"Countdown" | ||
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← | SVU, Episode 2.15 | → |
Production number: E1412 First aired: 23 February 2001 | ||
Written By Dawn DeNoon & Lisa Marie Petersen Directed By Steve Shill |
Summary[]
The detectives have to work around the clock to find an abducted girl.
Plot[]
The SVU detectives have 72 hours to save Kirsten Guzek, a girl who has been taken by a serial killer. The SVU learns that the killer has a strange M.O.: He kidnaps young girls and holds them hostage for three days, photographing them in different costumes and throwing them birthday parties, before raping and murdering them.
The SVU's best leads lie in the memory of 10-year-old Sophie Douglas, a girl who previously escaped from the killer. But Sophie's mother refuses to allow the detectives to talk to Sophie, because she wants to protect Sophie from any further trauma.
Meeting with detectives from the Vice Enforcement Division, they are initially treated with hostility but Benson silences them by telling them they are too tired, that a child is in danger, and they have information that might save her. The vice detectives give them the files on possible suspects with bad teeth. They soon get a winner out of the men Clayton Mills, who they see used the school as a hunting ground and find his last address.
They find the house but its empty and they locate Mrs. Rapoport, the elderly woman whose house he had been staying at and see her murdered. Further search of the house, Stabler finds that Mills has stolen Mrs. Rapport's jewelry and is on the run.
The detectives proceed to lure out Mills and save his latest victim before she could be harmed.
But even after they find the killer, there's one final twist to this grisly tale. Mills wants a deal to avoid the death penalty by telling Cabot the name of one of his unsolved murders. This causes outrage, as the public want him to pay, even people against the death penalty want him dead. However, Mrs. Douglas comes in and says while she wants Mills to suffer, she can't let another mother go through this trauma. After disclosing the location of his first murder victim, Mills gives the girl's name before the officers take him away.
The detectives then visit the dead girl's mother to inform her of everything.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
- Stephanie March as A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Isabel Gillies as Kathy Stabler
- Joanna Merlin as Judge Lena Petrovsky
- Dylan Price as Detective Danny Tatum
- Patricia Cook as Elizabeth Stabler
- Jeffrey Scaperrotta as Dickie Stabler
- Jeffrey DeMunn as Chief A.D.A. Charlie Phillips
- Frank Deal as Defense Attorney Don Newvine
- Lou Carbonneau as C.S.U. Technician Harry Martin
- Kent Cassella as Detective Palmieri
Guest cast[]
- Jim Gaffigan as Oliver Tunney
- Debbon Ayer as Mrs. Douglas
- Andrea Bowen as Sophie Douglas
- Jonathan Fried as Clayton Mills
- Ray Iannicelli as Saul Garner
- Lisa Roberts Gillan as Mrs. Simmons
- Ann Talman as Mrs. Lehr
- Ted Sutton as Robert
- Thomas Schall as Dawson
- Kia Goodwin as Shari
- Uzi Parnes as Joe Hayes
- Kristin Rohde as Detective Becker
- Johnathan MClain as Isaac Yarbrough
- Christine Toy Johnson as Dr. Anderson
- Ramsey Faragallah as Market Owner
- Brian Cahill as Uniform Policeman
- Rafael Ferrer as Detective Trainor
- Timothy Shew as Charles Guzek
- Tracie Higgins as Mrs. Guzek
- Alicia Sedwick as Sheila
- Lisa Summerour as Defense Attorney Dylan
References[]
- Rhonda Simmons
- Bonnie Weathers
- Austin Powers
Quotes[]
- Stabler: Damn it, it's the twins' birthday. I never picked up their present.
- Benson: Well, I think you have an excuse.
- Stabler: Yeah, you come talk to me after you cancel on Michael again tonight.
- [Benson has given up on finding the victim and is arguing with Stabler]
- Cragen: Get a few minutes of rack time, both of you!
- Stabler: Take a nap. I'll let you know how it turns out.
- Benson: Screw you.
- Stabler: Screw you.
- Cragen: [to Olivia] You, go out and get some fresh air. Elliot, talk to your wife.
- Stabler: You want us to go to Queens? I live in Queens. You know how long it's gonna take us?
- Cragen: Not as long as it's gonna take them to get their asses down here.
- Stabler: Good point.
- Benson: I've read the same paragraph five times and I still have no idea what it says.
- Stabler: Pick up the phone.
- Munch: The wacko on line one or the psychotic on line two?
- Stabler: While we're there, remind me to get party tape for the twins' birthday party. I don't want to have to use crime scene tape.
- Cabot: I need you to authorize this deal.
- Phillips: Counselor, I am a public servant, and the public at large does not want this boil on the butt of humanity living to a ripe old age.
- Cabot: Charlie, think of the mother!
- Phillips: I am! And I'm sure that she'd want to see him to die.
- Cabot: Maybe. But she probably wants to know what happened to her daughter also.
- Phillips: And what about the mothers of all his other victims? They want him dead. The city wants him dead. Even protesters against the death penalty want to see this guy dead.
- [Cragen comes out of a bathroom stall to find all his detectives waiting for him]
- Cragen: I'm not tipping all of you.
- Benson: Look! I know we're on your turf, and I would be prickly about it, too. That's why I had every intention of coming down here, and shmoozing, and kissing a little ass! But we have got a ticking clock, do you understand? My partner and I have been on this case for three days straight, and we're too damn tired to get in a pissing match, so we just need to know if you're gonna help us or not!
- Benson: We're positive it's him?
- Munch: Unless there's a white-van-driving, dentally-challenged, pedophile convention in town, I'd say yes.
Background information and notes[]
- It is revealed Elizabeth and Dickie Stabler were born on 21 February 1993 in this episode.
- The killer mirrors real-life killer Gary Ridgway who also escaped the death penalty by withholding information about more deaths.
Episode scene cards[]
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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Child Advocates Center |
Apartment of |
Douglas Residence |
Child Advocates Center |
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
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Aladdin's Party Supplies |
Dawson's Photo Studio |
Redhook Warehouse District |
Rikers Island |
Previous episode: "Paranoia" |
"Countdown" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 2 |
Next episode: "Runaway" |