While the show is very heartwarming and funny, it doesn't mean that several sad moments show up.
In General:
- Anytime that Bobby and Jonathan's Dark and Troubled Past is mentioned.
- In some episodes, Antoni mentions that he hasn't had a relationship with his mother for a few years.
Specific episodes:
- AJ coming out to his stepmother in "To Gay or Not Too Gay." It's not just that he's coming out to her for the first time, or that he never had the opportunity to tell his dad before he died. The guy is flat-out sobbing as he tells her how hard it's been to keep his orientation a secret.
- In "God Bless Gay", Antoni talks about how the woman they're making over chose to love her son, despite it going against what she was taught and that not all parents do the same thing, while crying.
- In the same episode, Bobby refuses to go into the church because of the whole of his small-town Southern church turning on him when he was outed. He even describes how he prayed he was straight and how he gave up the choir he loved for years.
- In "Black Girl Magic" Jess and Bobby discuss their common experience of being disowned by their adoptive families when they came out of the closet. Tan breaks down when he talks about why found family is incredibly important, especially to members of the LGBTQ community who are rejected by their parents.
- "Elrod and Sons" features Rob, a man who is trying to hold it together for his two young sons after his wife, Alison, had died from breast cancer a year prior. One of the things Alison did was write birthday cards for the boys, each ending with "P.S. Be nice to your brother :)." Bobby creates a memory chest and has the saying engraved in the top drawer. Many tears were shed by Rob and his mother-in-law (and the audience) when they saw the engraving.
- "Without Further Ado" is about the group helping Jonathan's old music teacher, Ms. Dooley, with Jonathan thanking her for her support in tears at one point as it had saved his life.
- "The North Philadelphia Story" has a lot of these, due to the hero Tyreek not having had an easy life. Shuffled from his happy life at a family friend's house to his unstable biological family, only to then become homeless... and while he's now in a stable job and an apartment, he admits he's terrified it'll be ripped out from under him again, a feeling Bobby knows all too well. We also learn that he always worried he was sent away from his godmother's house because he wasn't good enough or she didn't love him anymore. And it turns out that's not at all what happened; she needed to claim custody of her grandson (who had extreme health issues from being born 24 weeks premature), but the state wouldn't let her because she was already unofficially fostering Tyreek. So she had to decide, which child needed her more? Talk about a Sadistic Choice.
- In "DJ's On Repeat," the hero Ryan says he wears funny or outrageous clothing onstage so that's what people notice, and they'll laugh with him rather than at him. Tan asks what he's afraid they'll see. Without even thinking about it, Ryan just says, "My face." It's remarkably sobering.
- "Silver Lining Sweeney" may be one of the saddest episodes, since it's about a family where the patriarch, John, has had ALS for the past ten years. Much of the episode focuses on how upset the whole family, especially John, is about how he's slowly wasting away from his condition.John: I feel guilty that they're having to go through this. And I think it's harder on the family to know that there's nothing they can do to help.
[later on]
Jennifer: [voice breaking up] I don't want to lose him. And I don't have a choice. And to me, it's like the longest, drawn-out breakup. Because like nothing I can do can save him. [...] I just want ten years ago back. - "Showdown at the Broken Spoke" when the Fab Five bid Terri adieu after her home reveal, and then production had to suddenly halt due to COVID-19. During the follow-up one year later, Terri dealt with more tragedy than one person should – her father died of a heart issue, and her son-in-law died of a massive heart attack. And, according to Terri and her daughter, Terri could not even be in the hospital with her son-in-law and daughter, but waited outside in the parking lot the entire time. There were also, however, tears of joy when the Fab Five saw how well Terri was doing, how much her relationship with her daughter and grandson had improved, and... that she'd grown her natural hair out!
- "Angel Gets Her Wings" focuses on a young trans woman who had a strong relationship with everyone in her life but her dad. Karamo helps reunite her with her father, who, to his credit, really listens to his daughter and wants her to be happy. It's one of the most emotional episodes yet.
- "The Snow White of Texas" features a hero so devoted to her special animals – who would have otherwise been given up on and likely euthanized – and what they bring to kids and adults with special needs that pretty much every minute of the episode is a happy cry.
- Even though housing advocate Chris describes himself as a "tattooed, potty-mouthed humanitarian," he has perhaps one of the most tragic backstories on all of Queer Eye. He reveals that he has firsthand experience with substance use disorder and part of that was triggered by his mother's death, in which he would take the painkillers she'd been prescribed while she was in palliative. He then reveals to Karamo that after she died in hospice, he lied down and passed out next to her body. It's clearly something he still lives with and carries a lot of guilt and shame over.
