History TearJerker / CSI

* Grissom's speech to the killer in Butterflied. After four seasons, it was finally confirmed that he was romantically interested in Sara, he was just too afraid to do anything about it.

** This is actually one of the better CSI episodes, because unlike most others, where the motive of death is rather upsetting and disturbing, the motive for infanticide here was from an act of love, not spite. The couple deliberately killed their child, not because they wanted him dead, not because they considered him a nuisance, but because they thought he was going to die painfully (and they did all they could to ensure he wouldn't suffer from the heatstroke by drugging him with cold medicine beforehand). This is not that dissimilar to a pet owner wanting to euthanize their pet, thinking that they are going to die, but unbeknownst to them their illness is not an actual terminal disease. As the father put it (who was more responsible for the death of the infant), he was not a bad parent, but just negligent, he probably meant the same for the mother. At the end, as much as you want to condemn the parents for their horrendous act, you can't help but feel sorry for them, because they actually cared about their child.
*** YMMV but... Actually, not only does one not feel sorry for them in the slightest. One hopes that they end up having the book thrown against them as hard as it possibly can. Because they DIDN'T do it out of love. They didn't do it out of fear of their child suffering needlessly. They did it so that THEY wouldn't have to suffer through watching it happen. That, and they couldn't be bothered to have any tests done to prove things one way another. They decided they knew what they issue was, decided "I can't live through that again." and murdered their helpless child. Not only that, murdered said child by locking him in what amounted to an oven, and leaving them there as he cried and screamed for help as he was cooked alive. They aren't "victims" They are some of the most vile villains in the show.

* "Let's Make A Deal" has Nick sombrely arresting an inmate who strangled another inmate to death, not because he was an informant, but because he molested him years ago while serving as a school janitor. Nick reflects to his own sexual assault at the hands of a replacement babysitter, and said he would have done the same thing if he ran into his molester.

* In "Say Uncle", Grissom investigates a double homicide where a Korean man and woman apparently killed each other. It's revealed the woman has an eight-year-old son, Park, who watched her shoot the man, who turns out to be Park's uncle who was recently released from prison. He and Park's deceased father were gangsters, and it also comes to light that both Park and his mother, who was a junkie, are HIV positive. Park's mother put him in a medically unsound (and painful) clinical trial, with his doctor giving him a gastric bypass tube. When Park's uncle found out about this, he tried to take Park away from his mother, who hunted them down and shot the uncle... Then Park, driven over the DespairEventHorizon, took his uncle's gun and ''[[SelfMadeOrphan shot his own mother to death]]''. As Brass puts it, Park didn't have any control over his own life until he picked up that gun, and the episode closes [[AdultFear with an eight-year-old boy going off to juvenile detention.]] It's not often a CSI regrets solving a case, but in this episode, it's easy to see why Grissom is so deeply affected.

* Episode 2 "Honeymoon in Vegas": [[spoiler: Hodges turns himself in to the police after the charges are filed, and he has a quietly devastated face visible the entire time. His life is crashing down around him, and later Jim and Grissom openly tell him that they don't disbelieve he could actually have done what he's accused of. It's clear he's very hurt that they doubt his word about being framed, and he feels abandoned by people he's known for years.]]

* Jim learning his daughter was a murderer. When she confronts him, he says she can shoot him. He's already dead inside.
* "In Immortality", Grissom tells the bomber about a whale that sings at a frequency that none of the other members of his species can hear. The story of the whale is sad enough, but by the end of the sequence of scenes, it's obvious that he's talking about himself and Sara.

** Morgan sobbing hysterically as she, Greg and Catherine are about to try to disarm the bombs.
** Catherine shouting that she loves them right before they make their attempt at disarming the bombs, knowing that if they fail, this will be the last thing she ever says to them.

** The B-plot of the episode involves a pregnant student hanging herself as a result of trauma from breaking up with her boyfriend, her father's death, and the bullying she endured from his ex-girlfriend and her fellow cheerleaders, who leaked her cheerleading tryout video which went viral. Doc and Nick were too late to save her, but at least managed to save her baby.

* In "Lost & Found", a father, daughter, and son went missing, and the mother spent the last three years looking for them. [[spoiler:Eventually, the team found the son's corpse hidden inside the house, and the father and daughter living as a couple under a false identity, together with the daughter's own son. The father confessed that he killed his son and impregnated his daughter. In grief, the mother takes a cop's gun and shoots the father dead, only for the team to find out later that it was the uncle that molested the daughter, who then accidentally killed her brother when he threatened to tell the mother. The father actually took her into hiding to protect her.]]

* In Immortality, Grissom tells the bomber about a whale that sings at a frequency that none of the other members of his species can hear. The story of the whale is sad enough, but by the end of the sequence of scenes, it's obvious that he's talking about himself and Sara.
* Morgan sobbing hysterically as she, Greg and Catherine are about to try to disarm the bombs.

* The situation that lead to the death of Jerry Gable, the victim in ''Dog Eat Dog''. Jerry suffered from Prader Willi Syndrome, which prevents the stomach from signaling the brain that it's full, so Jerry felt like he was hungry all the time. [[DeathByGluttony This caused Jerry to die from overeating.]] Even viewers who don't have eating disorders can't help but pity Jerry in the end.