Yass, queens! The fourth season of Netflix's viral hit series Queer Eye was finally released on the streamer on July 19, and as always, the feel good reality series wasn't afraid to embrace the feels. Once again set primarily in Kansas City, Missouri, this season followed the Fab Five - Antoni, Bobby, Jonathan, Karamo, and Tan - as they worked to improve the lives of people from all walks of life.
Heroes featured in this season included school teachers and disabled advocates, struggling fathers and mothers, and people who just feel stuck in their lives and unsure of how to make the changes they need. As always, each hero's journey brought a fresh round of tears to viewers' eyes, as the Fab Five learned more and more about these people and encouraged them to learn how to love themselves and be kinder to themselves in the process. Here, we're taking a look at the ten most tear-jerking moments from the season.
Mrs. Dooley learns about her Broadway vacation
The first episode of season four, "Without Further Ado," finds the Fab Five helping out hero Mrs. Dooley, Jonathan's former high school music teacher who has a style very much stuck in the 1980s, and who has never really taken much time to care for herself. The episode goes to great lengths showing just how much Mrs. Dooley does for the community, and just how long and hard she works every single day for the children she teaches.
Over the course of her time with the Fab Five, Mrs. Dooley is encouraged to engage in self-love and self-care more often, but the first real opportunity that presents itself absolutely catches her off guard. Karamo reveals that he made a call to one of Mrs. Dooley's former students, who now produces the musical Waitress on Broadway. Mrs. Dooley receives a first class flight and theater experience with her husband so she can finally take some much-deserved time for herself.
Jonathan surprises Lucy with Michelle Kwan
The season's third episode, "Stoner Skates By," has the adorable distinction of featuring the first hero nominated by their very young child. Lucy, a 10-year-old, considers her father, John, to be a "man child," and therefore is in need of some serious help. One of the main areas that the Fab Five focuses on getting John some help in is encouraging him to be engaged in Lucy's life and activities.
Lucy is a competitive figure skater, and John knows absolutely nothing about figure skating. So when Jonathan takes both John and Lucy out on the ice for some skating time, he brings along a very big, very special surprise: noted Olympian figure skater Michelle Kwan. Michelle's arrival provides both John and Lucy with some much deserved excitement, and allows John to truly see figure skating as a sport that he can get invested in.
Wanda announces she’s taking a step back from the drill team
The fourth episode of the season, "How Wanda Got Her Groove Back," presents the Fab Five with one of their toughest heroes to date. Wanda is a single mother of two adult daughters, and she is also the leader of a drill team known as the Pythons. According to her daughters, and by her own eventual admission, Wanda puts about 90% of her time and energy into her drill team, and only about 10% of that effort into her personal life, her family included.
There are many tough scenes throughout the episode, during which her daughters try to express their desire for greater connection with her. And it's not always clear, in the end, whether anything will change. But in the episode's concluding drill team celebration, Wanda announces that she will be stepping back from her responsibilities with the team, and spending more time on herself - and, by extension, her relationship with her daughters.
Deanna sees her nonprofit’s new office
Episode six of the fourth season, "A Tale Of Two Cultures," follows hero Deanna, a proud Chicana woman who wants to be taken more seriously as professional in the hopes of expanding awareness of her nonprofit organization. One of the biggest steps in being taken more seriously as a nonprofit that Deanna didn't even really consider, however, is something that Bobby goes ahead and does for her.
Toward the end of the episode, Bobby reveals to Deanna that he has gone ahead and secured office space for her nonprofit, fully renovated and branded to look and feel just like a space for Latino arts and performances should, including gorgeous murals, meeting space, a performance space, and her very own office.
Kenny opens up to Karamo about feeling like a failure
The season's fifth episode, "On Golden Kenny," introduces the Fab Five and viewers everywhere to one of the most adorable and instantly lovable heroes in the series' entire run so far. Kenny is a man in his 60s, who comes from a large Croatian family and is the only one of his siblings without a spouse and children of his own. He's incredibly involved in his church and the Catholic club within it, where he manages the bar and bowling alley.
But despite Kenny's vibrant family and church related social life, he isolates himself considerably at his home, which is very much stuck in the past. While discussing his self-image with Karamo, Kenny tearfully admits that he feels stuck in his life and thinks of himself as a failure, compared to everyone else in his family. Karamo pointedly counters and tells him he's not a failure: he has a whole community of people who adore him.
Kenny adopts Akio, aka Fab 5
One of the many ways that Kenny finds himself feeling stuck is in his relationship with his beloved dog, who tragically passed away unexpectedly. He still keeps the dog's bowls and toys around, and even throughout the house, you can still find little tufts of dog fur popping up everywhere. It's the realization that Kenny needs some of that unconditional puppy love in his life that spurs Antoni and Jonathan to take Kenny puppy shopping.
And it's a good thing they did, because Kenny finds his new true love in Akio, a Chow and Lab mix who was once a stray. After walking the dog for a little bit, Kenny is quickly moved to tears, reflecting on how much the dog reminds him of his previous dog. In a matter of minutes, Kenny decides to adopt Akio as his own, and even makes the choice to rename the puppy Fab Five, as a tribute to the men who changed his life so much.
Deanna discusses experiencing racism in her community
As part of Deanna's journey in Queer Eye, she opens up to Karamo in particular about the racism she has experienced as a loud and proud Chicana woman living in a predominantly white community. She reflects at first about never feeling like she's fit in the neighborhood she's always lived in, and how in recent years, that feeling has only grown with increasing racism directed toward people of Mexican heritage.
Deanna and Karamo engage in a frank discussion about her fear of what could happen to her, her son, or her husband, and how she feels like there are no repercussions for any of this behavior. The entire discussion leads to a surprisingly moving sequence in which Deanna and Karamo wander around her neighborhood and distribute flyers for her arts festival, forming connections with some of the neighbors she has never felt comfortable approaching.
Tan admits he didn’t come out to some of his family until after the show aired
In the second episode of season four, "Disabled But Not Really," the Fab Five are working with hero Wesley, a young man who was paralyzed after being shot at age 24. During his time with Tan discussing his identity and accommodation needs in daily fashion, Wesley's openness about his own changing identity and confidence spurred Tan to make a truly heartbreaking confession of his own.
After Wesley asked Tan about his level of confidence, Tan admitted that he didn't come out to some of his own family members until after Queer Eye had already premiered. Furthermore, even though the show may have emboldened him with a new sense of confidence, it didn't make it any easier for him to express his own identity, and his confidence actually suffered as a result.
Wesley sees his new fully accessible home
Home design guru Bobby Berk has always turned in truly amazing work, regardless of whether he's renovating an apartment or a home or an office building. But in the second episode of the season, Bobby and his team turn in their most meaningful and truly stunning work of all, in the form of Wesley's fully renovated, completely accessible new home.
Wesley himself had been open about his frustrations with the layout of his previous home, which led Bobby to make every possible accommodation and modification that he could to ensure Wesley lived in the home he deserved to have. Modifications included lowered kitchen counters and cabinets, an induction stove, washing machines at his level, an angled bathroom mirror, a bed that raises and lowers, and a bathroom that is now twice the size so Wesley has the independence he needs to live his daily life.
Jonathan tells Mrs. Dooley she saved his life
When the first trailer for Queer Eye's fourth season was released, the internet was immediately caught up in its feels when it became clear that Jonathan would be returning to his hometown to help out an old teacher. But in one of the episode's closing scenes, Jonathan's connection to his former music teacher, Mrs. Dooley, became clearer than ever - and brought a truly heartbreaking reveal along with it.
"One thing that you did, you know, for me and other kids like me... is you always treated me the same, as if I was like anyone else. And as an LGBT person, I think we just want to feel normal, and not treated differently. And you always did that. And I just feel like my scars were very much healed this week," Jonathan told her, before delivering the most tears-inducing revelation of all. "You have such a part in that. And you have literally saved people's lives. Mine included."