Tearjerker moments from Check, Please!. All spoilers are unmarked.
Examples:
- Bitty's concussion
from a hip check — his one phobia — and his teammates' dismayed reactions to the injury. It temporarily undoes a year's worth of his progress, which comes close to getting him removed from the team. - Bitty abruptly realizes he's developed feelings for Jack, but believes Jack is straight and breaks down in tears at the thought that it could never work out.
- Bitty casually bringing up the fact that the football team locked him in a closet overnight when he was in seventh grade. At the oldest, he would have been thirteen. And he was locked in a closet overnight by a bunch of football players. They locked a gay kid in a closet. No wonder he's so wary of jocks.
- Some related to Jack Zimmermann's history as a Broken Ace and its ongoing toll on him:
- In 1.18, a sports reporter ignores Jack's recent accomplishments to chew him out for how much of a disappointment he was during his addict days. Despite Shitty yelling for someone to "turn that shit off," the damage is done and Jack leaves the room with an utterly heartbreaking look on his face.
- 1.6 gives a summarized account of Jack's messed up childhood, in the form of a fairy tale that depicts Jack as a fallen prince trying to reclaim his former glory. The storybook layout of the chapter gives it a childlike sense, which makes watching young Jack go through an anxiety- and drug-fueled breakdown a thousand times more painful.
- Remember Kent Parson? Jack's ex-best friend, who was the first pick in the draft when Jack instead went to rehab, and who went on to win a Stanley Cup and Calder Memorial Trophy? Yeah, we find out Jack and Kent have personal history when Kent insults the Samwell team and deliberately says things to hurt Jack as much as possible, which drives Jack to a panic attack. Made Harsher in Hindsight with the reveal that they had a sexual relationship.
- In 1.18
- Samwell makes it into the Frozen Four during Jack and Shitty's last season with the team, but they lose in the finals. Post-game, Bitty notices Jack is missing from the dressing room and finds him crying alone in the loading bay. This is immediately followed by a Heartwarming Moment, when Bitty hugs and cries with him.
- Year 3 keeps implying that Bitty has doubts about his relationship with Jack, and believes that it will come the day when the relationship will end because Jack choose his career over Bitty.
- The entirety of 3.9 is Bitty being insecure and hurt about hiding his relationship with Jack while he has to hear everybody saying how "good friends" they are, how the media badmouths him and how he feels guilty over hiding things from his friends and being unable to get his back.
- Bitty talking about not being out to his parents. Just... ow.
- Kent drives up to the Samwell hockey team to wish them luck. When he runs into Bitty, he's about to leave, but Bitty invites him to have pie. The food and Bitty's kindness allow Kent to open up: he admits that he owes Jack an apology for being a bad boyfriend to him, and not understanding him when he needed a break from hockey. Yet Kent also admits any apology would be self-serving, and he would make it all about him. Bitty forgives him on Jack's behalf, telling him that Jack is happy, and he is always welcome for pie.
