TV.com

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 10 Episode 14

Transitions

Favorite

Watched It I've Watched This 1

Next
Episode Previous
Episode

8.3

User Rating

95 votes

Your Rating: 10
Your Rating: 9.5
Your Rating: 9
Your Rating: 8.5
Your Rating: 8
Your Rating: 7.5
Your Rating: 7
Your Rating: 6.5
Your Rating: 6
Your Rating: 5.5
Your Rating: 5
Your Rating: 4.5
Your Rating: 4
Your Rating: 3.5
Your Rating: 3
Your Rating: 2.5
Your Rating: 2
Your Rating: 1.5
Your Rating: 1

Rate Now

EPISODE REVIEWS
By TV.com Users

Write A Review

Episode Summary

EDIT

AIRED: 2/17/09

Benson and Stabler untangle the different tales that arise from the discovery of a badly beaten man who was found in the parking lot of a strip club, investigating the strippers on duty, an ex-wife, and their transgender son.

Fan Episode Reviews (5)

This episode disappoints with another social issue and no real mystery.

2.0

By synchroman, Nov 30, 2011

(Spoilers) I really like Law and Order and watch all of the various spin-offs. The episodes that I don't enjoy are the ones that hammer in social issues without a real storyline or mystery to get wrapped up in. This episode was one such show. It started off very interesting, but as soon as we see the little boy dressed as girl we know what the whole episode is going to be about. These types of episodes are almost formulaic. Enter Dr. Huang with psycho-babble about transsexual confusion in kids. As soon as we see "Haley's" school counselor and she drops some hints we know she used to be a he -- and he/she did the crime. There is little mystery or investigation that goes on before she is discovered (after a brief hit to the pharmaceutical companies). From there the plot gets worse as the counselor character tries to defend what any court would see as an undefendable assault. And, as usual, our principle characters see how rough the transsexual kids have it and pressure the D.A. into a lenient deal for the defendant. I have no problem with issue-related episodes. That's one of the things that T.V. is for -- to air issues through the art of storytelling. But when the storytelling is obvious and only written for some kind of agenda, then it's just bad T.V. and there is little to no art involved in it. Besides that, is transsexual confusion in kids a big enough problem to waste a whole episode on? I don't know....

I'll grant the episode this -- the FEMALE actress, Wendy Makkena, made a convincing transsexual male (wanting to be a female) -- and the kid MALE actor, Bridger Zadina, made a convincing little transsexual male (wanting to be a female). But that's about as exciting as the plot gets -- trying to figure out which gender is really which. Hopefully next week's show will keep us guessing until the end.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
5 19

Flag
Share Hide
Bridger Zadina did an excellent job.

10

By Teresami2003, Nov 30, 2011

I have to be honest and say, I don't watch a lot of the episodes on SVU. I hate seeing people hurt or being treated badly. By chance I ended up on the station airing the SVU show. Right away I became intrigued by the show and as it proceeded I became more interested, plus I looked at the description of the episode on my TV listing. I thought over all it was very well done. The actor Bridger Zadina did an excellent job portraying a teen male to female transgender individual. I also wasn't expecting that the counselor would turn out to be a male to female transgender individual either, very nicely done. I appreciate Synchroman review of this episode but this is a social issue that doesn't get a lot of positive attention. When I speak of positive attention I'm talking about addressing the issue as educational and not sensational, like Jerry Springer or some other talk shows, which make fun of transgender individuals. As you can guess, yes I am a male to female transgender individual. What Hailey felt in this episode is what a lot of transgender individuals go through as young people, whether male or female. I guarantee that someone viewed that episode and it has helped them to move towards trying to better understand their children who are transgender or helped them to better understand individuals they know to be transgender. Yes I understand it probably doesn't do much for suspense or mystery but TV helps our culture formulate our understanding of differences in people.

Thank you for creating a positive episode that dealt with a very misunderstood portion of our society.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
11 1

Flag
Share Hide
A man was almost beaten to death and has no memory of it.

9.0

By ManBat123, Mar 05, 2011

This episode was great and really out of the box. At first i thought it was odd about the transgenders. But this is the first time you see transgender in a different light, and i empathize with them now, my views based on them because of maury and Jerry springer is gone. This episode was graphic and showed real emotion, the Henry/Hailey was a great character, and her father revelation also got me. The episode twist was more than to be expected. But still suprised me. But Kim Graylek never ever shows her true potential as a lawyer, always has to go easy on the criminal because of Bensons & Stablers sympathy. Well Overall the episode was good.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
3 1

Flag
Share Hide
i really really liked it. But, wasnt Alex supposed to come back on this episode??

10

By MiCheLLexoTV, Feb 22, 2009

i really really liked this episode. IT was very interesting. It was really good. it had me surprised!! i loved the whole story. It had a really good ending. I always love the episodes. They always throw you a surprise.. and this one was big. wow! i think this was justt really good.. i dont know what else to say. I really thought that alex cabot was supposed to come back for that six episode thing. right? thats what the news thing said. Fabruary 17th. Well, it doesn't matter. IT was still very good. this could be one of my favoritessmoreless
DO YOU AGREE?
2 1

Flag
Share Hide
Top notch job by Bridger and his TV parents.

10

By Zane-XY, Feb 18, 2009

Wow. This had to be one of the best L&O eps I have seen in a long while. And this includes all 3 flavors.

It never once dawned on me that the African American guidance counselor was also transgender. But now I understand why she was so involved in Hailey's life.

I can see why the father wanted Hailey to stay a boy. Otherwise, he would have felt a failure as a parent.

The actor who played Hailey was actually male (Bridger Zadina). Let's hope he didn't catch any flak from his friends for putting on makeup and lipstick.

I usually don't do repeats, but this is one ep I would not mind seeing again.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
7 1

Flag
Share Hide

See All Fan Reviews

Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Christopher Meloni	Det. Elliot Stabler
Mariska Hargitay	Det. Olivia Benson
BD Wong	Dr. George Huang
Richard Belzer	Sgt. John Munch
Ice-T	Det. Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola
Michaela McManus	ADA Kim Greylek

See All Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

EDIT

Paul Lazar	Sid Gabbert	Guest Star
Frank Grillo	Mark Van Kuren	Guest Star
Heidi Marnhout	Molly 'Misty' Lambert	Guest Star
Audrie Neenan	Judge Lois Preston	Recurring Role
J. Paul Nicholas	Attorney Linden Delroy	Recurring Role

See All Cast & Crew

Watch Online

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

TRIVIA (1)
ADD TRIVIA
- The drugs found in Hailey were labeled as property of Tausher Leto. Tausher Leto was the drug company investigated for passing drugs in the episode, "Manic."
  EDIT SHARE
QUOTES (1)
ADD QUOTES
- Sid: (to Olivia) Are you a dancer?
  Olivia: No, Sid. Remember? (shows him her badge) Remember? I'm a detective.
  Sid: Oh. Yeah. But you're pretty enough to be a dancer.
  Olivia: Thank you, Sid.
  Sid: (to Elliot) You're not.
  Elliot: It's the cross I bear.
  EDIT SHARE
NOTES (4)
ADD NOTES
- Special billing was given to Daniela Sea (with Special Guest Appearance by), and Alex Kingston (and) for this episode.
  EDIT SHARE
- Although rated TV-14 DSV for intensely suggestive dialogue, intense sexual situations and intense violence, NBC ran an additional warning that the episode might not be suitable for all viewers and advised viewer discretion.
  EDIT SHARE
- Original International Air Dates:
  Australia June 10, 2009 on Channel Ten
  Czech Republic June 20, 2011 on TV Nova
  EDIT SHARE
- This episode was originally scheduled to air one week earlier on February 10th, but was replaced by a special Dateline NBC interview with Nadya Suleman, a recent mother of octuplets.
  EDIT SHARE
ALLUSIONS (0)
ADD ALLUSIONS
- ADD ALLUSIONS from this episode.