Heartwarming / The Good Wife

• Pretty much anything to do with Will and Alicia in Season 1. His loyalty and affection for her is blatantly obvious.
  • And the voicemail. For a man who is rarely overemotional, his confession of love was incredibly romantic. Too bad Alicia never got to hear it.
• In "Closing Arguments":

  Will: What if we were to have good timing, just for an hour?

  Alicia: I think that would look like an exceptional moment.

• In "Alienation of Affection," Cary is called to testify about Lockhart and Gardner a very gray situation. He could easily distort the facts against his old firm, which he resents for letting him go . . . but instead he calmly and icily informs the opposing lawyer that his former coworkers were good people, there was no reason to believe that they did anything wrong, offers an excuse for the fudged paperwork, and no, he has no intention of coming back. Well, not at that point anyways.
  "You cannot construct that narrative. I will tell you that I have no reason to believe that thing's forged. I knew Mrs. Florrick and Mr. Lee to be outstandingly competent and ethical throughout my time at the firm."
• Kalinda not only finds Grace on her own, but tells Grace not to tell her mom. She refuses to milk this for forgiveness, no matter how much she wants to.
• Will is being threatened with disbarment. When Diane finds out, she's so upset she tears up. She then goes absolutely flying out there, tells a lie to an ethics board to protect him, and pleads with him to fight it, Will, fight it!
• Will and Diane have pulled of an elaborate gambit to maintain control of the firm and stay together, and they're celebrating. They actually start slow dancing. Yes, slow dancing. Platonically.
  Diane: We are the perfect couple.
  Will: Well, except for the sex.
  Diane [nodding]: Well, yes. Except for sex.
  • They platonically dance again a season later at the Lockhart-Gardner party after fending off a grand jury indictment charge, and it's still adorable.
• Alicia agreeing to do the "spouse interview" after she realized that Eli had actually taken her no as a "no" and not pulled strings to get her afternoon off. Their relationship really came a long way over season two.
  • Then in said interview, the journalist's invasive and rude question crosses the line, and Eli jumps to his feet with a startled "Hey!"
  • And every Eli scene in the following episode. He has to pry deeply into Alicia's personal life and he's so ashamed he looks positively queasy about it. Also, his seemingly sincere declaration that he's squashing an ugly rumor for Alicia's sake, not Peter's.
  • Another Eli moment! Peter insists on keeping Eli around, despite the bad PR. Eli wants to leave for Peter's sake and says Peter can't be sentimental. Peter asks "You think that's sentimental?" and hugs Eli.
• In early Season 1, Diane asks Kalinda to look into a lawyer at another firm, ostensibly as part of a merger. Kalinda quickly figures out she's investigating a potential boyfriend. The slimeball hits on Kalinda, and when Diane asks about the results,
  Kalinda: The firm could do better.
• In a small but effective moment in "Hitting the Fan" (Season 5, Episode 5) that is funny, touching, and kind of sad, Will is haranguing Alicia over the phone-and then shows a shining moment of basic human decency in an episode where he'd started out in a borderline Tranquil Fury. None of their interactions at that point have any trace of the anger or vitriol they express before or after.
  Alicia: Oh, go to hell.
  Will: No, you go!...Oh, your daughter called, she needs you to call her school to let her go on a field trip.
  Alicia: Oh. When was this?
  Will: About forty minutes ago.
  Alicia: Oh, ok thanks.
  Will: You're welcome.
  • When they hang up, there's a brief look on both of their faces, as if to say 'did that just happen?' and you can see them remembering the good old days-and being more hurt by it.
• During a case against Will, who has been throwing Alicia off through the proceedings, Alicia and Cary step out of the courtroom. She's furious at Will's tactics, and Cary just takes a few moments to help her cool down. It's a little thing, but it's the kind of action that reminds you of how far both they as characters and their relationship with each other have come since the series started, plus reinforcing that they truly are PARTNERS now, depending, relying, and assisting each other.
• In "Dramatics, Your Honor", Kalinda and Diane call Alicia to make sure that she knows about Will's death, despite all of the animosity that has existed between them throughout the season. Eli gets in on it too, as he drops his usual defensive persona when finding out about it and draws Alicia away in a quiet, sincere manner to tell alert her to the news.
• Crosses over with Tear Jerker, but David Lee finding a room, emptying it to be alone and actually looking about to cry after learning of Will's death. David Lee is so many flavors of jerkass, but for a moment, he actually let down the walls and was human.
  • He's later as pleased as Diane is about firing a client who wouldn't reaffirm his ties to Lockhart-Gardner unless he had a meeting with them that day, despite all the business they'd lose. Apparently, Even Amorality Has Standards.
• In season 5, Diane and Kurt finally get married. Awww...
• 6x01 "The Line" - Despite Alicia, Kalinda, and Diane all having reasons to resent and hold a grudge against Cary, they drop it all in order to help get him out of jail, having been picked up by the State's Attorney in an attempt to go after Lemond Bishop.
• The Alicia/Cary hug at the end of "Trust Issues." As Cary points out, it's the first time they'd done that.
• Most of the interactions between Finn and Alicia following their meeting under tragic circumstances. Whether you ship them or not, it's hard not to be charmed by how they look out for each other, or by their conversations over drinks that often read like "Hi, honey, how was your day?" Finn even quits his job after realizing that Castro is pursuing a vendetta against Alicia.
• Cary's return following the dismissal of his drug charges. For a former almost-villain, it's wonderful to see how he has become respected and loved.
• In "Iowa", Alicia and Eli have fallen out because Eli deleted a text from the late Will Gardner that was sent while he was alive, that could have ruined Alicia's reputation. After Alicia and her team tried to help Peter to run for President, only to have him lose in the Democratic caucus to Hillary Clinton, Eli remarks "She's a giant". Peter's campaign manager thinks he's talking about Clinton. He explains that he's really talking about Alicia.
• Alicia is nervous on election day, so what does Finn do? Give her a multiplayer video game, then find her online and team up with her to keep her company and chat to keep her mind off things all day.
• In 'Death of a Client', the second Cary finds out that Alicia and her family were in danger, he starts helping Kalinda figure it out, even though he absolutely should not be disclosing that information. It's just a really nice moment which foreshadows how close Cary and Alicia will become later.
• During the events of "Hitting the Fan," after Alicia has been fired by Will, Diane goes to Peter's office to see if this will have an effect on her nomination for the Supreme Court of Illinois. Eli assures her it won't, and appears to be entirely genuine about it, seeing it as nothing that would impact her. It underscores that even Diane and Eli have come to respect and even like one another. When Peter does ask him for other potential nominees for the position, he looks genuinely hurt for Diane.
• Any time it's shown that the NSA guys eavesdropping on Alicia (allegedly for security reasons, but mostly for their own entertainment) actually do care about her, in a way. When they return in a later season, they're genuinely thrilled to have an excuse to listen to her again, since they've missed her.
• In "Je Ne Sais What?", Elsbeth Tascioni has been arrested for harassment in order to keep her from handling a lawsuit. When she contacts Alicia for help, Diane and Will get involved too and drop whatever they had planned when they find out that it's about helping Elsbeth.
• In the penultimate episode, "Verdict," Louis Canning reveals another one of Peter's affairs to Alicia, thinking to shock her, but it turns into a nice moment between these frequent friendly antagonists. She mocks him with some fake ugly crying, and then...
  Louis Canning: God, I love you.
  Alicia: (smiling) I know.
• Diane's statement about the law being fair, not impersonal in "Loser Edit." It shows ultimately what and why she even is in the legal career, and that there is a difference between fair and impersonal.
  R.D.: Diane, can I ask you something? What do you think would happen if every case were adjudicated by someone with a family member or loved one who'd be affected by the decision?
  Diane: Ultimately, perhaps, every case is.
  R.D.: But isn't the law supposed to be impersonal? In the sense that it should be the same for everyone? Y'know, otherwise we're in China, right? Everything's determined by who you know.
  Diane: The law's supposed to be fair, not impersonal. In fact, I would argue that the law's always personal; it has to see the human side, too. Or else it's meaningless.