LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters Look Back at ‘Fault’

Credit: NBC

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT has had its fair share of truly evil characters, but in the show’s first decade, few caused as much damage to the squad as Victor Paul Gitano (portrayed by Lou Diamond Phillips).

Though Gitano didn’t have a whole lot of screen time in 2006’s “Fault,” his presence was brutal: he killed three members of a family and kidnapped the two youngest children. Because he had been following the kids for a bit, it was fairly easy for the 1-6 to figure out who their guy was…and he was a pathological liar and killer, with a history of sexual assault.

Detectives Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) and their colleagues thought they had him in their sights, but when Gitano sliced Benson’s throat, Stabler opted to try to save her instead of rescuing one of the children. The decision had a domino effect: the boy died, Stabler took his complicated emotions out on Benson, and when the situation was flipped, she was unable to kill Gitano (who had taken Elliot hostage). Though the duo was able to stall Gitano long enough for a sniper to take him out (and rescue the young girl he had stowed away), the experience of choosing each other over the job fractured the long-standing Benson/Stabler partnership and the hour ended with her asking Cragen (Dann Florek) for a new partner.

The gripping episode was penned by Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, their final installment for the series they spent five seasons on. (They’ve since gone on to create REAPER, AGENT CARTER, and the upcoming ABC drama EMERGENCE.) In honor of the show’s 20th anniversary, they looked back at the hour, and what their time on the series taught them… Read more