Live-Action TV/Tear Jerker/Lists that need to be split by individual works

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Works that need pages

Un gars, une fille

  • This otherwise hilarious French-Canadian series got a few brilliant tear-jerker moments, all delivered by Sylvie Leonard. The first of the two most notable happens at the end of the episode in which Sylvie's mother dies. She gives a beautiful speech to her mother's grave, and asks her to give her a sign if she heard her. At this point, a pigeon poops on Guy's, her boyfriend, shoulder, turning it into a Crowning Moment of Funny.
  • The second happens during the final episode. After going all the way to Vietnam to adopt a little girl, Sylvie suddenly collapses in the street and wakes up in hospital. Weak and afraid she might die, she tells Guy how much she wanted to see their new child grow up and how much she loves him. The doctor arrives seconds later to inform them that Sylvie is actually pregnant, turning the scene into a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.

Great Teacher Onizuka (live-action series)

  • The live action Great Teacher Onizuka episode where Tomoko pours her heart out during the public speaking part of the competition.

Hell Girl (live-action series)

  • In episode 2 of the live-action Hell Girl series, Enma Ai's client is a Hikikomori whose father has been murdered. There's a heartbreaking flashback sequence in which we see all the times his father talked to him through the door of his room, patiently trying again and again to reach his son. They love each other, but whatever sorrow has taken hold of the boy won't let go. And now it's too late -- he'll never see his dad again, never get to make things right. You'll need to hug someone you love after watching this.

Kasou Taishou

Los Archivos del Cardenal

  • The Chilean TV series "Los Archivos del Cardenal" ("The Files of the Cardinal"), narrating the struggle of the "Vicaria de la Solidaridad" ("Vicary of Solidarity") during the terrible Chilean dictatorship, is the perfect mix of Tear Jerker and Nightmare Fuel. Maybe the names and some circumstances were changed to protect sensibilities of the victims and their families, but the emotional impact is devastating.

Lists that need to be split into individual works

Kamen Rider

  • Given its Anyone Can Die policy, Kamen Rider Ryuki, unsurprisingly, has a fair number of these moments.
    • Kamen Rider Imperer's final moments are particularly painful. Betrayed and left for dead in the Mirror World without his armor for protection, he spends his last seconds alive in the rain, gazing at the lone figure of a woman who may have represented everything he wanted in a life, as his body slowly dissolves into nothingness.

Mitsuru Sano/Kamen Rider Imperer: Why did something like this happen? All I wanted was to be happy.

    • Shinji's death in the penultimate episode. Lethally wounded by a Raydragoon, he drives off an army of Monsters before succumbing to his wounds. It's only made worse in one of the first scenes of the final episode, as Ren regretfully walks away, leaving Shinji's corpse as one more casaulty in the day's massacre.

Kido Shinji/Kamen Rider Ryuki: I just realized that I do want to close the Mirror World. I'm sure it will cause alot of pain, but I still want it to end. I don't know if it's right or wrong but as a Rider, I have a wish I want fulfilled, and this is it.

    • Asakura Takeshi/Kamen Rider Ouja and Kitaoka Shuichi/Kamen Rider Zolda have had bones to pick with each other since the former's debut. When the time comes to finally settle things between them, Asakura is victorious. However, as Zolda's armor breaks away, Asakura realizes that it is Kitaoka's manservant, Yura Goro, not Kitaoka himself that he had just killed. As for Kitaoka himself, the audience is taken to his mansion, his body resting peacefully on a couch, having finally succumbed to the illness that threatened his life.
    • As the victor of the Rider War, Akiyama Ren finally succeeds in saving Ogawa Eri, but at the price of his life. Crawling all the way to her hospital room, he leaves the memento he'd kept of her, a pair of rings, in her hands before taking his final rest.

Ogawa Eri: Ren, if you sit there, you'll catch a cold.

    • Realizing that his sister, Yui, would always reject his offer to save her, Kanzaki Shiro, in a moment of despair destroys Kamen Rider Odin, and thus forfeits the final prize of the Rider War. However, unwilling to accept his sister's death, Shiro threatens to restart the Rider War in spite of her pleas. Then the camera pulls back, and we see Shiro for what he really is beyond the stoic malevolence; a young man tortured by the fear of a world without his sister. As the younger version of his sister pleads with him one last time, the camera pulls to a sentimental gaze of the older Shiro as he rewinds time, revealing that now, both versions of the Kanzaki siblings live in their own version of the Mirror World, populated not with the Monsters they created but with the drawings of happy times between them. As the ending credits roll, we return to the Atori, and pull in on a picture of the Kanzaki siblings, a younger version of them as opposed to the older versions, implying that the two died in the new timeline Shiro created.
  • Kamen Rider Kiva was always a serious show that could tug at the heartstrings, but when Mio died, my eyes definitely watered for her. The ending of the episode was horribly sad when she shattered in Wataru's arms. Even more heart wrenching is how she died. Originally, it appeared that she had done a Diving Save to save her husband, Taiga. Later on, Bishop revealed he killed her, seeing Mio as a hindrance.
  • Kamen Rider Double isn't as serious as Kiva or Blade. It doesn't matter though, as it can deliver several sad moments. At the end of the A arc, the poor little girl. And Kirihiko's death. As his hankerchief blew away,
    • The Puppeteer Dopant. You have to feel sorry for him, since his daughter died a few months prior to obtaining his Gaia Memory.
    • Phillip's death, with an acoustic version of Cyclone Effect playing in the background. It takes an upbeat song and makes the line "We've got nothing else" tragic in context. Yes, he's brought back to life the next episode but the preview is entirely melancholic for the next episode. Shoutaro himself is in tears cause he is technically the one to kill Phillip by deactivating the transformation.
    • A Bitter Sweet moment: The Sonozaki family reuniting peacefully in death. After having spent the entire series fighting and backstabbing each other, Wakana and Saeko are seen embracing while Ryubee tells Philip they'll be watching over him.

Lists that need to be integrated into existing Tear Jerker pages

Glee/Tear Jerker

  • When Will leaves Glee to go become an accountant and then returns after hearing the Glee kids singing "Don't Stop Believing".
  • When Quinn found out about her pregnancy.
  • The club performing "Keep Holding On" in Throwdown in support of Quinn, particularly when she lets out one sob at the very end just before the credits start up.
  • "Wheels".
  • When Quinn's parents kicked her out of the house in Ballad.
  • Kurt's sad face/crying is enough to induce this.
  • Will finding out about Terri's fake pregnancy.
  • The entire "Smile" montage. The looks on Will and the club members' faces combined with the beautiful, yet sad music make it impossible to keep from crying.
  • Finn finding out he's not the father of Quinn's baby.
  • That scene at the "wedding" in Sectionals.
  • The whole episode, "Home". Especially when Kurt sang "A House is Not a Home", coupled with his broken expression at the end.
  • Kurt singing "Rose's Turn" in Laryngitis.
  • Rachel and her real mom singing "I Dreamed A Dream" in Dream On.
  • Everything involving Artie in the episode Dream On.
  • "To Sir With Love" from Journey. Yeah. If you were not at least choking up you have no heart.
  • When New Directions came in last place at regionals. We've all been there at one point or another.
  • Kurt singing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" in Grilled Cheesus.
    • The scene where Jean asks Sue if she wanted her to pray for her and she accepts.
    • And the part with Kurt's dad holding his hand after waking up from his heart-attack coma.
      • "I don't believe in God, Dad. But I believe in you, and I believe in us. That's what's sacred to me."
      • "Dad, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."
  • The wedding speeches of Burt and Carole.
  • Kurt announcing his transfer, and giving Mercedes one sorrowful look before he walks out of the room.
  • "You said you'd NEVER breakup with me!" "... I never thought you'd make me feel like this."
  • Finn's speech to Rachel at the Christmas tree lot. Poor guy.
  • How distraught Karofsky looks after he kisses Kurt breaks my heart.
  • Santana finally working up the nerve to tell Brittany that she loved her, only to be turned down in favor of Artie. A case of alas poor Alpha Bitch.
  • Quinn telling Rachel that she is the one that Finn is going to chose. It is the sadest "I am going to win"-speech ever.

Quinn: Do you want to know how this story plays out? I get Finn, you get heart-broken. And then Finn and I stay here and start a family. I'll become a successful real estate agent, and Finn will take over Kurt's dads tire shop. You don't belong here Rachel, and you can't hate me for helping to send you on your way.
Rachel: I am not giving up on Finn. It is not ov...

Quinn: Yes it is! You are so frustrating! And that is why you can't write a good song; because you live in this little school girl fantasy of life. Rachel, if you keep looking for that happy ending, then you are never going to get it right!

    • Especially when you consider her determination to get out of Lima and do something great with her life, even during the pregnancy plot. She went through absolute hell to get her life back, and just when things were looking up, a new wave of drama came up. And now, here she is, Quinn Fabray, finally battered and broken to the point where she has finally given up all her ambitions and is resigned to the fact that she's not going to amount to anything particularly great in life.Quinn has spent quite a bit of time being a bitch this season, but...
  • Will talking to Emma in "Rumors" about how he doesn't want to leave the kids and her behind because they've done so much for him and he needs them as much as they need him, but then saying how badly he wants to go with April. There's something about the idea that Will's dreams and opportunities are passing him by, but he wouldn't even consider going because the glee club means so much to him. It's both heartwarming and heartbreaking.
  • Kurt getting voted Prom Queen with Karofsky as King as a humiliating, sadistic joke. Eventually he refuses to let it get him down and turns it into a Crowning Moment of Awesome, but still--teens are fucking monsters. And the worst part? Prior to this, the fandom absolutely loved the idea of Kurt and Blaine being voted Prom King/Queen as a gesture of acceptance. Ryan Murphy, you bastard.
  • Karofsky's tearful apology and saying 'I can't' softly to Kurt at Prom and walking away.
  • Jean's funeral because of the scene's multitude of similarities to the deaths and funerals of people he cared about just as much as Sue cares about Jean.
  • The performance of Fix You in Asian F is a tearjerker and heartwarming especially the image of Emma as a girl praying.
  • Bieste... just... Bieste. And in "Props," when her douchecanoe husband says "Who's going to love you now?" She says "Me." Crowning Moment of Awesome, indeed.

Gossip Girl/Tear Jerker

  • Blair reading the letter she wrote to Serena.
  • Chuck coming to Blair to break apart in her arms and perhaps get some comfort after the death of his father. Also the scene earlier in the episode when Blair finally tells him she loves him, and he just drives off.
    • In the following episode when Chuck has mocked Blair for her love for him (this after he's left her in the middle of the night and disappeared for a month) and she breaks down crying in front of her mirror.
  • Blair confessing her love for Chuck once again in the season two finale, and him just walking away.
  • The hospital scene in The Debarted when Chuck has to deal with his emotions after his father's death (and Blair has to help him stand).
  • Chuck finally going to see Lily after she's been diagnosed with cancer.
  • Eric telling his father that he doesn't want him in his life.
  • Blair breaking apart crying alone in her room after Chuck traded her to Jack for the Empire hotel.
  • Chuck letting Blair go in the season four finale. Their entire conversation was heartbreaking and the look on his face as she walks away was just too sad for words.
  • After months of not being able to feel anything, neither physical nor emotional, Chuck finds out that Blair is pregnant and that Louis is the father. The episode ends with Chuck crying on his bed, comforted by the dog he got in the same episode. The writers cried, some of the actors cried...
  • Chuck visiting Lily after Dan's book has been released, lamenting his loneliness and saying he doesn't want to end up like Charlie Trout, his character in the book.
  • Everything after the accident in Season 5. Blair losing the baby, praying just for Chuck to be alive, and eventually deciding that she can't be with Chuck if there's any chance he'll be the one punished for it. Chuck's confusion as he desperately searches for a reason why she abandoned him and her constantly-about-to-break-down expression just breaks your heart.

Homicide: Life on the Street/Tear Jerker

  • Giardello's speech at the end of "Partners and Other Strangers".
  • The scene in "Every Mother's Son" when the mothers of a murdered child and the boy who did the killing meet unaware of who the other is.
  • The scene in "Crosetti" when Lewis realizes that his partner and friend committed suicide.
  • "A Doll's Eyes" when the parents have to take their son off life support.

Charles S. Dutton's performance in "Prison Riot" especially his line "I'm in here forever, Detective. Forever."

  • The end of "Betrayal" in which Bayliss reveals why He takes cases with Murdered Children so hard
  • Lewis talking Kellerman out of suicide in "Have A Conscience" with a Heartbreaking invoking of Crosetti
  • "Bop Gun" is one long Tear Jerker with Robin Williams as a man who just saw His wife Murdered.Highlights include Him becoming furious after hearing the Detectives humourously banter about the Murder and the investigation and the final moments in which He says He is now a member of a "Special club where only the initiated can recognize the other members"]]

House (TV series)/Tear Jerker

  • The season 4 finale.
    • When House talks to Amber in the Limbo-bus. " I don't want him (Wilson) to hate me"
      • "Because...because it doesn't hurt here. I don't want to be in pain. I don't want to be miserable. And I don't want him to hate me."
      • It didn't help that the music selection used as the bed for that scene was Iron & Wine's "Passing Afternoon", which is a haunting song.
    • Both "I don't want him to hate me"" and Taub clinging to his wife.
    • Wilson finally going back home to try and sleep and finding Amber's last note.
    • The scene where Amber dies in Wilson's arms, after having him to pull the plug on the machine keeping her alive.
    • And, God, the dialogue from the above scene, especially, Wilson: "Just a little longer." Amber: "We're always going to want just a little longer." and Wilson: "It's not okay. Why is it okay with you? Why aren't you angry?" Amber: "That's not the last feeling I want to experience." - and Wilson kissing her so that it isn't.
      • Just the fact that it was Wilson showing such raw emotion when he's usually cast as the straight man is what did it for me. Wilson's breakdown left me absolutely speechless.
    • House's recovered memory of what happened. The part when he realizes that by taking the pills Amber has sealed her fate is heartbreaking. And having to explain to Wilson that there is nothing to be done...
    • The ending. The bit where all the team comes to say goodbye, the bit where they were clinging to each other and having their last conversation, the bit where Thirteen's Huntington's test shows positive, and the bit where Wilson reads Amber's last note.
    • The look on Cuddy's face when House wakes up in the Season 4 finale.
      • When Wilson looked at House who had just woken up after having possible brain-damage, and just walked away without a word too. And the beginning of the first season when he told House they'd never been friends? Hugh Laurie makes House look like a kicked puppy at times.
  • Because House is usually such a Jerkass, the moments when he's vulnerable/human. Take, for instance, the scene in Skin Deep where he's asking Cuddy for some morphine. He drops his trousers and cane, shows her the ugly scar and says, near tears, "I could swear I remember a thigh muscle being here".
    • The end of Honeymoon.
  • The episode with the idiot savant concert pianist who gets half his brain removed. "Are you happy?"
  • The end of House Training. Foreman has just managed to kill a patient (she died of a fricking bra infection!) and goes home to his mentally ill mother for some reassurance. It's all going along swimmingly as she seems to recognize him but then she says "I had a little boy named Eric." His face crumpled about the same time mine did.
  • The episode "Histories", where a homeless woman sent to the hospital after collapsing. At the end after they find out she has rabies so advanced there's no hope for survival, Foreman and Wilson go to investigate her past using her comics as a guide. They find out this 'James' she kept talking about was her son, who died in a car accident that also killed her husband, and that she felt guilty ever since.
  • The two-parter "Euphoria", especially the second half. For so many reasons.
  • Three Stories... just Three Stories. Especially this piece of heartbreaking conversation in one of the flashbacks:

Stacy: We've got to let him cut the leg off.
House: (in massive amounts of pain) It's my leg. It's my life.
Stacy: Would you give up your leg to save my life?
House: Of course I would.
Stacy: Then why do you think your life is worth less than mine? If this were any other patient, what would you tell them to do?
House: I would say it's their choice.
Stacy: What? not a chance! You'd browbeat them until they made the choice you knew was right. You'd shove it in their face that it's just a damn leg! You don't think you deserve to live? You don't think you deserve to be happy? Not let them cut off your leg? (They're both near tears.)
House: I can't, I can't, I'm sorry.

  • The treadmill scene in Cane and Able. He suffers from chronic pain himself and to see House like that - close to crying because of all the pain he's in but still running anyway - is just too painful to see.
  • Soon after the beginning of the Season Five episode Simple Explanation, Kutner is found dead in his apartment, having committed suicide for no known reason. The biggest Tear Jerker comes at the end of the episode, where a montage depicting Kutner's funeral is shown, including a shot of Taub breaking down as he sits alone in one of the hospital corridors. As if that weren't enough, the montage ends with a black screen showing contact details for mental health organisations and an "If you are thinking of suicide..." message.
    • Using Pete Yorn's Lose You as background music for the funeral adds to the heartbreak. "when I can't stand / up in this cage I'm not regretting // I don't need a better thing / I'd settle for less / it's another thing for me / I just have to wander through this world / alone". Ow.
  • Hugh Laurie, why did you have to make "Under My Skin" so painful? Why?!
  • The last 10 or so minutes of the season five finale, especially the very end, when Wilson drops House off at the psychiatric hospital.
  • The end of "Son of a Coma Guy."
  • The season 2 finale, "No Reason." Four words: "You're miserable for nothing."
  • "Wilson? My dad's dead."
    • House starting to crack when he's speaking at the funeral.
  • The scene in the Wilson episode where Wilson asks House if he'll be there for his liver surgery:

Wilson:The operation is in two hours and I'd like you to be there.
House: No.
Wilson: ...why?
House: Because if you die, I'm alone.

  • The season 1 episode "Babies and Bathwater" features two successive impossible choices for a pregant mother and her husband. The team struggled to save the mother and child...and failed. The baby's cries at the end are the epitome of the tear jerker.
    • It gets even worse in "Forever". The mother's cancer caused her to kill her child and the father is so traumatized as well that he doesn't even try to convince her not to let herself die. If you wanted to slit your wrists at that, then we won't blame you.
  • The episode Maternity, because it featured the first paitient to actually die on the show a NEWBORN BABY. Then there's the scene right afterwards, when Cameron and Wilson go to tell the parents that their baby has died, the sight of them breaking down in each other's arms is only made worse by the lack of audible dialogue.
  • There are a few moments in the episode One Day, One Room but the one that really did me in is at the end when House says, "It was true."
  • "Lockdown" got me when House's would-be patient calls his daughter and leaves his message.
  • "Joy" when after all the stuff Cuddy went through she still doesn't get the baby.
  • In the season 5 episode, "Emancipation," when the poor girl reunites with her parents.

How I Met Your Mother/Tear Jerker

  • HIMYM is usually one of the happiest shows around... but dammit, it can make you cry like a baby:
    • The ending of Come On. Seeing Ted arriving home so happy only to find Marshall sitting on their building's doorsteps, in the rain, holding Lily's engagement ring.
  • Lily telling Ted she's having doubts about marrying Marshall and telling him why she wants to go to San Francisco in Milk. Aly's acting in that scene is perfectly heartbreaking.
  • Near the end of season 3 there was a subplot: Ted decides to "dump" Barney and Neil Patrick Harris decides to break our hearts for the next 3 episodes. Finally resolved with a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, but terrible while it lasts.
  • The ending of Benefits. That is all. Damn you NPH!

Robin: He can't separate the physical from the emotional. He's all like...
Barney: I love you.
Robin: (misunderstands him and thinks he's talking about Ted) ... exactly! He's not like you, you know?

    • Definitely seconded. Just the look on his face while Robin remains oblivious...
  • Ted and Lily's extremely tense screaming match in "The Front Porch" after Ted realizes that Lily broke him and Robin up. Even though everything's forgiven in the end, it was like watching your parents fighting and threatening divorce.
  • Ted's speech to Stella in As Fast As She Can, about how he wants what Stella and Tony and Lily and Marshall have, but is tired of looking and waiting.

Ted: Okay, I'm gonna say something out loud that I've been doing a pretty good job of not saying out loud lately... what you and Tony have... what I thought for a second that you and I had... what I know that Marshall and Lily have... I want that! I do. I keep waiting for it to happen and waiting for it to happen, and... I guess I'm just, uh... I'm tired of waiting. And that's all I'm willing to say on that subject.
Stella: (...) I know that you're tired of waiting and... you may have to wait a little while more, but... she's on her way, Ted! And she's getting here as fast as she can.
Ted: (smiling softly) Goodbye, Stella.
Stella: (near whisper) Goodbye, Ted.

  • The ending of "Bad News" where Marshall learns that his dad had a fatal heart attack. The look on Lilly's face alone was enough to make you cry. Then you notice that Marshell is trying to be strong and failing.

Marshall: (breaking down in Lily's arms) I'm not ready for this.

    • Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan both REALLY sold this scene. It's very sudden, and it hits hard.
  • Marshall's breakdown outside of his father's funeral in "Last Words." Brings out all the emotions that run through a person in that circumstance.
  • Barney's emotional meltdown at the basketball hoop in the end of 'Legendaddy'. He has very recently had his father (who abandoned him when he was six) come back into his life and try to reconnect with him. Barney was hoping his father, Jerry, would be a hard-partying roadie who wasn't capable of being a father, since this would justify him abandoning Barney. However, Jerry has turned out to be a loving dad with two children, including a boy named 'Jerome Junior'. Barney can't handle this, and it culminates into him trying to yank JJ's basketball hoop off the garage so he could have at least some souvenir of a childhood he never got to have. Particularly heartbreaking is this exchange:

Barney: You're lame, okay? You're just some lame suburban dad.
Jerry: Why does that make you so mad?!
Barney: (finally losing it) Because if you were gonna be some lame suburban dad, why couldn't you have been that for me?!?

  • At the end of 'Change of Heart', when Lily has finally convinced that Barney has actual feelings for Nora, he shows up where she is having brunch with her parents, and the scene goes on to show him going inside, apologizing for telling her he wasn't interested, and being introduced to her parents. Alas, it's just an imagination spot, and the look on his face when it pans back to him standing out there and giving up is just heartcrushing. To top it off, just after he walks away, Nora looks up and has missed him, also with a look as if she wished he were in there.
  • In "The Exploding Meatball Sub", when Lily is about to head off to Spain because supporting Marshall through his oblivious insistence on quitting his job and taking up ridiculous projects while volunteering for the NRDC is driving her crazy. Ted is rightly appalled, furious, and clearly terrified (for although he doesn't mention it, the memory of Lily breaking for San Fransisco is clearly in the forefront of both his and the audience's minds), until in the middle of Lily's rant, she breaks down into tears and confesses that she's afraid that Marshall doesn't want to have a baby with her anymore. Ted's demeanor immediately dissolves into tenderness with a soft "Oh Lil..."
  • At the end of 'Tick, Tick, Tick...'

Future Ted:...for Barney, the second that would never end was this one..."

    • After realising that Robin has chosen Kevin the look on Barney's face is absolutely heartbreaking. Then the icing on the cake? Watching him clean up the bedroom he had decorated with rose petals and candles.
  • In 'Symphony of Illumination' Robin is narrating the episode to her and Barney's future kids. Until she finds out she can't ever have children. "So I can't have kids. Big deal. This way, there's no one to hold me back in life. No one to keep me from travelling where I wanna travel, no one getting in the way of my career. If you wanna know the truth of it, I'm glad you guys aren't real." And the kids fade away.

Inspector Lynley/Tear Jerker

  • When Barbara Havers is shot in the abdomen, throwing herself in front of a bullet to save someone else. Even though you know they wouldn't really do it, Lynley doesn't know, and his reaction is absolutely heartbreaking.
  • Helen's death, Lynley's face, and Barbara doing her level best to save her. Just... ouch.

Kenan and Kel/Tear Jerker

  • 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, "... Kel loves orange soda."


L

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

  • Law & Order: Criminal Intent, episode Magnificat. Det. Goren's interrogation of Paul Whitlock, whose wife (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 here.
    • Also, the ending of Semi-Detached. You really must watch the episode to appreciate why it's so sad.

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, 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.

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, 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.

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 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:

"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 flashbacks to the death of Nate's son, slowly parceled out throughout the first season.
  • Parker's fear for the orphans in "The Stork Job":

"You put these kids in the system, and odds are, they're gonna, they're gonna...they're gonna turn out like me."

  • "The Future Job": A fraudulent psychic uncovers a secret Parker has never told anyone: that she witnessed (and blames herself for) the death of her brother when they were children. Made worse by the fact that Parker has No Social Skills -- she can't interpret normal nonverbal cues, and thus has a hard time understanding cold reading.
  • "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 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.

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 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 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.


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