In an unprecedented turn in the annals of Munch My Benson history, this installment of SVU from Season 3 is simultaneously the standard bearer for representation of a marginalized and underrepresented subset of our population and one of the starkest examples of why it's always best to choose an actor who's a representative of that segment of the population. When given the choice to cast two characters with Down syndrome, they chose an accomplished actress with Down syndrome and an actor who'd later be the top-billed star of prestige dramas for her love interest. The results were something that needs to be seen to be believed.

The discovery of a dead baby found in a cooler floating on the Hudson inspires SVU to JD Vance levels of state aggression towards pregnant people. They cast aspersions at every customer of a beloved uptown health food store then wantonly ruin the lives of every family member of every Hudson U student they can find. Sadly, after a fast-paced first act, this settles into a paint-by-numbers Tay-Sachs morality play for the second half.

I know all there is to know about the SVU. I've had my share of the SVU. First there's a body, then there are slurs. And then, before you know where you are, you're saying Dick Wolf.

Once again, we meet a trans character who is placed in the middle of a brutal scene, and the usual ham-fisted SVU shenanigans ensue. Buckle up, kids!

This one gets all up in the confessional, culminating in a no-holds-barred Catholic-off between Stabler and Father Michael Sweeney (Eric Stoltz--or is it Stolitz?). Red herrings and misdirects abound, and since we're watching an SVU dealing with the Catholic Church, you can assume that some priest were taking some liberties with parishioners of an underage variety. While this one might kick off with some jarring early-season transphobia, it also has a lot of wild fun stuff, and if you weren't paying attention to the priest's name, don't worry, Josh caught it.

We all remember that great teacher from high school who would go the extra mile for all of their students. This episode of SVU presupposes that that exemplary educator is most likely a gang-bang addicted sex-club enthusiast on the side. This wild ride takes us from the heights of the pre-2.0 internet to the depths of "Dante's Inferno" and to every lurid second unit photo shoot in between. We need to give special mention to both art department who spared no depravities in their work for this episode, and for the outstanding quality of the background actors, who give (too much?) life to their wordless roles.

This week's installment really takes the Munchie Boys on a wild ride, starting with a working boy stumble-crashing a wedding in his boxers, dipping its toes in the water with Finnish furniture design and Altoona-style pizza, and finishing with a perp stroking Elliot's hand asking if he's going to protect them. Along the way, we take a voyage through high-end gigolo culture, the world of political donors and ambassadorial appointments, and one of the most extreme instances of folie à deux imaginable for a married couple. This is a classic early season journey where we're a pinball flicked between weird plot points in a way that's truly refreshing after spending so much time in late-season SVU.

The Randomizer finally gifted the Munchies with a Season 11 Stablersode, and in classic fashion, our beloved, bechiseled-butt-cheeks boy takes an already convoluted mess of a case, and thoroughly Fs it in the B. Here we see a karate-loving ponzi schemer get off on rubbing out his accountants whenever the market takes a downturn, before passing the episode's baton to his attorney who might have protected her client's confidentiality but certainly did not protect his person.

If Popular is any indication, being a kid actor on SVU in the early days was not for the faint of heart. They’ll either have you playing a scumbag turning out your girlfriend for whichever old reason, or they’ll have you perping on your best friend’s girl who isn’t into you but who he instructed to bone you anyway despite the fact that you can’t stand him, or they’ll have you get turned out, contract gonorrhea, have your parents find out you’ve become ensnared in a beej-for-beer barter middle-school party scene, and have everyone say you are not attractive. No complexes developed here…

The first installment of the Neal Baer era is a doozy, pitting our intrepid SVUs against the defense-industrial complex. In a momentary distraction from family time, which became all too common during his time on the Unit, Elliot Stabler is pulled away from his family--in this case Maureen, a daughter who follows instructions POORLY--for a case in which he literally cannot help but become embroiled. Sure, jurisdiction and the vic's very speculative status as a special victim as it burned to a crisp are real-life hurdles that are completely ignored as Stabler and the Unit dig into the vic's eventually uncovered extremely terrible past.

Along the way, we find out that the US government paved the way for an especially odious pedo to victimize innocent youths without any roadblocks or pushback. We also get a Stabler traumatized for the first time and the introduction of one of the most beloved characters in the entire L&O universe. Fun is had amidst the tragic but fairly realistic world in which our victims live.

It wouldn't be a peak-era SVU episode if we weren't treated to an investigative red herring that eats up an entire act of television only to be discarded unceremoniously, forever forgotten and treated as though it never have happened. That misdirect usually isn't a NINE MINUTE NECROPHILIA KICK that plays as exploitative and shocking, leaving the audience's collective jaws on the floor, all while having the perp in question just brush up against the periphery of the Unit's case. It's a real shocker, and "Waste" provides it. It also has nothing to do with the pregnant woman in a permanent vegetative state who was knocked up while in the hospital.

For the second time, the Munchie Boys go back to the well from the earliest episodes of the podcast to reevaluate (with the benefit of having now seen and rated more than 170 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) the truly brainmelting Season 3 banger, Ridicule, which gives us Casey Novak's very disturbing origin story before she changed her name from Amelia Chase. The world of SVU is upside-down in this one as women sexually assault men, tumescence exams are discussed, and autoerotic asphyxiation is de rigueur. And… Casey Novak—er, “Amelia Chase” is involved in almost all of that.

Young Hayden Panettiere melted our brains this week, as we were forced to watch the origin story of the teenage girl we saw doing some pretty, pretty, pretty bad things back in MMB 16, where we watched the Season 6 all-timer "Hooked." After seeing how bad her parents are in this week's episode, it's not hard to see why the Birmingham call-back might end up being too mundane for this deeply damaged girl. There’s quite a bit of disturbing child acting and costume choices to unpack, along with a wild scene for a 10-year-old’s birthday party that left Adam and Josh breathlessly pinballing between the psychedelically mismatched celebrants and odd art department choices.

Strange things are afoot this week, as this SVU starts with an ex stalking his former flame from Rhode Island to the Big City and catfishes a rando into raping her via a rape fantasy website and then takes a wild left turn when the judge presiding over the case becomes convinced the perp is his son who was kidnapped when he was three years old. To make things even weirder, he enlists none other than Elliot Stabler to handle the investigation into this cold case. There are huge leaps and ghost babies in the concrete in this one. Prepare yourself.

In a conclusion to last week's installment of Law & Order: SVU following nearly a full year later, another rape victim turns up describing an attack an awful lot like our vics described in Part 1. This means Tracy Pollan is back, picking up where she left off, which was getting an Emmy nomination for playing this role. This doesn't yield a second one, but she still rocks in "Closure (Part 2)" and helps give this episode the titular want that last week's left us all wanting.

Two dipshit wannabe writers on an uptown depravity tour lead the detectives at SVU into a truly outlandish world populated by avenging sister-moms and serial-rapists-made-good who are pushed back into serial raping by the heavy-handed approach of Stabler & Co. Along the way we learn about cleaning fish, proper wine breathing etiquette, and whether or not Ricardo from the Java Barn is the right guy to ask for illicit hard drugs. This episode revels in the early season insanity. Does it make sense? Does it have to?

When television's Harry Bosch (technically Titus Welliver) started firing blanks a few years ago, the strangest thing happened. Instead of happily raising the large brood of children he already had, he chose to pimp out first his wife, then his nanny, and finally his own daughter in a bizarre cult-like scheme to rear as many children as possible. Obviously, things went off the rails, or in the case of his daughter, nearly on to them when she attempts to throw herself in front of the N train starting this week's SVU in motion. Along the way Adam tells you all about applying for pre-K in New York, and we wonder whether or not NYPD could conceivably plant evidence beneath two feet of concrete under your townhouse.

Another SVU, another bizarre cult. This time around, a certifiable quack of the cloning-will-save-humankind-from-the-depleting-ozone-layer variety has an entire organization hornswoggling teen girls with low self-esteem into becoming his own personal baby factories. Don't worry, it's not just non-sexual sex cult action we're dealing with this time around. No, we've got police brandishing their weapons and running hilariously, accents that spin you around, and surprising restraint from a cult leader who seems much more interested in playing God than hide the salami. Of course, talk of claims of human cloning took Adam down a strange rabbit hole into the Raëlians, and there are some wildly unexpected revelations with regards to this week’s guest stars, so there’s a ton of munchy weirdness afoot this week.

Alt episode title this week? Her Mouth Is a Melting Pot.

What happens when a trusted pediatrician is found to have extra-medically milked many young boys urethras over the years? Well in SVU, he is brutally beaten to death by one of his former victims who himself was doubly victimized as his Pica led him to eat the lead paint off of cheap toy cars which permanently stunted his development and planted the seeds of his rage. Come for Alexandra Cabot's jaw dropping Season 10 return, stay for Kim Greylek's unceremonious act 2 poochie'ing, and go home with a delightfully detailed breakdown of what exactly blood alcohol content means and whether or not the arrogant rich guy could have blown a 2.2 and kept driving.

Season 2 SVUs typically mean one thing, and that is bonkers plots stacked on plots with bizarre flourishes stuffed in, and in that regard, this frantic ride does not disappoint. We talk underground hydrangea markets and age-progression specialists, correct the record vis-à-vis erotic versus autoerotic asphyxiation, meet Martin's obscure Amis brother, and find out just who is leaving their rare orchid pollen on our victim's panties.

When a sting to catch a groomer pedo goes sideways in a New Jersey train station, Alexandra Cabot disregards due process, civil rights, and decades of precedents in the pursuit of a conviction. We see the SVU debut of everyone's favorite legal hard ass, Elizabeth Donnelly, we learn about a particularly outlandish purchase that Josh is contemplating, and we definitively answer that age old question: Who's the boss? Those wanting Adam's airport rankings or our views on the relegation system in world football are encouraged to sign up for the Munchies tier on our Patreon. Enjoy!