Season 1
The Promotion- True to her description of him, Dirk not only talks over Bertie during the board meeting (and says "expecially," making her tremble with rage), but steals all of the ideas she had in her notebook and takes credit for them, leaving Bertie humiliated when Holland asks if she has anything to add to the conversation. And this is before he sexually harasses her, making her feel even worse.
The Deli Guy
- After Tuca's disastrous date with the titular deli guy, she makes her way home alone on a particularly grimy subway train. Seated across the way from her is an elderly toucan bag lady asleep in her seat, and Tuca's reflection briefly appears in the window next to her (implying that Tuca is afraid that this is where her life might be headed). Tuca silently hugs herself as tears stream down her face.
- The saddest part is that they clearly hit it off. He enjoys spending time with her and they even share a lot of oddball ideas (such as the desk drawer for deli meats), and the only reason things go downhill is because Tuca is too nervous to be vulnerable around him.
- Later, she reveals to Bertie why the whole experience was so stressful: it's the first date she'd ever gone while sober.
- Likewise, Bertie breaking down in tears during her and Speckle's 'sexy' roleplay becomes a lot harsher in hindsight as the series goes on.
Plumage
- Tuca reminiscing about how happy she was when her mother was alive and all the hard work she put in to raise her many children by herself, only for the whole family to fall apart after her death. Understandably, Talulah touches a nerve when she says that both Tuca and her mother are irresponsible, enough for Tuca to disown her, even if it means being financially independent at a time where she can't.
- After Tuca refuses the check, Talulah gives her a very cruel dressing-down as she leaves. It ends with her saying "they're all going to leave you!" And then the scene lingers on Talulah sitting all alone in her massive dining room.
Yeast Week
- Tuca does everything in her power to not go to the hospital until she literally passes out from the pain. Eventually, it's revealed that she's doctor-phobic due to the trauma of being in the hospital after her mother's fatal car crash.Young Tuca: Auntie, is my mom gonna be okay?Talulah: Don't you worry, sweetie. They got the best doctors.
- Bertie's flashback of Tuca being carried into an ambulance on a stretcher after nearly dying of alcohol poisoning during a party when they were in college.
- Tuca's and Bertie's big fight brings up massively personal feelings between them. After that, they stop speaking to each other for a long time.Tuca: I always drop everything to help you!Bertie: I pray for the day you can't just drop everything to help me because you actually have a job!
The New Bird
- Dakota disowning Bertie when she finds out that Bertie didn't warn her about Pastry Pete's manhandling habits.
- Returning home after the blowout with Dakota, Bertie stands illuminated in the yellow light from her apartment window, in a call-back to what Speckle said in the first episode: about how he likes the thought that that "little piece of yellow" is theirs. But unlike Speckle, Bertie takes no comfort in the light, and instead gets in her car and drives away.
The Jelly Lakes
- Tuca and Bertie crying in each other's arms after they've spend the last few weeks being mad at each other, eventually filling the entire car up with their tears until the doors burst open. While it's a hilarious joke, it's true to how much real best friends hate being mad at each other.
- Bertie's backstory about being molested by a lifeguard when she was 12. Near the end of the episode when Bertie goes swimming again, she has a vision of herself hugging a silhouette of her 12-year-old self.Bertie: I trusted him. I thought it was special. All I wanted was to swim to that island. This was my favorite place... if I'm so brave, why don't I go home and deal with my shit?
Sweet Beak
- Speckle, exhausted from doing all the emotional labor in their relationship brought on by Bertie expecting him to handle her baggage for her, finally reaching his limits when she returns home from her impromptu, week-long road trip, leaving him worried sick about her. He can't even look her in the eye initially when she finally returns and even after they made peace, he tells her that everything isn't automatically fixed and that she still needs to get her act together if they want their relationship to work.
- During his blowup, he's actually on the verge of tears.
Speckle: I can't just be your rock all the time. Sometimes I need you to be my rock! - Throughout the episode, Speckle is refurbishing a beat-up old house that he bought without telling Bertie to take his mind off of the situation. It's heavily implied that, had things not worked out between them, he was going to move out of their apartment into this house once it was finished.
- Tuca running out of the Molting Day pageant in tears when all of the mentions of family make her realize just how alone she is.
- The Reveal that Tuca is apparently so estranged from her siblings that they never even bothered to tell her that Tallulah has wound up in the hospital since their last visit, as they assumed she wanted nothing to do with it after their falling out. The begrudging tone in her sister's voice when she says "I love you too" makes it clear that Tuca's relationship with her family is very broken and it's not going to be that easy to try and fix it.
Season 2
Bird Mechanics- After Tuca abandons a date to save Bertie from a panic attack, Tuca's potential lover decides not to pursue their relationship because she thinks Tuca is too attached to Bertie to have anybody else in her life. Tuca is genuinely upset about this possibility. At the end of the episode, Tuca puts a cup behind the toilet (referring to an earlier joke about her storing all her feelings there) that reads, "Bertie is keeping me alone."
Nighttime Friend
- The very premise of the episode: Tuca's various anxieties and hang-ups are preventing her from sleeping, so she wanders around at night to try and take her mind off her troubles.
- One of her first adventures is visiting her mother's grave. She tries to keep the "conversation" light and humorous, but you can tell how much her mother's absence still hurts.
- Tuca visits her Auntie Talulah in the hospital, bringing her malt liquor, chatting and bantering with her as they usually do, and it almost seems like their relationship is on the mend. It culminates with Talulah giving Tuca power of attorney over her sister. When Tuca learns that having power of attorney means you're in charge of making the best decisions for the person in your care, she decides she's going to stop buying her auntie liquor, and brings her a teddy bear instead. Talulah immediately transfers power of attorney back to Terry, showing that Talulah only wanted to give it to Tuca because she thought she could more easily manipulate Tuca into doing what she wanted. Tuca leaves soon after, obviously hurt by her aunt's continued callousness.
The Moss
- A new property manager increases the rent of Tuca and Bertie's building by 25% and bans all pets. Most of the residents are forced to move out by the end of the episode, and Dapper Dog is reduced to begging on the street to make up the difference on his unit. Tuca is spared when she discovers her apartment is a historical landmark, but only her apartment. The rest of the residents are on their own.
Sleepovers
- The steady, creeping revelation that Kara, the fun and chill seagull nurse that sang Tuca to sleep a few episodes back, is quick to disregard Tuca's feelings and nonchalant about hurting them.
Corpse Week
- Bertie's parents avoid uncomfortable topics so often that it turns out they more or less ignored Bertie getting molested at the Jelly Lakes. Bertie got a few appointments with her school counselor, and that's it. Now Bertie is an adult and she is furious she didn't get the help she needed.
- Just the state of Bertie’s childhood home when they arrive for Corpse Week; Because her parents rely on unhealthy coping mechanisms, they became extreme hoarders after Bertie’s dad had a health scare. It’s even sadder when it’s revealed that they never even told Bertie that he was sick and in need of surgery.
The Dance
- The entirety of Tuca and Kara's relationship. Kara doesn't even try to hide her disdain for Bertie, Speckle, and anything that Tuca likes that Kara doesn't tell her she should like. It's absolutely heartbreaking to see her withering under Kara's repeated glares.
- The sequence showing sketches of Tuca and Kara dancing, but the former gets smaller being around the latter, until Bertie comes in to dance with Tuca and lift her up to normal size.
The Flood
- Tuca almost drowning because after two days of no word from Kara, who promised she would call right after work, she thinks Kara is in danger and needs her. As it turns out, Kara's fine and enjoying herself with her friends. When Tuca calls out to her, she just smiles, shrugs, and turns her back without a word after a VERY brief moment of realization, leaving Tuca to break down crying. In other words, she almost died from the flood, risking her life to see if Kara would even respond, yet Kara doesn't even care if Tuca's fine or not.
- Tuca becomes overwhelmed by her repressed emotions when the cups she's used to store away how she feels get caught in the flood. All but one cup is represented by a cutesy, sad looking toucan ghost that float above her head. The one that isn't is a more angry and sad looking one, representing how she feels about her mother's death, which may hit a little too close to home for some people.
- Tuca telling her sad mom feelings that she'll see them tomorrow.
Season 3
Leveling Up
- As over the top as it gets, this episode shows that Tuca is so insecure paranoid that she'll hurt others that she self-sabotages any actual progress she makes in her life. Despite all the progress she's made, she's convinced that all her past failures make her incapable of actually thriving in work or relationships.
The Pain Garden
- Tuca's struggle with her inexplicable chronic uterine pain and her fear that it'll keep her from living a normal life is a very real and very tragic problem. By the end of the episode, even professional doctors can't solve all her problems, though it is heartwarming that Figgy accepts her issues and takes care of her.
The One Where Bertie Gets Eaten By a Snake
- Tuca finds Figgy in a horribly wasted state after three days of solo drinking, but he insists that she not try to tell him to stop. Tuca almost agrees, but then realizes that she cares about him too much to let him treat himself like this and breaks up with him. It's heavily implied this was traumatic to see due to her own near-death experiences with alcoholism.
- The last thing he says to her? The thing he still manages from the cusp of passing out? "I love you too, sweetie-Tooks."
Salad Days
- Bertie is initially furious when she finds out that Winter Garcia is collaborating with Pastry Pete, until her boss goes on a rant saying how all the sexism she endured in the baking industry "toughened her up." Bertie almost immediately changes her tune, realizing that Garcia's tough exterior is a coping mechanism.
Screech Leeches
- This episode shows how little support Bertie really had after being molested at the Jelly Lakes. Her parents shunted her off to an ill-equipped high school guidance counselor, and her friends were all jealous that Bertie got to hook up with a guy before any of them did. While one of them did realize their insensitivity and gave an imperfect apology, the other two grew up never learning anything from the incident.
