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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 12 Episode 7

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7.9

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 11/3/10

Benson and Stabler investigate the rape and murder of a woman whose body is found at an industrial laundry facility. The detectives quickly catch up with the prime suspect, but the case ends up to be much more complicated than they thought when evidence of a serial killer is revealed and more victims are found. Meanwhile, Benson's attempt to locate a witness ends with a procedural misstep that will change her life.moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (7)

Well this ep certainly is no author's trophy.

3.0

By Aly358, Oct 31, 2011

What on earth were these people smoking when they wrote this?

They got way too many characters and victims and witnesses and stuff - plain and simple - to wrap this up into a nice package.

And even if you are such a die hard fan that you don't care about law or procedure or fact research or plot (which used to be strong suits of this show) and only care about the Benson storyline, well even then you're screwed.

We learned a few seasons ago how Liv's mother got raped, we even saw Liv doubt her own mother. (which, back then, was super weird bc her mother turned into an alcoholic and neglected Liv and it was downhill from there for her, but hey, maybe he just forgot to call...)

Fine, so Jo Hollister. It was later determined that Jo Hollister raped Liv's mother because he was so depressed he had some kind of psychotic episode and then raped someone to make them feel shitty too, but then he went back on his meds and had Marsdon and he was a real nice guy after all.

How do you get from here to: he raped another woman who never said a word and now Liv has a sister? Forget the fact that it would make her a half sister. Marsdon and Liv were "like" super connected after deciding that Captain Crunch was the best.

How or when would Jo Hollister have given Gamble (the rapist of the only recent victim) his trophy? Why would a super depressed guy take a trophy? Why would a rapist give his trophies away? Kind of defeats the purpose of trophies, doesn't it?

Oh and explain to me how someone's rights are violated when police enter a house after they been shot at through the door. Please, I'd really like to get this one.

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This episode was disjointed and convoluted from start to finish, but at least the ending left us with something to think about.

3.5

By Lady_Lancaster, May 13, 2011

When a young woman's body is found in a load of dirty industrial laundry, Benson and Stabler are soon on the case and from here, things begin to get very complicated as we watch about four sub-plots at the same time as the murder inquiry.

A suspect is soon identified but it's pretty clear that he isn't responsible, although he's obviously hiding something. When a box of what are obviously trophies are found in his house, the team think he is a serial rapist or possibly even a serial killer. Of course, they have the wrong guy. The chap they want raped a woman back in the 70s and she became pregnant and gave birth to his daughter who is now a recovering alcoholic and drug addict and caring for her dying mother. Benson notes that the woman's mother and her own went to the same college and both were raped by a man with a similar MO and jumps to the conclusion that it must have been the same rapist. Dr. Huang soon sorts out that little issue as Olivia breaks every rule in the book by telling the daughter of the dying woman that they share a similar past - they are both a child of rape.

Naturally, the real rapist and murderer turns out to be a man who shared a cell with the original suspect but he soon winds up dead at the hands of his biological daughter and Olivia is left a notr handing over full parental rights of the woman's young son to her. This was the only interesting part, the rest of the episode had the feel of something that the writers had thrown together during lunch. I sincerely hope for better next week.moreless
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Wow Liv finally gets a kid! Granted I thought it would be a baby but the kid from Charlie St.Cloud will do just fine. I hope they don't make this go away like they did with the baby. A kid his age might be the answer with her demanding job.moreless

8.0

By sunnykimmy, Feb 12, 2011

I have to say this episode was solid,but it wasn't one of my favourites. I liked the possibility though of Benson having a sister. I hope they revisit that some time in the future. Or maybe they should have made this woman her sister. That would have made the boy her actual nephew and it would've given her a bigger reason to keep him. I definitely liked the ending, although it was predictable. The rest of the episode was very unpredictable which is good. I couldn't think of anyone who could've raped those women except for Gamble's father. That's why I liked the idea of 'Olivia's father as the rapist' so much.

I guess that's what I've missed in the passed few episodes. The personal stuff. The show needs more interaction between the leads. But lately it's all about the cases and there's no room left for personal stuff. Sometimes they balance it out very nicely and that's what makes a good episode. That's why 'wildlife' and 'undercover' are 2 of my favourite episodes. The detectives are doing their work but at the same time it's not all about the case. Anyway a good episode.moreless
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Trainwreck. This is the double edged sword with SVU, we want more emotional content but we forget that they can't pull it off.

2.0

By carlyy226, Jan 27, 2011

I might have scoffed too soon at Olivia's throw away end of teaser pun of "this was no mercy killing" since, ironically, the rest of the episode turned into a slow and painful death of the series I once loved.

This season has been poor at best so far, but the endless hype since the summer by Neal Baer about Maria Bello's presence 'bringing big changes for Benson' led me to believe that they put some thought into this episode. Clearly NBC has bigger problems these days and chose not to supervise the script or shooting of this episode because it was, in a word, a trainwreck.

I can't even take a wild guess at what they were trying to do with this 'case' but I was lost in a matter of minutes and unless a LOT was edited out or cut from the script I'm guessing they didn't know what they were doing either.

There was no way Maria Bello could have been her sister. Mariska was emotionless in what should have been a very powerful performance on her part. Wong was right that she told Viv that she was a child of rape more for herself than for Viv and now has ruined Viv and Calvin's lives.

And then the 'unbelievable' final act that we all saw coming from a mile away. What has Olivia always wanted? A family. Calvin is left at the precinct to wait for Olivia holding a dramatic envelope which holds, dun dun dun, conveyance of parental rights papers. Oh...wait a minute...didn't they already do this with a sickly baby who disappeared and may have died but they never followed up on? Clearly they were foreshadowing her getting a child from the beginning of this season with all of the neglected children cases, but why not have her adopt one of the previous ones, particularly Mackenzie from the premiere, instead of just slamming her with a 12 year old boy. This was not the way to give her a child. This will bring nothing but awkwardness. Where is she going to put him in her 1 bedroom apartment? Is she going to not work as much? Is Elliot going to be her knight in shining armor when she just can't handle an adolescent boy? Will she actually keep him? Doesn't she have to find his father?

The truth is, I'm so disappointed that I don't even care what the answer is to any of these questions.

Way to go SVU.moreless
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7.5

By thefanof, Jan 27, 2011

Wednesday nights really are terrible for television so thus you get me watching Law and Order: SVU. I really stopped making this appointment television because there were too many clunkers mixed in with the good ones, but this episode may have hooked me back in. An Olivia-heavy episode is never a bad thing, nor is an episode that goes really have on emotion and this one had both. Add in a very creepy (and I am ashamed to admit it, but a little funny) rapist and you get the makings for a good episode. The killing at the end was shocking, but at this point nothing this show does surprises me too much.

Good ep.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Christopher Meloni	Det. Elliot Stabler
Mariska Hargitay	Det. Olivia Benson
Ice-T	Det. Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola
BD Wong	Dr. George Huang
Tamara Tunie	Dr. Melinda Warner
Dann Florek	Capt. Donald Cragen

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Maria Bello	Vivian Arliss	Guest Star
Joseph Sikora	Jason Gambel	Guest Star
Kat Foster	Sara Hoyt	Guest Star
Alex Kingston	Miranda Pond	Recurring Role
Melissa Sagemiller	ADA Gillian Hardwicke	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (2)
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- This is the second time that Olivia was left in charge of someone's child. The first time was in the episode when a drug addicted prostitute left her baby's care in Olivia's hands.
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- In the last scene of the episode there is a clear view of Olivia's desk with a photo of Mariska Hargitay and President Obama.
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QUOTES (1)
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- (Discussing the victim, who was found in a load of commercial laundry.)
  Elliot Stabler: We know where the load came from?
  Melinda Warner: Mercy Hospital.
  Olivia Benson: This was no mercy killing.
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NOTES (2)
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- Special billing was given to Maria Bello (Special Guest Star), Melissa Sagemiller (with) and R. Lee Ermey (and) for this episode.
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- Original International Air Dates:
  Canada November 2, 2010 on CTV
  United Kingdom April 3, 2011 on Universal Channel/Universal Channel HD
  Czech Republic January 15, 2013 on TV Nova
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ALLUSIONS (0)
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- ADD ALLUSIONS from this episode.