Tear Jerker / GLOW (2017)

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Season 1

• The whole ending of Ruth and Debbie's friendship.
  • Ruth is envious and insecure regarding what Debbie had and fucked Mark out of insecurity.
  • Debbie screaming and crying at Ruth for what she did, Country Matters never sounded so heartbroken.
  • Their confrontation in the ring, while we look into Sam's vision, "Separate Ways" is playing and is so VERY appropriate to the situation.
• The audience throwing things and yelling slurs at Arthie during the pilot taping, due to her Beirut the Mad Bomber character being displayed while the TWA 847 hijacking is fresh on everyone's mind. It was not out of hatred for her character, but for her skin color and perceived race.

  They really hated me.

Season 2

• Ruth gets shamed by Sam for directing the main title sequence, Reggie gets fired for standing up for her to his face, and Sam pretty much informs Ruth and Debbie that the cast is all disposable.
• The look of pure hurt and embarrassment on Ruth's face after Sam goes off on her and fires Reggie. Her chin trembling and her being on the verge of tears is almost too hard to watch.
• After years working behind the scenes in Hollywood, Cherry finally has her big break on a cop show... but she can't seem to remember her lines and put emotion into them at the same time. The efforts to make the role work go as far as straightening her hair against her will, but ultimately, Sam has to come in and identify the real problem: she just doesn't have enough acting experience and isn't cut out to play a lead.
• Debbie's breakdown during her furniture sale. Talking about how she didn't foreseen any of her marital trouble when she first met Mark. Talking about how he used to be so lovable.
• Tamme's son Ernest attends a GLOW taping, and sees the role his mother is playing: a racist caricature called "Welfare Queen" who is hated by the audience. Having her son witness this hatred and racism makes Tamme break down in the middle of the ring, eventually running out after the finish.
  • One of the audience members is even a little girl, brought by her mother. And Debbie cluelessly starts the "Get A Job" chants.
    • That one really backfired on GLOW as the audience almost turned completely on Debbie with even someone even yelling: "She is bullying Welfare Queen!" Hadn't Ruth improvised on the spot with that kidnapping that could have turned really ugly due to how popular Welfare Queen was.
• Bash, who's usually The Pollyanna, is clearly devastated over Florian's disappearance and eventual death. Remember, they were best friends since childhood. Bash completely shutting down upon getting the news of Florian's death, then sitting by the pool crying while his entire house is bleached, is heartwrenching.
  • Florian's death itself is a huge tearjerker. The hospital worker who calls Bash mentions that most funeral homes won't even handle his body, which was sadly something that really happened during the AIDS epidemic because the disease was that feared and stigmatized.
• Debbie cutting down Ruth after the latter tells her that she was almost raped by Tom Grant and ran away when she could. The clincher also that Debbie was put on the casting couch before and submitted. Basically this stuff was normal in Real Life.
• Ruth and Debbie's fight in the hospital, where they both drag out every toxic aspect of their friendship that led to their current situation.
• It's subtle, but Carmen's reaction to Bash confessing his love for Rhonda. It's made worse by the fact that everything he's saying about her also applies to Carmen.
  • Earlier Rhonda is distressed about possibly having to go back to Great Britain where she will be back with her "alcoholic parents" and have frizzy hair. It's painful after seeing Rhonda mostly be upbeat throughout two seasons.

Season 3

• Ruth and Debbie are doing a Kayfabe interview while the Challenger launches, causing all the fans to cringe as Zoya keeps insulting the crew, not noticing that it's already blown up while Debbie desperately tries to get her attention. She spends the rest of the day wracked with guilt about it.
• Debbie ends up developing an eating disorder as Joy Division's "Disorder" plays after a negative comment is made about her backside and she misses her son.
• The extent of Tamme's back problems, revealed in "Freaky Tuesday". Night after night of lifting and spinning and carrying the other woman has hurt Tamme so badly that she can barely get out of bed. She tries hot showers, hot tubs, and massages, but refuses to see a doctor because she doesn't have the money. What's more, only Carmen, Debbie, and Reggie really know the extent of her pain - the rest of the girls blithely ignore her.
• Cherry and Keith separate after she panics about her career likely being set back after having children, and Cherry reveals to Debbie that she actually miscarried a few years ago.
• During a camping trip, Melrose reveals that her aunt and eight cousins died in Treblinka, and that her father, a survivor of The Holocaust, refuses to live in a house without an attic or a basement in case they have to hide. Jenny in turn shares her memories of escaping the Cambodian genocide. She made it out with her parents and her uncle, but everyone else she and her family knew were killed.
• The fire at the end of The Libertines where there was a nighttime drag show AIDS charity benefit and everyone came out safely but soon they are confronted (especially Arthie, Bobby, and Yolanda) with anti-gay graffiti.
• Bash tearfully confessing his feelings of self-loathing to Debbie after his threesome with Rhonda and the gigolo, especially when he tells her that he does not want to die.