Live/Action TVAC/Tear Jerker

12 Dias que estremecieron a Chile

 * 90% of times, the Chilean TV series "12 días que estremecieron a Chile" ("12 days that shocked Chile to the core") was a huge, giant tear: not only the terrible things that are told happened in real life, but the mixture of fiction and real life montages was incredibly effective. The crowner was the episode touching the horrifying incident known as "caso degollados" aka "case of the slit throats", specially two scenes: the one  and the one where   The latter is made worse/better due to

24

 * The season 1 finale, when Jack Bauer.
 * The mid-to-late season 2 episode when Jack is going to fly the nuke into the desert to save L.A., only to find . Buckets of tears.
 * Or when
 * However bad season 6 was, the last few minutes where  were really painful.
 * One of the most heart-breaking moments in 24 was the death of . For many fans, he was as much the star of the show as Jack Bauer. Many people haven't felt the same about the show after his death.
 * 's death. Full stop.
 * Jack and the squad realizing that they were too late to save  who went out like a hero.
 * Might be a case of Draco in Leather Pants, but Marcos the suicide bomber's death was so sad. He managed to surrender (and probably wanted to hug his mommy as well), but he blew up anyway because Samir told his men to turn on the suicide vest's failsafe. He finally told Jack to tell his mother that he is sorry.
 * and a distraught Jack sitting right next to his dead body. Almost made up for all of season 7's problems.
 * 's death. Full stop.
 * Jack and the squad realizing that they were too late to save  who went out like a hero.
 * Might be a case of Draco in Leather Pants, but Marcos the suicide bomber's death was so sad. He managed to surrender (and probably wanted to hug his mommy as well), but he blew up anyway because Samir told his men to turn on the suicide vest's failsafe. He finally told Jack to tell his mother that he is sorry.
 * and a distraught Jack sitting right next to his dead body. Almost made up for all of season 7's problems.

4400

 * There are a lot of scenes, especially in the pilot, since most of the Returnees have gone for extended periods of time, when they try to find their families, and everything inevitably changed: as an example when Lily goes to see her husband and daughter, and finds out.
 * dying in the season 3 premiere. Especially because Isabelle, understanding that  tries to kill herself to save  . It doesn't work.
 * Shawn having to kill  at his own request.
 * The funeral scene in what turned out to be the final episode was overall very effective tearjerker-wise, in spite of the fact that the characters who died,, were never important.

Adam

 * Adam, the 1983 made for TV movie about the kidnapping and death of Adam Walsh. The scene where Jon Walsh learns of his son's death and starts tearing up a room while cursing the world is arguably the most gutwrenching scene in television history.

The Adventures of Pete and Pete

 * Artie, the strongest man in the world's, But Now I Must Go moment to the younger Pete in the "Farewell, My Little Viking" episode of The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

ALF

 * ALF managed a few surprisingly effective dramatic moments over its run.
 * The episode where ALF finds out that Willie was a train hopper in his youth, and ropes him into hopping another one. Alone in the car, they end up discussing ALF's lonely existence as possibly the last of his kind. They both make a wish on a shooting star, and afterwards ALF says "I wished I had my planet back."
 * When a woman who claims to have an alien in her house turns out to be a scam artist. Willie tries to comfort the devastated ALF by saying lots of people feel like they're all alone at some point, and ALF replies "Feeling alone and being alone are two very different things."
 * Alf's Special Christmas. Dear God, Alf's Special Christmas. After destroying the Tanner's best laid Christmas plans (par for the course for Alf), . To top it all off,  . For an Alf story, it is surprisingly dark.

Alias

 * 's Taking You with Me moment in the finale of Alias made even people who had disliked the character cry. The fact that was just another twist of the knife.
 * Jack's pretty good at making people tear up. Go back to season one, and the scene where he shows up at Sydney's house on Thanksgiving and gives her the file clearing him of spying for the KGB (the irony being that ). He's practically tearing up himself as he confesses he might not have been the best father, but he would never want her to believe he would put her or his family in danger.

All My Children
"Zach: Now who will lead our Carnival
 * When Robin Scorpio reunited with her mother Anna Devane (both from sister soap General Hospital), after thinking Anna had been killed when Robin was a child, only to have to seperate again because of the people trying to kill Anna.
 * The tributes to the late Eileen Herlie and James Mitchell were certainly heartbreakers, particularly Eileen's knowing that Thorston Kaye (Zach Slater) wrote a poem in her honor.

And who will make us stronger

Who will mend our broken sleep

When she is here no longer"

"For whose part do we stand and bow

What stories do we tell

And will we memorize the day

When great and greatness fell"

"Say will this valley overcome

And will these shadows fade

And will we lift our eyes to see

The beauty that she made"

"The disappearing last of her

That leads to worlds unknown

Has left a path to softly tread

When sadness wanders home"

"I’ll meet thee where the highland winds

Divide wild mountain thyme

Where I will be forever yours…and you forever mine."


 * The Hubbard family montage, which aired during the show's final week.
 * Edmund screaming in agony when told that his wife Maria was dead. At the time, their actors were Happily Married in Real Life and one really got the feeling that he was imagining how he would feel if this really happened.

The American Music Awards

 * As if "Isn't She Lovely"--a song where a blind man rhapsodizes about his newborn daughter's beauty--weren't enough of a tearjerker, it went to a whole new level at these awards when they did a tribute to Stevie Wonder. The segment ended with an ensemble singing "Isn't He Lovely" and the camera turned to Stevie in the audience. If you didn't know already, blind people can cry.

Animal Cops

 * Animal rescue shows can be heartbreaking when it comes to animals having to be put to sleep or seeing really bad neglect or cruelty.
 * Wildlife SOS, when CT the Badger was put down. Gracie Lizzie cried, not so much for CT herself but from watching her being cradled in her last moments by a heartbroken Simon Cowell (no not, that, Simon Cowell - this Simon Cowell).
 * Oh, God. One particular episode of Animal Cops. A breeder of shi tzus had been injured and more or less confined to her bed, and enlisted the help of her daughter and grandsons to care for several of the dogs, who lived outside where she couldn't get to them. They didn't, but told her they did. Watching that poor little old lady cradle the miserably neglected creatures and sob when the SPCA officers brought the dogs inside and she saw their real condition for the first time and realized her family had been lying to her for months... Almost as bad as the old lady's grief was the pitiful little noise of agony the oldest dog (who'd never recovered from a broken back and had gone blind in the kennel) kept making during the examination, and the revelation that she'd have to be put down, because there was nothing else the vets could do to spare her more pain.
 * On the opposite end of the tear spectrum, another episode featured a dog who officers found almost frozen to death in his owner's back yard. They had to pick him up, as he couldn't even move, and take him to an ASPCA vet. Cut to the next day... where he's begun to recover. Cut three months later, where he's running around in his new owner's yard and playing with her and her other dog. * Sniff*

Ashes to Ashes

 * It helps to be a shipper, but
 * In 1x05, Alex has gotten to a Gayngster by going through his naive young boyfriend. Along the way, she's befriended the scared, screwed-up young man with the bad luck to be gay and coming of age in 1981. By the end of the episode, she's reunited him with his parents, and apparently seen him well on his way to a happier life. Then she hugs him, and sees a dark lesion on his neck, which he dismisses as "just a rash". What we know, and Alex knows, is that it's Kaposi's sarcoma, and that he will be dead within months: one of the first victims of AIDS. And somehow she manages to keep smiling until he can't see her face...
 * In 1x08, Alex struggles to tell her mother about her own daughter, Molly -- the granddaughter Caroline will never meet. Alex knows that Caroline thinks Alex is crazy, knows that she can't say anything that will make Caroline believe her, knows that she's babbling, but she just can't stop herself from trying.
 * Alex realizing how much her mother did love her.
 * The scene in 2x07 where Chris comes walking into CID after Gene has
 * Gene ripping Sam's obituary off his bulletin board in 3.02.
 * Ray's monologue about his father in 3.03. Which gets exponentially worse after the finale.
 * Ray and Shaz singing "Danny Boy."
 * 3x06 has the scene where Chris and Ray, undercover in Fenchurch Prison, discover that


 * In the final episode,
 * Special mention should go to
 * Shaz's childlike crying as the reality of her situation sinks in is especially heartwrenching.
 * Alex realizing that
 * "You are, and always will be, the Guv." "We weren't bad, though, were we?" Oh god....
 * Alex tearfully begging Gene to

Band of Brothers

 * Every tear jerker is put Up to Eleven because it really happened.
 * You know they'll show  sooner or later in Band of Brothers, considering the setting. Doesn't make the view less of a Tear Jerker.
 * In particular, when wisecracking tough guy Liebgott (a Jew) is translating between the prisoners and Winters, and they all suddenly realize why these people are gathered here to die. And Liegbott's corresponding mini-breakdown.
 * Winters' voiceover at the end of the last episode, telling the audience how everyone's lives turned out.
 * The aptly-titled seventh episode, "The Breaking Point," sees characters the viewers have become emotionally invested in, made all the worse because it all really happened. Episode Nine, "Why We Fight," borders on Nightmare Fuel with  , as mentioned above.
 * 'The Breaking Point' is an episode-long Tear Jerker. are killed in their foxhole. One minute they're there, and the next they're gone.
 * The end scene of 'The Breaking Point' as the dead are named and they fade away.
 * Liebgott translating the speech that ends with "You all deserve long and happy lives in peace."
 * The real Richard Winters talking about what Mike Ranney wrote in a letter he sent him: "I treasure my remark to my grandson who asked, 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' Grandpa said, 'No...but I served in a company of heroes.'"

Original
"Adama: I'm sorry Ila... I was never there when it mattered. Never..."
 * Adama's finding the picture of his wife, Ila, amongst the ruins of his home on Caprica, in the pilot episode:

"Apollo: Maybe mother wasn't here.
 * And a little later when Apollo comes in:

Adama: No, she was here. She was here."


 * "That, Mr. President... was my son."
 * "You can fly with me anytime, little brother."

Galactica 1980

 * The fate of Cy, Starbuck's Robot Buddy in "The Return of Starbuck".
 * Boomer and Starbuck saying goodbye in "The Return of Starbuck."

Battlestar Galactica Reimagined
"Callie: Talk to me you mother-frakker!
 * The first episode of the new Battlestar Galactica - "33" - has a tear jerking scene right after the opening credits Later on, President Laura Roslin breaks down after learning that a baby was born during the chaos of the multiple jumps through space, and updates the running survivor count accordingly.
 * The scene in "Maelstrom"
 * Doubly so because
 * The fact that its at the very end of an episode where she's become an emotional wreck and has just discovered  and she's broken down and shattered into a million mental pieces just makes it all the worse.
 * Consider the fact that she just trusted and got backhanded for it. It's more than likely that she died thinking her husband was complicit in it.
 * Let's face it, Tear Jerker moments are a Once an Episode deal with Battlestar Galactica. The start of season 2 when Chief Tyrol is shocked at the loss of a life during a short mission he was leading
 * Let's face it, Tear Jerker moments are a Once an Episode deal with Battlestar Galactica. The start of season 2 when Chief Tyrol is shocked at the loss of a life during a short mission he was leading

Chief: Mother-frakker?

(they both laugh and Callie breaks down)"

"Alone she sleeps in the shirt of man
 * The term "frak" has often been a source of Narm in the show. To be able to go from narm, to comic relief to heartbreaking in the space of a few seconds as Callie just gets overwhelmed by the shock of her situation... it makes me well up just thinking about it. It's brilliant writing.
 * Whenever Edward James Olmos sheds tears,. Especially in Resurrection Ship 1, during the "I can't see you as a blonde." conversation. When he turns around after Roslin calls after him, subtly wiping his eyes...
 * Then "Notion", at the start of season 4.5, has has
 * Agreed on this one. From the beginning of the episode it looked like she was in trouble but her date with had the appearance of walking her back from the brink. Made the eventual  ,seem much more heartbreaking.
 * And earlier in that episode, when
 * For me, it was Gaeta's Lament from "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?" Gaeta had to have his and so, whenever he feels pain and can't take it, he starts to sing. Here's the song (sung like an opera)
 * For me, it was Gaeta's Lament from "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?" Gaeta had to have his and so, whenever he feels pain and can't take it, he starts to sing. Here's the song (sung like an opera)

With my three wishes clutched in her hand.

The first that she be spared the pain

That comes from a dark and laughing rain.

When she finds love may it always stay true

This I beg for the second wish I made too.

But wish no more

My life you can take

To have her please just one day wake

To have her please just one day wake"

"Lee: Goodbye Kara, you won't be forgotten."
 * Part of the reason that song was so damned effective was that it was performed live on the set, as part of the acting. (Apparently it had people trying not to cry on-set.) Alessandro Juliani is really singing it there, as you see him. Also, the version on the Season 4 soundtrack is *gorgeous*, presented first a cappella, then with strings and drums--it's worth a listen by itself.
 * In something usually missed by many fans of the show, in the episode The Oath
 * What about this Tearjerker/Nightmare Fuel: Razor Flashbacks Episode 3, when the Columbia is destroyed. The last dying screams of the crew...
 * In the series finale (Daybreak Part 2), when
 * When
 * In the season finale,
 * The entire series finale is a Tear Jerker, especially the second part from  to Adama's
 * accompanied by this Crowning Music of Awesome reprised.
 * Even if you don't much like Baltar, the moment where
 * How about in Exodus: Part 1, where the Adamas say goodbye in Galactica's hangar deck? Sure, the Old Man always comes through, but they don't know that. Seeing them both get choked up is too much for me.
 * Half-way through the episode Scar, Apollo says he's worried he'll forget the faces of their dead pilots. Starbuck's response is a half-humorous: "I don't even remember their names." Then at the end of the episode she proposes a toast, and lists the dead pilots, one by one. By the end she's in tears. She's not alone.
 * And, going back to 33 -- the first sight of the wall.
 * in "Passage", especially the scene at the end where
 * No mention of Unfinished Business? Oh, god. Not even counting the heartbreaking Tigh flashback, this episode is emotionally crippling to any Kara/Lee shippers as well as probably anyone who's ever been . Let's see, first up you have the boxing tournament framing device . Then the flashbacks start. . And we're not even at "heartbreaking" yet - that would be  If you watch it in slow-motion, you can see the exact moment where his heart breaks. Then there's . Meanwhile, back in the present, . Every single second of this episode is a Tear Jerker, doubly so on repeat viewings when you already know what happened.
 * The conversation between Baltar and Gaeta before
 * In "Faith", when Roslin starts chatting with a dying cancer patient, you know it's going to end tear-jerkingly. But the dream scene where And what makes it all the worse is Roslin watching the scene, in the dream, and just knowing that when she, there will be no crowd waiting for her. That was rough.
 * The last conversation between Lee and Starbuck where she tells him she needs to go but doesn't know where and asks him what he plans to do. He looks away for a second and when he looks back, she's disappeared. Kara has earned her rest with Anders.

Beauty and the Beast

 * The death of in Beauty and The Beast.

Being Human

 * The season three finale. Very nearly all of it.
 * final letter to  written before Herrick killed him. "Don't avenge me." Even sadder because he doesn't listen.
 * George's scream when he  Words cannot describe it.
 * Lia's realization that her revenge on Mitchell will have the same effect on George as her death had on her family.
 * The build-up to


 * Believe it or not, it gets worse in Series 4.
 * Nina
 * George  in the first episode.


 * Oh, and the reason he ? He
 * Kirby tricking Tom into thinking that he was going to get his very first birthday party, complete with cake. The look on Tom's face when he realises that no one even knows that it's his birthday.
 * Annie falls for Kirby... who then begins to insult her until she fades away.
 * Kirby messes up Hal's bedroom and it looks like he can almost cope with that... Then he drops Hal's photo of Leo on the floor and Hal looks completely devastated.

Birds of Prey
"Master Bruce, I thought you might want to know, your daughter's doing very well. You would be most proud...most proud indeed."
 * Most episodes ended on a sad, or at least melancholy note, but the end of the finale, when Alfred rings up Batman, who never otherwise takes any part in the show and says:

He then silently agrees with something said on the other end, and hangs up.

Blackadder Goes Forth
"Captain Darling: We lived through it. The Great War. 1914 to 1917."
 * Blackadder Goes Forth: After years of fighting an utterly pointless war and almost getting out of it, Blackadder, Baldrick, Lieutenant George, Captain Darling and hundreds of other men go over the top of the trenches, set to an incredibly poignant version of the theme music. They don't visibly die, but just fade away to be replaced by a modern day shot of a poppy field overdubbed with birdsong.
 * Especially poignant considering the fact that poppies are the traditional flower to remember WWI. After the fighting, especially at Flanders' Field, the earth was so stirred up by the men fighting and charging across it that poppy seeds, which had been laying dormant, bloomed all over it. This always gets to me as the final symbol, especially how something so horrible can produce something so beautiful ... which still isn't worth the price we paid for it. That a comedy show can make this point in a couple of fade-out frames is nothing short of amazing.
 * What particularly makes the ending tragic is its sharp contrast to the finales of the first and second season, in which the entire cast is killed off, and their deaths are played for laughs.
 * When Blackadder said 'good luck, everyone' in that... emotional manner. Not only he did restrain himself from making some jokes when the others told him that they were scared- he did actually say Good luck, everyone. Black-bloody-adder, for God sake, he was concerned about somebody else!
 * Extra-poignant is the fact that those were his last words.
 * Another thing that got me, in that same episode, is when Darling is sent to the front. Really, you have to see it for understand.
 * The image of Darling crying and begging on his knees when the driver comes in and casts one of the most ominous shadows ever to the sound of war drums in the background is probably the most sad-but-super-chilling moment in the whole series. They threw in that bit of laughtrack after General Melchett says "Goodbye, Kevin Darling." Ruined the mood of the scene a bit.
 * The worst part of this was that Darling knew what it meant, but General Melchett sincerely believed that it was all a jolly jape and he was doing him a favour by sending him to the front, signing his death sentence thinking he wouldn't really want to miss the "fun". Darling begs and pleads, but can't make a dent on Melchett's fantasy world.
 * When Darling said he'd never get to marry Dorris. Although because it was being viewed with a younger brother, no weeping happened...
 * 'Made a note in my diary on the way here. Simply says: "Bugger".'
 * Darling's fate was perhaps one of the hardest because, even though he wasn't a very sympathetic character through most of the series, he was so close to making it through the war, and had no idea what was going to happen to him, unlike the others whose lives mainly revolved around trying to get out of 'going over the top'.
 * Blackadder's reaction to Darling's arrival in the trench makes the whole plot thread even more poignant; here is a man whom he has mocked mercilessly throughout the entire series... and yet when he arrives in the trench, rather than sneer at him for having to leave his desk job to join the push, Blackadder goes along with the fantasy that Darling volunteered, deciding not to kick him while he's down.
 * When the guns fall silent and they think they are going to be ok.

"George: No really, this is brave! Splendid! Noble! ...Sir?
 * These 3 words.

Blackadder: Yes, lieutenant?

George: I'm... scared, sir."


 * This was especially hard-core considering George's flamboyantly upbeat attitude and eagerness for battle for the whole show and he's the first person to admit, in a sincere non-joking way (unlike how Blackadder had been doing the whole time), that he didn't want to die. And he's smiling while he says it.

"George: I mean, I'm the last of the tiddlywinking leap-froggers from the golden summer of 1914!... I don't want to die!... not overly keen on dying at all."
 * The first time that Lt George has ever sounded unsure of himself.

"Blackadder: ...After all, who'd notice another madman 'round here?"
 * Blackadder hears out one last plan from Baldrick and, instead of insulting it, says "Well, it'll have to wait..."
 * He doesn't actually hear it out; there isn't time. But he does say that whatever it is would have been better than his plan of pretending to be mad.

"George: We've had some good times, some damnably good laughs, eh?
 * The Audio version of this scene, lacking the slow fade to the poppies, instead has a few lines from the episode. One each, actually.

Baldrick: I thought it was going to be such fun

Darling: But, eh, I don't want to go...

Blackadder: Good Luck, everyone."

"Baldrick: Why can't we just stop, sir? Why can't we just say "no more killing, let's all go home"? Why would it be stupid just to pack it in, sir? Why?"
 * Baldrick's rant innocently asking why they can't all just stop fighting and go home, and what would be wrong about that.

Blake's Seven
""I am sorry. I... have... Failed you.""
 * In one of the very shocking moments within Blakes Seven is the loss of  Up till this point the protagonists had spent a series almost emerging unscathed from such situations, often laughing off the after effects.
 * "Blake", one of the most tragic series finales ever seen on TV.
 * The death of . Poor  ...


 * The Avon/Anna backstory. Avon's failed bank fraud resulted in the capture of his lover, who was subsequently tortured to death. Later he learns that the Federation only came after them because they thought he was political, and while trying to get revenge on her killers he runs into Happy endings, eh?
 * The massacre of the resistance group and later the murder of and his girlfriend in the very first episode. It's not that their deaths are particularly sad: it's that they don't matter. No one will notice, no-one will be outraged and, after a little Orwellian editing, no-one will remember they ever existed at all.

Bones

 * "Aliens in a Spaceship". Finding out that was bad enough since they obviously didn't make it, but Zack's inability to understand why he should tell the twins' father made it 50 times worse. The concept is heartbreaking for everyone -- but for many real-life twins, it's downright TERRIFYING.
 * The end of "The Man in the Fallout Shelter", where Bones is able to tell the fiancée of a man murdered in 1959 what really happened to him, and that he'd never abandoned her.
 * Towards the end, with Bones and the present.
 * "Don't you wish someone had told you that your parents were dead--just so you can finally stop wondering?" "Yes."
 * "The Finger in the Nest," in which Brennan decides to adopt Ripley, the fighting dog at the center of the case. However, since the dog has killed a person, the judge in the case orders it put down - which she doesn't find out until after she's already purchased toys, bedding and a personalized collar tag. Brennan's expression at the news, and then her halting attempt to say something over Ripley's grave, is heart-wrenching.
 * The comparing scars scene in "Mayhem on a Cross" where Bones reveals that her foster parents locked her in a car for two days
 * "The Pain in the Heart". Everything involving.
 * The Christmas episode of 2009. The scene near the end where the radio broadcaster.


 * Yes! His words were so touching, you'd have to be inhuman to not tear up at that.
 * Bones says she finds the idea of a woman burying her son "heart breaking." Booth tells her “You are the one who always says that the heart can’t break because it’s a muscle. It has to be crushed,” she replies “Well, isn’t it heart crushing?”
 * The Boy in the Shroud. The entire episode, but especially the end when 'Bring on the Wonder' plays.
 * "The Superhero in the Alley." The ending, when Angela completes the final page of the murder victim's semi-autobiographical comic book? Yeah.
 * "The Graft in the Girl". Amy, the teen daughter of Booth's boss, has cancer, which it turns out was caused by a bone graft from a bone with cancer. After further investigation it turns out there are more people with cancer from the same donor (whose bones were illegally harvested). In the end the murder is solved and, but Amy is still going to die.
 * The 100th episode. The Parts in the Sum of the Whole. That final scene when
 * Their goodbye in the final episode of season 5 caused some tearing up as well, for sure.
 * "The Doctor in the Photo" in season six. The car scene when Brennan tells Booth about the epiphany she's had, and then breaks down and SOBS at his response. Their subsequent conversation and watching her slowly pull herself back together just made it worse.
 * "The Singing in the Silence" - a deaf mute runaway girl is found covered in blood. It turns out

Boston Legal
"Alan: My, uh, best friend has Alzheimer's, in the, uh, very early stages, it hasn't... He is a grand lover of life and will be for some time. I believe even when his mind starts to really go, he'll still fish, he'll laugh and love, and as it progresses he'll still want to live because there will be value for him, in a friendship, in a cigar. The truth is I don't think he will ever come to me and say, this is the day I want to die, but the day is coming and he won't know it. This is perhaps the, the most insidious thing about Alzheimer's. But, you see, he trusts me to know when that day has arrive, he trusts me to safe guard his dignity, his legacy and self respect. He trusts me to prevent his end from becoming a mindless piece of mush and I will. It will be an unbearably... * chokes up* painful thing for me, but I will do it, because I love him. I will end his suffering, because it is the only decent humane and loving thing a person can do."
 * Boston Legal, when Denny's old acquaintance lost his argument to be frozen cryogenically, and is going to Arizona to die of ALS, Denny goes to say goodbye to him, and Winston says that they never were close friends, and Denny suddenly grasps his hand and hugs him . . . When a show that usualy makes you laugh goes for the tears, get out the hankies.
 * "Last Call." That is all.
 * Shirley's father is dying of Alzheimer's, and she goes to court - with Alan as her lawyer - for the right to end his suffering. This speech ensues, after which the camera pans to Denny and the entire audience starts sobbing like children.

Breaking Bad

 * Jesse listening to Jane's outgoing message over and over and over again, and then there's the end of season 3.

Bulgaria's Abandoned Children (Documentary)
"DiDi: Todor, you are my friend, because you're very nice and you love me. If I had stayed in Pazardjik and not come here, I would have got married. I would be a good mother. I would look after my children very well. If I had children, even if they weren't my own, I would never send them to such a place. What have I done so wrong...that made Mummy send me to an institute. I didn't want to be sent here. I wanted to live in Pazardjik forever. (pause) I don't think I will become crazy like the others. I don't want to stay here any longer. I am missing my Mummy. I love you very much, Todor. You kiss me and hold my hand..."
 * Bulgaria's Abandoned Children which is not only heart breaking, but is a heartbreaking documentary. A young girl named DiDi, who can only cling to the belief that her mother is coming to pick her up from the Mogilno children's home (even though DiDi's mother abandoned her, and never wants to talk to her again). She makes the following speech to her friend, Todor:


 * One of the final scenes, where a young boy, almost too crippled to walk, gives the journalist covering the story a hug, and he has to be held up as he slowly walks over to her.

Burn Notice

 * For such an awesome and well-written show, Burn Notice is surprisingly Tearjerker-free. One exception, however, is the final scene of season 3's "Fearless Leader". Michael and Fiona have been trying to have a romantic dinner by themselves to try and salvage what's left of their relationship. They finally get around to it, and Fiona's all excited about some jobs she's lined up for them, but Michael reminds her that they've got no idea who's coming after him now that . He needs to get back into the spy game, no matter what, and he knows the cost is going to be their chance at a normal life. He's clear of the cops, he's relatively free of the people who burned him - this is the moment he's been waiting for. Except it's also the moment Fiona's been waiting for, and now she knows they don't want the same things for the future. And then Fiona, hardcore, badass, gun-toting, explosives-loving ex-IRA terrorist Fiona, chokes up and begins to cry.
 * In "A Dark Road", Michael is faced with the choice of.
 * Michael, after facing Simon asks his mother whether he could become a complete monster. She comforts him and says her boy could never go that far. That he was crying at the time...

Carnivale

 * The ending of Season 1's "Babylon" and the next episode, "Pick a Number", where
 * Even sadder was the look on Samson's face when, not quite believing his own eyes, he.
 * The part where Jonesy
 * Unexpectedly dashed later on.

Casanova

 * The ending of the David Tennant serial of Casanova. Despite, well, you know, being busy naming his trope, Casanova spends much of the serial trying to win Henriette, the one woman he truly loves, as told by his elderly self. The tears come in three stages:
 * Edith, the maid to whom older-Casanova has been telling his story, reading the letter sent by Henriette's daughter that says that.
 * Instead of giving him the letter, Edith sits with Casanova at his bedside while he lays dying and still believing that Henriette is  coming to see him. As he fades, Edith whispers to him "She never stopped looking...and she never stopped loving you...she's coming...she's coming to be with you..." and when he finally dies, "......she's here."
 * The final shot of a young Casanova and Henriette dancing through the streets of Venice,, while a cheerful music-box tune chimes away into the closing credits.

Castle

 * Given that it deals with murder, for Castle to deal with Tear Jerkers frequently would cause it to descend quickly into Narm, but it can be effective. Season 2, episode 5
 * After Chet proposes to Martha, she mulls it over for a day, then goes back to say no...only to find that he'd died overnight. Susan Sullivan does a great job bringing out all the emotion, and lets us feel real emotion for a character that was never on screen.
 * Near the end of the episode "Sucker Punch", when Beckett realises that that man who may have killed her mother (or at least knows why she was murdered) has been right under their noses the whole time. Then, she's forced to shoot him dead, knowing that now, she may never know why her mother died.

Charlie Daniels' Volunteer Jam

 * January 1979: The surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd performs for the first time since the plane crash that killed Ronnie Van Zant and Greg and Cassie Gaines (with the exception of bassist Leon Wilkeson, who was still too injured to play, but was backstage). With Daniels and his band sitting in, they played an instrumental version of their signature song, "Free Bird". The kicker: a lone spotlight, shining on an empty mic stand, where Van Zant would've been. Daniels himself later said there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Charmed

 * Charmed is notorious for being full of Narm, the 4th-season's "Hell Hath No Fury" as fury-Piper screams at the top of her lungs "How dare you leave me?!" to Prue's grave is sad. Considering how cheap death usually is for the Halliwell sisters, this kind of permanence in the show isn't taken lightly.
 * Even the cheap deaths can be devastating when they're played well. The fact that she's alive again by the next episode doesn't make Piper's "...Prue? I'm cold..." in All Hell Breaks Loose any less soul-crushing.
 * In "Morality Bites" when Phoebe realises
 * funeral at the start of season 4. The music adds to it as well, Holly Marie Combs as usual is brilliant in that scene and Darryl the Deadpan Snarker was tearing up.
 * In "A Paige From the Past" when Paige goes back in time to see her parents' deaths. That remains Rose Mc Gowan's strongest performance of the series.
 * The sixth season finale where  and Leo just loses it does it for me. Cried the first two viewings of this episode.
 * In "Payback's A Witch," during his birthday party, Wyatt brings his action figures to life to search for the Put on a Bus Leo. Wyatt doesn't know what happened, but he feels Leo broke a promise to always be there. That is sad enough, but it turns out that Wyatt blames himself for Leo going away.

The Closer
"* Made all the worse by the fact that his full-on sobbing breakdown happens in front of Lt. Provenza, the squad's crotchety old bastard, and when Sanchez starts choking out, "I'm sorry, sir," the look on Provenza's face is enough to break your heart. He awkwardly put his arms around Sanchez, and holds him, and I'm getting overwhelmed just writing this out."
 * An episode of The Closer has Detective Sanchez's little brother being shot and killed. As events turn out, the Sanchez's brother was killed because he was mistaken for being a gang member due to the hat he was wearing. At the end of the episode, Sanchez breaks down over his deceased brother's blood-stained hat saying that he had given his brother the hat a month earlier for his birthday. Sanchez then goes on to sob his heart out while shouting, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" and proclaiming that his baby brother's death was all his fault.


 * Provenza's got a lot of these. He's such a mean old hardass, and then he kills you. Another recent ep, he had to tell a little kid his whole family was dead, and he comes out of the interview room and tells Brenda the kid's been crying all night "and I'm not doing so well either."
 * Any interaction between Brenda and Gabriel in Ruby, after Gabriel beats the living tar out of a child murderer. Brenda's so angry at him and sympathetic at the same time, and Gabriel, her favorite, is so broken and desperate for her to tell him it's all gonna be okay.

The Colbert Report
"Colbert: ...Are you trying to make me cry?"
 * In one episode, Stephen interviewed zoologist and animal advocate Alan Rabinowitz, and asked him why he chose his career path. Rabinowitz then explained that, when he was younger, he had a severe stutter that prevented him from speaking. He was only able to speak clearly to his pet turtle and chameleon, and said that since he realized that animals couldn't speak for themselves either, he became determined to speak out for them.

"Colbert: How can we honor the other men and women at home who don't have (the Medal of Honor)?
 * Colbert's recent treatment of Salvatore Giunta; instead of making jokes or interrupting, Colbert sat down with this man and drew out the events that led to Guinta earning the Congressional Medal of Honor. Guinta wished to make the point that the armed forces are full of equally brave people who are not so honored, and Colbert obviously respected him and helped him to articulate this on air. When he stood up to personally applaud Guinta.

Guinta: There are so many unsung heroes in this war, and there are so many people who have given every single one of their tomorrows so we can have our today. And they'll never come back to a handshake. They'll never come back and hug their family. And it's for those that I wear this."


 * When he set out to save marriage from the gays. He was describing this elaborate scenario with that sneaky smile he gets, then all of a sudden when he gets to the actual saving marriage bit, he spends the next few minutes not crying about how he's just broken Jonathon's heart and how he's the only one who can comfort him and...
 * No specific dialogue, but the episode where he mentions his father, and interviews someone who knew him, had me almost in tears just from the genuine emotion and how Colbert was unable to stay in character throughout.
 * Stephen's tribute to Steve Jobs. After a segment about the show's free plugging of Apple products over the years, and how he often had them sent to him for free as a result (including his appearance at the 2010 Grammys, reading the nominees off the first iPad owned by someone outside the company), he shared an email he received the next day from Jobs himself that said "Sweet! Thanks! Steve". Stephen sent a reply, saying "Right back at ya. Thanks for everything."

Community

 * All of Community episode Contemporary American Poultry once you realize that everything Abed has done in the episode is because he's desperate to try and connect with people for once.

Cosmos

 * In the last episode, Carl Sagan does his desperate plea to cherish life and to stop nuclear proliferation, which threatens everyone on the planet. This, for those of you keeping score, was filmed in 1980. Sagan was ardently against nuclear weapons, and was even arrested for once breaking through a fence with protesters trying to stop a weapons test. Fast forward ten years later--1990, right after The Great Politics Mess-Up--when Sagan was filming updates for the series. He talks about how "the impossible has happened" and how old enemies (namely the US and Russia), are now working together. The statement, after decades of fighting against the Cold War and nuclear proliferation, against the constant threat of death and of mutually assured destruction, he simply says "perhaps we have, after all, chosen life".

Criminal Minds
"Reid: He's definitely suffering from PTSD.
 * Adam/ in Conflicted. Abused by his step-father until he developed DID. The second personality, Amanda, regards it as her job to protect him and takes over when she realises that, if he can be found competant, he'll go to jail for the crimes she committed. Reid's desperate 'Adam?' and Morgan replying 'He's gone' is heartbreaking.
 * In one of the few episodes of Criminal Minds where the unsub isn't evil, Frankie Muniz (of Malcolm in the Middle) plays a comic book artist who . The final scene has him sitting in a padded cell, calling over and over, just so he could listen to the away message.  He thought up the away message for her.
 * There's also the episode "Distress" in which a veteran with PTSD believes himself to be in a war zone. When the cops find him.
 * Considering that this is one of the episodes where Reid really starts to struggle with the aftermath of his own abduction in a pretty classic PTSD way, this blink-and-you'll-miss-it exchange between him and Hotch takes on a whole new light, too:

Hotch: He's trapped in his own head, reliving the worst moment of his life over and over again. He must be terrified.

Reid: Y-yeah."

"Reid: "Hi mom, this is Spencer. I just, uh, really want you to know that I love you and I need you to know that I spend every day of my life proud to be your son.""
 * What about the episode when Reid befriends a young man struggling with his own violent fantasies. At the end.
 * Two words: "Profiler, Profiled." Oh God. The pair of scenes where Morgan -- big, cool, invulnerable, tough-guy Morgan -- finally, with about half his team overhearing the second one, and then his visit to the grave of the unnamed first murder victim... Jesus.
 * The scene where Derek finally confronts his mentor, and after exposing him for what he is, telling him to go to hell while the man can only be dragged away begging for help from his victim. In a way it was sort of cathartic.
 * "Riding the Lightning." The scenes near the end where Gideon's forced to stand by and watch as ... it doesn't hurt either that Mandy Patinkin is a scary genius when it comes to looking utterly crushed by despair.
 * Any time Reid is in pain or distress, which
 * "Revelations" also adds on a side of Alas, Poor Villain. Poor Tobias could have been a really likable guy if it weren't for his whole homicidal Split Personality deal.
 * Morgan and Garcia have several excellent tearjerker moments. Most recently in "Mayhem", when we (and Garcia) think he's, and definitely in "Penelope" when
 * "P911". The breaking point is the end, when
 * "Mayhem" covers up some questionable plot elements with sheer emotional trauma, especially  And if that doesn't shove you over the edge, there's
 * Morgan.
 * In "Amplification", Reid,, calls Garcia to have her record a message from him so that his mother will be able to hear his voice in the event that he does not survive his ordeal. Both Garcia and Reid tear up, but are then forced to get back to work almost immediately.


 * If  in "Nameless, Faceless" didn't invoke tears, the scene in "Reckoner" where Hotch is   will. When.
 * The ending of "The Big Wheel" where the killer (who is incapable of controlling his severe OCD and wants to stop killing, but can't) takes his friend, a little blind boy, to a ferris wheel, the boy's greatest desire being to ride one. As he is describing the view the killer.
 * The ending of "Damaged" when Rossi says goodbye to the Galen siblings, having finally caught the man who murdered their parents twenty years earlier.
 * "100". All of it. Especially . If you weren't crying then, you sure were when  . The entire episode seems to delight in ripping your heart out through your chest.
 * And continuing the heartbreak, "Slave of Duty", especially
 * The 2nd half of "Uncanny Valley," where
 * "Don't leave me."
 * The end "Mosley Lane" when the parents of Steven,  As does the audience.
 * The end of "Normal" is gut-wrenching at least. The unsub . He completely breaks down when he remembers and is arrested screaming "I'm sorry, I'm sorry".
 * Exit Wound has not only one of the woobiest Unsubs ever  and has a home life that redefines 'terrible' but some really sad scenes as Garcia staying with a severely wounded victim of said killer as he dies, and then at the end explains that she did it because when she was shot she thought the last face she was ever going to see was her murderer's, and it was such a horrible feeling nobody deserves to feel. Also, when suspect Josh is told that while he had been locked up, the serial killer struck again, which means it's not him. Unfortunately, the victim  . Kudos to Eric Ladin (Josh).
 * "Elephant's Memory". It's bad enough that the killer, a brilliant but severely learning-disabled teenage boy intent on systematically wiping out the people who've made his life a living hell, is going to hit a nerve with anyone who ever had a bad day in high school; the real kicker, though, is the scenes of him and his girlfriend -- the only reason in the world he has to stay alive -- hiding out on a neighbor's property and talking about how one day they're going to have a house just like this...
 * Depending on where the turns of events in the second half of "Open Season" leave you, the episode can be downright agonizing to watch. In particular, a tip of the hat to Gideon, thank you for that, sir.
 * Coakley realising that
 * While not the most extreme of tearjerkers, the woman in the beginning of Ashes and Dust has her own depressingly optimistic moment. She has suffered burns so severe across her body that Hotch tells Prentiss that they should lie about the death of her family, because she will not survive to find out otherwise. Prentiss is barely able to keep up the lie without crying, and the woman passes her final few moments of life believing that she and her family will live Happily Ever After.
 * The soldier in "Outfoxed" coming home from the war to discover that his whole family has been murdered while he as away.

CSI
"Speed: What do I do?
 * CSI. "Goodbye and Good Luck". 'Nuff said.
 * Also, in "For Gedda".
 * Just mentioning the episodes "Dead Doll" and "Living Doll".
 * "Grave Danger" when they found Nick. Warrick pleading with him to drop the gun and Grissom using his father's nickname for him to keep him from going hysterical again.
 * "Feeling the Heat". Namely the ending, where
 * Miami had "Wannabe", an episode where a CSI wannabe fanboy witnesses a crime. After retrieving evidence the fanboy "borrowed" from his apartment, Speed starts making friends with him. Then he dies horribly. Evidence can't link the suspect to the fanboy's murder, but he does go down for the original. Then Speed finds out the kid was mentally disturbed, and actually killed himself.
 * Just mentioning the episodes "Dead Doll" and "Living Doll".
 * "Grave Danger" when they found Nick. Warrick pleading with him to drop the gun and Grissom using his father's nickname for him to keep him from going hysterical again.
 * "Feeling the Heat". Namely the ending, where
 * Miami had "Wannabe", an episode where a CSI wannabe fanboy witnesses a crime. After retrieving evidence the fanboy "borrowed" from his apartment, Speed starts making friends with him. Then he dies horribly. Evidence can't link the suspect to the fanboy's murder, but he does go down for the original. Then Speed finds out the kid was mentally disturbed, and actually killed himself.

Caine: You go home, get some rest, and you come back tomorrow."


 * The last 5 minutes of "One to Go" reduced her to a blubbering pile of mush.
 * The CSI:NY season 5 finale "Pay Up" when
 * The show hasn't been the same since, and more's the pity for that.
 * The fate of Cassie and Ashley James. Two sisters, both of them beautiful and outgoing, drawn into the modelling world. One of them ends up dead of eating disorders and self-neglect, the other crazy and homeless, wandering the streets of Vegas with her shopping cart...
 * "A Thousand Days on Earth" - a little girl is found in a box, abandoned, only to be recognized by her father, who is in prison. The whole episode is said, but seeing her father (played by the same actor who plays Det. Sanchez on The Closer), a hardened criminal, break down in tears of anguish and impotent rage when he sees her picture on the news is ... wow.