Ep 9. Stocks & Bondage

The show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television series that focuses on the investigations and eventual prosecution of sexually based offenses and crimes. The show's season 1 episode 9 is named Stocks & Bondage, and it aired back in 1999.

In this episode, the SVU team responds to an emergency call placed by a young woman named Noelle. She claims to have been held captive and tortured in a strange apartment. The team immediately heads over to the location and breaks into the apartment where they find Noelle tied up, bruised, and traumatized.

The detectives, including Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler, and John Munch, start investigating the case, and they soon find out that Noelle's captor is a powerful man named Bart Ganzel. Ganzel is a millionaire stockbroker who frequently hires young women as "submissives" and indulges in bondage and sadomasochism activities with them.

As the detectives dig deeper, they find that Noelle is not the only victim of Ganzel's sick fantasy. There are other women who have come forward with similar stories, but they have all been too scared to press charges against him. The team tries to convince them to testify against Ganzel, but they are reluctant to do so because of his status and reputation.

Benson and Stabler, though, are determined to bring Ganzel to justice and put an end to his crimes. They gather enough evidence to get a search warrant for Ganzel's office, where they find more incriminating evidence, including video tapes of his BDSM sessions with his "submissives."

Meanwhile, Ganzel hires a top defense lawyer, and when he realizes that he might actually face charges, he becomes desperate and threatens to expose some of the high-profile clients who have engaged in similar activities with him. This puts the detectives in a bind, as they face pressure from powerful people to drop the case.

The team, however, stays on course and continues to build their case against Ganzel. In the end, they manage to get a conviction for kidnapping and assault against him, but he only serves a minimal sentence in prison. As he is being taken away in cuffs, Ganzel taunts the detectives, telling them that there are always more powerful people like him who will never face justice for their crimes.

Overall, the episode Stocks & Bondage is a gripping tale of power, dominance, and abuse. It shows the challenges that detectives face when confronting wealthy and influential perpetrators of sexual crimes. The show's nuanced portrayal of BDSM and the consensual/non-consensual nature of its activities is also noteworthy, as it raises important questions about consent and power dynamics in sexual relationships.