The BEST episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 1
Every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 1!
Delves into the dark side of the NYC underworld as the detectives investigate and prosecute various sexually oriented crimes, including rape, pedophilia, domestic violence, and the abuses of children, the disabled, and elderly victims of non-sexual crimes who require specialist handling, all while trying to balance the effects of the investigation on their own lives as they try not to let the dark side of these crimes affect them.
#1 - Nocturne
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/12/2000
After a pharmacy turns over some disturbing photos of a young boy, Benson and Stabler arrest a piano teacher for child molestation. After the boy claims to have seen other pictures of young boys at the teacher's house, the detectives get a warrant and while going through his personal affects, they find a series of videos that document the life of a young boy named Evan. Believing he can make or break their case, the team hunts Evan down only to realise that his testimony may not help at all because Evan is scarred far more deeply than they realised.
#2 - Closure (1)
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/7/2000
Benson does her best to help a rape victim who is able to describe her attack in perfect detail, yet unable to properly identify her attacker when push comes to shove. When the detectives revisit the case a few months later, they find the woman even less willing to talk about what happened, as she claims she has moved on. Things turn sticky when Benson and Cassidy spend the night together, because Benson just wanted one great night, but Cassidy is left wanting more. (Part 2: "Closure": season 2, episode 3.)
#3 - Slaves
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/19/2000
After a shopkeeper brings a note for help to the squad, the detectives begin trying to locate a young Romanian woman named Ilena, only to find her aunt, who hasn't seen the girl in months. The squad eventually find her at the home of the Morrows, a successful yuppie couple. A forensic psychologist analyses the team, and presents disturbing findings to Cragen, suggesting that one of the detectives be removed from the team.
#4 - Remorse
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/5/2000
Television reporter Sarah Logan refuses to let her recent rape get her down, and talks about her experiences on the air which leads to the arrest of a young man that the police feel is responsible by Benson and Stabler, as Munch finds himself forming a bond with the brave reporter.
#5 - Contact
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 4/28/2000
After seven young women in a six month time span are raped by a flash and dash assailant on the city subways, the brass calls in a psychiatrist to help the team get into the head of the perp. When he is caught, he possesses the driver's license of a new victim who could put him away. Jeffries decides to keep a very close eye on the man they believe is guilty of the crimes until the others can talk to her.
#6 - Bad Blood
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/14/2000
The death of a young gay man initially leads Benson and Stabler to investigate his father, a Conservative well-known for his homophobic viewpoints, but once they start looking into the young man's living arrangements they realise the person they're looking for may be closer than they think. Munch tries to help Benson find the man who raped her mother, and could potentially be her father.
#7 - Hysteria
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1999
When a young woman is found dead, she is initially believed to be a prostitute and the latest in a long line of victims, but when looking into her home life Benson and Stabler realise that she does not fit the pattern, and may not be connected to the other deaths after all, but the other deaths have a connection no one anticipated.
#8 - Stalked
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/22/1999
When the body of an assistant district attorney is found raped and beaten in Central Park, Benson lets her emotions get the best of her as she takes it upon herself to bring the suspected rapist, a local realtor, to justice. Stabler tries to get the man's business partner to help him, but Benson may be the one who ends up needing help.
#9 - The Third Guy
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/25/2000
An elderly woman is found tied up and sexually assaulted in her apartment, and suspicion is initially on the young men that had broken into her home and robbed her, but once the detectives catch the young men, they learn that there was someone else in the apartment. The offered plea bargain initially doesn't go over well, but they finally reach a deal which leaves the detectives with a new case -- whether or not the person that sexually assaulted the woman was mentally handicapped.
#10 - Limitations
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/11/2000
At the request of a victim, the police commissioner comes to Cragen with a special request -- close the case of the man who raped three women nearly five years ago before the statute of limitations expires. The detectives finally get a lead when they realise one of the victims knows the rapist, but she's not willing to talk.
#11 - Misleader
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/31/2000
After the pregnant daughter-in-law of a prominent religious figure is found murdered in her hotel room, the detectives turn their eyes on her well-connected family only to discover that her infidelity, and the probable father of her child, was probably what lead to her death.
#12 - Payback
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1999
After cab driver Victor Spicer is found stabbed and his genitals cut off, Benson and Stabler investigate his murder only to learn that Spicer is an inmate at Rikers Island and the dead man left behind a wife and child. Further investigation reveals that the dead man was a Serbian soldier who had been indicted on charges of ethnic cleansing. Benson has trouble separating herself from the case after realizing that the victim was a rapist, because she herself is a child of rape, and Stabler tries to keep her from crossing the line in her attempts to protect suspects she feels were justified in their actions.
#13 - Chat Room
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/14/2000
When a teenage girl comes into the squad room to tell the detectives that she was raped by a man she met on the Internet, the detectives set up a special sting operation but end up stepping on some highly-placed toes as Munch plays the kid to net the big fish.
#14 - Disrobed
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/4/2000
After a judge is found murdered in his car, the detectives begin looking into his background and learn that he often delivered special verdicts for women in return for sexual favors and was also behind the funding of a local governor's bid for re-election. The team soon turns their eye to a battered wife with a secret.
#15 - Entitled (1)
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/18/2000
After a salesman is murdered, the detectives turn their attention to Stephanie Mulroney, the youngest daughter of a well-known family with some deep connections. But as they join forces with the officers from the two-seven, they realise that their case is connected with a long-unsolved case that Briscoe once handled years ago with his former partner, Mike Logan. (Entitle (2) aired on Law & Order, season 10, episode 14.)
#16 - … Or Just Look Like One
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/1999
After teen model Jazmin Burgess is dumped, beaten, and raped in front of Roosevelt Hospital, Benson and Stabler investigate to find out why a sixteen-year-old girl was out alone after midnight. High levels of drugs in Jazmin's system lead them to take a look at not only the modeling agency with which Jazmin was signed, but also the photographer who was supervising her last shoot and had booted her out because she was 'too heavy'. Stabler's disgust with the whole issue is aggravated by his and Kathy's worry that their daughter Maureen, who has been refusing to eat lately, may be anorexic.
#17 - Stocks & Bondage
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/29/1999
The death of a local businesswoman throws the team into the world of bondage and sado-masochism where they first investigate the woman's colleagues but are soon on the trail of a host of individuals involved in the world of whips and chains.
#18 - A Single Life
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1999
When the body of Gretchen Quinn is found wearing only a red slip after having gone through an upper-story window, Benson and Stabler soon find out that 'Gretchen Quinn' has never existed. While trying to piece together her life, the detectives are led to Gretchen's psychiatrist and a well-known television newscaster, both of whom were sleeping with her, and through an overdue library book finally trace Gretchen back to a young woman who changed her name and identity after graduating high school to get away from her sexually abusive father. Cragen and Benson find it easy to identify with the young woman, as they both have ghosts of their own from which they must escape. Detectives manage to contact the victim's sister, who experienced the same trauma growing up.
#19 - Uncivilized
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/15/1999
When a young boy is found murdered, suspicion leads Benson and Stabler to a recently paroled child molester. Although they both hate what the man has done in the past, it is soon obvious to the detectives that the teenagers who initially steered them in the man's direction are hiding secrets of their own.
#20 - Russian Love Poem
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/21/2000
When multi-millionaire Andrew Harlin is found murdered in his home, Benson and Stabler turn their suspicion to Harlin's long list of lovers, which includes both men and women. Evidence at the crime scene leads detectives to a pair of Russian escorts, but before they can get the truth from them, one turns up dead, and the boyfriend of the other confesses to murder.
#21 - Wanderlust
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/1999
After a travel writer is found tied up with a woman's undergarments choking off his air supply, Benson and Stabler initially suspect his landlord's boyfriend, but suspicion soon turns to the landlord and her daughter. Both seem far too interested in what their tenant is doing with his time. After learning the daughter had a sexual relationship with the tenant, things take an even stranger turn.
#22 - Sophomore Jinx
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/1999
After a female student is murdered at a local college, Benson and Stabler turn their attention to the school's basketball team. However, the college blocks their investigation at every turn because they are not willing to risk the negative publicity that the investigation could bring to the school and the upcoming championship.