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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 8 Episode 7

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8.5

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 11/14/06

After a third young teen is found dead, a paw print tattoo on her lower back, Stabler and Beck investigate the tattoo, which leads them to Broder House, a foster home for young girls. They learn that Chantal was one of a number of girls who had ended up working the streets for a man named Victor. Stabler warns Beck that she can't get emotionally involved in every case, but the two work together to bring down Victor, relying on one of his girls to get the evidence that they need.moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (18)

The absolute worst Law & Order: SVU epsiode ever and a complete waste of time.

1.1

By zvyozdnayapyl, Nov 21, 2011

This is absolutely the worst Law and Order: SVU episode ever. Sloppy writing, lazy storyline, pointless characters and major plot holes. Uncle & Infiltrated are much better then this dog trash. The plot where Beck kisses Stabler, what the heck was that all about??? That was jus ridiculous. Everyone who is a Law and Order: SVU fan I\'m going to warn you all: This episode is much worse than \"Fat\" and \"Influence\" Please avoid this stupid idiotic episode and I also agree with every one on Beck: She SUCKED!!!moreless
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That kiss between Stabler and Beck was stupid and unneeded.

8.5

By RED---FIREBIRD, Mar 29, 2011

Most of this episode was good but there were moments that seemed to be rushed. The kiss is the most obvious rush. Stabler was Olivia's partner for more than 7 years and they went through a lot together but he's been with this new partner for one month and he's already kissing her. They hyped this kiss up so much that it took away from the case which was very good but it was clouded by the kiss. Stabler and Beck investigated an underage prositution ring in which this Victor guy used his power over the girls to force them into doing tricks for him. When three of his girls left when adopted, this victor guy was mad and killed all three of them. Without the kiss this would of been a very good episode.moreless
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Sadly SVU is turning itself into a soap opera. The plot was thin and the drama overdone. Spoiler warning.

8.0

By jo_idnew, Mar 29, 2011

Ok, so three teenage prostitutes with the same tattoo are found beaten to death. The first two cases were caught by another unit and they circulated a memo about it.

The audience is then asked to believe that:

1. Manhattan SVU never reads the memo. I would have thought they would have learned their lesson about that back in "Limitations" (season 1, episode 14) when they had four days left to find a man who raped three women.

2. The other squad made no effort to find other teenage prostitutes with the same tattoo. Only Manhattan SVO was smart enough to think of that.

3. Out of the hundreds of illegal tattoo parlors in NCY, Dani's tattoo-artist contact manages to send them straight to the right one.

4. The perp, Victor Bodine, just happens to be placed in a cell with someone who knows him from the neighborhood and is willing to switch places with him when he is bailed out. No attempt is made to match a face with any mug shot or driver's license.

5. Somehow, the perp finds the girl where she is hiding at Sister Peg's apartment. I doubt his girlfriend Venice relayed the message considering how jealous she was of "that skanky little ho'," and the girl couldn't have called him on his cell phone because he couldn't have gotten it back when he got out of jail under someone else's name. Maybe it was ESP.

In a diappointing ending, Victor Bodine is killed while trying to run dani down and never faces trial for the murders of three young girls.

Why such a lame plot?

So we can see petty insecurities ("I'm not your precious Olivia!"), petty jealousy and completely OOC cowardice (when Olivia neither introduces herself to Beck nor speaks to Elliot when she sees him in the squad), and two supposed adults making out in the parking lot like a couple of over-excited teenagers after the football game.

L&O:SVU needs to cut the melodrama and get back to police work. Maybe giving this episode an 8 was a little too generous.moreless
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Why is Olivia not coming back?

6.2

By angelspinknose, Mar 29, 2011

What's her name is officially on my last nerve. How dare the writers try to fix Elliot up with that blond bimbo. I would rather see him with Casey or either doctor before I want him with her. And why is Mariska Hargitay not coming back? Is this just a storyline or is she not coming back to the show in real life?
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This is definitely one of the weaker episodes, and I really didn't care about what was going on. Tsk tsk to NBC for making the teaser for this episode appear as if Benson witnesses the kiss between Stabler and Beck. SVU is not a soap opera.moreless

7.5

By olivenson, Mar 29, 2011

This espisode was very disappointing. The story line was weak, the characters unoriginal and the actors...oh. my. god. I have one question... the former crackhead mom...who came up w/ that character? I know there are a lot of careless, ignorant worthless people in the world, but that scene between the afore mentioned ex-crackhead, Beck and Stabler was annoying, over-acted, and badly scripted. Get out my face b****! What?

I don't understand why it was deemed necessary for Benson to appear for two minutes to tell Cragen she's not coming back right away and that she DIDN'T want to see Elliot. Why would Liv be jealous of Elliot's filler partner? That was out of character.

Also, I know it's somewhat realistic for a victim to be warped into being sympathetic with her abuser or whatever, but that teen prostitute was just pushing reality suspension thing a little too far. The pimp also was just so... seen-it-all-before.

Finally, Elliot makes a move on Beck and she reciprocates...until their beepers and cellphones start beeping. Are viewers to assume that the kissing would've progressed into something more if they had not be interrupted? Because Elliot really, really wanted to give her a ride home. I don't find this storyline very attractive.

This whole episode just came out of nowhere and it should have just stayed there. Seriously. This is the first SVU episode that I've found tasteless in a long time.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Christopher Meloni	Det. Elliot Stabler
Dann Florek	Capt. Donald Cragen
Diane Neal	A.D.A. Casey Novak
Ice-T	Det. Odafin Tutuola
Mariska Hargitay	Det. Olivia Benson
Richard Belzer	Det. John Munch

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Luther Creek	Miguel Alvarez	Guest Star
Constance Wu	Candy	Guest Star
Gary Cowling	Caseworker Hecht	Guest Star
Connie Nielsen	Det. Dani Beck	Recurring Role
Joe Grifasi	Heshy Horowitz	Recurring Role
Charlayne Woodard	Sister Peg	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (1)
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- Stabler and Beck share their only kiss.
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QUOTES (8)
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- Belinda: I know how this works. Only the judge gets to say who I stay with.
  Sister Peg: But I'm a nun. I only take orders from the man upstairs.
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- Dani Beck (after catching Stabler spying on her interview process): If you think I can't do an interview, say so, but don't spy on me! I'm not your precious Olivia, I know that.
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- M.E. Melinda Warner: That tattoo is a death sentence.
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- Elliot Stabler: Go home.
  Dani Beck: We've got three dead girls so far, and you want me to get my beauty sleep?
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- (Lennie Culp gets caught tattooing a minor.)
  Lennie Culp: It's not what you think. He brought a note from home.
  Elliot Stabler: (reading the note) My son did a better job of forging my signature when he was eight years old.
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- Elliot Stabler: (of Dani's tattoo) Let's have a look, see if your guy's as good as you say he is.
  Dani Beck: Take my word for it.
  Elliot Stabler: Show you mine.
  Dani Beck: It wouldn't be a fair trade.
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- Dani Beck: What's your name?
  Belinda Holt: Passion.
  Dani Beck: Your real name. Don't play with me.
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- Elliot Stabler: Dani, you can't get over-involved in all this stuff. Every one of these cases will break your heart.
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NOTES (3)
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- Original International Air Dates:
  Czech Republic February 16, 2010 on TV Nova
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- Diane Neal's husband, engineer and former model Marcus Fitzgerald, made a cameo appearance as the Homicide A.D.A. she saw at the bar, who also happened to be named Marcus.
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- Special billing was given to Connie Nielsen (Special Guest Star) and Charlayne Woodard (and) in this episode.
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ALLUSIONS (3)
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- Belinda Holt: Just like that movie with Julia Roberts.
  Dani Beck: Pretty Woman.
  Belinda Holt: It's my favorite. I've seen the DVD, like, a hundred times.
  
  Pretty Woman is one of Julia Roberts' best-known movies. She plays a prostitute who meets a rich businessman (Richard Gere). He hires her to be his date for cultural events, tries to disguise her as a distinguished socialite, and falls in love with her in the process.
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- John Victor Bodine: I love my girls.
  Elliot Stabler: You have a strange way of showing it, making them screw strangers so you can buy your Huggy Bear threads.
  
  'Huggy Bear' Brown was the police informant played by Antonio Fargas on the 1975 to 1979 cop show Starsky & Hutch.
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- John Munch: Girls love Snoopy.
  
  Munch sees the paw-print tattoo on the dead girls and is reminded of Snoopy the beagle from Charles Schulz's classic Peanuts comic strip.
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