Law & Order SVU: The 10 Creepiest Episodes Ever

Law & Order: SVU has been around for more than 20 years and has some very creepy episodes. It has shocked, thrilled, and left viewers in tatters with some of the most gripping drama ever seen on television. While most of the cast has changed over the years with the exception of Ice-T and Mariska Hargitay, the show continues to chug along like an unstoppable force. The show is now the second longest-running Prime Time TV show in US history. It’s only bested by The Simpsons.

SVU has become the most successful Law & Order spinoff series, even more successful than the original series at that. It follows detectives in the Special Victims Unit and the prosecutors who take up their cases. This means that a lot of the cases involve sexual assault, children, or other special circumstances, creating for an emotionally charged series and some very creepy stories. With that in mind, there were episodes that certainly crawled under the skin of its viewers.

“Demons”

Season 7, Episode 1

This episode, which guest-starred Robert Patrick as a recently released rapist, claims that he is now on the straight and narrow. Elliot Stabler goes undercover pretending to be a fellow rapist who raped his stepdaughter to catch him in the act. Any episode in which Stabler or Benson have to go undercover are usually standouts for the audience because it allows for the fan-favorite characters to be seen in different circumstances, often way outside of their comfort zone.

The episode is revealing as Stabler has to not just confront a rapist in front of him but actually go to a very dark place that he is mentally not ready for. That is where the episode gets creepier than usual. Christopher Meloni excels in this episode as a man who is now worried that he might have just become the demons that he has been chasing his whole career.

“Stranger”

Season 10, Episode 11

This episode could easily have been ripped from the headlines like so many other SVU episodes. A young woman, Heather Hollander, who has been missing for 4 years, has returned home. While it’s discovered she was held captive, she is not actually who she says she is. It’s later revealed that she is an imposter. The shock ending is that the real Heather was killed by her own sister.

The episode is creepy because it really delves deep into the heart of what people are willing to do to cover up the sins of the past in a very dark way. The main cast is memorable as this story is more of an ensemble piece than a singular performance. While the ending is shocking, the exploitation of the young girls is gruesome, to say the least.

“Mother”

Season 5, Episode 3

In this episode, a psychiatrist is found beaten in a house addicts frequent, and it’s later revealed that one of her patients might have put her there. The twist is the psychiatrist is using controversial methods to reform rapists by making them believe she’s their mother. One of her patients is actually in love with her. The patient’s sister is eventually revealed to be the one to have beaten the psychiatrist, wanting to protect her mother.

This time around, it’s the story itself rather than the darkness of humanity or the approach of an actor that makes the episode one of SVU’s creepiest outings. The story is fraught with the Oedipus complex, which is the kind of touch that always makes a horrific story even creepier. The shocking conclusion is that the sister is actually his mother and hid this fact to protect him.

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“Hate”

Season 5, Episode 13

“Hate” is often seen as one of the Law and Order: SVU episodes with an interesting premise that can reflect a real-world mentality concerning racism. The episode involves the murder of an Arab-American woman, and it’s initially believed that her husband and mother-in-law committed the crime because of her love affair with a Jewish person. The killer is eventually revealed to be a young man who is an outright racist and, more importantly, believes that all Arabs are terrorists and should be kicked out of America.

The episode was released in 2004, but it’s actually just as reflective of the harsh political environment that exists today. The creep factor in the episode is on display when it’s revealed that the killer’s racism rose not from 9/11, as many crime procedurals typically employ that event as a catalyst, but because his father left his mother for an Arab woman. “Hate” is so creepy because it’s very easy for the audience to see this storyline play out in reality.

“Obscene”

Season 6, Episode 3

What happens when a young teenager can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy? In the case of this SVU episode, the result is rape. The story deals with a young TV starlet (played by Maggie Grace) who is raped in her trailer as young men break in to steal her underwear. The act turns out to be the result of a creepy radio-show host played by Lewis Black issuing a challenge to his audience on his show.

The episode is stunning, to say the least. Where the creepiness comes in is the idea of the lines between pop culture and reality becoming blurred. That’s exactly the thing that causes confusion in stalking cases of celebrities in the real world. In SVU, the rapist is the child of a conservative critic who believes that Grace’s show is polluting the minds of the youth, further complicating the case. A stunning episode as both the victim confronts her rapist and, for a change, her rapist realizes the pain he caused.

“Haunted”

Season 6, Episode 10

In an ensemble show like SVU, all of the detectives get the spotlight at some point. Though Benson tends to get the spotlight more than most since she’s been in the series since the beginning, but Tutuola gets his share of the spotlight since he’s been in the series since season one as well.

This episode is dominated by Ice-T’s character, Odafin Tutuola who has to make up for something that he missed in an old case. The episode begins when he gets involved in a corner store robbery, which Tutuola foils. While he is shot in the process, he recovers only to find out that a grieving mother from his past says he didn’t find her daughter.

Tutuola has to look into his past in Narcotics and tracks down the girl who was a junkie and an informant. It turns out she died but gave birth to a child before she died, and Tutuola makes it his mission to track the child down. The episode is satisfying but terrifying as Tutuola follows the path the young woman’s life took her as a result of her addictions and difficult road. “Haunted” shows the viewer how life can change with a single bad circumstance.

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“Raw”

Season 7, Episode 6

This episode deals with a school shooting and one of the victims is a young African-American boy whose parents were white and adopted him. Their investigation as to who killed the boy leads to a white power organization having meetings in the basement of a gun store. Marcia Gay Harden stars as an undercover FBI agent who has infiltrated the organization. Her reveal comes when the boy of the man who’s being targeted tries to kill Stabler, and her involvement in the episode is what helps to break the case and also foil a terrorist plot.

While SVU has used many storylines to tackle the path from racism to violence, this episode includes a different twist. While the shooters are members of the white power group, their killing of the young Black boy at the top of the episode isn’t actually racially motivated. Instead, it’s revealed that the boy was murdered because his parents took a life insurance policy on his life. The episode is creepy because of using a young boy as an asset to get rich quickly.

“Outsider”

Season 8, Episode 12

It’s always been said that comedians make the best dramatic actors, and SVU has seen many actors known for their comedic talents try their hand at dramatic roles. Kal Penn stars in this episode as a person who beats and rapes his victims. Penn masterfully showcases his dramatic ability as a man who was disowned by his family. Adam Beach also stars in this episode as a man tracking down a serial killer who matches Penn’s MO. He joins forces with Ice-T’s Tutola to get the person responsible.

Law and Order: SVU has always been at its best when its detectives have the chemistry to play off each other in one-on-one scenes, and Beach and Ice-T make a great pair in this episode. It also proves why the show has lasted this long. While their chemistry makes the episode entertaining, the serial beatings and rapes are what make the episode creepy. This is an instance of a perpetrator having many victims, and those episodes of SVU always tend to hit harder.

“Monogamy”

Season 3, Episode 11

If there was one actor who defined physical comedy on TV during the 70s and 80s, it was John Ritter. He was fantastic on Three’s Company and starred in other sitcoms throughout the years, including the popular 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter. His turn in SVU is as a psychiatrist who almost murdered his own wife and even ripped the child from her womb. Ritter is riveting in this episode as he is able to portray the character’s calm rage at being cheated on with an inert disconnect.

Throughout the episode, the wife’s husband and her lover are both suspects, but it becomes clear that the husband is the criminal. What breaks the audience’s heart is when he confesses to murdering his wife’s baby after performing an amateur C-section on her to remove the child. When questioned, he doesn’t believe the baby was his, but eventually breaks down, saying the baby cried “just a little” before he killed him.

If the crime itself wasn’t creepy enough, the episode also gives the audience a look at just how difficult working in the special victims unit is for the detectives. Stabler confesses to Benson that he hasn’t been talking to his wife because he doesn’t know how to tell her about his work day when it involves such a gruesome case. It’s the beginning of several problems in Stabler’s family life that result from the stress of the job.

“Conscience”

Season 6, Episode 6

“Conscience” is, perhaps, the most chilling episode of SVU. The storyline features a young child murdering another. Detectives initially believe that a child molester committed the crime, but it turns out that his next-door neighbor committed it. He has the police believe that it was an accident and has his case thrown to family court. Detectives realize that they were manipulated when the boy has a history of disturbing behavior.

Kyle MacLachlan, who plays the father of the murdered child, kills the boy in a rage outside the court. He is acquitted by the court due to his believed mental state. He reveals his crime and shows his own twisted mental state by saying that he did a service to society as the boy would have killed again.

This is one of the most memorable episodes of the series of all time as it calls into question just when a person becomes a killer, what can motivate them to become one, and if it’s avoidable. Law & Order: SVU doesn’t offer up answers to those questions, and that’s part of what makes the episode so creepy. The series delivers some of the darkest moments of humanity to the audience, even among its child perpetrators.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit centers on the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit, a specialized team of detectives who investigate and solve cases of sexual assault, child abuse, and domestic violence. Under the leadership of Captain Olivia Benson, the unit deals with complex and sensitive crimes, balancing empathy for victims with the pursuit of justice.

Cast

Christopher Meloni , Mariska Hargitay , Richard Belzer , Dann Florek , Michelle Hurd , Stephanie March , Ice-T , BD Wong , Diane Neal , Tamara Tunie , Adam Beach , Michaela McManus , Danny Pino , Kelli Giddish , Raúl Esparza , Peter Scanavino

Release Date

September 20, 1999

Seasons

24

Showrunner

Robert Palm , David J. Bruke , Neal Baer , Warren Leight , Rick Eid , Michael S. Chernuchin , David Graziano

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