The Five Hundredth Episode (Season 23, Episode 6)
Premise: Former detective Nick Amaro uses new DNA techniques to reopen a 1996 prom-night murder, and the writer behind the case turns out to be Benson’s first love.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 23, Episode 6
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Chief ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), Defense Attorney Trevor Langan (Peter Hermann)
- Guest stars
- Aidan Quinn as Burton Lowe, Brian Kerwin as Roger Murray, Kyle Cameron as Ian Ridley, Bernadette Quigley as Joyce West, Victoria Pollack as Andrea Malone
- Director
- Juan J. Campanella
- Writers
- Story: Warren Leight & Denis Hamill & Monet Hurst-Mendoza & Kathy Dobie & Micharne Cloughley; Teleplay: Julie Martin; Story & teleplay: Brianna Yellen
Summary
“The Five Hundredth Episode” brings Nick Amaro back to SVU, now in graduate school and working for FORYM, a company that builds DNA profiles from tiny or degraded samples. He wants to reopen a 1996 case of Cragen’s: Haley West, 15, was raped and strangled on prom night, and her boyfriend, Ian Ridley, confessed within two days, later recanted and has spent 25 years in prison. The case came to Amaro from true crime writer and podcaster Burton Lowe, who turns out to be the man Benson agreed to marry at 16, when he was a 21-year-old student of her mother’s.
Warner digs the old evidence out of storage, and FORYM recovers a trace of semen from Haley’s underwear that excludes Ian. At the school field, Ian tells Benson he was struck on the head and heard Haley scream. A genealogy search leads to Roger Murray, Haley’s tennis coach and a prom chaperone, who told detectives in 1996 that she found Ian creepy. Questioned by Carisi and Amaro, Murray admits following the couple and stopping Ian, then asks for a lawyer. Benson and Burton spend the night together, and a text from Amaro confirms the DNA is Murray’s. With Trevor Langan representing him, Ian is released, and at a hearing, once the judge admits the DNA, Murray pleads guilty and apologizes to Haley’s mother, Joyce, whom Cragen urged the squad to bring.
After the hearing, Andrea Malone confronts Benson and says Burton raped her ten years earlier, when she was a 20-year-old intern for his editor and too drunk to consent. The case is past the statute of limitations, and after Andrea posts her story online, several more women describe Burton pressuring them, though none allege assault. Amaro tells Benson that Burton groomed her too, and she shuts him down.
Spoiler, the ending: Benson recalls her mother coming at her with a broken bottle when she said she was moving out to be with Burton. She tells Burton he cannot be charged but that she will not defend him, and that sleeping with her when she was 16 was, technically, sexual assault. He refuses to acknowledge it, and she leaves. Later she leaves Amaro a message saying he was right about Burton.
Why it stands out
- The series’ 500th episode.
- Danny Pino returns as Nick Amaro six years after leaving the squad, with Dann Florek as former captain Donald Cragen and Tamara Tunie as Melinda Warner.
- Aidan Quinn guest-stars as Burton Lowe, who returns later in the season in “Confess Your Sins to Be Free.”