Being Detective Drama dealing with difficult cases as well as one of the longest-running TV shows, Trace is full of sad and heart-wrenching moments. Let's remember some of them.
- Ending of "Property", where Amelina returns from assignment in Interpol's Tel Aviv office. Tikhonov is shown holding velvet jewellery box in his hand, but he Cannot Spit It Out.
- Scene in Darker and Edgier episode "Night Witness", where Amelina, after being raped few days ago, comes back to her rapist's house door only to know that he left the country. Oksana bursts into tears dropping the knife.
- Another longer Darker and Edgier episode, "Game of Bones", has Antonova understanding that one of the skulls used for installations belongs to Maryana, daughter of the anthropologist helping FES in the case. Seeing him devastated is very hard to take.
- Another episode with Oksana Amelina is "Female Instincts". She fell in love with Investigative Commitee detective Ilya Kolchin only to find out that he covered his former wife in case of baby kidnapping (she needed the baby because her illegitimate baby was kidnapped earlier). Oksana saved the baby from flat set on fire. The final dialogue was very sad:Amelina: But now I know what I want. When I looked at him, my heart was full of joy.Tikhonov: Maybe someone looks at you just like that.
- Beginning of two-parter "Don't Trust Anyone" where Danilov's sister and niece (who even called him "daddy") die in a shopping mall fire. Danilov is shown to be ready to shoot himself. And, given his background of losing parents and going through strings of horrible relationships, it 's extremely hard to see him this way.
- Two-parter "Deposit", somewhat connected with "Don't Trust Anyone" shows Vlasova's bay daughter abducted 20 years ago. Later in the episode, we see her son Gleb, who lives with his father and stepmother. It's stated that Rita demoted herself to holiday mother because she couldn't cope with trauma.
- Another scene from "Deposit" where someone must interrogate Liza, long-lost daughter of Vlasova who killed her biological father and was ready to kill her newly-found brother (whom he used as Human Shield. Vlasova's emotions:Vlasova: It's your case, so come and talk to her. I'm not intersted in her anymore.
- And, during the interrogation, when Danilov talks to her about Rita:Liza: She's cool.Danilov But for her, you are nothing.
- Ending of "Black on White", where Belaya waking from stasis knows the truth about her stepfather being serial child molester driving his stepdaughters to suicide. She looks completely devastated and breaks into tears.
- "Morgue Explosion" shows Tikhonov's hacker friends wiped out by bank executive for their past deeds. It ends with Tikhonov driving to morgue in wheelchair, covering six glasses with slices of rye bread (it's one of mourning symbols in Russia) and drinking vodka from the bottle.
- "Real Indians" features this dialogue between Tikhonov and Dunaeva:Tikhonov: Every policeman, just like every doctor, has his wn little graveyard.Dunaeva: (Sadly) And there's one more place now at mine...
- Fate of Gleb Skvortsov, victim ofthe day in "Everybody Hates Gleb". He was a trans teenager constantly bullied in school. He was brutally beaten by school bullies just before being stabbed to death by his only girlfriend who just couldn't accept him leaving to China for a sex reassignment surgery. His mother saying that she wasn't surprised by er son's death is very hard to take.
- In "The Dead Hour", nine-year-old Nikita dies in a Heroic Sacrifice after singlehandedly figuring out the killer, tracking the latter down through the woods for two days, and finally helping the police catch him.
