Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Episode 10.11 Stranger

Heather describes to Benson and Stabler the torture she had to endure while being held captive. She takes Benson and Stabler to recognizable spots that she passed while she escaped her dungeon. The detectives hope that Heather can piece together her escape path, leading to her kidnapper's apartment. Heather begins to get confused and freaks out. Benson and Stabler agree to take Heather back to her parents to stabilize herself.

A priest comes forward claiming that Heather was present at the last four Sunday masses in his church. She always arrived and left with an older gentleman. He offers to talk to Heather himself. Munch declines the offer. Meanwhile, Heather continues to stick by her story that her kidnapper never allowed her to see daylight while she was in his locked dungeon. Heather kicks Benson out when Benson begins to question her connection to the church.

The SVU begins to question Heather's story, though Dr. Wang admits that she may still feel some kind of loyalty to her kidnapper, which would explain her lies. Their conversation is broken up when Benson receives a call that Heather slit her wrists and is being rushed to the hospital. Heather explains to Benson that she her suicide attempt was the result of feeling like a stranger with her own family. Meanwhile, Stabler talks to the doctors, who alert him that Heather does not match the blood type of what her parents described. This makes it impossible for Heather to be the Hallander's missing daughter.

After Benson grills Heather about her identity, she admits she lied and isn't the real Heather Hallander, she was somebody who needed a family and they were a family that needed a daughter. She admits that her entire story was made up. Stabler tells the family the truth and they are devastated. They still want answers on where their daughter is.

The Hallanders want charges brought up against the Jane Doe claiming to be Heather. In court, "Heather" refuses to give her real name and the judge has no choice but to set her bail at $20,000 until trial. The Jane Doe is sent off for more psychiatric testing, but before she leaves the courtroom, Heather Hallander's sister pleads with the imposter to tell the family where Heather is; she is certain that this Jane Doe knows.

Benson is still sure that the Jane Doe is completely lying about her ordeal. Stabler and Benson track down the man she was seen with at the church. When the detectives show up at his place, he runs, but not before Fin gets a hold of him. Meanwhile, Stabler and Benson check the man's basement and discover a hidden dungeon, described exactly the way the girl who pretended to be Heather had described the room she was enslaved in.

Stabler and Benson discover that the man they have in custody is really the Jane Doe's father. Her name is Kristin and Karl kidnapped her six years ago when he and her mother divorced. Karl swears that he just kept Kristin in that room to keep her from escaping and that a case will never hold because his daughter loves him and won't testify. Benson leaves Stabler alone with Karl, hoping he can coax a confession.

Benson frantically races to the prison where Kristin was placed, knowing that a cell would be the last place Kristin would feel safe from her father. Kristin admits she wanted to be part of a family so desperately; that is why she contacted the Hallander family. She tells Benson that the reason why she didn't try to turn her father in was because the Hallander family would find out Kristin was a fraud.

Benson wants to know why Kristin didn't try contacting her mother when she escaped. Kristin tells Benson she knows her mom died three years ago, but Benson alerts her to the fact that her mother is alive and has never stopped looking for her daughter. Karl had been lying to his daughter, hoping she would give up ever wanting to reunite with her mother. Benson arranges for the two to see each other.

Benson can't wait to deliver the news to Kristin that her father is going to prison. Kristin's mother tells Benson that Kristin wanted to talk to somebody before leaving to go back home to Ohio and never returned to the hotel. When detectives arrive at the Hallander home hoping to find Kristin, instead they find Heather's mom lying and saying that Kristin never came by the house. Meanwhile, one of Heather's sisters contradicts the story and says that Kristin left with their other sister, Nikki.

The mother admits that the reason why she knew Kristin couldn't be Heather is because she knew the truth: that their troubled daughter, Nikki, had murdered her sister in a bout of rage and their mother covered the crime. Stabler orders the mother to tell him where Nikki took Kristin. She swears she doesn't know. Then Stabler wants to know where Heather was murdered, in hopes that Nikki brought Kristin to the same location.

The detectives find a distraught Kristin being forced to walk up a ladder to a ledge on a rooftop. Kristin is able escape Nikki's clutches and runs to the detectives; meanwhile, Stabler tells Nikki to think things over before hurting herself. She gets off the ledge and tells Kristin that everything would have been fine if she'd never interfered in her family's life.