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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Plot

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was the first of several successful spin-offs of producer/creator Dick Wolf's long-running NBC series Law & Order. Rather than follow the established Law & Order formula of focusing on the "nuts and bolts" of tracking down a wide variety of criminals and bringing them to trial, the spin-off series, per its title, zeroed in on a single division of the New York City justice system: the Special Victims Unit, or SVU, which dealt primarily with such sex-based crimes as rape, incest, pedophilia, torture, and serial murder. Also, whereas the original Law & Order was essentially a story-driven series, the personalities of the main characters on Special Victims Unit often dictated the direction of the investigation and the outcome of the case. Christopher Meloni headed the cast as Detective Elliot Stabler, who sustained a calm, soft-spoken veneer on the job, and who fought a losing battle to spare his family the sordid details of his work. In contrast, Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) was volatile and impulsive; a child of rape, she tended to overidentify with the victims of the crimes she investigated and often as not had zero tolerance for the suspects, no matter what the evidence said. The two other principals were carryovers from other series: Richard Belzer repeated his Homicide: Life on the Street characterization of Detective John Munch, who leaned toward the cynical and sarcastic, and who was driven by the paranoia arising from his steadfast belief in vast sociopolitical conspiracies; and Dann Florek was seen as the SVU team's no-nonsense skipper, Captain Donald Cragen, a character he'd played for three seasons on the original Law & Order. Also in the cast were Munch's partners, departmental newcomer Detective Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters) during season one, and flippant, streetwise Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola (Ice-T) thereafter; another street-smart cop, Detective Monique Jeffries (Michelle Hurd), who appeared in the first season only; forensic psychiatrist Dr. George Huang (B.D. Wong), a regular from the third season onward; Assistant DA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), who after being placed in the Witness Protection Program was replaced by ADA Casey Novak (Diane Neal); and, on a recurring basis, Ken Briscoe, the son of veteran Law & Order detective Lennie Briscoe -- played by Chris Orbach, the son of veteran Law & Order regular Jerry Orbach. Popularly known as Law & Order: SVU, this series debuted September 20, 1999, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Credit

Ted Kotcheff - Executive Producer, Dick Wolf - Executive Producer, Mike Post - Composer (Music Score), Theresa Carriker-Thayer - Production Designer

Episodes

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 01 (1999)
The first season of the popular Law & Order spin-off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit begins with the episode "Payback," with the SVU investigating the murder and sexual mutilation of a former Serbian soldier -- who also happened to be a rapist. Quickly establishing their characters, Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) conducts the investigation in a cool, detached manner, while Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), a child of rape, cannot help but sympathize with the murderer rather than the victim. Later episodes introduce new characters or further develop the personalities of the familiar regulars. In "Closure," Benson and first-year Detective Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters) spend the night together; in "Limitations," Michelle Hurd joins the cast as streetwise Detective Monique Jeffries; and in the season finale, circumstances dictate that a forensic psychologist recommends that Stabler, outwardly the most "normal" member of the team, be removed from the SVU for emotional instability. The season's most intriguing episode is the aforementioned "Closure," a two-part story which would not be resolved until season two. And finally, "Entitled" finds Law & Order: Special Victims Unit involved in a crossover plot with its parent series, Law & Order, allowing the casts of both series to work in concert. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Payback
A Single Life
Or Just Look Like One
Hysteria
Wanderlust
Sophomore Jinx
Uncivilized
Stalked
Stocks & Bondage
Closure
Bad Blood
Russian Love Poem
Disrobed
Limitations
Entitled
The Third Guy
Misleader
Chat Room
Contact
Remorse
Nocturne
Slaves

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 02 (2000)
The second-season opener of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is the episode "Wrong Is Right," in which the efforts by SVU detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) to shelter his family from the sordid details of his work are shattered when his daughter Maureen (Erin Broderick) witnesses a horrific crime. Also in this episode, Michelle Hurd makes her final appearance as Detective Monique Jeffries, the partner of the deliciously cynical and paranoid Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer). Recurring character Det. Fin Tutuola (Ice-T) is elevated to regular status by becoming Munch's new partner. Two weeks later, in the episode "Honor," Stephanie March joins the cast as dedicated Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot, as she and the SVU team investigate a sex murder that is somehow tied in with the Taliban (and this was still during the pre-9/11 era!). Of the remaining episodes, "Closure" is a true curiosity: the concluding half of a two-part story that began in the middle of season one, this episode focuses on a rape victim who relentlessly stalks her recently released attacker. The season ends with "Scourge," the riveting story of a man driven to serial murder by a freak medical condition. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit closed out its second year on NBC as America's 25th most popular program. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Wrong Is Right
Honor
Closure, Part 2
Legacy
Baby Killer
Noncompliance
Asunder
Taken
Consent
Abuse
Secrets
Victims
Paranoia
Countdown
Runaway
Folly
Manhunt
Parasites
Pique
Scourge
Pixies

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 03 (2001)
The so-called "repressed memory syndrome" figures heavily into "Repression," the opening episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's third season. Subsequent episodes worth noting include "Wrath," in which Detective Benson's (Mariska Hargitay) relentless pursuit of rapists (motivated, in part, by the fact that she herself was conceived in rape) may bring about her death at the hands of one whom she'd sent to prison. Similarly character-driven are such episodes as "Stolen," in which Captain Cragen (Dann Florek), skipper of the SVU unit, takes it upon himself to reopen a illegal-adoption case he'd worked on a dozen years earlier; "Redemption," wherein Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) is partnered with a detective whose professional zeal sends him spiralling into depression and public humiliation; "Execution," a story built around the recurring character of forensic psychiatrist Dr. George Huang (B.D. Wong), who races against the clock to determine if a condemned murderer is responsible for an unsolved crime; "Guilt," wherein Assistant DA Alex Cabot (Stephanie March) puts her career on the line by covertly enlisting the aid of the SVU team to trap a child molester; and "Denial," in which Det. Fin Tutuola takes a special interest in a heroin addicted rape victim. The season concludes with "Silence," a timely story about a pedophilic priest. Having ended its second season as the 25th highest-rated network program in the U.S., Law & Order: Special Victims Unit enjoyed a healthy influx of new viewers during season three, skyrocketing to 12th place in the ratings. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Repression
Ridicule
Wrath
Stolen
Rooftop
Tangled
Redemption
Sacrifice
Inheritance
Care
Monogamy
Protection
Prodigy
Counterfeit
Execution
Popular
Surveillance
Guilt
Justice
Greed
Denial
Competence
Silence

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 04 (2002)
Formerly appearing on a recurring basis as forensic psychologist Dr. George Huang, B.D. Wong graduates to full series regular in "Chameleon," the opening episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's fourth season. Among the year's best episodes are "Vulnerable," guest-starring former musical comedy ingenue Jane Powell as an elderly Alzheimer's victim who is misused by both a sexual predator and her own caregiver; "Disappearing Acts," in which the SVU team runs smack against the stone wall of the Witness Protection Program while tracking down a brutal rapist; "Waste," a compelling exploration of the dark side of stem-cell research; and "Risk," wherein the team must expose the rotten apples in their own police ranks to find out who caused the cocaine-related death of a baby. As in previous seasons, many of the plotlines are driven by the unique personalities of the principal characters. In "Mercy," for example, Assistant DA Alex Cabot (Stephanie March) finds herself sympathetic to a mother who euthanized her desperately ill daughter, and in "Pandora," Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) travels all the way to Prague to crack a difficult kidnapping case. Other episodes emulate the Law & Order "ripped from today's headlines" formula. Case in point: "Appearances," which is clearly inspired by the still-unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey. Season four ends with "Soulless," chronicling the frustrations of using the juvenile record of a suspect to arrest him for sex crimes committed as an adult. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Chameleon
Resilience
Deception
Vulnerable
Lust
Disappearing Acts
Angels
Dolls
Waste
Juvenile
Damaged
Risk
Rotten
Mercy
Pandora
Tortured
Privilege
Desperate
Appearances
Dominance
Fallacy
Futility
Grief
Perfect
Soulless

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 05 (2003)
The SVU unit is confronted with a murder case yielding too many suspects and too many confessions in "Tragedy," the opening episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit's fifth season. Things take a truly disturbing turn a few episodes later in "Loss," wherein Assistant DA Alexandra Cabot's (Stephanie March) relentless prosecution of a murder tied in with a Colombian drug cartel results in her death -- or so it appears to the world. The next episode, "Serendipity," introduces Diane Neal as Cabot's replacement, ADA Casey Novak, who immediately develops an adversarial relationship with detectives Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni). Novak's professional zeal is admirable, but she proves to have as many human flaws as anyone else in the series -- notably in the season finale, "Head," in which she lives to regret allowing a child molester to cop a plea and win a lighter sentence. Season five marks the series' 100th episode, "Control," about a mutilation victim who turns out to be a sexual predator and kidnapper -- leading to Benson being raked over the coals in court because she'd refused to heed the warnings of one of the predator's potential captives. Benson is also the focus of attention in "Escape"; trying to defuse a hostage situation involving an escaped convicted pedophile, the detective ends up concluding that the man was the innocent victim of widespread political and departmental corruption. In a similar vein, the SVU unit's skipper, Captain Cragen (Dann Florek), faces the grim possibility that he may have unwittingly railroaded a guiltless criminology professor on a rape-murder charge in the episode "Criminal." And like Cragen, Det. Munch (Richard Belzer) is forced to confront the demons of his own past while handling an assisted-suicide case in "Painless." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Tragedy
Shaken
Escape
Manic
Mother
Loss
Serendipity
Coerced
Choice
Abomination
Control
Brotherhood
Hate
Ritual
Families
Home
Mean
Careless
Sick
Lowdown
Criminal
Painless
Bound
Poison
Head

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 06 (2004)
Season six of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, gets off to a powerful (and timely) start with the episode "Birthright," about a disreputable fertility doctor who plans to rob an embryo bank for his own purposes. Several subsequent episodes likewise showcase "respectable" authority figures who are anything but: "Debt" finds the SVU unit exposing a crooked immigration attorney who is involved in a prostitution ring, and "Obscene" features two teenagers whose lives are destroyed by publicity-hungry adults. This season also offers a number of personal shakeups for several familiar characters. For starters, Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) is bluntly informed that his wife has left him and taken the children in "Doubt." And former Assistant DA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), presumed murdered by Colombian drug lords during the previous season, emerges from the Witness Protection Program to confront her enemies in "Ghost" -- thereby forcing Stabler and Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) to perjure themselves by claiming they were unaware that Cabot was still alive. In the season's most talked-about development, former Murder, She Wrote star Angela Lansbury is cast as the stern, cold-blooded mother of a rape suspect in "Night" -- the first episode of a two-part story which would be concluded on another branch of the Law & Order family tree, Law & Order: Trial by Jury. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 07 (2005)

Demons
Storm
Alien
Design
911
Ripped
Strain
Raw
Name
Starved
Rockabye
Infected
Blast
Taboo
Manipulated
Gone
Class
Venom
Fault
Fat
Web
Influence

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 08 (2006)

Informed
Clock
Recall
Uncle
Confrontation
Infiltrated
Underbelly
Cage
Choreographed
Scheherezade
Burned
Outsider
Loophole
Dependent
Haystack
Philadelphia
Sin
Responsible
Florida
Annihilated
Pretend
Screwed

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 09 (2007)
Changes greet the SVU gang at the outset of the ninth season: Munch (Richard Belzer) is put in charge of the department after Capt. Cragen (Dann Florek) is temporarily removed from duty, and Det. Lake (Adam Beach) is now a full-time member of the squad. In Alternate, the season's first episode, Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) investigate a case involving a woman (guest star Cynthia Nixon) with multiple personalities. Before long Cragen is back in command, but the themes of people taking on new roles and different personalities continue in Avatar, which focuses on the case of a missing woman who portrayed an underage prostitute in an online video game. In Undercover, Fin (Ice-T) poses as a corrections officer while Benson poses as a prison inmate and has an eye-opening new experience. Benson then finds herself in another precarious situation when she is kidnapped in the series' 200th episode, Authority. This milestone episode features guest star Robin Williams as a man with an antiauthority agenda who attempts to trick people into committing criminal acts. When Williams' character abducts Benson, he uses mind games to try to get Stabler to inflict pain on her. Stabler is also no stranger to pain this season: In Blinded, he temporarily loses his sight after suffering a head injury courtesy of a suspect. That same episode finds ADA Novak (Diane Neal) confronting a dark part of her personal history as she attempts to convict a schizophrenic artist. While Novak faces her past, Stabler worries about his family's future in Paternity, which finds his wife, Kathy (Isabel Gillies), and their unborn child in jeopardy after being hurt in a car accident. An unconventional family of homeless children are at the center of Streetwise, which features guest star Mae Whitman as the clan's pseudo-mother. Other notable Season 9 guest stars include Aidan Quinn, Erika Christensen, and Melissa Joan Hart. ~ Jennifer Sankowski, Rovi

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 10 (2008)

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 11 (2009)

Unstable
Anchor
Sugar
Solitary
Hammered
Hardwired
Spooked
Users
Turmoil
Perverted
Quickie
Shadow
P.C.
Savior
Confidential
Witness
Disabled
Bedtime
Conned
Beef
Torch
Ace
Wannabe
Shattered

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season 12 (2010)

Locum
Rescue
Bullseye
Behave
Merchandise
Wet
Branded
Trophy
Penetration
Gray
Pop
Possessed
Mask
Dirty
Flight
Spectacle
Pursuit
Bully
Bombshell
Totem
Reparations
Bang
Delinquent
Smoked