Tear Jerker / Hawaii Five-0

• In "Malama Ka Aina"
  Danno: Rachel, just hear me out. Before you sic your lawyers on me, I wanna remind you of something. I moved 5,000 miles so that I could see Grace twice a week. Twice a week, okay? That is 48 hours, 52 times a year for a grand total of 2,500 hours. When you factor in sleep, and school, I can really only count on 400 hours of real face time each year. And ya know? That's only going to shrink as she starts making friends... Then she goes off to college... So ultimately that does not leave me with a lot of time to spend with my daughter. Not as much as I would want. But I never complained. I never complained. Because every single one of those minutes reminds me of what I am doing, and why I am here. That little girl is my life. So I am asking you- I am begging you to please- please just be kind. Don't take her away from me, that's all.
• Hookman ends with Steve having a Dead Person Conversation with the two officers who were murdered during the episode, then his father appears to say he's proud of his son
• In "Ho’onani Makuakane", where an ex-442nd Infantry Regiment veteran tells the Five-0 team about his life in Hawaii before and after his internment at the camps. And how he lost everything, including his family due to martial law when WWII started.
• Danno throughout the fourth season when he learns that his mom is officially divorcing his father. This speaks to anyone who has experienced his or her parents getting a divorce.
• "I Ka Wa Mamua". Danny has a father-daughter dance with Grace in the evening, but while on duty, he and Steve are after a bomber. When they catch up to him, Danny mentions that he would like one moment with Grace not affected by his job, then says the last 10 years of his life has been "borrowed time". Flashback to the morning of 2001 when Danny, having just found out that he was going to be a father; and his then-partner on Newark PD, Grace Tillwell, raid a drug warehouse. (Just like Steve, she also preferred to drive Danny's car herself.) They were spotted by the drug pushers. The story cuts short when Steve and Danny chase the bomber on foot, and shoot him dead. However, just then, a motion sensor triggers on Danny and he would have to stay completely still. To distract him, Steve asks him to continue the story. Danny and Grace were tied up in chairs and tortured by the bad guys. After they beat Danny a lot but he still wouldn't tell them anything, one of the thugs hits Grace after she spits on him. Then they beat Danny a bit more, but he still won't reveal any information. Then, one of the bad guys shoots Grace with his Desert Eagle, then he picks up a meat cleaver. Danny tries to buy for time, telling him they're surrounded, as the bad guy is about to slice off his arm. However, just then, sirens are heard outside. As the other guy leaves to check it out, Danny manages to break free from the chair and shoots the bad guys dead. Cut to outside, where police cars (also firetrucks and ambulances) are speeding past the warehouse. Danny runs out and tries to flag down a car, but not a single one of the cars stops. Danny then looks to see where the cars are headed, seeing a huge cloud of smoke in the skyline.
  • Steve will always have his sympathies for his friends when he finds out about the rough things they've been through, but this is one of the few cases where he's put into Stunned Silence for several seconds as he pieces two and two together. He's absolutely horrified to finally understand why Grace was a personal name for Danny and what he went through at the absolute worst time possible, never mind how Danny is still so depressed about it yet pretends it doesn't matter.
• "Ina Paha". Good lord. Steve is tortured and drugged by Wo Fat (for information he doesn't have), said drugs making him hallucinate an Alternate Universe where his father is alive. After he kills Wo Fat and his team rescues him, the first thing he asks Danny is where his father is. After Danny gently reminds him his father died four years ago, Steve McGarrett, Made of Iron, Determinator, and all around Badass, breaks down and sobs.
• "Kahania" has several moments in the A-plot - After protecting a gunshot victim from mob enforcers, McGarrett tracks down the man who made the hit, who reveals he's the victim's father. When McGarrett asks how he could put a hit on his own son, he explains that it's because his son's not the victim he led McGarrett to believe he was, but was actually behind the abductions & murders of several children. Later, McGarrett asks what tipped him off, as they'll need something to prove it - he directs McGarrett to room in a basement. As the door opens, the camera shows one single shoe left from a child, before panning upwards to reveal the room is full of them. As McGarrett enters the room, he picks up a stack of Polaroids, each one featuring a scared child, before eventually breaking down as he silently weeps.
• Everything in "Moʻo ʻolelo Pu". An ex-meth cook going straight learns that his son is getting involved in the local meth trade and Kono doing a journey in the place of her mom because of her aneurism condition.
• The main perpetrator of "Ka Makuakane" was a grieving father who simply wanted justice for his daughter. His two-year old daughter was killed in a car accident because the car seat she was on was faulty and it wasn't able to save her from being killed on impact. He was later told by the designer of the car seat that the company knew the the seat had a flaw but still put it on market and forced the designer to be quiet about the design flaw by paying him off. He eventually decided to kidnap the company owners' daughter to get back at them but end up grabbing the wrong girl in the process. He eventually orders the mother of the child to do the ransom demand who he blames mostly for the accident and he wanted to kill her but couldn't bring himself to and eventually surrenders and reveal the location of the girl.
• Hoʻomaʻike. A guy is horrendously bullied in high school, culminating in being strung up like the victims in a recent slasher flick and being told he'll be killed if he ever tells. 20-some years later, the man's son murders the bullies the same way and then strings up his father and blames him for being weak. Not only is this poor man having to relive the worst moment of his life, it's at the hands of his own son.
• In "Ua Hala" and "La O Na Makuahine," Chin Ho's overall Happy Ending Override courtesy of a vengeful Frank Delano.
  • In later episode "O kela me keia Manawa" we meet Matt Haley, a man who lost his just-married wife when she was accidentally run over. Years later, he tracked down the man who did it and tried to have him killed. Chin realizes this guy could've been him if he allowed his hate for Delano to consume him:
  Matt Haley: Have you ever had someone you love stolen from you, Lieutenant?
  Chin: (Beat) Yes, I have.
  Matt Haley: Then you know. (Chin subtly nods) Hate corrodes the container it's carried in. I've carried that hate around with me for 20 years. I never remarried, never had the family I dreamt of with Jess. That night changed me.
• "Ke Ku 'Ana": Martin just wanted the world to know about the danger and proliferation of small arms that are getting more easily accessed these guys.
• Max's farewell party at the end of "Ua ho'i ka 'opua i Awalua". Masi Oka is officially done with the series.
• Grover returns to Chicago with his son to testify against former partner, Clay. Grover sees nothing wrong as Clay killed his wife, used Grover to cover it up and then sent mobsters to try and kill Grover as payback. Grover is happy to see some pals sitting at a cafe only for them to treat him coldly as they think Grover "broke the code" by turning in Clay for stealing money years ago. Grover fires back on what Clay did and hoped to get support from friends but one detective coldly says "you don't have any old friends in Chicago, Lou. Not anymore." While Grover tries to brush it off, it's quite clear that he's affected by the fact that his former friends think "The Blue Wall" is more important than putting a killer away and is no longer welcome in Chicago.
  • Grover returns to the bar off-hours, the owner sadly saying he should go as "you know how the boys feel." Grover takes a moment to look at a photo on the wall of himself, Clay and the two detectives who dismissed him earlier, all great friends laughing. He lets out a sad sigh as he leaves, knowing Chicago is no longer home for him.
  • When he returns to his hotel after testifying, he goes into the bathroom and turns on the faucet so that his son can neither see or hear him crying over what he's lost.
  • Grover does bond with his son over this and knows his son is still affected by almost being killed in the first place.
• Trying to get through to a man about to kill himself over being wrongfully accused of his wife's death, Grover relates how, after losing a woman to suicide years back in Chicago, he was so close to the edge that he actually considered suicide himself.
• Steve and Danny help their old former MI6 ally Langford who's keeping an eye on the feisty daughter of a duchess. When the girl goes missing, they look for her and Langford takes it very personally, going to extreme methods that amazes even Steve. They rescue the girl from a white slavery ring and reunite her with her parents. As they leave, Danny nonchalantly asks if the girl has any idea Langford is her real father. Langford admits he had an affair with the duchess years before that produced the teen but felt it was safer given his life for her to be raised by a good couple. But it's clear he does wish he could come clean as he loves her dearly.