Follow TV Tropes

Following

Heartwarming / Halt and Catch Fire

Go To

    open/close all folders 

    Season 1 
  • In the pilot, Gordon not only fixes his daughters' broken Speak & Spell, but he also reprograms it so that it greets them by name upon starting up.
  • In "Close to the Metal", Donna tries to talk Cameron out of her Heroic BSoD, though it's admittedly a half-hearted effort, because as far as she knows, she's been summoned to clean up after Cameron's idiocy. However, after finding out that Cameron's being badly manipulated by Joe, she becomes more sympathetic, and at the end, after seeing Cameron's code, compliments her on it, saying that it's "like music".
  • After being invited to dinner with Gordon's family, Joe puts great effort into keeping Joanie and Haley entertained, especially after they're frightened by the storm.
    • In the same episode, a very young Haley greets Joe with no fear, going so far as to sit on his fancy Italian shoes. Later in her life, Joe would be among the first people willing to support her in her tech aspirations, then the adult she turns to after Gordon's sudden death.
  • When Cardiff gets shut down and Joe disappears, Gordon and Cameron put aside their differences to try and save the Giant.
  • Donna puts aside her marital misgivings to join Gordon, Joe and Cameron on their journey to sell a computer.
  • Cameron tells Bosworth she's going to help sell the Giant at Comdex. Bosworth's faith in her moves her to tears as she hugs him.
    • There's another one between the two of them earlier in that episode that only becomes apparent in retrospect. Bosworth is talking to Nathan Cardiff, and realizes that Nathan knows he embezzled money from him to keep the PC project going. Cameron bursts into the room and Bosworth chews her out and acts like he doesn't even know her name... because he believes he's finished and the only way to save her (she actually did the hack on the bank computer to get the money, at his instigation) is to take all the heat himself.
  • Donna and Gordon's heart to heart in the hotel room.
  • Joe telling Cameron she should cut loose and go to Palo Alto, before it's too late to get another job with a stable company without being stuck with the Cardiff Electric reputation.
  • Gordon finally getting to "propose" to Donna the way he always wanted to.

    Season 2 
  • Cameron going to pick up Bosworth after he's released from prison. It also turns out she was the only one who wrote to him and vice versa, which also counts as a Tear Jerker.
  • Bosworth giving away his prized Mustang to his son on the eve of the latter's marriage.
  • Tom, who had earlier given a Brutally Honest opinion about the latest chapter of Parallax, talks Cameron down from her panic attack by reminding her of what was fun about the early chapters.
  • The people at Mutiny take it pretty well when Lev is outed.
    Bosworth: (harrumphs) Oh, hell, I've got a cousin.
  • Cameron accompanying Donna to get an abortion.
    • The beginning of the next episode has a moment where Donna is not feeling well, and Cameron expresses concern for her health.
  • After Lev is hospitalized, Joe shares with Cameron his own experience with homophobic bullies. Also, Bodie leaves an (apparently rare) black-uniformed Spider-Man on the windowsill.
  • A teenage girl tells Cameron that through Mutiny she found other people like hernote  and who gave her the conviction to "walk away".
    • Becomes even more heartwarming after season 3 reveals that Cameron herself was abused.
  • Mutiny throwing a barbecue for its users, as well as Lev's return from the hospital.
  • Yo-Yo comes to the Mutiny barbecue to show no hard feelings towards his former colleagues after he left. He later returns to the company.
  • Joe and Sara announcing that they eloped to Jacob Wheeler. He's genuinely happy for them, and loans Joe his car for their honeymoon. However, their marriage is short lived after Cameron sabotages WestNet.
  • Bosworth taking the plunge and joining the Mutiny group as they head off to California.

    Season 3 
  • Bosworth's son James reveals that he named his newborn son Samuel John.
  • Gordon tells Cameron that she and Donna had built something special with Mutiny. Cameron tries to convince Gordon that he did something special too, but Gordon claims all he did was build two forgettable IBM PC clones and wrote a piece of software everyone believes that Joe wrote. Cameron later goes to Joe's apartment to convince him to give Gordon his due credit for essentially creating MacMillan Utility.
  • With Ryan missing, Gordon and Joe meet to determine how much fallout they're facing for Ryan's actions. In the midst of it, Gordon reveals that he's dying. Joe immediately demands details; for all that they've fought over the years, he still cares about Gordon.
  • When Ryan is on the run from the FBI for leaking the Citadel source code, Joe shows concern for his safety and well-being, and Joe asks Cameron to find him. Joe is willing to help Ryan in any way he can. Unfortunately, however, Ryan ends up taking his own life when faced with the choices Joe gives to him.
  • At the end of "You Are Not Safe", Cameron, who's been wandering in a depressed funk for most of the episode, runs into Joanie and Haley at the store and hugs them both. As angry as she is at Donna, she's not going to take it out on Joanie and Haley.
  • Joe and Cameron's reunion at COMDEX 1990.
  • After giving Gordon hell all night and sabotaging his date, Joanie sees that her dad is struggling to get up the stairs the next morning and helps him get to his room, insisting that next time, they're switching rooms so that he's on the ground floor.

     Season 4 
  • While Gordon and Joe are on a camping trip, we find out that Gordon had invited Joe's then-boyfriend along, unaware that they'd broken up a few weeks earlier.
  • Cameron shows up for Gordon's birthday and reconnects with Joanie and Haley, and it turns out that in spite of her differences with their parents, she has been keeping in touch with them from Japan. She's even been sending Joanie cassette tapes so that she could learn Japanese. Later, Gordon lets Cameron crash on his couch and they briefly play Mario Kart together the next morning.
  • Joe and Cameron spend an entire day reconciling over the phone. At one point, Cameron falls asleep and Joe just stays on the line so that he can be there when she wakes up.
  • Towards the end of "Miscellaneous", Gordon and Cameron end up at the Comet offices, and Gordon confesses to Cameron his fears of having Haley go into the business. Cameron tells her that Haley won't turn out like her because Haley actually has good parents. Gordon responds that he actually wouldn't mind all that much if Haley turned out a little like Cameron.
  • In "Tonya and Nancy", Cameron buys a plot of land and a trailer, and Joe, Gordon, and Bos all show up for a housewarming party, and Cameron is uncharacteristically happy.
  • In "Nowhere Man", Gordon talks Joe out of a Heroic BSoD after his confidence is shaken by the sudden rise of Rover. He tells Joe that he doesn't care if Comet loses ground to Rover, because he's just happy to be working with Joe again.
  • Joanie and Haley actually like Gordon's latest girlfriend.
  • Towards the end of "Nowhere Man", a bored and lonely Donna plays Joanie's copy of Pilgrim and actually manages to solve the puzzles that baffled so many other players. Even after so many years, she still understands how Cameron thinks.
  • In "A Connection is Made", it's Haley's birthday, and Gordon, Katie, Cameron, and Joe throw her a rocket-launching party.
  • After weeks of wrestling with her doubts about whether she can still make games, Cameron discovers that someone made a fansite about her.
  • While picking Haley's brain for insights about Comet, Joe inadvertently discovers that she has a crush on another girl. He keeps it to himself, but as Haley's career at Comet suddenly spirals out, he goes to bat for her to try and convince Gordon to let her stay on.
  • At the beginning of "Who Needs A Guy", Bos badgers Cameron into meeting him at the courthouse, but is elusive about why. She arrives and finds out that Bos has finally decided to marry Diane, and wanted Cameron to be his witness... because Diane brought her daughter and he wanted one of his own kids there. Yes, he sees Cameron as his surrogate daughter.
  • Towards the end of "Goodwill", Joanie is bemoaning how she's The Unfavorite and tells Haley that she's glad that their parents can at least take comfort in the fact that Haley is everything they wanted. Haley tells her that she is, not, in fact, everything that Donna and Gordon were hoping for, and is about to come out to Joanie, but Joanie just rolls her eyes and hugs Haley. She's already figured out that Haley is gay and loves her anyways.
  • After her relationship with Joe falls apart and she realizes that her friendship with Alexa is very one-sided, Cameron considers leaving California for good, and begins making the rounds to her remaining friends to say goodbye:
    • Bos is saddened to see Cameron go, but understands, telling her that she has more love in her than anyone he's ever met, and that all she needs to do is to figure out how to release that love without getting overwhelmed.
    • Unable to find Joe, Cameron goes to Donna's house. While she only intends to get Joe's forwarding address, Haley's computer craps out and thus Cameron and Donna work together to try and fix it, forcing them to address the old issues between them, leading Cameron to float the idea of them working together again.
  • “Hey, it was a pleasure working with you at Phoenix.” “I loved every minute of it.”
  • In the very last scene, Joe's office is filled with mementos from the past decade, including a Cardiff Giant and photos of Gordon, Cameron, and Haley. When the series started, Joe did not have any friends to speak of and led a lonely, hollow existence with nothing but some suits and a fancy car to his name. But at the end, he has grown as a character and has people he loves. He leads a rich and full life and finally has a measure of peace and satisfaction.
  • Immediately after the finale aired, AMC broadcast a thank you message to fans, thanking them for being "the thing that got us to the thing."

Top