The BEST episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 12
Every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 12, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 12!
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 - Mask
Season 12 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/12/2011
Debbie Shields comes home to find her partner Ann Jackson being raped by a man wearing a haunting mask. Shields contacts Ann's father to notify him of her critical condition. As detectives Benson and Stabler interrogate Ann's father, Captain Jackson, his sordid past is revealed filled with sexual and alcohol addiction. Jackson's new role as a sex therapist is hindering the detectives from getting the information they need to solve the case and if Jackson won't comply, the detectives are going to have to get creative.
#2 - Delinquent
Season 12 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/11/2011
When a young woman finds a teenage boy asleep and naked in her bedroom, his mother, Bree Walsh, is quick to defend him. While Detective Benson and Detective Stabler try to figure out what truly happened, they also have to manage the sneaky teenager and his naive mother. As the detectives dig deeper, they discover how deceptive appearances can be.
#3 - Pop
Season 12 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/5/2011
A young boy is found dead on a park carousel after being dropped off by his uncle Joe Gilbert. When Detectives Benson and Stabler learn that the boy was beaten to death they suspect that it could be the result of a bully at school. The investigation leads to an unsettling gambling ring. Detectives suspect that Gilbert's acquaintance, Joe Roberts is beating his wife Sandra and the case takes a horrifying turn.
#4 - Spectacle
Season 12 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/9/2011
After the sexual assault of a young woman is videotaped and featured on a campus-wide intranet feed, detectives Elliot Stabler and Odafin "Fin" Tutuola go in search of the victim and her attacker. As they delve into the investigation, it becomes clear that the perpetrator created a spectacle to draw attention to his own issues.
#5 - Smoked
Season 12 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/18/2011
When a woman is murdered during an afternoon shopping trip with her daughter, Detectives Benson and Stabler are called in because she was scheduled to testify in their high-profile rape case. As the detectives continue to investigate the correlation between the murder and their case, they discover unlikely friendships that will lead them to the truth.
#6 - Totem
Season 12 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/30/2011
When a young girl is found dead with a doll that is believed to have been left as a totem, detectives Benson and Stabler team up with Captain Jackson, a psychologist who assisted them with a recent case, to investigate her murder. Jackson joins the detectives as they retrace the girl’s last steps and go to meet with her piano teacher June Frye. Jackson’s skills prove to be invaluable in deciphering the meaning of the totem and ultimately finding her killer.
#7 - Behave
Season 12 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/29/2010
A woman who has been raped multiple times is afraid to leave her house. The issue of unopened rape kits will see Detective Olivia Benson travel from New York City to Los Angeles.
#8 - Trophy
Season 12 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/3/2010
A rape and murder investigation puts the detectives lives at risk.
#9 - Reparations
Season 12 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/6/2011
Two high-powered attorneys face each other across the aisle when Casey Novak returns to the team, and Joe Dekker takes a leave of absence from his Los Angeles duties after his cousin is charged with rape. Dekker's unwavering belief in his cousin's innocence, and a court disturbance make Novak and Benson take another look at the evidence, which leads them to someone playing a very long game in the name of hatred.
#10 - Bang
Season 12 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/4/2011
When an abandoned baby is found on playground, Detectives Benson and Stabler go in search of the child’s caregiver. Upon meeting the nanny and her boyfriend, Ken Turner, they soon realize that he is also engaged to the baby’s adoptive mother, Dede Aston. As the detectives dig deeper into Turner’s malevolent past, they realize that the law may be on his side.
#11 - Possessed
Season 12 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/5/2011
A young man finds that his girlfriend Larissa Welsh has been attacked in her apartment with evidence that points to her buried past. Detectives Benson and Stabler go in search of her attacker and discover that an elderly man, Orville Underwood, may have been involved in traumatic events of Welsh’s past. For the detectives, solving the case comes down to who was in possession of the evidence.
#12 - Rescue
Season 12 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/1/2010
With young Calvin in her care, Detective Benson continues the search for his drug-addict mother, Vivian, but Detective Stabler notices a strong bond forming between Benson and the boy. When Vivian’s name comes up during a rape investigation, Captain Cragen assigns Detectives Fin and Munch to the case instead. However, it will take more than Cragen’ s orders to keep Benson away.
#13 - Gray
Season 12 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/17/2010
Stabler's participation in a Take Back the Night rally at Kathleen's campus results in an extra case for him and Benson when a student claims she was raped. Unfortunately, the case turns out to be a "he said-she said" type with little evidence. Enter Sonya Paxton, and it can only get more complicated.
#14 - Locum
Season 12 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/22/2010
Benson and Stabler are called to investigate when a little girl goes missing. They soon find out that the mother had another daughter who disappeared some years earlier and she becomes the focus of the investigation.
#15 - Bullseye
Season 12 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/22/2010
Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler enlist the help of a suspect from a previous case to crack a new one. The rape of a 10-year-old girl is so brutal it leaves her unable to recall her own name. Unfortunately, once Fin assists with the ID, the detectives find that she’s not the only one with memory impairment, and Dr. Huang is brought in to assess her home situation.
#16 - Branded
Season 12 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/20/2010
Two men have been branded and sodomised by someone. Is there a connection between these men, and what nut case is on the loose?
#17 - Dirty
Season 12 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/19/2011
Detective Saliyah “Sunny” Qadri goes in search of Brooklyn District Attorney Page Ferguson, who she fears may be in danger. Qadri finds Ferguson just in time to witness her fall from the top of a parking garage. When Benson arrives, she discovers that the crime scene has been tampered with. Benson turns to an old friend, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Danielson for help. As the investigation progresses, Benson begins to question Ferguson’s suspicious past and Qadri’s involvement in the case.
#18 - Pursuit
Season 12 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/16/2011
The TV host of a show that spotlights predators receives threats to her safety, and this reawakens her hunt for her sister's abductor. An ADA with connections to the TV host then assists detectives in their investigation.
#19 - Merchandise
Season 12 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/6/2010
The duo are called to look into the death of Carly, a teenage girl involved in an apparent hit-and-run case at a local farmers’ market. However, this incident was more than a straightforward traffic accident. Carly was a vulnerable adolescent who had been forced to work for a shady organisation known as Mission Farms after her desperate, cash-strapped father sold her to the group. The reason that Dr Warner wants her death investigated is that she showed signs not only of having been starved but also of having recently given birth. Fin and Dr Huang track down Carly’s brother Micah, who was also sold to the group. He tells them some disturbing facts about Mission Farms, including a further shocking revelation about his sister. When US Attorney Christine Danielson hears the details of the case, she vows to help her former colleagues expose the traffickers. Using her high rank and influence, she pulls strings and discovers some vital information from a prisoner with connections to this shady underworld. The team decide to mount a dramatic rescue operation at the farm, which results in a tense face-off with the traffickers.
#20 - Penetration
Season 12 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/10/2010
Undercover FBI agent Dana Lewis returns to help the detectives with a case.
#21 - Flight
Season 12 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/2/2011
When it is discovered that a teenage girl is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to sexual abuse, all leads point to billionaire Jordan Kress. As Detectives Benson and Stabler continue to investigate, Kress involves his lawyer, Dwight Stanitch, who throws the whole case awry.
#22 - Wet
Season 12 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/13/2010
Detectives Benson and Stabler arrive on the scene where a woman is found dead in Bethesda Fountain. When her squeaky clean image doesn’t match up with her promiscuous actions on the night of her murder, ADA Mikka Von encourages the cops to dig deeper into her past.
#23 - Bully
Season 12 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/23/2011
An art patron finds a body, and when detectives question the murdered woman's good friend and associates, they uncover an antagonistic work environment filled with grown-up bullies.
#24 - Bombshell
Season 12 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/23/2011
A grifter named Cassandra strikes swinging men who frequent sex clubs.