Tear Jerker / Fear the Walking Dead

The tail-end of a traumatic turn of events for Travis. And that's just the first season.

From the get-go, Fear the Walking Dead told the tale of how American civilization succumbed to the zombie contagion. And every sight of it stings.

---

Season 1

Pilot

• As Madison and Travis find Nick's area in the church, she finds a book of his with a syringe as a bookmark. The mere sight causes her to break down, since it highlights how Nick used to be a good man before his addiction started.

Not Fade Away

• When Madison finds out about Nick's relentless search for more drugs, she repeatedly slaps him to the point where he refuses to show his face to Alicia.
  Madison: You have no idea. You have no idea.
  • This moment becomes even worse when he is mistakenly taken by the National Guard, and Madison is the one who takes it the worst. She doesn't want her last words spoken to Nick to be one of hatred.
• Susan's note to her husband, Patrick. It's heavily implied that she was quite likely Driven to Suicide after seeing what was happening in the world. Made worse that Alicia is the only one who seems to know what happened to her, as she was the one who went to the house and looked into things, because she cared for Susan.

Cobalt

• After torturing Adams, Daniel tearfully attempts to justify what he did to Madison. Despite being a hardened father, he is still human and capable of remorse over his actions.
  Daniel: She was nine years old when she first asked me about the war and why we came to America. And I told her in detail about the violence, what was done, how we suffered. I told her everything except which man was me. (Voice breaks) Do you think she will understand... that it was necessary then... to survive? That it is necessary again?
• Grizelda's death in Episode 5, rambling about random things in Spanish until her last breath. This is despite Liza trying to draw her attention. And to rub salt into the wound, she is put down with a clip gun, meant for cattle.

The Good Man

• After fleeing the military base, the group drives through the abandoned Los Angeles, as fires burn out of control, walkers wander the streets, and cars lay empty en mass across the highways. At this point, if any of them had held out hope that the crisis was only temporary, it's hammered home here that society, and civilization as a whole, is never coming back or at the very least, without one hell of a goddamn miracle. The fact that this music plays during the scene only makes it worse.
• Liza's death. Even though Liza tries to have Madison kill her first, Travis steps in instead. And she didn't want him to be the one to kill her, since it would devastate him. This culminates in the final shot of the season, with Travis sobbing in Madison's arms.

Season 2

We All Fall Down

• A daughter ends up dying from an accidental poisoning, leading to her getting up and then killing her parents in a feeding frenzy. The fact that she tries to talk to her mother or at least regard her for a few moments only hammers it in.

Sicut Cervus

• The death of Strand's boyfriend, Thomas Abigail. It's shown that they were together long before the apocalypse and Strand spends the better part of two seasons desperately trying to reunite with him in Mexico. By the time the group finally arrives, it's revealed that Thomas was bit in a walker attack orchestrated by his Parental Substitute Celia. This brings The Stoic Strand to tears and he spends the entire episode just laying with and comforting Thomas before finally putting the other man down himself.

Wrath

• Chris' death. After severing ties with Travis and departing with a group of questionable teenage survivors, we find out in the penultimate episode of season 2 that he ended up crashing his group's truck mere hours after hitting the road and is executed by his own so-called friends while bleeding out in pain so he wouldn't be a burden to them. Travis' subsequent reaction and fatal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown against his boy's killers only cement the depressing scene. To rub salt in the wounds, Travis has no idea where the body is and his last words to his son was cursing him for leaving.
  Travis: God damn you, Chris!

Season 3

The New Frontier

• Travis' death, which serves as a perfect example of an extremely sudden death which came out of nowhere. While being in the helicopter, Travis is shot in the stomach, and then a bullet comes straight out of his neck. As result, Travis plummets to his death as a result of falling out of the helicopter. Seeing a resident Badass Normal character who had been surviving during the first two seasons of Fear the Walking Dead dying so abruptly is a really sad moment.

Sleigh Ride

• Overlaps with a heartwarming moment: after the dam is blown, Madison slips in and out of consciousness while submerged in the water and has a nightmare where Jeremiah Otto tries to drag her into his grave. Until someone grabs Madison's hand: Travis. She slips out of his grip, but the vision snaps her back into reality and helps her realize the danger of her situation in time for her to escape the water.

Season 4

Good Out Here

• Nick getting shot and dying shortly afterward. The rest of his allies are left devastated (especially his sister). They eventually have to bury him far away from home.
  • Imagine their mother's (Madison) reaction on finding out about his death.

Just In Case

• John getting shot by Alicia while she's trying to shoot at Naomi on finding out that she may be in league with the Vultures.

No One's Gone

• Madison's death. In the middle of the 4th season we finally get to see what exactly caused the stadium the main cast was living in for a year to get overrun. After the Vultures attack, Madison has to perform a Heroic Sacrifice in order to trap the walkers within the stadium and give others a chance to escape.

Season 5

End of the Line

• The final lines of the episode are delivered by Morgan, who has been left to bleed out by Virginia, at the mercy of several incoming walkers. There is nothing but desperation and pain in each of his words, since he just saw his dream of a united community be destroyed in front of his eyes. All his friends are being taken to separate communities led by Virginia, and Morgan cannot leave them without hope. Now, to see this man, who recovered his optimistic ways ever since he protected his son in King County, only to face yet another brutal setback, is just shockingly depressing, considering the hopeful tone of this season.
  "If any of you are listening... if any of you can hear me... what we were doing out here... it was... it wasn't just about doing right. It was about the future. We... fought... for the future. We made the hard call! For her! For... for all of us! So, Grace, if you're listening to me... live! All of you... if you can hear me... just live!"

Season 6

The Door

• This episode finally killed off a main character, ever since the mid-season finale of season 4. Who was that unfortunate person, you ask? John Dorie. And how did that person die, you ask? Not by a Heroic Sacrifice, nor by passing away next to the one he loves. Instead, this person is suddenly shot in the chest by Dakota, just because he found out she killed Cameron. She then pushes him into murky waters, and he bleeds out, despite getting onto a floating door and hoping for a few more seconds of survival.
  John: I know you've been through a lot. I get why you wouldn't believe me. Just give me a chance to show you.
  Dakota: Why?
  John: Because we can get past this. I can help you. Morgan said I need a reason to live. To keep going. Maybe that's you. That would have meaning. Right? So just put the gun down. You don't want to shoot me! You don't want to do that to yourself! You... you don't want to live with that. That's not what I want-
  [Dakota shoots John in the chest, and he stumbles. He groans in pain, holding onto a chain-link fence.]
  Dakota: I'm sorry. It doesn't always have to mean something, John.
  • To make matters worse, he finally found the will to live after spending most of the episode intent on killing himself]]. It's emphasized in the dialogue, while he has hauled himself onto the floating door, despite excessive blood loss.
    "It's not too late."
  • The music doesn't help at all. As John is trying to talk Dakota down, subdued, hopeful music starts playing. We start to believe that is a sign of him about to successfully help this troubled girl from pulling the trigger. But she does it anyway, with the music stopping after the fatal gunshot.
  • What comes after is just the icing on a bitter cake. June recognizes a washed-up body at the shore at the lake by John's cabin, with the sight immediately causing her to run towards it. Screaming out John's name, she tries to wake him up... and then we hear a familiar growling sound from the body. John has already become a walker, forcing a tearful June to put him down for good.

The Holding

• Wes finding his brother Derek alive, only to find out he's been taken in by Teddy's cult and was responsible for the accident at the gas depot. Knowing he may have known Wes was there is just another twist of the knife.

In Dreams

• The episode sets itself up as a Dying Dream for Grace, with her dreaming of a future where she died but her unborn daughter, Athena, was successfully born and grew up to be a badass teenager still surviving alongside Morgan and the others. Although Grace struggles to accept what's going on, she eventually does, and proceeds to wake up in the real world, with a shot of her walking into the light as though she's ready for death. After waking up, she gives birth in front of Morgan, and we're all expecting Grace to die shortly afterwards. Grace lives. Her baby doesn't. Morgan's tearful reaction to Athena's stillbirth very accurately sums up how all the viewers are feeling.
  "I don't understand."
  • What makes it all worse? Before Grace gives birth, she confidently tells Riley, one of Teddy's followers, that people like him will lose and that her baby will be the future of mankind. Having Grace lose her child was nothing more than a cruel twist of fate, and foreshadows what Teddy's cult succeeds in accomplishing in the season finale.

J.D.

• June reading the last letter John left for her at John's gravesite, after deciding not to ever since burying him and finally allowing herself to mourn his death.
  June. This is the hardest decision of my life. One that I hope you can find in your heart to forgive me for making... leaving you behind to save an innocent person's life. Knowing it might mean I never see you again. Even so, I believe you'll forgive me one day. Same way I forgave Dad for leaving me. Took me a few years to see it from his shoes, but I forgave him. He was a good man, and in his own way, he did what he did because he loved me, just like I'm doing what I'm doing 'cause I love you. But no matter what happens, sure as the sun sets, I will never stop trying to get back to you. Back to those early days at the cabin, when a pretty lady named Laura washed up on my shore and my life was forever changed. You are the most amazing woman I've ever known. You rekindled the light in me, June. You brought me back to people, made me believe in goodness again. That doing good was worth fighting for, like how I fought for you. And if I die, I die knowing I lived a life worth living, and a nurse named June was the light guiding my way. I love you, Junebug. Forever.
  • John Dorie Sr. is also right next to her, listening to it and finding out he'd also told her he forgave him for leaving the family so many years before. Thus, this gives him some closure over not coming back and reconnecting with his son before the world fell.

Mother

• Alicia finding out some of the Stadium folks survived... in the worst way. It turns out [they became thieves and murderers who preyed on innocents on the road. They also planned to kill her if she didn't bring them to where the cult was, spitting on the sacrifice Madison made to get them out alive so they could make the world better.

USS Pennsylvania

• Strand is so desperate to get the glory for saving the day from Teddy and proving to Alicia he’s not a monster that he decides to throw Morgan to walkers despite having no reason to do so. He’s willing to kill his ally out of some deluded, desperate attempt to vindicate himself. Morgan manages to survive, but knows they don’t have time to argue over it and keeps moving. Later, Strand seems to realize that his actions did nothing but cost them valuable time, as he begins desperately trying to insist that his actions are what led Morgan to this moment. Morgan has none of it and curses him for trying to sacrifice him. And what’s worse? Strand bought Teddy enough time to win and launch his nukes.

The Beginning

• With the nukes approaching, Morgan makes one last message to his friends telling them he’s going to try to stop them, but he admits it may not be possible. As his friends scatter like cockroaches, Morgan weakly asks them to try to make the most of what could be their last moments.
• Rachel hears the message while trying to fix a flat tire, only for everything to go wrong as the vehicle collapses on her leg, mutilating it beyond repair. As the nukes continue to hiss overhead, Rachel ultimately makes a desperate sacrifice to try to preserve the life of her baby Mo. She restrains and gags herself, ties herself to Rufus, who she tasks with finding help, and kills herself, knowing her reanimated self will be able to walk Mo wherever Rufus leads them. She will never know if Rufus will find anybody before the missiles hit, or even if Mo will make it out alive at all, but she still makes the ultimate sacrifice for her child.
• Daniel’s group is in clear distress when it appears Daniel’s coordinates are wrong, and Daniel can only soberly apologize to them, thinking he’s indeed a crazy old man who has ruined his group’s chance at survival. Thankfully, Isabelle arrives to rescue them.
• John, Sr. convinces Dakotah that Teddy truly doesn’t care about her, and that he only is using her because he needs two people to fire the remaining nukes. Teddy is caught in his lie and is unable to make up any excuses after a while, due to being such a sociopath that he can’t properly respond to Dakotah’s emotional outbursts. Ultimately Dakotah dies embracing she’s a monster who doesn’t belong in the world.
• Dwight and Sherry find a house with some beers where they decide they will meet their fate, and lament all their lost time before they find a way to take shelter.
• Strand finds his way to Howard’s tower, who soberly asks where the missiles will hit; Strand can only answer that it could hit anywhere, and both men decide that they’re probably going to die. They share some time talking about Howard’s collection of art, music, and historical artifacts, and drinking bourbon. Strand admits his part in Teddy’s victory, but in a twist, he insists that his name is Morgan Jones, admitting that Morgan and by proxy Alicia were right about him, and being too ashamed to admit it was him who bought Teddy his time.
• Back at the sub, Morgan is fruitlessly attacking the computer trying to stop the launch, while Grace is lying on top of the sub, staring at the missiles in the sky and having her hands over her stomach, pitifully crying as she asks if Athena knew this was coming, and that’s why she’s not here.
  • Grace finally goes to Morgan and gets him to stop, and they both admit their love for each other. Morgan admits he wished he could’ve been a good husband and father for Grace and her baby, and Grace is so broken that she begs Morgan to kill them both; the coming nuclear apocalypse won’t be worth trying to live through. And Morgan obliges and apologizes one last time, before pointing a gun at his head to shoot them both. They hear a baby crying and Grace is convinced she can hear Athena crying to her from the afterlife, which is all she wanted to hear… but it’s actually Mo, who has been brought to the sub by Rufus. Even when Morgan saves Mo, Grace is visibly hesitant, clearly unhappy with the idea of raising someone else’s child.
• Finally, the nukes hit, and everyone takes cover. Once Morgan’s small group survives the nearby blast, they see another one in the distance, and they share looks of deep concern, knowing their uncertain future begins now.

Season 7

The Beacon

• The prologue shows Will desperately trying to survive alone in the nuclear-zombie apocalypse and shows just how terrible it would be. Several scraps of food are too irradiated to eat, and Will’s shelter in the back of a van probably isn’t even protecting him much. It’s no wonder he gives up and nearly lets a walker bite him. What’s worse is that we later learn he’d been sheltered from the apocalypse since the Fall, meaning he is thrown into this double apocalypse headfirst.

Six Hours

• Grace is so upset with the idea of being forced to care for Mo that she’s distant and borderline neglectful of her, knowing how unfair it is that her own baby couldn’t live. She even blows up at Morgan since she was ready to die and be with Athena.
• During their car trip, “In Dreams” plays and pushes Grace over the edge, to the point she begins desperately screaming at Morgan to make it stop.

Cindy Hawkins

• John Sr. finds Teddy’s room where he stored his victims, reminding him of his decades long grief at not being able to provide closure for their families even after Teddy’s incarceration. John is shaken to find the torture room where they died, and June can only somberly assure him that Teddy is dead and can never do this to anyone again.

Breathe With Me

• Poor Rufus gets bitten by Emile’s reanimated head, to Josiah’s horror. He finally realizes how reckless his vendetta against Morgan is now that it’s cost him his beloved family dog. He gives him one last meal of beans with Tabasco sauce to give him some comfort even as the poor dog is clearly in pain already from the infection, before giving him a Mercy Kill.

Reclamation

• We get a look at Al’s break-up with Isabelle and it’s positively brutal. Al told Isabelle that she would never give up her video-taping job even to be with the woman she loves, and that even if she did, she would only resent her for it. Only now does she realize how pig-headed she was being, and at the end of the episode she finally goes and apologizes to Isabelle for being an idiot and agrees to go on the run with her. Isabelle can’t believe what she’s hearing, partially because she had already forced herself to start trying to get over Al.

Padre

• It’s revealed that Alicia was bitten while trapped in a tunnel in the bunker. She can only cry that she’s going to succumb to the infection.
• In the present, Strand tries to feed Morgan to a walker, only for Alicia to put her hand in the way, seemingly sacrificing herself for Morgan. Strand reels in horror at what he’s seemingly done and flees, and Morgan himself is horrified until Alicia reveals the walker only bit her artificial arm.
• At the end of the episode, Alicia finds that Strand killed Will in an attempt to keep him away from her, and it works all too well, and Strand knows it. He’s clearly remorseful when he vows to protect his community.

Mourning Cloak

• Charlie and Ali’s romance is brutally short as he’s quickly killed by Howard before the end of the episode.
• Charlie has come down with radiation burns and is given a terminal diagnosis by June and Grace.

Ofelia

• Arno’s death is surprisingly sad as he’s lowered into the walkers and messily stripped to the bone on his legs. He comes up a shuddering mess in pure shock from the pain, and weakly cries how he just wanted to protect his people before warning Luci that someone let the horde out of the crater.
• Daniel’s deteriorating mental condition has resulted in him believing Ofelia is alive, and Luci is forced to take advantage of it by lying that Ofelia is being held captive at the Tower.

Sonny Boy

• After his public humiliation, Howard’s wife and family left him, which has motivated him to build the Tower to provide a place they can live in peace. However, Strand reveals that his Rangers already found his family dead, and kept the truth from him to keep his motivation pushing him. And it’s even more for nothing when Strand has him killed just because he grew tired of him.
• John is deeply concerned about his legacy because as he notes, he thought his son was going to be it, but that's no longer the case.
• John reveals he’s been hit by radiation burns just like Charlie and is now trying to make the most of his remaining time. He ultimately chooses to march through the horde to get Mo to safety, seeing it as his legacy, and finds he has been bitten in the shoulder. He then decides to sacrifice himself to the horde, and though he tries to keep going as long as possible despite feeling more bites, he finally succumbs. Morgan’s reaction to his best friend’s father’s death is one of horror, clearly believing he’s to blame.

The Raft

• Even after everything, Sherry admits she still worries about Dwight relapsing to his old ways when he fell in under Negan.

Divine Providence

• Alicia finally reveals to Daniel that Luciana lied to him about Ofelia still being alive. When he reunites with the group, he curtly says he's not a liar, forcing Luciana to apologize for her deception.
• Daniel finds the dying Charlie and is deeply upset.
• Wes's desire for honesty ultimately only makes him an enemy of every group in the conflict and earns him a fatal stabbing from Strand.
• Neither Strand or Alicia can help themselves, being so set in their ways and determined to prove the other wrong, that they fall into bickering that results in the destruction of the Tower.

An Earlier Heaven

• Madison learning of the death of Nick and the apparent death of Alicia. All she'd done to try to keep them safe was for nothing, and she has outlived her children as far as she knows. Even if she someday reunites with Alicia, she's still down one child.
• Morgan becomes visibly close to relapsing into "Clear" Morgan when he demands to know where Mo has been taken, a reminder that the mental illness that nearly destroyed his life is never too far out of reach.

Season 8

Remember What They Took From You

• Madison has been imprisoned by PADRE for years and has repeatedly tried to kill herself, but it's out of defiance and satisfaction because she believes she helped Morgan and Mo escape PADRE many years ago, and in doing so repented for her actions as a collector. Then she encounters "Wren", and slowly, painfully puts it together that she is in fact Mo and that she has been in prison for years for nothing. What's even worse is that Morgan was so broken by being forced to call PADRE to take Mo to rescue her from walkers and now believes he's incapable of being a father again and refuses Madison's calls to take action against PADRE.
• Grace being reunited with her adopted daughter. She looks relieved and happy, but it soon turns to heartbreak when she sees Wren refusing to think of her as her mother. She and Morgan then sadly lament that at least they got to see her.

Blue Jay

• Shrike forces Dwight and Sherry to watch as she allows a walker head to bite Finch on his shoulder, surely dooming him. All the parents can do is scream and holler while Shrike sadistically continues to punish them for defying her, and she simply crows more of her bullshit about how this will be for the greater good.

King County

• We return to King County and Morgan reveals that he never put Duane down after he died even though he finally had killed his mother, and chained him up in his attic.
• Grace tells Morgan that she thinks she is dying from radiation sickness still left in her body. Whether that's true or not, she ends up with an untreatable bite by the end of the episode.

More Time Than You Know

• Not only is Grace's life fading, but the radiation treatment on Finch is failing, and he is now beginning to suffer the telltale signs of death from a bite.
• When Morgan splits up from Grace and Mo to try to buy them some time, Morgan and Grace make sure to give each other a loving, exceptional embrace. Despite Morgan's hopes and/or denial, he acknowledges with his actions that this could be the last time they see each other - and the end of the episode confirms it.
• Despite everything, Grace does indeed die, and Mo is too heartbroken to put her down. She nearly suffers the same fate as her quasi-half-brother Duane when she is nearly killed by Grace's walker. Morgan arrives and puts down Grace, another low blow.

All I See Is Red

• Morgan is completely losing his shit in the wake of Grace's death and Mo embracing PADRE over him.
• Finch dies with Dwight and Sherry reeling from the loss of their son, who they never even got to really raise. They're so shaken by their failed attempt to start a family that they decide to split up due to Dwight thinking this means they weren't meant to be together.

Iron Tiger

• Daniel learns that the only reason PADRE exiled him was because of Luciana. PADRE was going to execute him outright due to not thinking he would be useful, but Luciana bargained for his life to be spared in exchange for her services refining gasoline. Unfortunately, this left Luciana unable to see or speak to Daniel for the last several years.
• The joy at Charlie's survival evaporates into panic between Daniel, Luciana, and Strand, since they realize that Madison is about to learn what she did to Nick. Madison takes it as well as you'd expect, quickly becoming violent towards Charlie even after she sincerely apologizes for her actions.
• Charlie kills herself to save PADRE's location from Troy - but unbeknownst to her, Madison was only giving a dummy location to buy some time and had already forgiven her, meaning Charlie died for practically nothing. Daniel is left howling in rage at having lost another daughter to Troy in a way.
• Madison's actions have split the group up. Luciana returns to her supply network, refusing to give Madison any further aid. Daniel asks to go with her, but not before viciously chewing out Madison for her actions that got Charlie killed. And Madison admits she was wrong and leaves PADRE in Strand's hands.