Law & Order: SVU season 25 episode 11 recap — Rollins returns to SVU, but is it for good?

In Law & Order: SVU season 25 episode 11, "Prima Nocta," Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) returns to the squad room to help Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) and the SVU team catch a serial rapist who's been targeting brides-to-be. Rollins' insight is invaluable in the case, but is it enough to catch the suspect? Also, will dipping her toe back into detective work make her realize it's time to return to the SVU team for good? 

Here's what happened.

A returning detective and a runaway bride

Amanda and Carisi (Peter Scanavino) talk about Amanda's new unemployment status. She was offered a tenured position at Fordham, but turned it down citing boredom. Now she's left trying to figure out what to do next. 

Olivia instinctively calls Amanda and asks if she's going crazy unemployed. Amanda jokingly asks if Olivia called to rub her face in it, but the SVU captain clarifies she was just wondering if Amanda wanted to meet for lunch. 

Elsewhere, Jenna (Elizabeth Paige) is standing in her wedding dress in front of all her family and friends, and across from her future husband. As he looks at her with adoration, she starts crying and is clearly rattled. Before the minister even finishes the ceremony, she takes off running.

Back in Olivia's office, she and Amanda are catching up when Bruno (Kevin Kane) interrupts and says they got a call about a runaway bride who locked herself in a room and requested to speak with SVU, which leaves Amanda especially puzzled. Olivia asks if Amanda wants to go with her to check things out, and Amanda doesn't hesitate. 

Olivia and Amanda privately meet with Jenna. The bride explains she was staying at her parents' house the night before the wedding when at 3 am a man crawled into an open window and attacked her. Immediately, Olivia encourages Jenna to get a rape kit at the hospital. Jenna agrees. 

At the hospital, Jenna details her attacker took her nightgown and the bedding from the room. She didn't get a great look at the assailant, but she does know he's Black, had rough hands as if he did manual labor for a living and before he left, he told her, "You're going to remember me." 

There's more than one victim

After Fin (Ice-T) questions the fiancé and Curry (Aime Donna Kelly) and Bruno question the wedding party, the SVU team realizes they don't have any great leads. Then they get the DNA results back from Jenna's kit. The DNA matches DNA found in another rape kit from a second victim. 

Olivia and Amanda speak with the second victim, Darcy (Lindsey Belisle), an ER nurse. She tells them a similar story of being attacked the night before her wedding while staying at her parent's house without her future husband. She also notes her attacker told her, "You’re going to remember me." Even with Darcy's statement, the detectives are no closer to pinning down a suspect as there isn't a lot of overlap in terms of the people Jenna and Darcy know. 

As Curry and Bruno go over the evidence, a cop from uptown shares that a while ago a woman wanted to report a rape that happened before she got married but she ultimately decided not to pursue charges. He still had her contact information. 

Olivia and Fin knock on the door of Breena (Mary Antonini) and her husband. When Breena answers, the detectives are surprised to see her holding a baby. Then her husband approaches, and Olivia says she's just there to ask about a robbery that took place around the time of their wedding. The husband says he didn't recall hearing anything, but Olivia gives her card to Breena and notes if she remembers anything, to give her a call. 

When Olivia reconvenes with her team back in the squad room, they are desperately trying to connect the dots between Jenna, Darcy and Breena. The latter shows up and requests to speak privately. Breena shares with Olivia and Amanda that her baby isn't her husband's, but the attacker's. 

She recounts the night before her wedding, she and her husband were staying in separate rooms in a hotel. She heard a knock on her door, she opened it thinking it was him, but it was instead the assailant who then forced himself on her. She describes him similarly but then says she saw the guy before at the flower wholesaler she used for her wedding. 

Who is Leon? 

Curry and Bruno go to the flower wholesaler and ask the manager about his employees, searching for anyone who could match the description of the suspect. The manager mentions Leon (Jeremiah Latrell Caldwell) who happens to walk in shortly thereafter. Curry and Bruno question Leon, who is adamant he can't recall any of the women and notes that during Jenna's attack, he was at home watching TV with his landlady, Mrs. Pritchard (Diane J. Findlay). Mrs. Pritchard confirms Leon's story.

Although the SVU detectives like Leon for the crime, they have no evidence and both Darcy and Jenna can't pick him out of a photo lineup. Plus, Breena doesn't want to be involved in the case for fear of what it could do to her marriage. This prompts Olivia to have Amanda and Carisi go to the flower shop and pretend to be a couple rushing to get married in need of flowers. 

Amanda and Carisi go undercover and sell their bit to the store manager. Carisi asks the manager to deliver flowers to his future wife's hotel room later that night, but the manager says they don't deliver. When Carisi offers to pay him more money, the manager changes his tune and asks Leon to do it. Carisi then gives him the address and makes it clear he and Amanda won't be staying in the same room trying to honor the old wedding tradition. 

Later as Amanda and Carisi are in the hotel room getting ready for this sting operation, Carisi notes he hasn't seen Amanda light up like this in a while. She admits she enjoys working a case again. He leaves and goes to the undercover van with Curry, Bruno and Fin, who have recording devices monitoring Amanda. 

Leon shows up at Amanda's hotel room and is preparing to leave the flowers outside of her door. However, Amanda asks if he wouldn't mind bringing them inside her room. Leon agrees to help her, but does a good job at rejecting Amanda's flirting. The former detective presses him, asking if he'd like a drink. He's reluctant. However, before Amanda can commit entrapment, Leon leaves in a rush. Thankfully, Amanda gets him to sip from the glass before he does, which is enough to get his DNA. 

The DNA test results prove Leon is a match for the rape kits and both Jenna and Darcy are able to identify Leon, most notably for his voice. Breena also has a change of heart and tells Olivia she's willing to testify against him. 

Is Amanda back with SVU for good?

In the closing moments of the episode, Olivia and Amanda talk. The SVU captain says she doesn't have a desk for Amanda, but also presses her to take time to find what will make her happy as she hasn't been unemployed for that long. Olivia has a hunch that Amanda wants to use SVU as her safety net, and in actuality, Amanda needs something new. 

New episodes of Law & Order: SVU debut on Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT on NBC. Episodes become available the next day on Peacock.