History TearJerker / CriminalMinds

** Tony Todd playing the RedHerring. On the surface it's NightmareFuel, because of his behavior around Reid and the fact that it's Creator/TonyTodd. However, his behaviour is really because he's in anguish that his ex-wife and children have been slaughtered. A crime he himself was accused of committing.

Watch out for unmarked '''spoilers''' per SpoilerPolicy. YouHaveBeenWarned.

** Tony Todd playing the RedHerring. On the surface it's NightmareFuel, because of his behavior around Reid and the fact that it's Tony Todd. However, his behaviour is really because he's in anguish that his ex-wife and children have been slaughtered. A crime he himself was accused of committing.

** All of Emily's flashbacks from her time undercover. [[spoiler: She seems genuinely heartbroken that she can't have a life as Doyle's wife and Declan's mother; especially once viewers realize that it's effectively the second time she's given up her chance at having a child.]]

--> Reid: Why didn't she tell us? We're her family. We could have helped her!
--> Rossi: Doyle has been KILLING families...

* "Hanley Waters". Sad in the parts revolving around the team elaborating grief for [[spoiler: the events of ''Lauren'']]. Sadder when the [=UnSub=] has [[spoiler: her husband express his grief for their son's death]]. Extremely sad when the [=UnSub=] finally breaks down when Hotch talks to her about [[spoiler: her child]].

* Morgan's eyes during [[spoiler: Prentiss' return.]]
* Reid acting horribly cold towards J.J. in "Proof", because he feels like she betrayed his trust. And then we find out how he reacted to [[spoiler: Prentiss' death.]]

** And later, [[spoiler: Prentiss:]]

* The last scene in "From Childhood's Hour." [[spoiler: Rossi's first wife reveals that she has ALS, and she asks him to be the one to pull the plug when the time comes. Especially jarring for Rossi since the case they just finished working dealt with an [=UnSub=] who thought he was helping children by killing their mothers.]]
** Even more poignant and heartbreaking when you remember that [[spoiler: Rossi is Catholic. Suicide, even assisted suicide, is a mortal sin. He's now faced with a hell of a SadisticChoice; does he watch the woman he loves die and do nothing to help her, or does he commit a mortal sin and help kill her?]]

* The end of "Epilogue," where [[spoiler: Rossi's ex-wife Caroline takes the assisted-suicide decision out of Dave's hands by revealing [[YouAreTooLate she did it ten minutes ago]]. She dies in his arms, which is what she wanted.]]
** The heart-wrenching continues when Caroline asks Dave "will he be there?" Dave tells her yes, but it's not until the final scene [[spoiler: of Dave at her grave]] that it's revealed that the "he" she's speaking of is [[spoiler: their son who died in infancy. Their graves are next to each other]].
*** There's a callback in 8x02 "The Pact" where he remarks that [[spoiler: the loss of a child]] either brings a couple together or breaks them apart. He would know.

* In "Hope," the episode begins with Garcia talking about her parents' death. [[spoiler: They were killed by a drunk driver while out looking for her. She had broken curfew again.]] It is interesting to know that the happy character has such guilt weighing on them.

* "The Bittersweet Science": Hotch is in the room while the [=UnSub=] [[spoiler: tells his cancer-stricken son that it is okay to "let go" of the pain and die]]. Hotch's eyes water, and then he sheds a single tear. It's especially tearjerking when you realize that [[spoiler: Hotch shows emotion the most around his son Jack, and watching another man lose his son might be hitting Hotch closer to home than his single tear lets on.]]

* In "A Thin Line" the [=UnSub=] murders families with children and then kills African American men and undocumented immigrants to try and let them take the fall for the murders to help a bigoted racist win election for Mayor. The murder of the families and the innocent fall guys would be bad enough on it's own but in the opening scene in which the second family is killed Mackenzie, the young daughter, is instructed to call 911 by her father while he goes to check out the situation. As she is on the phone with the operator we hear gunshots and her family screaming until finally, Mackenzie herself is dragged out from under the bed and shot dead. To make matters ''even'' worse, we later find out that her younger brother was only six months old and he died as his mother tried to shield him with her own body.
* The father from "A Family Affair" is far from an angel as he too was involved in disposing of the women's bodies but the fact that the only reason he's doing this is to try and appease his abusive wife and try to work through the guilt of causing his son to become wheelchair-bound due to a car accident only to ultimately [[spoiler: commit suicide and try to take the blame for the murders]] is pretty sad.

* The ending of "Heathridge Manor" is a truly heartbreaking HopeSpot. After the [=UnSub=] is defeated, we see his sister Lara in their home. She is putting away all of her mothers old costumes, she's wearing white pastels, the sun is shining outside, and the mood is fairly calm and relaxed. Then the doorbell rings... [[spoiler: and she has a delusional where a Satanic figure says, "I've been waiting for you for so long, Lara. You have to come with me now."]] Also doubles as major NightmareFuel.

* "The Company" is a rare tearjerker on the positive side. [[spoiler:Morgan reuniting his presumed dead cousin, Cindi, with her family after eight years. The scene at the end and Morgan tearing up is the clincher.]]
** The entire plot with [[spoiler:Cindi. She was abducted, conditioned, and raped by Malcolm Ford for years. If she ever did anything to displease him, he would physically harm her and force her into submission. When her family finds out what kind of life she’s been living, they are heartbroken and angry towards Ford. The team has to make sure Morgan is kept in line due to how personal the case is to him.]]

* During the aftermath of "The Wheels on the Bus" as [[spoiler: Trent's]] body is wheeled out of the warehouse, Addyson has a look of pure shock and sadness on her face since she was [[spoiler: she was forced to kill him during the game.]]
* The [=UnSub=][[spoiler:'s father]] in "All That Remains" is a walking TearJerker. The man grew up with an alcoholic father and became an alcoholic himself. He started to get help when he got married and had two daughters, then found out his wife was having an affair and fell OffTheWagon. Shortly after that, his wife disappeared during a blackout [[spoiler:where his other personality emerged]]. Then, one year later, he wakes up one morning to find his daughters missing. The police are fairly certain it's him, and they soon find his youngest daughter's body. As the police prepare to arrest him, his oldest daughter is found. When they talk, she blames him for the death of her sister and accuses him of killing her mom as well. Then at the end, we learn that [[spoiler:both his wife and younger daughter were killed by his older daughter, who planned the entire thing and framed him.]]
* Some sympathy can be thrown at Donnie Bidwell in "Carbon Copy." Before he become [[spoiler: The [=UnSub=]]] of that episode, he was suspected and thrown in jail as he was suspected be the [=UnSub=] by the law enforcement in the area and the BAU for killing four nurses in 1998. While he was eventually exonerated and set free with the real [=UnSub=] being caught, his reputation was basically ruined and was made a pariah by the media. Not only that incident where a man who still thought he was a killer attacked him which left him with a serious head injury that left with with chronic seizures and eventually led to a nervous breakdown. Combined with being bankrupt from paying all the legal fees and lawyer, losing his business in the process, his wife divorcing him , taking their children with her, remarrying and becoming pregnant with that man's child and can't seemed to hold a job, it is no wonder he snapped and became easily manipulated by the [[spoiler: Replicator.]] While it doesn't totally excuse his actions, and he did have a charge on his record, there is some truth in his words when he shouts ""Hard? Hard? You ruined my life!" at Alex during interrogation.

* "Mosley Lane": [[spoiler: "He was alive yesterday?!"]]
** Just the way [[spoiler: Stephan's father says it as it dawns on him that his son had been alive all those years, only to die just before the children were rescued.]]

** Garcia, [[spoiler: when one of the victims dies in her arms, and later, when she and Morgan discuss if her being able to handle blood in person means she's losing her humanity]].
*** Garcia explaining that the reason [[spoiler:she ran to the dying victim despite the danger it put her in was because when she was bleeding out from being shot, she despaired that the last person she would ever see would be the person who killed her and she couldn't let someone else die believing the same thing]].
** This episode has one of the ''[[{{Woobie}} woobiest]]'' [=UnSubs=] ever [[spoiler: who kills people who leave town because of SEVERE abandonment issues]] and has a home life that redefines 'terrible'.
** Also, when suspect Josh is told that while he had been locked up, the serial killer struck again, which means it's not him. Unfortunately, the victim [[spoiler: was his mother, his lone surviving relative]]. Kudos to Creator/EricLadin (Josh).

* In "Roadkill," Coakley realizing that [[spoiler:he was responsible for his wife's death, resulting in him driving off the cliff. As he goes over the edge, he thinks he's holding his wife's hand again.]]
* In "Risky Business," when the teenaged [=UnSub=] [[spoiler: who turns out to be the real [=UnSub=]'s most tortured victim and fully intends on killing himself to escape it all]], Christopher gives Garcia his earring.
** J.J. pushing the case and having a ridiculous amount of insight as to why she believes the victims didn't commit suicide, [[spoiler: revealing at the end that her sister killed herself when J.J. was eleven after giving her the necklace she'd worn throughout the entire episode]].
* Poor Jodie Hatchett in "Solitary Man." [[spoiler: Not only was her father the criminal of the week, he ends up killing himself in the end. Not only did she lose her mother sometime back, but she lost her father also. It's even sadder that even if he had lived, he would had been thrown in jail. Even if he didn't do those horrifying acts, they will never really be a true family as his job prevented him from properly taking care of her and Child Services agreed that wasn't a good idea, deemed him as a unfit parent and had her be put in foster care until she could be adopted. The only reason why her father did these things was so he can find the perfect woman to be a mother to Jodie so he didn't had to be separated from her. Not only that, the family that was going to adopt changed their minds and only thanks to an aunt taking her in that she didn't have to stay in the foster care system and have a chance at normal life.]]

* The last ten minutes of "JJ." Seriously, show? Did you really have to [[spoiler: have J.J. have a heart-to-heart with Garcia, with both of them crying, and then go to a montage that was basically "Why J.J. Is Awesome"?]] *cries*

* The [=UnSub=]'s backstory in "Devil's Night". [[spoiler:Everyone he knew and loved, including his girlfriend, abandoned him after a fire left half of his body horribly disfigured. At the end, he discovers that he and his girlfriend had conceived a child before the accident, and seeing his son is what gets him to surrender.]]

-->'''Hotch''': You move, you die.
-->'''[=UnSub=]''': I'm ''already'' dead!
* "Into the Woods" One Word: Sad. Sad made even worse by [[spoiler: the [=UnSub=] getting away.]]

* "Coda": for some reason, [[spoiler: Ali Sparks' breakdown over her husband's body]] was especially heart-wrenching. [[spoiler: Dead bodies]] are pretty common on this show, but this one is especially painful.
** Not to mention seeing [[spoiler: Sammy]] at the end of this episode.

* "Lauren." Just... "Lauren." To explain, [[spoiler: Emily goes rogue to keep the team safe, hunting down a terrorist she believed she'd put away years ago. She's captured by Doyle, branded, tortured, and almost killed, but Morgan gets to her in time. The team (with the exceptions of Hotch and J.J.) are told that she died on the operating table, in order to put her into Witness Protection. The ending where we see the team at her funeral physically hurts to watch.]]

* "The Replicator." Pretty much all of it. [[spoiler: Strauss]] is killed by the Replicator, which pretty much breaks [[spoiler: Rossi]], who had been seeing her, for the entire episode. [[spoiler: At one point he, in tears, pulls a gun on Morgan when evidence implicates him and hallucinates Strauss being in his office because he ends up poisoned with a lower dosage of the same poison that killed her]].
** [[spoiler: Strauss]]'s death scene is just so heart-wrenching. [[spoiler: She's crying about how she doesn't want to [[DyingAlone die alone]] and how she loves her kids and how she really does love them all equally, despite what Hotch claimed. Seeing Hotch and Strauss, usually composed, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness just frantic is absolutely gut-wrenching.]] And then she begs Hotch to [[StayWithMeUntilIDie stay with her]], so she won't [[DyingAlone die alone]]]].

* The killer in "Broken." He's killed six people, and at the end of the episode he [[spoiler: tries to murder his father for the abuse he suffered after coming out, and then getting sent to [[CureYourGays a conversion camp]]. Later on he tries to make his best friend rape his father, to "turn him gay" in retribution for the abuse he suffered at the camp.]] In the struggle with his best friend for the handgun, the killer accidentally shoots him. He immediately regrets it, shoots his father almost as an afterthought, then starts clutching his friend's body and crying as he puts the gun to his own head. He's so horribly conflicted and desperate when the team arrives to talk him down that very few wouldn't sympathize with him. [[NightmareFuel Especially with what he suffered at the conversion camp.]]

* In "Fatal", the unsub mentions that he went on a camping trip with his friend when they were six years old. It started to snow and they parted to search for more help. He made it out alive, but his friend did not and froze to death. Consequently, people said it was his fault, because they should not have split up, that is how they think his friend died. Granted, the unsub realizes that perhaps he made a mistake, but it left him scarred [[spoiler: the entire ordeal left him with post traumatic stress older having him take antidepressants for most his life]]. Imagine being that young, stressed enough already that your friend died, and to make matters worse, people are blaming you for it. Thankfully, the discussion was quite brief and we do not see flashbacks, but still. The unsub did mention after that occurred, his teacher visited him in the hospital and gave him a mythological book, which gave him a perspective on life and death.
* Reid's reply to a comment that he's good with kids is that [[spoiler: he wanted to have some with Maeve. While he is assured there's still a chance for him to be a dad, his expression shows that he doesn't think so.]]
* At the end of "Demons", Alex explains to Reid why she called him "Ethan" after he had been shot. [[spoiler: Ethan was her son, who died at the age of nine because of a rare neurological disease.]] Alex is so traumatized by what has happened to Reid that she decides to [[spoiler: quit the BAU.]] Lily Kershaw's song "Maybe", played during the final scenes, only makes it sadder. Finally, Reid caps it off with, "[[PutOnABus Goodbye, Alex]]."
* The backstory of the unsub from "Strange Fruit". [[spoiler:When Charles was younger, he was captured by a small group of teenage Klansmen and was hung from a tree where they proceeded to castrate him because they believed that he raped a female classmate of his. A tragic highlight is Charles crying for help while he was being surrounded and dragged away to be punished for a crime he didn't commit.]]
* The backstory of the Unsub from "What Happens in Mecklinberg". [[spoiler: She is [[BigSisterInstinct the elder sister]] of a college girl who was gang-raped at a fraternity party and then forced to drink to excess by her rapists so her claims would be dismissed if she tried to report it, only to be left in an irreversible coma from alcohol poisoning after her rapists left her for dead. The Unsub's grief and rage only intensified when she found out the doctor who examined her sister at the hospital changed the medical report to claim the sex was consensual, because her sister's rapists were college football players and their coach was an old friend of the doctor's who convinced him to change it so they wouldn't get kicked off the team, while the death of another student at the same party resulted in her sister's rape being completely overlooked by the police. After going bankrupt paying her sister's medical bills, the Unsub finally snaps after having to turning off her sister's life support, abducting two of her sister's rapists, the coach who got them off the hook and the girl who took her sister to the party with the intention of [[RapeAndRevenge torturing and killing them all for their parts in her sister's death]]. The BAU even [[SympathyForTheDevil sympathise with the Unsub to a degree]] in that she clearly [[ItsAllMyFault blames herself]] and wants justice for what happened, and Rossi promising that the men who raped her sister and those who helped them evade justice for their crimes will be prosecuted is what finally convinces her to surrender]].
* While they stop managed to stop the [=UnSub=] in "Rabid" and managed to administer the cure to one of the victims before the rabies virus progressed too far, one of victims who managed to escape, was far too long and she eventually slipped into a coma and die, leaving behind a husband and two daughters.\

* Garcia's B-Plot in "Burn". For the entire episode our happy-go-lucky, GenkiGirl team member is in a constant state of depression [[spoiler: as she tries to deal with her PTSD after the events of Angels/Demons by going to see the male nurse who tried to kill Reid in death row. Each time she goes to death row to see the AssholeVictim she becomes more distraught. It all comes to a head after she witnesses the execution when Garcia find Derek waiting for her at her house and she runs into his arms sobbing uncontrollably.]]

** Also in "Anonymous", David Rossi's old friend Harrison Scott dying - not to mention that an ''episode'' later David's other old friend [[spoiler: Jason Gideon]] dies as well. Poor Rossi.
* "Nelson's Sparrow". Just. "Nelson's Sparrow". [[spoiler: The episode deals with the BAU having to solve the murder of their former colleague, friend, and TeamDad, Jason Gideon. Needless to say, tears abound!]]
* While investigating murders in a prison in "Lockdown", the team notices an inmate named Devon White is missing, who is linked in some way to the murders. To find out more they questioned the inmate named Sam who worked with him in the library. They bonded quickly, Devon even stole a book for him after Sam had his taken away by guards, but sadly everything went downhill when [[spoiler: two corrupt security guards arrive, making an underground fight club, and covering up Devon's death when one of the fights kills him. Sam misses Devon, reading the book he gave him and the note left for him, until the guards confiscate his books. After they find the murders and Devon's skull, Rossi gives Sam's books back. Sam is on the verge of tears, rereading Devon's note in the inside cover. Coupled with sad music and great acting, this is amazingly bittersweet.]]
** Possibly even sadder? [[spoiler: The inmate that was forced to kill Devon in the underground fight club was his lover. He doesn't live to see justice done, either, as the guards kill him during the events of the episode.]]
* The [=UnSub=] in "Fate" is a particularly tragic one. Ten months before the episode began, she suffered severe head trauma in a car accident. Because the frontal lobe of her brain was damaged, the [=UnSub=] lost her ability to control her anger, to the point that even a person doing something seemingly inconsequential to anger her would result in the [=UnSub=] flying into a homicidal rage. The [=UnSub=] is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone clearly horrified]] by what she's doing, but literally cannot stop herself. [[spoiler: When her husband realises she's the one committing the murders and gently tries to convince her to turn herself in, she panics, flies into another rage and kills him, only to instantly regret it, only for her daughter to walk in and then become the next potential target of her mother's rage]]. The BAU are quite sympathetic to the [=UnSub=], knowing her actions are beyond her control, and express hope a jury will go easy on her.

* William Taylor's story from "Awake". He was driving home with his five-year-old daughter after working a double shift. To prevent an accident due to his sleep deprivation, he pulled into a rest stop to shut his eyes for a little bit. When he woke up, his daughter was missing. Unable to cope with the guilt or to move on, he targeted random men, believing that one of them is the man who took his daughter. Things aren't much better when he found [[spoiler:his daughter's dead body during a search.]] There's also the song associated with him and his daughter: "You Are My Sunshine". Not only that his daughter will not get real justice anytime soon as it is revealed that the man he suspected took his daughter is still real and still active and the BAU had a hard time believing that the Unsub is real as they brush it off as the man being sleep-derived.
* The old couple in "Future Perfect." The elderly lady was suffering a neurological disease that was terminal with her being given months to live and she and her husband were desperate to find a cure. The Unsub promised them a "treatment" and they eventually agreed to it. At the end though the "treatment" came at the expense of others and it will most likely wouldn't had work anyway. The old lady eventually died the next day with her husband deeply mourning her death as the team looks on.

* As awful as the [=UnSub=] was in "Inner Beauty", it's hard not to sympathize with him after learning [[spoiler: he was in love with a disfigured girl with anxiety and working to make her feel beautiful and confident. After helping build her up he brings her to a public place to help her with her anxiety, she feels as if everyone is staring and laughing at her. When he leaves to get their favorite wine for not two minutes, she has a panic attack, runs away and turns up dead two days later. Just imagine the sheer amount of guilt he could carry, for someone he was trying to help and love unconditionally.]]

* In "Sick Day", [[spoiler: the team was only able to save two of three victims that the [=UnSub=] kidnapped for his endgame. The mother's reaction of losing her daughter and JJ having to deal with the grief and trauma of being unable to save all three them is heartbreaking.]]

* In "In the Dark", the team dealt with [[TheWoobie an absolute Woobie]] of an [=UnSub=]. [[spoiler: As a child, he was abused by his father and always had to be taken along to brothels and drug dens, where he was exposed to a lifestyle of sex and drugs. At one brothel, he was molested by a prostitute, his father didn't care, and worse, it didn't seem like anyone was prosecuted for it. As an adult, he started killing {{Asshole Victim}}s who reminded him of said father, but because he sleepwalks, he unknowingly continues killing at night to seek more of the release he gets from murdering. The worst part is that these victims are completely innocent people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. When the [=UnSub=] realizes this, he does all he can to stay awake, only to fail. By the time he's arrested by the BAU, he breaks down horribly, especially after learning how many people he actually killed. Considering how pretty much everything in his life went wrong, you'd feel nothing but sorrow for this guy.]]
* The [=UnSub=] in "Hell's Kitchen" is incredibly pitiable, [[spoiler: due to the condition that basically makes him allergic to sunlight. After Walker shoots him to save his latest victim, his walks him through a Sri Lankan meditation to calm him as he dies. The [=UnSub=] telling Walker about being a prisoner to his disease and how he's grateful not to be dying alone and forgotten is heartbreaking.]]
* Three words: [[spoiler: Reid in prison. Almost the entire experience is miserable to witness, with him being subjected to beatings, corrupt guards, being forced to move drugs, and watching a fellow inmate he'd befriended ''get his throat slit''. Reid begins keeping a journal after that, and writes about how he's losing himself in prison, and doesn't know if he'll be able to make it out alive.]]

* "Wheels Up" has the death of [[spoiler: Stephen Walker]]. His wife, [[spoiler: Monica]] identifies him in the morgue and breaks down in Luke's arms. The funeral for [[spoiler: Walker]] is simply the icing on this cake of sadness.
* In "Killer App", the [=UnSub=], a former civilian drone operator, learned [[spoiler: that he bombed a elementary school instead of a presumed insurgent camp, which killed 372 kids all under the age of 12. He was consumed by guilt and hatred towards the company that contracted him, who not only covered up the incident to save their own butts but made it seemed more like a game (especially since he was a gamer in his spare time) and the casualties as just numbers (each operator is sent letters about how many people were killed during each mission) without consideration of the lives that were taken and how most of the civilian operators don't have access to the same accessible and adequate mental healthcare compared to their military counterparts to help deal with the stress of killing so many people.]]

* The backstory of the [=UnSub=] from "Dust and Bones". [[spoiler: Desi Gutierrez was [[TeenagePregnancy born to a teenage single mother]], Lara Gutierrez, who was [[AbusiveParents neglectful and emotionally abusive]] to her daughter, frequently deriding her as ugly, as well as punishing Desi by locking her in a snake-infested shed, where Desi developed an affinity with snakes when the curious reptiles would never attack her, seeing them as the only creatures that ever showed her affection. Her mother was finally investigated by child protective services and turned her life around, having another daughter that she raised properly, but by that point, the damage was done, and [[IJustWantToBeLoved Desi grew to hate her mother and younger sister for having the affectionate relationship she never got]], in spite of a [[MyGreatestFailure regretful]] Lara's attempts to make amends for her past neglect. Desi got heavily into tattooing and body-modification in an effort to distance herself from her mother, but after a local magazine published an article chronicling Lara's successful career in real estate and family life without [[{{Unperson}} a mention of Desi]], Desi's hatred and self-loathing exploded, and she started abducting and mutilating people, then leaving them outside properties her mother had sold, before abducting her younger sister Tina to force her mother to face Desi, with the intention to kill Tina and permanently scar Lara as an eternal reminder of the monster she created]].
-->'''[[spoiler: Lara Gutierrez]]''': I know I didn't do things right-
-->'''[[spoiler: Desi Gutierrez]]''': You said you wished I was never born! That I was an ugly little girl, inside and out! Well, here I am, Mom. You were right. I'm a monster!
* Penelope's PTSD in "Lucky Strikes" due to the team revisiting the Floyd Feylinn Ferell case, which they had worked on the day she was [[spoiler: shot.]]

* In "Full-Tilt Boogie" the police chiefs wife being buried alive and later detoxing in the hospital as her daughter watches in horror. In addition to that it has the [[spoiler: Un Sub's]] drug-addict sister who only wanted to be with her daughter and is coerced into giving herself and overdose.
* "Ex Parte" sees Matt's wife Christy being held hostage and Matt nearly loosing his mind because he is unable to help her.

* In "The Tall Man" we finally get to meet Rosalyn Jareau through flashbacks. JJ reveals to Rossi that the day Rosalyn [[spoiler: committed suicide]] JJ was unable to act due to being in schock and now, during the present-day investigation which is taking place in her home town and is indirectly connected to Rosalyn, she is having that exact same feeling and is afraid that she will mess up the investigation by being unable to provide important information.
* Oh "Luke", just...the entire thing. Poor [[spoiler: Phil]]. Also the ending when Lisa is about to leave Luke and he finally opens up to her and lets all of his emotions out.
* "Twenty Seven" has [[spoiler: two]] [=UnSub's=] who attack innocent people with machetes in the middle of the street, the reason behind that being [[spoiler: that they wanted to see how fast emergency services would react as a year prior, their younger brother was shot in front of a night club and the ambulance took twenty seven minutes to arrive at the scene. By that point their brother had already died. The sad tear jerker here being not only the younger brothers senseless death but also the fact that his brothers were with him the entire time, desperately waiting for the ambulance to arrive.]]

* In "Night Lights" Nikki's fiancé J.P. being killed and her reaction to it. The only reason they were even in that situation in the first place was because the [=UnSub's=] intented victims had rented out the house to them.
* In "Hamelin" the [=UnSub=] kidnapped kids with the intent to keep them away from their parents because [[spoiler: his son had comitted suicide after his dad was accused of being a pedophile.]]

* In "A Place at the Table" Hotch's father-in-law is diagnosed with Alzheimer. Aside from still blaming Hotch for his daughter's death, he says that his illness is a blessing in disguise, so he can seemingly find peace while forgetting everyone else.

* While investigating murders in a prison in "Lockdown", the team notices an inmate named Devon White is missing, who is linked in some way to the murders. To find out more they questioned the inmate named Sam who worked with him in the library. They bonded quickly, Devon even stole a book for him after Sam had his taken away by guards, but sadly everything went downhill when [[spoiler: two corrupt security guards arrive, making an underground fight club, causing Devon to be killed and covered up by said guards. Sam misses Devon, reading the book he gave him and the note left for him. After they find the murders and Devon's skull, Rossi gives Sam's books back. Sam is on the verge of tears. Coupled with sad music and great acting, this is amazingly bittersweet.]]

* The end of "Normal" is gut-wrenching at least. The [=UnSub=] had a psychotic break after his youngest daughter died after being hit by a car, and was convinced everyone blamed him. The climax of the episode has him forcing his family to get into his car to run away when his motive is revealed, and he snaps and crashes his car at high speed after his wife screams at him for killing their little girl. He's caught when he gets out of the wreck and tells the police his family are still inside. Then he realizes they were dead all along, because he'd already killed them. He [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone completely breaks down]] when he remembers and is arrested screaming "I'm sorry, I'm sorry".

* Nathan Harris sitting in church, thinking the only way to help people in the future is to kill himself in the episode "Sex, Birth, Death". At the end of the episode he picks up a prostitute and and, instead of playing out his fantasy, he attempts suicide to prevent himself from hurting others. He fails.

* In "A Thin Line" the UnSub murders families with children and then kills African American men and undocumented immigrants to try and let them take the fall for the murders to help a bigoted racist win election for Mayor. The murder of the families and the innocent fall guys would be bad enough on it's own but in the opening scene in which the second family is killed Mackenzie, the young daughter, is instructed to call 911 by her father while he goes to check out the situation. As she is on the phone with the operator we hear gunshots and her family screaming until finally, Mackenzie herself is dragged out from under the bed and shot dead. To make matters ''even'' worse, we later find out that her younger brother was only six months old and he died as his mother tried to shield him with her own body.

** The [=UnSub=]'s backstory is heartbreaking. She was raped by two men, and LaMontagne Sr. was the only person who believed her, which is why she contacted him. The trauma led to her dropping out of medical school and killing men, writing that they were asking to be stabbed, ripped, killed, just like they claimed she was asking for it.

* The ending of "Heathridge Manor" is a truly heartbreaking HopeSpot. After the [=UnSub=] is defeated, we see his sister Lara in their home. She is putting away all of her mothers old costumes, she's wearing white pastels, the sun is shining outside, and the mood is fairly calm and relaxed. Then the doorbell rings... [[spoiler: "I've been waiting for you for so long, Lara. You have to come with me now."]] Also doubles as major NightmareFuel.

* The backstory of the Unsub from "What Happens in Mecklinberg". [[spoiler: She's [[BigSisterInstinct the elder sister]] of a college girl who was gang-raped at a fraternity party and then forced to drink alcohol so she wouldn't remember anything if she tried to report it...only she was left with alcohol poisoning that sent her into an irreversible coma. The Unsub's grief and rage only intensified when she found out the doctor who examined her sister at the hospital changed the medical report to claim the sex was consensual, because her sister's rapists were college football players and their coach was an old friend of the doctor's who convinced him to change it so they wouldn't get kicked off the team, while the death of another student at the same party resulted in her sister's rape being completely overlooked by the police. After going bankrupt paying her sister's medical bills, the Unsub finally snaps after having to turning off her sister's life support, abducting two of her sister's rapists, the coach who got them off the hook and the girl who took her sister to the party with the intention of [[RapeAndRevenge torturing and killing them all for their parts in her sister's death]]. The BAU even sympathise with the Unsub to a degree in that she clearly [[ItsAllMyFault blames herself]] and wants justice for what happened, and Rossi promising that the men who raped her sister will face justice for their crimes is what finally convinces her to surrender]].

** Also in "Anonymus", David Rossi's old friend Harrison Scott dying - not to mention that an ''episode'' later David's other old friend [[spoiler: Jason Gideon]] dies as well. Poor Rossi.

* Re-watching "A Shade of Gray" once you know TheReveal. Those scenes at the beginning become absolute wet-works. The family holding a press conference, asking for the return of their son that they ''know'' will never come back. The way the mother leaves the interview with Prentiss, saying only "I have to lie down." The husband and wife embracing each other the whole time, trying to keep up their act while hiding the grief in their hearts. One more thing that could possibly be terrifying instead is watching the reactions of their other son throughout the episode. The way he abates his gaze at the press conference, or leaves the room to go play during the interview... they seem poignant at first, but once you know he's the [=UnSub=], the sadness becomes something else. This kid has absolutely no remorse for his actions, and his innocent kid brother died meaninglessly. Seeing the callous actions of the surviving brother just makes the victim's death more horrible to stomach.

* In "Dorado Falls", the [=UnSub=], Luke Dolan, was a highly decorated Navy [=SEAL=] who had gotten out of the service but had walked into his former [=CO's=] tech business and executed everyone in the building. He then kidnaps a high-ranking General and behaves like he's suffering from a paranoid delusion that there is a massive government conspiracy that only he can unravel. He later visits his parents, but kills them after he believes that they are impostors. Reid deduces that he has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgras_delusion Capgras Syndrome]] after suffering head trauma in a recent car accident, which makes him believe that everyone he sees is an impostor or fake. He is talked down by his wife and daughter via intercom [[hottip:*:The delusion works visually; hearing the "real" person's voice does not trigger the believe in an impostor]] and he surrenders peacefully. He is convinced to keep his eyes closed and is ready to be blindfolded to head to the hospital when his daughter enters the room and speaks to him. He opens his eyes and sees his wife and daughter and instantly believes them to be impostors. He is then dragged from the room kicking and screaming. It is heavily implied that now that the [=UnSub=] has connected his family into his delusion that it will be almost impossible for him to ever see them as "real" again.

* The father from "A Family Affair" is far from an angel as he too was involved in disposing of the women's bodies but the fact that the only reason he's doing this is to try and appease his abusive wife and try to work through the guilt of causing his son to become wheelchair-bound due to a car accident only to ultimately [[spoiler: committ suicide and try to take the blame for the murders]] is pretty sad.

* The ending of "Heathridge Manor" is a truly heartbreaking HopeSpot. After the [=UnSub=] is defeated, we see his sister Lara in their home. She is putting away all of her mothers old costumes, she's wearing white pastels, the sun is shining outside, and the mood is fairly calm and relaxed. Then the doorbell rings... [[spoiler: "I've been waiting for you for so long, Lara. You have to come with me now."]] Also doubles as major nightmare material.

* The ending of Zugzwang. Poor Spencer Reid. Talk about a YankTheDogsChain.

* Some sympathy can be thrown at Donnie Bidwell in "Carbon Copy." Before he become [[spoiler: The [=UnSub=]]] of that episode, he was suspected and thrown in jail as he was suspected be the [=UnSub=] by the law enforcement in the area and the BAU for killing four nurses in 1998. While he was eventually exonerated and set free with the real [=UnSub=] being caught, his reputation was basically ruined and was made a pariah by the media. Not only that incident where a man who still thought he was a killer attacked him which left him with a serious head injury that left with with chronic seizures and eventually led to a nervous breakdown. Combined with being bankrupt from paying all the legal fees and lawyer, losing his business in the process, his wife divorcing him , taking their children with her, remarrying and becoming pregnant with that man's child and can't seemed to hold a job, it is no wonder he snapped and became easily manipulated by the [[spoiler: Replicator.]] While it doesn't totally excused his actions and he did have a charge on his record, there is some truth in his words when he shouts ""Hard? Hard? You ruined my life" at Alex during interrogation.
* "The Replicator." Pretty much all of it. [[spoiler: Strauss]] is killed by the Replicator, which pretty much breaks [[spoiler: Rossi]], who had been seeing her, for the entire episode. [[spoiler: At one point he, in tears, pulls a gun on Morgan when evidence implicates him, then hallucinates Strauss being in his office because he ends up poisoned with a lower dosage of the same poison that killed her]].
** [[spoiler: Strauss]]'s death scene is just so heart-wrenching. [[spoiler: She's crying about how she doesn't want to [[DyingAlone die alone]] and how she loves her kids and how she really does love them all equally, despite what Hotch claimed. Seeing Hotch and Strauss, usually composed, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness just frantic is absolutely gutwrenching.]] And then she begs Hotch to [[StayWithMeUntilIDie stay with her]], so she won't [[DyingAlone die alone]]]].

* The backstory of the Unsub from "What Happens in Mecklinberg". [[spoiler: She's [[BigSisterInstinct the elder sister]] of a college girl who was gang-raped at a fraternity party and then forced to drink alcohol so she wouldn't remember anything if she tried to report it...only she was left with alcohol poisoning that sent her into an irreversible coma. The Unsub's grief and rage only intensified when she found out the doctor who examined her sister at the hospital changed the medical report to claim the sex was consensual, because her sister's rapists were college football players and their coach was an old friend of the doctor's who convinced him to change it so they wouldn't get kicked off the team, while the death of another student at the same party resulted in her sister's rape being completely overlooked by the police. After going bankrupt paying her sister's medical bills, the Unsub finally snaps after having to turning off her sister's life support, abducting two of her sister's rapists, the coach who got them off the hook and the girl who took her sister to the party with the intention of punishing them all for their parts in her sister's death. The BAU even sympathise with the Unsub to a degree in that she clearly [[ItsAllMyFault blames herself]] and wants justice for what happened, and Rossi promising that the men who raped her sister will face justice for their crimes is what finally convinces her to surrender]].

** The arrest of the [=UnSub=] is difficult to watch. "Daddy!... Daddy!" It's hard not to feel bad for Joe the clown with the state he's in, especially since he has the mental capacity of a young child and the only reason he went to the Galen house was because he wanted to play with the eldest daughter. Unfortunately he went into the parents' room by mistake and the father, believing Joe was there to hurt them, attacked in self defense. Joe, being a rather a large man with no idea how strong he really is, retaliated out of fear and ended up killing the parents. Then there's the fact that Joe's father (the circus owner) tried to protect him by cleaning up the crime scene, taking Joe away (likely because he knew Joe would probably never survive prison), and making Joe pick a toy for each of the siblings from the circus booth in an attempt to have Joe make amends to the Galens. Poor Joe and his father.

** Also, when suspect Josh is told that while he had been locked up, the serial killer struck again, which means it's not him. Unfortunately, the victim [[spoiler: was his mother, his lone surviving relative]]. Kudos to [[Literature/GenerationKill Eric]] [[Series/TheKilling Ladin]] (Josh).

* The backstory of the [=UnSub=] from "Dust and Bones". [[spoiler: Desi Gutierrez was [[TeenagePregnancy the daughter of a teenage mother]], Lara Gutierrez, who was [[AbusiveParents neglectful and emotionally abusive]] to her daughter, frequently deriding her as ugly, as well as punishing Desi by locking her in a snake-infested shed, where Desi developed an affinity with snakes, seeing them as the only creatures that ever showed her affection. Her mother was finally investigated by child protective services and turned her life around, having another daughter that she raised properly, but by that point, the damage was done, and [[IJustWantToBeLoved Desi grew to hate her mother and younger sister for having the affectionate relationship she never got]], in spite of a [[MyGreatestFailure regretful]] Lara's attempts to make amends for her past neglect. Desi got heavily into tattooing and body-modification in an effort to distance herself from her mother, but after a local magazine published an article chronicling Lara's successful career in real estate without [[{{Unperson}} a mention of Desi]], her anger exploded, and she started abducting and mutilating people, then leaving them outside properties her mother had sold, before finally abducting her younger sister Tina to force her mother to come to her, intending to kill Tina and permanently scar Lara as an eternal reminder of the monster she created]].

* The backstory of the Unsub from "What Happens in Mecklinberg". [[spoiler: She's [[BigSisterInstinct the elder sister]] of a college girl who was gang-raped at a fraternity party and then forced to drink alcohol so she wouldn't remember anything if she tried to report it...only she was left with alcohol poisoning that sent her into an irreversible coma. The Unsub's grief and rage only intensified when she found out the doctor who examined her sister at the hospital changed the medical report to claim the sex was consensual, because her sister's rapists were on the college football team and their coach was an old friend of the doctor's who convinced him to change it so they wouldn't get kicked off the team. To make matters worse, the death of another student at the same party resulted in her sister's rape being completely overlooked. After going bankrupt paying her sister's medical bills, the Unsub finally snaps after having to turning off her sister's life support, abducting two of her sister's rapists, the coach who got them off the hook and the girl who took her sister to the party with the intention of punishing them all for their parts in her sister's death. The BAU even sympathise with the Unsub to a degree in that she clearly [[ItsAllMyFault blames herself]] and wants justice for what happened, and Rossi promising that the men who raped her sister will face justice for their crimes is what finally convinces her to surrender]].

* The backstory of the Unsub from "What Happens in Mecklinberg". [[spoiler: She's [[BigSisterInstinct the elder sister]] of a college girl who was gang-raped at a fraternity party and then forced to drink alcohol so she wouldn't remember anything if she tried to report it...only the amount of alcohol she drank sent her into an irreversible coma. The Unsub's grief and rage only intensified when she found out the doctor who examined her sister at the hospital changed the medical report to claim the sex was consensual, because her sister's rapists were on the college football team and their coach was an old friend of the doctor's who convinced him to change it so they wouldn't get kicked off the team. To make matters worse, the death of another student at the same party resulted in her sister's rape being completely overlooked. After going bankrupt paying her sister's medical bills, the Unsub finally snaps after having to turning off her sister's life support, abducting two of her sister's rapists, the coach who got them off the hook and the girl who took her sister to the party with the intention of punishing them all for their parts in her sister's death. The BAU even sympathise with her to a degree in that she wants justice for what happened, and Rossi promising that the men who raped her sister will face justice for their crimes is what finally convinces her to surrender]].

* The backstory of the Unsub from "What Happens in Mecklinberg". [[spoiler: She's [[BigSisterInstinct the elder sister]] of a college girl who was gang-raped at a fraternity party and then forced to drink huge amounts of alcohol so she wouldn't remember anything if she tried to report it...only the amount of alcohol she drank sent her into an irreversible coma. The Unsub's grief and rage were only compounded when she found out the doctor who examined her sister at the hospital changed the medical report to claim the sex was consensual, because her sister's rapists were on the college football team and their coach was an old friend of the doctor's who convinced him to change it so they wouldn't get kicked off the team. To make matters worse, the death of another student at the same party resulted in her sister's rape being completely overlooked. After ending up bankrupt paying her sister's medical bills, the Unsub finally snaps after having to turning off her sister's life, abducting two of her sister's rapists, the coach who got them off the hook and the girl who took her sister to the party. The BAU even sympathise with her to a degree in that she wants justice for what happened, and Rossi promising her that the men who raped her sister will face justice for their crimes is what finally convinces her to surrender]].