mention Sylar seems to be spending a lot of time female lately? I can only begin to imagine some of the fanfics that will be spun out of this particular plot thread.
    • And Sylar/Angela. Kind of awkward and neared towards Squick during the periods in which he though was her son, but once he realizes she was lying to him, he's back to messing with her. He even kisses her, saying she was a level of evil that he can aspire to. Naturally she doesn't take this very well.
    • Sylar and Elle are canon Foe Yay.
    • ...and Sylar/Danko. "...and then you got into bed with Sylar."
    • There's also Adam/Hiro and Adam/Peter.

Adam (to Hiro): You were more than a friend... (and) you taught me how to love!

    • Also the volume 3 Bad Future version of Peter/Claire. "I've always loved you Peter." Right before trying to kill him!
    • Elle/Claire started as Foe Yay then turned into regular Les Yay and possibly Foe Yay again. One could wonder if Elle had "other" plans for Claire upon capturing her
  • The Borg Queen and Data... and Picard... and Seven of Nine... and Janeway... In short, the seductive voice she uses for everyone makes her a Foe Yay goldmine.
    • Picard/Q. Though they weren't exactly enemies, even if Q made Picard's life harder.
      • And Janeway/Q. He deigned to offer her the opportunity to make a baby with him! And he appeared in a bubble bath with her, to her unpleasant surprise.
    • Spock and McCoy from TOS anyone?

Spock: Doctor, I do believe you are a sensualist.
McCoy: You bet your pointed ears I am.

    • Captain Kirk and Commander Kor, the Klingon from 'Errand of Mercy'. They spend half of the episode standing a foot and a half apart and staring into each other's eyes! Not to mention being alone together in Kor's office... twice.
    • Captain Kirk and Finnegan, the school bully from Shore Leave. Yes, The One With... the backrub scene. Theodore Sturgeon is very fond of Subtext.
  • Farscape villain Scorpius is obsessed with getting the wormhole knowledge stored inside hero John Crichton's brain. And possibly getting inside his pants, considering all the times he looms very close to Crichton to intimidate him. And the episode he repeatedly implored him to "Insert the rod, John! Insert it... insert the rod...", which was only slightly less homoerotic in context. And there was episode Scorpy cemented a blood vow with Crichton, only to enthusiastically suck Crichton's finger. Also he once pinned John bodily to the floor to make a point. The Foe Yay is not lessened by the fact that Scorpius wears what amounts to leather S&M fetish gear. With a codpiece.
    • Repeatedly lampshaded by John himself. Including the referenced scene.
    • Then there's Grayza, who says "Frell subtext" and out-and-out rapes John. Or so it seems: after the fade to black, we find out that Grayza likes to be tied up. John chooses this opportune moment to reveal that Grayza's pheromones don't affect him.
      • Grayza's pheromones do affect John and the first time she rapes him. The next time, he uses the "Zanax drug" thing and he manages to deceive her and tie her up.
    • That's just to start. It gets so bad in the series that some people working on the show jokingly describe it as one American man's descent into the Australian S&M scene. Hell, one might consider the early tension between John and Aeryn to be Foe Yay.
    • Aeryn and Crais: He tried to kill her, got her exiled from the Peacekeepers, paid bounty hunters to dispose of her. She left him in a torture machine turned up to full. One season later she's offering him her body (albeit to save John), and he's inviting her to move in with him.
    • And John and Crais, before John moves on to Scorpius. Especially the "Take That!" Kiss in "Mind the Baby"...
    • Maldis and Zhaan.
    • Stark and... well, a lot of people (Crais, the Aurora chair (yes he has Foe yay with an inanimate object... yeeeeaaah)). Because he's the resident mental case, has wide mood swings, is quite vulnerable emotionally, and has a lot of evil dark stuff in his head, none of his relationships with anyone are exactly typical.
  • Given the fact that Justin and Alex from Wizards of Waverly Place compete to win the Family Wizard title and that they spend most of their time arguing, getting back and throwing insults at each other, it's not wrong to say that they indeed are rivals, bordering on a Cain and Abel type of relationship. They even declared their absolute, brotherly hate they have for each other. On the other side, due to all the Slap Slap Kiss that's going on between them and to other factors (Relationship Writing Fumble, UST, Getting Crap Past the Radar), the relationship seems to evolve into something else entirely... against the creators' will.
  • Robot Chicken had a scene where Sailor Moon did her magical costume change to fight the villain... who then proceeded to get a hard-on, which made everything awkward, so they both decided to call off the fight. Later the villain reported to Queen Beryl and her yelling at him turned him on again. Later, Queen Beryl obsessed over a photograph of Sailor Moon and she got hard also. Her response to this?

Queen Beryl: Anime sure is weird.

  • In the Star Wars specials, Boba Fett has a bit of an unrequited crush on Han Solo.
  • Fox Mulder and Alex Krycek from The X-Files. Seriously, Krycek kisses Mulder on the cheek in one episode.
    • And the fact that Nicholas Lea and David Duchovny have read Mulder/Krycek slash...they apparently found it quite entertaining.
    • Hell, Krycek has a level of Foe Yay with half his enemies. It's definitely most evident with Mulder, though.
  • Ben and Locke of Lost. Heck, Jack and Locke can be classified as Foe Yay now.
    • But especially Ben and Locke.

Locke: You see what's behind you?
Ben: It's a door. How 'bout that.
Locke: Not just a door, Ben. It's the door to the hatch where you and I first met. (pause) Do you mind if I ask you a question?
Ben: I'm a Pisces.

    • Honestly, with the way their alliances shift, any pairing involving Ben or Locke will be Foe Yay at some point.
    • Following the Season Five Finale, the internet fandom nearly drowned in the Foe Yaytasticness that is Ben/Jacob. It doesn't help matters that Ben's motivation for stabbing Jacob seem reminiscent of that of a spurned lover, painting Ben in a new, rather Yandere-ish light. The fangirls approved.
    • And as of Dr. Linus, we have some rather amusing undertones for Ben and Ilana.
    • The episode The Last Recruit gives us hints of UnLocke/Jack. Especially when UnLocke carries Jack to rest against a tree after he got knocked over by an explosion and tells him, "It's ok, Jack. You're with me now."
  • Angel and Lindsey have this in Angel, but Lindsey is absent for most of the series. When Angel recruits Lindsey to help take on evil in the last few episodes, he says:

Angel: I want you, Lindsey. [[[Beat]]] Thinkin' about rephrasing that.
Lindsey: Yeah, I think I'd be more comfortable if you did.

    • Also:

Darla: It's not me you want to screw, it's him.

    • This is finally resolved when Lorne unexpectedly shoots Lindsey. As Lindsey dies, he sputters in disbelief that Angel sent a flunky to kill him, instead of doing it himself.
    • Angel also has Foe Yay with Lindsey's rival, Lilah. He never has any comprehension of "personal space" when it comes to her, plus that time an old man possessing his body made out with her. Yay?
      • Lilah herself was canonically in a relationship with Wesley, and the trope is lampshaded after they first have sex.

Lilah: "What? No sweet kiss? No 'When can I see you again?' (Wes gives her a look) Watch the dirty looks. That's what got me going in the first place. (Lilah begins to pull on her clothes) I'll give you this — you sure know how to channel your rage, frustration, and hate. Always a bigger turn on than love."

    • Faith has some of it with Wesley, starting in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but mostly contained to Angel. He failed at being her Watcher, she tortured him extensively, and then he helps her escape the prison in season 4.
  • Dr. Cox and Dr. Kelso in Scrubs are always at odds with each other that it borders on obsession.
    • In My Nightingale Kelso tried to make Cox publicly call him the love of his life. And, of course, the two slept together in My Own Worst Enemy.
    • They even have a "secret" friendship in the latest season. Very Brokeback Mountain thing.
    • Also The Janitor and J.D. The Janitor even laments "I don't know why...you're doing these things to me..." Of course that quote's taken out of context, but eh.

JD: Look, it was just a coincidence, man! I mean, if you had looked out the window, you'd have seen my penis, you know!
The Janitor: What!?! Why?
JD: Because I had it out while I was looking at yours!

      • As if to cement the Foe Yay, the instant Janitor learns that JD has left the hospital, he dusts his hands and walks out, never to be seen again.
  • Firefly's Mal and Saffron. Bonus points because they're actually legally married according to Triumph marriage laws and neither took the time and effort to get it annulled. Of course, Saffron gets married a lot, and then Foe Yay results, so...
    • And there's the ever-present River/Jayne dynamic. Jayne outright says that River is "cute," and comments that while she's not all there in the brainpan, not all of her has to be.
      • There's actually quite a bit of it between them. Not overwhelmingly overt, but it's there. From "Ariel"....

River: "Copper for a kiss..."

      • And from "Trash"...

Jayne: Well, as a rule, I say girlfolk ain't to be trusted.
River: Jayne is a girl's name.
Jayne: Well, Jayne ain't a girl!
[to Simon]
Jayne: She starts in on that "girl's name" thing, I'll show her, good an' all, I got man parts!
Simon: I'm trying to think of a way for you to be cruder. It's just... it's not coming.

      • Don't forget the "Gorrammit, girl, it's me!" part of the big Maidenhead fight from Serenity, which River responds to by grabbing Jayne's crotch. Admittedly, Jayne was trying to restrain River and River was going for a Groin Attack, but still...
        • Jayne grappling with River and her grabbing his crotch? Even with him trying to restrain her, that's still one hell of a potent moment of Foe Yay right there.
      • Adding to that, in the behind-the-scenes stuff, Adam Baldwin actually said he personally 'shipped River and Jayne. In another behind-the-scenes bit from the Maidenhead bar fight scene, after Adam shot the fight with Summer, he even admitted in a very giddy tone that she was hot.
      • And it's worth noting that in all of the scenes showing the crew eating dinner together, River is either sitting next to or very close to Jayne. Might be Shipping Goggles, but it's certainly odd that two people who are so completely at odds would sit that close....
    • Adam Baldwin actually said that there was going to be some planned Simon and Jayne subtext in future Firefly episodes before the series got canceled. But this is a Joss Whedon series, from the man who purposely put subtext between sisters. Nobody should be surprised.
      • It should also be noted that (depending on which order you watch the series in) either their first or second appearance together involves Simon drugging Jayne's drink. The fangirls certainly did...
    • In the earlier episodes, when there's still quite a bit of animosity between Mal and Simon, there seems to be extreme amounts of UST as well.
    • You know, its pretty easy to accidentally infer some one-sided Foe Yay from the Operative toward River in the movie, what with all those rather disturbingly delivered lines about Mal "keeping her from me" and how he wants to "bring her back home" and "reach out and bring her back to us." Not to mention the way he stares at her in the hologram room. Its really kind of creepy.
      • The same is also true of Jubal Early. There's that bit where he commented that maybe River sleeps with someone else on the ship. His tone makes it sound like he almost wanted it to be true. And how he keeps calling River "darlin'," and how he said "Best to go on with ol' Early...." Plus, the implied raping threats. Suddenly, Early is a thousand times creepier.
      • "You crawl inside me uninvited...." River, you are not helping with dispelling the No Yay of this episode.
  • A straight and squicky example seems to be occurring in Supernatural with Lilith, Sam and Dean. When she first appears, she labels Dean as the cute one and they seem to be going with the Lilith/Samael mythology, especially when she-as-Ruby kisses him and childishly tells him that his lips are soft. (And God knows what she's going to do to Dean when she inevitably visits/torments him in hell.)
    • Gordon and Dean. Full stop. From the moment the boys meet Gordon he does everything possible to separate and isolate Dean from Sam. In each subsequent episode it gets worse: he tries to turn Dean against Sam in a case of jerkass was right, then he kidnaps Dean to keep him safe while he and other hunters try and kill Sam, when he's turned into a vampire, his first action is to go to where Dean and Sam were, get Dean's scent and track him, leading to a very unpleasant phone conversation in which he tells Dean that no matter where he goes or what he does he'll find him. When Dean and Sam finally confront him face to fang he immediately separates them again, and instead of killing Sam when he has the chance decides to turn Dean: by shoving him against a wall, biting him and basically screwing him through his clothes, all the while stating that this way they can hunt together forever.
    • Azazel had chemistry with both of the boys as well, although that might have been less intentional. But really, what do you call his liking for pinning them up against inanimate objects, leaning in real close to Dean and taunting him about his worthlessness and acting like a pervy uncle to Sam?
      • Not to mention that he perves on Dean while in his grandfather's body, including leaning in REAL close and then sniffing at his neck...
    • A disturbing example is in Free to be You and Me, when Lucifer confronts Sam in a dream, and tells Sam how he will hunt Sam down, and force him to give consent to go into Sam. The threat sounds so much like a rape threat that the text and subtext are nigh interchangeable.
      • Then when Lucifer finally posses Sam, he spends most of his time taunting him, stating at one point that he's "taking the gag off" to allow Sam to speak and that they are "two halves made whole" and "MFEO" (made for each other). Subtle.
      • And now Sam has been stuck in the cage in hell with Lucifer for well over a year. In "Hello, Cruel World" it's outright stated in Sam's Lucifer hallucination that Lucifer made Sam his "bitch in every sense of the term."
    • And then there are the skeevy season four introductions of foe-yay between Alistair and Dean and Sam and Ruby. Sam and Ruby is graphically canon whereas Alistair/Dean is only hinted at - but with hints such as Alistair singing to Dean about "dancing cheek to cheek", commenting fondly on his "promise", calling him "Daddy's little girl" and musing about how Dean must want revenge for all the "pokes and prods" that Alistair delivered in Hell, do we really need onscreen confirmation?
    • And now in the latest episode: Castiel/ Meg , full stop. He's an angel, she's a demon; she calls him "Clarence", he calls her an "abomination"; she eye-fucks him from the second they meet and he nearly breaks a wall by smashing her into it when they first kiss. The Winchesters are suitably unnerved by their interaction.
  • The character of Stephen Colbert regularly insists that he "hates" Jon Stewart, that Jon has victimized him in vague but terrible ways, that they don't speak to each other, et cetera, et cetera...then does things like panic when Jon appears to go missing, and apparently set up cameras in Jon's office. Not to mention all the unintentional innuendo ("So that would be like me eating Jon Stewart? Think about it, Jon!"). A one-sided variation of this trope, as Jon remains almost uniformly Zen no matter what Stephen's mood of the moment is.
    • However, Jon at least seems to indulge Stephen's mood swings. When Stephen took offense to Jon's criticism of Geraldo (who character-Stephen adores), Jon sneaks into The Colbert Report and formally apologizes to Geraldo to make Stephen happy, even agreeing to wear a Geraldo-esque mustache to 'truly understand Geraldo'.
    • Stephen once did a rather long joke (starts at 4:03), telling the story of how he once seduced and was in a relationship with a gay man (named Jonathan) for years, only to dump him, as part of a plot to rid the world of gays who were willing to get married. He ended the tale in tears, saying "What have I done?" Saved marriage, that's what.
    • Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, back when they were both on The Daily Show. ("YES!" "NO!" "YEEEESSSS!")
    • Colbert also has occasionally has foe yay with his number one enemies: bears. In the recent Christmas special, Colbert and a bear sing "What's So Funny ('Bout Peace, Love and Understanding)" before ending up under the mistletoe....
  • Since we're talking about Jon Stewart, whenever he has NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on The Daily Show as a guest, their constant bickering totally comes off as this.

Jon Stewart: You have three nipples!
Brian Williams: I didn't hear you complaining last night.
Jon Stewart: Settle down!

  • A recent BBC biopic about famous moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse actually shipped her with the controversial and liberal Director General of the BBC, Sir Hugh Greene, complete with the two obsessing the other and even an imagined sex scene.
  • The Wild Wild West: Loveless's craving for revenge against West tends to take precedence over the ostensible goals of his Mad Scientist schemes (notably in "The Night Dr. Loveless Died").
  • Blackpool: It's really hard not to read this into Ripley Holden and DI Peter Carlisle's relationship after theThese Boots sequence.
  • Cappie and Evan in Greek.
  • "Your hair. It's so pretty...." It does not help that Cameron and Allison literally look exactly alike. In anyone else, we'd call it narcissism, but it only makes sense that even Summer Glau wouldn't be able to resist Summer Glau.
    • There's also more than one scene involving Derek and Cameron, such as the bit in "The Demon Hand" where he finds himself staring at Cameron for a prolonged period while she does a complex and beautiful ballet dance.
      • "To The Lighthouse" has some of this as well, particularly when Cameron and Derek are in the supply bunker together, complete with a very suggestive series of shots involving Derek shoving Cameron up against a wall. Though Derek was pointing a gun at Cameron's head at the time, but that might just make it worse.
  • In Power Rangers in Space, Silver Ranger Zhane and Dragon/Big Bad Astronema even went out on a date (it ended badly due to giant monsters). It probably helped that they later found out that Astronema was the red Rangers brainwashed sister and she did a heel face turn
    • In Power Rangers Dino Thunder, there are one or two hints that Tommy Oliver and Anton Mercer were... more than lab partners, if you know what I mean. The latter even tells his adopted son that they no longer work together in language usually reserved for parents explaining a divorce to their children. This Ho Yay persists, however, even with Anton's Super-Powered Evil Side Mesogog, the Big Bad to Tommy's Mentor. Mesogog even coming pretty damn close to nuzzling a captive Tommy he had strapped to a table at one point.

Tommy: I hate when he gets like this.

    • Tommy is a shipping magnet. In the first four seasons, there was Kim and Kat, along with Ho Yay for Jason. In addition, he has Foe Yay for Rita, Goldar, and Zedd. Oh, and Mesogog in Dino Thunder.
      • There's also some Foe Yay between Kimberly and Goldar - in the Non-Serial Movie, he takes Ooze's disparaging comments about "that cute little pink ranger" the wrong way, responding, "You think she's cute, too?"
  • Dexter and Miguel Prado near the end of season 3 of Dexter. Doesn't help that it started out as Ho Yay.
    • Before that in season 1, there's Dexter and the Ice Truck Killer, which is a big, steaming pile of No Yay even before he's revealed as Dexter's brother, after which the Foe Yay reaches escape velocity.
  • Buffy and Spike. The vampire slayer and the vampire. Of course, the subtext of Season 2 rapidly became text when Spike's obsession with killing Slayers and flirting with death developed into quite a different kind of... flirtation in Seasons three, four and five (most notably in the episode Fool for Love), until they became a canon couple in Season six.
    • Joss himself noted that he didn't know why he didn't realize sooner that Spike's obsession with defeating Buffy was from him being in love with her. It came as a "well duh" moment.
      • What's funnier is that James Marsters had played Spike as being in love with her from his first appearance.
    • In the opposite direction, it's worth noting that Buffy doesn't have sex with Spike (at her initiation) until after she realises that Spike's Restraining Bolt no longer works and he could kill her.
      • However it's also a Deconstruction of this trope, as Season 6 shows just how disfunctional a Foe Yay relationship would be if it was ever consumated.
    • The spin-off series Angel has been mention above, but once Spike joined the series as a regular character during its final season, the long-time immortal rivals Angel and Spike are forced to work together... guess what happens. Angel even hints in a throw-away line that he (well, his evil alter ego, Angelus) and Spike a.k.a. "William the Bloody" may have slept with each other once.
      • Weren't Angel and Spike just ticked off that The Immortal got their women to do something that the two of them had tried -- unsuccessfully -- for them to do for decades? Not so much sleeping with each other both getting a little group action in. Which, of course would mean the guys in neutral corners and sharing the girls.
      • Technically true, but in a not-so-throwaway line, Spike did insinuate that he and Angel had been... intimate. Just that one time.
    • Glory and Dawn have heaps too, which is just about every kind of Fetish Fuel imaginable.
      • Glory has Foe Yay with everyone. Between holding and licking Tara's hand, or ripping her dress off before fighting Willow, or asking Buffy if she's "Had a long day at work, sweetie?", or pinning Spike to a bed and straddling him when she kidnaps him.
      • You can't forget Faith. She and Buffy were rivals, she did sleep with Xander, and she and Willow never did get along... The rules of fanfiction have taken this dislike between them and turned them into a literal treasure trove of femslash.
        • It helps that the First basically confirmed it. The First gets all all the knowledge and memories of someone at their time of death. The First later turned into the Mayor and said that all Faith wanted was Buffy to love her. The First is going by The Mayor's memories and the Mayor knew Faith better than anyone. So basically, it's been confirmed that Faith is in love with Buffy and their interactions (and the fact that Faith of all people has been her guide of sorts in dreams, informing her about Dawn in the end of Season 3) make it easy to believe that Buffy does love her.
    • A Genre Savvy new vampire in season 7: "I was afraid to talk to you in high school, and now we're, like, mortal enemies. Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we became nemeses?"
    • Also, Warren and Buffy, which was noted by Willow: "That's why you always had a mad-on for the slayer. She was the Big 'O', wasn't she?"
      • Drusilla and Kendra. The final scene between them has been described as "almost sexualized" and "a G-rated lesbian interlude"
    • Don't forget Giles and Ethan!
      • Seriously. Cordelia even picks up on it in 2.08, "The Dark Age," when they meet in the library.

Ethan: Hello Ripper.
Giles: I thought I told you to leave town.
Ethan: You did. I didn't. Shop's lease is paid 'til the end of the month.
Cordelia: *aside to Xander* Why did he call him Ripper?
*Giles grabs Ethan by his hair and hauls him to his feet, bringing them almost nose-to-nose*
Giles: You should have left when I told you.
Cordelia: *with a look of dawning comprehension* Oh . . .

  • Colonel Klink and Colonel Hogan of Hogan's Heroes. Hogan's attempts to manipulate Klink are often coupled with behavior and dialogue that borders on flirting, even to the extent of lines like "what, you don't love me anymore?". It usually works.
  • Stargate SG-1 has it's fair share of this. Replicarter especially likes to toe the line with both Carter and Daniel. Then there's Hathor and everyone, Ba'al and everyone, Daniel and Adria, Daniel and Osiris, Daniel and Vala (before she joined the team)... and this is just some of the recurring ones. Sam especially seems to have a bad guy or two trying to woo/buy her every few episodes.
  • Quark and Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
    • Also Sisko and Dukat.
      • Eh, what about Kira and Dukat? A textbook example way beyond subtext (and could have gone much further into main text if Nana Visitor didn't object to the writer's idea of Kira having an affair with Dukat).
      • Garak even calls Dukat out for trying to impress her during Civil Defense.

Garak: She's much too busy trying to save the station to be impressed with your incessant posturing.
Dukat (embarrassed): Garak!
Garak: And even if she weren't, she has much better taste than to be attracted to you. You, a married man!

  • Picard and Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • Many Burn Notice fans thought the show was heading towards an ill-advised Michael/Carla hookup before Carla was killed at the end of the second season.
    • There's also some pretty heavy subtext between Michael and Jason Bly. They sure do enjoy invading each other's personal space...
    • Michael and Victor, man, Michael and Victor. As Michael Shanks says in the S2 finale commentary (re: the fuzzy pink rearview mirror): "It's like everything Victor touches turns pseudo-homoerotic."
    • And it's ramped up to eleven with Season Three's Psycho for Hire Gilroy. Gilroy is constantly touching him, referring to Michael's (supposed) alliance with him as a 'relationship'. Michael seems to be playing along slightly, if only to make Gilroy trust him, so it's almost a Foe Yay masquerading as a Ho Yay.

Michael: I like you, but as a friend--
Gilroy: You're cute, but shut up. [goes into his business proposition]

      • Even the soundtrack is getting into it; in "Partners in Crime" Gilroy arranges to meet Michael in a hot tub (no, really) while the background singer is going "I've got a mad little crush on you...", Then there's his death scene, where Gilroy gently touches Michael's arm and tells him to run before the bomb attached to Gilroy's chest goes off.
    • Michael's Evil Mentor Larry goes to a lot of trouble to get to work with him again. That Not So Different speech to Fiona- Michael's girlfriend- about how they both connect with him in a similar way is as eyebrow-raising as anything Gilroy has done.
    • Can we just say 'Michael and every Ax Crazy psycho who crosses his path' and be done with it? In the third season finale, Simon had a pretty intimate obsession with him and their wrestling got very...interesting.
    • In the beginning of season 3 detective Michelle Paxson sent to investigate and find enough evidence on Michael to put him away seems to have an obsession with her target that borders on admiration. This might be a trope in and of itself and is not always romantic but her friendly tone of voice and smile meant to be sarcastic doesn't always seem sarcastic. She also seems to enjoy visiting and following him for purposes of surveillance but in a way you might expect someone to follow their crush Michael himself asks her are you flirting with me.
  • Dollhouse featured an odd variant in its opening arc. Mellie and Ballard start out with very straightforward UST, but unlike most examples it's RST by the sixth episode...at which point it's revealed she's not just the cute, curvy girl next door, but an Active, November; it's doubly odd in that neither are aware it's Foe Yay.
    • Now, Alpha and Echo.
    • Speaking of canon Foe Yay, in the second season premier, Whiskey decides to express her intense and undying hatred towards Topher by crawling into bed with him. The resulting dialogue provides the page quote.
      • And as of the "The Public Eye"/"The Left Hand" duology, we have Topher/Bennett. Really, Topher is just racking up the Foe Yay.
        • She gets a Heel Face Turn, and they briefly turn into a couple. Then Whiskey shoots her.
    • Topher isn't the only one Bennett has this with. She's also got some nasty Les Yay with Caroline and thus Echo, especially when she ties Echo down to her table and starts torturing her...but Bennett then stops and gives Echo some water and wipes her tears, all in a very gentle way.
  • Oz. Though their conflict is mainly a struggle for influence over the other inmates, feared Nigerian gangster Simon Adebisi, an insane murderer and rapist of other inmates, lampshades this trope with Muslim leader Kareem Said, who has become his cellmate in order to gather evidence against him.

Adebisi: "I know you have come here to destroy me."
Said: "What are you going to do -- kill me?"
Adebisi: "Kill you? I want to kiss you. But because I admire you more than I desire you, I won't."

    • And Schillinger/Beecher, what with Schillinger calling Beecher "sweet pea" and going out of his way to fucking with Beecher's head...
      • And having sex with him...
    • And Keller/Beecher pretty much switched back and forth between Ho Yay and Foe Yay throughout the entire series run.
  • Prison Break has T-Bag being his predator self towards Michael.
  • Carter and Stark from Eureka. From the moment Stark was introduced to Carter all they ever really do is bicker like a married couple up until Stark's death in season 3.
  • Battlestar Galactica. Admiral Cain's hatred of Cylon prisoner Gina seemed so personal, the writers decided to put a lesbian relationship into their backstory in "Razor". Which had already been foreshadowed in their final confrontation.

Gina: Can you roll over, do tricks, beg?
Cain: Frak you.
Gina: You're not my type. (shoots her)

  • Veronica Mars -- Logan and Weevil. Their shared girlfriend makes it worse. "If you're asking me to prom again..." "You look awful comfortable with that thing in your mouth..."
    • Also, Veronica and Sheriff Lamb. "'Why do I want this position?' How much of an ass-kiss would I be if I say it's to be closer to you? Seriously, why do birds suddenly appear every time you're near?"
    • Kendall and Cassidy, ever more so because she's his (young and hot) stepmother. They spend a lot of time yelling at each other, but they also seem to be the only people who fully appreciate each other's abilities; he did hire a PI to find out who she was sleeping with (and get photographic evidence), and of course, this bit:

Kendall: Do you ever think... maybe I'm the smart one? [she starts to pull at his sweater] That maybe, this delightful packaging... is just a means to outwitting my adversaries?

  • Played up almost certainly deliberately between rivals Captain Blackadder and Captain Darling in the forth season of Blackadder, with Darling's unfortunate name playing a defining role in it. Really, it's set down most definitively by Darling's first appearance, wherein Blackadder walks into his office and greets him with an almost blatantly flirtatious "Hello, Darling" before we know that's his name. If nothing else, the amount of Blackadder/Darling Slash Fic ought to convince you.
  • The Thick of It abounds with Foe Yay, due to Malcolm Tucker's habit of bullying people in an oddly magnetic way. The Movie (In the Loop) has Foe Yay between Jamie and Judy, as he tries to wangle information out of her.
    • Also Malcolm and Nicola Murray in S3, with her even mourning him in the series finale.
  • It took this long to mention Xena and Callisto? Really? Callisto's endless obsession, nicknaming Xena pretty, getting upset when she's 'rejected', constantly trying to murder Gabrielle... The funny thing is, it's almost reciprocated. Xena continually tries to redeem or save Callisto, despite the latter being decidedly Axe Crazy.
    • To the point where filker Tom Smith whipped up a hilarious song about it.

Ah, Callisto, put Xena in irons. I hope you take Gabrielle over your knee. Ah, Callisto, why does Xena obssess you. You do it to her, but I wish it was me!"

    • And how about Xena and Ares? It's reciprocated and canon!
  • Blake and Avon from Blakes Seven. Though they're technically on the same side, the idealistic Blake and amoral Avon clash at every opportunity. And yet they frequently end up in each other's personal space, sometimes after Avon has protectively thrown his arms around Blake when encountering some turbulence. Add in some choice comments showing they really do care for each other (Avon: I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care, or, indeed, why it should be necessary to prove it... at all.) and Avon's obsession with finding Blake in later seasons, and you have some choice Ho Yay. The face that the series ended with Avon shooting Blake because he thought he betrayed him really doesn't discredit this interpretation.
  • No mention of Londo and G'Kar yet? For shame. For people who didn't watch the show, this eventually got to the point that the writer finally admitted that he was deliberately putting the two characters into slash fiction cliche situations, including being stuck in a lift, temporary telepathy, bodyguarding...
  • If we are including het couples, how have Kate and Ari from NCIS not come up yet? In fact, the blatant Foe Yay contributed indirectly to the former's death by sniper. After Kate hesitates in their first encounter because of "his eyes", Ari is left to roam free and eventually shoots Kate as part of a plan to get to Gibbs. He does apologize after he pulls the trigger.
    • Then there was the whole thing with him kidnapping her and then being, for want of a better word, a complete darling towards her. It would be a perfectly plausible and acceptable ship if he hadn't killed her.
      • They would also make rather attractive babies.
  • No mention of Sportacus and Robbie yet?
    • "Hello Sportacus"- Robbie says this in his sleep in one episode.
    • In several episodes, Robbie even JUMPS into Sportacus' arms. I think we can conclude that Robbie doesn't want Sportacus to leave town FOREVER.
  • Sonny With a Chance: Sonny and Chad. They're always sniping, yet manage to have an "Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other" moment just about every show, and the UST is so thick, if you lit a match, the room would blow up.
    • Which turned into a canon relationship.
  • Chuck Bass and Carter Baizen on Gossip Girl. Fans speculate, and it has been implied, that Chuck's past experiments with same sex love included Carter.
    • Chuck Bass and anyone, really. Chuck Bass and everyone.
    • Blair has this skill as well. She takes her battles so personally, that it's not hard to ship her with whoever she's currently trying to take down. And, like Chuck, her worst insults always seem to have a flirtatious undertone.
  • Captain Grisham and the Queen of Swords. Their first meeting involved the Queen putting a sword between his legs, and the episode "End of Days" involved them trapped together in a mine. Also, to a lesser extent, the Queen and Montoya.
  • The fistfight between Cain and Zero in Tin Man could definitely get read that way, especially on Zero's part.
  • Demetri Noh on FlashForward seems to attract a lot of this. He and Vogel have a fairly intense relationship... and then there's the fact that he and Janis have suprisingly good chemistry, despite her being a) a lesbian and b) apparently a mole.
  • In Criminal Minds, there's some pretty blatant Foe Yay between The Reaper and Hotch. Especially Squicky since The Reaper might really have actually raped Hotch, depending on how you might have interpreted a certain scene between them. But one thing's for sure: the entire script certainly made that knife scene very sexualized. Especially with how The Reaper seemed so hellbent on proving to Hotch that he's very wrong about how serial killers who use knives are impotent. And he decides to do this to Hotch after stripping off his shirt.
    • This troper really doesn't know what to think about that scene, except to be disturbed at how sexual it was. Considering that Hotch at one point suggests that the Reaper uses stabbing of his female victims as sexual release, it was definitely metaphorical, at the very least.
    • The team mentions many times in the series that sexual sadists are generally impotent. If that's not a rape scene then it's as close as Foyet is ever going to get without serious medical intervention.
    • On another "Criminal Minds" note, there's some of this between Reid and Hankel (in his Charles persona, at least) as well. There are plenty of ways to beat someone that *don't* involve stripping off his shoes and socks and holding his bare foot in your lap...
  • Will and Sue from Glee.
    • Textualized in "Funk." For a bit.
    • Will and Bryan Ryan in Dream On, very obviously.
    • Also Kurt and Rachel. Particularly this quote from Sectionals:

Kurt: I suggest we tie her up until after Sectionals. I volunteer my basement!

    • And now with the latest episode, we have Karofsky kissing Kurt. One-sided, but canon!
    • Anyone who's watched the show then read fanfiction has noticed the 'Rachel' 'Quinn' (Faberry) Foe Yay moments.
  • Community: The episode "Physical Education" features Jeff feuding with his new billiards instructor. They later have a pool match which features both of them getting naked. It turns into Ho Yay when the instructor walks up to Jeff while both are still naked (after Jeff won the pool match) then kisses him on the lips, calling him a "magnificent son of a bitch!"
    • Britta and Chang in Geography Of Global Conflict. They even get romantic music playing over their scenes.
  • Robin Hood/Guy of Gisbourne.
    • Robin/Sheriff.
  • Ashes to Ashes: The fact that Daniel Mays and Philip Glenister both apparently have chemistry with the linoleum only goes so far towards explaining how very, very personally Jim Keats feels about taking Gene down...
  • Played for real in Hex, where it forms half the plot of the second season.
  • Invoked by Lucretia in Spartacus: Blood and Sand, as part of a brutal Bed Trick.
  • Survivor is a very competitive Reality Show, and hence provided many examples.
    • Colby Donaldson and Jerri Manthey. Oh brother..
  • Rizzoli and Isles: Jane and the serial killer Hoyt.
  • Psych: Shawn and Lassie have buckets of Ho Yay right from the first episode.
    • Shawn even namedrops their (most common) fandom shipping name, Shassie, in "The Head, The Tail, The Whole Damn Episode," along with Shassiter and Sharlton. It doesn't help that he's telling Lassiter that by working on a case together, they'll "become like one."
  • Eric and Bill from True Blood. For two vamps fighting over the same girl they seem to be very... in each other's space. The scene in the clothes shop adds to this. It's even lampshaded by the Queen when she says "You two should really just have sex and be done with it."
  • Stargate Atlantis
    • Rodney McKay and Radek Zelenka. They constantly bicker like an old married couple, and it's lampshaded in one episode:

Sheppard: Shouldn't you two be bickering?
McKay: We've got nothing to bicker about; he's run out of bad ideas.
Zelenka: If we survive this, I'm putting in for a transfer.
McKay: Oh please, we both know you've done your best work under me.

Zelenka Under you?! I'm my own department head!

McKay Come on! We both know that department's a joke!

Sheppard Why don't you two just make out and get it over with?

    • Todd and Shepard seem to have this heavily implied via references to their 'unique relationship'.
  • Nathan and Duke from Haven.
  • Damon and Bonnie from The Vampire Diaries, not to mention Jeremy and Tyler in season 1.
  • iCarly: Nevel and Carly have a little Stalker with a Crush Foe Yay, although it gets very creepy when Nevel ends up putting zoomed in close up videos of Carly all over the monitors in his Hacker Cave.
  • Sydney Bristow and Julian Sark from Alias.
    • Sark and Vaughn had their share of tension, too. Really, Sark and anyone. He's like Spike in that anyone he comes across, he has UST with. Including Marshall, who seems to be a bit in awe of him when they first have a telephone conversation.
    • Sark and Rachel's Foe Yay is actually canon. They slept together the first time they met. of course, that was before either knew the other was their enemy.
    • Sydney and Anna Espinoza smile so much when they see each other you half expect them to burst into song. Then there's Anna leaving a big wet kiss on some glass separating them; a few episodes later, Sydney returns the gesture.
  • Ugly Betty played this trope for laughs in the season four episode "Blackout": The rising tension between Daniel and Wilhelmina gets to the point where they are tricked into seeing a therapist. The therapist arrives to the conclusion that the reason for Wilhelmina's hostility towards Daniel is sexual tension, and tells Daniel as such, comparing her behaviour towards him as a female animal "presenting herself" (those exact words). Then Hilarity Ensues when the titular blackout occurs while the two are stuck in an elevator. Daniel decides to "relieve" the tension by kissing Wilhelmina and saying he knows she's giving him a hard time because she wants him. Nope, she just wants his position, and lets him know as such by punching him out.
  • Merlin and Morgana (as of Season 3) spend half their time spoiling each otehrs plans, engaging in intense sword-fighting, or simply eyesexing each other across the room every time they meet. The Great Dragon also claimed that their 'futures are joined forever'.
  • Sherlock and Moriarty. Mostly thanks to Moriarty's hammy, Camp Straight personality.

Sherlock: We met twice, five minutes in total. I pulled a gun, he tried to blow me up. I felt we had a special something.

    • Some hints of John/Moriarty as well. Again, Moriarty's fault.
  • Victorious: Jade and Tori share some Les Yay Foe Yay.
  • Considering the sheer amount of shifting alliances and admiring of worthy opponents going on in Three Kingdoms, it's not surprising that a whole lot of foe yay turns up. Special mention, though, has to go to Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, whom the writer has compared to a pair of lovers in an interview.
  • Homeland features what may be the most triumphant example: Carrie Matheson falls madly in love with Nicholas Brody, and he with her, even as she is trying to get proof that he is a terrorist. When they spend the weekend together at her cabin, both she and the audience lose sight of whether she is still trying to lull him into giving some key piece of information away, if you she just wants to be with him because he makes her happy.
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