This article contains references to sexual assault and graphic violence, including violence against children.
There are several episodes ofLaw & Order: SVUthat are more disturbing than the rest of its large catalog of stories. Themost creepy episodes ofLaw & Order: SVUare those that pit Benson and her team against the worst, most depraved acts that human beings are capable of doing to one another. Although some of these episodes are graphic, they are never gratuitous, instead using extreme violence to make a point about the forces survivors are up against as they navigate the legal system.
Law & Order: SVUseason 26contained several disturbing episodes, but it is far from the only season to do so. From the beginning,Law & Order: SVUestablished itself as a series that was not afraid to go dark when needed. These stories are often as empowering as they are disturbing because Benson refuses to give up fighting for justice for the people who survived them, regardless of how difficult it will be to bring the perpetrators to justice. That said, several stories are so disturbing that they are difficult to rewatch despite the strong points they make.
10Surrender Benson
Season 15, Episode 1
“Surrender Benson” often lands on the top of fan-generated lists of episodes they have trouble rewatching, and with good reason.The season 15 opener is one of the most graphically violent episode inLaw & Order: SVUhistory. It revolves around Benson’s ordeal after serial rapist WIlliam Lewis breaks into Benson’s apartment and uses her own gun to subdue and abduct her. Although Lewis enjoys tormenting his victims, including Benson, he stops short of raping her — Dick Wolf Entertainment probably realized that would be a bridge too far for the audience.
Benson’s ordeal is not without purpose, although it is difficult to watch Lewis force her to drink and take pills, threaten to burn her, and other assorted acts of torture.True to form, Benson saves herself, beating Lewis nearly to death after escaping her bondsjust as her NYPD colleagues arrive to rescue her. This episode marks a tonal shift in which Benson works through PTSD after experiencing life as the victim of a heinous crime rather than as the cop who supports survivors.
9Born Psychopath
Season 14, Episode 19
“Born Psychopath” is one ofLaw & Order: SVU’s most unforgettable episodes. Many procedurals use the trope of the psychopathic child when they want a particularly horrific story, butthe one onSVUis more disturbing than most because the violence is so incredibly over the top. The story involves a 9-year-old named Henry who hurts his younger sister and has violent outbursts. The SVU team’s attempt to help the struggling family triggers Henry’s worst impulses, leading to extreme violence that threatens the life of one of his friends.
This episode is not for the faint of heart, especially those who cannot abide cruelty toward animals. The climactic scene includes Fin discovering the dead body of a dog in a bathtub after Henry drowns him, as well as another child tied up near the scene of this animal murder. Some critics think this episode threw too many over-the-top violent tropes in at once. Regardless of whether it’s realistic, this final scene is disturbing enough to be memorable 12 years after it aired.
8Angels
Season 4, Episode 6
“Angels” is an episode that has become more disturbing with time, partially because of current news stories around immigration that are even worse than what is depicted in this story. This is also one of the earliest episodes ofLaw & Order: SVUto address the issue of child trafficking, especially as it relates to kids being smuggled in from Central America.The episode begins with the upsetting revelation that a kid from Central America’s dead body is inside the cargo hold of a bus,where he was hiding, and gets worse from there.
This episode underscores the abuse that children often suffer when trying to escape equally horrific conditions in their home countries.
It is bad enough that kids are being smuggled into the United States in dangerous, cramped conditions. However, that is only the beginning of this disturbing plot. The man who was supposed to be responsible for this boy and his brother is soon found dead, and further investigation reveals that he and another man were molesting the boys they were supposed to be taking care of. This episode underscores the abuse that children often suffer when trying to escape equally horrific conditions in their home countries.
7Conscience
Season 6, Episode 6
Conscience features another child like “Born Psychopath’s” Henry, and the episode is equally disturbing. While this story is considered one ofLaw & Order: SVU’s best episodesbecause of its creepy twists, it also is genuinely scary and difficult to watch. It involves a thirteen-year-old that kills a kindergarten-age child, and if that were not disturbing enough, the child disappears from his own birthday party.The police initially focus on a sex offender living in the area, only to find out that a 13-year-old neighbor committed the grisly crime.
This twist subverts expectations, but it is only the beginning of this dark story. Jake, the perpetrator, manages to convince the SVU team that he is himself an abused child, but after being sent to a camp for such children, it’s revealed that he made the whole thing up. He is a compulsive liar and violent person who has put himself into position to get out of jail when he turns 18, and even more disturbing is the fact thathis father is afraid Jake will come after him when he is released.
6Imprisoned Lives
Season 15, Episode 2
This episode is disturbing not only because of the content but becauseit takes place immediately after Benson is rescued from William Lewis.Throughout the episode, Benson must work with a traumatized child to try to find out what is going on, but she is dissociating and having flashbacks of her ordeal. It is upsetting to see Benson in this state, and her mental health condition reminds the audience that if a person as strong as Benson can be severely affected by trauma, that anybody who experiences this type of crime can react similarly.
“Imprisoned Lives” was originally broadcast as the second part of a two-part story that began with “Surrender Benson.”
One of the most disturbing scenes in the episode comes when Benson tries to interrogate a woman calling herself “Ma,” who is suspected of being part of an abduction ring. Benson is triggered and screams at the woman, who subsequently shuts down and starts crying, and Benson herself has to be dragged away by Cragen. This is the opposite of how Benson usually behaves, soher meltdown in this episode is almost as disturbing at the crime itself,which involves women who have been held captive since being kidnapped as children and forced to become mothers themselves.
5Master Key
Season 26, Episode 10
On the surface, “Master Key” is typicalLaw & Order: SVUfare. The story revolves around a boy who runs away from a group home for foster kids and is believed to be in an inappropriate relationship with an older man — and is eventually arrested for shooting his potential abuser.However, this episode is a bit more disturbing than most episodes because of its focus on the systemthat let this tragedy happen in the first place.
Although it’s common knowledge that the foster care system is overburdened and sometimes results in harm to children, this episode brings the point home in a disturbing manner.
The missing boy is someone who has been disappointed over and over by a foster care system that does little to protect him. The woman who runs the group home is one of the few adults involved in the situation that is not abusive or corrupt, but she is overwhelmed because she is doing the work of three or four people. Although it’s common knowledge that the foster care system is overburdened and sometimes results in harm to children,this episode brings the point home in a disturbing manner.
4Payback
Season 1, Episode 1
It is not a coincidence thatLaw & Order: SVU’s pilot offers one of its most disturbing plots. The brand-new spinoff needed to differentiate itself fromLaw & Orderand establish the tone that would later become the most recognizable part of its brand. Thus, the procedural’s first story is also one of its most graphic. It introduces Benson as a rookie detective who cares more about a potential killer who is a rape survivor than about the victim she is supposed to be getting justice for— a conflict that has never changed in almost three decades on the air.
The state of the cabbie’s body and Benson’s difficulty separating her personal feelings from her job requirements are still memorable 26 years later.
The plot revolves around a cab driver who is castrated and murdered, but when Benson finds out he also is a rapist, she sides with the woman who likely mutilated his body and killed him. The crime itself is horrific — the tone is more graphic in the pilot than in later episodes. However, the bold choices the writers made in this early episode paid off. The state of the cabbie’s body and Benson’s difficulty separating her personal feelings from her job requirements are still memorable 26 years later.
3Undercover
Season 9, Episode 15
“Surrender Benson” is the worst danger she faced, but it is far from the only time she is held hostage or threatened with rape. Perps stalk her fairly regularly in the early seasons of the procedural, and she is nearly raped in “Undercover,” making this story her worst experience until she crosses paths with William Lewis. This story involves Benson going undercover in a prison to attempt to catch a rapist, so it’s unsurprising that she nearly gets hurt herself, but that does not make it any less disturbing. The case itself is upsetting enough even before Benson is nearly attacked by the perp.
After a teenage girl is raped in a community garden, the team quickly realizes that her mother is in prison — and that a corrections officer is engaging in sexual assault against inmates and visitors. Worse, the guard has drug-resistant tuberculosis that he is giving to his victims.All of that would be disturbing enough if the case against this perp wasn’t thrown out on the grounds that he didn’t know Benson was a copwhen he tried to rape her, and the only reason he doesn’t get away with it is that the teenage girl he raped recognized a mole on his genitals.
2Pique
Season 2, Episode 20
Pique is one of the most disturbing episodes of the early seasons ofLaw & Order: SVU.What appears to be a straightforward murder case is revealed to be a twisted story involving incest between a mother and son.This episode also marks the first time Dr. Huang is used as the squad psychiatrist, which is fitting, considering the disturbing relationship dynamics in this story.
The most upsetting part of this story is the soft-spoken way Dr. Huang explains all of this horrific activity.
When a software executive is murdered, the cops think that a security guard named Jason Mayberry did it because the woman interfered with his application to the Police Academy. However, this is far from the truth, which is that his mother did it because she and her son have an incestuous pseudo-romantic relationship, leading to a disturbing ending where they are found in bed together covered in blood. However, the most upsetting part of this story is the soft-spoken way Dr. Huang explains all of this horrific activity.
1Risk
Season 4, Episode 12
“Risk” offers the frightening premise of babies dying when smugglers tamper with formulaand replace it with liquid cocaine. One baby overdoses and dies after his mother borrows a tainted can of formula from a family she cleans for, and that is only one of the disturbing things that happen during this case. Furthermore, an investigation that should have been a joint investigation with the Narcotics division becomes complicated because a dirty cop is involved in the smuggling ring.
This episode also contains a famous sequence in which Benson and Stabler pretend to be married during an undercover operation.
This episode ofLaw & Order: SVUhas a lot of twists and turns, but the most disturbing part of the story is that many of the people involved in the ring are killed to ensure silence and that the couple at the center of it doesn’t have any children of their own but are putting other people’s children at risk for the sake of making a lot of money smuggling contraband from Mexico. This case has one of the highest body counts in the series, with many parents being killed to protect the operation.
