Top 10 Heartbreaking Pose Moments

“Pose” is all about the importance of chosen family in helping queer and trans people overcome serious adversity. So it’s not easy to watch the members of Blanca’s house viciously go at it in this pivotal Season 2 episode. Frustrated by Blanca’s ignorance of Angel’s substance use, Damon rips into his mother as well as ballroom emcee Pray Tell. Finally, Pray Tell’s affair with the much younger Ricky comes to light, and he and Damon nearly come to blows. The fractured house reunites later in the season, but this no-holds-barred conflict marks a moment where the characters’ entire sense of community is in jeopardy.

One of Angel’s main arcs in Season 1 is her tumultuous and clandestine relationship with Manhattan businessman Stan. After the pair have overcome significant hurdles in their flawed relationship, Stan asks Angel to be his girlfriend and accompanies her to a ball. Seemingly unable to take in the whole experience, he then dumps her the same night. It’s obvious that Angel deserves much better throughout the course of the affair, and it’s painful enough to see her treated as a secret. But her rejection after making numerous concessions for Stan is a particularly hard pill to swallow. It’s a rough patch in Angel’s love life, but it clears the way for a far brighter future.

“Pose” never shies away from the realities of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and we’re introduced to Blanca under these devastating circumstances. One of the future house mother’s earliest scenes in the show finds her sitting in a clinic waiting room before receiving the life-changing news that she’s HIV-positive. Although Blanca doesn’t say much, the camera focuses on the emotions flashing across her face as she processes her diagnosis. This gutting scene is a catalyst in Blanca’s character arc, as it prompts her to leave Elektra’s House of Abundance and start her own family. In just a few lines, it powerfully highlights the lack of support and recognition that trans women of color with HIV continue to face.

Pray’s boyfriend is a minor character in the show’s first season, but his battle with AIDS illustrates the loss of loved ones that many in the LGBTQ+ community faced in the ‘80s and ‘90s. During a visit from Pray, Costas delivers an emotional and brutally honest monologue about his impending death. He instructs his lover to mourn, but also to move on and live life to the fullest. It’s a heart wrenching conversation that a couple should never have to have, and it lends meaning to Pray Tell’s later attempts at finding love that sometimes land him in hot water.

Season 3 finds Blanca working as a nurse’s aide at a New York City hospital treating numerous patients with HIV/AIDS. Tragically, one of her charges is ballroom upstart Cubby, a young voguer who had bounced from house to house throughout the series. After a tearful reunion with his mother, Cubby lies unresponsive in a bed as his loved ones keep vigil and tell stories about his better days. His mother expresses her regret and apologizes to him just before he passes away. Even for this unflinching show, it’s a tragic moment - and it’s made even more emotional by his friends and family’s grief-stricken reactions. It’s never easy to lose familiar characters, but this sendoff beautifully pays tribute to Cubby.

When Pray visits his hometown in Season 3, it brings about a reunion with Vernon, his childhood love. Now a minister at Pray’s childhood church, Vernon makes plans to leave his wife and children and join his former flame in New York. But when the bus arrives, Vernon is nowhere to be found. It’s not exactly a shocking outcome, and it speaks to the courage and independence that Pray has demonstrated since childhood. Finally, in one of the show’s most wistful and haunting moments, Pray imagines his and Vernon's younger selves standing outside the church. For its meditation on young love and the bravery it takes to pursue it, this bittersweet scene stands out as one of the show’s best.

Even the pilot episode of “Pose” is not without its devastating moments. When we’re introduced to Damon, he’s a teenager who loves dance - but is forced to practice in secret. When his father confronts him with an adult magazine, it leads to a downright frightening confrontation. Damon’s mother breaks up the violence, only to disown him on the front lawn just as the family’s patriarch did moments earlier. It’s undoubtedly one of the show’s scariest sequences and a shocking beginning to Damon’s story. But the horrific scene serves a purpose by illustrating the all-too-common realities of LGBTQ+ youth facing violence in the home and being abandoned by their parents.

Although it features Ricky discovering Pray Tell’s body, the first part of the series finale reveals an even more poignant reality behind the emcee’s unexpected death. Pray and Blanca had fought to get into an experimental trial for treating AIDS, but Ricky shares at a family dinner that Pray had given him medication too. All at once, the House of Evangelista realizes that Pray had given up his own health for Ricky’s. As an elder in the ballroom scene, the wisecracking commentator always took care of his community, and this final act is a bittersweet testament to his character. With Ricky weeping in Blanca’s arms, the moment marks a somber conclusion to the episode and a touching tribute to an iconic TV figure.

In Season 3, Elektra’s backstory is dramatically revealed in a flashback episode. When coming home from working the piers, Elektra attempts to sneak up to her room in a gown and wig. Her mother attacks her physically and verbally, forcing Elektra to run away with almost nothing. With Elektra smearing on lipstick as an act of defiance, it’s a scene that mixes sadness and triumph. It isn’t the first instance in the show of a character having to leave home because of their identity, but that doesn’t make it any less tragic. If anything, it demonstrates that despite their differences and conflicts, the elders and ingenues of the ballroom scene have come together for a reason.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Ricky Wintour’s HIV Diagnosis, “Blow”
The Show’s Exploration of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Touches Yet Another Character

Pray Tell Begs Ricky Wintour Not to Leave Him, “Intervention”
Addiction & Abandonment Collide in This Painful Scene

Blanca Evangelista’s Nail Salon Is Burned Down, “Life’s a Beach”
Frederica’s Cruelty Towards Her Tenant Knows No Bounds

Before her tragic offscreen death, Candy is one of the most misunderstood figures in the ballroom community. The episode devoted to her passing serves as a stirring farewell, and no moment is as emotional as her funeral. After guests Lulu and Angel approach the casket, a vision of Candy appears to share words of wisdom, forgiveness, and encouragement. Most moving, though, is Candy's reunion with her estranged parents. With characters granted one last chance to speak their minds to their beloved friend and daughter, the grief and longing in this scene are palpable. “Pose” has no shortage of difficult moments, but this tribute to the relationships Candy left behind had us welling up like no other.