Recurring Villains and How Their Stories End

Most offenders on these shows are caught in a single episode. These 10 come back, in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order and Criminal Minds. Each entry lists every episode they appear in, in order, and how their story ends. Full spoilers.

• William Lewis Law & Order: SVU · played by Pablo Schreiber · 5 episodes, 2013–2014

  1. S14E24 “Her Negotiation” (2013): A man Rollins arrests for flashing in Central Park refuses an easy plea, then attacks the witness against him, and his record shows a long history of escaping conviction.
  2. S15E1 “Surrender Benson” (2013): Out on bail after a mistrial, serial rapist William Lewis abducts Benson from her apartment and holds her on Long Island while the squad hunts for them.
  3. S15E10 “Psycho/Therapist” (2014): Benson must testify against William Lewis, who acts as his own lawyer and turns her account of her abduction, and her beating of him, against her.
  4. S15E20 “Beast's Obsession” (2014): Serial rapist William Lewis escapes from custody, kidnaps a 12-year-old girl and holds her life over Benson until she admits she lied about beating him.
  5. S15E21 “Post-Mortem Blues” (2014): After William Lewis dies during a game of Russian roulette, Benson faces IAB and a Brooklyn grand jury that doubt her account that he shot himself.

  How it ends: Forces Benson into a game of Russian roulette, then shoots himself. (S15E20 “Beast's Obsession” (2014))

• Greg Yates Law & Order: SVU · played by Dallas Roberts · 4 episodes, 2015–2016

  1. S16E20 “Daydream Believer” (2015): SVU and Chicago’s Intelligence Unit hunt a doctor suspected of a decade of rape-murders after he abducts a young woman from Voight’s office and drives her to New York.
  2. S17E1 “Devil's Dissections” (2015): A dismembered woman found near Greg Yates’s old burial ground leads the squad, through Yates himself, to a second body hidden in a wall and to the city’s deputy chief medical examiner.
  3. S17E2 “Criminal Pathology” (2015): After Greg Yates’s fiancée is found dismembered, the squad tracks the fugitive medical examiner Carl Rudnick and tries to convict him despite his claim of self-defense.
  4. S17E14 “Nationwide Manhunt” (2016): When Greg Yates and Carl Rudnick escape from prison, SVU and Chicago detectives join a manhunt across upstate New York.

  How it ends: Escapes from prison with Rudnick and is still at large when the episode ends; the manhunt continues on Chicago P.D. (S17E14 “Nationwide Manhunt” (2016))

• Carl Rudnick Law & Order: SVU · played by Jefferson Mays · 5 episodes, 2014–2016

  1. S16E8 “Spousal Privilege” (2014): A leaked video shows a retired football star knocking out the mother of his son, and SVU pursues the case although she refuses to cooperate.
  2. S16E23 “Surrendering Noah” (2015): As sex trafficker Johnny D goes on trial, Benson discloses that he is Noah’s birth father, putting her adoption and the case at risk.
  3. S17E1 “Devil's Dissections” (2015): A dismembered woman found near Greg Yates’s old burial ground leads the squad, through Yates himself, to a second body hidden in a wall and to the city’s deputy chief medical examiner.
  4. S17E2 “Criminal Pathology” (2015): After Greg Yates’s fiancée is found dismembered, the squad tracks the fugitive medical examiner Carl Rudnick and tries to convict him despite his claim of self-defense.
  5. S17E14 “Nationwide Manhunt” (2016): When Greg Yates and Carl Rudnick escape from prison, SVU and Chicago detectives join a manhunt across upstate New York.

  How it ends: Pleads guilty to two murders, escapes from prison with Yates, and is found alive after Yates breaks his knees and ankles. (S17E14 “Nationwide Manhunt” (2016))

• Sheila Porter Law & Order: SVU · played by Brooke Shields · 5 episodes, 2017–2018

  1. S19E3 “Contrapasso” (2017): A man is castrated in a hotel room, and the trail leads to three former students he sexually exploited when he was their high school teacher.
  2. S19E5 “Complicated” (2017): A young woman found in Central Park is taken for a girl kidnapped ten years earlier, and the detectives come to doubt both her story and the missing girl’s family.
  3. S19E6 “Unintended Consequences” (2017): A runaway from an exclusive rehab dies of a fentanyl overdose after being raped, and SVU finds the center and a sober house recycling addicted girls for insurance money.
  4. S19E8 “Intent” (2017): A social media star is raped by a fighter who believes she asked him to force her, and SVU traces both sides of their messages to a lonely woman in West Virginia.
  5. S19E9 “Gone Baby Gone” (2018): Noah is abducted from a Manhattan mall, and Benson discovers that his grandmother, Sheila Porter, planned the kidnapping.

  How it ends: Arrested pending extradition after she arranges Noah’s abduction. (S19E9 “Gone Baby Gone” (2018))

• Rob Miller Law & Order: SVU · played by Titus Welliver · 3 episodes, 2019

  1. S20E18 “Blackout” (2019): After a police gala ends with defense attorney Nikki Staines drugged and raped, SVU’s inquiry leads to a well-connected lawyer with leverage over a judge and the department.
  2. S20E23 “Assumptions” (2019): When a Muslim councilwoman is raped in a synagogue, early assumptions point to Jewish teens, but her secret life leads the squad to her ex-husband.
  3. S20E24 “End Game” (2019): When a teenage girl’s body falls into the Hudson, Benson ties the death to Rob Miller, and Stone bends the rules to put him away.

  How it ends: Convicted of second-degree murder. (S20E24 “End Game” (2019))

• Henry Mesner Law & Order: SVU · played by Ethan Cutkosky · 3 episodes, 2013–2026

  1. S14E19 “Born Psychopath” (2013): A little girl’s injuries lead SVU to her ten-year-old brother, whose lack of empathy alarms the detectives and Dr. Huang as his parents try to protect him.
  2. S22E14 “Post-Graduate Psychopath” (2021): Henry Mesner, the boy who shot Amaro, is released from a psychiatric facility at 18 and starts a killing spree that reaches Rollins’s family.
  3. S27E11 “Career Psychopath” (2026): After a gunman ambushes Rollins and Carisi at home, SVU finds a string of attacks on people who helped convict Henry Mesner.

  How it ends: Held at Sing Sing, where a follower’s attacks bring Rollins back to question him. (S27E11 “Career Psychopath” (2026))

• Elias Olsen Law & Order: SVU · played by Adam Petchel · 3 episodes, 2022–2023

  1. S24E4 “The Steps We Cannot Take” (2022): A gunman shoots a restaurant owner and his wife and abducts their daughter, and the search uncovers two women held captive for years in a house upstate.
  2. S24E9 “And a Trauma in a Pear Tree” (2022): Benson’s Christmas trip to introduce Noah to his half-brother turns into an off-duty hunt for the men filming guests at her motel, as Rollins prepares to leave SVU.
  3. S24E21 “Bad Things” (2023): A string of stranger rapes in which the attacker knows each woman’s name points to men paying for revenge, while Muncy pursues a captor who starves his victim in a cage.

  How it ends: His first trial ends in a hung jury. Caught again after torturing another victim, he admits it, and Carisi expects a life sentence. (S24E21 “Bad Things” (2023))

• Eddie Newman Law & Order · played by Scott Cohen · 3 episodes, 1997

  1. S7E15 “D-Girl” (1997): The murder of a Hollywood studio president, found in pieces in Manhattan, sends Briscoe and Curtis to Los Angeles to pry a blood sample from her personal trainer.
  2. S7E16 “Turnaround” (1997): The murder weapon in the Heidi Ellison case surfaces near a Long Island airport, shifting suspicion to her ex-husband and pulling McCoy and Ross into a hostile California courtroom.
  3. S7E17 “Showtime” (1997): Eddie Newman’s murder trial becomes a media spectacle as his defense team builds a case against a Hollywood psychiatrist and Ross fights her ex-husband for custody of their daughter.

  How it ends: Convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. (S7E17 “Showtime” (1997))

• Frank Breitkopf Criminal Minds · played by Keith Carradine · 2 episodes, 2007

  1. S2E13 “No Way Out” (2007): Called to a Nevada town where bodies missing a single rib have surfaced for years, the BAU closes in on the most prolific serial killer it has ever tracked, who has a hostage plan of his own.
  2. S2E23 “No Way Out, Part II: The Evilution of Frank” (2007): When Frank Breitkopf kills a woman in Gideon’s apartment and leaves him under suspicion, the BAU hunts Frank as he targets the people Gideon has saved.

  How it ends: Died by suicide. (S2E23 “No Way Out, Part II: The Evilution of Frank” (2007))

• George Foyet Criminal Minds · played by C. Thomas Howell · 4 episodes, 2009

  1. S4E18 “Omnivore” (2009): After a dying detective confesses he made a deal with the Boston Reaper, the killer resumes his murders and turns his attention to Hotch and the BAU.
  2. S4E26 “…and Back” (2009): On an Ontario pig farm, the BAU uncovers dozens of victims and races to find the brother of a paralyzed doctor before he kills a kidnapped girl.
  3. S5E1 “Nameless, Faceless” (2009): A vengeful father threatens a trauma surgeon’s teenage son, while the BAU discovers the Reaper has attacked Hotch and found his family.
  4. S5E9 “100” (2009): In the 100th episode, an inquiry into the BAU’s hunt for George Foyet retraces how the Reaper found Hotch’s family in hiding and how the chase ended.

  How it ends: Killed by law enforcement. (S5E9 “100” (2009))

Episodes follow the cast credits. Fates are taken from each episode’s recap on this site. How these summaries are written.