Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 20 recap — Olivia and Amanda can’t understand one mother’s “love”

In Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 20, "Shock Collar," Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) joins Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) and the SVU squad as they investigate the abduction of a little girl. Looking into the usual suspects, they zero in on a parent as the parent mysteriously goes off the grid around the same time of the kidnapping.

However, as the detectives work the case, they soon learn something more sinister is at play, and there’s another victim. When it’s all said and done, Olivia is asking what kind of mother does this to her child?

Here’s what happened in Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 20.

A delivery gone wrong

Cady Greene (Lea Zawada) buckles her daughter Haley (Aislin Echo Wood) in the back seat of the car. Haley doesn’t feel good, so Cady is taking her to the doctor’s office. However, Cady makes a pit stop to deliver breakfast to a regular, and while dropping off the food, someone steals her car with her daughter in it.

Meanwhile, Olivia and Amanda walk their kids to school when Amanda thanks Olivia for getting her daughters into the gifted program. Olivia is happy the girls are going to Noah’s (Ryan Buggle) school. Their conversation is cut short when Olivia gets a call about the abduction and heads to the scene with Amanda.

There, Olivia brings her team up to speed and sends them canvassing the neighborhood. Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) and Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) speak with a woman who reports seeing a white rental van that followed Cady’s car.

Where is Haley’s dad?

In the squad room, Olivia and Amanda ask Cady if there is anyone in her life who may have targeted Haley, but she can’t think of anyone. They wonder about Haley’s father, Dylan (Joshua Bess). Cady claims Haley sees him a weekend a month as he’s a musician with gigs. The two parents aren’t having custody disputes, but when Cady calls him, she just gets his voicemail. Subsequently, SVU has no luck tracking Dylan down or even getting a ping off his cell phone.

NYPD’s tech team is able to get an image of the kidnapper from Ring cameras along the block, learning the suspect is a woman. She approached the car with a mask, waved at Haley sitting in the back, then took the car. Olivia and Amanda show Cady the footage, but she doesn’t recognize the woman. Silva and Velasco (Octavio Pisano) then inform Amanda and Olivia that Cady’s car has been found burned under a bridge. When SVU arrives, there are no signs of Haley.

Back at the squad room, Silva finds it odd that they can’t reach Dylan. Olivia sends her to Brooklyn to ask his neighbors about him. The young detective speaks with one of Dylan’s neighbors, who shares he is “cool” and believes he’s a decent guy. The neighbor claims she saw Dylan yesterday morning get into a white van with his guitar. Curry and Velasco later receive some footage from the tech team of Haley and the mystery woman walking from Cady’s burning car to a white delivery van, where a man with his face covered is the driver.

Dylan finally shows up at the squad room, curious to know what’s going on. He states he’s been in a recording session where no phones are allowed. Olivia and Amanda ask if he knows where Haley is. He says he doesn’t. The detectives inform him his daughter has been kidnapped. He appears to panic, and Olivia asks if there is anyone he can think of who may have taken his daughter. He can't. Olivia later confirms Dylan’s alibi, so he is no longer a suspect.

Another victim comes to light

SVU is debriefing Carisi (Peter Scanavino) when Amanda gets disturbing news. She shares that Haley’s image popped up on a website. Amanda shows footage of a mystery woman putting a shock collar on Haley’s neck, then shocking the young girl. Amanda calls it “delegated sadism.”

Meeting with tech team, Curry asks if they can track the content creator’s whereabouts. Unfortunately, the creator used a VPN to hide their location. However, some subscribers didn’t use a VPN, so they can be tracked down. The squad picks up these subscribers and interviews them to see what they know. One man in particular claims he’s not a big fan of seeing Haley in the video, but used to watch the other videos on the site that featured the “original” girl. While those videos were taken down, he has screen recordings of them.

The detectives look at one of these videos. Amanda says there is nothing in the databases about the girl shown. Watching the footage again, Olivia points out the dogs in the background and suspects the kidnappers may be held up at a dog training facility or kennel. After analyzing the footage, the acoustics lab narrowed the breed of dogs to either Rottweilers, Dobermans or Cane Corsos. Curry comes up with a shortlist of nearby breeders for these kinds of dogs, and Olivia sends her team to talk to all of them.

Where is Haley?

Velasco, Curry and Silva go from one kennel to another until they stumble across one where they learn some interesting information. After showing her a picture of the other missing girl, the owner claims she’s the daughter of the Carwoods, a husband/wife duo who breeds Rottweilers.

Once they’re able to confirm Dennis (Skylar T. Adams) and Nicole Carwood (J.J. Pyle) had a daughter, SVU and Amanda arrive outside of their home, ready to go in with local authorities. Before they get the chance, Nicole shoots Dennis. When cops burst in, Dennis is on the couch bleeding and Nicole has a gun to her head. Olivia convinces Nicole to put down the weapon, and she’s arrested.

In the basement of the home, they find the set from the videos, but no sign of the two girls. Olivia has the canine unit called in, and a dog finds the body of a dead girl. The girl is later identified as the biological daughter of Dennis and Nicole, the first girl in the videos.

In police custody, neither Dennis nor Nicole is very forthcoming about where Haley is being held. That is, until a deal is mentioned. Ultimately, Nicole talks first, and detectives track Haley to a greenhouse.

Later at the hospital, Olivia and Amanda speak to Cady, who says she and Haley are moving to Vermont with her parents. Amanda then gets a text from Carisi that the Carwoods will get 25 years to life in prison.

New episodes of Law and Order: SVU air on Thursdays on NBC and become available the next day on Peacock.