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Tear Jerker / Jem

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  • Several episodes of Jem that focus on the Starlight girls are heartbreaking, including "The Jem Jam", with Ba Nee convinced that a stranger she's just met is her long-lost father, and the first five or so minutes of "Alone Again", with Laura Holloway depressed after her parents' deaths and sinking into loneliness and self-hatred despite Jerrica's best efforts.
  • The Series Finale, with Ba Nee finding her real father at last. Jem, the Holograms, the Stingers, and the Misfits all wish her farewell via song.
    Pizzazz: This is farewell to life the way we knew it...
    Rio: This is farewell, but somehow we'll come through it...
    Minx: We'll meet another day...
    • This song doubles as a Tear Jerker because as the series finale, the song also served as a goodbye to the fans.
    • The very last shot in the series is Jem smiling sadly and waving goodbye to Ba Nee, but also the viewer.
  • The episodes that focus on the relationship between Jerrica and Kimber with their parents, Emmett and Jacqui Benton. "Father's Day" for Kimber, which focuses on the fact that Kimber has still not emotionally healed from her father's death and misses him terribly, and "Out of the Past", where Jerrica remembers that she acted like a spoiled brat to her mother before she left for her next tour... and then died in the resulting plane crash.
  • "Riot's Hope" has him trying to reconcile with his father, who doesn't approve of his being a musician, and him looking after his ailing mother.
    • The song that plays "Take it or Leave it" is a Dark Reprise from before. When first played it showed how him and The Stingers acted and didn't care what others thought of them and would do anything to get what they wanted. When played in this it shows of how his Father will never seem to accept him and he pretends he doesn't care but he's truly hurt over their strained relationship.
  • "Video Wars", the last episode that features Clash in a speaking role, has her turn down a chance at being friends with the Holograms because she refuses to believe the Misfits aren't her friends. She tries to chase after Pizzazz and the others as they are driving away, begging for another chance to prove herself, yet Pizzazz just laughs at her as she leaves Clash standing in the dust.
  • Stormer is sadly aware that all the Misfits really want to do is exploit her. They've got her warped into thinking that without them, she'd be nothing.
  • The final music video for "Father's Day", which the Holograms perform, provided instances of Kimber and Jerrica bonding with their deceased father, and briefly showed Harvey Gabor reflecting on one of the few moments he spent time with Pizzazz when she was a little girl.
    • From the same episode, Pizzazz is genuinely confused that a father could love his daughter. That says something about their relationship.
  • "Out of the Past" is a rare episode where they address in a very serious mood the grief the band is still dealing with over the loss of their parents, as they read the diary entries of their father up till days before his death. The episode ended with Jerrica watching a recording of their mother singing thought to be lost forever, and the Holograms release the song to the public to carry on her memory.
    • Just as bad is the moment when Eric Raymond sets the master tapes of Jacqui Benton's music on fire. Jerrica slaps him as a result.
  • Danny in The Music Awards. Unlike Deirdre, Ba Nee, and Krissie, the Starlight Girls who ran away from home, Danny is literally thrown out of his house by his alcoholic father for apparently no reason. At the end of part 2, while the Starlight Girls get to go home, Danny is left living at Haven House, the halfway home for teenagers where Danse helps out. Christie Marx later drafted a storyline where Danny is reunited with his now sober father, but Executive Meddling stopped this from happening.
  • Another moment from The Music Awards acts as a sort of Laser-Guided Karma for Pizzazz. Upon winning the award for best band, Pizzazz decides to take it with her to the benefit concert Jem is performing at just to rub her nose in it. When she gets there, however, the audience cheers the performance. Pizzazz, silenced and shocked by the overwhelming sense of goodwill (the one thing she hates the most) the concert has created, doesn't notice her award slipping out of her hand to the floor, where it smashes into pieces.
  • A Change of Heart is a giant tearjerker for Minx. Rio saves Minx from drowning and this near-death experience scares her so badly that Minx decides to become a better person and is driven to make amends with everyone she's ever hurt. Riot and Rapture both reject her new nature, so Minx goes to Rio for help. However, Rio doesn't offer much help initially, and Minx then tries to kill herself when she thinks she has no home and no one to rely on anymore. Sadly, some of Minx's efforts are unappreciated and, while does come across as a little overbearing, she bitterly goes back to her old personality when told she is doing "too much."
  • The Stingers are big jerks but you can't help but feel terrible for them when you see their backstory. Living on the streets in the winter, barely making money.. They're sympathetic even if they currently act awful. Heck, "It's A Hard, Hard Life" is pretty much one big Freudian Excuse that explains why they are pompous and why Rapture is a scam-artist.
  • The ending of "Hollywood Jem: Part 1". After a love-crazy Kimber accepts the wedding proposal of her sometime-boyfriend Jeff, her other boyfriend Sean, upon learning about the engagement from her, claims that he wasn't ready to settle down with her and offers his sarcastic congratulations. Once in his movie trailer, however, we see him toss the engagement ring that he had for her in the garbage and puts his head into his hands and begins to cry.

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