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* The first half of the episode where Kenan has to move away. It's the slowed down theme music that does it. Also, in the 2nd half of that two-parter, [[Catch Phrase|"... Kel loves orange soda."]]
==L==
=== [[Law & Order: Criminal Intent]] ===
* ''[[Law & Order: Criminal Intent]]'', episode ''Magnificat''. Det. Goren's interrogation of Paul Whitlock, whose wife {{spoiler|(based on Andrea Yates) is being charged for the murder of three of their sons in an attempted murder-suicide.}} You can view the clip [https://web.archive.org/web/20111013234554/http://thereelvincentdonofrio.com/clips/loci_clips/s4/magnificat.wmv here.]
** Also, the ending of ''Semi-Detached''. You really must watch the episode to appreciate ''why'' it's so sad.
{{quote|'''Nelda''': Don't you care about me at all? I know you do, I saw it.
'''Goren''': I didn't mean for you to see it. }}
* The season 5 episode "In the Wee Small Hours," Detective Eames's testimony. The phrase "acquired taste" still makes some hardcore fans cry.
** Goren's mother is scizophrenic, and has lymphoma. ON her last day alive, Bobby must find out from her whether or not her old lover, who turned into a serial rapist and murderer, was his biological father. She admits to never knowing for sure. His look of devastation will break your heart. In the same scene, he tries to calm her and she starts flailing on him weakly. It's really the saddest moment of the whole show, this poor woman beating up on her big, strong son in helpless anger, and he the one who loves her the most in the world. . .
* Goren and Eames's final scene in the season nine opener. They have the most heartbreaking conversation, {{spoiler|ending in an [[Anywhere But The Lips]] kiss. Eames accepts the captaincy, on the condition she has to fire Goren. She does so, but then lays her badge and gun on Ross's old desk and quits herself because she can't imagine working without her beloved partner.}}
{{quote|''You're the best. You always will be.'' }}
I'm crying just thinking about it.
=== [[Law & Order: Special Victims Unit]] ===
* The episode dealing with [[John Munch]] and his mentally disabled uncle, [[Adam Westing|played by Jerry Lewis]]. Specially the end, where {{spoiler|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. {{spoiler|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:
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''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''
{{quote|'''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"
{{quote|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. [[Wham! Line|Ever]]. }}
* The ending of the episode "Legacy". The story revovles around an abused little girl who has fallen into a coma. {{spoiler|Munch eventually found out that her mother did it.}} The case hits particularly close to home for Munch because {{spoiler|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-
{{quote|''"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 {{spoiler|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.
=== [[Law & Order: UK]] ===
* "Unloved": Steel's efforts to comfort and help a 13-year-old boy who's just pleaded guilty to murder after swallowing his barrister's argument that his genes made him a killer.
* "Alesha":
** Matt clearly struggling to hold back his anger and tears when talking to Alesha after her rape and his similar demeanor when reviewing the tape of her attack (he very noticeably stands far away from the TV and turns his back so as not to see it, but still cringes at what he hears) and during the trial. It's especially poignant when you recall that he spent the first half of the episode [[Berserk Button|flipping out]] about her initial complaint that her doctor had touched her inappropriately, but now knows that he needs to put his feelings aside in order to be there for her.
** Alesha begging James to prosecute her rapist:
{{quote|"You're always saying we should fight for the victim. ''I'm'' the victim. (tearfully) ''Fight for me''".}}
* "Confession"
** Ronnie keeping hold of Matt at the crime scene
** Pete's widow breaking down the minute she opens her door and sees Matt there
** The end scene in the church where Matt tearfully admits that he genuinely doesn't know whether or not he was abused (after spending the entire episode denying it altogether), and Ronnie understanding that he needs to be alone after assuring him that he's done nothing wrong. "I'll be outside when you're finished."
* The end of the episode "Deal". Just. . .watch it. It is ''that'' wrenching that one cannot accurately describe it.
* Every scene in "Survivor's Guilt":
** Natalie struggling to keep it together before finally breaking down in the privacy of her office, Angie being all subdued and somber, and Alesha crying as she corrected herself to use the past tense when referring to Matt, "WAS a police officer."
** But the best moments went to Ronnie--his stunned, shell-shocked demeanor at the crime scene, consoling Matt's sister (who tearfully admitted that she always knew she would hear this news someday), his wandering around Matt's now-deserted apartment, struggling with the temptation to drink, petting Matt's cat and quietly telling it "Yeah, I miss him too", his simply asking Matt's killer "Why?", actually empathizing with him (the man was acting out of misplaced vengeance over the death of his brother) and reaching out to him with words that clearly reflected his own feelings-—“When someone you love dies, the hardest thing is to be left behind. You’d do anything to bring them back. You’d take their place.”, and later, in a conversation with the gunman's mother, "The police officer, who died? His name was Matthew Devlin. And he was like...like *my* son."
** You could even count the gunman's [[My God, What Have I Done?]] moment, where he not only musters up the courage and decency to confess and plead guilty, he caps it off by apologizing to Matt's sister, "for taking your brother away from you".
=== [[Leverage/Tear Jerker]] ===
* "The Maltese Falcon Job." The season two finale, Nate after spiraling further and further out of control after the loss of Sophie. Finds himself at the mercy of his rival Sterling who wants to exchange a Gun Smuggler his after and Nate's team in exchange for Nate's freedom . Because Nate is not like them. In the end Nate has captured the Gun Smuggler and in a gambit leveraged his way to exchange his capture for his teammates freedom. While the team escapes a FBI mooks asks "Who is this guy?" Nate, bleeding and exhausted. Who for the last two years prided himself for being above his team laughs and says, "I'm a thief."
* The [[Star-Crossed Lovers]] backstory in "The Van Gogh Job".
=== [[Life After People]] ===
* At the end of the original documentary, it's speculated that while apes may one day achieve a human-like mastery over the environment, the ability to [[Navel Gazing|look outside one's self and contemplate your place in the cosmos]] was an evolutionary accident that will likely never be repeated. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether anything from the time of humans survives...because even if it does, there will be no one to talk about it.
{{quote|'''Narrator:''' And so, like an abandoned village on a global scale, the Earth will move on without us. There was life before us, and there will be [[Title Drop|life...after people.]] }}
* Then there's the closing perspective on humankind's "reign" over planet Earth: if the Earth's 4.5 billion year existence were condensed into a 24 hour period, man's time on the planet would be ''half a minute long''. And the 10,000 years it would take the earth to wipe out nearly all traces of our existence? ''A fraction of a second''. [[We Are as Mayflies]], indeed.
* The [[Inferred Holocaust]] of millions of domestic animals that won't be able to make it outside.
** The seeing-eye dog that continues to follow its daily routine [[Loyal Animal Companion|as if its master was still there by its side]]. The poor thing continues to adhere to its training, ignoring the instinct to raid the cupboards in hunger while it waits for a feeding that will never come. Well-trained dogs will do this almost to the point of ''starvation''.
* The destruction of mankind's greatest works of art. It's not easy to watch the Mona Lisa rot away and the dome of the Sistine Chapel crumble to dust.
{{reflist}}
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