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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Doubt

Season 6, Episode 8, Aired Nov 23, 2004

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8.3

EPISODE RATING: Great

157 votes

Your Rating: 10

"Perfect"
Your Rating: 9.5

"Superb"
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"Superb"
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"Great"
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"Good"
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"Good"
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"Fair"
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"Mediocre"
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"Bad"
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"Bad"
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"Terrible"
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"Terrible"
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"Abysmal"
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"Abysmal"

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When a college student claims rape and her professor claims it was consensual sex, Stabler and Benson find themselves in the middle of a he said, she said battle, trying to decide whether to believe the alleged victim, or the alleged perpetrator who claimed she liked it rough. Benson sides with Myra, the victim, whereas Stabler finds himself wondering if Polikoff is telling the truth about being innocent, especially after Myra falsely accuses Stabler of touching her inappropriately. After giving more thought to the situation, Benson and Stabler each wonder if the other is right. Stabler has bigger problems on his hands, though, as Myra's attorney reveals that Kathy has moved out and taken the children.moreless

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Cast & Crew

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GUEST STAR
Billy Campbell

Ron Polikoff
GUEST STAR
Shannyn Sossamon

Myra Dempsey
GUEST STAR
Wynter Kullman

Jenny West

Dann Florek

Capt. Donald Cragen
Mariska Hargitay

Det. Olivia Benson
Christopher Meloni

Det. Elliot Stabler
Diane Neal

A.D.A. Casey Novak

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Fan Episode Reviews (19)

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Just lost one hour of my life.

2.0

"Terrible"

By AdelleMoraes, May 16, 2012

SVU is broadcasted in Brazil on Universal Channel, and every Tuesday they broadcast 4 SVU episodes, 3 from previous seasons and one from the latest season. I started watching this episode, and at the end I thought 'Cool. A two parts episode.' Then I started watching the next one, and I realized it had NOTHING to do with the one before. I was pissed, because I could've spent this 1 hour I lost doing something else.moreless
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this episode makes me want to stop watching svu

1.0

"Abysmal"

By ThaddeusNesto, Mar 21, 2012

i wasted an hour of my time... i thought it was by far one of the best episodes ever made.. kept me thinking the whole time.. and i stayed up to finish it cause it was so good.. and they cutt out the ending.. i feel that if svu wants to keep their viewers they should take this episode off air and rebroadcast it with an ending..
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Complete waste of time watching this episode

1.0

"Abysmal"

By Kornbread, Mar 21, 2012

After watching this episode and a previous one consecutively, i felt compelled to write this review. i think this is a great show but why do they make the viewers invest an hour worth of their time and energy in these episode with a possibility you may have just wasted that hour of your life with no conclusion to the case???!! COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME!! im pissed. whats the point of going through all that and not revealing the outcome???? completely pointless. For anyone thinking about wasting their life watching this episode, please save yourself the frustration...moreless
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if i were on that jury.. my verdict would be....

9.5

"Superb"

By KILLER4783, Oct 17, 2011

NOT GUILTY.
the woman was a liar and we learn that from the traffic incident she had when she claimed her grandmother had died and then her grandmother came and bailed her out of jail. also, notice that she comes onto stabler in the stairs and then when stabler sort of rejects her advance she makes up a story about him touching her inappropriately. a cabbie refuses to take her to brooklyn and she smashes the back window of the cab.
she seems like the insecure type who likes to play games. we know it was obvious when she played benson and acted like she was committing suicide in the bath tube. she seemed like an attention seeker.
And the man, well he seems very smart and held together. but last time i checked that wasn't a crime. at all.moreless
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We are in the seat of the jury and the detectives when it comes to determining whether Polkov is guilty or not. I thought it was a gutsy move for an episode that sets it apart from the norm. But I think Polkov is guilty and one clue determines this.moreless

10

"Perfect"

By clockking515, Oct 04, 2011

We are in the seat of the jury and the detectives when it comes to determining whether Polkov is guilty or not. I thought it was a gutsy move for an episode that sets it apart from the norm. But I think Polkov is guilty and one clue determines this.

And it can be an easy one to miss. At the beginning of the episode, when Polikoff comes forward claiming that Myra was gonna claim he raped her; how did he know that she was going to claim that THAT is exactly what she was going to do? Sure Myra could of said that she was going to do that to Ron in the apartment, BUT he was given every opportunity to mention this or something like this to the detectives but he didn't, and Myra has no history of being this neurotic until after the rape. Obviously he thinks he did something wrong or he wouldn't have known of that kind of possibility. And yes he did go forward but he probably thought there wasn't enough to convict him.

Could it be a plot hole on the part of the writing? Sure, but as viewers who are the jury in this episode, we don't know that so its our call, based on what we see; and in the end that's the unappreciated beauty of this episode.moreless
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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (3)
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- When the alleged victim falsely accuses Stabler of sexual misconduct as a way to force the police to prosecute her teacher, this actually harms her case. Even if the police and DA agreed to this sort of blackmail, Stabler would be required to report this false claim to the defendant's lawyer due to it's value of showing the victim's pattern of reporting false claims to the police. If the case went to trial, it would create even more reasonable doubt that the victim was forced into sex.
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- The email shown is in an Apple Mail compose window. Namely, it's an email being written, not an email that has been received. It can be seen by the three blank bars across the top of the window which are To:, CC:, Subject:.
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- Goof: When Benson and Stabler first interview the victim's roommate, she is painting a sculpture blue. However, the paint changes between shots.
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QUOTES (1)
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- Olivia Benson: Elliot, what happened between you and Kathy? Elliot Stabler: Well ... the job made me kind of hard to live with. Olivia Benson: She should try working with you.
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NOTES (2)
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- International Air Dates Finland Feb 10, 2010 on YLE TV2
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- The episode left the decision on whether or not it was rape up to the viewers by allowing them to vote online at NBC.com. Although the votes fluctuated from time to time, generally speaking 1/5 believed it was rape, 3/5 believed it was consensual, and 1/5 felt more information was needed. Law & Order: Criminal Intent used the same method for the episode "Great Barrier," allowing viewers to choose the fate of the female antagonist.
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ALLUSIONS (0)
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- ADD ALLUSIONS from this episode.