Law & Order: Special Victims Unit/Tear Jerker

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Tear Jerkers in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit include:

  • The episode dealing with John Munch and his mentally disabled uncle, played by Jerry Lewis. Specially the end, where the uncle kills the main suspect of the case by pushing him on the NY metro railroad to get him hit by a train and then refuses an insanity plea, preferring to spend his last days in prision rather than in a mental institution.
  • The end of Paternity.
    • "Alex? ...Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. Someone call an ambulance! Call 911! Now!! Alex, it's okay, Alex, look at me, it's okay sweetie, stay with me, stay with me, you're going to be okay, Alex, you're going to be okay, do you hear me? You're going to be fine, you're going to be just fine, stay with me... Alex, it's okay... Alex? Alex...?"
      • And then immediately following that first stomping of viewer hearts, the DEA agents summon Stabler and Benson to close out the case. They reveal in the process that Alex isn't really dead, but has been put into witness protection. Olivia's heartbroken expression and hitching, choked voice in that scene has to be seen to be believed:

Olivia: (whispers) Your funeral's tomorrow.

    • The emotional whiplash-inducing final scenes of "Ghost." Just as the squad is celebrating, the case has been won... "She wanted me to tell you goodbye."
  • Fault

Olivia: What about your kids...What about me?

  • "Rage" - Elliot has all of his confidence and self-worth ripped to shreds by a criminal who bests him intellectually. All he can do is break down and beat his locker, because he has nothing left.
  • "Guilt"

Elizabeth: "Of course. You did it for the greater good. The safety of society. Bull. You did this for you."
Alex: "I did this for hundreds of Barnett's future victims."
Elizabeth: "One. One victim. Sam Cavanaugh. Did it work? Did it assuage your guilt?
Alex "...no. I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon.
Elizabeth. "I got news for you -- it won't happen. Ever.

  • The ending of the episode "Legacy". The story revovles around an abused little girl who has fallen into a coma. Munch eventually found out that her mother did it. The case hits particularly close to home for Munch because when he was a kid, he was aware that a little girl on his street was being abused by her mother, but said nothing. The little girl ended up dying. At the end of the episode, Munch visits the victim's hospital room with a copy of the Dr. Suess book "Oh, the Places You'll Go" that he found in her bedroom. He reads a passage from it and the screen fades to black. It's just...heart-wrenching.
  • The episode Ripped, where Stabler talks about the abuse he suffered from his father. Elliot just gets this thousand yard stares and talks about how his father ruined the diorama he made for school when he was eight, and when he started crying-

"He took off his belt and he... he beat me with it."

  • The Episode Hell..just..it made em cry so much in the end..Manly tears
  • "Painless" so, so much, especially Munch begging Marlee Matlin's character to live and revealing that his father had committed suicide and that he blamed himself for it. Combined with the Reality Subtext, it's completely heartbreaking.
  • The ending of "A Single Life", where the victim's sister read the victim's obituary (that the victim wrote right before committing suicide) to the father that molested them both for years.
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