For a Chuck Lorre comedy series, Mom has some moments that are absolutely heartbreaking.
Season 1
- Violet having to give up her baby for adoption right after it is born, as to give the baby a better life that won't result in many shortcomings by staying with her, unlike how Christy did with her.
Season 2
- The Plunkett's being evicted. The worst part is, Christy legitimately had the money to resolve the issue, but got mugged beforehand. It's never made clear is Bonnie believes Christy, and she is clearly traumatized and scared.
- Violet asking about her father, but Christy doesn't want to say what happened, only for Bonnie tell her that Violet's father used to abuse Christy, and it was so bad that she had to go to the emergency room. Twice.
- Alvin dying causes too much heartache to the family that, despite all the jokes in-between, the episode ends with Bonnie and Christy crying late at night.
- When Bonnie relapses, Christy tries to "tough love" her...and ends up sobbing into her pillow. It's the latest in a long, long relationship and shows how devastating living with the disease of alcoholism is.
- The confrontation at the playground is absolutely agonizing to watch on both ends. Christy gives up on Bonnie after telling her how far she's come in the previous episode and cuts her out of her life and her kids lives. On Bonnie's side, she's been through a lot all season: being homeless, Alvin dying, and being stuck in a job she hates while Christy is making something great of her life. It's easy to see her relapsing as her just wanting to feel any sort of happiness again, and all she can do is rant desperately as Christy abandons her.
Season 3
- The moment when the group find out about Jodi's death, after Marjorie and Victor's wedding. The scene that follows shows Christy, Bonnie, Jill and Wendy all mourning her death.
- They all then make a point of not telling Marjorie, as to not ruin her wedding. Cue the next episode, where Marjorie temporarily leaves the group out of anger, because she had to learn about it during her honeymoon.
- Jodi's drug dealer boyfriend, Travis, showing up at a meeting. While it's Christy rightfully blames him for causing Jodi's death and abandoning her as she OD'd, he blames and hates himself for the role he played in her death. Shortly after Christy tries to convince him to come back to the meetings after initially confronting him, Travis states he can't live with himself, knowing what he did.
Season 4
- Christy celebrates her birthday in a Season 4 episode, her friends (sans Jill because they fought in a previous episode about Jill not being ready to take care of a child) and Bonnie had thrown a party. Christy gets home to find the house empty with the house decorated for her birthday, she calls Bonnie, and Bonnie tells her over the phone that Jill miscarried.
- Christy reveals that she was raped by a guy several years ago after seeing him again in an AA meeting. She tells Bonnie that he's back and she's not pleased. A few scenes later, we see Christy looking for a cricket that had entered the house (she spent the episode looking for it) and she made a huge mess. Bonnie tries to hug Christy, but she shrinks away from her touch.
Season 6
- In the premiere, Christy is struggling with law school to the point where her own professor is writing her off as a lost cause, and she considers giving up. Marjorie pleads with her not to give up, and when meeting a new member at the next meeting who is lost and broken, we are treated to a flashback of Christy's first meeting. Most of the horrible stuff she did before getting sober was Played for Laughs, this isn't. Christy is bedraggled, on the verge of crying, and clearly broken emotionally. She then reveals that she promised she would never drive drunk with her kids in the car, did just that, and then chose to continue drinking later that night. She is clearly appalled by what she did and feels she might be a lost cause. Luckily, it quickly becomes an Awesome Moment when she realizes she can't quit and decides to go back to the class she ditched, and a heartwarming one when she stops to give the new member her contact information to the member before leaving.
- Victor's offscreen death in season 6, after his stroke the previous year that left him entirely dependent on Marjorie's care. The women go with Marjorie to his memorial and later to spread his ashes in the place he proposed, only to discover the orchard had been replaced by a Costco. Christy is concerned about Marjorie's apparent lack of grief, only for her to state she was relieved because, him being in the state he was in, she mourned him long before he actually passed. The episode ends with the women gathering around Marjorie as she holds Victor's favorite cat and cries.
- Bonnie learns in "Triple Dip and an Overhand Grip" that Tammy grew up in foster care because her father killed her mother. Even decades later, she still has trouble opening up about it.Tammy: My mom was so pretty...
- "Skippy and the Knowledge Hole": Bonnie helps Tammy study for the GED and gets talked into taking it with her. While Tammy passes, Bonnie fails, despite knowing the material so well during studying. It's later determined that Bonnie has ADD, but this makes her feel worse. During a share, she says she'll get to take the GED again (with more time and taking it alone on the table), but the whole thing has made her take stock of various events throughout her life.Bonnie: I wish I could get a do-over for the other stuff I've messed up in my life. God. How did no one notice this? I mean, if one foster parent, or teacher, or-or anybody had said, "Hey, this kid isn't dumb; she just needs a little help," everything could've been different. I mean, I spent my entire freakin' life struggling, and now I find out it didn't have to be that way! [beat] Who knows what I could've done?
