The Only Way is Essex took Bromance to the next level on last night's season finale.
Mark Wright and best friend James 'Arg' Argent both broke down in tears as Mark announced he is leaving Essex behind after his ongoing love life entanglements became too much.
With tears streaming down his face, Arg weeps, 'But where does this leave us?' after Mark announces that he needs to get away to 'clear his head'.
'Essex is the wrong place for me right now,' Mark, 24, explains during their tearful conversation.
'The way my love life has been in the last 18 months is ridiculous. Lauren is upset, Lauren and Sam are arguing, it's getting too much.
'I need to get out and clear my head.'
'I can't imagine doing anything without you,' Arg cries.
The boys embrace, with Mark reassuring his sidekick: 'You're my best friend in the whole world. You're in my heart forever. I'll never leave you.'
Earlier Mark had discussed leaving town with his mother Carol and father, Mark Senior, who made his debut on the show.
'I'm debating going away for a bit,' Mark informs his parents. 'Just get out of the circle for a bit. I don't know how long for. To be fair to Lauren, to be honest.'
'I'll probably carry on seeing Sam, but not at these parties in front of Lauren. I'll do it on my own time.'
'If you're in the same place at the same time she's never going to move on,' Mark Snr says.
'Give it a week and we'll have the same situation,' Mark Snr says after his son leaves.
'I think it's different this time,' says Carol.
'If I had a pound for every time he said that,' Mark Snr replies.
Show producers ensured they went out with a bang in the season finale - from Mark and Arg using sun beds in their briefs to the girls practising their yoga moves in the hot tub, there was plenty of flesh on show.
The whole cast attend a fireworks night party, and as they prepare Joey Essex and his sister discuss the origins of the holiday.
Bizarrely, its an almost identical scene to one in season one in which former star Amy Childs discusses why we celebrate Guy Fawkes night with Harry Derbidge.
'He died on a cross in a bonfire, right?' Joey muses.
At the party Mario Falcone discusses his recent break-up with girlfriend Lucy Mecklenburgh after she admitted to cheating on him.
'I know it feels like the end of the world,' Lydia's mother Debbie advises him.' Nothing is forever. If you don't have the lows like right now, you wouldn't know when you're happy.'
Mario admits: 'I miss her. I miss her pushing me out of my single bed and snoring. I'm proper cut up.'
Lucy's good friend Lydia tells him: 'I know how cut up she is, I've had her crying down the phone to me.'
Mario also chats to Lauren Goodger about the situation.
'What hurts the most is that everyone said to me "Mario, wake up," but I believed her because of love,' he tells Lauren, who had earlier discussed how good looking Mario is with roommate Lauren Pope.
'We all think you're lovely,' Lauren tells him. 'There's not many guys like you around. You're going to have loads of girls after you.'
But any possible flirtation between the pair is halted when Lucy switches off the music to make an announcement.
'As everyone has taken such an interest in my personal life lately, I thought I'd get up here and put you all straight,' she says to the party.
Lucy begs Mario for forgiveness, admitting she was selfish and stupid and says she wants to work on getting back together.
'I don't know if you can ever find it in your heart to forgive me but I still love you,' she says.
The couple embrace afterwards but Mario tells Lucy it will take a lot for him to trust her again.
Meanwhile the cause of all their troubles, Mark, meets with Lauren to make amends after their furious row the week before.
'Every time we argue it gets me down and I can't see you hurt anymore,' he tells her.
'I don't know how you'll take this but I'm telling you this for the future, I love you - but I don't love you like that anymore.'
'It breaks my heart to see you with a girl,' Lauren confesses, 'but I'll never go back with you ever again.
'I love you but I don't like you,' she adds.
'We both know now it's over... You mean the world to me and I hope in the future we will see each other and be friends.'
They hug as they say goodbye and tell each other 'I love you,' before Mark goes to find his current squeeze Sam.
'I've been giving a lot of thought to what I want in life and I feel like I've been going round in circles,' Mark tells Sam.
'You're the person I want to be with and I want to spend Christmas with you and hopefully we'll be a proper couple.'
But Mark doesn't get quite the reception he was hoping for from Sam.
After her older sister Billie advised her earlier to not put herself through the pain of Mark making a fool of her, Sam tells him: 'I just think you've got too much going on in your life. I can't have someone like Lauren haunting me.
'If I told you I wanted to settle down I think it would last two minutes. I cannot trust you.'
'I need you to tell me right now if you don't want it because it sounds like you don't,' Mark says.
'I don't want it,' Sam replies coolly, walking off and leaving him behind.
Arg and Lydia find a quiet corner where Lydia reassures her longtime love that she loves him just the way he is.
Arg was seen asking Joey Essex for style advice earlier in the episode and using the sun bed because 'a tan is slimming'.
But Lydia insists: 'The reason I love you is you're just dopey old Arg, you eat loads and you fart loads and you look like you dressed in the dark.'
She adds: 'Don't change, don't think you have to change yourself for me.'
Meanwhile, Jess Wright and Joey have onlookers at the party gasping with an unexpected dance floor kiss.
The explosive episode ends with Mark Wright doing his best to squeeze out some dramatic tears as he gazes down at his friends at the party before making his dramatic exit.
He is of course off to Australia to appear in the jungle for I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here from this Sunday.
The Only Way is Essex will return for a Christmas special episode next month. Mark can be seen on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, premiering this Sunday, November 13, on ITV.
