Tear Jerker / Girl Meets World

• Three moments in the Pilot:
  • After Cory tells Maya that she goes too far, Maya reveals she has no one at home to help her with her homework, which implies she has a broken family situation much like Cory's friend Shawn had in Boy Meets World.
  • Maya trying to break off her friendship with Riley because she believes that she isn't good for her.
  • The surprise appearance of Mr. Feeny at the end of the episode to congratulate Cory on learning to raise a family.
  Mr. Feeny: Well done, Mr. Matthews.
• In "Girl Meets Father," Cory feels hurt when both Riley AND Maya feel like they don't need him.
  • Particularly painful as it's obvious Cory's modeled himself as a teacher after Mr. Feeny, whose defining characteristic was that Cory and co. always needed him in some way.
  • Maya reveals that her father has a "new family" and she has a tendency to give up on herself.
    • Which, if you apply a little Fridge Brilliance puts a whole different spin on Maya's repeating the term "He failed me." especially when, in context of the episode what she's really saying is "I failed him."
• Maya and Riley's first real argument with each other in "Girl Meets The Truth." Thankfully, it doesn't last.
• After The Reveal of "Girl Meets 1961", we learn that the great-grandparents never did become friends or change the world like they'd hoped.
• Farkle telling Riley why he's stopped coming to class in "Girl Meets Flaws". Poor kid even tried to get rid of his turtlenecks because he was teased for wearing them!
  • Throughout the episode, Farkle keeps questioning his friendship with Lucas. Lucas is confused each time, not understanding why Farkle keeps asking him if they are really friends.
  • Ava's home life seems to be not so happy, with her parents fighting constantly. Crosses over into CMOH when Topanga gives her a kiss and tells her to never change. Ava seems to respond to the affection.
• After finding out that the only reason Farkle took a picture of the horse Riley & Maya had in Riley's room was to slander Riley in the the race for class President, Riley cuts Farkle's attempted justification off & tells him not to talk to her. Farkle looks crushed when this happens, even if he did bring it on himself.
• Lucas' phone call with his father in "Girl Meets Friendship" - it's a reminder that, despite quickly finding a new set of friends, Lucas had a life back in Texas before he had to move across the country against his will & leave his old friends behind.
• "Girl Meets Brother": Riley babysitting Auggie goes well until Maya comes over and the girls start watching a TV show and ignoring him. Auggie goes in his room, where we see that he planned a night of fun playing pirates with his big sister, complete with banner. He despondently takes the banner down.
• It shouldn't come as a surprise that the return of Shawn Hunter in "Girl Meets Home for the Holidays" leads to some of the serie's most emotional moments to date.
  • Recounting the night of Riley's birth - he was the first to hold her after her parents.
  • Shawn and Maya comparing crappy childhoods.
  • The real reason Shawn isn't around much: he felt like an outsider once Cory and Topanga had a family.
  • "Cory? What's it like to have kids?" The sad, wistful look on his face says it all.
  • The simple fact that, despite everyone remaining friends and not letting their fight destroy their friendships, Shawn's life still wound up heading down the same path as the Bad Future in "Seven The Hard Way" from Boy Meets World.
• Shawn's confrontation with Maya's mom in "Girl Meets Master Plan". Katy reveals that she has been lying to Maya about Katy being responsible for driving Maya's father away. He's just a deadbeat dad. After a heated argument, Shawn comes to realize the two of them and Maya are not so different because they all have been dealing with abandonment.
  • Maya was actually scared that her mother would have driven Shawn off and tried to break through ropes holding her down to stop them from talking. That speaks volumes about what she thought about her mother prior to then.
• During the season 2 premiere, Riley's shown giving a speech at intervals during the plot. It turns out she's giving a eulogy of sorts at the funeral of Mrs. Svorski. She didn't know the woman and realized this too late.
  • Cory calling Mr. Feeny. "I'm still here."
• The item Maya puts into the time capsule in "Girl Meets Pluto": a picture of her mom and Shawn giving her her birthday cake in "Girl Meets Master Plan".
  Maya: "Hope is for suckers..."
• Girl Meets Hurricane has Angela return, sad after her father died, and she's come to ask Shawn whether or not she'll be a good mother because of her own mother abandoning her. She asks if he still sees his father standing over him and he says he does, and that he was there for him more dead than alive.
• Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels Goes to Washington features a tears of joy example. When Eric's opponent questions how he can prove he cares about kids, the blogger who was helping him reveals himself to be Tommy from the original series. After a montage of clips of the two, Tommy says that Eric giving him up was the best thing anyone's done for him. He also says Eric taught him the best things in life and sacrificed himself for him so he can have a good life and become a good person. The two hug and everyone claps and films the reunion.
  • There's one slightly before that. When Tommy reveals his name - "Thomas Jonathan Murphy" - Topanga's face is close to tears as she's the first to realize just who he is and just how important he is/was/always has/will be to Eric.
• In "Girl Meets Semi-Formal" Jack reveals that he hasn't seen or spoken to Rachel in years. Eric however talks to her all the time (and it's implied he still has feelings for her).
  Eric: RACHEL!
• "Girl Meets I am Farkle": Smackle's crushed look when it turns out Farkle doesn't have Asperger's. She was so hoping for a partner who shared the same disorder.
• In "Girl Meets Rileytown", Riley's Heroic BSoD over being bullied. Seeing the girl who was given the Spirit Award breaking down in tears and feeling so helpless is absolutely heart-wrenching.
  • She wasn't just being bullied. Her bully pretty much threatened her to stop being happy, or she would "put my foot in your weird, stupid face." Poor Riley...
    Riley: (small sob) I'm fine…
    Maya: I'm not. How long?
    Riley: …A few weeks. (breaks down) This has been going on a few weeks!
  • What makes episode an even bigger Tear Jerker is because Rowan Blanchard herself was being bullied, and this episode was created to address that.
• "Girl Meets Texas" has a number of moments, but the buildup to the end of Part 3 shows that Riley is emotionally devastated from her choice to back off from Lucas so that Maya can explore her own feelings about him. It marks the second time she's broken down to tears.
• "Girl Meets the Forgiveness Project" as a whole. Maya's father answers her letter asking why he left (as a project from Cory).
  • Kermit explains that he left Maya and her mother because he felt he wasn't good for them or able to provide for their family, and although she is unable to forgive him, she is finally able to stop blaming herself for her father leaving after years of believing it was her fault.
    Maya: You found a job?
    Kermit: I did.
    Maya: Your job was to stay. Thank you for telling me your side. My teacher thinks if I forgive you, it'll bring me peace. And he's usually right about these things, but I don't see how he's right about this one. And I can't. Your job was to stay. You don't think I had it in me to allow my father to grow? I'm happy I wrote to you and heard what you had to say. And it makes me feel better knowing that I had nothing to do with what you did. I always thought that this was my fault somehow, but it's not. I didn't do anything.
  • Then when she goes back into the cafe to Cory:
    Maya: [in tears] I'm sorry. I failed. I know you wanted me to forgive him, but I didn't. I couldn't do it. You were wrong about this one, Mr. Matthews.
    Cory: I never expected that, Maya. That kind of forgiveness, it doesn't come so easy. But life is a long time, and...I hope you get there someday, but that's never what I was looking for right now.
    Maya: What did you want from me?
    Cory: Maya, did you forgive yourself?
    [Maya breaks down sobbing in Cory's arms]
• "Girl Meets Money": Farkle telling his father he doesn't like how he doesn't get to see him very often when he's busy with work.
• "Girl Meets High School". Ava's parents fighting to the point where her father walks out. Not only is it heartbreaking to see the normally spirited, spoiled Ava so sad, Maya brings it home by holding Ava on her lap and recounting her own experience with her father leaving.
  • Farkle is genuinely upset with Riley and is losing faith in her. This is the person who, for two seasons, repeatedly said how much he loved Riley for having faith and believing in everyone, but their terrible first day of high school broke that.
    • When Maya is done talking to Ava about her father leaving, she goes to join Riley on another seat in the living room. Riley is shown to have been crying throughout Maya's speech to Ava about what to do when someone you love decides to leave you. The message wasn't just to help Ava, it was for Riley too, to help her realize that no matter how much Lucas, Farkle, Zay and Smackle blame Riley, it isn't Riley's fault that their first day in high school wasn't the greatest.
• The entirety of "Girl Meets the Bay Window". Riley decides she wants to remodel the bay window, which leads to a lot of drama and tears.
  • The episode features a number of flashbacks, one of which shows Riley and Maya's first meeting:
  Maya: I'm running away from home. I saw your curtains and your pillows. I heard you singing. I like singing better than yelling. Please don't yell.
  Riley: Who's yelling?
  Maya: My mommy and daddy?
  Riley: Why?
  Maya: 'Cause they always are.
  • In another flashback, Topanga goes into labor and she and Cory go to the hospital, leaving Riley and Maya alone on the couch while they wait for Mrs. Svorski. Riley says that she doesn't want things to change, and Maya tells her she should feel lucky her family loves her. Riley asks her what's wrong, and Maya says "We don't know where my daddy is".
  • The scene where Maya and Riley talk to their older and younger selves is downright devastating.
• In "Girl Meets the Great Lady of New York", Farkle reveals that his great-grandfather escaped from Denmark after World War II and is a Holocaust survivor whose entire family was likely killed. He's quiet as he tells the group about it and Riley even hugs him, while Zay says he can talk to him about it anytime he needs to.
  • What makes this worse is that due to the highly organized efforts of Danish citizens, Jew and non-Jew alike, over 99% of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust. The official number of Danish Jews killed in the Holocaust is 102. Farkle's great-grandfather's family is part of that very small number.