Tear Jerker / Malcolm in the Middle

• "Francis Escapes": It's mostly played for laughs, but Francis is utterly heartbroken when his girlfriend Beebee breaks up with him. He spends all his phone privileges and quarters calling her and writing her poetry, but it's revealed she's The Ditz with Sticky Fingers, making his little brother an accomplice in shoplifting. Then he runs away from military school to elope with her and starts to wax eloquent about his love. Beebee says she didn't love him, only the attention he showered on her, and walks away callously. You can't blame Francis for curling up on the ground and moaning, not just from the food he ate earlier. When his dad drives him back to military school, Hal expresses sympathy and says Francis deserved better.
• In "Minibike," when Hal goes to visit Francis at the Military School for a Father-Son event, Hal sees the other boys get award after award for behavior and academics, while Francis didn't earn anything, and after a conversation with Spangler that concluded with him telling Hal that Francis does nothing but cause trouble, Hal tells Francis how embarrassed he is of him, because while he and Lois have been trying to get him to become a better person, Francis does whatever he wants with no regards to whatever happens to anyone else.
• "Family Reunion": Seeing how Hal's family treats Lois despite her trying to make an effort with them. It gets too much for Lois, which causes her to lock herself in a bathroom and cry.
• In "Evacuation", Lois decides that Malcolm should remain grounded even though they are in a school gymnasium being used as an emergency shelter from a lethal chemical spill. Malcolm points out to her that they could all potentially die, to which she jokingly responds, "If that happens, you're off the hook" clearly missing his point of how he'd be forced to spend what might be the last few days of his life confined to a cot...not the most meaningful way to spend your final time still alive. Making matters worse, Lois greatly humiliates Malcolm by shooing away everyone who tries to talk to him, even a news reporters on national television by saying "You can't talk to him. He's grounded". And then has the gall to announce this to everyone in the gym to ensure no one speaks to Malcolm while he's still punished. Imagine how it would feel if your own mother did all that to you during what could very well be the end of your life...
• "Malcolm Films Reese": Reese is clearly hurt and betrayed when his deepest thoughts are broadcasted all over the school after opening up to Malcolm.
• "Reese Joins the Army" has a bunch of them:
  • Reese's heartbreak over his girlfriend cheating on him with Malcolm, his brother causes him to enlist in the army.
  • Hal gets arrested for a crime he didn't commit and is his company's fall guy.
  • The stress of everything causes Lois to lose her job and have a breakdown.
• "Lois Strikes Back": Reese is devastated when his date turns out to be a bunch of girls pranking him. He spends most of the episode broken.
  • And while all four girls absolutely deserved it, some of Lois's revenge results in this.
    • Diane finds her stuffed animals and dolls beheaded and mutilated and stuffed into her locker. According to Malcolm, she had to be wrapped in blankets and taken to the nurse's office.
    • Kirsten starts freaking out when she realises someone lined her motorcycle helmet with gum. Her friends later have No Sympathy for her.
• Dewey's life:
  • Gets neglected by his parents constantly which worsens once Jamie is born. "Morp" reveals that they don't have any pictures of him growing up.
  • Reese and Malcolm have been torturing him for his entire life and left him out a lot in the earlier seasons. Even when they try to help him it goes wrong (Malcolm sabotages Dewey's test scores to stop him from being a "Krelboyne" which gets him placed with the "Buseys" instead).
  • Before the Buseys were introduced, Dewey didn't have any friends.
  • Francis, the only older brother who is nice to him no longer lives at home. Thankfully, he appears to have a good relationship with Jamie and plans on being a good big brother to him.
• Multiple episodes have shown how sensitive and self-loathing Reese actually is:
  • He hates how "stupid" he is with episodes such as "Experiment" highlighting this (having 2 genius younger brothers doesn't help).
  • He's sensitive over the fact that he has no friends ("Mom says you're not supposed to talk about that").
• Lois's childhood:
  • Her mother and father were abusive.
  • They preferred her sister over her.
  • She does not have a good relationship with said sister due to stealing Hal from her.
• "Hal Grieves": Watching Reese, Malcolm and Dewey exploit Hal's grief over losing his father to get him to spoil them is sad, especially when Hal is scared of having the same distant relationship his dad had with him.
• In the Clip Show, Hal takes his sons to a therapist because he believes Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey took a joyride on one of his cars and destroyed it. When the therapist asks the boys what role they think they have in the family, Malcolm reveals that he doesn't believe he doesn't fit in with his family. As flawed as Malcolm is as a character, and he does bring some of his problems onto himself because of his arrogance, it's heartbreaking to see his self-loathing so strong that he doesn't consider himself a part of his family and doesn't think he does anything to help his family despite all the times he did help them. The only good thing about this is that Reese and Dewey, with no hesitation, state that Malcolm is the one who gets them all out of trouble and that he is the leader, no matter how strained the brother's relationship is and how dysfunctional they are, those two never considered Malcolm an outcast and never considered him worthless to his family.

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