History TearJerker / Bones

* As a man who has already been on the tail end of [[spoiler:a rejected marriage proposal]] what happens to Booth at the end of "The Daredevil in the Mold" is particularly jarring.

** Cue Bones and Booth looking uncomfortably at each other, trying to figure out how to explain that [[spoiler:Sweets is dead]]

* The entirety of "The Ghost in the Machine". It's told from the point of view from the victim - a fourteen-year-old boy. Just his age itself is sad, but when you hear what everyone has to say to him (or his skull, rather) and realize that he hears it too... Hell, Brennan even cries for him. And she '''never''' cries over victims.

** Finn, Colin, Fisher, Arastoo & Wendell telling each other their memories of the day, and when they first learnt of the 9/11 attacks:

** Hank revealing to Brennan that he is the reason Booth's father left the family. Hank discovered his son beating Booth and told him to leave and never come back. It is clear he doesn't understand why his own son could do that but he knew he had to protect his grandchildren. He asks Brennan to one day tell Booth and to comfort him as he's afraid Booth will hate him for driving his dad away.

** [[spoiler: Zack's]] tear-filled confession of the crimes and revealing the location of Gormogon..

* Season 9's episode "The Spark in the Park". The victim's father is the physics-professor version of Dr. Brennan, extremely intelligent but with few apparent social graces. At the end, Brennan comes back to check on him, and he is writing vector calculus equations. Bones realizes and the professor explains that each one represents a different phase of his daughter's life, starting with "At rest in her crib", going through crawling, walking, somersaults, ice skating, her gymnastics career... and finally again, at rest. Bones tearfully remarks that this is "the most beautiful thing I've ever seen...more beautiful than a speech, more beautiful than a photograph"...

* "The Priest in the Churchyard" has a sad scene where the killer talks with her priest and ParentalSubstitute Father William. She meant well and was trying to kill PedophilePriest's while he feels heartbroken both by how she's going to jail, and because it's all for nothing (one of the men she killed might not have been guilty and the other certainly wasn't). William is also clearly saddened to realize that it was his own hostility towards one of the victims (fortunately the one who survived) due to that man replacing him, which caused the killer to trust his judgment and go after that man.

* Brennan’s comment in “Judas On A Pole” as her dad leaves that she’s “one of those people who doesn’t get to have a family” is heartbreaking although it loses some sting when you know she does get a family later.

* The victim's father talking about his daughter (and his dead wife) in "The Girl in the Gator" and the team's guilt about how their SayingTooMuch causes him to get arrested for shooting the man who raped his daughter.

*** Brennan was identifying bodies in the wreckage of the Twin Towers, something that causes her to cry when she and Booth talk about the case when they get home.

* "The Graft in the Girl". Amy, the teen daughter of Booth's boss, has cancer, which it turns out was caused by a bone graft from a bone with cancer. After further investigation it turns out there are more people with cancer from the same donor (whose bones were illegally harvested). In the end the murder is solved and, but Amy is still going to die.

** A more minor part, but still worth mentioning. Booth seeks out Bones' estranged brother, who left her not long after their parents did. When she goes to call him out on it, we find out her brother [[PromotiontoParent wasn't much older than her]], and genuinely thought she would have a better childhood in foster care than if he tried to raise her

*** The FBI agent who advised against paying the Kent Twins ransom is no longer with the Bureau, mentions that he's an alcoholic now, and clearly views it as MyGreatestFailure. Really all of the initial investigators involved in that case are shown to be affected by it, and the Gravedigger remaining at large for another two seasons, [[spoiler: by which point she's killed two of them]] robs them of closure.

* "The Priest in the Churchyard" has a sad scene where the killer talks with her priest and ParentalSubstitute father William. She meant well and was trying to kill PedophilePriest's while he feels heartbroken both by how she's going to jail, and because it's all for nothing (one of the men she killed might not have been guilty and the other certainly wasn't). William is also clearly saddened to realize that it was his own hostility towards one of the victims (fortunately the one who survived) due to that man replacing him which caused the killer to trust his judgment and go after that man.

** They're doozies too; Bones uncharacteristically starts the sharing unprompted by telling the story of the time her foster parents [[spoiler:locked her in the trunk of a car for dropping a dish.]] She's brought to tears by the memory, and keeps trying to justify it wasn't her fault
** Booth then, at a single look from Bones, tells them he would have [[spoiler:killed himself as a child had it not been for his grandfather]]
* In "The Plain in the Prodigy", Mrs. Yoder asks for the DMV picture of her son. Since the family was Amish, she probably didn't have any other picture of their son.

** Additionally, at one point Bones says she finds the idea of a woman burying her son "heart breaking". Booth tells her “You are the one who always says that the heart can’t break because it’s a muscle. It has to be crushed,” she replies “Well, isn’t it heart crushing?”
* In "The Bones on the Blue Line", Sweets is sitting next to a guy who just a text saying he's now cancer free. He then proceeds to tell Sweets how he's going to travel the world and sleep with exotic women, things he'd been putting off because of his cancer. Seconds later, he’s thrown into a handpole on the subway when the train derails, killing him instantly.

* The sixth season premiere, "The Mastadon in the Room", in a good way when Hodgins and Angela are talking about [[spoiler:their baby]].

* * Before that, the scene where Angela [[spoiler:gives faces to all of the slave ship victims.]]

*** Colin was stealing test answers and was caught by his teacher, who came into the room crying. They both watched the news coverage together and cried together.

** From the same episode, the description of one victim crawling over to the body if his InnocentBystander girlfriend before dying.

** On a lesser ote, the sadness of the victim's wife.

* The beginning of "The Woman in Limbo". Brennan sees Angela's latest facial reconstruction of a Jane Doe and ''flips out'', repeatedly telling Angela that it's a mistake and to do the facial reconstruction again, before storming out. She then rushes to look at the evidence found with the Jane Doe, and proceeds to break down when she finds a familiar necklace. Meanwhile, both Angela and Dr. Goodman are incredibly confused by Brennan's outburst. That's when Booth comes in and sees the facial reconstruction as well, and reveals the cause of Brennan's reaction: [[spoiler:the Jane Doe is ''her mother''. She finally found out what happened to her in the worst way possible]].

* The beginning of “The Woman in Limbo”. Brennan sees Angela’s latest facial reconstruction of a Jane Doe and ''flips out'', repeatedly telling Angela that it’s a mistake and to do the facial reconstruction again, before storming out. She then rushes to look at the evidence found with the Jane Doe, and proceeds to break down when she finds a familiar necklace. Meanwhile, both Angela and Dr. Goodman are incredibly confused by Brennan’s outburst. That’s when Booth comes in and sees the facial reconstruction as well, and reveals the cause of Brennan’s reaction: [[spoiler:the Jane Doe is ''her mother''. She finally found out what happened to her in the worst way possible]].

** A more minor part, but still worth mentioning. Booth seeks out Bones's estranged brother, who left her not long after their parents did. When she goes to call him out on it, we find out her brother [[PromotiontoParent wasn't much older than her]], and genuinely thought she would have a better childhood in foster care than if he tried to raise her

* When Booth's father dies he thinks his grandfather is trying to pressure him to face it because he wants Booth to forgive his father. Hank finally tells Booth no, he wanted Booth's help because Hank's son died and, good or bad, Booth's dad was still Hank's child. He knows the man was horrible but he still wants to do right by him, one last time.

* [[spoiler: Hodgins manages to find evidence that could prove Zach didn't commit the lobbyist murder he confessed to and eagerly goes to show it to Cam...who proceeds to accuse him of evidence tampering. He snaps that she should just throw it out if she doesn't trust him and storms out.]]

*** Brennan was identifying bodies, something that causes her to cry when she and Booth talk about the case when they get home.