Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 13 Episode Guide
Plot summaries for the thirteenth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which aired on NBC from September 2011 to May 2012, featuring Det. Olivia Benson, newcomers Det. Nick Amaro and Det. Amanda Rollins, Sgt. John Munch, Det. Fin Tutuola and Capt. Donald Cragen.
- 1
Scorched Earth
A hotel maid accuses a powerful Italian politician of sexual assault, and the case turns on her credibility as Rollins arrives and Stabler leaves the force.
- 2
Personal Fouls
A former player’s accusation against a revered basketball coach runs into the statute of limitations, forcing SVU to seek help from a guarded pro star.
- 3
Blood Brothers
A 13-year-old’s pregnancy leads SVU to the son of a powerful political family, and his murder exposes his father’s secret.
- 4
Double Strands
Rollins links a New York rape to a serial rapist she chased in the South, but the suspect’s DNA cannot tell him apart from someone he never knew existed.
- 5
Missing Pieces
A Buffalo couple report their baby stolen with their car on Halloween, and SVU works to learn what really happened to him on the drive to New York.
- 6
True Believers
A piano student raped at gunpoint watches her case unravel when a civil-rights defense lawyer attacks the police work and her own credibility.
- 7
Russian Brides
A woman found mutilated beyond recognition leads SVU to a Russian mobster who uses a mail-order bride site to fleece lonely men, and Cragen goes undercover to catch him.
- 8
Educated Guess
A drug-addled prisoner says he saw a rape inside a psychiatric hospital, and the patient who denies it turns out to be hiding years of abuse by a relative.
- 9
Lost Traveler
When a Romani schoolboy disappears, prejudice inside and outside his community points the investigation at a disabled neighbor while the real killers hide in plain sight.
- 10
Spiraling Down
A sting aimed at the men who paid to have sex with a 14-year-old runaway catches a former football star whose head injuries raise the question of whether he understood what he did.
- 11
Theatre Tricks
An actress’s rape during an interactive play goes unnoticed by the audience, and the trail runs through a stalker, a theater critic, a judge with a fantasy and her director.
- 12
Official Story
A vigilante father’s assault on a military contractor’s CEO leads SVU and a new executive ADA to the gang rape of the man’s daughter in Iraq and the company’s cover-up.
- 13
Father's Shadow
A reality TV producer who drugs and assaults young performers is jailed, and his devoted son takes hostages to force his release, leaving Benson to talk him down.
- 14
Home Invasions
The shooting of a gay-rights lawyer and her husband looks like a hate crime until the surviving daughter’s secret reshapes the case, while Rollins’s gambling catches up with her.
- 15
Hunting Ground
The disappearance of a 16-year-old escort leads SVU to a beach full of bodies and a game keeper who hunts women for sport, while Benson and Haden begin dating.
- 16
Child's Welfare
While Benson’s half brother fights the city for his children, an abandoned newborn leads the squad to a couple who hold young women captive to bear children.
- 17
Justice Denied
When a Fleet Week rape copies a 2004 case, Benson must face the possibility that the confession she obtained sent an innocent man to prison.
- 18
Valentine's Day
A wife’s rape and kidnapping, witnessed by her husband over a video chat, turns into a case against the supposed victim.
- 19
Street Revenge
As SVU hunts a serial rapist in West Soho, costumed vigilantes and a hostile reporter take the case into the streets.
- 20
Father Dearest
A missing teenager’s search for her sperm-donor father exposes a man who poses as the donor to seduce the donor’s daughters as revenge on him.
- 21
Learning Curve
A gang’s attack on Fin’s son’s fiancé and the beating of a teacher accused of abuse lead SVU into a private school where a student’s accusations keep shifting.
- 22
Strange Beauty
A young woman abducted in a cab is found dead after a forced amputation, tying her to a severed leg pulled from the Gowanus Canal 11 years earlier.
- 23
Rhodium Nights
The death of an underage escort at the police commissioner’s son’s bachelor party draws SVU into a war between two escort bosses with powerful clients.