The kidnapping of Maddie Flynn was one of Benson’s toughest cases in the last season of SVU.
There are dozens — dare we say, hundreds — of must-watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. But few could forget the Season 25 storyline involving an ill-fated kidnapping and an unexpected witness: Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) herself.
While most victims in an episode see justice by the time the credits roll, Season 25 spotlighted a missing persons case that took a toll on Benson over the course of the entire season.
Benson eventually helped put Maddie’s kidnapper behind bars for life, but it was an emotionally charged challenge.
How did Benson first learn of Maddie Flynn’s case on SVU?
In SVU’s Season 25 premiere (“Tunnel Blind”), Benson noticed a sullen teenager in the passenger seat of a food delivery van as she was driving with her own son. However, sunlight hitting Benson’s windshield obstructed her view of the driver.
She later got a call about a kidnapping, and discovered the victim — and the girl she’d seen in the van — were Maddie Flynn.
After discovering Maddie’s image was used for an online sex doll catalog service, the squad was left with hundreds of potential leads and no idea of where to begin.
After scouring through the names and even reaching out to Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) for help, Benson realized that the suspect was likely someone who became obsessed with the sex doll made in Maddie’s image.
But, with no clues and the unknown kidnapper seemingly on the move, Maddie’s case grew cold, frustrating both Benson and Maddie’s parents.
What was Benson’s first break in Maddie Flynn’s case in SVU Season 25?
Benson finally made some headway in Maddie’s case in Season 25, Episode 5 (“Zone Rouge”).
Maddie was brought onto a train in Pittsburgh by her kidnapper; she was drugged, and her hair was cut and dyed so that she’d resemble a boy. But she managed to give another train passenger a note asking them to call the NYPD.
Benson then went to Pittsburgh, where she met FBI agent Shannah Sykes (Jordan Spiro), a behavior analyst and expert on child abduction. (Sykes’ sister had been abducted when she was a teenager.)
With the squad’s help, they uncovered that Maddie had been kidnapped by a human trafficker named George Brouchard (played by Patrick Carroll), who had been hired on the dark web by Gordon Franks (played by Jason Martin), a disturbed pedophile obsessed with Maddie.
The team tracked Gordon to a remote cabin, where they discovered an emaciated Maddie lying in the fetal position on a mattress in the basement. Gordon was immediately arrested, and Maddie was rushed to the hospital. Benson was finally able to give the Flynn family the long-awaited news that Maddie had been found.
Although Gordon hadn’t physically harmed Maddie, she revealed to the squad that Brouchard had sexually assaulted her after the abduction. Brouchard was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. However, Maddie was left grappling with withdrawal symptoms from the drugs he had forced her to take, as well as severe PTSD.
Benson, understanding Maddie’s trauma, introduced her to the same therapist who had helped her through her own struggles. In the Season 25 finale (“Duty to Hope”), Benson joined the Flynn family in celebrating Maddie’s sixteenth birthday, a sign of hope for her future healing.
