Tear Jerker / Camp Camp

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"I told you... They didn't care..."

Season 1

• David's crying is really hysterical and ridiculous in the episode, "David Gets Hard".
• David's Break the Cutie moment throughout the Season 1 finale. What seals the deal is his O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment with a Precision F-Strike.

Season 2

• Seeing David be heartbroken after Bonquisha breaks up with him is genuinely sad, especially for anyone who's also been through rejection in their life.
• Gwen breaking down crying when she thinks she's going to lose her job at camp after being rejected by literally every other job she applied for.
• While all of the reactions to the eggs getting crushed in "Egg Benefits" are Played for Laughs, hearing Nerris' anguished cry of "EGGOLAAAAS!!" can either come off as Narm Charm or genuinely make you feel the heartbreak in her voice.
• "Parents Day":
  • Cameron makes David and Gwen pretend to be Max's parents until his actual parents arrive. Not only do they never show up, but as David and Gwen find out, unlike all the other kids whose parents signed them up for activities they liked (or at least in Harrison's case, for activities that would benefit them), Max's parents didn't sign him up for anything at all. They just didn't want him around. Luckily it's followed up by one of the series' most heartwarming moments.
  • While not quite as heart-breaking as Max's situation, Harrison's relationship with his parents is also pretty sad. They're terrified of his abilities and by extension him. It's understandable, especially considering he apparently once made his brother disappear, with no mention of whether he ever managed to bring him back (which is doubtful considering his shoddy grasp on his powers), but it's still sad. And the worst part is that Harrison is not blissfully unaware of this. When they cower from him at one point, he sullenly remarks that they're "still doing that", and in the cafeteria scene he can be seen in the background looking down at his food sadly as they watch him warily. During the show, Harrison's parents are the only parents who aren't sitting with their child; Harrison is nowhere to be seen.
    • Heck, the juxtaposition of Max and Harrison's parents makes Max's situation even sadder. As terrified as they are of their son, Harrison's parents love him enough to visit him, unlike Max's parents.

Season 3

• Although it's Played for Laughs, Quartermaster was genuinely upset that his hook was stolen.
• Nikki's sadness over Max abandoning her and Neil for the new exchange students, though she's at least happy that they seem to be having fun together.
• In “Nikki’s Last Day on Earth”, everyone thinks Nikki is about to die, except Max, and they all try to help her enjoy what they believe may be the last day of her life while Max remains apathetic as usual. But then Preston puts on a play about the episode's plot which portrays Max as a horribly selfish jerk who wouldn't care if Nikki actually died, and Max gets sadder and sadder as he starts to have a Jerkass Realization.
  • Notably, this is the first time Max has actually been confronted with how other people see him. The realization that his cynical outlook mostly comes across as being self-absorbed and heartless hits him pretty hard. It's also notable that this is the first time in the series that Max has actually apologized for his behavior.
  • When Nikki breaks down crying in front of him, Max looks horribly awkward and unsure how to comfort her.
• In "Dial M For Jasper" we find out Jasper vanished after a fight with David, who thinks it's his fault his friend left as is brought to tears just seeing Jasper in an old picture. Even worse, David doesn't know he's dead.
• In "Cameron Campbell the Camp Campbell Camper", Max reveals to everyone that Campbell was trying to frame David for his crimes. Needless to say, David is highly disappointed that his hero isn't the great person he thought he was.
• The beginning of "Something Fishy" has Max and Gwen bonding over their mutual hatred of Camp Campbell. Later in the episode, after Gwen gets a new monster boyfriend, she starts acting extremely happy. When Gwen gets angry at Max (and everyone else) for ruining a date with her new boyfriend, Max isn't very happy about it:
  Max: I liked camp-hating Gwen, not Max-hating Gwen!
  • Gwen rejecting the fish monster after he transformed into a human is slightly sad given how he breaks down immediately afterward, though it's slightly mitigated when a bird catches him, flying him to his presumed death.
• Max manipulating Dolph in "The Candy Kingpin" when Dolph merely wanted to be friends, leading to Max having a Jerkass Realization when Dolph flat-out tells him that he knows not to make "friends" like Max in the future.
• Max's situation in the finale. Because he's so adamant that he doesn't want saying goodbye to hurt, he very nearly ruins his friendship with Nikki and Neil because he quite frankly convinces them he doesn't care for them.
  • There's actually a blink and you'll miss it moment where Neil starts crying when Max calls him and Nikki "temporary friends"; he blinks the tears away so fast lots of fans missed it the first viewing but that just makes it sadder. And Nikki's uncharacteristic anger at Max is painful as well.
• There's something depressing about the way that Max responds to David's apparent anger over being squirted by water guns with a genuinely worried expression. Meaning that despite everything he knows about David, his first response to an upset/angry adult is to be worried.
  • It could, however, be a heartwarming moment: Max is finally starting to respect David, and is worried that he's crossed a line, something that never would have bothered him at the beginning of the show.
• Oddly enough Cameron Campbell’s character arc over the later half of the season. He spends an extended time squatting in the wilderness, directionless, contemplating his life, and wondering if it was all worth it. His eventual act of betrayal in the finale is met with more than one Armor-Piercing Question that actually shakes him to the core. He ends up turning himself in.

Season 4

• While "Keep the Change" mostly plays Max's attempts to deny his Character Development for laughs, several fans have noted that he's likely denying it because it came about because of his newfound support system which he can't even recognize actually exists because due to Parental Neglect, he's never had anything resembling that kind of support.
• When Daniel returns as the Wood Scouts' counselor, David and Max both seem legitimately scared of him. David's fear is even obvious enough that everyone is openly concerned about him, even Max. It doesn't help that the Wood Scouts' antics under Daniel to clearly make all the Campbell campers uncomfortable even before he tries to sacrifice Nikki to summon his god.
  • On the Wood Scouts' side of things, they clearly all like Daniel a lot, especially Pikeman and are clearly devastated when he reveals that he doesn't care about them at all.
• Everything that happens to David in "The Forest" is a tearjerker. While his Butt-Monkey status has always been played for Rule of Funny throughout the series, this episode plays it for Rule of Drama for the sake of breaking him.
  • David's first day after falling off a waterfall has him nearly getting attacked by a wolf, spending until night to climb a mountain, be chased by bees, fall down said mountain, get his face stung by bees, and land on the lake. His efforts to warm himself up with a bonfire are ruined when it rains so David has to sleep in the cold under a small shelter.
  • David getting mauled by the wolf he met at the beginning is horrible as you see how scared he is as she bites his arm, claws his chest, and then makes him fall down a chasm while she accidentally scratches his back. The screams that David makes as he breaks his leg are heartbreaking.
    • David reaching his Rage Breaking Point picking a large rock and threatening to crush the wolf's skull as he cries and yells at her for not leaving him alone. The wolf being ready to accept her death and David crying even more as he slams down the rock shows how hard the experience was for him.
  • The ending of the episode has David being attacked by a Mama Bear but he is saved by the wolf he spared and befriended in the previous scene. While she saves David, she is fatally injured and David buries her.
  • David attempting to give An Aesop to the campers, but it is clear that he is on the brink of tears for what happened to him throughout the episode. If David wasn't a Stepford Smiler then, he is now.
• Party Pooper seems to be building up to Gwen snapping and letting her dad have it in absolute anger. Instead she ultimately just starts sobbing. And the reason she was acting so prickly around her dad? She thinks he's ashamed of her.
  • And a Harsher in Hindsight one: the real life Missy has since passed away.