When washed-up actor Mitch Carroll (Chevy Chase) is pulled over for drunk driving, he goes on an antisemitic tirade, all while covered in blood. Green and Cassady trace his pistol to the murder of the Jewish TV producer he felt ruined his career. But the detectives learn Carroll's son pulled the trigger in his own bigoted rage. McCoy and Rubirosa try to prove the father's hate speech drove his son to murder. When the actor shows he's willing to let his boy take the fall, the teen turns on...

An abandoned baby leads Benson and Stabler to a career woman (Lori Singer) who may have received the child in an illegal adoption. But it's the woman's lawyer/fiancé (John Stamos) who draws scrutiny. Ken Turner has fathered more than 40 children, all of them conceived after his condoms suspiciously broke. Olivia accuses him of being a "reproductive abuser," tricking women into having his babies. Though Turner's done nothing illegal, the squad calls in an expert to build a case against him....

When a child is snatched, Benson and Stabler find evidence his mother, Dr. Sophie Gerard (Isabelle Huppert), was planning to sneak him overseas. But the hunt for the hired kidnapper leaves the boy dead in a watery car crash. Sophie cannot accept her son is dead, so Olivia and ADA Jo Marlowe (Sharon Stone) bring her to the morgue to see for herself. After a scuffle with the boy's father, Sophie steals an officer's gun, shoots Warner, and takes the rest hostage. While Elliot sneaks through an...

When a newborn baby is discovered in a garbage pile, Benson and Stabler trace the child to a college student who denies it's hers. Later, she says she was a victim of rape and didn't know she was pregnant until she went into labor. Cragen learns this wasn't the first time the woman gave birth and threw the child away. Meanwhile, Warner discovers the baby's father is his own grandfather, a politician who says he's in a consensual sexual relationship with his adult daughter. Novak can't get a...

When an astronaut is murdered in her hotel room, Goren and Eames investigate shuttle commander Luke Nelson (Tate Donovan) with whom she had an affair. They turn their attention to another astronaut who had feelings for Nelson. They discover she drove to New York wearing adult diapers to kill her rival and return to Maryland to cover her tracks. The detectives conclude she was driven to violence by the commander's wife (Amy Ryan) who spiked the murderer's skin lotion with steroids to eliminate...

The squad tries to help Kelsey, a famous singer who's in a violent relationship with her equally-famous boyfriend, Austin. When dueling accusations of assault are traded by the celebrities, Austin's fans turn hostile to the victim. It's up to Carisi to convince the jury who to believe in a high profile case of he said/she said. Meanwhile, Rollins struggles with her emotions after being shot in the line of duty. We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 24 episode 3 "Mirror Effect." Our...

An armed robbery leaves an off-duty cop dead and the two gunmen flee by hijacking a town car. When Briscoe and Curtis find one of them, the robber offers Ross a deal: in exchange for a light sentence he'll tell them where to find the kidnapped driver. Over the cops' objections, McCoy agrees to the bargain, but they learn too late the driver was already dead when the suspect offered it. When the other robber turns up dead, Jack shocks Lenny and Rey when he decides to honor the crooked deal....

SVU searches for a woman abducted in a taxi cab. The victim's left leg is discovered in a canal, having been amputated while she was still alive. Benson and Amaro suspect a connection to a sex worker who said a john paid $25,000 to cut off her leg. The victim's obsession with body modification lead Fin and Rollins to a woman with a peg leg who gives pointy ear surgery to people out of a box truck. But the medical paper trail points to a psychiatrist who developed a strange fetish after his...

Benson and Stabler investigate a case of prolonged child abuse that's left a girl in a coma. The suspects include the victim's ex-con father, business executive stepfather, douchebag stepbrother, and an avuncular foreign diplomat. Munch tells Fin he isn't convinced they've arrested the right person. He gently elicits a confession from the girl's mother, herself a victim of childhood abuse. Later, a tearful Munch tells Olivia the victim reminded him of an abused girl he wished he could have...

Pop singer Dallas is found beaten in her home while her rap star husband Snake is on stage. As a child, Snake's family took Fin into their home after Mrs. Tutuola was murdered. Carisi and Rollins learn a rival rapper (played by Snoop Dogg) threatened the couple on his latest single. The trail eventually leads Benson to a music fan, but Fin figures out the attack was not about obsession...it was about revenge. We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 20 episode 22 "Diss." Our guest...

The admissions director at an elite kindergarten is murdered. Briscoe and Green learn she wanted to admit a gifted Black girl, but the headmaster overruled the decision and gave the slot to the son of a pornographer. Southerlyn discovers the pornographer scratched the back of a cement supplier who scratched the back of a real estate developer who got the headmaster an expensive apartment. McCoy tells the jury the admissions director was about to expose the arrangement when she was...

To mark the passing of actor Richard Belzer, we revisit our discussion of the actor from an October 2017 episode.

Benson and Stabler investigate the brutal murder of a teen found in a car trunk. The detectives learn the victim was a popular girl who was bullying a classmate, but suspicion soon turns to her clique of friends. The motive is jealousy over a boy, and the other mean girls turn on the queen bee who put them up to the killing. While Novak gets justice in the courtroom, the bullied student gets instant justice in the classroom. We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 5 episode 17...

A Hudson University student who'd been making money selling term papers is found dead. Elliot and Fin trace Caroline's diamond ring to a football player who lost it to her in a poker game. They learn she was a high-rolling card shark, and her lifelong friend and poker-cheating partner Adam admits to strangling Caroline for running up a huge debt. Seeing a bit of himself in Adam, Stabler feels sympathy for the killer. The defense says his gambling addiction was to blame, but Novak discovers...

Fontana and Green look into the murder of a mob accountant. When his widow (Amy Ryan) messes up on the witness stand, the burglar who killed him is acquitted. Later the victim's best friend, a former cop, shoots him. McCoy and Borgia aren't buying his claim it was self-defense. He threatens to lie on the stand about planting evidence in past murder cases, jeopardizing dozens of convictions. To get a guilty verdict, Jack grants the widow immunity to testify...when she discloses the revenge...

The rape and murder of an office worker leads Benson and Stabler to a former company security guard (Chad Lowe) who's eager to get into the police academy. With advice from newly-arrived Dr. George Huang, Elliot channels his misogyny to learn more about the suspect's relationship with the victim. Meanwhile, Olivia discovers he likes two things: pricking women's butts with hatpins and sleeping with his mother (Margot Kidder). We're talking about the creeptastic Special Victims Unit season 2...

Briscoe and Curtis investigate the killing of a Central Park jogger. Her husband is the sleazy Michael Dobson (played with relish by Larry Miller), a club owner who tricked McCoy into dropping charges of murdering his first wife in an earlier episode. The hit man has connections to Dobson...but also to the mobster who Dobson owes money to. Is he guilty or not? McCoy and Kincaid fear he'll skate again for killing wife number two...until they unravel the mystery with the woman in line to be...

After a janitor (Peter Scanavino) assaults a coach he thought was molesting boys, Benson and Amaro look into the perpetrator's own abuse as a child at summer camp. They learn several of Coach Schultz's (Ed Asner) campers are now violent criminals, including death row inmate Reggie Rhodes (Mike Tyson). Olivia tries to get Reggie to disclose his abuse so they can build a case against Schultz. Meanwhile, civil rights attorney Bayard Ellis (Andre Braugher) uncovers misconduct that might get...

Benson and Stabler look for whomever broke into the Hudson cryobank and stole a tank of frozen embryos. As the clock ticks down on how long until the fertilized eggs perish, Olivia's biological clock is ticking even louder. The religious zealot behind the plot takes his case to the press at New York's most dangerous location: the courthouse steps. We're revisiting one of our favorite episodes: SVU season 9 episode 14 "Inconceivable." Our guests are Nick Capodice and Hannah McCarthy from the...

A youth hockey coach is found beaten to death. Briscoe and Green question a player who'd complained about not getting enough time on the ice, but discover it was his hot-headed father who delivered the fatal blows. McCoy and Carmichael seek a conviction, but the defense is claiming insanity. They say it's "sports rage." We're talking about Law & Order season 11 episode 8 "Thin Ice." Our returning guest is Mark Blankenship from the "Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs" podcast. This episode...

Lewis Hodda (Tom Sizemore) recants his previous confessions to kidnapping and murdering boys. Barba's circumstantial case is hurt by accusations Lieutenant Benson coerced the confession, by a creepy auxiliary cop's obsession with the case, by Dr. Huang's testimony for the defense, and by Detective Carisi sitting second chair in court. Meantime, maternity staff rush to save Rollins's life because of complications during labor. We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 17 episode 9*...

A teen dies from drinking too much at a party. High school tutor Becca lead Benson and Stabler to the cool kids who threw the bash and who can't follow Judge Donnelly's orders to stop drinking. The detectives discover Becca's mom is sleeping with one of the boys and suspect she's been supplying the booze. Can Novak use Becca's secret drinking problem to get mom to confess? Meantime, Elliot solves all of Kathleen's problems by burning her drivers license. We're talking about Special Victims...

Green and Lupo investigate the murder of a lawyer whose opponent was suing a dry cleaner for $20 million for giving him the wrong pants. The other trousers belong to a SavingsMart executive who'll do anything to hide his office affair and save his job. Van Buren's old boss, now SavingsMart's head of security, lies on the stand to sabotage the murder case. Why? Cutter and Rubirosa learn the suspect is blackmailing the company over their purchase of Chinese toothpaste filled with deadly...

A homicidal rapist is shot in self-defense by a prostitute (Sharon Lawrence). Munch and Fin learn the gun was used in connection with a string of unsolved murders of johns. When Stabler tries to interrogate her, the woman climbs on the table and gives him a peek up her dress. Cabot fights with Lewin to seek the death penalty, but Benson uncovers a secret about her child that forces the defendant to rethink her position. We're getting an eyeful of Special Victims Unit season 4 episode 1...

Goren and Bishop search for clues after someone poisons churchgoers on a secluded island. They believe it's connected to the fatal drowning caused by a sabotaged rowboat and a gonorrhea outbreak from teen sex parties. The detectives home in on the reverend's charming nephew and a group of impressionable girls. During interrogation, Goren gets in the teen's face...and he gets in Goren's. We're talking about Law & Order: Criminal Intent season 3 episode 8 "Sound Bodies." Our guest is...