Law & Order: SVU (Special Victims Unit) Season 5 Episodes
Season 5 Episode Guide
Episode 1 - TragedyA frantic 911 call is logged and it appears a woman is being attacked in her car. Detectives Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) think it could be the carjack rapist, but after much digging, they discover the victim is Annika Bergeron (Karen Goberman). Her only relative is her sister, Laura (Marisa Ryan), who lives in New Jersey and tells the detectives that Annika is eight months pregnant. Her doctor also warns them that she has a dangerous condition and must have a caesarian section or both she and her baby will die.
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Episode 2 - ManicBenson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) are called to a chaotic situation at a high school. Two star basketball players are found in the gym, stripped and shot to death, and what appears to be a third victim, Joe Blaine (Rory Culkin), is shot in the head. Joe recovers, and the detectives feverishly look for the shooter. Joe draws pictures and appears to be very agitated and mentally unstable. He draws a photo that matches the school janitor (who had access to the murder weapon) but he is too aged and not agile enough to have escaped through the window, the only way for the gunman to have left the gym. But Joe's mental state is a big factor and they realize from prints he is the gunman.
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Episode 3 - MotherA top forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Greta Heints (Susanna Thompson), is found assaulted and bound in a crack house. She regains consciousness but doesn't seem too eager to help Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) find her assailant. Her husband says she got a call on the private patient line the night of the attack and then went out. Detectives Munch (Richard Belzer) and Fin (Ice-T) investigate Greta's case list and they are looking at a patient named Benny Edgar Ralsay (P.J. Marshall), also known as the duct tape rapist. He has an ankle bracelet and claims he was at home the night of the attack, but the detectives also discover he slips his surveillance by putting the bracelet on his cat. Benny says he has nothing but total respect for Dr. Heints, even though her unconventional method - regressing patients to their early childhood to reparent them - has some people, like Dr. Huang (B.D. Wong), a little concerned.
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Episode 4 - LossA young woman wearing only a fur coat is found dead, with her tongue cut out. Her identity is shaky and records only go back two years. But it turns out, the victim, Livia Tellez, is really Livia Sandoval, an immigrant from Colombia who's been here seven years. She took her civil service exam in 2000 and was snapped up from the Police Academy by the DEA to be an undercover agent and infiltrate the Colombian drug cartel. Fin (Ice-T), whose background is narcotics, talks to one of his "sources" that gives him the name of a Dominican dealer, Felix Santos (Andre Royo). He informs them that Livia was sleeping with Rafael Zapata (Jacinto Taras Riddick), a Colombian national, and she really got him angry with her "big mouth."
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Episode 5 - SerendipityA newborn is found dead in a sewer. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) go to a nearby apartment to question a very pregnant woman, but she's found dead. The woman, Brianna Morris, was going to give her baby up to Ron (Jack Gilpin) and Kelly (Barbara Garrick) Wolcott, who were excited about the adoption. But Ron found out Brianna had second thoughts about keeping the baby. Nonetheless, the Wolcott's are ruled out as suspects. A.D.A. Casey Novak (Diane Neal), new to the unit, is very aggressive, and she second-guesses the detectives.
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Episode 6 - CoercedA five-year-old boy named Adam Forbes (Dylan Bluestone) is missing from his apartment, and his frenetic mother initially blames her ex-husband Peter (James McCaffrey), but it's soon clear a stranger kidnapped him. Shortly thereafter, there's a major incident at the grocery store down the street. The owner is stabbed to death and the clerk is also stabbed, but survives. There's also a trail of disturbing photos of Adam with the name Tate (Spencer List). The homeless man who lived in the store in exchange for work, Kevin Walker (Leland Orser), is the primary suspect. The Detectives find Kevin wandering aimlessly and when they try to arrest him, he is talking to himself and extremely violent. He's schizophrenic and extremely disturbed, and refuses to tell them where he stashed Adam. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) are frantic.
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Episode 7 - ChoicePolice patrolling Momma Sue's restaurant stumble upon an attack in progress. A woman is being assaulted and there is threatening graffiti on the walls. The victim is Jennifer Fulton (Josie Bissett), owner of the restaurant. After going to the hospital to get checked, she's in a rush to leave. Her husband, Craig (Ricky Aiello) is concerned, which leaves Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) to believe the suspect was not her husband, but could have been an underage drinker she busted earlier. The young man is Leon Ardilles (Victor Rasuk) and it turns out he was in the restaurant that night, and the paint on his fingernails matches the paint from the walls. He admits he was there and tagged the place, but Jennifer was already injured.
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Episode 8 - AbominationA male in his 20's is found murdered, in a pile of sheets. It's tough to get the identification of the victim. All Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) have is an address in the West Village, traces of plaster on the body, as well as nylon in the sheets which is most likely the result of a faulty clothes dryer. The detectives show the victim's photo around gay bars in the Village, based on sexual evidence that he was with another man, and he's recognized because he was seen on posters for ReGenesis, a special interest group that tries to convert people from being gay to being straight. The victim is James Reed, and the people at ReGenesis are very saddened by his death. He was a member of the group but quit. Meanwhile, James had been getting horrible hate mail from Nebraska and at his funeral there is a protest led by Reverend Shaw (James Otis), who is based in Nebraska and thinks homosexuality is a sin.
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Episode 9 - ControlHorace Gorman (Austin Pendleton) collapses at a subway station and is taken to the hospital and survives, but his genitals have been cut off. He claims a homeless man did it but Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) aren't so sure. They think he might have commissioned the job himself from a doctor who performs this type of elected procedure. Meanwhile, the Detectives talk to some of the homeless people who live in the Grand Central subway tunnel, including Samuel (Joseph McKenna). In his ""space"" they find a mannequin holding a paper bag, which contains Gorman's ""missing parts."" Samuel claims he is receiving an offering, the Jewels of Sodom, from an archangel.
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Episode 10 - ShakenSarah Rendell (Nicole Leach), a 19-year-old babysitter and Veronica Nash (Olga Merediz), an officious, older nanny are watching the children in the park. Lucy, who's under Sarah's care, disappears and they call the cops. Stabler (Christopher Meloni) finds her lying in the bushes with a massive head injury. The Detectives are looking for a pedophile and their best lead comes from prints taken from a film box found at the scene. Veronica described a dark, middle-aged, stocky man who she thought was suspicious, but it turns out he was a P.I. hired to spy on a nanny. Lucy is barely alive; she's had surgery and is on life support. M.E. Warner (Tamara Tunie) drops a bomb, claiming her injury was caused by being shaken about 12-48 hours earlier and not at the park.
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Episode 11 - EscapeThere's an escape at the Virginia Correctional Facility. Double D (Michael Kenneth Williams) and Michael Baxter (Stephen Lang) are on the loose. Deputy Marshall Andy Eckerson (Craig Bierko) goes to N.Y. to team up with Detective Benson (Mariska Hargitay) to track them down. Benson and Eckerson are concerned Baxter is going to find his stepson, Lee Healy (Milo Ventimiglia), who said he was raped by his stepfather, and that testimony sent Baxter to jail. They find Lee and his mother, Carin (Nancy Allen), who works with her nephew Jeremy (Jack Noseworthy), and warn them. But it's too late, Baxter kidnapped Lee.
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Episode 12 - BrotherhoodThe body of young man is found in a tank at a wastewater treatment plant. M.E. Warner (Tamara Tunie) is able to identify a tattoo that says TE and it's the symbol for the fraternity Tau Epsilon. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Chris Meloni) discover the deceased is Tyler Henry, treasurer of the Panhellenic Council. Tyler was a big man on campus and his father Xander (Gary Cole) is a very successful attorney. Tyler is living quite well supposedly off his web design activities, but in actuality he was making money selling advertising for a porn website. Initially, the Detectives suspect co-ed Chloe Spiers (Serena Williams), who had previously sued Tyler after she stripped for a wet t-shirt contest Tyler sponsored and had her pictures splashed all over the Internet. But she has an alibi. She was playing basketball out of state.
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Episode 13 - HateA young woman, Mira Elbisi, is brutally raped and burned, and after identifying her, Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) suspect her husband and mother-in-law. Mira was not getting along with her husband, who routinely beat her, and she was also having an affair. They take her husband and mother-in-law, Al-Shani (James Rana) and Jazlyn (Lorraine Serabian), into custody. Both claim they were at their office while they're being questioned, when another incident happens. A young Arab student is burned, the same type of fuel oil found, along with the pipe. There is a link between the two victims. They both went to the Interfaith Council downtown and were trying to improve relations between Muslins, Jews and Americans.
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Episode 14 - RitualThe dismembered body of a black boy is found in Central Park, amidst what appears to be Santeria type ritual materials - candles, bowls with blood. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) trace the candles to a Santeria group but the leader says there's no way any of the members would hurt a child. There haven't been any reports of a missing child, but he does have an unusual scar on his abdomen. M.E. Warner (Tamara Tunie), still unable to identify the victim, says that based on tests to the bones, the child has only been in New York about four weeks, and before that was in Nigeria. The Detectives check on all immigrants from Nigeria - no one is unaccounted for. So they surmise the victim is illegal, and also realize the child could have been brought here to be sacrificed, as that is still practiced by some African cultures.
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Episode 15 - FamiliesThe body of a 16-year-old girl is found while Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) are chasing down a rape suspect. The victim is Shannon Coyle (Jenna Gavigan) and her grief-stricken mother Susan (Helen Slater) and brother Brian (Spencer Treat Clark) are devastated. She was at choir practice and never made it home. The detectives were having some difficulty with leads and when the choir teacher's prints come up (on a secret key in Shannon's purse), they think he is the suspect. They go to his apartment and find him in bed with Shannon's best friend, Lisa (Stefanie Nava).
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Episode 16 - HomeA young, emaciated boy is found by neighbors scrounging for food. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) suspect the boy, Jacob (Jesse Schwartz), is a victim of abuse and are reluctant to let him go home. They question his mother, Marilyn Nesbit (Diane Venora), and she seems strange. It appears she controls Jacob with food and is very restrictive about what he can eat. Jacob and his teenage brother, Adam (Joseph Cross), are both home schooled and their house is immaculate. Their father was killed in a random hold up and it appears Marilyn just wants to keep her boys close, at home. However, there isn't enough to prove Marilyn is an unfit mother so Jacob returns home. Stabler gives him his card, and says to call if he needs anything. That night, Stabler's cell phone rings, he knows it's Jacob, but by the time he gets to his apartment, he is lying in a pool of blood, dead, and Marilyn and Adam have disappeared.
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Episode 17 - MeanThe body of a 16-year-old girl is found brutally murdered in a car. When Emliy Sullivan is reported missing, the Detectives go to her well-appointed house in Westchester and confirm she's the victim. Emily told her parents she was sleeping over at Andrea Kent's (Arielle Kebbel) house, but instead she apparently snuck into the city and was killed. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) go to Tanner Day School, an upscale private school, and talk to her grieving friends. They try the number she had given her parents and Brittany O'Malley's (Kelli Garner) cell phone rings, obviously in on the scam. They also discover Emily sent hundreds of threatening text messages to Agnes Linsky (Lindsay Hollister), an overweight, unpopular schoolmate.
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Episode 18 - CarelessA 6-year-old boy is brought to the emergency room from a midnight church service because he has stopped breathing. His foster father is there and devastated. It's unclear what happened, but the medical examiner points out a ring mark on his skin, so they think he may have been crushed. Sam (Cress Williams) and Lori-Ann Dufoy (Malinda Williams) are his foster parents. They said their son, Jamie, had all kinds of problems, including ADHD and epilepsy, making him extremely difficult to control. At first, Fin (Ice-T) and Munch (Richard Belzer) think the priest at the church might have killed him, especially when they realize it was his ring that made the imprint, but M.E. Warner (Tamara Tunie) says he was already dead when he got to the church.
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Episode 19 - SickStudents at the University of Denver spot very threatening messages in a chat room. They are coming from Jeremy Ostilow (James Colby) in NY. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) go straight to the Ostilow residence and discover it's young JJ (Shane Haboucha) who has been online. The Detectives bring him in; afraid he'll hurt his 5-year-old sister. JJ seems to be disturbed, mutilating the genital area of his sister's dolls and having behavioral issues at school. He was in a fight and screamed rape, so they believe he's been sexually abused. JJ confesses he was abused in the Treasury Room by his dad's old boss, Billy Tysen (Will Keenan), a toy mogul. The Detectives investigate Tysen and find out he lives in a Sutton Place mansion, which is more along the lines of a kid's paradise. Tysen claims he loves children and would never do a thing to hurt them.
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Episode 20 - LowdownJeff York (Dean Strange) is found strangled to death in a neighborhood frequented by prostitutes. It looks like a trick gone wrong, especially with his wallet missing. He turns out to be an Assistant District Attorney from the Bronx, and someone Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) has dated. At first, Benson and Stabler (Chris Meloni) think he was killed because of a case he was prosecuting; due to the fact the defendant threatened him in open court. But the defendant, Alvarez (Carlos Pizarro), didn't do it. A condom with lipstick stains was found at the scene, but on closer examination, it turns out to have been staged.
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Episode 21 - CriminalA cop in Central Park checks out an area that had been cordoned off with police tape and finds a naked woman buried in a pile of leaves. The scene is cold, with virtually no clues, clearly the work of a pro. The victim is Rebecca Wheeler, a graduate student at Wallace University, who had been working with her mentor, Javier Vega (James McDaniel), a published professor. Rebecca had a rough job. She was convinced that prisoners could be rehabilitated and visited them in prison and contacted them after they were out. She even went as far as to give them her home number. One of her colleagues, Kyle Luhrmann (Joe Towne), says she'd been working with an inmate at Sing Sing named Rudy Lemcke (Doug E. Doug) and he seemed quite attached to her, attempting to kiss her during her last visit. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) check him out and discover he'd been released two weeks prior to the murder.
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Episode 22 - PainlessChristina Nerrit (Karen Young) is left for dead in her apartment, a plastic bag over her head and her hands cuffed, but survives. At the hospital, she asks her sister, Allison (Annie Campbell), to bring her laptop computer. Initially, Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Chris Meloni) think her married boss was the culprit, since he was seen leaving her apartment. But urine tested from her bathroom indicated the victim or perp is a female, suffering from kidney failure. Meanwhile, Christina dies from an insulin overdose while in the hospital. When they check her computer, they discover she was suicidal. She had been on a website for suicidal people and the ""conductor"" was encouraging her to do it. The ""conductor"" is Amy Solwey (Marlee Matlin), a deaf embryologist. She comes in for questioning and technically, because she didn't commit a crime, is released.
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Episode 23 - BoundDonna Brooks is found dead in her apartment, and a ""gentleman suitor,"" Richard Sutton (Richard Easton) is there, and thought to be dead but alive. He suffered a heart attack when he found her dead body. Donna's grief-stricken daughter, Joset (Isabel Glasser), says her mother had pancreatic cancer and was close to the end, but she still had plenty of time to date a variety of men. Several have alibis and Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) now think Sutton could be the killer. He's finally well enough to communicate and claims Donna was killed in the morning (originally the M.E. thought the night before) and he has an alibi. Donna was strangled by a special kind of climbing rope, and they decide to run the M.O. through the computer. It turns out two other rich elderly women were killed by the same type of rope.
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Episode 24 - PoisonA young Romanian girl, Alexis Campbell, who was adopted by an American family, lies near death after two cups of detergent are pumped from her stomach. Her seemingly normal family is upset, but her six-year-old sister Katie (Sloane Momsen) claims her mother tortured Alexis. Even though the family wanted to adopt Alexis, her mother, Karen (Cynthia Gibb), got pregnant with twins shortly after. A.D.A. Novak (Diane Neal) wants to prosecute Karen for murder, but Oliver Gates (Barry Bostwick), her defense attorney, doesn't want to allow Katie's testimony. Judge Oliver Taft (Tom Skerritt) makes it very difficult for Novak and agrees Katie should not be allowed to testify, but does agree to a bench trial. Stabler (Christopher Meloni) testifies and rips Judge Taft apart and "mouths off" on his way out. Judge Taft retaliates quickly, tossing Stabler in jail for contempt. Judge Taft finds Karen not guilty and Novak is furious, and wants Taft off the bench. Mary Conway Clark (Marlo Thomas) advises Novak to be careful, but Novak is determined to proceed.
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Episode 25 - HeadA woman who drops her cell phone in the toilet at a coffee house finds a spy cam. Everyone is shocked when they realize what was going on. Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) track the camera to a high tech shop and ask the techno geek, a woman named Charlie (Amy Sedaris), where they were installed. Many of them went to a porn operation so those cameras are ruled out. Next, the Detectives track down the man they think was the voyeur and when they go to his apartment, Charlie answers. It turns out her brother Wade (James Urbaniak) is the pervert, and he had been using the toilet cam to spy. Everyone is thoroughly disgusted by him and ready to charge him with the max, when he admits he saw a real crime happen.
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