Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 11

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit entered its eleventh season on September 23, 2009, for which it was moved from its previous time slot to air on Wednesdays at 9pm ET for the NBC broadcast., while CTV still kept on Tuesdays at 10pm ET.

Both Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay negotiated to renew their contracts for 2 more seasons. Christine Lahti played the role of a new ADA, Sonya Paxton, for five episodes, starting with the first episode and left after the episode "Hammered". She returned for one more episode "Turmoil" where she briefly clashed with ADA Cabot. Stephanie March returned to her role as ADA Alexendra Cabot starting in the episode "Hardwired", while the show attempts to find a cast member to fill the position of SVU's permanent ADA.

Wentworth Miller guest starred in SVU's season premiere as a police officer named Nate Kendall, who saves a rape victim in the beginning of the episode and helps SVU solve the case. Eric McCormack guest stared in the season’s second episode "Sugar" as Vance Shepardas, a CEO of a "sugar daddy" dating website. John Larroquette guest stared in the episode "Anchor" playing Randall Carver, an attorney. In the episode, the character was asked by Ice T's character, Det. Fin, why he was defending a man accused of killing children of illegal aliens, for which he replied "It's a symptom, not the disease.", and went on to say "Garrison, Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, all of them. They're like a cancer spreading ignorance and hate. I mean, they have convinced folks that immigrants are the problem, not corporations that fail to pay a living wage or a broken health care system." Bill O'Reilly was outraged by the show using his name in a "defamatory" matter and stated on his show that it was "simply defamatory and outrageous, and Dick Wolf is a coward for putting it out there."

Lena Olin, Richard Burgi and Russell Jones will appear in a February episode titled "Confidential". Olin will play Ingrid Block, the high-powered attorney of Richard Burgi's character Richard Morgan, a billionaire investment banker, while Jones will play Morgan's head of security. Comedian Kathy Griffin will appear in the episode "P.C." airing February 10, 2010, playing a lesbian activist. On March 3, 2010, Mischa Barton is set appear the episode "Savoir" playing a hooker named Gladys. Sharon Stone will be joining the cast for a "four-episode arc" beginning in April 2010. She will play a "former cop-turned-prosecutor". Lee Tergesen will guest on an upcoming episode playing a "deranged religious zealot suspected of murder". This will reunite him and his former Oz co-star Christopher Meloni, who played his lover on the show, the first time since the show ended in 2003.

Cast

• Christopher Meloni as Det. Elliot Stabler
• Mariska Hargitay as Det. Olivia Benson
• Richard Belzer as Sgt. John Munch
• Ice-T as Det. Fin Tutuola
• Stephanie March as ADA Alexandra Cabot
• B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
• Tamara Tunie as Dr. Melinda Warner
• Dann Florek as Capt. Don Cragen

Recurring

• Christine Lahti as Executive ADA Sonya Paxton
• Isabel Gillies as Kathy Stabler
• Jeffrey Scaperrotta as Dickie Stabler
• Vincent Spano as FBI Special Agent Dean Porter
• Robert John Burke as IAB Sgt. Tucker
• John Schuck as Chief of Detectives

Episodes

Ep.	No.	Title	Director	Writer(s)	Airdate	Prod. code
1	225	"Unstable"	Arthur W. Forney	Judith McCreary	September 23, 2009 (2009-09-23)	11001
Officer Nate Kendall (special guest star Wentworth Miller) aids a woman in trouble and becomes roped into solving a rape case. Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson believe that Kendall is not right for the case due to his unstable personality. Executive ADA Sonya Paxton (special guest star Christine Lahti) joins the team, bringing evidence of a common thread among three other rape cases. With Paxton’s help, the team might expose a serial rapist.
2	226	"Sugar"	Peter Leto	Daniel Truly	September 30, 2009 (2009-09-30)	11002
A young woman's body is found stuffed inside a suitcase, and police believe that Emily Keefe, the victim, was a train passenger on her way to Tampa when she was murdered. Detectives Benson and Stabler turn to Keefe's financier boyfriend, Owen Cassidy's (guest star Matt Burns) yacht to investigate. However, Cassidy claims he was on his boat during the time of the murder. After further searching, the detectives discover Keefe belonged to an online dating website. But when the CEO of the dating website, Vance Shepard (special guest star Eric McCormack), refuses to comment on the case, the detectives turn to Executive ADA Sonya Paxton for help.
3	227	"Solitary"	Helen Shaver	Amanda Green	October 7, 2009 (2009-10-07)	11003
When Lily Milton (guest star Deborah Ann Woll) is reported missing, her boyfriend, Parker Hubbard (guest star Bobby Campo), points Detectives Benson and Stabler in the direction of Callum Donovan (guest star Stephen Rea), Lily's downstairs neighbor and convicted bank robber who spent nineteen years in solitary confinement. During the investigation into Donovan's alibi, Lily is found alive, adding a surprising twist to the case and exposing more of Donovan's dark past.
4	228	"Hammered"	Peter Leto	Dawn DeNoon	October 14, 2009 (2009-10-14)	11004
After a night of heavy drinking, Dalton Rindell (guest star Scott Foley) wakes up to a bloody apartment, a terrible cut on his head and a dead woman in his bed. Unable to recall the night before, Rindell immediately calls the police. Detectives Benson and Stabler suspect the crime is the result of a deadly love triangle; however Rindell does not recognize the victim. After questioning Rindell and the victim’s family and friends, Benson and Stabler are provided with leads in several different directions. Unsure which lead to follow, the two detectives decide to return to the bar where the night began in order to piece together the gruesome truth, which leads to the discovery of Executive ADA Paxton's drinking problem.
5	229	"Hardwired"	David Platt	Mick Betancourt	October 21, 2009 (2009-10-21)	11005
After Eva Banks (guest star Rosie Perez) makes a shocking discovery about her son, Cory's (guest star Cruz Santiago) behavior at school, she takes him to the doctor, only to find out that he has been the victim of sexual abuse. Detectives Benson and Stabler come onto the scene and question the victim and his family. From the boy’s frightened reaction when his stepfather, Thomas Banks (guest star Jim True-Frost), silences the investigation, it is clear to everyone in the room who the real perpetrator is. Detective Benson and Stabler are about to arrest the suspect when Thomas agrees to give up the leader of the largest pro child-adult relationship civil rights group in exchange for amnesty.
6	230	"Spooked"	Peter Leto	Jonathan Greene	October 28, 2009 (2009-10-28)	11006
When a young couple is found murdered in the back of a padlocked truck, Detectives Benson and Stabler investigate the scene and link the male victim to a dangerous Mexican drug cartel. Benson and Stabler follow a lead to an abandoned drug den where they are surprised to see FBI Special Agent Dean Porter (guest star Vincent Spano), who is separately working on the case. Porter tries to take over the investigation, but suspicion arises and the two continue the hunt for the murderer. Following their intuition, Benson and Stabler come across shocking discoveries, which lead them to believe this case is much larger than a mere drug-related murder.
7	231	"Users"	David Platt	Michael Angeli	November 4, 2009 (2009-11-04)	11008
After a crime scene photo of a murdered teenage girl rapidly becomes an Internet phenomenon, the police initiate an investigation with the victim's father, Greg Dunne (guest star James Colby). When Greg points the detectives towards Martin Gold (guest star James Frain), his daughter's suspicious therapist, it turns out that Gold's alibi is airtight. While Munch and Fin are busy tracking down the girl's stolen credit card, Warner and Stabler discover that one of Gold's other patients has broken into the morgue. The case takes an unexpected turn, revealing a sinister prescription for murder at the hands of unlikely suspects.
8	232	"Turmoil"	Peter Leto	Judith McCreary	November 11, 2009 (2009-11-11)	11009
After risqué photos of a fifteen-year-old rape victim (guest star Shana Dowdeswell) are leaked onto the internet, Detectives Benson and Stabler’s case becomes much more complicated. As the detectives’ case slowly morphs into an investigation by the State Bar, Stabler’s son Dickie (guest star Jeffrey Scaperrotta) becomes entangled in a streak of compromising events at the hands of his best friend, a recovering drug addict (guest star Joshua Page). As Benson takes charge of the rape case, Stabler is forced to set his personal opinions aside and deal with the potentially life-threatening situation his son and his friend have gotten themselves into.
9	233	"Perverted"	David Platt	Dawn DeNoon	November 18, 2009 (2009-11-18)	11010
While in the park, a family stumbles upon the sexually mutilated body of Clyde Vandyne, a member of a biker gang known for prostitution and contract killing. To everyone's surprise, incriminating DNA evidence points to Detective Benson as the prime suspect. Munch and Fin investigate the murder, while Stabler fights to prove his partner's innocence. The detectives must find the missing link to solve Vandyne's murder and clear Benson's name.
10	234	"Anchor"	Jonathan Kaplan	Amanda Green & Daniel Truly	December 9, 2009 (2009-12-09)	11007
When two young girls are similarly murdered a little over a month apart, Detective Fin Tutuola decides to investigate the gruesome crimes. After a third killing, Fin discovers that all three children were "anchor babies" of immigrant families, and reaches out to the Center of Immigrant Services. After sifting through the Center's hate mail, and witnessing a fight between immigration lawyer Randall Carver (guest star John Larroquette) and Joe Thagard (guest star Thomas Sadoski), a fanatical follower of a conservative talk show host, Fin begins to narrow in on the killer.
11	235	"Quickie"	David Platt	Ken Storer	January 6, 2010 (2010-01-06)	11012
When seventeen year-old Anna McWilliams is found strangled and beaten to death in an alley, her ex-boyfriend leads the cops to a website that McWilliams used to meet up with random men. Detective Benson decides to create a user account for the site and finds womanizer Peter Butler (guest star Brian Geraghty), the man who met up with McWilliams. The case is closed when a different suspect is proven guilty of her murder, and a new one opens when McWilliams rape kit tests positive for HIV. Not only is HIV spreading as a result of countless attacks, but now the detectives must also catch a rapist on the loose.
12	236	"Shadow"	Amy Redford	Amanda Green	January 13, 2010 (2010-01-13)	11011
A wealthy couple are found murdered, and their daughter (Sarah Paulson) claims she's being stalked by a mysterious man. The stalker turns out to be a Special Frauds detective (Naveen Andrews), who pegs the daughter as a suspect in her parents' murder.

External links

• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit at IMDb
• Season 11 episodes on TVGuide.com
• Law & Order: SVU episodes on MSN
• Season 11 episodes on TV.com