Tear Jerker / The Baby-Sitters Club (2020)

Tearjerker Moments from The Babysitters Club 2020. As usual, spoilers are off.

Season One

• When seeing they intend to completely redo Mary Anne's room, Richard becomes angry and orders Sharon and the girls out of the house. They awkwardly leave as Mary Anne becomes upset with her father for his reaction; updating her room's decorations was something she was excited about and he embarrassed her by suddenly getting angry. When he invites her down for dinner, she refuses his offer and he retires to his office... where he sadly stares at a picture of her mother, Alma, putting up the Humpty-Dumpty picture while pregnant with Mary Anne and decorating the nursery, aka Mary Anne's room. He isn't able to properly tell his daughter why he became so upset by them undoing the room's old decoration.
• Claudia fares poorly at the art show because, despite her skill, she was challenged with creating art to which she felt a deep and emotional connection. After she learns the truth about Mimi's childhood, she draws a picture of young Mimi, scared and confused at the internment camp. The episode ends with her sharing a quiet, private moment with her picture and feeling more connected to her grandmother.
• Mimi's stroke and her condition after recovering from her coma, where she woke up with mostly her oldest memories intact, horrid memories where her family was forced into an internment camp and badly mistreated. Later, when Janine tells Claudia about Mimi's childhood, you can see that the normally stoic Janine is looking crestfallen as she tells her sister about what their great-grandparents and Mimi endured due to racism. Even jarring is the fact that, as Janine puts it, it's still happening to immigrant families as of 2020.
  Claudia: I don't understand how someone could do that to a family.
  Janine: I don't understand why they still do.
• Janine's reaction when Claudia, frustrated, screams that she believes Mimi will make a speedy recovery (a skepticism that Stacey who is present, shares with Janine) and claims that their grandmother always loved her more. The normally stoic teen appears visibly hurt before running upstairs, clearly upset.
  • Also, when their neighbors show up to dinner, it's clear that they are mostly there for Claudia and that Janine doesn't fit in with the group (not even with the adult Elizabeth and Richard), as they show surprise (with some concern) when the phone rings and Janine picks it up.
• Dawn's tearful trauma when Buddy suddenly goes missing while on her watch. This is enough to scare and traumatize any full-grown adult, let alone a pre-teen babysitter who takes their job seriously. Dawn's mother tries comforting her distraught daughter to no avail, who's terrified something happened to Buddy and feeling it's her fault.
  • And then Hamilton Barrett abruptly comes in while dropping Buddy back home. He explains that he's Buddy's dad and he simply picked his son up for swimming class as he always did on that day; his ex-wife never informed him about a sitter. While he sincerely apologizes for unintentionally scaring her, it doesn't make Dawn feel any better. She's been clearly traumatized by thinking Buddy was possibly taken, hurt or worse; it's going to take time for her to get over the panic of a child possibly being harmed while in her personal care.
• Kristy finally breaking down in front of someone because she feels like the only kid in the world whose dad doesn't care about her. It's made even more impactful by how much she acts like a Jerkass the whole episode -– she sadly tells Dawn that she doesn't even know where her father is and her voice breaks as she says he gradually stopped sending her messages and hasn't called her in nearly two years. It's not just that Kristy's parents aren't together anymore, it's that she's essentially been rejected by her father for his new life without her.
  • Her tendencies tend to distance her friends, like Claudia (because Kristy can be a Control Freak) and Mary Anne (who gets outbursts when Kristy frustrates her), which further reinforces Kristy's Parental Abandonment issues.
    Mary Anne: (frustrated with Kristy's rants about Richard's overprotectiveness) What do you know about having a real dad?
• Stacey's attempts to flirt with the much older Scott are at times cringeworthy, sure. But it's hard to not feel sorry for her when Scott's girlfriend is openly hostile towards her and makes her feel silly for having a crush on Scott.
• Stacey's diabetes diagnosis is much more dramatic – and scary – in the Netflix series than in the books. She even has a grand mal seizure in front of her friends, which caused her to move away due to bullying she received from her classmates afterward for it. Knowing that Stacey has been hiding her diagnosis and what it did to her social life from her new friends, and that she's terrified they're also going to leave her, you just want to hug the poor girl.
  • It doesn't help that Stacey's mother is so overprotective and afraid of Stacey being bullied again that her attitude is interpreted as shame of her daughter having a medical condition and needing an insulin pump. Stacey is inadvertently made to feel even more ashamed of her body by her mother who wants to cocoon her.
• Mary Anne feels left out for not knowing much about her mom, and not growing up with the same connection the other girls have. When Bailey, who's at least six or seven years her junior, is sick and sadly says she wants her Mommy, Mary Anne silently admits to feeling the exact same way.
  • Richard is proud of Mary Anne for standing up for Bailey when the younger girl got misgendered by the doctors at the hospital. He then confesses to his daughter that she reminded him so much of her mother's own courage and compassion, and if he even got close to raising her to be that strong and righteous, he succeeded. This is where we see just how vulnerable he has been as a single father raising a young girl after his wife died.
• When Kristy's mother sees her in the expensive dress Watson let her pick out after she expressed a dislike for the original one, Elizabeth ends up lecturing Kristy about being irresponsible. An angry Kristy angrily snaps and suggests she doesn't belong in Elizabeth's wedding or family and didn't want her mom to get remarried. It's compounded by Kristy's guilt and how she can't seem to find a time or place to apologize to her mother.
  • It's also rather sad given the timing; Kristy was just admiring herself in the mirror, actually feeling pretty and "like Cinderella". This was the first time in the season where the usually tomboy-ish Kristy actually enjoyed being dressed up and acting "girly" like the other BSC girls, something she previously couldn't connect to or understand, often making her feel left out. She was feeling really good about herself... and then her mother came in and ruined the moment.
  • Plus, Kristy's emotions are up and down all day, in ways that she can't explain or vocalize. Doubles as Fridge Brilliance because she's actually experiencing one of her first major hormone fluctuations since she's about to get her first period. The angst, confusion, and vulnerability she's been feeling all day is even harder to handle since she's in two very different situations she's never been in before.

Season Two

• "Claudia and the New Girl": When Mallory's Motor Mouth tendencies finally fray Claudia's temper to where she snaps at her while doing a job, "I'm supposed to be training you, but it feels like I'm babysitting you!" Mallory instantly looks like a kicked puppy and goes quiet. Remember, she was one of the kids the BSC babysat until she was invited to join the club, and being accepted made her finally feel grown-up. And then Claudia basically tells her she's still a little kid.
  • Claudia instantly regrets losing her temper and spends the remainder of the episode trying to make up for her harsh words. However, for a while, Mallory refuses all her attempts and remains emotionally crushed by what Claudia said.
• All of "Claudia and the Sad Goodbye" as everyone learns to cope with Mimi's death. Claudia particularly has a hard time as she felt that Mimi was the only family member who truly understood and supported her - she isn't ready to live a life without her beloved grandmother. She spends the entire episode in denial and refusing to confront her grief; distracting herself with shopping and fashion. She even refuses to stay home with her family as she doesn't feel ready to live in her house without Mimi anymore, although feeling guilty about it as she knows her family is equally grief-stricken.
  • This is something Janine calls her out on, saying how their mother has gone "unresponsive" in grief while their dad is simply focused on emotionally supporting his depressed wife. Janine says if it wasn't for Ashley, she would be completely alone while Claudia just bailed when they all needed her. Seeing the normally stoic Janine actually break down in literal tears about being alone with her grieving parents while also dealing with her own grief is painful to see. It also reminds viewers that, despite her demeanor, Janine is human and truly grieving the loss of her grandmother. A grandmother that also supported her with her own life's troubles (and was the only family member who knew she has a girlfriend).
  • Finally, Claudia finally is forced to acknowledge her grief at Mary Anne's insistence. At first, she tries convincing her that they redecorate Mary Anne's room and begins making non-stop suggestions; clearly trying to deny her grief even more. Mary Anne, who's had enough of her friend's unhealthy coping mechanism, forces her to finally let herself feel her grief.
    Claudia: I don't want to feel my grief. My grief feels horrible! My grief feels like-like my chest is going to explode! Like I can't breathe. Like everything is over and nobody...nobody understands.
  • Mary Anne explains she understands; she watched her father bottle up his grief over losing her mother for years. She says he "froze in time" and almost "froze her in time" as well by not letting her really grow up until she brought it to his attention. But, he finally let his grief out and allowed himself to talk about his late wife with Mary Anne. She says that while experiencing grief is painful, you can move on in time.
  • In a smaller moment, seeing Mary Anne also grieve Mimi's loss is also painful. Shortly after Mimi dies, she full-on starts sobbing with the group about how she didn't get to say goodbye to Mimi and can't believe she's truly gone. Remember, she and Mimi were close and we saw moments in season 1 of them spending time together. We later learn that Mimi also picked out Mary Anne's name when her pregnant mother had a hard time deciding, being close friends with the Spier family.
  • The end scene with the Kishi family standing in front of Mimi's alter, finally together, with the song In Fantasia by Japanese-American artist Kishi Bashi playing in the background and through the credits.
• When Kristy's dad bails on a much-promised visit yet again, it's a serious tearjerker. It's the last straw for Watson, who tells Liz that even though she feels she's protecting the kids by holding her tongue about their father, they need to know how wrong their father's actions actually are. They need to know they deserve better than an absent father who willingly and repeatedly breaks his promises to them.
  Mary Anne: Watson's right. We've been best friends our whole lives, and I've seen this happen before. Birthdays, recitals, that time in second grade where you skipped a soccer practice just so you could spend time with him, and what, he canceled? We want it to be different every time he comes. My mom died when I was 18 months old. The same age as a lot of these babies here. And I'm pretty sure she would've done anything she could to have even five more minutes with me. So to see your dad throw away his chances of being in your guys' lives, again and again, it just...
  Dawn: I don't get to see my dad as much as I want, but he'd never miss a chance to see me or be with me. Not because he's like a saint, but because he's a parent, and that's what they're supposed to do.
  • In hindsight, Kristy's initial dislike of Watson and her strong resistance to her mom marrying him is this, because he's a positive role model of the ideal dad. This is far from what her biological father is, all she knew fathers to be, and she had no idea how lucky she was. To her, a dad was someone who called or dropped in on the rare occasions he felt like it, and this goofy, dorky, loving suburban dad who made a real effort to connect was something alien to her. It took her best friends calling her father's actions out to make her realize her real dad has been the man she's protested marrying her mother for so long.