This is another episode where we start with one case and end up with another. A girl is missing and her boyfriend mentions this creep who lives downstairs from her. She also just happens to mention him too. And he just happens to be someone Stabler arrested twenty years earlier that made his career. Of course he jumps all over this guy being the one despite flimsy evidence at best. Then it turns out the girl wasn't kidnapped at all. But she jumps in the river. Never mind the fact that she could drown before anyone would find her. She was emailing her meth dealer from a copy shop. I know this is 2009 but people had cell phones and texting then. Who emails someone when they want to get a hold of them right away? Anyway Stabler goes to apologize to the guy she accused but he freaks out and throws him off the roof. He gets into it with the new DA who wants to prosecute. The guy claims spending years in solitary made him do it. Stabler starts to feel for the guy and spends three days in the hole. The DA accused him of going soft when he wants her to cut a deal. This isn't the first time Stabler has gone after someone who was innocent of the crime they were investigating. In season 2 or 3 there was Leon Tate. Cragen did the same thing and ruined a man's life.
Review of Solitary
