Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 10 Episode Guide
Plot summaries for the tenth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which aired on NBC from September 2008 to June 2009, featuring Det. Elliot Stabler, Det. Olivia Benson, Sgt. John Munch, Det. Fin Tutuola, Capt. Donald Cragen, ADAs Kim Greylek and Alexandra Cabot, Dr. George Huang and Dr. Melinda Warner.
- 1
Trials
A foster child’s escape in a stolen van exposes his use in drug trials and leads Benson back to his birth mother’s unsolved rape, part of a pattern targeting single mothers.
- 2
Confession
A teenager asks SVU for help with his attraction to his little stepbrother, and the case widens to a website for pedophiles, a furious stepfather and a killing.
- 3
Swing
When Stabler’s daughter is arrested after breaking into a stranger’s home, a bipolar diagnosis forces him to turn to the mother he has kept out of his life.
- 4
Lunacy
The strangled body of a European astronaut turns up in the river, and Stabler’s childhood hero, a famous astronaut, helps steer the investigation.
- 5
Retro
A baby abandoned with untreated AIDS leads SVU to a doctor who denies that HIV causes the disease, and to the families who followed his advice.
- 6
Babes
The killing of a mentally ill homeless man uncovers a teenage pregnancy pact, and the apparent suicide of its ringleader leads to the mother who bullied her online.
- 7
Wildlife
A would-be model killed by a tiger leads Stabler undercover into a ring that smuggles endangered animals, a job that strains his marriage and nearly costs him his life.
- 8
Persona
A battered wife’s rape case leads Benson to the gentle neighbor downstairs, who has spent 34 years hiding from a murder charge for killing her own abusive husband.
- 9
PTSD
When a pregnant Marine who reported a rape in Iraq is killed in New York, SVU clashes with the military, while Benson struggles with the aftermath of her own assault.
- 10
Smut
A woman raped under a memory-erasing drug cannot say what happened, so SVU hunts for other victims of a man who films his attacks.
- 11
Stranger
A teenager who vanished four years earlier seems to come home, until the detectives start to doubt who she really is.
- 12
Hothouse
The murder of a teenage math prodigy leads the squad from sex traffickers to her abusive father and the pressure cooker of a school for gifted children.
- 13
Snatched
When a girl is snatched from her bed, suspicion moves from her paroled father to her grandfather, a legendary thief whose memory is failing.
- 14
Transitions
The beating of a repo man outside a strip club draws the squad into his family’s fight over his transgender daughter’s medical care.
- 15
Lead
The murder of a convicted pediatrician brings back ADA Alexandra Cabot and leads to a young man whose disability may have been caused by poisoned toys.
- 16
Ballerina
When a landlord linked to a double murder falls from his Park Avenue window, suspicion turns to his wife, a retired dancer, and the younger man she calls her nephew.
- 17
Hell
A girl rescued from a Ugandan rebel army is attacked in New York, and the case pits SVU against a hidden warlord and a deportation order for the former child soldier who loves her like a sister.
- 18
Baggage
A Major Crimes detective who has chased a serial killer alone for months is forced to share the hunt with SVU, and his reasons for working solo come out.
- 19
Selfish
A missing baby’s young mother looks guilty until the girl turns out to have died of measles, and Cabot puts the mother who refused to vaccinate her own son on trial.
- 20
Crush
An abused teenager who sent nude photos of herself is prosecuted for child pornography, and her harsh sentence leads SVU to a family court judge who profits from locking children up.
- 21
Liberties
A stalker uses a fantasy rape website to set up his former girlfriend, while the judge hearing his case pursues the truth about the son he lost three decades ago.
- 22
Zebras
A paranoid killer walks free after a CSU technician’s paperwork error, and new murders seem to target everyone who crossed him, until SVU learns who is really behind them.