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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 5 Episode 17

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9.0

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 2/24/04

The conviction of a group of sociopathic high school bullies who turned one of their own from a victimiser into a torture murder victim escalates the systematic peer abuse at their exclusive private school, leading to further tragedy.

Fan Episode Reviews (14)

Actually this was ripped from the headlines....

9.0

By VickiBeasley, Mar 01, 2012

Based on the 1992 murder of Shanda Sharer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Shanda_Sharer
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Mean Girls Meets SVU

10

By MissAuthoress, Jan 04, 2012

I must say that this become one of my favorite episodes of SVU. It deals with a subject that we are all too familiar with: high school. Thousands of students are victimized in school each day by their peers. The cliques of the high school world are too well known and portrayed in media but it is important.

Human nature is to align oneself with groups for humans are social creatures. But what happens when these groups become mean and even deadly. That is was this episode was all about as it explored a clique of sociopathic high school girls after one of their friends is found dead.

This is amazing, the writing was fantastic. It was not cheesy and the story was really easy to follow. I love the episodes of SVU that concentrate on subjects that we all can relate to. We all know the cliques and we all know girls (and guys as well) that terrorize others and yet we do nothing. As this episode showed, it leads to tragedy.

The ending was a knockout and incredibly sad. It makes you clench your teeth in aggravation and this is the problem that plagues thousands all over the nation. Victims that do not know what to do anymore because they cannot escape the bullying.

I loved it.moreless
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Hits a little too close to home for comfort.

10

By someone198, Mar 26, 2011

Schools are full of "vicious, evil little girls who think they can do whatever they want... and get away with it."

"Both girls made a promise to try to understand each other better." Heard that a million or more times myself; made me sick all over again.

"Victims of bullying are often social outcasts. School officials identify with the *normal* kids, and the victims are just seen as being overly sensitive." The story of my inner city middle school life. When the naive, quiet loner and bookworm snaps at a group of cool girls drilling her with questions about sex, they get off for fooling around, she gets busted for reacting.

This episode hit closer to home for me than any other SVU episode. Huang's conclusion helped me better understand what I went through and why; I never seriously thought about it that way- it sounds too wrong and ridiculous to be true, doesn't it?

When are the powers that be going to stop the bullying instead of waiting for the victims to be pushed to the breaking point? Never, because it's easier to wait til they have reason to punish the "overly sensitive" kids.

Some things never change.moreless
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Wow. This isn't exactly specifically ripped from the headlines, but damn if it ain't way too realistic.

9.0

By olivenson, Mar 26, 2011

This episode is painful to watch. Human nature can be awful, but spoiled, sociopathic teenagers are down right scary. It's awful that there are actual teens like this in the world...who even grow up to be evil adults. What's worse, is that these kids' parents are just as awful as their kids. The icing on the cake: people like this are born everyday.
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highschool sociopaths who are very cruel... yeah sounds familiar.

10

By FriendsSvuLost8, Mar 26, 2011

This was a very painfull episode about highschool. I really don't want to believe that people can be this mean. But the episode was ripped from the headlines so i guess that there really are those kind of people.

I reagonized a lot of the things that the team said about girls. Like what olivia said "don't tell your friend your mad at her, just get everyone else to hate her". That's really how it works in highschool. But you now what makes me really sick. The bullying not just that it happens but that it's human nature. What did really like about the episode was the courtroomdrama. Casey was really good in this episode. And she really proved to me that she's a good ADA. But what that girl, Agnes, said to Olivia at the end of the episode was true... It's never gonna stop no matter what anyone does.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Dann Florek	Capt. Donald Cragen
Mariska Hargitay	Det. Olivia Benson
BD Wong	Dr. George Huang
Christopher Meloni	Det. Elliot Stabler
Diane Neal	ADA Casey Novak

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

EDIT

Lindsay Hollister	Agnes Linsky	Guest Star
Kelli Garner	Brittany O'Malley	Guest Star
James DeMarse	Commercial Director	Guest Star
David Thornton	Lionel Granger	Recurring Role
Ned Eisenberg	Roger Kressler	Recurring Role
Caren Browning	Judith Siper	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- Goof: In the station house, when the detectives get the call that Brittany O'Malley has been attacked, the clock is either at 9:40 or 7:50, yet when they arrive the hospital, the clock is at half past six.
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QUOTES (7)
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- Lab Tech: Why the rush, detectives?
  Elliot Stabler: We got a bunch of teenagers trying to kill each other. I'd like to, uh, arrest one of em.
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- Olivia Benson: Remind me to give you the names of all the girls I hated in high school.
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- Casey Novak: They're monsters. They're mean, vicious little girls who think that they can do whatever they want, and up until now they've gotten away with it. But not anymore.
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- Elliot Stabler: This stuff is deep. 'Danny is so 'ten O's' cute'.
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- Dr. George Huang: Boys tend to get into conflicts with acquaintances or strangers. Girls typically attack within tightly-knit friendships.
  Olivia Benson: Well, that's definitely been my experience. The people that have made me feel the worst were always my best friends.
  Dr. George Huang: It's called relational aggression. Boys are socialized to express their anger. Girls are socialized to be nice, and it's not nice to start a fight.
  Elliot Stabler: Feelings got to come out sometime.
  Dr. George Huang: Often as rumor-spreading, ostracizing, or secret-telling.
  Olivia Benson: In other words, don't tell your friend you're mad at her. Just get everybody else to hate her.
  Dr. George Huang: And in the extreme, I can see how a betrayal within the inner circle could incite violence.
  Donald Cragen: Question is, what was the betrayal?
  Elliot Stabler: And which one did the deed?
  Olivia Benson:Maybe it was all of them. Obviously none of these girls have any qualms about lying to the police.
  Elliot Stabler: We've got the hair on the duct tape. It's gotta belong to one of them.
  Donald Cragen: We bring in all three of them now, they'll just keep up the lie or start pointing fingers. We need ammo to shoot their story down.
  Elliot Stabler: I love these little cliques. They're like the mafia. Nobody knows nothin'.
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- Dr. George Huang: Victims of bullying are often social outcasts. It's human nature for the school authorities to identify with the normal kids.
  Donald Cragen: Meaning the teachers believe the bully's story, and think the victims are being a little too sensitive.
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- Olivia Benson: It's easier not having friends, but it doesn't make it any less lonely.
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NOTES (1)
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- International Air Dates:
  Finland October 7, 2009 on YLE TV2
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- This episode appears to be ripped from the headlines of the case of Shanda Sharer.
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