In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.
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In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.
Season 8 episodes
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Benson is called in after a young woman shows up at the hospital, raped and beaten with her head shaved. Haley Kerns refuses to submit to a rape kit, but Benson steals her underwear before leaving the apartment and gives it to Warner to check out. When Benson returns to her apartment she encounters Star Morrison, who admits that Haley is a federal informant working with them on eco-terrorism. After Stabler is wounded while out on a search with Morrison, Benson and she work to get information from Haley before the eco-terrorists can strike.
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Directed by Peter LetoWritten by Dawn DeNoonGuest stars Gerrianne Raphael, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Abigail Hawk, Marcia Gay Harden, Lisa Strum, David Dollase, Kevin Kolack, Kristen Bush
Stabler and Tutuola pair up to investigate when two teens go missing while their school is on a field trip to a local museum. Their investigation soon turns up evidence that the disappearance was staged to help Janey, who suffers from Turner's Syndrome, be with her older boyfriend, a man with a prediliction for young girls, and to help the boy, Connor, make good on a gambling debt. Stabler experiences a rift with his daughter, Kathleen, who is upset over the way that he has handled her relationship with a young man named Kevin.
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Directed by James HaymanWritten by Allison IntrieriGuest stars Jason Butler Harner, Jennifer Lim, Betty Buckley, Deborah Raffin, Gregory Harrison, Robert Vaughn, Stephen Gregory, Larry Pine
Stabler and his new partner, Dani Beck, investigate the rape of a young woman named Nikki, who soon identifies a prominent lawyer, Martin Trenway, as her rapist. The squad has difficulty making the charges stick until another victim comes forward, but her testimony cannot be proven reliable. Determined to get at Trenway, Beck tracks down a woman from his past who holds the key to convicting Trenway, if they can convince her to expose the truth.
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Directed by Juan José CampanellaWritten by Jonathan GreeneGuest stars Lily Rabe, Robin Weigert, James Naughton, Leslie Caron, Charles Shaughnessy, Connie Nielsen, Joanna Merlin, Mike Doyle
After a mother and her ten-year-old daughter are found raped and butchered in their apartment, Stabler and Beck take in a homeless man who turns out to be Munch's uncle, Andrew. Initially he's their main suspect until they find their way to a new suspect. Unfortunately, when their only evidence against Brent Allen Banks is thrown out in court, Andrew, suffering from mental illness, goes too far trying to do what he is convinced is the right thing.
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Directed by David PlattWritten by Dawn DeNoonGuest stars Caitlin Sanchez, Sam Riley, Jerry Lewis, Ryan Brown, Connie Nielsen, Peter McRobbie, Caren Browning, Ali Reza
Stabler and Beck disagree on how to handle a case involving a rapist who seems to be escalating his attacks. Beck is getting too personally involved in the case and with the victims, which Stabler warns her against. The key witness in the case is a pregnant woman who denies having been raped more than once by the man, whose goal appears to have been to impregnate the women.
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Directed by David PlattWritten by Judith McCrearyGuest stars Kerry O'Malley, Michael Kelly, Mariette Hartley, Patricia Kalember, Connie Nielsen, Caren Browning, J. Paul Nicholas, John Michael Bolger
Novak tries to find Benson when the case for a previous rape victim, Chelsea Arndale, hinges on her testimony. Benson, meanwhile, is still living as Persephone James and has been arrested in Oregon after the ecologist's group she has infiltrated is involved in a fracas with the local police. After the local sheriff advises her that her group is being looked at in connection with a recent murder, Benson decides to do a little investigating on her own and learns that the man was a pedophile. When she finally finds his private hideaway, it leads to a shocking conclusion.
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Directed by David PlattWritten by Dawn DeNoonGuest stars Maria Thayer, Charles Martin Smith, Chris Bowers, Debra Jo Rupp, Steven Rishard, Vincent Spano, Ned Eisenberg, David Dollase
After a third young teen is found dead, a paw print tattoo on her lower back, Stabler and Beck investigate the tattoo, which leads them to Broder House, a foster home for young girls. They learn that Chantal was one of a number of girls who had ended up working the streets for a man named Victor. Stabler warns Beck that she can't get emotionally involved in every case, but the two work together to bring down Victor, relying on one of his girls to get the evidence that they need.
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Directed by Jonathan KaplanWritten by Amanda GreenGuest stars Gary Cowling, Victor Slezak, Julito McCullum, Michael Drayer, Sahra Mellesse, Luther Creek, Connie Nielsen, Charlie Ray
After a van containing two young children ends up in the river, Beck finds herself drawn to the young girl, Eden, and the investigation into a tape found in the vehicle turns up a mysterious death involving a controversial attachment therapy technique. Beck tries to do the right thing by saving Eden, only to find herself torn when it seems as though there is nothing she can do to help. The investigation into the rebirthing turns up a foster family who abuses the children in their care, but not all of the children agree that it was abuse.
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Directed by David PlattWritten by Patrick HarbinsonGuest stars Elle Fanning, Leo Burmester, Margo Martindale, Marilyn Chris, Louis Mustillo, Ken Howard, Connie Nielsen, Marlyne Barrett
After Danielle Masoner dies in Central Park, Stabler follows the leads to a homeless man who turns out to be a better witness than he thought. Paired up again with Benson, Stabler investigates her death, but it keeps bringing up memories of Dani Beck for him. During the course of the investigation, Benson and Stabler learn that Danielle's husband was sleeping with a friend of theirs, leading the squad to suspect first him, but their suspicion soon turns to the husband of the other woman.
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Directed by Peter LetoWritten by Paul GrellongGuest stars Catherine Bell, Chris Sarandon, Bernadette Peters, Bob Saget, Alan Davidson, Caren Browning, Joel de la Fuente, Anne James
Stabler heads to see terminal cancer patient Judson Tierney after a request from his parish priest, and soon realizes that Tierney has a story that he is dying to tell but only wants to tell to his estranged daughter. With Benson keeping an eye on Tierney, Stabler looks into the man's past and learns that he was once involved in a series of unsolved bank robberies, and that he has been keeping a secret about his daughter for over twenty years.
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Directed by David PlattWritten by Amanda GreenGuest stars Karen Ziemba, Victoria Wyndham, John Doman, Paget Brewster, Brian Dennehy, Allison Siko, Patricia Cook, Isabel Gillies
Stabler and Benson find themselves on opposite sides when Valerie Sennet accuses her estranged husband, Miles Sennet, of breaking into her home and raping her. Because Miles has no history of violence and Valerie refuses to allow detectives to use her daughter Tessa as a witness, he is soon released, and Stabler and Benson continue to clash as Benson remains convinced that Miles raped Valerie and is a danger, and Stabler believes it may be a case of a wife crying foul to punish her soon-to-be ex-husband.
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Directed by Eriq La SalleWritten by Judith McCrearyGuest stars Michael Michele, Liza Lapira, Tiffany Evans, Blair Underwood, Peter Gerety, Maureen Mueller, Joanna Merlin, Isabel Gillies
Tutuola reluctantly works on a case involving the rape of a coed after his son Ken feels responsible for catching the rapist. Tutuola trying to solve the case with the rape victim unwilling to cooperate, crosses paths with another detective, Chester Lake, who is also investigating similar cases as part of Brooklyn SVU. The two clash at first but when another rape occurs, the two detectives must work together and pick up the pace before the rapist strikes again.
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Directed by Arthur W. ForneyWritten by Paul GrellongGuest stars Adam Beach, Kelli Giddish, Sakina Jaffrey, Kal Penn, Pooja Kumar, Yin Chang, Mark LaMura, David Villalobos
Stabler ends out being out of commission after a perpetrator high on PCP throws him through a window at the station, so Benson teams up with Munch and Tutuola to investigate a mysterious packet of photos. The photographs lead them to both a suspected child pornographer and a junkie burgler, but after Benson takes ill during the investigation, the team realises that there is more than child pornography at stake as their investigation soon reveals that Seth Millstead wasn't into little boys at all, but had been using the tenants of the apartment building in an experiment for a new pesticide.
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Directed by David PlattWritten by Jonathan GreeneGuest stars Peter Riegert, James Naughton, Ray Wise, Wayne Duvall, Peter McRobbie, Nathanael Albright, Joel de la Fuente, Joselin Reyes
Benson and Stabler attempt to question a confused young woman about an attack on her parents that left her brother traumatized and Stabler puts his career on the line when he goes too far.
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Directed by Peter LetoWritten by Ken StorerGuest stars Emily VanCamp, Ned Bellamy, Liza Lapira, Allison Hirschlag, Cary Elwes, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Robert John Burke, Isabel Gillies
Stabler finds himself drawn into a case where a young mother has committed suicide after her baby goes missing. The case leads to questions for Benson about her own family history.
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Directed by Peter LetoWritten by Amanda GreenGuest stars Marian Seldes, Kathleen Chalfant, Pablo Schreiber, Kali Rocha, Dana Ashbrook, Ashley Williams, Stephen Guarino, Jack A. O'Connell
Benson finds herself in a bad situation when she has a closer link to a suspect than she ever could have expected.
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Directed by Peter LetoWritten by Patrick HarbinsonGuest stars Michael Carbonaro, Mary Stuart Masterson, Rick Otto, Kim Delaney, Michael Weston, Arian Moayed, Joel de la Fuente, Mike Doyle
Stabler and Benson suspect a charismatic preacher in a case of murder until his wife provides them with another viable suspect.
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Directed by George PattisonWritten by Patrick HarbinsonGuest stars Tim Daly, John Cullum, Kathy Baker, Joel de la Fuente, David Lipman, Mike Doyle, Erica Bradshaw, Karl Kenzler
Stabler seeks Kathleen's help when investigating a case involving teenage alcohol abuse.
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Directed by David Platt, Yelena LanskayaWritten by Allison IntrieriGuest stars Sarah Drew, Hunter Parrish, Laura Leighton, Rob Mayes, Leven Rambin, Allison Siko, Peter Hermann, Jill Marie Lawrence
When Detective Benson gets into the middle of an investigation of her brother Simon Marsden, the case begins to threaten her career. As Simon makes a run for it, Benson investigates further into his family life, and begins to question whether or not she was the product of a rape in the first place.
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Directed by David PlattWritten by Jonathan GreeneGuest stars Kathryn Hays, Frankie Faison, Chance Kelly, Josh Casaubon, Kim Delaney, Vincent Spano, Michael Weston, Mike Doyle
A woman's murder appears to be the result of a professional hit, when her fiancé receives death threats, apparently resulting from his CIA career. Elliot, investigating this, finds that the man may not be all that he seems.
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Directed by Peter LetoWritten by Amanda GreenGuest stars John D'Leo, Annie McGreevey, Allison Siko, Patricia Cook, Isabel Gillies, Jeffrey Scaperrotta, Mike Doyle, Elizabeth Flax
The team investigates the death of a partially clothed teenage boy wearing a leather mask. The detectives discover that the victim's best friend is the killer and has a video, showing that the boy's death was the result of a backyard wrestling match gone wrong.
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Directed by David PlattWritten by Dawn DeNoonGuest stars Barry Bostwick, Misti Traya, Michael Welch, Patricia Kalember, Peter McRobbie, Allison Siko, Patricia Cook, Jeffrey Scaperrotta
Darius Parker, goes on trial for the rape and murder of a woman and her 14-month old child. The case brings Fin under fire from the media and even has Munch and Stabler at odds. Novak prosecutes the trial that brings Stabler and Tutuola, among others, to the stand. Many previous stories are brought into the trial.
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Directed by Arthur W. ForneyWritten by Judith McCrearyGuest stars Adam Beach, Star Jones, Jack McGee, Vincent Spano, Ludacris, Steven Weber, Bill Kocis, Michael Weston
