NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Law & Order: SVU season 25 episode 1, "Tunnel Blind."
The silver anniversary season of SVU kicks off with Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) returning with her new son Nicky for his christening. Although she surfaces for a joyous occasion, she winds up lending a hand to Oliva (Mariska Hargitay) with a case, as Olivia attempts to find a missing girl whom she regrets not saving hours before.
Here's what happened.
Dominic and Amanda christen their son, Olivia rejects a suitor
After a montage plays of Olivia helping victims over her long tenure with SVU, the episode cuts to the christening of Rollins and Carisi's (Peter Scanavino) son Nicky. Olivia is given the honor of standing up for Nicky as his godmother.
Later, as the celebration of Nicky continues at a restaurant, Carisi's cousin Steve (Hamish Allan-Headley) walks up to Olivia and opens with "Carisi tells me you’re single… By the way, I’m divorced." His attempt at a pick-up line doesn't go over well with Olivia, who replies, "Well don't look at me, you might as well toss your heart into a wood chipper." That response temporarily gets rid of Steve.
When Steve approaches the SVU captain again, he inquires about the compass necklace Elliot (Christopher Meloni) previously gifted her and notes that "the letters are all wrong." Olivia takes the time to explain the J is for joy, the C is for compassion and the L is for love. Carisi's cousin asks if the compass has pointed her in the right direction. Olivia says not yet, a nod she and Elliot are still not on track to be the ultimate power couple.
Olivia ignores her gut and it proves costly
As Olivia and the SVU crew are celebrating baby Nicky, 15-year-old Maddie Flynn (Allison Elaine) is shopping for paint in a store with her mother and father. But when it's time to check out, Maddie is nowhere to be found.
Olivia and Noah (Ryan Buggle) are heading home from the christening when they come to a stoplight. Across the street, she spots a green energy drink van and a teenage girl wearing a homemade bracelet looking dazed and confused in the passenger seat. Olivia's gut is to approach the van, but she's ultimately distracted by her son and decides to take him home.
It's not long before Olivia and her team show up at the previously mentioned store answering a call about a missing girl. Talking to Maddie's mother, Olivia asks to see a picture of her daughter and Olivia is horrified to see the girl she spotted in the van previously wearing the same bracelet.
Olivia doesn't let the parents know she saw Maddie earlier in the day, but she shares that info with Fin (Ice T) and Chief Tommy McGrath (Terry Serpico). Fin tells her not to beat herself up and the chief demands she doesn't tell the parents or the press what she saw.
Amanda breaks the case wide open
As SVU works the case, they eventually find the van abandoned in Pennsylvania. Olivia pulls Maddie's bracelet from between the seats, which again makes Olivia feel guilty. Other than the bracelet and van, the case is stalling until a man walks into the squad room with a sex doll that looks like Maddie. He claims he saw Maddie was missing and wanted to help by bringing the doll to the police. When questioned further, he reveals he uses sex dolls as extras in his non-X-rated movies to save money.
Following this lead, Olivia becomes disgusted to learn that a manufacturer in Taiwan has been making sex dolls using images of underage girls as inspiration. Carisi tells her it's technically not a crime, although it's deplorable. She's at a loss for what to do next until she stops by Rollins' classroom.
Rollins gives her the idea to find the list of buyers of the Maddie dolls and go see each of them until she's able to narrow down a prime suspect. A motivated Olivia goes to do just that, which leads her and the team to Hal (Cole Ragsdale).
Hal claims he didn't kidnap Maddie but knows who did. Obsessed with his Maddie doll, he talked with his friend Mark about taking her hostage. Hal was willing to pay $8,000 for the kidnapping and Mark was going to set it up through a guy he knew. Later Hall tried to call off the whole ordeal but it was too late.
A kidnapping victim is found
With the information Hal gave them, SVU descends upon a motel. Busting into the room they don't find Maddie but another missing girl named Tanya (Leilany Celeste), who was zipped in a body bag, laying in an overflowing tub.
When they get Tanya back to the station, she reveals she met her kidnapper George
in Jacksonville. He's allegedly a Canadian who likes to travel by train. Tanya says she saw Maddie a few days prior with George, and then George and Tanya got into an argument that led him to tell her he couldn't travel with both her and Maddie. The next thing Tanya knew, he dosed her with fentanyl and she woke up in the body bag.
While Olivia is happy that a girl was found that had been missing for over a year, she's disappointed they didn't find Maddie. Her feelings of disappointment and guilt are only worsened when at a press conference announcing the news about Tanya, Maddie's mother interrupts sobbing asking about her daughter.
New episodes of Law & Order: SVU debut on Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT on NBC. Episodes become available the next day on Peacock.
