The following contains spoilers for Law & Order: SVU Season 24, Episode 12, "Blood Out," which debuted Thursday, Jan. 26 on NBC. This article also contains descriptions of sexual assault.
Law & Order: SVU's Captain Olivia Benson is out for blood. She plays an incriminating recording of Oscar Papa in which he orders the hit on Benson and her son Noah. Of course, he denies it and tries to shift the blame to his colleague they arrested -- who is currently in witness protection. When Oscar Papa mentions Liv's son again, she threatens that it will be his last time. ADA Sonny Carisi, live-streamed in, worries that Benson's bias may sway a jury but Liv says she needs him to put Oscar away before she brings Noah home. At the preliminary hearing, Oscar is remanded to Rikers (phew -- for now).
At the cop bar later on, Detective Odafin Tutuola celebrates cleaning up the Bronx SVU with soon-to-be-former Detective Terry Bruno. As they head out of the bar, they happen upon a suspiciously drugged woman about to be compacted Luke Skywalker-style in a garbage truck. While they call for an ambulance, she tells them she was raped. At the hospital, the nurse confirms she was drugged with a potent opioid by a dart and likely assaulted.
Liv returns to the Manhattan SVU squad room, sitting despondently at Detective Amanda Rollins' old desk and gives Fin a call. But he can't be with her when she needs him most because he's still stuck in the Bronx. Liv's feeling lost and abandoned these days, but viewers know Detective Elliot Stabler will always be there.
Fin and Bruno talk to the rape victim. As a sex worker, she doesn't want to press charges -- she says it's not worth it. Bruno, though, flush with cash, pays her more than she would make on a good night in exchange for information about her rapist. She tells him he sprayed her down with a hose in a medical room and then raped her. The next thing she knew, she woke up in a dumpster.
It's a full-on strategy session as Liv, Carisi, Captain Mike Duarte, Detective Joe Velasco and Detective Toni Churlish decide how best to proceed to get Oscar's charges to stick. Velasco offers to try and get one of the remaining gang members, Hector, to flip. He and Churlish visit Hector in jail and make a wildly unhinged call to offer Hector cocaine in exchange for information. Hector takes a sniff and might just sell out his boss.
The next day, Maria Garcia -- one of the victims of Oscar Papa's gang rape racket -- takes the stand, testifying against his cronies Lindsay and Hector. She testifies that she was raped in order to pressure her brother into joining and staying with the gang. Of course, Oscar's lawyer tries to tear holes in her story -- is she really sure Oscar ordered her rape? Up next is Duarte testifiying about the BX9 gang's rape tree, displaying underwear as rape trophies. Nothing happens without the BX9 leadership's knowledge, he insists -- specifically Oscar Papa. But Oscar's lawyer questions if his vendetta against BX9 is more personal than professional.
Fin and Bruno, meanwhile, follow leads on their own rape case. They learn two other drugged sex workers have been found in the landfill recently. Sounds like a serial rapist. They muse that perhaps they should be looking at veterinarians, given the use of tranquilizer darts. That leads them to a woman who filed a complaint against her vet because he traded sexual services for vet care. Bruno and Fin are able to identify Dr. Tim Burch as the vet responsible for the rapes and murders after the sex worker from the garbage truck also identifies his picture.
Post-testifying, Duarte is drowning his sorrows and anxieties at another bar. Benson joins him and tries to keep his hopes up. She gets a call, though -- Oscar Papa's former right-hand man Benny Burrows has been severely poisoned despite being in witness protection. He dies, and there goes SVU's only inside witness willing to testify, meaning Oscar may walk free.
In the wake of Benny's death, Velasco recommits to "playing dirty" as he tries harder to flip Hector. Carisi, meanwhile, says he'll try to work on a plea deal as a last resort. Benson goes to visit Albert Diaz, the young BX9 member who attacked her. He's not doing so well and he says he wishes she'd killed him. His recently reunited mom tells Benson to get out of their lives.
So Benson and Carisi revisit Oscar Papa, who smiles at the news of Benny's death. They still have the recording of Oscar ordering all those rapes on people's mothers and sisters, though -- and Liv is happy to release those tapes to the other inmates in prison. Things wouldn't go so well for him. "Blood for blood," she says with a smile. If she can't guarantee justice, then at least a little intimidation will do! But later that day, Liv gets a call that something has gone horribly wrong with Albert. She rushes to the hospital as he's brought in, unable to move his legs. Another Oscar Papa poisoning? Sounds like some Organized Crime-level crime bossing.
The next morning, Liv shows up at Carisi's office, exhausted. Viewers learn that Albert survived the night but he's got a long recovery ahead of him. Carisi still needs a witness but Albert's not going to agree to it. "How is Noah doing?" Carisi slyly asks, reminding her of why she needs to push this case.
In the prison, Velasco assures Churlish that he didn't actually give Hector any drugs -- he just showed them to him. Well... But there's no time to argue as they go talk with Hector again. Hector speaks to Velasco in Spanish, the two of them agreeing on a trade for more drugs later. Churlish walks out, but she leaves behind a recording device. Velasco, let's maybe dial back the riskiness a few clicks. (Are the writers setting up yet another SVU squad departure?)
Duarte meets Liv, flirting a little (not the time!) but the two really have formed a begrudging friendship. Liv looks at pictures of Noah enjoying his time in safety with his half-brother and tells Duarte he was right all along -- they should've not prosecuted the smaller rapes last year and gone after Oscar then. Duarte picks up the check and Liv offers to take him home but he chooses to walk instead. That's not ominous at all. He stops at a bodega -- and is immediately and brutally slashed by machete-wielding members of BX9. Duarte is rushed to surgery as Liv meets Bruno and Fin at the hospital. As Liv is trying to process it all, though, Fin campaigns to get Bruno Rollins' old job (also not the time!) A doctor informs them of Duarte's death.
Law & Order: SVU thus brings Liv and Carisi to revisit Oscar in prison. They know the order to kill Duarte came from a prison call, which is, of course, recorded. Oscar smiles and says they got him dead to rights. He's sorry to Liv but she knows he had to kill him. Blood for blood, after all. He knows he can run his organization from prison. He also tells Liv he has a soft spot for her since she's such a good mom, willing to go toe to toe with him for her kid. He'll plead guilty to murder, he says, but not the rapes. Benson stares him right in the eyes and asks him to assure her that Noah is safe. Oscar promises Noah won't be harmed: he got what he wanted -- Duarte's death -- so they're even. In the end, Oscar gets two 25-year sentences.
Now Liv is heading home. And Noah's coming home by way of Stabler driving him down. And SVU fans get the scene they've waited the entire hour for. "There's no one I trust more than Stabler," she says. Churlish gives her the recording of Velasco being incredibly shady, which is quickly moved over because Stabler's in Benson's place, Noah's asleep, and they're alone together. "Why didn't you call me?" he asks. "Because I knew you'd try to protect me," she answers.
"I care for you," he volleys back. Then they embrace and almost kiss. Liv says she wants to but she can't. What if it doesn't work out? Elliot counters: what if it does? But Liv isn't ready for this. She's just not ready. (It's been 24 years -- she's ready.) The episode ends with SVU trolling the Bensler fandom once again. Maybe in another 10 years, they'll finally get that kiss. But Dick Wolf shows aren't doing well with romances...
Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. on NBC and streams on Peacock.