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==L==
=== [[The L Word]] ===
* {{spoiler|Dana's death}} was definitely the saddest moment of the series, no question, but scene in "Lacuna" where {{spoiler|Shane finds Jenny in the bathroom cutting herself to shreds}} is a very close second. Jenny's so broken and Shane is so terrified for her, it's both painful to watch and moving at the same time.
=== [[Lassie (TV series)]] ===
* In the three-part episode, "The Odyssey", Lassie gets trapped in a truck and is driven hundreds of miles from Timmy and the Martin family, and tries to return home. Timmy meanwhile, slowly begins to lose hope of ever seeing her again. Near the end of the third episode, Timmy gives up, and with tears in his eyes, goes out to bury Lassie's toys. But as he's burying them, he suddenly hears a familiar bark. He looks up and finds Lassie running towards him down the hill.
=== [[Las Vegas]] ===
* When Danny is called back into service by the Marines, Ed makes a phone call to one of his old CIA connections, and asks where his protege is being sent. We don't hear the response, but seeing the tough-as-nails Ed shudder and virtually age ten years makes it abundantly clear that he's convinced Danny will come home in a casket.
=== [[Law & Order]] ===
* ''[[Law & Order]]'' had one with Lennie Briscoe in Season 8. His daughter gets arrested for drug possession and is forced to testify against her dealer, and after his acquittal she ends up murdered. He goes to the crime scene and has to be restrained from cradling her body by his partner. To see this gruff, world-weary homicide detective on the verge of sobbing just makes you ache.
{{quote|'''Lennie''': "She was my baby, Rey. What am I gonna do?"
'''Rey''': "You're going home with me, partner." }}
* As Rey Curtis prepares to leave the squad to care for his dying wife, Lennie gives him a goodbye hug:
{{quote|'''Lennie''': Anything, Rey. I don't care what time it is. ''Anything''. You pick up the damn phone and you call me.}}
* In the season 3 episode ''Mother Love'', a former honor student turned crack addict has been shot dead. The trail leads first to her dealer/boyfriend, but there is no evidence to link him to it. Stone and Robinette discover that the girl had stolen from her family, including bearer bonds from her grandmother, to support her habit and suspicion falls on her father. Ultimately, they discover that it was her mother who had killed her. Performed by the incomparable Mary Alice (the Oracle in [[The Matrix|The Matrix Revolutions]]).
{{quote|Virginia Bryant: "I looked at her, it was so hard. Those little lines of blood in her eyes, her hands full of holes. My baby... It was so pitiful. She gave me the gun. She begged me, 'Mama...put me out of my misery. Do it for me...please.' I...I gave up. I gave her what she wanted. I killed my baby."}}
* In the Season 10 "Endurance", a mother has been put on trial for murdering her son, who suffered from severe physical and mental health problems which had obviously taken their toll on her. Upon his cross-examination, McCoy inadvertently prompts the mother to break down on the stand and admit that she had watched him have what she thought was a fatal seizure, unable to bear saving him only to force him to endure the pain and suffering he was forced to live through, and actually attempted to kill herself with her son's pills so that they would both die together before coming to her senses. The woman's tearful breakdown as she insists that she couldn't bear to see her son suffer any more is so affecting that even the hard-assed, seen-it-all-before McCoy looks shaken by it. {{spoiler|And notably, it marks one of the few times he deliberately enables a technically guilty party to receive a lighter sentence}}.
** There's a similar episode where he's cross examining a pediatric oncologist who killed a man who had conned her out of money by claiming he could speak to the dead. The woman breaks down and begins babbling uncontrollably and McCoy is shocked to realize that for once, the accused wasn't presenting a bullshit defense. Years and years of watching children die despite her best efforts had taken it's toll on her, and this man scamming her was the final blow.
* The ending of Season 4's "Mayhem". A very socially awkward but endearing man is on trial for a string of brutal murders - he's unable to provide an alibi but both the detectives and prosecutors feel he didn't do it. Eventually, his mother reveals {{spoiler|his alibi - he's actually gay, and was seeing his lover when the murders took place, however he didn't tell the police because he didn't want his mother to find out. However, his mother already knew, but had never told him because she didn't want to embarrass him. The obviously relieved detectives go to the prison where he's remanded to get him released - only to find out he was just killed by another prisoner.}}
* The season 6 episode "Aftershock". {{spoiler|Claire Kincaid getting killed in a car accident}}
* The Season 7 finale, "Terminal." Adam has been unavailable throughout much of the episode and not quite up to his usual [[Deadpan Snarker]] standard when he is around, because his wife is dying in the hospital. The final scene is {{spoiler|him alone in the hospital room with her when she finally dies.}} He begins to cry.
* McCoy is trying a man for killing several people while driving drunk. McCoy is [[Knight Templar|going further than usual]] in his pursuit of justice. Everyone is telling him to [[What the Hell, Hero?|back off]], because Jack lost his lover to a drunk driver. Then the defendant breaks down and begs for forgiveness, and [[Heel Realization|Jack realizes]] what he's doing. A defendant in tears and Jack pausing over a sheet of paper shouldn't be that evocative...
=== [[Law & Order: Criminal Intent]] ===
=== [[Law & Order: Special Victims Unit]] ===
* ''[[Law and 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...?"
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