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1!!Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies to Moments pages. Spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned
2
3!Season 1
4
5* After Cohle shows up drunk to dinner with Hart's family, he tearfully apologizes for it. Emphasised by the implication that the loss of his own family is what's caused Cohle to become so reclusive.
6* In their first one-on-one conversation, Maggie teases out the barebones of Rust's life. Then she asks about children, and Rust says he has a daughter, before hesitantly adding "she passed... marriage didn't last long after that". Maggie goes very still and stares and realises just how lonely Cohle is that even his partner doesn't know Rust's life disintegrated.
7* Cohle's speech about how his daughter died peacefully in episode 2.
8* Cohle acknowledging that he can be hard to deal with. He says it sincerely, with no snark or sarcasm in sight. It's as if he has a moment of lucidity and is sadly realising that he's driven everyone he's cared about away.
9* Episode 3 ("The Locked Room") has a rare one from Hart. Right in the middle of recounting one hypocrisy-laden story after another to Gilbough and Papania, the narrative shifts to a scene where Marty and Maggie are arguing (again), before making up and having sex. The narrative then cuts back to 2012 Hart, lost in his own memories, glancing briefly at his ringless hand. We're shown a rare moment of regret from a man who has spent three episodes displaying both a remarkable amount of hypocrisy and an astounding lack of self-reflection.
10* At the end of Episode 3, Maggie calls Cohle late at night while Hart is out beating up his lover's boyfriend. She asks him if he knows about Hart having an affair, to which Cohle gives an ambiguous answer, wanting to be honest but at the same time not betray Hart and ruin his marriage. Maggie can tell all of this, naturally.
11* At the start of Episode 4 ("Who Goes There"), Charlie Lange's dazed expression when Cohle confirms he had something to do with his ex-wife getting killed. Even Hart finds it to be rather brutal.
12* In Episode 5 ("The Secret Fate of All Life"), when Hart and Cohle find the two kids in Reggie Ledoux's hideout, having been tortured and one of them killed. Hart is immediately broken and executes Ledoux in retaliation, and even the jaded Cohle looks close to tears when they carry the kids out.
13* Hart's gradual estrangement from his eldest daughter, Audrey, to the point that, in Episode 5, he [[SlutShaming slut shames]] her after she's found parked in a car and in a state of "undress" with two older boys, then strikes her when she tells him to "go fuck [him]self."
14* Marty recounting to the detectives about how time slipped through his fingers and he was inattentive where it mattered most is really damn sad. Made even worse by the fact there's nothing he can do to change it now.
15* Theriot's situation. He was once an idealistic, if not slightly ostentatious, preacher who sincerely believed in his mission, yet by 2002 he's a jaded, broken drunk who got screwed over for trying to do the right thing.
16-->'''Theriot:''' All my life I wanted to be nearer to God. The only nearness? Silence.
17* Cohle talking to Sonny's father. The poor man is clearly a wreck after his son disappeared and he fights back tears as he describes the aftermath, he explains that his wife thought that she could hear their son in the water by their house, but tells Rust to leave when he can't bear to talk about it anymore.
18* Cohle's conversation with the girl whom he rescued from Ledoux. The poor girl is nigh-catatonic from the trauma that she suffered, but she manages to whisper that the man with the scars was the worst out of all of them. When Cohle presses for more details, the girl descends into hysterics, reliving the trauma all over again. Even the usually stoic Cohle looks saddened as he walks away from the scene.
19* Cohle and Maggie's sex scene, where immediately afterwards they're consumed with shame and regret. His reaction afterwards is the only time we see Cohle show true rage when he realises he was used.
20* Rust and Marty's fight, resulting in Rust's resignation from the force.
21** Rust never fixed the tail light on his truck, showing that he blamed himself for what happened and wanted to remind himself of it.
22* Marty and Cohle downplaying their lives in 2012, while flashbacks show the real story. Cohle walks out of his shack to dump a bin bag full of beer bottles in his bin, while Marty browses through Match.com with a tired expression, then later watches a microwave dinner alone in his house.
23** Hart's life in particular is sad because he seems to realize exactly how he screwed everything up, he just figured it out too late. While in 1995 and 2002 he had affairs with women who looked like Maggie when she was younger, in 2012, the dating profiles he browses are all of women who are roughly Maggie's age now. Rather than vainly trying to relive his youth, he just wants to experience family life again. And as his dismal life shows, without his family, Marty really has nothing.
24* Cohle's revelation of why he's finishing the Yellow King case. He's finally found the will to kill himself and wants to end his last debt before he can do so.
25* Marty's visit to Maggie in 2012. Marty's clearly been out of his family's life for a long time as he barely knows what his daughters are up to, and he and Maggie haven't spoken in at least two years. Marty gives a sincere thank you, almost apologetically, to Maggie, and she figures he's saying goodbye. Marty can only thank her again as he knows he probably won't be coming back after committing to the investigation with Cohle.
26-->'''Marty:''' I'm glad you're doing good Maggie. It seems like everybody's happy and... it's good to see. Thank you. For everything.
27* Marty's reaction after watching the videotape: he can only scream and curse as he realises that the cult is still active and he is the party responsible for it, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero because he killed the only witness.]]
28* Marty breaking down in tears when he receives a visit in hospital from Maggie and his daughters. At first, he tries to tell them and himself that he's alright. Then he relents and admits he'll be alright. Then finally he cries from his experiences and how he lost his family.
29* The closing scenes of the season finale, in which Rust and Marty share a smoke outside of the hospital, and Rust tells his old partner about his near-death experience. He wanted so badly to join his daughter and other relatives in death, it's actually pretty heartbreaking. However, the scene has an overall heartwarming theme in that Cohle now has something to look forward to and a new-found optimism in life.
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31!Season 2
32* Ray gets called out by his ex-wife for compromising his values and his work as a police officer by being a DirtyCop. Not only that, but she wants to get custody of Chad and supervise his visits to him because of what he did to the bully's father.
33* Woodrugh gets frustrated by the media hounding him not only for the controversy with the actress he stopped for speeding but also due to questions on whether he knew the details his Black Mountain colleagues were involved in the Middle East.
34* The shootout. The aftermath is so horrific, with plenty of casualties in criminals, cops and civilians, some even due to friendly fire, that Ani and Ray are both on the verge of a full-blown panic attack after the adrenaline wears off.
35* Velcoro crying once he learns that he never avenged his wife's rape, since Semyon pointed him towards the wrong guy. Doubly so since he realizes this is why his ex-wife was so cold and vicious towards him earlier in the same day.
36* Velcoro having a hedonistic breakdown due to a disastrous supervised meeting with Chad, which culminated in the latter just replying "Ok" to Ray emotionally outpouring his love for the boy. It drives him to even completely revoke his custody claim, just so long as his wife never tells Chad the truth about his parentage.
37* Frank desperately trying to have Jordan leave with Nails. He tries a [[BreakHisHearttoSaveHim Break Her Heart To Save Her]] but she sees straight through it and tells him she is [[UndyingLoyalty staying to face whatever they face together]]. The only way he convinces her to leave is by promising her that he will be with her in two weeks, that if he knows she is safe he can do what needs to be done and most of all that if he doesn't stop them and runs with her one day he would find her dead and then he feels he would deserve to die. They both cry while Nails promises Seymon that nobody will get near her. That is the last time they see each other
38* Paul's death at the hands of Burris. Emily seems to feel it across town, suddenly crying.
39* Ray perishing in a forest after a shootout with some assassins, as per the vision he had in the third episode.
40** This one deserves emphasis: Ray is being chased through the forest and knows he has basically no chance to survive the coming gun battle. He pulls out his phone and sends a final message to his son, steels himself, and goes down shooting...only for the phone to reveal that he has no service. The message is never sent.
41* Frank succumbing to his wounds during the finale after confronting his demons.
42** This one also deserve emphasis: Frank goes to meet the Mexicans, to give them "everything he has left", while also secretly carrying many hundreds of thousands of dollars in diamonds in his suit jacket. He meets the Mexicans in the middle of a desert, gives them "everything", and takes it like a bitch when they treat him terribly. They start to leave him stranded in the desert (several HOURS by CAR in the desert), and when he protests, they demand his suit jacket as an additional humiliation. He refuses, they stab him, take his jacket anyway, and then leave him to die. True to his {{Determinator}} nature, he stands up and starts walking. And keeps walking. And keeps walking for what is implied to be hours while bleeding out from his stab wound. And just when he gets a HopeSpot, seeing Jordan waiting for him and getting his panache and bravado back, [[WhamLine the hallucination points out that he fell way back there]]. He turns to look, sees his now-dead body...and she's gone after the next camera cut. Frank's hallucination then falls to the ground dead.
43----
44
45!Season 3
46* The end of Episode 3, where Wayne realizes that Amelia's "ghost"(?) is sitting right behind him. He despairs at his deteriorating mind and memory betraying him and bringing his lost love back to live against his will, saying he can stand anything but that and begs for it not to happen.
47* Woodard's last stand in episode 5. By this point, Wayne and Roland know that he's not guilty. But nobody else does and Woodard daring Wayne to kill him, both of them knowing he has no choice but Wayne desperate not to, is devastating.
48* The end of Episode 5, "If You Have Ghosts:" Wayne visits Roland after 25 years and finds his old partner sad, bitter, and alone, the exact opposite of how he used to be. What's worse, it's clear that whatever happened, Wayne is partially responsible but can't remember a thing about it because of his worsening dementia. Then Wayne insists on dredging up the worst parts of the past because it's all that he ''can'' remember. The entire scene on Roland's back porch is fueled by 100% pure ManlyTears.
49-->'''Roland:''' This what you came to see me about? Twenty-five years. What, you doin' old man fantasy camp? You think you'll just roll up here and I'll be all, ''Golly gee partner! Let's grab our junior detective clue finders and have an adventure!'' You... You know '80? We stopped being partners. You got married. It's natural. People drift apart. This right now? This ain't that! All this time. You never picked up the phone. Never dropped by for a beer. Never said you're fucking sorry, once!\
50'''Wayne:''' Roland, I--\
51'''Roland:''' I was gonna put that shit aside. Have a drink with ya. Reminisce. Maybe just watch the dogs play and the sun go fucking down. But look what you're doin'.\
52'''Wayne:''' ''[pointing to a whiskey bottle]'' How many of those you go through in a week?\
53'''Roland:''' Hey fuck you, man! I'm fine! Alone out here. No woman. No kids. And no old friends. So that means I get to drink exactly as much as I want to!
54* Tom's HowlOfSorrow when he hears the tape from Julie telling the operator that she never wants to see him again in "Hunters In The Dark", episode 6. His son has been killed, his daughter's been kidnapped, his wife is dead, and he's literally just living to hear from Julie again, only to hear that. It's brutal.
55** Even worse in "Hunters In The Dark" is the immediate revelation that Hays and West now immediately suspect him of abusing Julie and killing Will. Roland is Tom's only friend by that point, and just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it pushes him further into the DespairEventHorizon.
56* The outcome of Tom's presumed suicide (actually murder), too: being accused of those horrible crimes and being unable to defend himself.
57* A knife-twisting one comes at the end of the season. Hays, who has been struggling with dementia and forgetfulness, finally confronts the still-alive Julie, who was living a new life after the convent helped her restart, but as he arrives he ''forgets why he was there,'' instead talking to her without knowing who she was, and thus inadvertently missing out on badly-needed closure.
58* The final shot of the season: the camera zooms into Wayne's pupil, cutting to the final scene of the '90s storyline, in which Wayne and Amelia reconcile in the Army bar and Wayne informally proposes to her. As they walk outside the bar door, the scene changes to one of Wayne performing reconnaissance work during the Vietnam War, pushing forward into the dense jungle thrush, alone. The implication is that this represents the current state of Wayne's deteriorating mind, lost in time, and braving the internal labyrinth of his mental illness alone.
59!Season 4
60* "Part 3" opens up with flashback: a woman having a water birth, being attended by a doula and other Inupiak women. After she delivers the baby, she asks to hold the baby, but her pleas are ignored. While the doula and another woman are administering CPR to the baby, the mother just keeps asking why isn't the baby crying.
61** At least this baby turned out all right: during a gathering of mining protestors, it is announced that a couple in the community had a stillbirth. This is just one out of ''nine'' in the previous three months. It is implied (and later confirmed) that it is due to the mining operation's high levels of pollution.

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