Law and Order: Criminal Intent/Heartwarming

• For a proceedural crime drama, Law and Order: Criminal Intent has its share of Heartwarming Moments. Almost all of them center around Goren and Eames's relationship.
  • Eames's testimony in "In the Wee Small Hours" where she is forced to read a letter she wrote asking for a new partner. As she allows to explain, the camera cuts between her devastated face and his hurt-yet-sympathetic face. She says he is an "acquired taste," and in the hallway afterwords he cuts off her apoology and agrees that he is an acquired taste and was lucky she withdrew the letter.
  • Goren rarely calls Eames by her first name, but when they conclude that her husband's supposed murderer was wrongfully convicted, he calls her "Alex" and everyone in the audience squees.
  • Alex taking the Captain's job just long enough to ensure Goren is treated kindly in his exit interview before resigning as a police officer, unable to continue on the job without her beloved partner. Cue massive, massive shipping squee and one of the most satisfying exits for a pair of characters in television history.
• In a convoluted sort of way, the following: In "Gemini" (Season Two, Episode Two), the bad guy of the episode just melts down while in session with his paranoid schizophrenic brother. He just blows up and starts screaming about how said brother was a hindrance and a burden and useless. The brother looks at him, visibly saddened. As they cart the bad guy out, his brother turns to him and says:

It's okay, Spence. We're still brothers.