Tear Jerker / Duckman

• Duckman's depression over the death of Beatrice, until the revelation Cut Short Series Finale, manages to tug at the heartstrings. A scene that best cements this occurs in "The Once and Future Duck", wherein Duckman is visited by multiple versions of himself from alternate futures. But towards the end, he meets his past self from his wedding day, who asks if he and Beatrice will grow old together. Duckman sadly but truthfully tells his past self that he'll love Beatrice until the day he dies.
• "About Face" has Duckman developing a legitimately loving relationship with Angela, who goes from Butterface to Ms. Fanservice in an attempt to improve herself. However, this transformation causes her to get a lot of unwanted attention from admirers and the media. Duckman realizes just how undeserving he is of a wonderful woman like her, especially as she now has potential for a better life. Feeling he is just holding her back, Duckman doesn't meet her for their last date and just lets the phone ring, while visibly depressed over the matter. Even Bernice feels sorry for him.
• "The Girls of Route Canal" explores how Duckman and Beatrice met, hitting it off well, until he discovers she's married to a kindly duck named Richard. Duckman's despondent "I'm...I'm nobody" when he introduces himself to Richard is pretty heart-wrenching in itself.
• After he has sex with Bernice to keep himself from dying in "Pig Amok", Cornfed falls for her and is distraught when she doesn't return his feelings. Seeing the usually collected Cornfed break down is pretty sad in itself, but then it gets to the point where he intends to commit suicide by jumping, believing he can't live without her.
• "Cock Tales for Four" seems like it'll conclude with Duckman and King Chicken settling their differences once and for all. But after Honey addresses her husband's infidelity and Duckman succumbs to Honey's advances, it devolves into Duckman and King Chicken reinstating their feud. To make it even worse, they had agreed to a temporary ceasefire on behalf of Ajax being in love and starting a relationship with King and Honey's daughter Tammy. But once they've become sworn enemies again, Duckman and Bernice depart with Ajax. He asks if he'll see Tammy again, but receives no answer. As if to hammer it home, the final shot is Ajax staring through the back window with a worried expression as they drive away.
  Ajax: Dad? Aunt Bernice? I really liked Tammy. I hope we can come back soon.
  (Duckman and Bernice remain silent and don't even look back at Ajax.)
  Ajax: Dad? Aunt Bernice?
  (Ajax turns around and silently gazes out of the back of the car.)
• The plot of "With Friends Like These..." is kicked off by Duckman's depressed realization over that, aside from Cornfed, he has no friends, thanks to his crude, Jerkass attitude. He looks towards a group a la Friends and finally seems to fit in. However, his insensitive tendencies crop up even when he's trying his hardest to please his new friends, just so he can belong. Frustrated, they beat and nearly kill him, leaving Duckman alone again, until Cornfed comes to console him.
  Duckman: (after being severely beaten) That wasn’t very funny or friendly.
  Peter: You went too far. We thought we could relate to anyone...
  Sassy: Trade quips with anyone...
  Ditzi: Look hot with anyone...
  Marion: Anyone except YOU! (kicks him)
  Duckman: Deep down, I knew I never fit in with you. When people look at you, they see what they want to see. When they look at me, they see what they really are. What are you waiting for? Finish me off so there'll be room for more of you.
  Marion: And since we're the Gang...
  The Gang, in unison: Lets dismember him together!
• "Four Weddings Inconceivable" ends with the sudden revelation that Beatrice has been alive this whole time. When Honey asks who she is, Duckman quietly and sadly comments that she's his first wife, so shocked that she's been alive after all this time.
• Ajax feels very neglected in "The One with Lisa Kudrow in a Small Role" and ends up abducted by aliens. While he sees their planet, the family notices he's missing and gets worried. Duckman and Cornfed look for clues in Ajax's room—finding a lot of Hidden Depths instead.
  Cornfed: There's some stuff to go on. Think we missed anything?
  Duckman: [sadly] Just my son's whole life.
• "Color of Naught" is partly a Sequel Episode to "About Face" and shows how Angela felt about the ending of the prior episode.
  Angela: Get back together with you? After the way you dumped me, leaving me sitting in that restaurant just waiting for you?! Three weeks! Three long weeks sitting in that booth, looking up every time the door opened!
  Duckman: They let you sit there for three weeks?
  Angela: Well, I kept ordering iced tea. I'd still be there if one of my kidneys hadn't shut down. And after my surgery, I vowed never to need you or anyone else ever again! I have everything I need to get by, and it's better this way, Duckman! Can't you see I'm much better off on my own? I'm happier like this, a lot happier than I ever would've been with you! [starts crying]
• "Exile in Guyville" takes time out of its high-concept premise to demonstrate who's really suffering in the split between men and women.
  "And as always, it's the children who suffer. Painful as it was, mothers said goodbye to their sons, fathers farewell to their daughters."
• "Role With It" sees Duckman take a lot of abuse during a group therapy session, but in the end, he calmly calls the others out on their faults. Some of it's satisfying, but what he says about Bernice really says a lot about their rough relationship through the series and how he feels beneath the back-and-forth insults. The various ways Bernice insults and humiliates him are bad enough, but her being Beatrice's identical twin (actually turns out to be a triplet later on) causes Duckman to devalue memories of Beatrice that meant a lot to him.
• "Ajax and Ajaxer" reveals Ajax really has no friends, and is depressed when Cornfed's intelligence is returning because he won't have anyone to talk on his level anymore. Cornfed doesn't try to make false reassurances, and only says that he'll still be Ajax's friend regardless.
• In "Research and Destroy", a depressed Ajax looking at a photo of himself and Beatrice. Based on how they both look in the photo, it's likely the last birthday of his that she was around for.
• "Sperms of Endearment":
  • The episode opens with Bernice struggling over being the boys' Parental Substitute. She's looked down on by a mother at the park, while an assortment of greeting cards on display aren't for her specific role. She's a better parental figure than their actual father, and they certainly acknowledge that, but she just feels so unimportant compared to her dead sister.
    Bernice: They treat me like their mother, but deep down, I know I'm not... like something less.
  • Bernice sets out to have a baby and, with various prospects not panning out, she opts for artificial insemination at Terry Duke Tetzlov's clinic. Through a sheer fluke, the donor she picks turns out to be Duckman, which both horrifies and devastates her. Duckman's hardly thrilled with this, either, but he offers to make the best of this situation and help with the baby. Things actually seem to be going well for the prospective parents, until Tetzlov confirms that the sperm and egg are literally hostile towards each other, so Bernice is not actually pregnant.
    Duckman: The insemination... it didn't take.
    Bernice: It... didn't? Maybe it just wasn't meant to be, but still, I wanted this baby so badly.

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