Note: This was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Join the Yahoo! Contributor Network to start publishing your own articles.
Recent back-to-back episodes of "Law & Order: SVU" chose to highlight cases involving missing or abducted siblings, with the focus being on the sibling's brother or sister, and their intent on finding their missing sibling no matter what the cost.
"Spectacle" featured guest stars Spencer Treat Clark ("Unbreakable,") Melissa Sage Miller ("The Guardian") and Joel de la Fuente ("Return to Paradise"). "Pursuit" featured guest star Debra Messing ("Will & Grace").
SPOILERS!
In Feb. 9's "Spectacle," we witness a video being hosted on a college server of a young woman being tortured and presumably raped. When the room where the film was taped is discovered, they find only a message on the wall in red paint, with a monkey drawing and the words "see no evil."
It's discovered that the perpetrator is excellent with computers, as he hacked into the college's main system, is virtually untraceable, and possibly broadcast the attack after it actually happened. Huang suggests the perp was "trying to create a spectacle, to get attention."
After following several leads, the find the abducted girl's room, which contains the same symbols, except with "hear no evil" this time. They discover from a cell-phone manufacturer's video camera the face of Greg, a student Stabler questioned previously. More live feed of the abducted girl arrives in the precinct, and they track it to a brownstone residence that Greg and his little brother once lived in. It's discovered that Greg's parents died young and his little brother was abducted, the case unsolved. In a photo of his missing brother, police notice the little boy wearing a red shirt with a monkey on it, connecting the symbols left behind by Greg.
Already having hacked into police headquarters, Greg sends Stabler a message on his cell phone to come meet him alone; Stabler obliges. Greg reveals he'll only let the girl go if the police find his little brother, claiming the cops only looked for a mere two weeks and then closed the case. Witnesses saw his brother being taken but did nothing, what Stabler referred to as "the bystander effect."
After the police finally trace Greg's cell-phone to rescue Stabler, it's discovered that the abducted girl was a willing participant in the videos, trying to help her friend find his little brother. Police re-interview witnesses to Jason's abduction, and come across a neighbor who lost her son to cancer. They track her down and find a sedated but safe Jason in a car.
In Feb. 16's "Pursuit," we're introduced to Alicia Harding (Messing), host of "Neighborhood Predator," a show very similar to the real "To Catch a Predator," in which bait is purposely given to would-be sex offenders on camera, catching them in the act and locking them up.
Alicia got involved in the show after her sister was abducted almost 25 years ago. When she receives a package with a beloved scarf from her apartment covered in blood, police suspect she has a stalker, while Alicia believes it's the same man who took, and probably murdered, her sister.
Along with the scarf, Alicia had been sent various e-mails showing photos of her up-close, until she received another one portraying a dead girl in the snow. Alicia claims someone tipped her off about that location when her sister disappeared, but she never told police as they believed the case was cold. She refuses to tell police where the location in the photo is unless she can come along.
Upon arriving, police find six dead bodies, one belonging to a victim who died a mere three days previous. They suspect that perhaps the perp worked in close quarters at Alicia's company. Police discover that Alicia's assistant let her "boyfriend" into the vicinity several times, a man named Dave Adams.
As they track him, Alicia irresponsibly sends a public media message containing footage she secretly taped from the location where the bodies were found. On the footage is also Sonja (Christine Lahti), a lawyer who got particularly close to Alicia's sister's case and was determined to have it solved. When police realize Alicia's message could put her and Sonja in danger, they look for both of them. Tracking Sonja to an AA meeting, Benson discovers her in the bathroom with her throat slashed. She dies in Benson's arms.
After finding a hair in Sonja's throat, they discover she went down swinging, and took some of the perp's DNA in the process. After catching Adams, it's discovered he killed 44 women.
There are no comments yet