Join or Sign In
Sign in to customize your TV listings
By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 10 Episodes
Season 10 Episode Guide
22 Episodes 2008 - 2009
Episode 1
Trials
Tue, Sep 23, 200860 mins
Olivia discovers that a case involving a troubled foster child is tied to a cold rape case from her past, and it could be the missing link that could help catch a serial rapist. Meanwhile, Olivia is haunted by her sexual assault in prison.
Episode 2
Confession
Tue, Sep 30, 200860 mins
A teenager comes to SVU asking for help because he is having sexual desires for his five-year-old stepbrother. He says that he has not acted on his impulses yet, but not everyone believes that this part of his story is true.
Episode 3
Swing
Tue, Oct 14, 200860 mins
The college student Kathleen Stabler (Eliot's daughter) attends a party and apparently uses drugs during the event. While under the influence, she breaks into the house next-door and has a shower. When threatened with violence by the owner, she escapes. Her father and Olivia soon find her in a playground, acting like an excited child. Eliot uses information from Kathleen's estranged roommate and others to determine that Kathleen has had substance abuse problems for months. Kathleen has a nearly fatal overdose and is rushed to to a hospital. A doctor examines her medical history and troubled behavior in the past, diagnosing that Kathleen has bipolar disorder. She uses drugs and alcohol in an attempt to self-medicate. As Kathleen faces legal charges for burglary, Eliot visits his mother Bernie Stabler who has had incidents of erratic behavior for most of her life. He wants her to testify in court about her own problems with bipolar disorder and its heredity. Both Kathleen and Bernie initially refuse to admit their mental problems and to get treatment for them. They are both agitated by Eliot's efforts to force them to take a number of serious decisions. Olivia has an easier time to get through to Bernie by first listening to the old woman narrate her past traumatic experiences, and then convincing her to explain some of these things to Kathleen. After an intervention by her grandmother, Kathleen finally agrees to get medical treatment.
Episode 4
Lunacy
Tue, Oct 21, 200860 mins
Stabler runs into an old friend when the team investigates the rape and murder of an astronaut.
Episode 5
Retro
Tue, Oct 28, 200860 mins
A taxi driver delivers a sick baby girl to the local fire department, claiming that someone abandoned it in his car. After the girl is discovered to be an AIDS patient, the driver is forced to admit that the girl is the daughter of an imprisoned female friend. He and his wife had custody of the girl for most of her life, but did not provide her with any antiviral medication. They fell for the medical propaganda of Dr. Gideon Hutton, a quack who staunchly believes that HIV does not cause AIDS, and that it has no actual adverse effects on someone's health. While the police is searching for what kind of treatment Gideon offers to his patients, they discover that these patients include the retired school teacher Susan Ross. After gaining AIDS through a tainted blood transfusion, Susan has had the delusion that she is completely healthy and that the only sound medical advice is that of Gideon. She has since infected both of her children and her ex-boyfriend Jack Lufton with AIDS. Gideon is placed on trial for malpractice, while Susan is forced to face the fact that she is terminally ill, shortly before her death from toxoplasmosis. Her teenage son Tommy Ross still has to be convinced to get real treatment for his condition if he wants to survive.
Episode 6
Babes
Tue, Nov 11, 200860 mins
The team investigates a young man who's set on fire and castrated. They learn he was mentally challenged and living on the streets. They learn that he was killed by the brother of a girl he impregnated because the brother thought he raped her, but the sister denies it. Later they learn that there's a group at her school who vow to remain virgins but when one of them is killed it's discovered that she's no longer a virgin.
Episode 7
Wildlife
Tue, Nov 18, 200860 mins
The aspiring model Natalie Bleer was hanging out a with a number of organized crime figures during her stay in New York City. She is eventually found murdered, along with a dead exotic bird which she was transporting in her purse. The SVU question Natalie's sister and her known associates, eventually learning that Natalie had joined an animal smuggling ring and that she had personally arranged the sale of a tiger to the hip-hop artist "Gots Money". The SVU learn that Natalie was working for the ruthless smuggler Andre Bushido, and deduce that he killed her for some reason. Elliot Stabler goes undercover as the crooked customs agent "Mike" in order to join Bushido's operation. He soon realizes that Bushido is a rather paranoid man who has a habit of killing his employees and associates for petty offenses against his overly strict rules of contact. After Elliot himself breaks one of these rules, Bushido shoots him twice and leaves him for dead on the street. Elliot recovers in a hospital, and he soon takes part in a police raid against Bushido and his latest associates. Bushido accidentally injures his leg while trying to flee, and Elliot arrests him. Bushido vows to retaliate as soon as he gets out of prison, and Elliot replies by informing him that he is likely to get a life sentence due to his long list of crimes.
Episode 8
Persona
Tue, Nov 25, 200842 mins
While trying to stop a case of domestic abuse, Benson crosses paths with a woman who has been a fugitive for over 30 years and claims that she was also a domestic abuse victim.
Episode 9
PTSD
Tue, Dec 2, 200860 mins
SVU clashes with the Marines over jurisdiction in a case involving the murder in New York of a pregnant soldier who claims she was raped in Iraq. During the investigation, Benson has traumatic flashbacks of her sexual assault.
Episode 10
Smut
Tue, Dec 9, 200860 mins
When a woman is found wandering around in her underwear and there are signs she was assaulted, she's brought to the hospital and SVU is called. When they talk to the woman she doesn't know what they are talking about and thinks it's the day before. And when they learn she was suppose to go out of the country, they check video surveillance at the airport and see that some guy slipped something in her drink and made her go with him. They find the man and arrest him. But they don't have enough to charge him. They learn this is not his first time; that he has done this before and to several other women.
Episode 11
Stranger
Tue, Jan 6, 200960 mins
Heather Hallander miraculously returns home after being reported missing over four years ago. Unrecognizable to her family, Heather tells Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the cement cell where she spent the past four years as a sex slave and of her fortunate escape. Heather's sister, Erica Hallander, is relieved to see her long-lost sister after launching a website asking for search tips, but Nikki Hallander, Heather's other sister, seems annoyed with her return. In search of the mystery kidnapper, Benson and Stabler drive Heather around town to help stir up any memories of her abduction. When Heather's answers don't seem to match up, the detectives find revealing evidence that makes them question Heather's kidnapping and true identity.
Episode 12
Hothouse
Tue, Jan 13, 200960 mins
The death of a teenage mathematics prodigy sheds light on some disturbing and unhealthy practices taking place among a group of competitive students at a prestigious academy.
Episode 13
Snatched
Tue, Feb 3, 200942 mins
As SVU tries to recover a girl who was stolen from her home, the unit discovers that the victim's family is filled with con artists and career criminals--none of whom can be trusted or are beyond suspicion.
Episode 14
Transitions
Tue, Feb 17, 200960 mins
A man is brutally beaten outside a strip club because of his lack of support for his transgender teenage daughter's desire for gender reassignment.
Episode 15
Lead
Tue, Mar 10, 200960 mins
A pediatrician who is a convicted child molester is killed after his trial, but is the guilty party mentally competent to stand trial? Alex Cabot returns to the DA's office to prosecute the accused.
Episode 16
Ballerina
Tue, Mar 17, 200960 mins
Detectives suspect that a murder suspect was thrown out of a window to his death, and their investigation focuses on the suspect's wife, her nephew who lives with them, and their unusual special relationship.
Episode 17
Hell
Tue, Mar 31, 200960 mins
A young girl is found on the street with her throat slashed. She's taken to the hospital and SVU is called because the doctor says she was sexually assaulted before. While the doctor tells them she can't talk, when asked who did this to her, she draws a picture of the devil. They learn that she's the adopted daughter of a priest. He tells them that she's from Africa and that she was abused as a child. When they tell them where she was found, the priest tells them that she probably went to see a man who is also from Africa who's a child soldier. When they find him, he tells them that she wanted him to kill the man who raped her in Africa. They eventually find the man. But her friend faces deportation where he will surely face death so he holds up in the church with a gun.
Episode 18
Baggage
Tue, Apr 7, 200960 mins
Stabler is forced to work on a serial killer case with an abrasive detective who has been on the case for months and would prefer to work alone. However, Stabler discovers that the detective's motivation is not glory and recognition.
Episode 19
Selfish
Tue, Apr 28, 200960 mins
An immature, irresponsible young mother is assumed to have killed her child, but it turns out to be part of a measles outbreak. A.D.A. Cabot then goes after the mother of the child who started the outbreak, who refused to immunize him.
Episode 20
Crush
Tue, May 5, 200942 mins
Over the course of a complex "sexting" case involving an abused teenage girl, the team encounters a corrupt family court judge who hands down unusually harsh sentences for borderline sexual offenses.
Episode 21
Liberties
Tue, May 19, 200943 mins
A judge asks an odd request for a plaintiff who is seeking a restraining order: he asks detectives to interview a convicted serial killer concerning his son's kidnapping, which took place 30 years ago.
Episode 22
Zebras
Tue, Jun 2, 200942 mins
CSU Stuckey's careless error causes a deranged killer to go free on a technicality. Later, more signature killings emerge, and more people connected to the case may be targeted.
