History TearJerker / LawAndOrderCriminalIntent

* In "Homo Homini Lupis", after a man's family is kidnapped as collateral for a debt, one of his daughters is raped [[EvenEvilHasStandards (against the loan shark's orders)]]. Afterwards, the girl refuses to speak to anyone about it, until Goren finally nudges her into admitting she hated being a victim and feeling so helpless. She then bursts into tears, and Goren holds her as she cries, gently stroking her hair.

* In "Folie a Deux", a baby girl is abducted from a hotel room while her parents are out. After many dead ends, it's discovered that the little girl was never abducted, but rather died in an accident some months earlier after being left in an overheated car by her mother after the air conditioning inside failed. Upon her remains ultimately being found on some property of her dying great Aunt, the last shot of the episode is of Goren looking sadly at the body bag holding the little girl as it's being placed in a morgue drawer.
* In "Silencer", the killer's motive seems to be preventing a surgeon from helping a certain woman getting a hearing implant that would no longer make her deaf. It turns out her boyfriend did it, shooting the man's hands to prevent his work, and then stomping on his throat and unfortunately killing him shortly after when he tried to scream. Except because the killer himself was deaf, fearing his girlfriend would leave him if she could hear, he didn't realize that the stomp had broke the man's voice box - [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone which meant that he had no reason to finish the job but couldn't realize he rendered his victim mute.]]

** The murder of Captain Ross. Making it all the more upsetting is Goren and Eames' [[FreakOut reactions]] to the murder, especially how it happened only minutes after they had last spoken to him. Rodgers is also [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness very visibly emotional]] at the crime scene. At one point during his funeral, she's standing by on the fringes of the service, unable to bring herself to attend it.

* One of the most disturbing is from "Identity Crisis" where a man killed his brother to protect his new life and so he wouldn't have to go to prison for their mother's death. Turns out, the guy wasn't trying to set him up; he reached out because he loved and missed him and wanted to see him again before he died of his terminal cancer. Just before he was taken into custody, Goren explained all this to him and how the man never spent one second of his time served hating his big brother, which made the man [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone cry and immediately regret his actions.]]

* The saga of reopening the murder of Eames' deceased husband, Joe Dutton, who was killed in the line of duty years earlier. Seeing her in a vulnerable state is not something to be taken lightly (particularly how she is considered less emotionally involved than her partner.)
* "Senseless" had three honor students and overall decent, good kids get shot in the park they used to play at growing up by a sociopathic maniac and two other kids who the maniac forces to do his dirty work by threatening them. While the two boys are killed execution-style, the girl ends up shot in the stomach and after surviving surgery, [[HopeSpot it looks like she's going to make it...]] only for her to suffer from complications and end up dying too. Even worse is that two of the victims were ''twins'', so their parents lost both their children at once.

* "Please Note We Are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger" has a few people gunned down in front of their young children. Aside from the senseless nature of the crime, especially upon learning the motive and who did it: a woman who wants to get her own son into a prestigious ''daycare'' at the pressure of her mother-in-law and killed the victims simply to get bumped up a few spots on the waiting list. One of the victims' children had also lost their father before she was born and was left an orphan after her mother's murder. It's not the only time in the series that Goren plays a hostage situation to his advantage and then disarms and slams the murderer for their arrest, but in this case he has a livid amount of utter ''contempt'' after accomplishing it. As he puts it himself about the victims to make it clear how pointless the whole affair was, "they had kids, too."
* "Playing Dead" has an young addict, Stacey Hayes-Fitzgerald, survive gunshot wounds that killed her boyfriend, a fellow addict. Aside from the trauma that she endured from that, now homeless, she has to move back in with her estranged mother, stepfather and step-grandmother to recover. It eventually comes out that not only did the stepfather molest her throughout her lifetime, but he even raped and impregnated her with her kid sister. After a current-day suicide attempt, she still remains reluctant to go back home, [[UndyingLoyalty instead lingering by her boyfriend's grave.]] Even Goren felt that, while her boyfriend was an addict that others looked down upon, he was the only adult in her life that genuinely loved and protected her.

** The murder of Captain Ross. Making it all the more upsetting is Goren and Eames' [[FreakOut reactions]] to the murder, especially how it happened only minutes after they had last spoken to him and at his funeral, at one point Rodgers is standing by on the fringes of the service, unable to bring herself to attend it.

* "Loyalty" has the murder of Captain Ross. Making it all the more upsetting is Goren and Eames' [[FreakOut reactions]] to the murder, especially how it happened only minutes after they had last spoken to him and at his funeral, at one point Rodgers is standing by on the fringes of the service, unable to bring herself to attend it.

* In "Homo Homini Lupis", after a man's family is kidnapped as collateral for a debt, one of his daughters is raped (against the loan shark's orders). Afterwards, the girl refuses to speak to anyone about it, until Goren finally nudges her into admitting she hated being a victim and feeling so helpless. She then bursts into tears, and Goren holds her as she cries, gently stroking her hair.

* In "Homo Homini Lupis", after a man's family is kidnapped as collateral for a debt, one of his daughters is raped. Afterwards, the girl refuses to speak to anyone about it, until Goren finally nudges her into admitting she hated being a victim and feeling so helpless. She then bursts into tears, and Goren holds her as she cries, gently stroking her hair.

* In "Folie a Deux", a baby girl is abducted from a hotel room while her parents are out. After many dead ends, it's discovered that the little girl was never abducted, but rather died in an accident some months earlier after being left in an overheated car by her mother after the air conditioning inside failed. Upon her remains ultimately being found on some property of her dying great Aunt, the last shot of the episode of the episode is of Goren looking sadly at the body bag holding the little girl as it's being placed in a morgue drawer.

* "Please Note We Are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger"
* " It has a few people gunned down in front of their young children. Aside from the senseless nature of the crime, especially upon learning the motive and who did it a woman who wants to get her own son into a prestigious ''daycare'' at the pressure of her mother-in-law and killed the victims simply to get bumped up a few spots on the waiting list, one of the children of the victims had also lost their father before she was born and was left an orphan after her mother's murder.
** It's not the only time in the series that Goren plays a hostage situation to his advantage and then disarms and slams the murderer for their arrest, but in this case he has a livid amount of utter ''contempt'' after accomplishing it. As he puts it himself about the victims to make it clear how pointless the whole affair was, "they had kids, too."

* In "Folie a Deux", a baby girl is abducted from a hotel room while her parents are out. After many dead ends, it's discovered that the little girl [[spoiler: was never abducted, but rather died in an accident some months earlier after being left in an overheated car by her mother after the air conditioning inside failed. Upon her remains ultimately being found on some property of her dying great Aunt, the last shot of the episode of the episode is of Goren looking sadly at the body bag holding the little girl as it's being placed in a morgue drawer.]]
** This is also tear-jerking on a Meta level: accomplished actress Lynn Redgrave portrays the little girl's great Aunt who in the episode was dying of various health issues and even admitting that the girl is the only reason she is still alive. Redgrave would pass away from breast cancer in May 2010, less than a year after the episode aired.
* In "Silencer", the killer's motive seems to be preventing a surgeon from helping a certain woman getting a hearing implant that would no longer make her deaf. [[spoiler:It turns out her boyfriend did it, shooting the man's hands to prevent his work, and then stomping on his throat and unfortunately killing him shortly after when he tried to scream. Except because the killer himself was deaf, fearing his girlfriend would leave him if she could hear, he didn't realize that the stomp had broke the man's voice box - [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone which meant that he had no reason to finish the job but couldn't realize he rendered his victim mute.]]]]
* "Frame" displays Goren's Woobiedom at its full extent. Aside from still grieving the death of his mother from months earlier, he learns of a deceased junkie who fell out of a window. Being able to use his position to identify the body, [[spoiler: he learns that the dead man is his older brother, Frank. Seeing him trying his best to hold back his tears is heartwrenching. It gets even worse when he finds out his mentor killed him ''and'' Nicole Wallace, who helped kill Frank, too, in a twisted attempt to "improve" his life.]]
* "Loyalty" has the [[spoiler: murder of Captain Ross. Making it all the more upsetting is Goren and Eames' [[FreakOut reactions]] to the murder, especially how it happened only minutes after they had last spoken to him and at his funeral, at one point Rodgers is standing by on the fringes of the service, unable to bring herself to attend it.]]
* YMMV, but many of the tearful breakdowns of the suspects may qualify. One of the most disturbing is from "Identity Crisis" where a man killed his brother to protect his new life and so he wouldn't have to go to prison for their mother's death. Turns out, the guy wasn't trying to set him up; he reached out because he loved and missed him and wanted to see him again before he died of his terminal cancer. Just before he was taken into custody, Goren explained all this to him and how the man never spent one second of his time served hating his big brother, which made the man [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone cry and immediately regret his actions.]]

* The saga of reopening the murder of Eames' [[spoiler:deceased husband]], Joe Dutton, who was killed in the line of duty years earlier. Seeing her in a vulnerable state is not something to be taken lightly (particularly how she is considered less emotionally involved than her partner.)
* "Senseless" had three honor students and overall decent, good kids get shot in the park they used to play at growing up by a sociopathic maniac and two other kids who the maniac forces to do his dirty work by threatening them. While the two boys are killed execution-style, the girl ends up shot in the stomach and after surviving surgery, [[HopeSpot it looks like she's going to make it...]][[spoiler:only for her to suffer from complications and end up dying too.]] Even worse is that two of the victims were ''twins'', so their parents lost both their children at once.
** There's a specific moment when Logan is talking to the girl and she tells them she doesn't know what the perpetrators said because they were speaking Spanish, but then suggests they ask her brother because he speaks Spanish too. For all they've been working on the case, it hasn't even occurred to them that they'll have to tell this poor girl her brother is dead. ([[spoiler:It doesn't actually happen because of the girl's death, but the moment still qualifies.]])

* "Please Note We Are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger" has a few people gunned down in front of their young children. Aside from the senseless nature of the crime, especially upon learning the motive and who did it [[spoiler: a woman who wants to get her own son into a prestigious ''daycare'' at the pressure of her mother-in-law and killed the victims simply to get bumped up a few spots on the waiting list]], one of the children of the victims had also lost their father before she was born and was left an orphan after her mother's murder.
** It's not the only time in the series that Goren [[spoiler:plays a hostage situation to his advantage and then disarms and slams the murderer for their arrest]], but in this case he has a livid amount of utter ''contempt'' after accomplishing it. As he puts it himself about the victims to make it clear how pointless the whole affair was, [[spoiler:"they had kids, too."]]
* "Playing Dead" has an young addict, Stacey Hayes-Fitzgerald, survive gunshot wounds that killed her boyfriend, a fellow addict. Aside from the trauma that she endured from that, now homeless, she has to move back in with her estranged mother, stepfather and step-grandmother to recover. It eventually comes out that not only did the stepfather molest her throughout her lifetime, but [[spoiler: he even raped and impregnated her with her kid sister]]. After a current-day suicide attempt, she still remains reluctant to go back home, [[UndyingLoyalty instead lingering by her boyfriend's grave.]] Even Goren felt that, while her boyfriend was an addict that others looked down upon, he was the only adult in her life that genuinely loved and protected her.

* "Playing Dead" has an young addict, Stacey Hayes-Fitzgerald, survive gunshot wounds that killed her boyfriend, a fellow addict. Aside from the trauma that she endured from that, now homeless, she has to move back in with her estranged mother, stepfather and step-grandmother to recover. It eventually comes out that not only did the stepfather molest her throughout her lifetime, but [[spoiler: he even raped and impregnated her with her kid sister]]. After a current-day suicide attempt, she still remains reluctant to go back home, [[UndyingLoyalty instead lingering by her boyfriend's grave.]] Even Goren felt that, while he was an addict that others looked down upon, he was the only adult in her life that genuinely loved and protected her.

* YMMV, but many of the tearful breakdowns of the suspects may qualify. One of the most disturbing is from "Identity Crisis" where a man killed his brother, who was just released from prison where he served 20 years, to protect his new life and so he wouldn't have to go to prison for their mother's death. Turns out, the guy wasn't trying to set him up; he reached out because he loved and missed him and wanted to see him again before he died of his terminal cancer. Just before he was taken into custody, Goren explained all this to him and how the man never spent one second of his time served hating his big brother, which made the man [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone cry and immediately regret his actions.]]

** It's not the only time in the series that Goren [[spoiler:plays a hostage situation to his advantage and then disarms and slams the murderer for their arrest]], but in this case he has a livid, indignant rage after accomplishing it. As he puts it himself about the victims to make it clear how pointless the whole affair was, [[spoiler:"they had kids, too."]]

* "Please Note We Are No Longer Accepting Letters of Recommendation from Henry Kissinger" has a few people gunned down in front of their children young. Aside from the senseless nature of the crime, especially upon learning the motive and who did it [[spoiler: a woman who wants to get her own son into a prestigious ''daycare'' at the pressure of her mother-in-law and killed the victims simply to get bumped up a few spots on the waiting list]], one of the children of the victims had also lost their father before she was born and was left an orphan after her mother's murder.

* "Untethered" displays how fragile the relationship between Goren and his brother, Frank. After manipulating the detective into saving his previously unknown son, Donny, from a corrupt prison, he goes undercover without authorization, ends up in an isolation room, is nearly starved to death, sent to a disciplinary hearing which ends with him being placed on indefinite suspension, angrily confronts Frank, only to learn that Donny, after escaping by pretending to have a burst appendix, called Frank and told him to get Bobby help, only Frank didn't act on the message, and completely blows off Goren's (entirely justified) anger about this. At the end of the episode, Goren finds himself in Times Square, having been given a false tip that Donny may be there, all alone with his career in ruins and unsure of his next move.

* "Untethered" displays how fragile the relationship between Goren and his brother, Frank. After manipulating the detective into saving his previously unknown son, Donny, from a corrupt prison, he goes undercover without authorization, ends up in an isolation room, is nearly starved to death, sent to a disciplinary hearing which ends with him being placed on indefinite suspension, angrily confronts Frank, who cared more about getting high and teasing him about a relationship with Eames than either his son's welfare or his brother's damaged career which then made him disown him and after learning that [[AllForNothing Donny was able to manipulate the system by pretending to have a burst appendix and disappearing on his own]], he finds himself in Times Square, having been given a false tip that he may be there, all alone with his career in ruins and unsure of his next move.
** It's even worse than that. Donny didn't just fake illness to escape for his own sake (if that had been the only motive, he presumably would have done it sooner), he escaped because he saw Goren being taken to the isolation room and he was trying to save him. After escaping, Donny called Frank and told him to get Bobby help, only Frank didn't act on the message. Goren has never been close with Frank, but the moment when Goren realizes this really drives home how little Frank cares about him.

** It's even worse than that. Donny didn't just fake illness to escape for his own sake, he escaped because he saw Goren being taken to the isolation room and he was trying to save him. After escaping, Donny called Frank and told him to get Bobby help, only Frank didn't act on the message. Goren has never been close with Frank, but the moment when Goren realizes this really drives home how little Frank cares about him.

* "Senseless" had three honor students and overall decent, good kids get shot in the park they used to play at growing up by a sociopathic maniac and his two spineless minions. While the two boys are killed execution-style, the girl ends up shot in the stomach and after surviving surgery, [[HopeSpot it looks like things will be fine for her...]][[spoiler: only for her to suffer from complications and to die on the operation table.]] Even worse is that two of the victims were twins that were their parents' only children and the mother told Logan while the girl was initially in surgery that when she was born in that same hospital, doctors gave her the same prognosis years ago that she had a one in three change of living. Plus, the outcome of their fates and the interaction with the suspects began to lead the senior detective into a DespairEventHorizon that [[spoiler: eventually drove him to quit.]]

* The saga of reopening the murder of Eames' [[spoiler:;deceased husband]], Joe Dutton, who was killed in the line of duty years earlier. Seeing her in a vulnerable state is not something to be taken lightly (particularly how she is considered less emotionally involved than her partner.)

* The saga of Eames' deceased husband, Joe Dutton, being killed in the line of duty years earlier. Seeing her in a vulnerable state is not something to be taken lightly (particularly how she is considered less emotionally involved than her partner.)