Sean Donahue is the oldest child of Ron and Nancy Donahue, as well as Axl and Darrin's best friend and teammate on the football team. He was an employee of the month at his job and is from a "perfect family."
He is helpful, polite, and friendly, which makes him outwardly the opposite of Axl. He always supports everything Axl does. Although Axl assumes the leadership role in their group of friends, Sean is the smartest of the three. He gets good grades and was accepted to Notre Dame.
Despite seeming nice on the outside, he has a mean inside. One example is that when Sue can't go to prom with him, he smiles on the outside but is clearly furious. He always mentions that Sue can be a very frustrating person.
In season 2, Sue developed a crush on Sean, but eventually ends the one-way relationship. They end the series married.
In season 7, Sean goes through a "hippie phase" during which he is a vegetarian.
In The Walk, Sean Donahue came to the Heck House and told Sue that Frankie was telling Nancy that Sue didn't have a date to prom and that that's crazy and felt obligated to take her. Before Sue could speak, he explained that his car broke down on the way from college and he's missing a major class, but it's okay, and she's like family. Sue felt touched. Sue had too many dates and declined him later which he acted smiley but was a little upset. He told this to Darrin, who realized Sue had too many dates.
It wasn't until Exes and Ohhhs where Sean showed signs of really really liking Sue, and has for a long while. Yet, sadly more mistakes occur, just like Sue and Darrin in The Walk, the two lovebirds didn't get to confess. Sean is shown multiple times coming back to confess to Sue, but more awkward events occur. Sean and Sue have a stronger liking for each other at this point than ever before.
In Please Don't Feed the Hecks, Sean casually visits Sue at East Indiana University, when she finds out that she and Lexie were kicked out of their college apartment after it was sublet to a man who refuses to leave, and who also turns out to be one of her professors. Despite Sue and Lexie's effort to devise a plan, with help from Brad Bottig, Sean visits the apartment and threatens to spread a rumor that he and Sue are having an illicit on-campus affair. Though grateful for his intervention, Sue is upset that her effort to expose herself as a strong feminist icon and dreads the idea that his rescue plays into the stereotype of the damsel in distress being rescued by the prince on the white horse. Sean then reminds her of an incident where he got stuck in a drainage pipe he was forbidden to play in, and she rescued him with her jump rope, never revealing the incident. Sean summarized that gender and gender roles have no relevance over who rescues who.
In The Christmas Miracle, Sean finds out he has three Bs and two of “the thing that comes after B” (C), which means the for the first time in his life he has grades below an A, which isn’t normal for him as he’s a Donahue. Sue comforts him and tells him all about her experiences as being “average” and “middle of the pack.” At the end of the episode, the two passionately kiss as the snow falls around them in the Hecks’ back garden.
In A Heck of a Ride, Sean is about to go to Ghana when he finds the snow globe Sue gave him in his bag. He leaves the airport and tries to catch up with Sue, who is on the road taking Axl to Denver. He confesses his feeling for her, and she does the same. They kiss, and it is later revealed that they broke up twice before finally getting married.
Appearences:
- Episode 1x05: The Block Party (Oct 28, 2009)
- Episode 1x09: Siblings (Dec 2, 2009)
- Episode 1x15: Valentine's Day (Feb 10, 2010)
- Episode 1x18: The Fun House (Mar 24, 2010)
- Episode 1x20: TV or Not TV (Apr 14, 2010)
- Episode 1x23: Signals (May 12, 2010)
- Episode 2x02: Homecoming (Sep 29, 2010)
- Episode 2x03: The Diaper Incident (Oct 6, 2010)
- Episode 2x06: Halloween (Oct 27, 2010)
- Episode 2x07: A Birthday Story (Nov 3, 2010)
- Episode 2x08: Errand Boy (Nov 17, 2010)
- Episode 2x15: Friends, Lies, and Videotape (Feb 16, 2011)
- Episode 2x22: The Prom (May 11, 2011)
- Episode 2x23: The Bridge (May 18, 2011)
- Episode 3x01: Forced Family Fun (1)(Sep 21, 2011)
- Episode 3x06: Bad Choices (Oct 19, 2011)
- Episode 3x07: Halloween II (Oct 26, 2011)
- Episode 3x14: Hecking It Up (Jan 18, 2012)
- Episode 3x15: Valentine's Day III (Feb 8, 2012)
- Episode 3x16: The Concert (Feb 15, 2012)
- Episode 3x22: The Clover (May 9, 2012)
- Episode 3x24: The Wedding (May 23, 2012)
- Episode 4x04: Bunny Therapy (Oct 10, 2012)
- Episode 4x14: The Smile (Feb 6, 2013)
- Episode 4x15: Valentine's Day IV (Feb 13, 2013)
- Episode 4x16: Winners and Losers (Feb 20, 2013)
- Episode 4x19: The Bachelor (Apr 3, 2013)
- Episode 4x20: Dollar Days (Apr 10, 2013)
- Episode 4x22: Hallelujah Hoedown (May 8, 2013)
- Episode 4x24: The Graduation (May 22, 2013)
- Episode 5x04: The 100th (Oct 23, 2013)
- Episode 5x08: The Kiss (Dec 4, 2013)
- Episode 5x10: Sleepless in Orson (Jan 8, 2014)
- Episode 5x15: Vacation Days (Mar 5, 2014)
- Episode 5x16: Stormy Moon (Mar 12, 2014)
- Episode 5x17: The Walk (Mar 26, 2014)
- Episode 6x01: Unbraceable You (Sep 24, 2014)
- Episode 6x09: The Christmas Wall (Dec 10, 2014)
- Episode 6x18: Operation Infiltration (Apr 1, 2015)
- Episode 6x20: Food Courting (Apr 15, 2015)
- Episode 6x22: While You Were Sleeping(Apr 29, 2015)
- Episode 7x07: Homecoming II: The Tailgate (Nov 11, 2015)
- Episode 7x08: Thanksgiving VII (Nov 18, 2015)
- Episode 7x15: Hecks at a Movie (Feb 17, 2016)
- Episode 7x18: A Very Donahue Vacation(Mar 23, 2016)
- Episode 8x06: Thanksgiving VIII (Nov 22, 2016)
- Episode 8x10: Escape Orson (Jan 3, 2017)
- Episode 8x13: Ovary and Out (Feb 7, 2017)
- Episode 8x17: Exes and Ohhhs (Mar 14, 2017)
- Episode 8x19: The Confirmation (Apr 11, 2017)
- Episode 9x01: Vive La Hecks (Oct 3, 2017)
- Episode 9x02: Please Don't Feed the Hecks (Oct 10, 2017)
- Episode 9x06: The Setup (Nov 7, 2017)
- Episode 9x10: The Christmas Miracle(Dec 12, 2017)
- Episode 9x11: New Year's Revelations(Jan 2, 2018)
- Episode 9x14: Guess Who's Coming to Frozen Dinner (Feb 6, 2018)
- Episode 9x15: Toasted (Feb 27, 2018)
- Episode 9x18: Thank You for Not Kissing(Apr 3, 2018)
- Episode 9x22: Split Decision (May 15, 2018)
- Episode 9x24: A Heck of a Ride, Part Two (May 22, 2018)