Line #48 TearJerker/NCIS


1	'''Moments pages are Administrivia/SpoilersOff. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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4	[[quoteright:1000:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_4776.png]]
5	[[caption-width-right:1000: “Yesterday is over, change is the essence of life” -- '''Ducky Mallard''']]
6
7	''NCIS'', despite being a crime action show, is not without its heartwrenching moments.\
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9	[[foldercontrol]]
10
11	[[folder:Season 1]]
12	* "Left for Dead" makes the amnesiac victim seem like she might be a terrorist who had planted a bomb on a navel ship before being buried near-dead. Turns out she's both a bomb maker and innocent of any bomb planting.. but a victim of her own workplace's boss, who had her as a mistress, harassing and trying to pay her off and then attempted to murder her even if mostly accidentally when she didn't get the hint. Kate tries to play Devil's advocate for the woman all episode long, but ultimately can't stop her from [[TakingYouWithMe the victim taking her boss with her]]. The episode closes out on Kate being clearly shaken by the series of events and her own screw up.
13	** Even worse, the victim, Suzanne, accidentally killed a lackey sent her way to intimidate her with a payoff, which made her confront her boss in the first place and made ''him'' try to kill her while oblivious to said lackey's murder. The entire episode was a series of mistakes from overreactions that collapsed in on themselves to end both the victim and perp.
14	* In "Dead Man Talking", we have the show's [[SacrificialLamb first death of a NCIS agent]], Chris Pacci. It badly affects everybody on the team; Tony, in particular, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness acts more serious than usual]], and Gibbs [[ItsAllMyFault feels responsible for it]] because Pacci asked him to help with the cold case he was investigating the previous week but he was too busy to help.
15	-->'''Gibbs''' (to Pacci's killer): "His name was Special Agent Chris Pacci. And he was a friend." (BoomHeadshot)
16	* The Victim of the Week in "A Weak Link." It turns out that he wasn't murdered - he committed suicide, because, he was secretly gay and his wife had found out about his affair with a man. This was in 2004, meaning his career would be over if it were known, so his wife demanding he choose between her and his secret lover was a significant part of what drove him to this decision.
17	* In "Enigma", Gibbs risks a lot to help a former commander and superior of his be cleared of what seems like a FrameUp of killing an FBI agent, but as the episode goes on it becomes more and more clear that the commander is [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness anything but sane]]. The supposed conspiracy hunting him down because HeKnowsTooMuch, or the lieutenant of their shared past allegedly helping him? All a part of his paranoid schizophrenia and [=PTSD=]. Gibbs unwittingly forces him to witness and relieve the hallucinatory lieutenant's death a second time in his mind as Gibbs points out the lieutenant "bled out in my arms". The episode caps off with a haunting visual of the commander quietly [[MadnessMantra repeating]] the lieutenant's last words over and over: "I don't understand."
18	[[/folder]]
19
20	[[folder:Season 2]]
21	* Gibbs' reaction to finding out the ManBehindTheMan was the ''father'' in "See No Evil" may just possibly be the most massive [[HarsherInHindsight Fridge]] [[TearJerker Tearjerker]] in history. After seeing another man ready to throw away what he himself would do anything to get back, ''nobody'' can fault him for having a crack in his armor.
22	* In "Heart Break," Kate unwittingly is the 'cop' part of a suspect's SuicideByCop. Due likely in part to her religious background (coming from a Catholic background), she is clearly devastated not only in the fact that she killed an innocent man but that there's no punishment coming to her, since she was doing her job and attempting to protect Gibbs from someone she thought was a threat.
23	* "Call of Silence" with the Medal of Honor recipient believing he had killed a fellow marine, his best friend, during WWII. Offering his Metropass to [=DiNozzo=] (multiple times) and dancing with Kate in the squad room...
24	** [=DiNozzo=] nudging aside the man's tie, so that the Marines coming to arrest him could see the Medal of Honor, and them immediately snapping to attention out of respect.
25	** Just about everything with Corporal Yost is a TearJerker. He walks into NCIS headquarters, saying he killed his friend, and is practically begging to be arrested for it. And that's just the first five minutes of the episode. His dance with Kate in the squad room makes you smile through the tears, and then there's the flashback that Gibbs triggers to prove his innocence -- he struck his friend in the head with the butt-end of his gun because he couldn't stop moaning in pain from having his legs blown off, threatening to give away their position to the Japanese at Iwo Jima. Even Lieutenant Commander Coleman, who's been demanding Gibbs turn him over all episode, is brought to tears and drops the issue after watching him break down in the interrogation room.
26	** Charles Durning's passing in December 2012 makes the episode even more poignant.
27	* "SWAK". Seeing [=DiNozzo=] looking so awful as he's dying from bubonic plague. Granted he DOES live, but still...
28	** The end revelation of why a mother hit Tony with a pneumonic plague to begin with: it was supposed to be a means to force the NCIS to reveal the truth about the rape of her daughter by a midshipman. When they meet the daughter herself, after her mother's been arrested and then started having brain tumor mental meltdowns that would kill her soon enough, the daughter reveals that it was just a kinky sex joke with her boyfriend turned wrong, the boyfriend got killed by a hit-and-run after leaving her tied to the bed which entrapped her by pure bad circumstance, the midshipmen in question had nothing to do with anything other than being in the hotel bar the night it happened, and she didn't want to disappoint her mother with the truth of the situation. ''The entire episode was AllForNothing.''
29	* "Witness", when [=McGee=] gets sent on a solo assignment as a test by Gibbs; the task being to determine whether or not a witness's account of a possible murder is credible. Upon meeting her, he discovers she is a graduate of MIT, same as him, and makes the call to bring the rest of the team in to check out the suspected crime scene. As the episode goes on he forms a bond with the eponymous witness, even flirting with her as he stakes out the crime scene/ apartment across the street from hers. Needless to say, when the killer goes to kill her he is quickly on the scene; however in his haste he forgets to clear the room and gets hit in the head for his troubles. His inability to save her or catch her killer at the scene really does a number on him, to the point where when he inevitably realizes who the killer is, his first reaction is to chase him into traffic, then shove the business end of his Sig in the guys face, with a truly frightening expression of rage on his own. The TearJerker moment? At the end of the episode he is quietly writing something on his notepad, which Kate and Tony believe is his official report. Instead it is a sympathy letter to the girl's parents, saying how sorry he is for not saving her. Damn.
30	* The season finale - the MoodWhiplash of Kate dying [[KilledMidSentence in the middle of a joke about having made it through a shootout and having been protected by her bullet vest]], the BoomHeadshot and holding shot of her body, in a DiesWideOpen state... And that's the last sight of the season.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Season 3]]
34	* Gibbs' hallucinations of Kate in "Kill Ari." "Why me Gibbs? Wasn't taking one bullet enough for you? Why did I have to take two?!" and "Why did I die instead of you?!" Notable when compared to the others - everyone else is seeing her offering statements of how it's okay and they're going to be all right, even joking around. Gibbs sees her berating him, yelling at him, angry both in general and specifically at him. It makes the finale, of her in her coffin, gently ribbing him about being late to her funeral, turn the tears to ones of joy.
35	* In "Frame Up": At one point it all the evidence points to Tony as being the killer. At one point Abby is talking about how she must have screwed up and Tony will go to prison because of it, and is [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness clearly on the verge of tears]] while recounting this to Gibbs. Gibbs responds by [[PetTheDog kissing her on the hair]].
36	* "...Shannon?"
37	** Particularly when Gibbs wakes up with amnesia, and everyone's calling him "Agent Gibbs"...
38	--->'''Gibbs:''' I'm NOT Agent Gibbs, I don't KNOW Agent Gibbs, I don't WANNA know Agent Gibbs! I want... I want SHANNON! I want... Kelly... ''(sob)'' I miss 'em... God, I miss 'em...
39	** Ziva snapping Gibbs out of it.
40	--->'''Ziva:''' Ari killed Kate. And I... ''(bursts into tears)'' I killed Ari.\
41	'''Gibbs:''' Your brother. You killed your brother.]]\
42	'''Ziva:''' Y-Yes.\
43	'''Gibbs:''' You killed your brother... ''([[ManlyTears tearing up]])'' to save me.
44	** Gibbs' flashbacks of his blissful life with Shannon and Kelly. Then the shot of him sitting on a beach--the same beach where they shared happy times--with a gun at his head. And lastly, the gut-wrenching scream he lets out after killing the man responsible for their deaths.
45	** Speaking of which, Ziva shooting Ari. Gibbs' expression of shock and horror as he realises he put her in a position where she had to shoot her ''own brother'', that light touch to her hand as he walks by, and her mourning song...
46	** Especially when straight after the scene shifts to Kate's funeral.
47	* And, of course, though it's different from the rest of the episode and the rest of the things he has forgotten, it's not any less horrifying to see Gibb's joking about a plane hijacking, only for Mike Franks to describe just how different 9/11 was. Gibb's slowly stops eating as he listens, his expression getting more and more wooden, before he finally runs to a trash can and vomits.
48	* The end of "Honor Code", where scenes of Gibbs working on his boat with Zach are montaged with scenes of Gibbs and Kelly working on the boat.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Season 4]]
52	* When Abby is upset in "Skeletons" because her boyfriend dumped her for being too tall. That in itself is sad enough, but the RealitySubtext is sadder still (his dumping her was a hasty rewrite after the actor playing him died by suicide).
53	* "Once a Hero" brought the tears, but for a different reason. Firstly, once it was clear what had actually happened and that the deceased Marine had been trying to ''save'' a teenaged prostitute before he was killed, and secondly, somewhat cathartic tears once they found all the other girls locked in that van.
54	-->'''Gibbs:''' His name was Brian Wright. ''Sergeant'' Brian Wright. United States Marine Corps. Bronze Star, Purple Heart. He ''was'' a hero.
55	* "Dead Man Walking", in which Ziva comes to care for a man who's dying of radiation poisoning, definitely yanks on the heartstrings, particularly with the last scene:
56	-->'''Roy:''' Would you think you'd have noticed... that I was no longer there? That I'd stopped running.\
57	'''Ziva:''' Yes. I would've noticed... I would have missed seeing you.\
58	'''Roy:''' But eventually you'd have forgotten me.\
59	'''Ziva:''' I won't forget you ''now.''
60	** And in later episodes she can be seen wearing his orange watchcap when she's out running.
61	* "Grace Period":
62	** From the beginning - two agents are lured to an abandoned store as a trap and killed, to the shocking twist at the conference - one of the clerics is a terrorist with a bomb strapped to his chest, and Special Agent Cassidy sacrifices herself to stop him. The other shock is just the added TearJerker fuel: Gibbs' team was supposed to be the ones to do the case at the abandoned store, and subsequently would have died. The song at the end Music/{{REM}}'s "Everybody Hurts" is just perfect.
63	** Tony finally reciprocating Jeanne's declaration of love. Wrenching enough, even more so knowing how it turns out.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Season 5]]
67	* Any time where Abby is less than sunny is jarring, so seeing her almost in tears going over the late Director Shepard's possessions in the season 5 finale "Judgement Day", regretting not telling her that she always thought her a snappy dresser is a sad moment.
68	** "Judgment Day" - Jenny may have had her issues, but Tony's reaction to her death, and his intense guilt over not tailing her, is absolutely heartbreaking.
69	** When Ducky gets the call about what happened, Abby and [=McGee=] end up overhearing his side of the conversation. When Ducky turns to tell them the bad news, [=McGee=] just simply asks "Who?". He and Abby already figured out that one of their own died, but they don't who it is.
70	* The ending of "Corporal Punishment."
71	* In a rather weird way, a good deal of "Dog Tags," at least if you happen to be [=McGee=]. Sure, it eventually turns out that the dog was framed, not to mention secretly injured, but it's kind of shocking to see Abby garner absolutely no sympathy for him, despite the fact he was nearly killed by a dog, and his injuries are clearly visible. Kind of sad, considering they've known each other for so long, and are very good friends.
72	* The end of "In The Zone", where we find out that Nikki's brother Eric is alive, but in a coma that he has presumably never woken up from since he was wounded. Nikki just talks to him as normal, saying how happy Jamal's family was to hear he's doing well...
73	* "Requiem" leaves you in tears from the moment when the team figures out that Maddie was Kelly's best friend.
74	** Gibbs' repeated flashbacks of his daughter begging him not to go (this was presumably the last time he saw her before she was killed). At the end during his near-death experience, he now sees her telling him, "It's okay, Daddy. Go back.", essentially easing his long-held guilt over not being there to protect her.
75	** Tony's frantic pleas for Gibbs to wake up, his voice almost cracking at one point.
76	* The end of "Family", when Tony finally lets his dreams of a life with Jeanne go. Also a double SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment\|s}}, one for the series in general (the parents reunited with their child) and another for Tony and the team showing just how much of a family they've come to be.
77	** [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic "All we are we are..."]]
78	[[/folder]]
79
80	[[folder:Season 6]]
81	* The last ten minutes or so of "Dagger". Lee ends up sacrificing herself so Gibbs could kill the man who was blackmailing her. Then we find out that this was probably the ''best'' outcome for her, as the alternative was life in prison and never being able to see her sister again. Then Gibbs breaks the news to Lee's sister at the end of the episode as he hands her Lee's badge. The look on Gibbs' face right before he shoots her is wrenching.
82	* At the end of "Silent Night", when Gibbs convinces a man who has been absent from his daughter's life for nearly two decades to reunite by saying that he would give anything to hug his murdered daughter one more time.
83	* When we learn Gibbs gets his "rules" not from his father, but via flashback from the first time he talked with Shannon.
84	* An understated one in "Collateral Damage". Gibbs is arguing with Vance about being assigned a rookie, and that he chooses his own damn team. Vance replies "Like you chose Agent Langer?", the agent killed in the season six premiere. The TearJerker part: Langer was framed, but they don't know that. Sure, he wasn't the nicest guy around, but he's remembered as a traitor instead of a man who trusted the wrong person. It's a good thing Gibbs got suspicious...
85	* Agent Lee's sobbing in Gibbs' arms in the season 6 premiere. Made ten thousand times worse when you realize she's not only sobbing because she killed a man, but because she know he's innocent and she only killed him to keep her cover. She probably feels like absolute ''shit'' as Gibbs comforts her.
86	* The end of season six. When Tony's sitting in the squadroom without Ziva, trying to explain to Abby and [=McGee=] that it wasn't Gibbs or Vance who made Ziva stay in Israel ...it was Ziva herself. Made much worse by how we know that Gibbs believes she's been lying to him, Tony believes she hates him and Ziva herself thinks Gibbs doesn't want her there... and then we switch to the scene of Ziva tied to a chair in Somalia, her face bruised and bloody.
87	-->'''Tony:''' Boss? One short?
88	* "Broken Bird": Ducky is forced to face a monster who psychologically tortured him years ago while he served as a doctor in an Afghan refugee camp. But what brought it home was the very end when Ducky returns to work, quieter than ever before, and proceeds to break down in his girlfriend Jordan's arms.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Season 7]]
92	* The Season 7 premiere.
93	** They saved Ziva! She's back home, on the team! ...But see how ''terrible'' she looks...
94	** And the climax. Though it's sweet to see she's as concerned for [=McGee=] and even Tony as she's ever been on being reunited, her dialogue from the last few months screams UnwantedRescue. Whatever torture she went through, compounded with Gibbs abandoning her back in "Aliyah," Ziva clearly does not expect to leave Somalia alive. Thankfully, Team Gibbs didn't come totally unprepared, making her ensuing rescue all the more awesome and heartwarming.
95	* In "Flesh And Blood", Prince Sharif is chauvinistic, spoiled and willfully ignorant of the danger he's in. But at the end of the episode, when he is told that it's his ''brother'' who tried to kill him, the look on his face will make you want to hug him.
96	* The end of "Borderland", where Abby discovers evidence of Gibbs' shooting of the drug dealer who killed his family. She comes to Gibbs' basement, torn up over what to do. This conversation happens:
97	-->'''Abby''': Tell me how much I've been like a daughter to you, and how much you love me...\
98	'''Gibbs''': Will that help?\
99	'''Abby''': ''(Visibly struggling for control)'' No... What I really need to know, Gibbs, is if you're gonna love me, no matter what.\
100	''([[PastelChalkedFreezeFrame Grey-out]], credits.)''
101	* The ending of "Obsession," where Tony starts getting emotionally involved in finding an IntrepidReporter who disappeared around the same time her Marine brother was killed by an old KGB-issued poison that was injected into his body, and which has been injected into the woman's body as well, and for which there is no cure. Throughout the episode, Tony finds himself getting more and more connected to the woman, and then eventually he does find her...only, they can't get together after all since she doesn't have much longer to live after having been injected with said poison. The final scene sees Tony going down into Gibbs' basement and having this conversation:
102	-->'''Gibbs:''' How did it go?\
103	'''Tony:''' She went peacefully.\
104	'''Gibbs:''' ''(Pause)'' You okay?\
105	'''Tony:''' Not really. ''(Sits down.)''\
106	''(Gibbs pours a drink and hands it to Tony, who downs it.)''\
107	'''Tony:''' I broke Rule #10. Again. "Never get personally involved in a case."\
108	'''Gibbs:''' ''(Sympathetic)'' Yeah. It's the rule I always had the most trouble with.
109	** What brings it home is when Gibbs asks if Tony is all right, and Tony whispers, "Not really." The way he says it tells you everything: he's past the point of breaking down crying; he's ''broken.''
110	* The Christmas present [=McGee=] helps give to the nephew of one of Abby's friends at the end of "Faith". The little boy's mother is in the Navy and currently stationed overseas onboard a destroyer. [=McGee=] sneaks the little boy into [=MTAC=] where he has arranged for a video feed with the mother's ship. The look of surprise and delight on the faces of both mother and son when they see each other for the first time in months.
111	* All through "Double Identity," people start wondering about Ducky's odd behavior, including [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness his switch from wearing bow ties to neck ties.]] Near the end of the episode, Abby learns what has happened: Ducky's mother has passed away. Ducky takes it in stride, later reassuring Gibbs that it was her time to go: she had led a full life, she was almost 100 years old, and in her last few years, dementia had robbed her of most of the quality of life. Still, Ducky loved his mother and will miss her, and when Abby hugs Ducky at the cemetery... damn, I've got SandInMyEyes.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Season 8]]
115	* Gibbs' PietaPlagiarism moment with the mortally wounded Franks.
116	---> "Oh, Mike."
117	* When Ziva cries after Mike Frank dies. Then the elevator doors open and we find Abby and [=McGee=] in an identical position. Tony extends his hand out to them, simply saying, "Bring it in" and they join him and Ziva for a group hug.
118	* "Recruited" has a few, especially when it's revealed that the murdered Petty Officer was helping the boy to deal with bullying.
119	** An especially heartwrenching one is TheReveal: the boy's father thought the Petty Officer was a sexual predator and killed him for it, trying to protect his son.
120	** Doctor Magnus being reminded of all the people he helped.
121	* "A Man Walks Into A Bar..." has psych evaluations for our cast, which confronts some of the deep-seated fears and problems the cast have accumulated over the course of the past eight seasons as a side plot. What hits ''really'' hard is when Ziva is forced to confront that the people she's loved have a habit of dying just when she thinks it might be the one that sticks. In Ziva's own shaky words as she's put to the brink of tears by realizing this, she wants something "permanent", yet it's clear in her line of work that it won't come easily.
122	** Even the evaluator, who turns out to be Kate's sister, Rachel Cranston, realizes how painful this is, something that was a rarity with these cases in the series since most of the early psychiatrists were mostly an ObstructiveBureaucrat or a joke. And her pressing Ziva's own trauma separately of the Kate investigation makes her realize that her sister's replacement was anything ''but'' having a good time in the position.
123	** The rest of the team are ''still'' not over Kate's death, or some of the hell that follows them in their lives. But as Gibbs puts it best, "You don't forget, you just move on."
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Season 9]]
127	* Diane telling Gibbs, "You were my Shannon." It suddenly hits Gibbs just how much he hurt this woman by never opening up to her, and it kills him.
128	* The beginning of "Engaged, Part 1", where Gibbs dreams about waking up next to Shannon as if nothing had happened. He looks so damn happy... followed by his expression and the gasp he lets out when he wakes up for real.
129	* "Engaged, Part 2". Gibbs' flashbacks of the female recruit he had a crush on. The fact that he's still affected by ''her'' death indicating that he may have loved her just as much as Shannon.
130	* Pretty much all of "Life Before His Eyes" with virtually every alternate scenario being a CruelTwistEnding that had Gibbs, et al being just as miserable as they were in the original.
131	** Even the ostensibly happiest one of Kate and Tony marrying and having a son has Ziva becoming a terrorist because she never joined NCIS. Especially when Gibbs talks to Shannon and Kelly, with the revelation that ''he'' would have been killed had they not been is wrenching. The guy has spent years mourning them, no doubt assuming that they would have been blissfully happy had they survived, only to find out that the alternate was just as sad...
132	** The small bit where he sees the younger version of himself kissing the female recruit he had a crush on. Even after all this time, even with the bliss he had with Shannon and Kelly, part of him still wonders WhatCouldHaveBeen with this other girl.
133	* In "Rekindled", Tony and the arson investigator, Jason King, instantly recognize each other when they hear their names. Tony is extremely uncomfortable being around Jason, and Jason isn't too happy to see Tony and holds a grudge against him for an unspecified incident with his sister. When the others probe, Tony reveals that twenty years ago, when in Baltimore for a Final Four game, he was taking a walk trying to clear his head when he saw a townhouse being consumed by an arson fire and heard Jason, who was nine years old at the time, calling for help. Tony managed to free Jason from his room, but then he heard Jason's four-year-old sister Amy trapped in her room. Tony tried to get there to save her, but the burning infrastructure and the wires that fell from the ceiling blocked the door and the fire was getting even more out of control. At that point, [[SadisticChoice Tony was forced to choose between saving Jason and leaving Amy there, hoping that the on-the-way fire department could save her instead, or risk all three of them dying trying to save Amy]]. Tony chose to grab Jason and run out of the house, and unfortunately, the fire department was too late to save Amy. The flashback to [[WhyCouldntYouSaveThem Jason begging Tony to go back as they ran out]] makes it even worse, and you can tell Tony was NOT happy with being forced to abandon Amy. When Tony and Jason finally talk things out at the end of the episode, Tony makes it clear that there was nothing he could have done to save her and that night forced him to learn that he couldn't save everybody. What makes this even worse is that Jason reveals to Abby that [[KarmaHoudini the cops and the fire department never found out who the arsonist was]]. So while he chose to be an arson investigator because he wanted to help prevent people from suffering the same fate his little sister did, it's also possible Jason chose the profession because he wanted to find the perp himself and avenge Amy.
134	* The ending of "Till Death Do Us Part". While the fates of Gibbs, Abby, [=McGee=], Tony, and Ziva are up in the air, the finale of the entire episode comes on a beach, where the shock of NCIS HQ's bombing and their being dead from the attack causes Ducky to suffer a seemingly fatal heart attack. The final gray-out of the season occurs with a shot of Ducky laying on his side, convulsing in pain. Especially painful was the thought that "Oh, Ducky's heartbroken but at least he's safe--''Oh holy shit, is he having a heart attack?''"
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Season 10]]
138	* Abby remembering how she couldn't return a little girl's teddy bear, or prevent her from being taken away from town by her hateful father after her mother's death in "Hit and Run" was just too sad. At least this one ended with a beautiful SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment\|s}} (the reading of a fortune cookie fortune that Abby gave Gibbs when they first met), which is a real relief for the first new episode after the double whammy of "Shabbat Shalom" and "Shiva."
139	* "Recovery." Throughout the episode, Director Vance is clipped and abrasive to everyone we see him interact with, but as he's psychologically evaluated by Dr. Wolfe, he reveals how much he wants to go back in time to stop the HQ bombing, the entire episode showing him trying to reassert control and enforce normalcy again. The real kicker is how much he blames himself for the bombing, pointing out how vulnerable he was, or what if he had his kids with him when the carbomb went off, barely holding back tears.
140	* In the end of "Shabbat Shalom", Ziva, normally the most reserved member of the cast after Gibbs, screams and breaks down into a weeping mess when she sees that her father has been shot to death by an assassin. This was after she was going to turn him in for murder too. This was the woman who shot her own brother and only uttered a quiet, but sad, prayer afterward. Seeing her in such a state for the first time in eight years is just heartbreaking.
141	** Pretty much all of the last ten minutes of "Shabbat Shalom" qualify. By the time the episode finally ends - with Vance telling Gibbs that his wife has died in surgery - most viewers will just be beyond numb.
142	---> '''Vance''': ''(tearfully)'' [[WhamLine She's dead. My wife is dead, Gibbs.]]
143	** The look on Gibbs' face is positively wrenching, as you know he's not just sad for Vance, he knows all too well exactly what he's going through.
144	** Not to mention the very last conversation Ziva has with her father. Eli spent the episode telling Ziva he wants to redeem himself, but realizes that his sins may be too great. Just as Ziva was starting to warm up to him, she spots evidence that he might have accidentally killed someone. When she confronts him about it, she reveals that he was right about his sins. In her last conversation with him, she told her father that he could never redeem himself in her eyes, which clearly breaks his heart.
145	--->'''Ziva:''' An innocent man is dead. You disposed of his body, and you lied about it.\
146	'''Eli:''' Yes, I did. But why is that the only part of this that you can see?\
147	'''Ziva:''' ''(With tears in her eyes)'' Because you were right. Your sins are too great.\
148	'''Eli:''' ''(Struggling to hold back tears)'' Ah. So be it. But will you please sit across from me at the dinner table one last time?
149	* Dex the bomb-sniffing dog in "Seek" (10.18) is a walking Tear Jerker, from the beginning of the episode when he whimpers by the body of his handler, just killed by a sniper, to the end, when he takes a bullet his handler's murderer has fired at Gibbs and survives to retire with his handler's widow and attend his handler's funeral.
150	--> '''Tony''': You know, I've been thinking about getting a dog.
151	--> '''Gibbs''': That's ''not'' a dog. That's a Marine.
152	** (episode concludes with a shot of Dex sitting at his handler's casket, paying his respects, and a dedication to all military dogs)
153	* Abby's crisis of faith in "Hit and Run." After the events of the previous two-parter, and the case of the week bringing up memories of her first case, she's off her game, to the point of taking her first sick day ever. Seeing Abby absolutely broken is devastating. [=McGee=]'s empathy for her is as bad. It's obvious that he would do anything to help her, even though both realize that this isn't something he can fix.
154	* The look on [=McGee=]'s face when he hears that his estranged father is dying of stage 4 cancer is enough to break your heart. Even though it's clear that [=McGee=] has a very hard time even '''tolerating''' the Admiral, given years of abusive behavior, he still loves his father. Of course, finding out said information standing on the other side of a two way mirror while your father's being interrogated about his whereabouts in a murder case was probably one of the worst ways to hear the news.
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Season 11]]
158	* This exchange in Ziva's final scene:
159	-->'''Ziva''': Tony, you are so...\
160	'''Tony''': ...handsome? Funny?\
161	'''Ziva''': ''Loved.'' (Cue TheBigDamnKiss)
162	** Tony begging her to come back and be with him, even if she doesn't come back to NCIS. And barely managing not to cry while doing so.
163	** This quote: "Hardest 180 of my life."
164	** Tony finding Ziva's star in his pocket on the flight back to the States.
165	* "Anonymous Was a Woman" deals with an underground movement helping get abused women (and girls) out of Afghanistan and into the States. At one point, [=McGee=] is at a women's shelter in Afghanistan, and video calling [=DiNozzo=], who is at NCIS Headquarters interviewing women who've already made it over to the States. It gets heart-wrenching when one young women with Tony spots her mother in the background of Tim's feed, and mother and daughter have a tearful virtual reunion.
166	* Leroy Gibbs and his dad meeting up with Walter Back, the ex-Luftwaffe pilot who saved the latter's life in "Better Angel" by guiding him out of occupied airspace back to England. Without his help, both Gibbs wouldn't have existed. This episode was the last appearance of Jackson Gibbs prior to his portrayer, Ralph Waite, [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim passing away.]] Which means that that meeting, with Jackson telling Walter that his son is "the best man I know" may very well have been the last day Gibbs spent with his father.
167	* In "Devil's Triad", the head of the money laundering scam the team, the FBI, and the Secret Service is investigating kidnaps Emily, Fornell and Diane's daughter, as ransom for the money the team confiscated. While Emily is saved and the guy gets caught at the end, both Diane and Fornell, despite their constant arguments, are completely out of their minds with worry during the final quarter of the episode and are trying to comfort each other the best they can.
168	* Jimmy's crushed look on his face and heartbroken tone of voice when he tells everyone that the woman who was carrying the child for him and his wife has decided to keep it, especially as he's usually one of the happiest characters, and his previous excitement about having a kid. Questioning himself and wondering if he's really able to be a father can really hit home for anyone whose own attempts at adopting a child fell through.
169	* In "Alleged", the plot focuses a lot on the difficult issue of sexual assault on female sailors in the US Navy. The two named victims are shown to be quite shaken in the aftermath, including one being unsure if she can return to her ship, knowing that others may talk about it behind her back.
170	-->'''Monica:''' ROTC. Three years active duty. All my dreams... just over... in one night.
171	** Tony and Bishop get some help from a bar owner identifying a suspect whom the victim had a fight with in his bar. The bar owner is glad to be of assistance, but NCIS later figures out that the sailor died from a head wound that the owner accidentally caused when he threw the victim and the suspect out of the bar. The man's horror at realizing ''he'' killed the sailor is painful to watch.
172	* Gibbs getting frustrated on how a Navy veteran in "Shooter" gets to be a homeless man in the end after being honorably discharged from military service. Even Vance hates that it happens a lot recently.
173	* The Season 11 finale, saying goodbye to both Jackson Gibbs and his actor, Ralph Waite.
174	** Gibbs' reaction upon being told that his father is dead. He just looks so. . . stricken.
175	** When Gibbs is heading to Stillwater to settle his father's estate, the younger members of the team decide to pitch in to send Gibbs some sympathy flowers to his father's store. Abby quickly goes through a bunch of options on what to give Gibbs.
176	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' Abby, Gibbs is gonna appreciate whatever we send. There's no reason to stress.\
177	'''Abby:''' I have to stress. Because if I don't stress, then I'll stop, and if I stop, I'm gonna get really, really sad.
178	** Flashbacks that features a 10-year-old Gibbs and his father and his mom leaves us crying.
179	** As the episodes ends, young Jackson said to his son Gibbs,"Don't let go", can leave you to tears.
180	** An InMemoriam tribute to Ralph Waite. It said, "In Memory of Ralph Waite, A Great Actor and Our Friend". Not to mention it came with this [[https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F727542514773570159%2F&psig=AOvVaw1vndDZzAAIP0VJNiXZ3ajq&ust=1602019539621000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCNivr4GynuwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAQ photo]] of Mark Harmon and Ralph Waite.
181	** Pauley Perrette [[https://twitter.com/PauleyP/status/434144625247281153?s=20 tweeted this]].
182	*** Not to mention a [[https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.historyforsale.com%2Fncis-tv-cast-inscribed-photograph-signed-co-signed-by-ralph-waite-mark-harmon%2Fdc322704%2F59&psig=AOvVaw1vndDZzAAIP0VJNiXZ3ajq&ust=1602019539621000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCNivr4GynuwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAc photo of Pauley and Waite]].
183	[[/folder]]
184
185	[[folder:Season 12]]
186	* The death of helo pilot Hannah Banks in "Twenty Klicks." Yeah, she was basically a RedShirt, but a painful and lingering death is never a fun thing to deal with.
187	* The B-Plot of "Shoot The Messenger"; Vance's doctor calls him and tells him he discovered spots on his lungs during his last routine physical. After consulting Ducky and a few other doctors, everybody thinks that he may have advanced lymphoma, but the only way they can know sure is if a lung biopsy takes place. Vance spends the whole episode pre-biopsy freaking out for understandable reasons. He lost his wife not too long ago; now he may die from a severe health crisis and he still has two underage kids. He even keeps both of them LockedOutOfTheLoop until he absolutely knows for sure what's going on so they don't have to worry about possibly losing the only parent they have left. Thankfully, at the end of the episode, it turns out that the spots are sarcoidosis, which is easily treatable.
188	* "Parental Guidance Suggested": A combat-hardened Navy SEAL forced to watch through the interrogation room window as his 12-year-old daughter calmly confesses to killing her mother (his wife) in cold blood. Her given reason? She wanted to bring him home and make sure he stayed home, instead of going abroad on assignment all the time.
189	** Given that the child is roughly the same age as Gibbs's daughter when she was murdered, the audience has to wonder how he keeps a calm demeanor while listening to her.
190	* A retired Marine in "The Searchers" tries his best to bring home the remains of his friend. Even though he died from being shot by a conman, NCIS was able to secure the remains in Da Nang.
191	* The end of "House Rules," with [=McGee=] reading the letter he wrote to his father who died because he delayed the surgery that was his last hope of surviving cancer so he could spend one last Christmas with his family.
192	* In "Check", after the death of Diane Sterling, Gibbs is in a total BSOD. Especially bad because the murder was deliberately staged to reenact Kate's death.
193	** His flashbacks of her are wrenching and indicate that of all his post-Shannon marriages, this is the one that he truly regrets not working out.
194	** Jimmy has one of his own, having reached his limit of what he can take in good humor. Ducky notes that he himself had reached that point long ago and that it's impossible to go back to how things used to be.
195	* "The Lost Boys" has ''a lot'' of these.
196	** After discovering a homegrown terror cell known as The Calling and unsuccessfully trying to talk a recent member out of bombing a city bus in "Troll," Gibbs comes across another new member, Luke Harris. For the next two episodes, ''including the finale,'' he has a few false starts with trying to connect with him throughout the episode, despite Vance, Teague, and a hallucination of Mike Franks warning him not to get sucked in.
197	** Luke goes through a heck of a TraumaCongaLine, for a young teen. He was getting ridiculed at school for being an adopted Iraqi-American, so turned to The Calling for guidance despite the love and support from his adopted family. Then said family is found gunned down right after Gibbs successfully gets through to him, leaving him devastated and all but completely adrift.
198	** "Dorneget didn't make it."
199	** At the end, after Ned's body is repatriated, Gibbs hallucinates several deceased agents, including Jenny, Kate, and Mike.
200	* "Neverland":
201	** Joanna Teague standing over the mutilated body of her son, telling him how proud she is and that he can ''"sleep now."''
202	** Luke shooting Gibbs twice under Daniel Boone's orders, while Tony and Teague watch helplessly.
203	[[/folder]]
204
205	[[folder:Season 13]]
206	* ''"Stop the Bleeding"'': Luke expressing MyGodWhatHaveIDone over supposedly killing Gibbs, enough to almost jump off a roof. Fortunately, Tony and Teague are able to convince him that Gibbs survived.
207	* Basically, the end of "Day in Court" - Bishop's learned that Jake is having an affair, and as a result, decides to leave for Oklahoma for an indefinite amount of time. Playing "Say Something" by A Great Big World definitely adds to it.
208	** When Bishop comes into the bullpen after Jake confesses to her about the affair, her eyes are red, clearly indicating she’s been crying.
209	** There's also the fact that's Jake's ruined his friendship with the team, all of whom clearly genuinely liked him but are now furious with him because of what he's done.
210	** The BittersweetEnding for the MysteryOfTheWeek: good news is the Petty Officer [[ClearMyName accused of murder has been completely exonerated]], bad news is that his marriage is likely over because his wife believed he was guilty. Unlike with most cases, it's clear that even if she asked he wouldn't forgive her for turning against him and had threatened to keep his child from him.
211	* "Spinning Wheel". As Jake tearfully apologizes and pleads for a chance to save their marriage, Bishop sadly declares that their marriage is over and has been for a long time, otherwise he wouldn't have had the affair or told her about it in the first place.
212	** In a flashback scene, Ducky being forcibly separated from his half-brother Nicholas.
213	* In "Sister Cities", Abby prevents a plane from crashing into a city by hacking its GPS so that the autopilot makes it crash into an uninhabited forest. Then Gibbs gets a phone call from Agent Pride in New Orleans saying that Luca Scuito was on that plane. While it's eventually revealed that he wasn't actually on the plane, for ten eternal minutes it looks like Abby had just killed her little brother.
214	* In "After Hours", [=McGee=] gets distracted by the anomalies in the current case they're investigating and violates the agreement that he and Delilah would only talk about work for one minute. Delilah gets angry with him at this, and then they end up fighting over it. After things calm down and the two of them talk it out, Delilah admits that she got so upset because she's scared about work becoming the basis of their relationship. Since the two of them are from different governmental agencies, [[PoorCommunicationKills there might be a time when they're not allowed to divulge anything to each other]], and that's part of the reason why Ellie and Jake's marriage fell apart. This shows that Bishop and Team Gibbs weren't the only ones hurt by Jake's affair, and the whole thing has gotten Delilah worried about something similar happening between her and [=McGee=].
215	* In the end of "Scope", Gibbs chooses to sleep in his actual bed rather than his couch after who knows how long. Happy tears were shed.
216	* "Reasonable Doubt":
217	** [=DiNozzo=] Sr runs into a homeless woman who believes that he's her father. Over the course of the episode, it's revealed that she ran away from home because her real father rejected her for being gay, was suffering dementia, and had a brain tumor. At the end of the episode, she's taken to a hospital and her condition is diagnosed as terminal. [=DiNozzo=] Sr then walks into her room and plays along with her delusion so that she can die believing that she finally reconciled with the (long-deceased) father she hadn't spoken to in years.
218	** When he says "I was angry. My wife died, I had to raise a child by myself, and I took it out on you. And I had no right to do that", you can tell that he was also apologizing to his son (who's watching all of this from the doorway) for his ParentalNeglect after his mother died.
219	* The end of the episode "Homefront". Fornell is shot multiple times and his fate is left uncertain as his phone rings. This becomes even more of a Tear Jerker when you learn in the next episode that Trent Kort, a CIA agent he had previously worked with was responsible.
220	* [[WhamEpisode "Family First"]]. Just "[[Recap/NCISS13E24 Family First]]". Ziva is KilledOffScreen by Trent Kort, leaving Tony grief-stricken throughout, as well as the rest of the team. Even more so when Tony learns that Ziva left behind their daughter, whom he had never know about until now. And, finally, his decision to leave NCIS. And even sadder, Michael Weatherly's last [[https://youtu.be/gmxNTGAbOBQ scene]] as Tony [=DiNozzo=]. The music in the background didn't help matters. Prepare your tears. It's time to say goodbye to NCIS Very Special Agent Anthony "Tony" [=DiNozzo=], Jr.
221	* Gibbs teaming up with the son of the Marine killed trying to protect his wife and daughter. We've spent so much time focusing on the loss of Shannon and Kelly that we've completely forgotten that someone else lost a loved one in that accident too. He never outright tries to stop the guy, but warns him of what he knows only too well--avenging his father won't bring him back.
222	[[/folder]]
223
224	[[folder:Season 14]]
225	* Alex Quinn's FreudianExcuse for her constant PTSD about Philadelphia, and leaving field work behind. She and her then-partner, Shaw were both on their phones while on a stakeout there. Shaw was telling her husband and young son she'd be late coming home, and Quinn herself was having a heated argument with her fiancee. When the former got out of the car to give Quinn privacy, a shoot-out ensued from the gang they were assigned to watch. Quinn, unable to save Shaw, was the only survivor. To hammer it in, Shaw's phone call had still been on during the shooting. This meant her own family heard ''everything'' from the other end and there was nothing they could do.
226	* In "Keep Going", the VictimOfTheWeek's son, Ryan, blames himself for his father's death because he feels as if he wouldn't have been hit by that car if Ryan didn't need money due to being laid off the previous day. As a result, he climbs onto the ledge of a nearby building so he can throw himself off of it. Palmer is the first one of the NCIS team to notice Ryan on that ledge, rushes up there despite his fear of heights, and hangs onto him for the entire episode [[TalkingDownTheSuicidal in order to talk him down]]. It makes Gibbs catching the road rager that killed Ryan's dad, and Palmer succeeding at convincing Ryan to keep living, all the sweeter.
227	** While on the ledge, Ryan admits to Jimmy that he has thought about committing suicide before, but he never went through with it because he didn't want to break his father's heart and leave him all alone. Now that his father's gone, Ryan sees no reason to keep living.
228	** Special mention to Jimmy's speeches on how he loves his job and his friends, and about looking for the good when bad things happen, especially since his job forces him to deal with the concept of death much more than the average person.
229	---> '''Jimmy:''' I have seen more dead people than anyone you know. All of them gone too soon and none of them peaceful.
230	* Qasim is shot to death, coupled with the revelation that Bishop would have accepted his marriage proposal had he not been killed. Some FridgeHorror kicks in at the realization that this is the second tragic ending to a relationship of hers (her divorce being the first), and to make matters worse, it was the first she embarked on after her split.
231	* The end of "A Bowl of Cherries" has Quinn's mother forced to accept the fact that she's coming down with Alzheimer's.
232	* In "Something Blue," [=McGee=]'s nervous breakdown after Delilah collapses under the pressure of their wedding preparations, and has to be hospitalized. Luckily, Gibbs talks him out of it and she turns out to be fine.
233	* Also, in "Something Blue", there's a small moment, when Vance gives marriage advice to Tim; enjoy every moment he spends with Delilah and never take her for granted. Vance loved and had a happy marriage with Jackie, a similarly "strong and intelligent woman," and clearly hasn't forgotten what happened to his wife back in Season 10.
234	* The ending of "Rendezvous." Granted, everyone was under heavy fire from rebels, but when [=McGee=] stays behind in Paraguay to back up Gibbs, Torres looks back at the two of them with helplessness as he boards the last chopper.
235	[[/folder]]
236
237	[[folder:Season 15]]
238	* The start of "House Divided" has seen Gibbs and [=McGee=] outgunned and captured after the cliffhanger of the previous season finale, and tortured for about two months, evident by the fact they've both grown full beards from captivity.
239	** Some considerable FridgeHorror at one point when one of their captors bangs on their cell door with a baseball bat and Gibbs jumps back fearfully. Just how many beatings has he taken from that bat that he would react like that?
240	** Tim's monologue about how much he misses his wife and unborn child. It even earns him the sympathy of one of the terrorists keeping him in captivity.
241	* Despite successfully pulling off their GoMadFromTheIsolation gambit to escape Paraguay, Tim admits to Gibbs, and Dr. Confalone that the real fear and worry he had to put aside for the last two months caught up with him, to the point that he's fighting perpetual anxiety and can't sleep.
242	* It's revealed that Reeves goes to AA meetings although he refuses to actually talk. He gets close to Melissa, a woman who has just left her abusive boyfriend. Reeves sees her kidnapped and eventually hunts her down to where she's just killed her ex in self-defense. But the investigation eventually reveals Melissa set this whole thing up as she found her boyfriend cheating on her, killed him and was planning to sell secrets from his laptop. Reeves is naturally hurt when he confronts her but the kicker is when he sniffs her drink, discovers it's a rum with coke and realizes Melissa was faking being an alcoholic just to join the AA group. It drives him to a meeting where he starts to confess his own story of childhood abuse, clearly affected having bought the woman's con.
243	* The opening to ''Dark Secrets'' has the victim's parents discover her hanging corpse as the mother sobs for the father to get her down before it's too late.
244	* During a case, Gibbs discovers that Fornell falsified evidence to get Hicks convicted of a serial murder. Fornell defends it on Hicks being guilty but Gibbs points out the evidence shows the murder was committed by a left-handed person and Hicks is right-handed. On the stand, Gibbs is forced to testify about what Fornell did and the man ends up losing his job with the FBI and a clear break in their long friendship.
245	** But the true tragedy comes when Hicks makes a slip of the tongue that makes Gibbs suspicious. He and Sloane check him out at a batting cage...and see Hick is a switch hitter, meaning he ''did'' commit the murder and Gibbs ruined Fornell's career for nothing.
246	** This comes up later as Fornell is now a P.I. and Gibbs has been refusing to talk to him as he can't handle the guilt over telling Fornell what he did. When he does, Fornell is hurt...not because of what happened but Gibbs not telling him sooner so they could work together to bring Hicks down.
247	* The shocking cliffhanger at the end of "One Step Forward", one of the show's biggest and most painful. For the first time in the series, and right before her departure from NCIS headquarters, Abby has been gravely wounded and lies in critical condition. One of the most beloved characters in the show, period, has been struck down at the last minute. And for the first time, Gibbs has failed to protect her. If there was ever a time for writers to inflict the biggest GutPunch, then it was now. And as a result, Clayton Reeves is killed in the attack protecting her. As a result, Abby leaves to honor the debt. It was known [[RealLifeWritesThePlot that Abby was leaving]], but Reeves dying was a shock as well.
248	* Gibbs laying flowers on Shannon's grave and wishing her "Happy Birthday".
249	* Sloane's entire backstory, period. Held by the Taliban for nine months in Afghanistan, tortured, [[SadisticChoice forced to choose which of her squad would die next]]... and the whole thing left her with a lattice of serious scarring across her back, a constant reminder of what she's been through. Seeing the usually-sunny TeamMom so desperate and hurting is.... ouch. ''Ouch.''
250	[[/folder]]
251
252	[[folder:Season 16]]
253	* "What Child Is This":
254	** Kasie's reason for her sudden closeness to the VictimOfTheWeek: During her last Christmas, Kaise and her dad got into a fight because she wasn't sure if she wanted to finish grad school, making him accuse her of not applying herself. Then a month later, he had a sudden and fatal heart attack on his mail route. The day after the funeral, she went back to grad school, and started working for Ducky a week after that, which to her proved that her dad was right.
255	** The single mother, Tanya; she was a pregnant drug user who was disowned by her parents and abandoned by her boyfriend. While selling her baby to the drug dealer was wrong, it's hard not to feel bad for her for it.
256	* "The Last Link"; This entire episode is one heck of a TearJerker:
257	** LJ Moore's passing. Sure, he only made two appearances and Billy Dee Williams, who played him, is still with us but still, it's sad to see LJ go even after his brief appearances.
258	** The fact that John Sydney is good friends with Jackson Gibbs and LJ Moore. Shame Jackson and Moore aren't with us anymore but at least they're reunited...in the other side.
259	*** Jackson, Moore and Sydney, along with 12 veteran friends they knew from high school, were in a club called "The Last Man Club". With LJ gone, among the rest of the club including Jackson and Moore, [[HarsherInHindsight Sydney is the last man]].
260	** Any time Gibbs's father is mentioned. RIP Ralph Waite.
261	* In "Crossing the Line", Max, one of the high school interns, turns out to be the son of one of the agents killed in the NCIS bombing at the end of Season 9. He was also there the day the bombing happened and is clearly suffering from SurvivorsGuilt. When Max asks Torres why he survived and his father didn't, Nick admits that his father abandoned him and his family when he was little, and that he's still waiting for an answer for why he did that. Then Nick says that all the two of them can do is choose how they're shaped by their tragedies.
262	* "Bears And Cubs":
263	** Jimmy reveals to Ed that his long-deceased father [[AbusiveParents was not a good person at all]]. The only reason why Jimmy finally stopped hating him was when his daughter Victoria was born, as Jimmy wanted to become a better father than his own ever was.
264	** Throughout the episode, Ducky debates his position on the team. The episode ends with Ducky announcing to Gibbs that he has decided to retire and is planning on handing over the Medical Examiner position over to Jimmy.
265	* In "Perennial," Sloane's daughter, who she gave up at birth, refusing to have anything to do with her.
266	[[/folder]]
267
268	[[folder:Season 17]]
269	* Ziva is grappling with anxiety (having hallucinatory flashbacks) and has been taking pills. Let that sink in.
270	* Ziva relates to Gibbs several times that she feels abandoned as the team just accepted the word of her death without any question as she had thought for sure they would dig deeper and come looking for her. That they just believed it and moved on is clearly hard for her to accept. Even though she probably could have communicated a little more to Team Gibbs to let them know she wasn't actually dead to spare everyone any further grief, the TimeSkip from season 11 to now has ''not'' been kind to Ziva at all-- despite her best efforts and the time she had spent finding a family with Gibbs/ reconciling with her blood family, her tumultuous past and untreated deeper emotional issues with abandonment/ constant vigilance from the job caught up with her a third time and left her at possibly the most broken we've ever seen.
271	* Adam dying in "The North Pole".
272	* The final scene of "Ephemera" takes place in the Vietnam wing of the Navy museum. The head of the museum mentions that the deceased of the week, who often volunteered there, would spend hours in that wing, often standing in the same spot. She didn't know why, she just assumed it had something to do with his serving in that war. Then the camera focuses in on a display by that spot, showing a picture of a USO dance - the dance where he met his late fiancee, and the two of them are in the background of the picture, as the song they danced to plays.
273	** The deceased of the week killed himself, and the autopsy reveals why he did so. He had inoperable, terminal brain cancer, and he didn't want to spend the last year of his life wasting away from it. This ends up striking a serious chord with Palmer because his grandmother had the ''exact'' same kind of cancer, and he and his family spent the last few months of her life watching her deteriorate away from it until her inevitable death.
274	-->'''Gibbs:''' Scary as hell.\
275	'''Palmer:''' Especially for her. ''(stares forlornly at the body)'' [[DrivenToSuicide Art's way out]] may have been the cleaner exit.
276	* One of the story-lines in "Schooled" is Faith visiting Jack and asking her who her birth father is. She's trying to find out because she and her fiancee have been trying to have a baby but they haven't had much sucess so the doctor requested Faith's birth parents' medical records to find out what's going on (which is the same reason why Faith asked Jack for hers back in "Musical Chairs"). Jack is clearly shaken about this, and she ends up revealing to Gibbs why she has a birth daughter in the first place; a guy that Sloane trusted raped her during a party when she was drunk, and [[ChildByRape Faith was conceived as a result of this]]. For understandable reasons, Jack doesn't want Faith to find out this detail so when she tracks down the guy and confronts him, she threatens him to give Faith his medical history and just tell her that they just had a brief fling in college, nothing more, in exchange for her still keeping silent over what he did. However, Faith figured out what exactly happened anyway because as a trauma nurse she's seen enough rape victims to figure out why Jack freaked out when she asked about her birth father. Fortunately, finding out all this allows Faith to let go of her bitterness about having Jack give her up for adoption, especially when Jack admits she was scared that she wouldn't have been able to truly love and/or provide for Faith as a result of how the pregnancy happened in the first place and decided that it was better for Faith to be raised by a loving couple who wanted a child.
277	* In "The Arizona", Joe revealing what he saw before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. It is ''harrowing'' and leaves everyone stunned. Hell, even Gibbs looked like he was about to cry.
278	** Joe dying of a stressed-induced heart attack when it's revealed that the Purple Heart he stole wasn't in the hotel vent. What's even sadder is that he didn't get closure until after he died.
279	[[/folder]]
280
281
282	[[folder: Season 18]]
283	* "Head Of The Snake": Gibbs is forced to shoot [=McGee=] twice, once in the arm and once in the leg, [[ShootTheDog to save his life]] after [=McGee=]'s comms went out in order to prevent him from going to the plane which was rigged with a highly-explosive bomb. When Gibbs visits the unconscious [=McGee=] in the hospital at the end, he can only silently sit next to the bed. Fortunately, the next episode confirms that [=McGee=] survived and everybody, even Delilah and [=McGee=] himself, knows that if Gibbs didn't do it [=McGee=] would have definitely have been killed.
284	* "The First Day" reveals that Breena died from the COVID-19 virus during the time skip. Made worse by Palmer not allowing himself to properly grieve and is burying himself in his Medical Examiner work to distract himself from the loss of his wife.
285	** Jimmy's confession to Gibbs that he didn't get to say goodbye to Breena because the hospital wouldn't let him in to see her.
286	*** [[https://youtu.be/F-n1F6mo88Y The ending scene of "The First Day"]].
287	* The end of "Winter Chill" - just as it seemed Emily Fornell had beaten her addiction, she relapsed and died. The team is very much hit hard by this.
288	* Animal lovers, especially dog lovers, take warning: "Watchdog" centers on abused dogs. Some of the actions taken on the victims are hard to stomach, and it drives Gibbs into a fury.
289	* Gibbs and Phineas have the talk in "Unseen Improvements" on whether it's fine for Gibbs to live by himself with a dog he adopted. It hits hard for those who live by themselves with no immediate family to make contact with, even if he/she denies that they're lonely.
290	[[/folder]]
291
292	[[folder: Season 19]]
293
294	* "Great Wide Open"
295	** This marks a final appearance of Mark Harmon portraying Leroy Jethro Gibbs after 19 seasons. End of the era indeed.
296	** [[https://youtu.be/w9cczjSV_yA?si=CxAwHZLLfQMn4lmN Gibbs and Ducky’s final scene together]]. Even more sadder is Creator/DavidMcCallum died on September 2023, and this scene is the final time Gibbs/Creator/MarkHarmon and Ducky/Creator/DavidMcCallum get to share the scene together, having sharing the screen on the show for 18 years.
297	*** This:
298	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' Gibbs. You okay?
299	---> '''Gibbs:''' Yeah. I've never been better.
300	--->'''[=McGee=]:''' I know what you mean. This place is pretty special. Can't wait to come back one day.
301	--->'''Gibbs:''' Well, I hope you do.
302	--->'''[=McGee=]:''' Pilot's ready. Just waiting on us.
303	--->'''Gibbs:''' I'm not going back, Tim.
304	--->'''[=McGee=]:''' To work?
305	--->'''Gibbs:''' (chuckles) Well, that, too. I'm not going back home.
306	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' You're staying here? For how long?
307	---> '''Gibbs:''' Not sure.
308	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' Boss, you realize we're in the middle of nowhere, right? We're-we're miles from anyone or anything.
309	---> '''Gibbs:''' Not a bad thing.
310	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' Boss, this is crazy. What are you thinking?
311	---> '''Gibbs:''' I'm thinking I don't have another boat left to build.
312	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' Well, then, we'll find you another hobby.
313	---> '''Gibbs:''' I'm not looking for a hobby.
314	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' What are you looking for?
315	---> '''Gibbs:''' (chuckles) My gut's telling me I'll know when I find it, Tim.
316	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' And you think you'll find it here?
317	---> '''Gibbs:''' I don't know. I-I... Whatever I'm feeling, this... this sense of peace, I-I have not had this since Shannon and Kelly died. And I'm not ready to let it go.
318	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' So that's it?
319	---> '''Gibbs:''' I could not have hoped for anyone better to watch my back for the past 18 years than you, Tim.
320	---> '''Gibbs:''' ([[ManHug hugging [=McGee=]]]) [[PlatonicDeclarationOfLove I love you, man]].
321	---> '''[=McGee=]:''' ([[ManlyTears crying]]) I love you, too. (pulling away from hug) Promise me you're gonna be okay.
322	---> '''Gibbs:''' I already am.
323	* "The Helpers": In a scenario highly reminiscent of "SWAK", Jimmy and Kasey are exposed to a biotoxin and spends hours isolated in Kasey's lab dying. Any scene with Kasie and Jimmy in this episode is heartbreaking. Making this worse is that Jimmy brought his daughter Victoria to NCIS; having recently lost her mother, she faces the possibility of losing her father as well.
324
325	[[/folder]]
326	[[folder: Season 20]]
327	* ”Kompromat”
328	** When Ducky drops in by video call with some key information, he has a rather sweet interaction with [=McGee=] which becomes more bittersweet knowing that, thanks to Creator/DavidMcCallum’s passing four months after this season concluded and strikes delaying the 21st season well into 2024, this two-part finale will ultimately be Ducky’s last case with the team and this scene is his last with both [=McGee=] and Palmer.
329	--->'''[=McGee=]:''' Still the best, Duck.
330	--->'''Ducky:''' I do what I can.
331	--->'''[=McGee=]:'''''(smiles)''
332	*** Not only this episode and “Black Sky” is the last time Ducky would get to interact with Vance, [=McGee=] and Palmer onscreen, but this is the last time [=McCallum=] would get to share his final scenes with longtime cast members Creator/SeanMurray, Creator/BrianDietzen and Creator/RockyCarroll.
333
334	[[/folder]]
335
336	[[folder: Season 21]]
337	* "The Stories We Leave Behind":
338	** The entire episode itself is one big goodbye to Creator/DavidMcCallum.
339	** Jimmy arriving with coffee to help Ducky with a case only to discover he's [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim passed away overnight]]. Special mention must go to Brian Dietzen's acting here. In particular, the way he clearly doesn't even want to touch Ducky because he ''knows'' he isn't going to feel a pulse.
340	** The usual theme tune being replaced by a [[SolemnEndingTheme slow piano rendition]], marking the only instance of the show ever altering its theme tune for any reason. Ducky's passing is just that profound an event for the show.
341	** The next few minutes have no BGM, further reflecting the somber tone.
342	** [=McGee=] looking at a Polaroid of himself, Gibbs and Ducky, sent by Gibbs.
343	** [[InMemoriam "In memory of our dear friend and colleague, David McCallum, we will miss you"]]

Context TearJerker / NCIS