So I am not known for being the most emotionally stable person. However, I am known (by the people who, well, know me) for having a slightly unnatural empathy for fictional characters. With that, I now present to you the first installment of…

10 Moments That Have Made Me Sob (TV)

1. Just a couple of weeks ago, on “The O.C.,” when Summer is watching that little Seth Cohen-esque kid playing with the horse. The look on Rachel Bilson’s face is all sad and sweet and lovely, and then that “Champagne Supernova” cover kicks up, and Kirsten picks up Sandy from the bus, and I don’t really care about the rest that’s going on, but I’m a sucker for a montage, especially on “The O.C.”

2. Maybe I’m especially a sucker for “O.C.” montages involving covers of songs, because I can’t not mention the final scene of the Season One finale. I just love Kelly Rowan, and when she loses it while she’s in the empty poolhouse — man.

3. Oh, “Buffy.” Especially second-half-of-season-two “Buffy.” But to pick an entire half season would be cheating, so right now I will just mention the last scene of “Innocence,” where she and her mom have the cupcake scene in their sweats. You really get that it’s possibly the first time in Buffy’s life that her mom’s presence isn’t enough to make everything at least a little bit better.

4. When Doyle dies on “Angel,” and they replay his commercial. “Am I done?” Man, especially now.

5. The last scene of that episode of “Growing Pains” where Carol didn’t end up marrying Bobby, and she’s standing there all heartbroken and alone. Then Mike comes home and is all Mike Seaver about things, but Carol’s voice just breaks, “Oh, Mike,” and she goes over and hugs him and he looks all shocked, and goes, “It’s okay, Carol. It’s okay.” That was my crying scene for a really long time when I was 13.

6.“I’m ready to wallow now.”

7. When Charlie goes to Chicago to see Kirsten on “Party of 5.” They realize they’re still in love, and she leaves to be with him, because even though she is struggling with depression, she feels happy again. But then she keeps complaining about how everything in the hotel is nubbly — the sheets, the towels — nubbly. And then she is all sad and crying by the pool, and her hair looks as despondent as she is, because I think that on top of the towel’s being nubbly, the water was hard or the pressure was bad. Or both. And she tells Charlie that she realizes he is the trigger for her depression, and she can’t be with him. Charlie goes home, and I think at this point I am already crying about the other plot with Bailey and Sarah, but I really go over the edge when Charlie sits all alone on the staircase and cries his heart out.

8. “Time Stands Still, Part 2” on “Degrassi: The Next Generation.” From the moment Jimmy gets shot till the end. Powerful, powerful stuff.

9. “It’s a film canister.”
“No. It’s a time machine.”

10. Oh wow. How could I have almost forgotten this? The Our Town scene in “My So-Called Life!” Holy crap! That scene kicks so much ass I can’t even talk about it. Except to say that it rules hard, and I love A.J. Langer/Rayanne’s reading of “No” after Angela asks, “Were you happy?” And I love that Angela’s chin is doing the trembly thing that Rayanne mimics earlier in the episode when they were still friends, which by the end of this episode (“Betrayal”) feels like forever ago.

© March 15, 2005