Law & Order: SVU season 25 episode 12 recap — Olivia digs into the Agent Sykes family tragedy

In Law & Order: SVU season 25 episode 12, "Marauder," Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) investigates what happened to Agent Shannah Sykes’ (Jordana Spiro) sister Crystal, who went missing decades prior. Thinking Agent Sykes wouldn’t approve, Olivia conducts the investigation behind her back and recruits the rest of the SVU squad to help. However, Olivia is also pretty secretive with her squad about Agent Sykes’ connection to the case. Will the SVU captain’s deception prove worth it in the end by solving the mystery behind Crystal’s disappearance? 

Here’s what happened in the episode. 

Digging up the past

Agent Sykes is drinking at a bar and has a flashback to being a teen in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1997. A young Shannah (Logan Grey Baxter) and her sister Crystal (Stella Bratcher) are joking around in their room when they decide to go to a local pool. As the sisters hop on their bikes to leave, Shannah gets a call from a friend and decides to take it. She tells Crystal to ride ahead and will catch up with her momentarily. 

Somewhere along the way to the pool, Crystal gets a flat tire and walks alongside the bike on an isolated road. A man in a pickup truck drives by her slowly and offers her a ride. She is hesitant to take a ride with a stranger, but he ultimately convinces her to put her bike in the bed of the truck and hop in. Crystal was never heard from again. 

Back in the present, Olivia sees Agent Sykes drinking and questions why she hasn’t seen the FBI employee since the George Brouchard (Patrick Carroll) case. Agent Sykes claims she took time to mourn the anniversary of her sister’s disappearance. Olivia asks why she hasn’t tried to find her sister, to which Agent Sykes says she’s not interested and then leaves. The SVU captain immediately starts looking up information on Crystal.

The next day, Olivia explains to Fin (Ice-T) that after looking into Crystal’s case and doing some research, she realized that similar kidnappings happened in neighboring states around that time. She believes the perp is a marauder, a serial predator that works in a wider localized area. One of the missing girls is from their jurisdiction, and her name is Gwen Markham. Finn notes this can all get messy if they investigate the cold cases behind Agent Sykes’ back, but Olivia questions who will tell her. 

As Olivia loops in her team on the Markham case, Curry (Aime Donna Kelly) asks why they are looking into this cold case now, and Olivia lies that Carisi (Peter Scanavino) was working another case that's up for appeals and needed some help from SVU. 

Meet the Markhams, Ed McCluskey and Henry Dao

Olivia divides her squad into teams as they try to carefully conduct the investigation. Bruno (Kevin Kane) and Velasco (Octavio Pisano) go to upstate New York to meet with Henry Dao (Alberto Isaac), the father of a missing girl believed to be kidnapped by the same assailant who took Crystal and Gwen. Curry is assigned to stay in the office and do some more digging. Meanwhile, Olivia and Fin head to the Markhams to talk to them about Gwen and get their permission to exhume her body, hoping to collect DNA that forensics back then wasn’t equipped to gather. 

Unfortunately, speaking with Gwen's parents and her cousin Cal (Gabe Fazio), Olivia and Fin only manage to upset the father who doesn't like revisiting the past trauma of his missing daughter. It looks like the Markhams may not be as helpful as Olivia hoped. Not all is lost, as the SVU captain then gets a call that could help her get around certain jurisdiction limitations as it pertains to Crystal’s disappearance. 

The call prompts Oliva and Fin to head to Allentown where they meet retired detective, Ed McCluskey (Kenneth Tigar). He initially investigated Crystal’s disappearance, and to Olivia’s surprise, still has a board in his home dedicated to finding out who kidnapped her. Olivia explains her theory that Crystal’s disappearance is likely connected to a case in her jurisdiction. When they talk some more, he realizes that Olivia is working the case behind Agent Sykes' back, whom he knows personally, and he’s hesitant to get involved. However, it doesn’t take much swaying for him to eventually offer Olivia his support. 

Elsewhere, Bruno and Velasco meet with Henry Dao at his dry cleaning business in upstate New York. Although he hasn’t seen his daughter since her disappearance, he is oddly confident that she is still alive. As it turns out, for years after she went missing, he received hand-written letters believed to be from his daughter talking about her new life. He lets Bruno and Velasco take the letters to gather whatever information they can. 

Sadly upon further review of the letters, Bruno and Velasco are able to track the sender to a P.O. Box belonging to a Ronald Givens in New Jersey. He passed away, but they are able to speak to his son Ronnie (Phil Sloves) who confesses to writing the letters thinking he was helping the dad and encouraging the police to keep looking for Henry’s daughter Kimberly. Neither Ronald nor Ronnie had anything to do with the missing girls. 

Olivia’s roadblock

Olivia and her squad hit a roadblock in their investigation when Carisi calls and informs her that a judge won’t allow them to exhume Gwen’s body to collect DNA evidence. The Markhams informed the judge they don’t support disturbing their dead daughter. Without being able to collect possible DNA evidence, the case is stalled, which is why Olivia speaks with Cal to try and convince him to talk to Gwen’s parents. The cop heavily suggests that Cal does what he can to help her in getting his cousin’s body exhumed. 

This prompts Cal to do something wild and later tell Olivia and her team that he killed his cousin. Speaking with Curry and Bruno, Cal says he lied years ago and he actually sexually assaulted and murdered his cousin. As Olivia and Fin look at the confession from the other side of the glass, neither one of them believes a word Cal is saying, but Olivia knows his false confession gives them another cause to exhume Gwen’s body.  

The celebration is short-lived once Agent Sykes walks into the squad room. She’s furious that Olivia is looking into the disappearance of her sister behind her back, and shares that her mom called sobbing when Allentown officers arrived at her house talking about Crystal again. Olivia stands firm in her decision to investigate, which prompts Agent Sykes to storm out. 

What happened to Crystal Sykes?

Touch DNA is found on Gwen and the traces of semen aren’t a match for Cal, but wind up pointing detectives in the direction of Hannah Kincaid (Laurel Casillo). She submitted a DNA sample for a genealogical service, and as a result, the trace DNA found on Gwen signifies that Hannah is likely the daughter of the suspect. 

When Bruno and Curry meet Hannah, she describes her father Richard (Larry Pine) as an insurance claims adjuster who’s a good man. Coincidentally, he and his wife are scheduled to celebrate their 40th anniversary later in the afternoon. The whole SVU squad arrives to arrest Cal at the anniversary party.

In the interrogation room, Olivia shows Richard some Polaroids they found in his backyard of all the girls he kidnapped and murdered. She tells him to tell them where the bodies are buried and she can talk to Pennsylvania prosecutors about taking the death penalty off the table. He agrees. 

Cal is eventually scheduled to be released from lockup, and after Crystal’s body is found, Agent Sykes meets Olivia at the medical examiner to help identify the body. Agent Sykes asks for a moment alone and wonders why Olivia couldn’t leave this case alone. By herself, Agent Sykes sobs. 

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