The seventh season of the television series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiered September 20, 2005 and ended May 16, 2006 on NBC. It aired on Tuesday nights at 10pm/9c. Critically the show's most successful season, both lead actors received nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards with a win by Mariska Hargitay.
Repeating a pattern established by other SVU seasons, the Season 7 premiere was filmed before the airing of the Season 6 finale. Long-time SVU co-executive producers, Michele Fazekas, Tara Butters, and Lisa Marie Petersen departed the series at the end of Season 7. Additionally, long-time Law & Order franchise director Constantine Makris departed until his return in the twelfth season.
Mariska Hargitay won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in the episode "911". This made her the first regular cast member of any Law & Order series to win an Emmy. Christopher Meloni was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, his first Emmy nomination. Meloni was water skiing when the 2006 Emmy nominations were announced. He received a congratulatory call from showrunner Neal Baer and responded with "Cool! I'm going back to ski."[1] Meloni's nomination was apparently for the episode "Ripped".[2][3] The Envelope section of The LA Times reported that SVU also made a bid for Ted Kotcheff to receive the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, but he was not selected as a nominee.[3]
Tamara Tunie, after five seasons playing recurring medical examiner, Dr. Melinda Warner, was added to the opening credits. Judith Light, who had played Bureau Chief ADA Elizabeth Donnelly in seasons three, four and six, returned for the seventh season but with her character acting as a judge. The seventh was the first season not to have an appearance by Isabel Gillies as Kathy Stabler. This is because the actress was in Ohio, working on her marriage.[4]
Dr. Rebecca Hendrix, the recurring character from the previous season, was brought back for the episode "Ripped". Played by Mary Stuart Masterson, she helps Detective Stabler come to terms with unresolved issues in what Neal Baer called "an emotionally devastating scene".[5] In addition, the guest star Ernest Waddell from the previous season had his character, Ken Randall, further explored in the episodes "Strain" and "Venom".
Season 7 was Fred Thompson's last season on SVU even though he continued to play DA Arthur Branch on Law & Order for another year. Diane Neal gave an interview about working with him during the seventh season. She compared him to her father, who is a federal attorney, saying: "They're both southern, they're both large, they're both lawyers, they're both the same age, they're both football kind of guys."
The season premiere "Demons" showed Christopher Meloni sharing psychologically intense scenes with Terminator 2: Judgment Day star Robert Patrick. In an interview, Meloni explained that the two met for the first time and became good friends during the shooting of "Demons", saying: "Every once in a while, you'll get a great actor who for whatever reason, you'll speak the same language."[6] The second episode "Design" was a crossover with the Law & Order episode "Flaw". Estella Warren and Lynda Carter starred in the episode as a mother-daughter pair of con-artists. When discussing her role, Carter said: "Having so often been the heroine, I thoroughly enjoyed playing a grifter and exploring some of the darker aspects of human nature."[7] In the same episode, one of their marks was played by Bobby Flay, the then-husband of former SVU star Stephanie March.
The sixth episode "Raw" featured Marcia Gay Harden playing an undercover agent. Her character is initially believed to be a white-supremacist named Star Morrison and is later revealed to be Dana Lewis of the FBI. Harden would go on to play the character thrice more in SVU. In the following episode "Name", detectives investigate a perpetrator played by Richard Bright. This episode was the last of Richard Bright's works that was released before his death in 2006. Dean Cain starred in the eighth episode "Starved" as what Neal Baer called "a very handsome guy who may or may not be involved in a series of serial rapes".[8]
Keri Lynn Pratt guest starred in the episode "Rockabye" as a teenage mother who self-aborts. In a 2012 interview, shortly after he departed as the SVU showrunner, Neal Baer recalled: "I just loved doing shows on SVU that raised these really tough trenchant issues. Could we still do those? SVU is still on. Could we still do a show about a teen access to abortion? I'm not sure."[9] In the eleventh episode "Alien", Raquel Castro played the child of a lesbian couple named Emma. When one of her mothers dies, she lies about being sexually abused as part of her grandmother's petition for custody. Graduate student Morgan Blue analyzed this episode and wrote: "By the end of this episode, it's clear that the detectives believed Emma was innocent, but were not taken in by the 'myth of a spotlessly honest child.'"[10] The episode "Infected" guest starred Malcolm David Kelley as a child who witnesses gun violence and goes on to commit it himself. His appearance on the NBC program was promoted by emphasizing his breakout role on Lost. A report by AOL TV noted this unusual move of referring to another network's show.[11]
In "Taboo", Schuyler Fisk guest starred as a young mother who has abandoned at least two babies in order to cover up incest. This was one of the more memorable roles for the actress according to a 2011 interview in which she said: "When I did Law & Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay was particularly good to me and I actually enjoyed diving into a dark place for that character."[12] The sixteenth episode "Gone" showed three teenage boys on trial for the murder of a teenage girl whose body was never found. Susan Saint James guest starred as their attorney, marking her first television role in ten years. Saint James stated in an interview that she was eager to play a Law & Order part and would have played a judge if it had been up to her. The same interview revealed that she was a long-time fan of SVU having watched "almost every episode multiple times."[13] Another Season 7 guest star who mentioned being a fan of the program was Chris "Ludacris" Bridges who said: "Once you start watching a television show that you love you can't stop watching it." Ludacris guest starred in "Venom" as Darius Parker, a member of Fin Tutuola's family with a dark past and a complicated relationship with Fin's son. This role united Ludacris with fellow rapper Ice-T. When being interviewed, Bridges joked: "No, we don't rap on the SVU set. It's all about acting."[14]
The episode "Fault" featured what Neal Baer called "an unusual and forceful performance from Lou Diamond Phillips".[15] Phillips, who was a fan of the program already[16] played Victor Paul Gitano, a recently released sex offender who kidnaps two children and puts Detectives Benson and Stabler in a situation where their partnership is pushed to its limits. "Fault" has been named one of Hargitay's favorite episodes multiple times.[17][18] In the episode "Fat", Anthony Anderson portrayed Detective Lucius Blaine, Stabler's temporary partner. Anderson would go on to portray Detective Kevin Bernard on the original Law & Order series from 2008 to 2022. The following episode "Web" showed Connor Paolo return to the series after guest starring as a different character in the fourth season. Brittany Snow concluded the season by playing an impressionable teen with bipolar disorder in "Influence".
Benson brings a pregnant woman (Estella Warren) down from a rooftop, who claims to be a rape victim who contemplated suicide. When the unit charges her alleged attacker and the father of the baby (Julian Sands), she appears to perish in an explosion. After finding other men (Bobby Flay, Mark McGrath, and Jesse Palmer) who slept with her despite having no recollection of it, the detectives realize that the woman, very much still alive, is a con artist and a rapist herself who drugs men and steals their sperm (via electroejaculation), following the eugenics plan of her father (Ronny Cox) to produce a baby with successful genes. With the help of her mother (Lynda Carter), she hides the baby until the court agrees not to give her jail time.
After a dating service is linked to the rapes of three women (Kelly Miller, Ivy Omére and Virginia Leung), Olivia goes undercover to ferret out the rapist and meets a surgeon (Dean Cain) who enjoys controlling the women in his life. The detectives are soon led to his girlfriend (Tina Holmes) but she is manipulated into attempting suicide which leaves her in a vegetative state. A legal battle between a convicted rapist and his girlfriend's mother (Veronica Cartwright) ensues over whether the feeding tube should be removed.
A sixteen-year-old (Keri Lynn Pratt) loses her unborn child due to a severe abdominal beating. Her father (Skipp Sudduth) insists that she must have been raped and this leads detectives to the baby's father (John Patrick Amedori). The squad later learns that the girl was an active party in her own beating and that the teens found it necessary to do this after a fake abortion clinic deliberately stalled for time.
Three students are charged with rape and murder in the disappearance of a teenage Canadian girl (Barbara King) who took a trip to Manhattan. Under questioning, two of them (Teddy Ick and Paul David Story) point the finger at the younger and more gentle suspect (Harry Zittel). Novak discovers that he is being set up and promises to protect him from the other two. Despite this he disappears after the indictment. With no body and only one witness left (Sandor Tecsy) who is in no shape to testify, the boys are released. After following disturbing evidence, which includes a bug in the office of Judge Donnelly (Judith Light) planted by a corrupt court officer (Maggie Siff), the detectives arrest the two predators for the murder of their scapegoat.
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