Tear Jerker / Star Trek: Discovery

Tearjerkers in Star Trek: Discovery.

WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.

Season 1

"The Vulcan Hello"

• Michael as a child on Vulcan, traumatised by a Klingon raid and overwhelmed by the test not letting up when she's too triggered to answer.

"Battle at the Binary Stars"

• Poor Ensign Connor. After being injured in the Klingon attack, he mistakenly visits Michael in the brig instead of going to sickbay for medical attention. He's terrified as he tells her that they're explorers, not soldiers, and he's thrown out to his death by a hull breach.
  • As we learn later on, Connor didn't fare much better in the Mirror Universe either.
• Georgiou’s calm but Disappointed in You / What the Hell, Hero? speech to Michael, calling herself a fool for thinking Michael’s humanity might win over the Vulcan shell.
• Michael doesn’t even get to collect Georgiou’s body, being transported back to the ship and scream-sobbing out of grief, regret and guilt for all she’s done. When being court martialled, she admits that after the attack in her childhood, she devoted her life to the service (much like Kirk will after Tarsus IV), and that’s all up in smoke.

"Context is for Kings"

• When Michael sees Saru on Discovery, he turns his back on her, thinking that he hates her too now, but some time later, he walks with her and offers her blueberries. He’s not friends with her though, believing she’s dangerous and failed at protecting her captain.
• While Stamets is a dick to Michael initially, he has an impassioned rant over Starfleet using his and his partner’s research for fighting a war, splitting them up, and now his partner is dead.

"The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry"

• Landry suffers an absolutely brutal mauling by "Ripper" when she tries to sedate the tardigrade and take one of its claws by force. Burnham gets her an emergency transport back to sickbay, but all Dr. Culber can do about her extensive injuries is to apply a Mercy Kill via hypospray and move on.
• Michael’s guilt over using Ripper for the spore drive. Before, he was like a happy puppy licking her face when she brought him food, but after, he shies away.
• Georgiou’s video will, made before Michael seemingly ruined everything, talking about how proud she is of her, like Michael was her own daughter. You can tell that Michael is feeling “I have killed my captain and my friend”.

"Choose your Pain"

• Tyler tells Lorca that he's been spared most of the beatings because the prison warden has taken a liking to him (later events would reveal that it's much more complicated than this). When Tyler finds himself face-to-face with the jailer, L'Rell, he goes into a blind rage.
• Ripper itself warrants one when it becomes clear that using it for the spore drive is slowly killing it. The looks on Tilly's and Stamets' faces when Ripper shrivels up after being pushed too far are filled with remorse.
• Lorca’s Ironic Echo to Kirk in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. “We choose our own pain. Mine helps me remember.”
• Poor Tilly automatically assumes that Michael doesn’t want to be friends with her, and when reassured Michael’s bad mood isn’t because of her, says that’s so rarely the case.
• Saru admits he was angry with Michael mostly out of jealousy, as Georgiou died before Michael could go do her own thing, and thus he could be taught everything that she was.

"Lethe"

• Michael in the past, having been rejected for the Vulcan Expeditionary Group, just wants to go home. Sarek tells her that’s a human emotion, and she apologises, feeling like she’s failed and is worth nothing.

"Magic to Make the sanest Man Go Mad"

"Into the Forest I Go"

• Stamets forcing himself through 100 jumps in the spore drive, slowly being driven insane by the mental strain, and all the while his partner Hugh is forced to stand there and watch. By the end of the jump sequence he is completely delirious.
  • At the end of the episode, everything looks like it might be okay for Paul, who has finally agreed to step away from his work on the spore drive and get medical treatment for his mental state, but Lorca sabotages the coordinates for Stamets’ one last jump to get them back to the Starbase, sending him into a catatonic state and the ship to the Mirror Universe.

"Despite Yourself"

• In the Mirror Universe, Danby Connor comes off as even more tragic and hapless than his Prime Universe counterpart. While he was far more successful in his career, having succeeded Mirror-Burnham as captain of the I.S.S. Shenzhou, he admits to her that the crew never respected him or feared him like they did her. He attempts to murder her in the turbolift, convinced that she would usurp him, and is quickly killed for his trouble. While the scene makes for excellent Black Comedy, it also shows how bleak life is for the Terrans, when Captain Connor is contrasted with Ensign Connor.
• Stamets is deeply mentally compromised, caught in some sort of break from reality. Not only is this distressing, but him unknowingly throwing Hugh, the man he loves, across the room in the middle of one of his hallucination episodes is heartbreaking. Tilly even looks close to crying when she witnesses it.
  • For that matter, just Tilly sitting by his bedside and trying to remind him how annoying she is in an effort to bring him back to normal. Its very funny, but also very heartbreaking.
• Hugh's death.

"The Wolf Inside"

• Watching Stamets, still clearly on a total vacation from reality, cradling Hugh's dead body while mumbling to himself is distressing on so many levels.
• Michael meeting with this Mirror Universe version of Saru who is a mute, submissive slave, expecting to eventually be killed and eaten as a Terran delicacy is horrific.

"Vaulting Ambition"

"What's Past Is Prologue"

"The War Without, The War Within"

"Will You Take My Hand"

Short Treks Season One

"Calypso"

• When the ship is trying to convince him stay and not return to his wife, she goes so far as to try and convince him that she isn't real and is Just a Machine so their relationship doesn't count. It's really heartbreaking to see her deny her personhood like that.
• Fortunately Craft knows better, but that makes the whole situation more bittersweet. They really do have feelings for each other, but he has to leave and she has to stay.

Season 2

"Brother"

"New Eden"

"Point of Light"

• Tyler now serves as L'Rell's Torchbearer, but their relationship is complicated by his past as Voq. While L'Rell still loves him as Voq, Tyler's lingering trauma leaves him involuntarily repulsed by her presence, a revelation that leaves L'Rell horrified.
  • Tyler learns that he (as Voq) and L'Rell had a child, and that the helpless baby is in grave mortal peril due to his parentage. L'rell's rival, Kol'sha, abducts the child and would have murdered him if not for Mirror Georgiou killing him and his men. Ash and L'Rell are forced to have the child placed in the care of a monostary on Boreth, with the child and Ash's deaths faked for the benefit of the Klingon High Council, who found Ash's existence to be a huge point of contention. Ash, meanwhile, decides to join Section 31, where he can serve in secrecy.

"An Obol for Charon"

• When it looks like it's about to be a Death in the Limelight for Saru, we get a final conversation between him and Michael where they settle their differences, and admit that they've come to see each other as replacements for the siblings they've both left behind. Saru even asks Michael to be the one to kill him before he is driven mad, and gives her his logs to serve as inspiration for future Kelpian officers.

"Saints Of Imperfection"

• Tyler returns to the Discovery, but his recent affiliation with the Klingon Empire and his current affiliation with Section 31 leave much of the crew distrusting him. Not to mention his role in Doctor Culber's death when Voq was in control. His relationship with Michael is similarly strained, especially given his history with L'Rell.
• The opening scene and monologue of Michael running to the spore lab and the look on her face when she gets there and realises that Tilly is gone. It really hammers home just how close the two have become, and how losing a character like Tilly would be emotionally crushing to the audience as well as the characters.
  • In that same monologue, the 'defining word' that Michael says for Stamets is Widower.
• Hugh is alive, but trapped in the mycelial network, and he's been driven practically insane after months of running for his life from a hostile sentient fungal species that is intent on decomposing him.
  • Hugh and Paul's goodbye when they realise that Hugh can't go back to the Discovery with them is so painful. Especially Hugh's speech about the reason he loves Paul being that Paul is dedicated to life.
  • Stamets realising the reason Hugh is trapped in the network is that Paul bought him there himself in his fugue state. Having briefly woken up, he found Hugh's dead body, and subconsciously pulled his energy into the network while cradling him and crying. It's not a fun flashback.

"The Sounds of Thunder"

"Light and Shadows"

• We finally catch up with Spock and his mental state is...not great. It's so sad to see such a logical and stable character driven to complete madness, seemingly in the middle of a massive psychological break.
  • When Sarek is arguing with Amanda about whether or not to turn in Spock, he points out that if Michael does not turn him in, it could jeopardise her career. Though he initially presents it as a logical decision between choosing which child is 'salvageable', as the argument intensifies Sarek finally cracks and begs Amanda to not force him to have to lose both of their children at the same time. He's clearly on the edge of tears, which is saying a hell of a lot for a Vulcan.
  • There's also Amanda, giving clear indications of being the Stoic Woobie - she is a human on Vulcan, has chosen to live on a planet where if she expresses an emotion publicly, it will reflect poorly on her and her family. She has raised children in this environment. (SNW 2x05 “Charades” offers more on what she’s gone through.) She says explicitly that she does not believe that Sarek would have followed her to Earth had she chosen to live there. All of this, and she has never complained. Even in saying this, it is not to express the unfairness of her situation... But Spock's. That he was alone on a planet that would never accept him.

"If Memory Serves"

• Hugh is finally back after having been rescued from the spore network, but he is clearly extremely mentally traumatised by his time there, leading to him feeling depersonalised and distant from Paul. watching Paul be so excited and happy that Hugh is back, while at the same time watching Hugh struggled to connect with his emotions and lash out at Paul is heartbreaking.
  • Special mention goes to the moment where he blows up at Paul, leading to Paul's voice cracking over asking Hugh why he's so angry at him.
  • And the they effectively break up after Hugh reveals that he not longer feels at home or comfortable with Paul. Ouch.
• The reveal of what broke Spock and Michael's relationship is heartbreaking. In an effort to protect him, Michael pushed Spock away by effectively calling him a freak of nature.
  • The hardest past in the juxtaposition between Spock of the past literally crying himself after Michael's words, and the Spock of the present coldly telling her it was the logical thing to do as it made him cut off his 'useless' human emotions.

"Project Daedalus"

• The show finally gives us background on Lt. Airiam, and it's so very tragic. She was once a perfectly normal human, until a shuttle accident killed her husband and wounded her so badly that she needed extensive cybernetic augmentation to survive, all on the way back from their honeymoon. Every day she has to go through her memories purging the ones she doesn't need because her implants have finite storage space. Then she has to be ejected into space because the virus has completely compromised her and all she can do is beg to be killed so she doesn't hurt her friends. The episode ends with a quiet, somber scene of her floating through space, rewatching the memory of her and her husband one last time before her system fails.

"The Red Angel"

• Michael finally learns the truth about her parents' death. They were not simply peaceful scientists who where killed by in a random Klingon attack, but rather they were Section 31 officers who were killed because Leland negligently failed to stop Klingons tracking them down to reclaim a time crystal they stole to power their work.
  • Especially distressing as Michael has spent pretty much her whole life blaming herself for their deaths because she wanted to stay home and watch a meteor shower instead of going on holiday.
  • Look, if it makes Michael 'not a Vulcan' Burnham cry, then it's going to make us cry.

"Perpetual Infinity"

"Through the Valley of Shadows"

• Captain Pike is given a horrific look at the fate that awaits him in a few years if he takes the time crystal. Pike is practically in tears as he reminds himself of his Starfleet oath and steels himself to take the crystal anyways.

"Such Sweet Sorrow, Part One"

• Several of the ship's company volunteer to accompany Michael in her mission to take the Discovery into the distant future to keep the Sphere Data away from Control. We get a montage of them recording messages for their loved ones back home, where we get a few glimpses at their lives away from the ship:
  • Tilly tells her parents that she'll never know if she made them proud, but despite that she's made herself proud, and feels that her parents will respect that. The way she says it implies she is trying to convince herself more than her parents.
  • Owosekun, who was raised in a Luddite collective, feels that she frightened her family when she decided to join Starfleet and explore the stars. She hopes that one day they'll be able to forgive her.
  • Detmer sends a message to her best friend, who was always there to help her when she needed encouragement. Detmer's message implied that she was nearly Driven to Suicide after the injuries she suffered at the Battle of the Binary Stars, but for her friend's intervention.
  • Stamets, for all of his arrogance, believes that he is The Un Favourite child in his family, and his message indicates that his sibling feels the same.

"Such Sweet Sorrow, Part Two"

• As Discovery bolts for the wormhole, the crew's friends and loved ones watch them depart, which is sad enough on its own, but as Tyler watches Burnham leave, L'Rell watches him instead, with a mix of sympathy and sadness that even with her romantic rival gone for good, she can never be with Tyler.
• In hindsight, the messages sent by the crew in the previous episode will be viewed in the context that their friends and loved ones will assume they died in the ensuing mission.
• Spock and Michael's final conversation. After years of antipathy and tension, they've only just started to heal their relationship, and now they're going to be losing each other forever. Michael's final words to her little brother are a plea for him to be open to the wonder that the universe may bring him, to seek out those who seem closed off and different to him and try and empathise and understand, because they might be the people most in need of help, and also the ones who are most able to help keep Spock from closing himself off from his emotions again. It manages to get Spock tearing up.
  • Their actual final words to each other?
  Michael: I love you too, little brother.
  • The look on Spock's face as Discovery flies away. His mouth is hanging open in shock, tears in his eyes. It's possibly one of the most emotional Spock moments we've ever seen.

Season 3

"That Hope Is You, Part One"

• The mere fact that The Federation — the bedrock of the Star Trek galaxy since the 1960's, and a beacon of civilization In-Universe — is so diminished that it might as well be gone.
• Burnham's dejection throughout the episode over not being able to reach the Discovery, clearly concerned for the safety of her friends. During her conversation with Sahil, they both come to the realization that given the nature of the wormhole, they might join her in a matter of days...or a thousand years.
• The nature of Sahil's vigil. Day after day of waking up, getting dressed, and reporting for duty sitting at a desk in hopes that someone will need his services as a Federation Liaison. All in hopes that an active Starfleet officer might visit the relay station, raise the Federation flag, and allow him to take the Oath of Service to officially begin his service as a Starfleet officer, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Becomes heartwarming after Commander Burnham shows up needing his help.

"Scavengers"

• Tilly discovers Grudge the cat hiding in her room, which clearly indicates Michael disobeyed Saru's orders, and when she talks to him about it, he's already well aware of what had occurred. He's surprised that she even suggests immediately telling Admiral Vance about it, but she states that while she loves Michael with all her heart, she cannot allow this act, no matter how well intentioned, to undermine Discovery and her crew while they're still trying to prove themselves to the Federation. It's clear she's taking this pretty hard. Even when she does stick up for Michael and says she would have done the same thing in her shoes, Saru notes that no, Tilly wouldn't have.
• Burnham tries to reach out to Georgiou, who's clearly going through a serious trauma issue, but the Terran is too stubborn to want to accept help from Michael, coldly noting that the Mirror-Burnham stabbed her in the back under similar circumstances.
• Saru is, to say the least, extremely disappointed that Michael disobeyed his orders, as she not only did so in the midst of a crisis that Discovery was more than likely needed for, but undermined the authority of the very position she had encouraged him to take. As such, he officially relieves her of duty as his first officer, confining her responsibilities to the ship's science officer only. He may understand her reasoning behind her disobedience, and he is clearly hurt doing this, but it's evident that, in spite of all they've been through, she has once again violated his trust. What hurts most is that he knows the last time she did this got her discharged and imprisoned, and he had even stated earlier in the last episode that he hoped she would have learned the consequences of not following proper Starfleet protocol, even if what she thought she was doing was right. His faith in her, it seems, was misplaced.
  • Admiral Vance tearing into both of them over what happened. While most of his harsh words are for Michael, he still gives Saru an earful for not bringing the matter to his attention, as he might well have signed off on the mission had he been aware of it, but Saru failed to bring potentially important information to the Admiral's attention. As far as he's concerned, they both failed Starfleet, and while Discovery and her crew have earned some trust, they still have a long way to go before they're properly integrated into the modern Starfleet.

"Unification, Part III"

• Despite being reunified with their Romulan cousins, Vulcan seceded from the Federation shortly after The Burn. Not because of the Romulans, who wanted to stay, but because the Vulcans felt that the Federation forced them into causing The Burn with the SB-19 project.
• Burnham calls up an archived video of Spock speaking about reunification, then admits to Book that after all this time she never looked to see what became of her brother.
  • What makes this scene even more saddening is that it's pulled from the character's last lines on television, as his final appearances were in a movie where he suffered a serious setback to his efforts of reunification. While the records have Spock listed as officially dying in 2387, he instead perished in an alternate reality partially of his own making, where his homeworld was destroyed and his mother had died far earlier than expected. Burnham would be even more heartbroken if she knew the whole story of what really happened to him.

"Terra Firma, Part Two"

• Even if Mirror Detmer might (or might not?) have been evil and just trying to save her own skin, it's oddly heart-wrenching to see the pained shock in her eyes when Michael suddenly stabs her. Made especially poignant as Detmer had tried to comfort Michael while she was in the brig, as she likely was one of Michael's closest friends and confidants (if not actually the closest). Detmer may also have been the only Terran (other than Georgiou, who's also had the benefit of living in the Prime universe) shown to display positive emotions like concern and affection, rather than simple bloodlust or cruelty.
• The Guardian of Forever reveals that during the Temporal Wars, all sides tried to use him to get one over on the others, causing him to become disillusioned and bitter about all life and no longer allowing people free access to other times until he gives an elaborate test of their morality.
• Georgiou pleading with her daughter one last time to choose a different path - even after having been betrayed twice. She does so knowing that any moment, her loyalists will attack and Burnham may die in the attack.
• Mirror Owo falling to her knees upon seeing Georgiou mortally wounded. Even the normally bloodthirsty Tilly looks sad. For all the terrible things they do, it turns out Terrans are people too. Saru also comforts her in her final moments before she apparently slips away.
• Georgiou saying goodbye to regular universe Michael is heartbreaking.

"There Is A Tide..."

• Stamets is desperate to rescue Hugh from the nebula, not only for himself but for Adira. Then Burnham tells him that Adira left the ship to help Hugh. He becomes so distraught he immediately begins prepping Discovery for a jump despite the fact that the ship is still under the Emerald Chain's control. Burnham has to physically restrain him and finally neck pinch him to stop him. She has to get him off the ship so that Osyraa can't use the spore drive to escape, and knows he won't leave the ship willingly, so she seals him in an emergency forcefield before setting her phaser to overload and cause a hull breach. Just before the phaser goes off, he gives her an absolutely blistering What the Hell, Hero? speech through clear emotional agony.
  Stamets: We came to the future for you! We followed you! HUGH FOLLOWED YOU! We gave up everything so you wouldn't have to be here alone! How can you do this?!?
  Burnham: I'm sorry...

"That Hope Is You, Part II"

• Stamets arrives in Federation Headquarters hoping for someone to hear him out, but Vance is in full agreement with Burnham's decision to space him for the good of everyone. To twist the knife, he even acknowledges the sacrifice Stamets is being forced to make, but they're simply not in a position to help him.
• We see what caused the Burn - Su'Kal accidentally deactivating the holo environment and seeing his dying mother, who begs him to wait for the Federation before the radiation finally kills her. Su'Kal's grief at what happened caused him to send out the subspace pulse that wiped out almost everything. The entire universe was nearly sent into a Dark Age because of one child's immeasurable sorrow.
• Gray's panic and terror knowing that they have to turn off the holo, because he'll disappear again and he can't go back to no one except Adira seeing him.
• The pride and joy of everyone moving out to start a new chapter in the Federation is marred by one person - Stamets. While he's very thankful to be reunited with Hugh and Adira, he's still hurting that Burnham did what she did last episode.

Season 4

"Kobayashi Maru"

• Kwejian has been destroyed. Book's brother and nephew are most likely dead, along with most (if not all) of their people. What makes this even more devastating is the lead up. Book barely survived the distortion and wants Kwejian brought up on deep space scanners. Owo puts in the coordinates, but... nothing's there. Then they realize there's something out there from where the planet should be... and they find Kwejian, a Shattered World, completely lifeless. Burnham's Oh, Crap! gasp of shock sells as it as well as the looks of horror as we see everyone, even the President, reacting to the sight.
• There’s a Hope Spot of everyone coming back safe in the shuttle, but it’s hit and Nalas dies. Michael looks completely destroyed, taking deaths and injuries personally when many others survived.
• Like Kirk with Tarsus IV in TOS and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Michael had an early trauma that made her incapable of dealing with loss, and all she wanted to do was retake the Kobayashi Maru, not being able to deal with failure.

"Anomaly"

• As if spending the episode in a Heroic BSoD isn't bad enough for Book, he starts seeing hallucinations of Leto running around like the Cheerful Child he was, clearly nowhere close to truly processing what happened.
  • Book’s constant rewinding of what happened in the beginning. Michael tries to comfort him but her captain duties call her away, and he wants her to leave.
• Michael is still reeling from the deaths under her command in the last episode, trying too hard at first to be the distant Captain as well as the attentive partner.

"Choose To Live"

• It ends happily, but Adira crying because they can’t feel Gray anymore, and hoping he’ll come back.
• Book undergoes a mind meld, to revisit the memory of his home world's destruction. Afterwards, T'Rina gives a heartfelt "My condolences are inadequate..."

"All Is Possible

• Tilly has been trying to do new things to help her feeling aimless, but a training mission goes wrong, and the shuttle pilot dies under her command.
• Tilly gets down to the cause of her mid-life crisis, her mother is 900 years in the past and is never going to see her or change her mind about her, and she doesn’t know whether she’s doing anything for herself or just wants to be seen.
• The peace Book felt at the end of the last episode was only fleeting (because that’s just what happens) and Culber is trying to help him. It’s a slow process.

"The Examples"

• The titular "examples" are a group of criminals who have been imprisoned for life, no matter how petty their crimes are. It's a remnant of how badly the Emerald Chain corrupted this group of Akaali.
• One criminal admits that he deserves to be imprisoned for life, as he killed a man who showed him Sacred Hospitality and stole a family heirloom from him. He then refuses to be rescued, choosing to stay at the colony as the DMA destroys it. He spends his final minutes on comms confessing his crimes to the Discovery bridge crew and asking Burnham to return the heirloom to its rightful owner.
• Stamets is concerned that Culber is overworking himself, as Culber fills every available moment of his schedule helping crewmates and refugees from the DMA. He seeks out Kovich for some Brutal Honesty and is given it: His coming back from the dead has driven him to assume there had to be some reason for it, that there must be a greater purpose. But Culber isn't a Chosen One, he's a just normal person, hurting, and burning himself out trying to find a greater purpose that most likely doesn't exist. And if he does not slow down to take care of himself, he will burn out and he will fail those who need him.

…But To Connect

• By the end of the episode, Book has gone rogue, siding with Tarka in destroying the DMA using a subspace weapon. Even worse is that Burnham is put into the same situation Georgiou was in all those years ago back in the Battle of the Binary Stars. Making the moment harder is that he leaves Grudge, his beloved companion, with Burnham with a note telling her he loves her and to take care of Grudge. He’s more than certain he isn’t coming back from this.

Species Ten-C

• Reno shares a story of her time on the Hiawatha - one of the crew members she was attempting to save had suffered severe burns, and had reached a point of begging her to just let him go. She fought to keep him alive all the same, and it wasn't until he finally died, eleven days later, that she understood why she couldn't let him die - his eyes were the same color as her wife's.

Coming Home

• The look of horror on Owo's face when Detmer volunteers for a suicide mission. Fortunately, General Ndoye steps in to take her place, but the very real possibility of Owo losing her best friend would have been a gut punch all the same.
• Tarka's emotional breakdown during his Heel Realization, as he finally admits to himself that Oros wouldn't want him to unleash all the devastation he's risking just to reunite them.
  Tarka: (sobbing) He'd stop me. Why isn't he here to stop me?
• Book's Disney Death. The crew of the Discovery were so close to rescuing him before his ship was destroyed, but it seems that it just wasn't enough. Burnham's pain knowing that her beloved couldn't be saved is just so raw, even more so when she has to push forward and breaks down once Species 10-C agrees to stop.
  Burnham: The two people who separated from us, that died today, one of them I loved very deeply. He was... he was my "one".

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