CI: Who blew up the car? Mom or Dad?

Criminal Intent S4 E7 “Magnificat”

Maybe it was terrorists. Maybe it’s the dad. Maybe he wanted the wife out of the way. Maybe it’s mom. Maybe she was overwhelmed. Maybe it was because she was breastfeeding a three-year-old. We seem to say “maybe” a lot.

Three young boys are killed by a car bomb, their mother Doreen and older brother in the front seat are the only survivors. Detectives Goren and Eames learn Paul Whitlock developed a new kind of landmine and his wife had spotted some threatening-looking Middle Eastern men before the blast.  But there are indications the pipe bomb was built in their garage and someone swept it up. Bobby and Alex suspect the depressed Doreen blew up the car in a murder/suicide attempt.

ADA Ron Carver insists the overbearing husband is their best suspect. The detectives find a space heater Doreen tampered with to leak carbon monoxide. The overwhelmed mother confesses she wanted to take the children to heaven with her, where she could be a better parent. But Goren and Eames discover the cold-blooded Whitlock knew Doreen wanted to die and was fine if she did - he just didn’t know the children would get hurt. Enraged at his cruelty, the detectives insist Carver hold him legally responsible, but he says there’s no crime in not stopping your wife from killing herself and her family.

We’re talking about Law & Order: Criminal Intent season 4 episode 7 “Magnificat.” Our returning guest is Katie from the A Date with Dateline podcast.

Plot points in this episode are inspired by the 2001 case of Andrea Yates.

SVU: Why didn't Daddy pick me??

SVU S19 E7 “Something Happened”

“I just want to prepare you for some very bad acting. It may be especially heinous.”

Lt Olivia Benson helps a victim who can't remember the details of her attack the previous day. Laurel Linwood is spiraling emotionally. She says after her father's funeral she wound up in a bar, met a man with the same after-shave and expensive watch as her father, and now has vague memories of a pair of scissors.

The SVU investigation shifts after Detectives Fin Tutuola and Sonny Carisi find the suspect dead. Laurel tries to bond with Olivia over emotionally distant fathers who never loved them. Laurel says her dad had sex with her as a child, but the details aren't adding up. Olivia realizes she's describing events that only happened to her younger sister, and that actually Laurel is jealous of the attention she got. The suspect admits she killed the man because he reminded him of her father, someone who never loved her enough.

We're talking about the very dark Special Victims Unit season 19 episode seven "Something Happened." Our returning guest is Roberta Blevins from the "Life After MLM" podcast.

We were told this episode has parallels to the life of Crystal Mangum, but if it does, we don't know what they are.

L&O: They won't convict the guy for shooting that insurance CEO, will they?

Law & Order S24 E16 “Folk Hero”

You think insurance is pricey now. Wait until that have to start taking out insurance on the insurance executives!

After a health insurance executive is gunned down on the sidewalk by a vigilante, Det. Vincent Riley chases the suspect all over Manhattan. Lt. Jessica Brady discovers, not only are citizens unwilling to help them find the fugitive, people start dressing like him to disrupt their manhunt. ADA Samantha Maroun says Ethan Weller targeted OptiShield's CEO because the company denied his late mother's claim for an experimental drug. DA Nicholas Baxter worries the jury will not convict a defendant who's gained folk hero status for killing a man who represents the worst kind of corporate greed. EADA Nolan Price thinks it's a slam dunk murder conviction, but an activist judge seems eager to see Weller go free.

We're talking about Law & Order season 24 episode 16 "Folk Hero." Our returning guest is Ellyn Marsh from the "I Think Not" podcast.

This episode is inspired by the case of Luigi Mangione.

SVU: Who shook the baby? Mom? The nanny? Stabler?

SVU S5 E10 “Shaken”

Please. You know I prefer my babies stirred.

Det. Stabler and Cpt. Cragen investigate what they think is a botched kidnapping at a playground that left a toddler in a coma. They give up the hunt for a creepy guy with a camera when doctors determine little Lucy's injuries occurred days earlier when she was violently shaken. Though suspicion falls on the nanny, Stabler homes in on Lucy's widowed mother, Evelyn. 

After ADA Novak puts the mom on trial, the child's condition worsens. If Evelyn keeps Lucy on life support, her daughter will suffer immense pain. If she takes her off the respirator, the charges will be upgraded to murder. Stabler appeals directly to DA Branch to get the court to end the child's suffering. In court, Evelyn admits she shook Lucy because she didn't want the child to interrupt a night of romance. Later, Stabler confides in Cragen about a time he took out his frustrations on his own baby daughter.

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 5 episode 10 "Shaken." Our guest is Jessica Spawn from the Gal on the Prowl podcast.

This episode takes its inspiration from the 1997 case of Louise Woodward.

SVU: Is Bradley Cooper, Angela Lansbury, or Alfred Molina killing undocumented women?

SVU S6 E20 “Night”

Well, you just might say a star is born. Or maybe I’m an American sniper doing an American hustle? Or a raccoon? Either way, I’ll give you a hangover.

The squad investigates the case of a dead woman found with hundred dollar bills shoved in her mouth. Detectives Benson and Stabler learn the woman was an undocumented worker at a woman's sex club. A community activist (Rita Moreno) tells the detectives 16 undocumented women have been attacked by the same rapist - but none will report the crimes for fear of deportation. When Serbian refugee Nina gives Olivia the cash her attacker left, they link a fingerprint to an attorney (Bradley Cooper) who handles the estate for socialite Eleanor Duvall (Angela Lansbury, in an Emmy-nominated performance). Elliot suspects her oddball son Gabriel (Alfred Molina) is the rapist, but the victim is mysteriously detained before she can make an identification.

ADA Casey Novak stops Nina's deportation so she can testify against Duvall. As she prepares for trial, an assailant disguised as a flower delivery man beats Casey up in her office. Stabler accuses Duvall, but the attacker is actually Nina's religiously conservative brother, incensed that Novak has let the world know his sister is no longer a virgin. The assault on the prosecutor complicates the case, so DA Arthur Branch gives it to ADA Tracey Kibre (Bebe Neuwirth) for a trial by jury.

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season six episode 20 "Night," the first part of a crossover episode with Law & Order: Trial by Jury season one episode 11 "Day." Our guest is Holly Brown from Salty AF.

This episode takes some inspiration from the case of South Side Rapist Kevin Coe and his mother Ruth.

For exclusive content from Kevin and Rebecca, sign up on Patreon.

SVU: That obnoxious commissioner get busted for uploading BAD things

SVU S17 15 “Collateral Damages”

“I know my client’s an asshole. Hell, I don’t even like him. But can we all just pretend for a minute that we’re not thrilled to see him going down in a completely humiliating way?”

The squad goes after a ring of New Yorkers uploading child sexual abuse material. Detectives Amanda Rollins and Sonny Carisi are stunned to find one of the culprits is Deputy Police Commissioner and major asshole Hank Abraham. As ADA Rafael Barba decides how best to prosecute him, Lt. Olivia Benson has sympathy for Abraham's wife: ADA Pippa Cox. The arrest threatens to both destroy her family and her career as a prosecutor of crimes against children. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief William Dodds urges his son, Sgt. Mike Dodds, to leave SVU for a high profile position. And Benson and Captain Ed Tucker have a "nightcap." 

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 17 episode 15* "Collateral Damages." Our returning guest is Aviv Rubinstein of the "Special Viewing Unit" podcast.

This episode takes some cues from the 2006 case of Assistant District Attorney Bill Conradt. 

*Because of a two-part season opener, some streaming services list this as episode 14.

L&O: Don't execute HER! She loves Jesus!

Law & Order S8 E21 “Bad Girl”

I’m getting too old for this shit.

An off-duty cop is stabbed to death, and her assailant is critically wounded. Eyewitness Monica Johnson tells detectives Lenny Briscoe and Rey Curtis that she saw the man follow the victim into the park—but holes in her story lead them to arrest her for the officer’s death. District Attorney Adam Schiff faces political pressure to seek the death penalty for the cop killer. After prosecutor Jack McCoy gets Monica to confess on the stand, she undergoes a religious transformation and chooses not to fight her execution. McCoy and ADA Jamie Ross debate whether a repentant killer should face the death penalty. Monica’s cause is taken up by both left-wing and right-wing lawyers, who petition to spare her life.

Meanwhile, Lt. Anita Van Buren’s discrimination suit against the NYPD is dismissed, and Briscoe’s daughter is pressured into participating in a dangerous sting operation to take down her drug dealer.

We’re talking about Law & Order season eight, episode 21 “Bad Girl.” Our returning guest is Mark Blankenship. The episode was inspired by the case of Karla Faye Tucker.

SVU: A billionaire trafficking teens on his private jet can't get away with it, can he?

SVU S12 E15 “Flight”

We’re taking you to prison. Just hang in there.

On a flight to Paris, distraught 12 year old Dominique says she was forced to give a naked massage to well-connected New York billionaire Jordan Hayes. Detectives Benson and Stabler suspect his ex-girlfriend Dahlia is helping him procure underage girls from around the world. Before they can arrest him, Hayes shows up at SVU to accuse Dominique of raping him. ADA Hadwick is unsuccessful at getting a warrant for the video footage from the billionaire's massage room. After Munch convinces another of Hayes's victims to post her experience online, several pre-teens step forward to tell their stories. Benson tries to get Dahlia to flip, but she refuses. That's when Stabler tells her that Hayes has made a sweetheart deal with the Feds to save himself and let her take the fall.

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 12 episode 15 "Flight." Our guest is the author of Law & Order SVU: Confidential and host of the Triviality podcast Neal E. Fischer.

This episode is inspired by the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

SVU: He's drugging his wife so men can rape her!

SVU S26 E9 “First Light”

This sounds like a big case. I’m going to change into my formal vest.

Harris and Katharine Vernon are sent videos showing a man entering their home and having sex with her - but she has no memory of the incident. Sgt Fin Tutuola thinks she's lying to her husband, but Captain Olivia Benson believes she was raped after taking her sleeping pills. Captain Renee Curry locates the man who claims he'd been chatting online with Katharine about her "Sleeping Beauty" sex fantasy. With help from Professor Amanda Rollins, the squad learns Harris has been posing as his wife and inviting men to rape her while she's unconscious.

Still traumatized from being caught in the middle of a fatal hostage situation, Assistant District Attorney Sonny Carisi struggles to perform in the courtroom. After a pep talk from Benson, Carisi uncovers a bribe made to Katharine's rapist, who he flips, forcing Harris to take a plea deal.

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 26 episode 9 "First Light." Our guest is Sarah Runyan from the Two Chicks Talkin Flicks podcast. Plot points for this episode come from the case of Gisèle Pelicot.  

SVU: Fin & Munch have a pajama party and go to Canada

SVU S2 E18 “Manhunt”

Fin: Is that how you dress for bed?

Munch: Is that how you dress for bed?

America: We completely believe this is how these guys dress for bedl.

Detective Munch thinks a woman has been abducted by the killer he's hunted for a year: the "Bowery Stalker," who tortures and rapes his victims before killing them. With a lead on a new suspect, he and Tutuola drive upstate looking for the secluded cabin of Darryl Kern. They find he's been using the identities of other missing people. Fin and John are forced to share a motel room, where the new partners bond for the first time. 

A hot tip leads them to a bunker in the woods where multiple bodies are found. The detectives are shocked to discover the unhelpful eyewitness to the abduction was actually Kern's accomplice. After Kern carjacks a mother and child, cell phone data shows the partners heading north, and Kern is nabbed by police in Canada. But with Canadian law prohibiting the extradition of anyone facing capital punishment, ADA Alex Cabot must convince a provincial judge they will only charge the serial killer with stealing the getaway vehicle (wink, wink).

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season two episode eighteen "Manhunt." Our guest is Ronald Young Jr from the "Weight for It" podcast. This episode gets its cues from the landmark legal case surrounding the extradition of serial killer Charles Ng.

L&O: What did she THINK would happen in a rock star's hotel room?

Law & Order S4 E3 “Discord”

Just so you know Jill, this is probably the one and only times I’ll look into your eyes and not your forehead. I don’t want you to steal my soul.

When a college co-ed accuses raunchy rock star Clarence "C-Square" Carmichael of raping her in his hotel room, Detectives Mike Logan and Lenny Briscoe have to decide whether she's an actual victim or a willing participant now looking for a payday. Lt. Anita Van Buren is the only one who believes Julia's story, and Logan and Briscoe turn up evidence the musician has paid off other victims in the past.

DA Adam Schiff can't believe Julia didn't know what she was getting into when she visited the man's room late at night. But prosecutor Ben Stone says she still has the right to say no and what C-Square did was a crime. Newly arrived ADA Claire Kincaid tells Stone that Julia perjured herself on the stand. It was regarding facts she told Claire, but didn't pass along to Ben thinking they were irrelevant. Feeling he can no longer trust his new assistant, Stone tells her to seek a transfer. Though the victim has been discredited, the jury still convicts the rock star of rape. After winning the case, Ben reconsiders and gives Claire a second chance.

We're talking about Law & Order season 4 episode 3 "Discord." Our guest is Meredith Constant from the "Off with Their Headlines" podcast.

This episode is inspired by the 1991 rape case of boxer Mike Tyson.

SVU: Marcia Cross kills Robert Vaughn with Viagra

SVU S16 E16 “December Solstice”

“They used an electric probe to extract semen from a dead body? I might be going about this baby thing all wrong.”

The estranged daughters of famed author Walter Briggs (Robert Vaughn) tell Sgt. Benson their stepmother is plying their senile father with Viagra and daily sex. They say Charmaine Briggs (Marcia Cross) is preventing them from seeing him and risking his life to conceive a child to get a bigger cut of his estate. Briggs brags about his youthful sexual prowess, but ends up having a heart attack. Dets. Carisi and Amaro block Charmaine from flying him to Canada against medical advice and court orders. After Briggs has a fatal heart attack, they discover Charmaine extracted semen post-mortem. ADA Barba charges her with murder, but after a video of the dead novelist surfaces, the real reason for the daughters' estrangement is revealed.

Meanwhile: Benson tries to hide the secret of Noah's biological father and Barba tries to get his grandmother into a nursing home.

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 16 episode 16 "December Solstice." Our returning guest is Kimberly from the "A Date with Dateline" podcast.

This story is inspired by the real life family squabble over the death of DJ Casey Kasem.

SVU: Is Martin Short a psychic? Or the culprit?

SVU S6 E18 “Pure”

You're accusing me of targeting hitchhikers in Canada to rape and kill? I'm sorry. I only do murders in my building.

When a young woman is kidnapped by a rapist targeting virgins, psychic Sebastian Ballentine (played by Martin Short) offers to help. Stabler dismisses him as a phony. But when details Ballentine offers about the crime are suspiciously accurate, the detectives suspect he’s actually the culprit. Benson learns his wife is his accomplice, enabling his hunt for virgins. Then a final twist: the couple murdered a pregnant woman to steal her baby.

We’re talking about Special Victims Unit season 6 episode 18 “Pure.” Our guest is Amye Archer from the Little Miss Recap podcast.

Plot points for this episode come from the controversy around so-called “virginity auctions.”

L&O: A dead baseball fan, an evidence-planting cop, and an exonerated man who says prison made him a murderer

Law & Order: S14 E21 “Vendetta”

“Are you asking me if I’m crazy enough to present illegally obtained evidence from a coerced confession that was planted by a crooked cop that sent your client to prison for a murder he didn’t commit…and use all that evidence to convict him of a murder he did commit? Then - yes - I am that crazy!”

When a baseball fan despised for costing the team the pennant is killed in a bar, Detectives Briscoe and Green connect the crime to Walter Grimes, a man released from prison after 20 years for a murder he didn't commit. Attorney Rodney Fallon (played by Giancarlo Esposito) argues he's innocent because his time as a wrongfully convicted man made him a murderer. 

McCoy and Southerlyn find the cop who originally framed him. He says the bloody knife he planted was from a different murder committed by Grimes. The prosecutors must rely on planted evidence and the dirty cop to prove the defendant was already a killer before being set up. 

We’re talking about Law & Order season 14 episode 21 “Vendetta.” Our ten-time returning guest is Sarah D. Bunting.

This episode draws inspiration from the infamous 2003 Steve Bartman foul ball incident at Wrigley Field.

SVU: The dad from 7th Heaven creeps on his son's lady

SVU S9 E18 “Trade”

I’m really ready for this role. I’ve had a lot of time talking to special victims unit detectives recently.

Benson and Stabler investigate the murder of a pregnant woman found in a burning apartment. A shameless golddigger, she worked for wealthy coffee importer Pierson Bartlett (played by Stephen Collins) and was his son PJ's fiancée.  But those paternal bonds are strained when Warner says the baby belonged to Pierson, not PJ. 

Novak charges them both with conspiracy to commit murder, but someone bribed a juror to get a mistrial. Father and son are ready to flip on each other. That's when Elliot and Olivia find a hidden camera in the victim's bedroom. It shows the killer is Avery, PJ's lawyer who has secretly loved him since college. After she races to the roof, everyone tries to talk Avery off the ledge. But in an effort to protect him from Pierson, Avery grabs PJ and pulls him over the side, where they both fall to their deaths.

We are talking about Special Victims Unit season 9 episode 18 "Trade." Our guest is Arielle Nissenblatt from the EarBuds Podcast Collective.

While the plot of this episode appears to be largely fictional, the inspiration for the victim of the crime may be Kitty Pappas.

SVU: Who's preying on the girls in that reality TV family?

SVU S17 E7 “Patrimonial Burden”

“Rollins, it’s a TV show about a whole bunch of women who promise to not have sex outside of marriage. I’m sorry I interrupted. You were tell me all about your out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Continue.”

When the Bakers, a chastity-espousing reality TV family, come to New York to celebrate Lane's purity ceremony, they discover the 13-year-old is pregnant. After interrogating a cameraman, Fin and Carisi learn that accusations of inappropriate touching by the oldest son, Graham, were buried by the Bakers' powerful supporters. Before Benson and Dodds can question him, the family pastor says the boy has been sent to a camp in Ecuador. After binge-watching their show, Rollins suspects Graham fathered a child with a different sister. But the DNA points in a different direction. The pastor himself has been preying on the daughters and blaming the son.

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 17 episode 7* "Patrimonial Burden." Our returning guest is Melody Carlisle from the "Heaving Bosoms" podcast.

This episode is inspired by the scandal around reality TV stars, the Duggar family.

*Note: Because of a two-part season opener, some streaming services list this as episode 6.

L&O: Briscoe is accused of being dirty

Law & Order S7 E5 “Corruption”

“No, I was not drunk on the job. Just immediately before and immediately after.”

As Detectives Briscoe and Curtis work a drug sting, Lt. John Flynn shoots the dealer. Lenny backs up his old friend's story that Ruben Morales went for his gun, but Rey is suspicious about Flynn's connection to the dealer. They learn Morales was going to testify against a kingpin who had Flynn on his payroll. 

Prosecutors Jack McCoy and Jamie Ross want to charge Flynn with murder, but the dirty cop gets a deal in exchange for testifying before a police corruption commission. In front of the cameras, he accuses Briscoe of stealing drugs from the evidence locker. Lenny struggles to defend himself because the incident happened during his drinking days. The married woman he had an affair with comes forward to provide him with an alibi, but is humiliated by the commissioners. While wearing a wire, Briscoe gets Flynn to confirm his innocence. His perjury nullifies his deal, and before Lenny can take him in, Flynn shoots himself.

We're talking about Law & Order season 7 episode 5 "Corruption." Our special guest is author and NPR reporter Sonari Glinton.

This episode takes cues from the real life police scandal around drugs stolen from the famous "French Connection" operation.

L&O: Briscoe solves 3 murders, 1 kidnapping, and delivers a baby in one day

Law & Order S13 E23* “Couples”

I haven’t had one long day like this since that woman cut her husband’s penis off and hit Logan in the head with a frying pan.

A jogger who died of a heart attack leads police to the unrelated murder of a woman who's been using the Social Security number of Marcella Celaya, who was killed ten years ago. Detectives Briscoe and Green learn that Rafael Berseño, the victim's husband, used to have the last name Celaya also. Before they question him further, they spot a jealous wife running over her husband with her car again and again. Then, Green discovers a note on a bathroom mirror from a pregnant woman saying she's been kidnapped. Meanwhile, they hear Rafael's brother Reynaldo just got out of prison for killing his wife Marcella, though her body was never found.

Reynaldo tells McCoy and Southerlyn he already served his sentence for killing Marcella, even though she wasn't dead, and they can't convict him twice for killing the same person. Still on the job, Briscoe and Green learn Rafael and Marcella set up Reynaldo so they could be together. When he got out of prison, he forced his brother to kill his (their) wife. 

Briscoe gets a lead on the kidnapping. The mom-to-be was abducted by an infertile woman. They rescue her just as she goes into labor, forcing Lennie to deliver the baby himself.  Before they can finally punch out for the night, Dr. Rogers calls to say that jogger didn't have a heart attack...he'd been poisoned!

We're talking about one crazy day for the detectives in Law & Order season 13 episode 23 "Couples." Our guest is Sarah Carradine from the Crime Seen podcast.

Among the many inspirations for this story include the case of Clara and David Lynn Harris.

*Note: Hulu incorrectly lists this as episode 24.

SVU: David Harbour plays with dolls and kidnaps Gloria Reuben's kid

SVU S4 E7 “Dolls”

A grown man who likes to play with dolls? Well, there have been stranger things.

After the body of a mummified child is discovered, Benson and Stabler run out of leads. At a vigil for "Cherish Doe," Fin meets Violet (Gloria Reuben). She's fresh from rehab and fears the unidentified girl is her missing daughter, Nina. The detectives learn the victim is a different girl, but both children were taken from their homes by a man posing as a social services worker.

The trail leads to a handyman with an obsession for expensive dolls (David Harbour). In order to get him to say where the missing Nina is, Violet must convince him she's not a bad mother.

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season 4 episode 7 Dolls. Our returning guest is Lani Diane Rich.

Some plot points share similarities with the 1991 investigation into an unidentified child known only as “Baby Hope.”

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SVU: The hoarder brothers kept their mom in the freezer

SVU S20 E10 “Alta Kockers”

Can you believe my mashugana brother wrote a book with a computer on the Internet? He’s hasn’t left the house in 50 years. I know that’s not the only thing he did with that computer.

The squad investigates the murder of Bobbi O'Rourke, a book author who'd written about her life as a teen prostitute. Carisi finds out the victim was just posing as the writer for public appearances because no one has ever seen the real Bobbi. Fin traces the royalty payments to the home of Joe and Ben Edelman (Judd Hirsch and Wallace Shawn), two bickering, old Jewish men who have lived as hoarders and shut-ins for decades. Benson learns there is no Bobbi; Ben wrote the sexually-explicit book under the pseudonym. But before they let the brothers go, Carisi discovers their dead mother's body in a locked freezer. 

ADA Peter Stone charges the Edelmans with murder. Based on the book, Olivia believes Ben might be a past sexual assault victim. Rollins learns Joe was also molested, but the brothers have never told each other about their trauma. At trial, Joe takes the blame for smothering their dying mother decades ago - then has a massive heart attack. Visiting his older brother's death bed, Ben finally shares his secret.

We're talking about Special Victims Unit season twenty episode ten "Alta Kockers." Our returning guest is Lauren  Milberger.

Characters in this episode are inspired by Homer and Langley Collyer.