< Criminal Minds

Criminal Minds/Heartwarming


  • Any time the team relaxes together.
  • Almost every Morgan/Garcia scene is guaranteed to be either a CMOF or this.
  • Any moment where Hotch shows concern or affection - or even amused affection - for one of his team. He has some particularly sweet moments with Garcia.

Season Two

  • Reid reading to his mom on the plane at the end of "The Fisher King."
  • In "P911", the mother reuniting with her son for the first time in years. The fact that the boy named his toy soldier who always protects him Jack while not knowing his mother's name was Jackie was simply adorable.
  • When they finally find Reid at the end of "Revelations". Hotch immedietely helps him to his feet and pulls him into a huge hug with JJ following soon after.

Reid: I knew you'd understand.

    • From the same episode:

Tobias Henkel: Do you think I'll get to see my mother again?

  • Gideon gently cradling the dying Unsub telling him it's going to be all right in "Open Season". Doubles as a Tear Jerker.
  • Morgan flirting a homeless lady into going into a shelter for safety in "Legacy." He says something along the lines of "the world needs all its beautiful ladies, and that includes you".
    • The ending of the episode qualifies too, from the last minute rescue to the team having fun together watching a Chaplin's movie.
  • Morgan and his sisters singing Happy Birthday to their mother in "Profiler, Profiled", as well as their good-natured sibling-y bickering.

Season Three

  • Morgan telling Garcia "goon squad or no goon squad", he's staying with her, and that he loves her, in "Penelope".
  • From "A Higher Power", after saving the last unsub's target (who had fallen into depression after her daughter's death), Prentiss talks to her:

Prentiss: A mother isn't supposed to outlive her children.
Laurie Ann: Yeah.
Prentiss: But she's gone. Allie's dead...
Laurie Ann: Please, I don't care anymore.
Prentiss: But your son does. Don't leave him as well.

  • In the Flash Back episode, "Tabula Rasa" we see Morgan and Garcia's first meeting.

Morgan: Hey, what's that new tech girl's name?
Reid: Uh, Gomez, I think.
Morgan: (To Garcia) Excuse me, Gomez. (Beat) Hey, babygirl.

Garica: (turns to faces Morgan) Babygirl?

Morgan: Forgive me, I just didn't know the real-

Garcia: I've been called worse. (Smiles) What can I do for you?

  • in "About Face", the team passing out candy to the kids at the end of the episode.

Season Four

  • JJ asking Reid to be Henry's godfather at the end of "Memoriam." (The bit about colleges directly following is also a Crowning Moment of Funny.)
  • The end of the case in "Normal" is a Downer Ending, though the actual episode ending is a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, with JJ showing off her new son.
    • Also from that episode, a slightly odd retroactive example: Reid mentions that he remembers his father's favourite writer is Isaac Asimov. In the previous season, he got excited about having the Foundation Trilogy on tape. It's almost sweet that Reid has something in common with his father, without even realising it.
  • Hotch sitting with the prostitute UnSub from "Pleasure is My Business" after she's overdosed, and holding her hand as she dies painfully, simply because she asked him to.
  • Rossi during much of "Demonology", especially the way he listens to Prentiss talk about her abortion and doesn't pass judgment. Hotch, too, when he and Rossi agree to piss off the Italian consulate on Prentiss's say-so.
  • Garcia figuring out something was wrong with Rossi in "Damaged", and Morgan, Prentiss, and JJ going to Chicago to track him down and help solve the Galen case.

Season Five

  • "The Eyes Have It", when Morgan is made their temporary unit chief and it turns out that Garcia has put together a new office for him, complete with a "secret fun zone" in a drawer with brightly colored, light up stuff, a robot dog, fuzzy pens, and a picture of her.
  • In "100", Hotch finding Jack safe inside the box he told him to hide in, using their code of "working the case". When Hotch opens the lid, Jack says "I worked the case for you, Daddy".
  • Reid giving the unsub's dolls back in "The Uncanny Valley" -- all she really wanted was the dolls her abusive father took away from her.
    • Plus the part where the diabetic victim's husband shows up at her side as the paramedics prepare to load her up. You can tell she's trying very, very hard to smile as the drugs wear off.
  • Two from "Public Enemy" - JJ playing tea party with the young daughter of a victim, and the entire team sending a card and a $500 check to the daughter when she makes her first communion.
  • Just a teeny tiny thing, but in "A Thousand Words", after Garcia says that she wishes that the case could be over, Rossi responds with, 'We've got a long way to go, kitten.' Garcia's nicknaming rubbing off on the team, perhaps?
  • Morgan reassuring Garcia she isn't getting jaded at the end of "Exit Wounds".

Season Six

  • The end of "JJ" with the goodbye between Garcia and JJ.
  • Jack Hotchner's Halloween costume in "Devil's Night":

Hotch: That doesn't look like Spider-Man.
Jack: Spider-Man's not a real superhero.
Hotch: Okay, I give up.
Jack: (wearing a suit, white shirt, and tie) I'm you, Daddy.

  • From "Coda," Reid and Sammy, the autistic child of the unsub's victims, playing the piano together after Reid figures out how to communicate with him through music. Just a nice, sweet, quiet little moment amidst the usual urgency of a case.
    • Another from Coda: Sammy's father is dead, but his mother's been rescued and is on her knees crying in front of him. And Sammy, confused little autistic Sammy who doesn't like to be touched and has no idea what's going on, reaches out and starts patting her shoulder because he's picked up somewhere that that's what you do when people are upset, and lets her hug him. A CMOH and Tear Jerker rolled into one.
  • The exchanges between Garcia and Prentiss in "Valhalla" and "Lauren".
  • Hotch and Rossi coaching Jack's kids' league soccer game together at the end of "Out of the Light."
  • In "Sense Memory," Reid calls Prentiss to invite her to see an incredibly long science-fiction movie in Russian, and is happily and innocently chattering away about it while she searches her apartment for intruders, gun drawn, but unwilling to tell her teammates that she is in danger and why. Prentiss turns down the invitation as she concludes that there are no burglars, but the conversation ends with the following exchange:

Prentiss: Thank you.
Reid: For what?
Prentiss: For being you.
Reid: Aw, thanks. I don't know how to be anyone else.

  • Morgan and Prentiss at the climax of "Lauren," especially since Morgan has been nursing a heavy sense of confusion and betrayal up to this point.

Prentiss: Let me go.
Morgan: No, I will not let you go. Listen to me, I know why you did all of this. I know what you did for Declan. I am so proud of you. Do you understand that? I am proud of you because you are my friend and you are my partner.

Season Seven

  • Prentiss explaining to the Senate Committee, at length, why her team is awesome, thereby saving the entire unit's jobs.
  • Rossi teaching the team how to cook at the end of "Proof", and Reid showing up despite his resentment toward JJ.
  • In "Painless," Hotch asks Prentiss what kept her going when she was hiding from Doyle in Paris. She reveals that she played a lot of online Scrabble with "some girl named 'Cheeto Breath.'" They both look at JJ, who is at the other end of the plane innocuously munching on Cheetos.
  • Little Jack Hotchner is being bullied by a kid in his class. Jack's solution, in Hotch's words, is "to invite him over and be friends with him". Aww, Jack.
    • Also, Jack and Hotch talking to Haley:

Hotch: Mom, please keep Jack safe.
Jack: And Dad too.
Hotch: (Surprised and touched) Oh, of course. Dad too.

  • Reid's birthday party at the end of "True Genius", especially considering how upset he'd been for most of the episode, doubting himself and his life choices.
  • The plane and ending scene of "A Family Affair".
  • Any time Angel Suarez smiles, especially when JJ figures out his name and Morgan teaches him coin tricks.
  • The ending of "Run". So warm I won't need heat this winter.
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