For a show featuring lots of humor, car chases and gratuitous explosions, there's a surprising amount of real emotion to be found. Much of it comes from Riggs's grief - which, due to the longer form of a TV show rather than a movie, is handled realistically, is delved into in more depth, and is almost never Played for Laughs.
- In the pilot episode, Riggs happily runs into a hospital carrying flowers, dolls, and balloons because he's excited to see his wife and new baby. In seconds, he's a sobbing heap on the floor after hearing that his wife died in a car accident before being able to give birth.
- "Spilt Milk": Chad Jackson may be an unstable ex-SEAL who isn't shy about hurting anyone in his way to get to his real target, but he did truly care for the men he served with.Jackson: THEY POISONED MY BROTHERS!
- In "Homebodies", the Chinese Mafia have kidnapped Owlsley the genius chemist, with the intent of forcing her to make drugs for them. Riggs manages to rescue her, but not before Owlsley denies both the gangs and the LAPD their prize by poisoning herself with a personal drug cocktail. She dies absolutely terrified on a park bench, with only Riggs to hold her as she goes.
- Hell, most of Owlsley's life qualifies: her father is killed by a drunk driver after dropping her off for her first day of college, her professor seduces her and tells her her loves her before stealing her data and passing it off as his own, and her boyfriend eventually turns out to be an unfaithful Jerk Ass only interested in the drugs she makes.Owlsley: Three times. That's called Inherant Repeatable Data. The world sucks!
- Hell, most of Owlsley's life qualifies: her father is killed by a drunk driver after dropping her off for her first day of college, her professor seduces her and tells her her loves her before stealing her data and passing it off as his own, and her boyfriend eventually turns out to be an unfaithful Jerk Ass only interested in the drugs she makes.
- In "The Seal Is Broken" Riggs seems to go on a serious downward spiral, getting blackout drunk and having a one-night stand with a total stranger. Later on we discover what's triggered it: It's been a year and a day since his wife's death, the prescribed grieving period under Catholic doctrine. He and Miranda's family were supposed to meet and honor her memory, but instead he went and got himself messed up rather than face them. Later, his father-in-law confronts him:Ronnie Delgado: If you want to be a drunk, Martin, go be a drunk. But I won't let you blame my daughter for it.
- "Commencement" has Riggs fall back into the depths of obsession and depression on learning Gideon targeted Miranda, which is especially jarring after he had begun to show signs of healing.
- Both "Let It Ride" and "Gold Rush" can induce this, as we see just how unbelievably shitty a childhood Riggs had. His mother becomes ill and dies, his father turns from an uptight but loving, salt-of-the-earth guy into a drunken, slap-happy jerkass, and he has to watch his best friend shoot his father in order to defend him.
- In "Better Living Through Chemistry", the strain of being Riggs' therapist finally starts to get to Dr. Cahill after she watches him in the field and realizes just how little regard he has for his own safety. She tells him that she's begun to suspect that she's actually making him worse.
- The season 3 premiere has Roger rocked hard by Riggs' death. Six months later, he still lounges around the house in sweats, convinced Riggs was killed as some sort of conspiracy. When he realizes it wasn't, Roger admits he just didn't want to accept the fact that his friend is gone, let alone that he died in such a random way.
