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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit · Crimes

Hostage Standoffs 20 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes

Cases that end with a suspect holding hostages and detectives trying to talk them out alive.

  1. Season 5 · Episode 11

    Escape

    Aired December 2, 2003 · Prison escape / kidnapping / false accusation

    Two inmates escape from a Virginia prison, and a convicted child rapist heads to New York to confront the boy whose testimony put him away.

  2. Season 7 · Episode 13

    Blast

    Aired January 10, 2006 · Kidnapping; bank robbery

    A girl with undiagnosed leukemia is kidnapped for ransom, and the search leads back to her own family.

  3. Season 7 · Episode 19

    Fault

    Aired April 4, 2006 · Murder and kidnapping

    A released sex offender slaughters a family and flees with two children, and the manhunt forces Benson and Stabler to face what they would risk for each other.

  4. Season 9 · Episode 17

    Authority

    Aired April 29, 2008 · Sexual abuse

    A phone prankster who talks a manager into abusing a teenage employee is acquitted, becomes a folk hero, and then tests Stabler with Benson’s life.

  5. Season 13 · Episode 13

    Father's Shadow

    Aired February 8, 2012 · Drug-facilitated sexual assault / hostage taking

    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.

  6. Season 14 · Episode 22

    Poisoned Motive

    Aired May 8, 2013 · Sniper shootings and murder

    A sniper shoots Rollins and others tied to Fin’s old Narcotics unit, and the case leads to the family of the partner who was disabled saving Fin’s life.

  7. Season 16 · Episode 4

    Holden's Manifesto

    Aired October 15, 2014 · Stabbings, murder and hostage-taking

    A socially isolated young man who blames women for his loneliness stabs women from his past, kills his neighbors and takes schoolgirls hostage.

  8. Season 17 · Episode 11

    Townhouse Incident

    Aired January 13, 2016 · Home invasion, hostage-taking and rape

    Checking on a family for her nanny, Benson walks into a violent home invasion and is taken hostage while the squad and IAB’s Ed Tucker try to get her out.

  9. Season 17 · Episode 23

    Heartfelt Passages

    Aired May 25, 2016 · Hostage-taking and the shooting of a police officer

    Benson and Sgt. Dodds help the wife of an accused corrections officer leave him, and the visit becomes a hostage standoff that costs Dodds his life.

  10. Season 18 · Episode 7

    Next Chapter

    Aired January 4, 2017 · Rape and kidnapping

    A woman raped in her apartment blames the man who once stalked her, but the evidence against him was planted by the retired sergeant who rescued her years before.

  11. Season 19 · Episode 20

    The Book of Esther

    Aired May 2, 2018 · Child abuse

    A starved young woman found on a commuter train leads Rollins to a family ruled by an apocalyptic father, and a police siege of their home ends in deaths.

  12. Season 19 · Episode 23

    Remember Me

    Aired May 23, 2018 · Kidnapping and hostage-taking

    A nanny holds a man she says trafficked and raped her at gunpoint in a Central Park West penthouse while a hidden camera streams the ordeal, and Benson becomes her hostage.

  13. Season 20 · Episode 9

    Mea Culpa

    Aired November 15, 2018 · Rape

    Stone is accused of a rape from his baseball days and asks SVU to investigate him, splitting the squad until the truth about that night emerges.

  14. Season 21 · Episode 10

    Must Be Held Accountable

    Aired January 9, 2020 · Kidnapping and sex trafficking

    Enraged that a billionaire who abused his daughter walked free, a retired detective takes Rollins hostage while the squad works to put Getz behind bars.

  15. Season 22 · Episode 12

    In the Year We All Fell Down

    Aired April 22, 2021 · Hostage-taking

    Benson walks into a standoff at a favorite restaurant, where the owner, ruined by a year of pandemic losses, holds her realtor at knifepoint.

  16. Season 24 · Episode 1

    Gimme Shelter – Part Two

    Aired September 22, 2022 · Murder, sex trafficking and a bombing

    SVU, Organized Crime and Law & Order detectives hunt Mark Sirenko, a trafficker linked to a girl’s murder who has built a large bomb and vanished with it.

  17. Season 24 · Episode 13

    Intersection

    Aired February 2, 2023 · Serial rape and homicide

    A man posing as an EMT rigs traffic lights to cause crashes and rapes injured women at the scene, until a third crash turns deadly.

  18. Season 25 · Episode 9

    Children of Wolves

    Aired April 11, 2024 · Gang rape and kidnapping

    Four young men attack two teenage girls in a Manhattan park and take one of them, while Benson faces her son’s questions about his own violent beginnings.

  19. Season 26 · Episode 8

    Cornered

    Aired November 21, 2024 · Robbery, hostage-taking, rape and murder

    Carisi stumbles into an armed robbery at his neighborhood deli and spends the day as a hostage while Benson and Rollins work the standoff outside.

  20. Season 26 · Episode 17

    Accomplice Liability

    Aired April 3, 2025 · Robbery, murder and rape (accomplice liability)

    Carisi, a witness instead of the prosecutor this time, pushes a Brooklyn ADA to hold the surviving deli gunman responsible for everything that happened, including a hostage’s rape.

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