Throng

Saturday 7th November 11.00pm

The seventh season of the ‘Law & Order’ spin-off following New York’s elite special victims unit continues. This week, police trail a sex offender responsible for the murders of three people and the abductions of two young children. The pursuit brings Benson and Stabler into conflict when first one then the other is put in the firing line.

SVU is mobilised when Simon and Laila Clifford are found dead in their apartment with their necks slashed. Laila’s teenage daughter has been choked to death, while her younger children, nine-year-old Ryan and seven-year-old Rebecca, are missing. “No blood, no bodies. Nobody knows where they are,” says ME Warner.

Benson and Stabler learn that Rebecca was recently sent home from school after she was approached by a sex offender in the playground. The man was scared off by Rebecca’s art teacher, who has drawn a strikingly good picture of the culprit. “We should hire this woman – that’s the best sketch I’ve ever seen,” quips Benson. The sketch is so good that a shopkeeper comes forward to report that he served the man in question days earlier. The till receipt provides a name – Victor Paul Gitano (Lou Diamond Phillips, ‘Young Guns’).

To their horror, the detectives realise Gitano is a brutal paedophile with a string of convictions for abusing and torturing children. “He’s a sadist,” says Huang. Gitano was receiving treatment from a psychotherapist until she eventually gave up on him. “You can’t help a sociopath,” the woman tells Huang. Despite the likelihood of Gitano reoffending, he did not meet the criteria for being committed.

When a ticket seller at a bus terminal reports seeing Gitano with two children, the cops lie in wait for his imminent return. However, when Gitano reappears, the vendor’s nervous behaviour alerts him to the presence of the officers and he flees. Stabler gives chase and catches sight of Ryan. He is about to grab the boy when Gitano slashes Benson in the neck. While Stabler rushes to his partner’s side, Gitano flees with the kids. Benson’s wound is not serious and she urges Stabler to leave her – but he is too late to save Ryan, who has been murdered.

A devastated Stabler struggles to come to terms with his actions. “The kid was right in front of me,” he says. “All I had to do was grab him...” Stabler blames himself for being distracted by Benson, but cannot help lashing out at her. “How could you let him get so close to you?” he snarls. “I need to know you can do your job and not wait for me to come to the rescue!”

The bickering pair pull together long enough to act on a new lead as to Gitano’s whereabouts. Analysis of the coat Ryan was wearing suggests he may have been hiding out at an abandoned military installation. By cross-referencing this with Gitano’s phone records, Benson and Stabler deduce the criminal is sequestered at a site in New Jersey.

The detectives call for backup and head into the disused building. No sooner have they separated than Stabler is caught and held at gunpoint by Gitano. Benson races to his aid and finds herself in a tense showdown with the desperate killer. “Tell us where Rebecca is and we can end this right now,” she says, training a gun on Gitano’s head. But Stabler does not want her to succumb to the same indecision that hampered him. “Olivia, there is no reason to keep this piece of trash alive,” he cries. “Pull the trigger, right now!” Will Benson and Stabler survive? And what will be the repercussions for their relationship if they do?