Spoilers ahead for Episode 12 of Law & Order: SVU Season 25, called “Marauder.”
Law & Order: SVU is on the verge of ending its shortest season ever with the upcoming finale, and not a whole lot of details are available about the last episode of the spring 2024 TV schedule. After the events of the penultimate episode of the milestone 25th season, however, I have to wonder if there’s a reason why the show has name-dropped Benson’s two biggest nemeses twice over the course of a month… and if there will be payoff reveal of some kind in the finale.
How “Marauder” Mentioned Benson’s Enemies
Admittedly, the good captain has no shortage of enemies after 550 episodes of investigating sexually-based offenses and vicious felonies, but two stand out after their names were dropped earlier in Season 25: William Lewis and John Drake, a.k.a. Johnny D. Earlier this year, Noah of all people mentioned the two men, having googled his mom. In “Marauder,” the mention came from an entirely different person under entirely different circumstances.
Agent Sykes, who was one of the two women Benson brought into Special Victims in Season 25 to address one of my biggest issues with the show, had her tragic backstory brought into the spotlight in “Marauder,” although not by her own choice. Benson decided to investigate a series of disappearances like what happened to Sykes’ sister decades earlier, and the team did indeed catch the killer and close what had been a very cold case.
Sykes wasn’t thrilled about it, though, because Benson went behind her back to reopen the investigation when Sykes herself didn’t want to dig any deeper. She finally found out about it from some of her old contacts, and visited the SVU squad room to see the evidence for herself. In the process, she confronted Benson and demanded that she leave the investigation alone.
Benson pointed out that there are five other girls who went missing in addition to her sister, and she couldn’t just drop the case. Sykes didn’t take it well, saying that it was a mistake to embed with the NYPD team, and then took one last parting shot:
Good luck with your open cases. I hope they help distract you from your own endless amounts of baggage. Johnny D. William Lewis. You think you’re the only one who can look into someone’s background?
Now, I was totally sympathetic to Sykes up until this point. She was wrong to want Benson to drop an investigation into the disappearances of six missing girls, but emotions were running high and she had a point about Benson going behind her back and doing exactly what she’d asked her not to. Who wouldn’t be at least a little upset under those circumstances?
But throwing the names of William Lewis and Johnny D. at her crossed a line, and the timing really makes me wonder if Benson will have them on their mind in the finale and – if so – what the episode could reveal about her plans for the future. In case you’ve forgotten just how bad a time she had with those two men, keep on reading!
William Lewis (Pablo Schreiber)
Years before starring in Halo as Master Chief, Pablo Schreiber immortalized himself in SVU lore over eight appearances in Seasons 14 and 15. William Lewis debuted on SVU as a Central Park flasher who dropped some troubling comments on teenage girls, but there was clearly more to him at first glance, not least because he seemingly burned off his own fingerprints.
And unfortunately, there was a LOT more to him, as Benson would find out. William Lewis was a sadistic serial rapist, killer, and kidnapper who evaded prison time and time again due to failures in the justice system. Despite committing a brutal rape that resulted in the victim’s death while he was already on the NYPD’s radar, he managed to get out on bail, stalk Benson to her apartment, pull a gun on her, tie her up, and gag her.
I’m not going to go into detail about everything that he did to her next over the following days after he kidnapped her, but you can revisit the arc streaming via Peacock Premium subscription and/or Hulu subscription if you want to see the full gory sequence for yourself. Suffice it to say that he humiliated her, kidnapped her, tortured her, and fully intended to sexually assault her if she hadn’t managed to regain control.
In their final exchange, her forced her to play Russian roulette, and used his last act alive to shoot himself with his non-dominant hand to frame her for murder. Basically, William Lewis was arguably the biggest monster in the history of SVU, and certainly the one who caused Benson the most personal damage. If Agent Sykes had read even part of the file on what he did to her, than I’d have a hard time trying to excuse her throwing him in her face in “Marauder.”
And he was only one of the former perps named in this episode!
Johnny D (Charles Halford)
Charles Halford only appeared in two episodes of SVU as Johnny D, but his status as Noah’s biological father is why I rank him as one of Benson’s top nemeses as well as one of SVU‘s most memorable monsters from the post-Stabler era. A sex trafficker and rapist, he attempted to use his status as Noah’s father to help him in court, which was particularly stressful for Benson since she hadn’t been able to officially adopt Noah just yet.
He also got hold of a gun in the middle of his own trial, shot the judge, shot and killed a court officer, and shot Amaro twice before Amaro put him down for good. Johnny D was arguably the biggest threat to Noah and her personal happiness over the course of 25 seasons and counting, and Noah mentioning him earlier this year struck a nerve for Benson.
All in all, she has less personal trauma tied to Johnny D, but it’s safe to say that Sykes chose wisely if she was trying to pick two perps who would hit Benson the hardest.
What About The Season 25 Finale?
The Season 25 finale of Law & Order: SVU is called “Duty To Hope.” According to the episode description from NBC, Special Victims will be on the search for a pattern assailant to try and catch him before his crimes escalate to murder. Fin will have a story connected to the aggrieved son of a suspect, while Carisi has to try and close the case as quickly as possible.
The episode description doesn’t actually mention Benson, so it doesn’t rule out the episode somehow tying to Benson’s trauma from William Lewis and/or Johnny D. Both men are dead and can’t come back to torment her in the present, but that doesn’t mean their legacies can’t still affect her if they’re on her mind. Two instances of them being mentioned over the course of a month just sticks out to me. Could there be a reveal that they’ve been in her thoughts and motivated her to make a decision?
Personally, I’d be perfectly happy if the name drops of those tormenters just lead Benson to decide to take a three-month vacation from the job and return in time for Season 26 in the fall, because if anybody needs a break, it’s her! Check out the promo for the final episode of Season 25:
The Season 25 finale of Law & Order: SVU airs on Thursday, May 16 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, between Law & Order at 8 p.m. and Law & Order: Organized Crime at 10 p.m. Both SVU and Law & Order will be back on NBC in the 2024-2025 TV season, but that’s not the case for Christopher Meloni‘s Organized Crime, which moves to streaming new episodes on Peacock for Season 5.