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Tear Jerker / Dance Moms

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    Season 1 

    Season 2 

    Season 3 
  • In "You've Been Unfriended", Christi and Chloe have come off their suspension and Abby finds it to be the perfect time to go all out on Chloe. Abby ends up belittling Chloe to the point where she just calls her names like "girl in the front" and "blondie". Her excuse? For her to remember Chloe's name, Chloe has to make her remember her name.
  • The death of Broadway Baby left the studio pretty shaken, but no one was hurt as much as Abby. She was driven to tears every time she spoke about her, and seeing Baby post-taxidermy was also emotionally tolling.
  • A really heartrending Yank the Dog's Chain moment appears in "Two Girls, One Solo", where Chloe and Maddie have competing solos that are identical to one another. At the award ceremony, Chloe wins, but it turns out that Maddie won instead due to a scoring error. In Chloe's subsequent Confession Cam, she congratulates Maddie but you can hear her voice cracking on the verge of tears. Poor thing...
  • This video, where Kelly and Abby have a heart-to-heart conversation about Paige's issues (like how she is having panic attacks because she is so scared of Abby) and Kelly ends up breaking down in tears. It's very easy to see why Kelly, as a mother, would get so emotional over all of this.
    Kelly: And you're allowing this, with the relationship that you had with my kids and me!...And it just breaks my heart! It is horrible! [...] And it's not me! I would never allow this to happen! It's not me! (fully breaks down crying)
    • While listening to Kelly, you could see Abby's eyes actually get red on the verge of crying herself. In a subsequent Confession Cam, Abby says:
    "Seeing Kelly break down at a competition like this really disturbs me. When I look at Kelly, I don't see the mom of two dancers in my company. I see my own student. When she was twelve or thirteen years old, crying her eyeballs out, that's when she stopped dancing. And I think Kelly could've had a great future. I just hope she doesn't do the same thing to her two girls."

    Season 4 
  • In season four, the rivalry between Kelly and Abby rises to a peak that culminates with Brooke and Paige leaving the team permanently. Kelly has also sued ALDC for $5 million, and Abby has filed a restraining order. Damn.
    • Also a fridge tearjerker considering Chloe and Paige were the best of friends and even had plans of doing a double wedding together...
    • The duet "Wishbone" also meant a lot to them, and is widely considered one of Paige's best (if not the best) performances. Unfortunately, it was her last.
      • The song is actually about two best friends falling apart. Partly because of circumstances out of their control.Prophetic.
    "We grew up like sisters, more than friends..."
  • After Kelly's infamous scuffle with Abby, you can see the look of shock and brokenness on Christi's face. Mind you, Christi and Kelly are pretty good friends.
  • Abby's mom's death during season four was a pretty big turning point. Made even worse since everyone knew (including Abby) that with her declining health she was going to die soon.
    • Just watch the video linked above and try not to cry. There wasn't a dry eye in the whole vicinity of that place.
      • It was pretty hard not to shed a tear when Maddie and then Chloe ran into Abby's arms (both of them were in tears).
      • "There's some place better."
      • Melissa's eulogy.
    "I just want to tell you [Abby] that..thank you so much for letting me be such a part of your mom's life. These past couple of years, we've been, your mom, like I told her today. She looked right in my eyes and I said, 'You know, mom? You are my mom now, because my mom left me so long ago.' I love her so much. I love you. But she's gonna be...she's gonna be so much better..you know? I love her so much."
  • "You know why I don't speak to my mother? Because she's a fucking psychopath, like you!"
  • Watch this video. If you didn't think of Chloe as The Woobie before, you should now.
    • "I heard Abby."
    • Chloe's heart-wrenching reaction when she heard Abby saying that she had to "fix her lazy eye" (edited to make it look like Abby called her a "sneak"). The poor girl completely breaks down in tears and runs out of the room, red-faced and clutching her chest.
    • "I still wanna dance, I still wanna do this...but I don't wanna do it with her anymore." *sniffle*
  • The "Amber Alert" routine, especially since it deals with, y'know, child abduction. But if that wasn't enough of a tearjerker, the actual dance itself will send chills down your spine, with special note going to the ending. Mackenzie has been killed by her "abductors", and Maddie approaches her. She is smiling, expecting her sister to be alive. She lifts up Mackenzie's head (which had been hanging downwards), and jumps back in horror when she realizes that her sister is dead. She reaches out to the audience...and then turns and runs away.
    • What makes the dance worse is that Maddie has to react to Mackenzie's death. Imagine a close friend you've known for years doing it, but then imagine your sister doing it.

    Season 5 
  • Nia breaking down in tears about her grandpa being in the hospital is absolutely agonizing to watch.
  • Holly breaking down in sobs after going on a unusual rant targeting Abby and the rest of the moms for not defending her. The worst part is that poor Nia overheard everything and couldn't do anything except look on sadly.
    • Season 5 in general represented a breaking point in Holly's patience. It's hard not to feel bad for her, considering how long she was able to tolerate Abby's behavior for.
  • The episode where JoJo's grandmother, who has cancer, came to watch her dance was one on both the show and in real life.
    • Even if you find Jojo annoying, it's hard not to feel badly for her.
  • Abby's mental, emotional, and sometimes physical breakdowns throughout the season as a result of the pressure from trying to keep the ALDC afloat with several members missing, while also dealing with the moms. The whole "ALDC LA" thing only made things worse, as the competition is fiercer in LA, which only makes Abby work harder. While Abby has had her fair share of jerkassery on the show, it's hard not to sympathize with her.
  • Abby abruptly pulling the girls from the Matty B music video due to a dispute over the contract and the moms. All of the girls are upset about this, and the usually optimistic Maddie delivers this heart-breaking line:
    Maddie: Thanks for ruining the entire day, Mom.
  • "The Waiting Room", another Darker and Edgier dance that isn't particularly saddening save for the ending. Maddie hears that whoever she's in for has died, and breaks down in a marvelous display of acting.

    Season 6 
  • Melissa, along with Maddie and Mackenzie announce they are leaving the ALDC for pasteurs anew. Abby, unsurprisingly breaks down in tears. As Ashlee puts it, seeing Maddie leave is the equivalent of a mother losing her child, in the eyes of Abby.
    • From that point onwards, Abby starts treating the Ziegler’s coldly, and at their final competition, Abby was being unpleasant and was critiquing Maddie and Mackenzie, when it wasn’t needed. It’s definitely hard to watch, especially when considering the relationship that Maddie and Abby had.
  • Suicide Hotline, a dance that's equal parts grim and sad considering its subject matter. It has Kalani in a white dress dancing alongside Brynn, Kendall, and Nia in black dresses and ends with Kalani running away as her friends try to stop her. The phone then rings, and as Kendall picks it up we only hear a dead tone...
    • That's not even the worst part: the dance was inspired by a close dancer friend of Kalani from Arizona committing suicide.
  • At the start of "Two Teams, Two Studios", we see Abby finding out that her elite competition team has jumped ship to allow Erin Babbs of Murietta Dance Project to choreograph for them. Abby is in tears, and it’s very hard not to sympathise for her, especially the fact that she was a second mother to most of the girls.

    Season 7 
  • In the second episode of Season 7B, Abby had to leave because of her sentencing (even though it was continuously postponed). She decided to say a final goodbye to her girls. It was very emotional to watch, even though she came back, for one week.
  • As much as one would strongly dislike Abby, what she had been though from mid season 4 up to 7, one wonders how she was able to hold on, from girls she knew from when they were at a young angle leaving, lawsuits, her mother dying, and her court case. Even though she handled everything badly, which then resulted to the girls she cared about cutting ties with her. To say that Abby has been on an emotional rollercoaster is an understatement.

    Other 
  • Look at Dance Moms back in season one, where we saw seven jovial little girls connected with a love for dance, their loving mothers, and their assertive and devoted dance instructor. Fast forward to season four, where we see four broken teenage girls who have been psychologically scarred by their own dance teacher.
  • Mackenzie's song "Shine" has been known to reduce some listeners to tears over the song's lyrical matter and musical delivery, considering the song's about how Mackenzie is overshadowed by her sister but still loves her and wishes to shine like her one day.
    • "Every day I'm trying / Not to care / But every day I'm thinking / Life's so unfaaair."
  • This picture that Christi tweeted of Chloe and Paige in the backseat crying while watching My Sister's Keeper.
  • Whenever a dancer forgets their dance onstage. You just feel so bad for them.

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