Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 5)

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The fifth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit was originally aired between September 23, 2003 and May 18, 2004. It consists of 25 episodes in total.

Diane Neal joins the cast this season as Casey Novak, the SVU's new ADA.

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] Episodes

Ep. # Title Writer(s) Director Airdate Prod. code
1 "Tragedy" Amanda Green David Platt September 23, 2003 E4403
A high-risk pregnant woman is kidnapped when approaching her due date. Confusion arises when multiple suspects are willing to admit the crime to detectives Benson and Stabler.
2 "Manic" Patrick Harbinson Guy Norman Bee September 30, 2003 E4401
Detectives Benson and Stabler look for a link between the deaths of two high school students and an illegal marketing campaign by major pharmaceutical company.
3 "Mother" Lisa Marie Petersen & Dawn DeNoon Ted Kotcheff October 7, 2003 E4404
A psychiatrist is almost fatally attacked - possibly by her patient, but she refuses to reveal information due to doctor-patient confidentiality.Two patients become suspects; one a serial rapist and one a frat boy with fugue states. While the serial rapist is found with tools of his past crimes, his librarian girlfriend can't believe he is a possible suspect. The hyper-concerned sister of the college student gives clues to the emotional state of her traumatized brother. Eventually, detectives Benson and Stabler find a link between the attack, a child abuse and an unsolved homicide.
4 "Loss" Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters Constantine Makris October 14, 2003 E4402
Alexandra Cabot gets in over her head while investigating a rape and murder case, in which the victim is a federal agent and the suspect is a powerful drug dealer named Rafael Zapata.
5 "Serendipity" Dawn DeNoon & Lisa Marie Petersen Constantine Makris October 21, 2003 E4408
Casey Novak becomes the new ADA while a male dermatologist is suspected for both murdering a baby and her mom, and molesting little girls with honey. However, he can't be put in jail due to the lack of hard evidence. Detectives Benson and Stabler soon find out there was a victim that remembered it all.
6 "Coerced" Jonathan Greene Jean de Segonzac October 28, 2003 E4409
When a man kidnaps a little boy from his bed one night, it is soon revealed the man is homeless and schizophrenic. Detective Stabler, who's attacked by the man, exposes further crimes at an adult group home.
7 "Choice" Patrick Harbinson David Platt November 4, 2003 E4411
A man is arrested for attacking his pregnant wife in protest of her drinking during pregnancy. Detective Benson finds out it is not the first time she has overindulged in alcohol during pregnancy. The wife is taken to family court by her husband, who accuses her of endangering the fetus by putting it at risk of developing fetal alcohol syndrome.
8 "Abomination" Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters Alex Zakrzewski November 11, 2003 E4410
A minister (clearly based on Fred Phelps), who used to harass a sexual re-education group's homosexual poster-boy, is suspected for his murder. However, his alibi checks out. It is revealed the victim had a thesis about the failure of sexual re-education groups, which drew the attention of an opposing professor.
9 "Control" Neal Baer Ted Kotcheff November 18, 2003 E4413
Detectives Benson and Stabler investigate a man's mutilation in a subway station. The victim soon becomes a suspect when they learn he used to abduct women, make them his "brides," and force them to live in his dungeon. However, a woman manages to kill him before he is arrested. She claims she took the law into her own hands because when she reported the man's crimes to Detective Benson four years earlier, she didn't believe her.
10 "Shaken" Amanda Green Constantine Makris November 25, 2003 E4414
Detectives Stabler and Cragen suspect an infant was beaten by a pedophile. However, they soon learn the baby suffered from shaken baby syndrome, which leads them to suspect the mother, the nannies and the mother's boyfriend.
11 "Escape" Barbie Kligman Jean de Segonzac December 2, 2003 E4415
Before his terminally ill mother dies, a convicted pedophile escapes from jail and kidnaps his accuser, in a desperate attempt to prove his claims of innocence.
12 "Brotherhood" José Molina Jean de Segonzac January 6, 2004 E4412
A local fraternity pledge master is sodomized and murdered. The detectives link it to a pornographic website that features college girls at a local bar. The investigation later re-focuses on ceremonies held for prospective pledges in the fraternity, even though the members won't talk.
13 "Hate" Robert Nathan David Platt January 13, 2004 E4416
A man murders three Arabs and claims his genes and biology enforced the hatred and violence in him. Detectives Benson and Stabler try to discover his true motive.
14 "Ritual" Ruth Fletcher & Christos N. Gage Ed Bianchi February 3, 2004 E4406
A young boy is killed in a way that looks ritualistic. It is learned he was one of many slave children smuggled from Nigeria.
15 "Families" Jonathan Greene Constantine Makris February 10, 2004 E4419
When a pregnant teenager is murdered, it is linked to a deep family secret. That secret involved another violent murder that ruined two families.
16 "Home" Amanda Green Rick Wallace February 17, 2004 E4420
A bystander is killed in a robbery, which triggers his mentally ill home-schooling wife towards child abuse, abandonment and death.
17 "Mean" Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters Constantine Makris February 24, 2004 E4421
A sociopathic bully in a private high school is tortured and murdered by her own fellow bully buddies. The incident leads to even more violence and death in the private school.
18 "Careless" Patrick Harbinson Steve Shill March 2, 2004 E4422
Foster parents and a social worker are charged with murder and neglect after a foster child is killed in a midnight exorcism.
19 "Sick" Dawn DeNoon David Platt March 30, 2004 E4423
A rewarding non-disclosure agreement causes two parents to refuse to have their molested child questioned about a suspected pedophile. It is also revealed that in hopes of getting another millions worth of settlement, the parents decided to seek out another man and falsely accuse him at similar crimes.

This episode was inspired by the child abuse allegations against Michael Jackson.
20 "Lowdown" Robert Nathan Jud Taylor April 6, 2004 E4424
When internal information is used to stage a prosecutor's death, Novak puts her job on the line to get a confession.
21 "Criminal" Jose Molina Alex Zakrzewski April 20, 2004 E4425
An ex-con criminology professor is among the suspects in a graduate student's rape and murder. A hasty investigation tries to find out if the professor could have been framed by his bitter rival, a disappearing alibi witness and a corrupted businessman.
22 "Painless" Jonathan Greene Juan J. Campanella April 27, 2004 E4426
A defense lawyer challenges the assisted-suicide law in a case involving a hearing-impaired embryologist, whose website encouraged a woman to kill herself by putting a bag over her head and handcuffing herself to her bed, but failed after being found by two maids. The woman claims she was raped, and later commits suicide by medicine. Munch reveals that his father committed suicide after Munch insulted him.
23 "Bound" Barbie Kligman Constantine Makris May 4, 2004 E4427
An elderly woman's strangulation leads to a case involving mass murders in a home-nursing company owned by a brother and nursed by his sister. It turns out the sister tried to frame her brother to get back at him and their mother.
24 "Poison" Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters David Platt May 11, 2004 E4428
A child passes out and is hospitalized after having a huge amount of detergent in her stomach. Her sister reveals their mother forced the child to drink it, but a judge disqualifies the sister's testimony. Novak and Clark have the judge fired due to his prior two child abuse cases: In the first one, his ruling ended up with a mother killing her child by suffocation. In the second, he falsely jailed a woman.
25 "Head" Lisa Marie Petersen & Dawn DeNoon Juan J. Campanella May 18, 2004 E4418
A man is investigated for hiding a video camera in a public restroom for sexual pleasure. To escape trial, he reveals an incriminating clip. In the clip a middle school female principal commits statutory rape with her teenaged male student in said public restroom. When the incident is exposed, her ashamed student son attacks her raped student at their school as revenge. It is then learned the principal did it due to her brain tumor, which can be cured by surgery. However, it is known to be able to grow back. Therefore, she agrees to register herself as a sex offender as part of a plea bargain. But after learning she got pregnant by her student, she breaks the bargain to contact him.

This episode was inspired by a real story about a sex offender male teacher in Virginia, who had an egg-sized tumor in the right lobe of the orbifrontal cortex. Once it was removed, he stopped his harassments. Once it grew back, he became a sex offender again until it was removed again.[1][2]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ BBC NEWS | Health | Brain tumour 'caused paedophilia'
  2. ^ http://www.google.com/search?q=virginia+brain+removed+%22orbifrontal+cortex%22

[edit] External links


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