Friends/Tear Jerker

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


While Friends is usually a very lighthearted and optimistic show, it's had a few notable examples.

  • After Rachel finds out about Ross's feelings for her in "The One Where Rachel Finds Out" and realizes she feels the same way, she decides to meet him at the airport as he comes back from his week long arecholgical dig in China, only to find Ross getting off the plane with his new girfriend Julie.
  • Monica and Richard's break-up in "The One With Barry And Mindy's Wedding".,
  • Rachel finding out about Ross sleeping with Chloe the copy girl in "The One On The Morning After" and their massive fight and break-up afterwords is easily the most devastating and gut-wrenching moment in the entire series.
  • Season 10 Finale. When Rachel stands in that doorway . And just for extras the episode where Chandler proposes alone,
    • Chandler at the end of "The One Where Heckles Dies": "Goodbye, Mr. Heckles. We'll try to keep it down." Anything when Matthew Perry uses his considerable acting chops to make us cry instead of make us laugh. Like when he tells Erica, the birth mom, that when his chance comes, he'll step up and be a good dad.

Chandler: But my wife? She's already there. She's a mother without a child.

Considering the contextual information regarding the cast's notoriously close friendship and Courteney Cox's well reported battle to have a baby in real life, that line must have meant a lot to him.
  • That big fight Ross and Rachel had, while the rest of the friends were hidden in the bedroom.
  • Rachel waiting for Ross at the airport when he returns from China while Madonna's "Take a Bow" plays, after she finds out that Ross is in love with her.
  • The series finale has several emotional moments, but their are a couple that really stand out. While we all know Rachel gets off that plane , her initial rejection of Ross at the airport and his breakdown after it are incredibly heartbreaking.
    • In the final scene of the series when the friends leave Monica's apartment for the last time, also counts as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
      • The last episode, particularly the final moments of the show, when they are all in the apartment saying goodbye and leaving their keys on the side. Courtney Cox's exact line is 'This is harder than I thought it would be.' She didn't need to act very much to get the emotion there. Whatever your feelings towards Friends, for them it was still ten years of working together, and by all accounts being fantastic friends. All the emotion comes across in the final episode, and it breaks your heart.

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