Philip Hoffman

Erin, Frank and Danny work together within the system to find justice when a rape case's primary suspect is protected by diplomatic immunity.

A party is out of control and after a loud crash in the bathroom, the hostess finds Cheryl (Katherine Moenning) beaten and bloody, and Joe with his head crushed. Paramedics arrive, and the story seems pretty cut and dried. Cheryl claims Joe tried to rape her and she hit him over the head with a vase in self-defense. Joe dies shortly after arriving at the hospital, and Detectives Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) question his brother, Eddie (Chad Lindberg) who is Cheryl's boyfriend. Eddie has a heart condition and had been at the party but left early to get his meds. They discover he had returned and figure he caught Cheryl and Joe together and perhaps in a jealous rage, killed his brother. But Cheryl sticks to her story.

When two Wall Street brokers are killed in drug deals, Danny looks to question a wounded accomplice at the hospital but he is stopped by Linda, who won't let Danny see him until after surgery. But when the accomplice dies during the procedure, Danny and Linda battle over the judgment call.

Bull helps his friend, Army psychiatrist Colonel Victor Taggert (Lou Diamond Phillips), mount a diminished capacity defense for a sergeant accused of killing a fellow soldier. Also, Marissa forges a romantic connection with her art dealer, Henri Fray (Edward Akrout), a French gallery owner in need of legal assistance to stop an auction house from selling a piece of art that should be repatriated.

Detectives Goren and Eames investigate the Copeland family after two brothers are found dead.