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Tearjerking moments in Dexter's Laboratory. Not everyday can be a fine day for science, sometimes it can be a very sad day...
General:
- As quoted from Fridge Horror: "When watching Dexter's Laboratory, if you think about it too much, you'll realize what a cruel, destructive scumbag Dee Dee really is. When she's not completely destroying her brother's life's work, she at times openly belittles, insults, humiliates, and abuses him for kicks and giggles." You need only look at such episodes as "Road Rash", "The Big Cheese", "LABretto", "Framed", "Sister Mom", "Dimwit Dexter"... you get the picture.
- This is doubly worse when you think back to the few times that Dee Dee herself is in trouble. You can tell that despite everything, Dexter has some serious Big Brother Instinct going on, despite being the younger brother who gets put through hell by his sister. That says nothing good about Dee Dee, and a lot of good about Dexter.
- Although this varies depending of the writer, the inverse is also true: Dexter can be a complete jerk to Dee Dee as well as impatient, not trying to understand his sister or respecting how she views the world and merely labeling her as stupid. He also insults her constantly and while Dee Dee is destructive, it is more due to curiosity than maliciousness and all she wants is to spend time with her brother.
- This is doubly worse when you think back to the few times that Dee Dee herself is in trouble. You can tell that despite everything, Dexter has some serious Big Brother Instinct going on, despite being the younger brother who gets put through hell by his sister. That says nothing good about Dee Dee, and a lot of good about Dexter.
Specific episodes:
- The wacky and fun episode "The Koos Is Loose", wherein Dexter has to deal with Dee Dee's imaginary friend hanging out with him, ends with Dexter wishing away the imaginary friend, and commanding him to never come back again. And he does. Dee Dee runs away sobbing. Then it fades to credits where Koosie just laughs and it suddenly becomes Nightmare Fuel.
- Dexter feels so guilty that he finally gives Koosie the hug he's been wanting the whole episode.Dexter: You ARE warm...
Koosie: Hee hee hee, I know. - The fact that Koosie is loud, obtrusive, and annoying, force-feeding Dexter food he doesn't like and callously destroying his work. If you find him charming, the end is a tearjerker. If you hate him and, like Dexter, spend the episode wishing he'd leave forever, the end is pretty much tailored to making you feel guilty. No one gets a free pass on this one. Sure Koosie comes back a few episodes later, but it's still a gut punch on first viewing.
- And on top of that, it's also part Harsher in Hindsight, and part Downer Ending due to Koosie's voice actor Dom De Luise passing away (though he thankfully ended his role as Koosie on a happier note).
- Dexter feels so guilty that he finally gives Koosie the hug he's been wanting the whole episode.
- Though Koosie gets to return, his limelight episode afterwards isn't exactly joyous. Once again his annoying characterisation is Deconstructed, we find out everyone in his hometown thinks he's as irritating as Dexter originally did, either telling him to get lost or beating him up on sight. Koosie lies to Dee Dee that he's their beloved king, though when Dee Dee enters the world and his unpopularity reaches boiling point, he sadly confesses to Dee Dee he's a fraud. Thankfully the civilians undergo a Heel Realisation on sight.
- "Way of the Dee Dee":
- Dee Dee's "The Reason You Suck" Speech she gives after Dexter yells at her and calls her stupid.Dee Dee: I feel sorry for you, Dexter. You're like a pickle— cold, sour and all bottled up in your laboratory. Toiling away alone in the dark, searching for answers to questions nobody asked. Locked away from the world, never to experience the true mysteries of life. Well, you can keep your cold, sterile little lab, because for me, the world is my laboratory. Goodbye Dexter, I'll never bother you again. (Dee Dee leaves, leaving Dexter alone in his silent, tomb-like laboratory.)
- Dee Dee's horrified reaction as Dexter wrecks his own lab is even worse— and it all started with her trying to get Dexter to lighten up a bit.Dee Dee: (slaps Dexter in the face, snapping him out of it) Stop it, Dexter! Look at yourself! You're a monster! No longer the quiet creator but a mad destroyer! I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you. I know now it wasn't my place to try to change you. Oh, Dexter, please forgive me. Oh, what have I done??? (runs out of the lab, sobbing)
- The ending with Dexter solemnly repairing his destroyed lab (that he wrecked himself), as Dee Dee runs off in tears. It just goes to show that Dexter isn't meant to loosen up, so he is likely doomed to live a life of isolation in his laboratory, just as Dee Dee warned him.
- There's also some serious Fridge Horror in what Dexter's transformation says about their relationship. Dee Dee instructed Dexter to imitate her in order to loosen up... and he immediately smashes everything in his lab to pieces with a Slasher Smile on his face. This gleeful and senseless destruction is how he views his sister's behavior. Whether or not Dexter is an Unreliable Narrator or Dee Dee is Innocently Insensitive, it speaks volumes about how he's interpreted her antics.
- Dee Dee's "The Reason You Suck" Speech she gives after Dexter yells at her and calls her stupid.
- Dad's speech about Pet Heaven in "Filet of Soul".
- Dexter's operatic solo at the end of "LABretto".
- And before that, Dee Dee wrecking his every invention and driving him to despair, him finding solace in starting his laboratory, and the first time she ever enters his lab...Dee Dee: Ooohhh, What Does This Button Do?
Dexter: (Voice breaking, after witnessing all of the destruction she has been responsible for, and knowing what the button will do)— What have I ever done to you? - It's almost worse when you remember that Dee Dee genuinely does not do it out of maliciousness, she's just impulsive and lacks forethought.
- On the same short above, Dexter's solo after various attempts at creating stuff (and hiding) have all resulted in Dee Dee finding him and destroying his stuff (and even after two times she says "I guess I shouldn't touch", she still does), where he laments that his role in life as far as he sees is to forever be the target of Dee Dee's bungling destruction. Thankfully, he finds the empty space for the lab right then—but in the context of the short, this ended up being a Hope Spot.
- And before that, Dee Dee wrecking his every invention and driving him to despair, him finding solace in starting his laboratory, and the first time she ever enters his lab...
- The episode "Dee Dee's Tail" is about Dee Dee convincing Dexter to turn her into a horse and, as you can imagine, she is very happy... Until she realizes her brother and her friends just want to use her for rides, not caring if she is tired (even when she is lying down after taking her friends for a ride the whole day, all they do is show her a chariot they want her to pull). The girl just had a dream come true and now realizes how her little brother and best friends are just taking advantage of her—Dee Dee: This is terrible... First my brother, and now my best friends... [breaks down sobbing] I wish someone would help me...
- Another scene that ends up a bit of Nightmare Fuel is when Dexter, Mee Mee and Lee Lee chase her and find her in a clearing in the forest. Dee Dee is silently crying (way different from her normal crying) over what just happened. Dexter just says they are there to tame her once and for all while holding a rope and Dee Dee literally begs them to leave her alone.
- Dexter's slinking away from his family in "Old Man Dexter" after being shot down when wanting to spend time with them because he's not old enough is treated to a few oddly long shots without any comic gags in them. Anyone who was the youngest child (or The Unfavorite) in their family can identify with him.
- "The Big Cheese". Dexter's solved all the world's problems through the power of Gratuitous French; namely, the term omelette du fromage. One problem — it's not the password of his Laboratory. He panics as the Laboratory erases its memory banks and shuts down... if by "shuts down" you mean "blows the fuck up" as Dee Dee taunts him...
- And all Dexter can do is cry "Omelette du fromage!" over and over again.
- In his first appearance, Mandark forcing Dexter to shut down his lab—Computer: Dexter...what are you doing, Dexter?
Dexter: [tearfully] Goodbye, my love.
Computer: Goodby— [is cut off by the sounds of everything shutting down]
Dexter: NOOOOOOOOOOO!- —and then after Mandark finds out and laughs cruelly about it, Dexter is shown in bed, crying himself to sleep.
- The following morning after that, Dexter tries to say hello to all his favorite teachers. They all respond by coldly shunning him as they go to praise Mandark instead. Dang.
- Mandark's dream at the beginning of the sequel episode, "Mandarker". He wakes up in the exact same position Dexter was in the last episode, sobbing helpless in his bed with his beloved lab and creations taken from him. While it is pretty much Laser-Guided Karma, he manages to play it off as genuinely pitiful.
- The episode that shows how Mom and Dad met back in the 80s. They participated in a study on OCD and cleaning obsession, with Mom being paired up with Dad who was The Pig-Pen at the time. The sad part comes in when you see Mom literally reduced to tears over her inability to get over her phobia, which will ring true for fans who have OCD in real life.
- The episode "Surprise" becomes this. Dexter follows his parents to the mall on his birthday to make sure he gets a Major Glory action figure (he's invisible). His attempts fail, and his parents buy him toys aimed at kids below his age group, as well as sports related ones. So, while his parents obviously love him and want him to have a good day, they really don't know their son. At all.
- Although it's revealed towards the end of the episode that they got the real Major Glory to come to his party, which is better than an action figure when you think about it.
- In one episode, Dexter switches places with another boy. Not only do neither parents seem observant enough to realize the difference, but the other boy's parents are smart but also dismissive, cold, and unaffectionate, even by Dexter's standards. In one case he hurts his hand, and he asks the mother to kiss it better. She has machinery treat the injury while offering little sympathy, leaving a dejected Dexter to kiss his own hand. While the other boy is showered with affection by Dexter's parents, it offers Fridge Sadness since the trade is switched back in the end and he is back with his rather uncompassionate family.
- Mom crying about the Christmas tree getting destroyed in "Dexter Vs. Santa's Claws'.
