Tear Jerker / The Middle

• Sue's family forgetting her birthday despite her unsubtle hints when she was born on a leap year and only has a birthday every four years. They finally remember in the middle of the night and wake her up to throw a pitiful surprise party, but she's desperate enough to believe that they really were just faking ignorance to surprise her at the last minute.
• Mike reveals to Frankie that he’s been secretly taking care of a cat named Limestone at his job. Later, he calmly tells the family about how Limestone was dying, so Mike took him to his favorite spot at the quarry where he let out one last mew before he went. While the rest of the family appears appropriately heartbroken, Mike goes about things without much thought. It isn’t until later when he gets frustrated that he vents to Frankie about how losing Limestone was hard for him. Luckily, the end of the episode sees him taking in another cat named Granite.
• Axl breaking up with Cassidy at prom since it becomes clear she will not be willing to do a long distance relationship when she goes to Vassar. She leaves in tears as he’s crowned prom king.
• Season 6's Halloween episode, "Halloween V: The Hanging", Axl ends up locked in his college's library on Halloween night. He eventually breaks down and confesses to a bust that he has no idea what he is doing in college or where he is heading in life. Something many young adults in college can relate to.
• Season 6's "The College Tour", Mike is forced to go with Sue on her college tours and encounters another father and daughter pair who are tied at the hip. Mike eventually asks her if he should have been a more affectionate father like the other dad. Sue says no and proceeds to list every reason why he's such a great dad, it's sweet enough to almost bring Mike to tears.
• At the end of Season 6's Valentine's Day episode, Darrin asks for Sue's hand in marriage. She originally says yes, but at the end of the next episode Sue realizes that there's still more she wants to do before settling down and breaks off the engagement. Simultaneously ending their relationship.
• The last episode of season 6. Triples as a Heartwarming Moment and Moment of Awesome. After having a terrible final week of school (she loses her yearbook which also had her name wrong, finds out she won't win any school accomplishments, and her graduation cap and gown are the wrong size), Sue is outright forced to attend her graduation by being carried out of the house because she is certain nobody will notice her missing nor will they remember her afterwards. She's completely proven wrong as her yearbook is returned to her by classmates surrounding her, filled with signatures of the entire graduating class thanking her for the little moments and wishing her well.
• "Thanksgiving VIII": Axl's response to Frankie telling him how much she disapproves of his relationship with April. In addition to not wanting to see or talk to her again for a while, he's more disappointed initially than he is angry.
• Frankie and Mike feeling guilty when they meet the couple whose baby was Switched at Birth with Brick for a month. Specifically, that couple has all kinds of happy souvenirs of the month when Brick lived with them, while they don't have anything of the other baby's.
• In the season 8 finale, Axl is offered by Kenny to come with him on a three-month trip in Europe. Mike is against it since this is Axl's last summer before having his own apartment, job, and life. He just wanted him for one last summer.
  Mike: (looking downright distraught) ...Europe's far. It's, just... ...far...
• "A Heck of a Ride":
  • Crossed with Heartwarming: Axl and Lexie's goodbye at the farewell outside the house has Lexie telling Axl she’ll come to Denver to see him in July. She does so while crying and implies she’s been doing nothing but that since finding out he was taking the job.
  • When Axl suggests that he be taken off the family phone plan due to him moving away, Frankie finally breaks down and admits she is not ready for him to move out as they end this chapter of their lives. Mike assures her that’s how it’s supposed to be, and the family gives her a group hug.

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