Season Three Episode Guide

SPOILER WARNING: PLOT OR ENDING DETIALS TO FOLLOW










Repression

After a woman uncovers repressed memories of abuse in psychotherapy and fears her seven-year-old sister is currently being molested, she brings charges of rape against her father, who winds up being murdered when those charges are dismissed. Guest stars: Amy Irving, Shirley Knight, Ron Leibman, Brian Kerwin.

Wrath

The detectives investigate three murders that seemingly have with no connection to each other, but each one has ties to Benson's previous cases and the detectives worry that Benson is the intended target. Guest star: Justin Kirk.

Stolen

The kidnapping of an infant at a grocery store leads to a scheme of snatching and selling babies for adoption which brings back a case from twelve years ago that involved Cragen and his partner, the late Max Greevey.

Rooftop

When an HIV-positive male with a record of assaulting underage girls is discovered in a sexual clincher with a young woman on a rooftop, the detectives are determined to put him back inside. After a series of rapes and murders that cannot be traced to him, they begin to wonder if they've been looking the wrong way.

Tangled

When arriving party guests find a prominent doctor murdered and his wife raped, the investigation starts with his estranged son and a former patient, then moves to his mistress and her neighbor and the realization that the wife was the intended victim. Guest star: Liza Weil.

Redemption

Stabler is teamed up with John 'Hawk' Hawkins to capture a serial rapist/murderer whom Hawk originally convicted years earlier. As the investigation continues, it occurs to them that the convicted man might not be as guilty as they first thought. Hawkins is then at a crossroads about his life and his prestige as an officer, determined to put the right man away for life. Guest star: David Keith.

Sacrifice

A shooting outside of a gay bar leads the detectives to the victim's family, which includes a bitter feud with his parents, and his wife's involvement in pornographic movies. Guest stars: Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Elizabeth Banks.

Inheritance

The search for a serial rapist leads to a suspect who was himself a product of rape, and whose father was convicted of that crime. The young man's attorney blames his genetics as the reason for his actions. Guest starring Marcus Chong.

Care

The battered body of a five-year-old girl in foster care is discovered, and suspicion soon turns to the girl's unstable foster brother, who is into violent video games. The investigation turns to the girl's biological mother as well as to her foster mother and grandmother as the team tries to figure out who is the real guilty party, and who is only a red herring. Guest star: Piper Laurie.

Ridicule

What appears as an accidental death leads to a case involving a male stripper who claims that the deceased was one of three women who raped him at a bachelorette party. Guest stars: Diane Neal (who would later join the cast full-time as Casey Novak), CCH Pounder, Paige Turco.

Monogamy

The wife of a psychiatrist, seven months pregnant, is found unconscious and bleeding in a parking garage with her fetus missing. The attending paramedic reports to Benson that the victim "sustained massive abdominal trauma" that looks "like an emergency C-section." The investigation leads to infedility and uncertainty as to the paternity, adding fuel to the fire of an already agitated Stabler. Guest stars: John Ritter, Bobby Cannavale.

Mariska Hargitay (Olivia Benson) met her future husband, Peter Hermann (defense attorney Trevor Langan) while filming this episode.

Protection

A 6-year-old boy wounded in a shooting is brought to the hospital ER but abandonded by the brother who reported it and their mother. The case leads the detectives to a woman who is on the run from her abusive lover, a drug dealer whom she saw kill a rival.

Prodigy

Michael Pitt plays a disturbing teenager.

+Counterfeit
A woman is found raped and killed by her car. Benson and Tutuola try to figure out why there were drugs in the victim's trunk but then find that a similar rape was committed. This victim says that a police officer raped her after pulling her over for a supposed driving violation. Cabot now has to zero in on the corrupt cop. Guest star: Michael O'Keefe.

Execution

As a condemned serial killer gets closer and closer to his execution, Stabler struggles to find out whether that man was the perpetrator of a different crime with an unidentified murderer. Huang assists Stabler but the investigation goes haywire to mixed results. Guest star: Nick Chinlund.

Popular

Stabler's wife tells him that her friend (a nurse) treated a young girl for rape by a teacher. Despite being advised not to find out further details, Stabler, with help from Benson, crack open the case to disturbing details. The girl had been part of a club in which sexual favors were given for drugs in a group of teenagers.

Surveillance

The sexual assault of a cellist leads the detectives to a stalking case where the suspect uses surveillance equipment. Guest star: Emily Deschanel.

Guilt

When Cabot is faced with a reluctant witness in a child molestation case, she goes above and beyond the normal scope of duty in her search for evidence to convict the serial abuser. But her passion supersedes her compliance with the law as she misrepresents herself to Detectives Benson and Stabler to bring them into an illegal search of the traumatized boy's home — jeopardizing not only her case, but the careers of all involved. SVU Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly is faced with the frustrating task of bringing Cabot in line to preserve the integrity of the Special Victims Unit. Guest star: Judith Light.

Justice

In investigating the sexual assault of a 16-year-old, it's discovered that the victim is the rebellious stepdaughter of a judge, who is an old friend of Cragen's with dark secrets. Guest star: Keir Dullea.

Greed

Investigating the assault of the wife of a restaurateur during a robbery, leads the detectives to a similar assault, and to a locksmith. Guest star: Henry Winkler.

Denial

When a junkie is found raped, Tutuola takes an interest in her, but he's not the only one. When they find a finger in her purse, it opens a can of worms that spans back thirteen years, to when the girl witnessed her mother beating her baby sister to death, and even further back, when her grandmother turns her daughter in for the murder of her first-born son years before. The case is emotionally closed when Tutuola does an unexpected, and very rare favour. Guest stars: Martha Plimpton, Estelle Parsons, Mary Steenburgen.

Competence

The investigation into the rape and impregnation of a young girl with Down's Syndrome uncovers a serial rapist who preys on handicapped young girls under the guise of being their benefactor.

Silence

A murder in a church leads Benson and Stabler to an alleged cover-up involving sexual abuse by a priest. Guest star: Eric Stoltz.

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