SEASON SEVEN OVERVIEW:
Late in the season, M.E. Warner notes wryly about Det. Stabler: “Sometimes, all that brooding intensity is just annoying.” And after seven seasons, the show has more than earned the right to contain a little meta focus on characters’ personal lives, exchanging it for an increasingly mature, layered, and complex series of stories, for the most part intriguingly well-told. (Tunie’s Warner also gets a bump up this season to appear in the opening credits as well as the squad room group shot, which now includes Novak, Huang, Cragen, Stabler, Benson, Tutuola, Warner, and Munch.) Meanwhile, the series continues to project its own style, rarely adhering to the strict book ’em and cook ’em approach of the franchise, spending whole episodes on the chase or in the legal system, as nearly every major player gets his or her own spotlight. Outside the show, Christopher Meloni earns his first Emmy nomination, but that goes largely unnoticed when Mariska Hargitay finds a third time is the charm—and wins not only a Golden Globe but an Emmy, largely based on her efforts in the gripping “911.” Off-camera, Hargitay (and husband Peter Hermann, who plays recurring defense lawyer Trevor Langam) produce their first child. All brooding intensity aside, seven is a magic season for the program.
Ratings Recap for Season:
8.2 rating / 13 share / 12,111,000 viewers
EPISODE DESCRIPTIONS
Episode 140: Demons
Original air date: September 20, 2005
Teleplay by Amanda Green, directed by David Platt
Additional Cast:
Robert Patrick (Ray Schenkel), Robert Walden (William Dorsey), Joe Lisi (Greg Lennon), Brittany Underwood (Kelly Browning), Carrie MacLemore (Lucy Kozlowski)
Reviewing the Case:
A retired NYPD officer familiar with the particulars of a recently released rapist named Ray Schenkel alerts Stabler to the danger after a rape near the Port Authority Bus Terminal, so the SVU detective goes undercover to keep an eye on the perp. An initial sting operation fails to net him, but soon Ray takes matters into his own hands, and Stabler has reason to fear for his life in this thriller of a season-opening episode.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Meloni’s excellent, conflicted performance may have led to his eventual first nomination this season, but all those years of not being nominated didn’t faze him—even if it did seem to faze his co-workers.
Relevant Testimony:
“I still remember the first time Mariska (Hargitay) got nominated and I didn’t. And it was so weird on the set—I didn’t try to convince anyone, but people would be like, ‘Man, you should have been nominated, too!’ And I’m like, ‘I’m OK.’ And not that I was trying to convince them, but I’d be like ‘I’m OK’ and they’d be like, ‘
Sure.
You soldier on, cowboy.’ You can’t win.”—Christopher Meloni
Episode 141: Design
Original air date: September 27, 2005
Teleplay by Lisa Marie Petersen, directed by David Platt
Additional Cast:
Lynda Carter (Lorraine Dillon), Estella Warren (April Troost), Ronny Cox (Dr. McManus), Julian Sands (Barclay Pallister), Peter Riegert (Pallister’s Attorney), Mark McGrath (J.J. Price), Bobby Flay (Leo Ashford), Tom O’Rourke (Judge Mark Seligman), Jeffrey Doornbos (Roger Mason), Caroline McMahon (Monica Mason), Jesse Palmer (Don Lacey)
Reviewing the Case:
A mother/daughter con artist team first trick a wealthy man into believing he has raped and impregnated the younger woman, then run a baby-selling scam on several would-be parents. But when the daughter appears to have died in a car crash, the scam unravels and it’s up to the detectives—and Novak—to try and find some justice, even if it’s just for the baby.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
The men tricked into sharing their ejaculate are all playing versions of their real-life selves: Mark McGrath is Sugar Ray’s ex-singer, Bobby Flay is a famous chef (who married former
SVU
star Stephanie March in February 2005), and Jesse Palmer is a former NFL player.
Episode 142: 911
Original air date: October 4, 2005
Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson, directed by Ted Kotcheff
Additional Cast:
John Herrera (Consul Duarte Farias), Zabryna Guevara (Julia Ortiz), Rachel Diaz-Stand (Maria Recinos), Christopher Evan Welch (Richard Dwyer), Chandra Wilson (Rachel Sorannis), Jessica Pimentel (Selma Garcia), Chris Mendoza (Ricardo Garcia), Jeanine Monterroza (Voice of Maria Recinos)
Reviewing the Case:
A 911 call from a terrified young girl locked in a mysterious location is transferred to Benson, who tries to extract details without much success. Though detectives initially think it’s a hoax, slowly details emerge revealing the caller, a Honduran girl named Maria, has been sold to a child pornographer. But when her “owner” comes home and cuts off the connection, the SVU has to beat the clock to find Maria alive in this nail-biter of an episode that effectively explores Benson’s humanity.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Mariska Hargitay takes home the L&O franchise’s first lead-actor Emmy.
Relevant Testimony:
“When we finished the episode, I knew this was going to be nominated. In 1967 I did a TV movie,
The Human Voice
, with Ingrid Bergman. She gets on the phone with a lover and off the phone. As her mood changed, the walls subtly changed colors to objectify her feelings. That movie in no way informed ‘911’ but the script did come to me because of (that film): ‘Let’s put Mariska (Hargitay) on the phone for an hour.’”—Ted Kotcheff
Episode 143: Ripped
Original air date: October 11, 2005
Teleplay by Jonathan Greene, directed by Rick Wallace
Additional Cast:
Mary Stuart Masterson (Dr. Rebecca Hendrix), Noah Emmerich (Pete Breslin), Peter McRobbie (Judge Walter Bradley), Julia Weldon (Pamela), Paul Wesley (Luke Thomas Breslin), Rich Washburn (Buster Flynn), Bob Walton (Carl Sawyer), Elizabeth Duff (Emily Sawyer)
Reviewing the Case:
Stabler is suspended for trying to shield his old partner Pete Breslin’s son, Paul, a star school pitcher who has beaten up a friend. But after Stabler knocks Pete unconscious, it emerges that both Breslins were hopped up on steroids. As Stabler fights his own demons in a revealing discussion with Dr. Hendrix, Paul throws his father a curve no one expected—and it takes the detective to help keep ’roid rage from turning into ’roid tragedy.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Stabler, whose badge is No. 6313, had a very controlling father who would beat him with a belt if he cried.
Episode 144: Strain
Original air date: October 18, 2005
Teleplay by Robert Nathan, directed by Constantine Makris
Additional Cast:
CCH Pounder (Attorney Carolyn Maddox), Brian Bloom (Gabriel Thomason), Bill Smitrovich (Liam Weller), Ernest Waddell (Ken Randall), Adam Kulbersh (Ben Suarato), Jason Manuel Olazabal (Sascha Hart), Brendan Griffin (Jason Haig), James O’Toole (Henry Fanello)
Reviewing the Case:
In this timely and thought-provoking episode, two men infected with a virulent strain of AIDS are found murdered with the word “killer” written nearby, leading detectives to a gay activist leader who claims he did it in self-defense: The perps were infecting others in the same way they’d infected his now-deceased younger brother, therefore, he’s done the world a favor by taking them out. Novak disagrees—but will the jury?
Noteworthy Discoveries:
During the investigation, Tutuola discovers that his son (Ken Randall) is gay. The detective isn’t thrilled, but doesn’t judge—and Ken even helps on the case.
Relevant Testimony:
“When they first said, ‘OK, Ice, you’re going to have a son who’s gay,’ I think they thought I was going to have a problem with that, but I’m like, ‘Yo, I’m acting.’ I’m an adult man, I know how to deal with issues like that. My real son saw the show and said, ‘Ohhh, your son on TV is gay!’ and I’m like, ‘What about you? How you doin’ with the girls?’ It is what it is. I rolled with that.”—Ice-T
Episode 145: Raw
Original air date: November 1, 2005
Teleplay by Dawn DeNoon, directed by Jonathan Kaplan
Additional Cast:
Marcia Gay Harden (Star Morrison), John Cullum (Barry Moredock), John Rubinstein (Judge T. Schuyler), Lucian Maisel (Danny Kohler), J.C. MacKenzie (Brian Ackerman), Joe Grifasi (“Heshy” Horowitz), Sima Bissette (Tawndra), Sophia Barricelli (Annabelle Paoletti), Brian Letscher (Patrick McCorkle), Suzanne Di Donna (Lana Mayhew), Marin Hinkle (Mrs. Whitlock), Cassidy Hinkle (Maddy McCorkle), Ana Reeder (Mrs. McCorkle), Myk Watford (Mark Whitlock), Cody Kasch (Kyle Ackerman), Joel Marsh Garland (Brannon Lee Redding), Keith Siglinger (Christopher Rawlings), Harry Madsen (Mr. Buggesi), Jess le Protto (Johnny Mayhew)
Reviewing the Case:
A schoolyard shooting leaves the black foster child of a white correctional officer dead. The gun leads detectives to a white supremacist group and a mouthy racist named Star, a teen who wants to join the group, and a father who’s leading the charge. But when the shooter takes the stand, bullets fly inside the courtroom and Star turns out to have a secret identity that takes detectives back to investigate the real motivations of the dead boy’s foster parents.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Munch is shot in the posterior during the courtroom battle. Stabler, recovering from a similar wound to his arm, tells Benson that his wife has started divorce proceedings. Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden (2001’s
Pollock
) is both hateful and delightful at the same time in her racist role.
Relevant Testimony:
“Dawn (DeNoon) did all this research (for ‘Raw’) and one detail was that in the home of some neo-Nazi somewhere, he’d made a giant swastika on his ceiling out of beer bottle caps. Six feet in diameter. That’s a great detail; you couldn’t make that up. Does she put that into her script? Yeah. All that you see on the screen is that the camera starts on the ceiling and pans down into the home of this neo-Nazi, but that’s stuff you can’t make up.”—Amanda Green, co-executive producer
Episode 146: Name
Original air date: November 8, 2005
Teleplay by Michele Fazekas, directed by David Platt
Additional Cast:
Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Carlos Guzman), J. Paul Nicholas (Attorney Linden Delroy), Angel Desai (M.E. Tech Tatum), Brigitte Viellieu-Davis (Principal Arroyo), Richard Bright (Robert Sawyer), Madhur Jaffrey (Dr. Indira Singh), Lisa Emery (Anna Gable)
Reviewing the Case:
Get your scorecard out for this one: Four Hispanic boys went missing in 1978, and when one child’s skeleton turns up, a crusading CSU tech named Millie Vizcarrondo partners with Stabler to find his killer. Along the way, they cross-reference the decades-old murder with a more recent one, quiz a drugged-out space cadet and convince an alibi witness to rethink his story from thirty years ago to nab the perp—who still may not end up giving the detectives what they want.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Paula Garcés (who plays Millie) has a long history with the L&O franchise—she first appeared on the original show in 1991 as a teen.
Episode 147: Starved
Original air date: November 15, 2005
Teleplay by Lisa Marie Petersen, directed by David Platt
Additional Cast:
Dean Cain (Dr. Mike Jergens), Teri Garr (Minerva Grahame-Bishop), Tina Holmes (Cora Kennison Jergens), Fred Dalton Thompson (DA Arthur Branch), Veronica Cartwright (Virginia Kennison), Kelly Miller (Janice Clay), Julie White (Dr. Anne Morella)
Reviewing the Case:
Benson bonds with Cora, a serial rapist’s damaged girlfriend who refuses to believe he’s guilty and self-medicates with alcohol. After a sudden wedding, the girlfriend and the rapist vow a suicide pact—and Cora ends up brain dead. Suddenly, this already overly complex story upends as (in the words of one character) “the wrong person tries to do the right thing” by pulling the life-support plug. But her erstwhile mother—and Novak—want to fight back.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Judith Light returns as Elizabeth Donnelly, now a judge. Teri Garr (best known as the frustrated wife in 1977’s
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
) pops in as a lawyer. And former superhero Dean Cain from
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
turns up as a very un-super person.
Episode 148: Rockabye
Original air date: November 22, 2005
Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson, directed by Peter Leto