History TearJerker / Endeavour

* Bright's wife is seen battling cancer throughout series 6 & 7. He clearly loves her dearly and she makes a seemingly miraculous recovery ... only to suffer a fatal 'accident'. Bright's reaction as Thursday break the news to him is heartbreaking.

* Bright's wife is seen battling cancer throughout series 6 & 7, he clearly loves her dearly and she makes a miraculously recovery in the series 7 finale... and promptly has a fatal 'accident'. Bright's reaction as Thursday break the news is heartbreaking.

* "Icarus" has an absolute heartbreaker of an ending. For the majority of the episode, this are about as bleak as Endeavour plotlines usually are, with the gang violence that's been an undertone of the series and Fancy's excitement and budding relationship with Trewlove balancing each other out. However, right at the end of the episode, Fancy is killed in what appears to be a gang shootout. The kicker? He wasn't even supposed to be in the building. Nobody even gets the chance to start dealing with his death before the higher-ups break the Cowley team up.

* Joan Thursday leaving home at the end of "Coda", which echoes the [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] song "She's Leaving Home" from ''[[Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand Sgt. Pepper]]'' - right down to her parents' utterly distraught reactions when they wake up and discover that she's gone.

* Joan Thursday leaving home at the end of "Coda", which echoes the [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] song "She's Leaving Home" from ''[[Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand Sgt. Pepper'' - right down to her parents' utterly distraught reactions when they wake up and discover that she's gone.

* Joan Thursday leaving home at the end of "Coda", which echoes the [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] song "She's Leaving Home" from ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' - right down to her parents' distraught reactions when they wake up and discover that she's gone.

* Morse finding out his sergeant's exam never made it to the testing office, and so he automatically failed. After being so excited for it (including getting a new suit), he sounds almost like he's about to cry when he asks what happened.
* Throughout the episode 'Nocturne', we see that all pictures of the surviving daughter have the faces scratched out. "Bloody Catherine" was blamed for the murders and was locked away for the rest of her life in a sanitarium. At the end of the episode, after the truth has been revealed, we discover the truth: Catherine had Down Syndrome, and the pictures were damaged to hide the distinctive facial features. Her disability was probably why the killer left her alive, but made her an easy scapegoat. Especially heartbreaking is the fact that people with Down Syndrome are almost universally described as cheerful and friendly, and her expression in the picture matches.
* Joan Thursday leaving home at the end of "Coda", which echoes the [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] song "She's Leaving Home" from ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' - right down to her parents' distraught reactions.

* Throughout the episode 'Nocturn', we see that all pictures of the surviving daughter have the faces scratched out. "Bloody Catherine" was blamed for the murders and was locked away for the rest of her life in a sanitarium. At the end of the episode, after the truth has been revealed, we discover the truth: Catherine had Down Syndrome, and the pictures were damaged to hide the distinctive facial features. Her disability was probably why the killer left her alive, but made her an easy scapegoat. Especially heartbreaking is the fact that people with Down Syndrome are almost universally described as cheerful and friendly, and her expression in the picture matches.

* Throughout the episode 'Nocturn', we see that all pictures of the surviving daughter have the faces scratched out. "Bloody Catherine" was blamed for the murders and was locked away for the rest of her life in a sanitarium. At the end of the episode, after the truth has been revealed, we discover the truth: Catherine had Down Syndrome, and the pictures were damaged to hide the distinctive facial features. Her disability was probably why the killer left her alive, but made her an easy scapegoat. Especially heartbreaking is the fact that people with Down Syndrome are almost universally described as cheerful and friendly, and her expression in the picture matches.

* TheReveal in the pilot. Especially painful for Morse, since it's implied that [[spoiler: Rosalind Stromming's singing]] was what saved him from ''suicide''.
* The ending to "Neverland." [[spoiler: Thursday is shot, Morse is under arrest for his shooting, and the only people who could prove his innocence are either dead, in hospital, or drinking themselves into a stupor.]]
** A little before the end of the episode, when [[spoiler: Jakes tells Morse he can't go to Blenheim Vale as he relives his physical and sexual abuse there as a child. It's heavily hinted at earlier, but seeing the effects on Jakes and the other boys who were abused is pretty heartbreaking.]]

* Throughout the episode 'Nocturn', we see that all pictures of the surviving daughter have the faces scratched out. ""Bloody Catherine" was blamed for the murders and was locked away for the rest of her life in a sanitarium. At the end of the episode, after the truth has been revealed, we discover the truth: [[spoiler: Catherine had Down Syndrome, and the pictures were damaged to hide the distinctive facial features. Her disability was probably why the killer left her alive, but made her an easy scapegoat. Especially heartbreaking is the fact that people with Down Syndrome are almost universally described as cheerful and friendly, and her expression in the picture matches.]]

* Morse finding out his sergeant's exam never made it to the testing office, and so he automatically failed. After being so excited for it (including getting a new suit), he sounds almost like he's about to cry when he asks what happened.

** A little before the end of the episode, when [[spoiler: Jakes tells Morse he can't go to Blenheim Vale as he relives his physical and sexual abuse there as a child. It's heavily hinted at earlier, but seeing the effects on Jakes and the other boys who were abused is pretty heartbreaking.]]

* The ending to "Neverland." [[spoiler: Thursday is shot, Morse is under arrest for his shooting, and the only people who could prove his innocence are either dead, in hospital, or drinking themselves into a stupor.]]