History TearJerker / TheWalkingDead2010

'''Michonne:''' ''[angrily]'' You tell me why! TELL ME! '''WHY SHOULD I?!'''\\

** Him getting stalked by a murderous Morgan. He's injured, all alone and utterly terrified and just when he thinks he's safe he's killed by Henry. Sure he's a Saviour but considering he was reasonable, approachable, sympathetic and arguably nicer then other Saviour members and the fact that he really didn't want Ezekiel to die it's hard not to feel a little sorry for him.

* Rick upon arriving at Hilltop with Michonne after recently losing his son Carl visits the graves of Abraham and Glenn. When Daryl talks to him and asks him if he's okay Rick says that he will be even though he clearly isn't.

* Jadis having to hide in the blood of one of her people in order to escape getting killed. She even sees one of the Heapsters get gunned down, but has to stay motionless to avoid detection. Then the same Savior spits on her before admonishing what he thinks is her corpse.

** This face Negan makes, which is the folder picture, must be elaborated upon. Negan is basically about to finish the war as the victor, ready to pound in Rick's head with Lucille. And then, Rick tells him about Carl, and this realization hits Negan: only now did he have to take his leadership of the Saviors and his brutal dictatorship into consideration and consider if triumphing over Rick and killing him is what he really wants. As a result, he has to reflect on everything that had led up to the war that he himself started. From what the viewers can see on his face: '''he's actually saddened and conflicted on his actions'''. He was so caught up in the war's politics and handling of his group of survivors, that he never once had the time to contemplate what he's become to survive, and from the events afterward, at a wrong, crucial time, due to Rick using this window of opportunity to give Negan a SlashedThroat with a shard of glass. Despite his LargeHam and SirSwearsALot tendencies, we can still see what is essentially a TragicVillain.

** Ezekiel saying the episodes title. "I'm not a king. I'm just some guy". Ezekiel is so broken he doesn't even keep keep up his prefamance.

* Lori's death. Fans were divided over how good a person she was, but her death, and Rick's subsequent breakdown over it at the end of the episode, is absolutely ''heartwrenching''. To make things even worse, Carl is the one who has to put her down so she doesn't come back as a walker, his face blank as he tries to suppress his emotions.

* Hershel getting his ankle bitten by a walker in the Season 3 premiere. While it hurts to watch at the time, it's somewhat of a retroactive aversion since Hershel survives the bite (due to Rick amputating his leg).

* Lori's failed attempt to reconcile with Rick in Season 3, Episode 2.
* Lori's death in Season 3, Episode 4, "Killer Within". Fans were divided over how good a person she was, but her death, and Rick's subsequent breakdown over it at the end of the episode, is absolutely HEARTWRENCHING. To make things even worse, Carl is the one who has to put her down so she doesn't come back as a walker, his face blank as he tries to suppress his emotions.

--> '''Lori:''' Goodnight, love.
* T-Dog's Heroic Sacrifice so that Carol can escape. Knowing he's already bitten, he wrestles a pair of walkers into the wall and holds them there until Carol can escape.

* Darryl's story of how his alcoholic mother accidentally burned down their house and killed herself.

* Hallucinated Lori caressing Rick's face as he looks peaceful for the first time since 'The Killer Within'.

** Similarly Daryl choosing the group over Merle, and Merle realising that without his brother he's nothing.

* In "Clear," Michonne, Rick, and Carl drive past a walking survivor (who's carrying a distinctively large, orange backpack) and ignore his pleads for help, with only Carl looking back troubled. During the return trip at the end of the episode, they drive past a large bloody smear on the road with an orange backpack sitting nearby, and they nonchalantly stop just to grab the pack. Compared to how he was in Season 1, Rick has become worryingly cold.

* Daryl finding the zombified Merle. As if the scene itself wasn't sad enough, the whole ordeal leaves Daryl openly bursting into tears.

** Both this moment and when Merle starts beating Daryl up in Woodbury are horrible because normally, Daryl fights back against anything, but when faced with Merle, he physically curls in on himself, becoming an abused little boy again. It's like he completely regresses into a childlike state, confused why someone he loves is hurting him, and too afraid to fight back. Particularly poignant for anyone who has suffered abuse.
*** When Merle delivers the first punch at the fight in Woodbury, sending Daryl to the ground Daryl's gasping sounds an awful lot like a child fighting back tears...

* Admittedly, Merle's death. Despite all his racist, sexist, {{jerkass}} behavior and enjoyment for violence. He truly loved Daryl, despite their troubled relationship.

* Admittedly, Merle's death. Despite all his racist, sexist, JerkAss behavior and enjoyment for violence. In the end, he may not have been such a bad guy afterall. And he truly loved Daryl, despite their troubled relationship. Plus Actor/MichaelRooker was such a enjoyable actor, and seeing him gone is pretty sad.

** If you didn't cry for the whole episode, the very final shot of the dream sequence where Abraham and Glenn turn and smile to each other will.

** Especially when he's almost forced to chop Carl's hand off or Negan would kill the entire group. He's reduced to blubbering and hyperventilating.
** For a moment, you even see Rick ''snotting'' all over. It's easy to tell that he wasn't just acting his horror and panic.
* Carl doesn't even flinch when it seems like he's going to lose his hand, but when Glenn is killed, he finally breaks and cries. Rick can barely stand to look and just sobs as the boy who became a man right in front of him, starting when he saved him from the tank, is brutally executed.

** Carl telling Negan about how he had to put down his mother, shortly after being forced to sing a song that she taught to him as punishment for killing two Saviors.

* At the end of the episode, Eugene goes to see Max and apologizes for storming off during her confession. Max is even more upset, however, that Eugene didn't realize that Shira wasn't her after everything they shared with each other. Eugene admits he [[AmbiguousDisorder isn't like other people]] and was so desperate to find love with Max that he let himself be tricked.

* Beth's death at the end of the mid-season finale. Possibly the worst part was seeing Daryl sobbing while carrying her lifeless body outside. And then Maggie - who had been told she was alive -- sees her and just collapses in grief, screaming. The entire cast pulled out very raw, very heartbreaking performances. Andrew Lincoln barely holds himself together during his final lines, Melissa [=McBride=] quickly tearing up, Chad Coleman trying to breathe, even Christian Serratos just putting her hand over her gaping mouth helps sell it... Then we get Lauren Cohan shrieking in grief seeing Daryl cradling her dead sister and collapsing to the ground.

* The episode ends with Rick telling Carol and Daryl that if they don't like the way Alexandria is run, they'll just take it over. Rick has finally become what he claimed to be "Just a man looking for his wife and son". He's the VillainProtagonist. The good man he was may have been burned away.

* The brutal death of Abraham at Negan's hands and Rosita, Sasha, and Eugene's reactions to it. After several hits, Sasha can be seen barely restraining herself from asking Negan to stop, since Abe is now long dead.
** Even worse, look at what Abraham is doing, seconds before he is killed. His left hand changes into a '''two-fingered salute''', directed at Sasha. As that symbol has been exchanged back and forth between the two in previous occasions, She is in tears when she sees it.

** An alternate take was leaked where Maggie was the victim. After the decision sinks in for a moment, Glenn has a LittleNo at first, but then completely loses his shit and begins ''screaming'' for Negan to pick him instead, and has to be knocked out by Dwight, meaning Maggie is going to die without her husband there. As Negan prepares to kill Maggie, Abraham next to her breathes heavily as he grasps what is about to happen, and just slowly bows his head and closes his eyes, devastated that he didn't succeed in getting picked as the victim. Sasha's crying, which in the final cut is for Abraham, is also equally heart-wrenching in this context. You can just feel the utter despair of AllForNothing setting in on the group.
-->'''Glenn''': ''No''-'''''NO NO PICK ME!! PICK ME-''''' *gets knocked out*

* Daryl's reaction to watching Glenn die, as you perfectly see that this is the mother of all [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone My God What Have I Dones]] as he watches his friend die a horrible death because of ''him''. When Glenn is hit for the first time, all his defiance and rage vanishes in the instant it took to hit Glenn, as he realizes what he just did and that Glenn is now paying the price for it. He just gapes in horror, flinches with each hit to Glenn, and begins sobbing. At the end of the episode, he's then corralled into a Savior's van like an animal, cowering as Dwight points his own crossbow at him.

* Princess' story about her abusive childhood. We already knew she was a SadClown, but finding out her father and stepbrother used to take turns beating her and locking her in a closet just brings it to a whole new level.

** Maggie describes Glenn as the love of her life, calling him "beautiful" and recalling with happiness how he made her feel. But explains to Negan that whenever she looks at him, she instead remembers his gory, brutal death, him choking trying to speak to her one last time, and worst of all, how Negan ''made fun of Glenn while he died a slow, agonizing death at his hands''. This particularly causes Negan to squirm as he remembers too what a monster he was. For her part, Maggie tells Negan that he has earned his place in the community and that she wants to try to let go of her hate for him, disgusted with how much energy it has drained from her over the years - and how badly it's affected Hershel since he was born. But she tells Negan outright she will never forgive him because of how he sadistically enjoyed killing Glenn that night. And Negan is heartbroken, seemingly finally realizing that despite everything, he truly can never fully make up for the horrors he committed during his reign of terror.

* A meta example: numerous fans are simply devastated that the episode ends in a cliffhanger. Diehard fans are hurt that one of the most iconic scenes of the comic, and it's adaptation which had been hyped up since Jeffrey Dean Morgan was cast, was ruined and several fans have declared they've lost faith in the show. The show runners' nonchalance about the fan backlash just seems to twist the knife in deeper.

* In a meta sense, Carol and Morgan have no idea about what happened to their friends after they left...