Olivia Benson quotes from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Mark McDaniel

If I'd only left everything alone, maybe Cora wouldn't have been attacked.

Benson

You know, Cora needed a father. You can still be that for Ada. You can call her by the name she chose.

Mark McDaniel

I was not a good person.

Benson

So be a better one.

Benson

Noah and Connor have been texting non-stop. They're dying to meet each other.

Fin

So what are you going to do?

Benson

What any self-respecting parent would do in this situation: ask you to run a complete background check on the entire family.

Fin

It looks like the Tremont clique knows where you live.

Benson

I mean, these people are pretty ballsy. Going after a New York captain on her turf?

Fin

I heard on the radio you blew out one of their kneecaps.

Benson

I didn't want to shoot any of them. They were kids.

Fin

You have a lot more restraint than I would.

Benson

He's somebody's son.

Fin

Some bullets have a lesson behind them.

Benson

How's Amanda?

Sonny

She's grading papers. You know what means? No machetes, no black eyes...

Benson

Yeah, but paper cuts are a bitch.

[to Benson] You need some meat on those bones, Captain.

Benson

That would be touching if you hadn't just tried to kill me.

Benson

He's a kid and he's unaccompanied, and he is scared.

Sonny

He tried to kill you. Which one is the victim: you or him?

Captain Benson, I am sorry that you were hurt but I'm even more sorry that your son was traumatized.

Benson

If you say one more word against my son, it will be the last thing you ever say.

Benson

Elliot, I want to. I want to, but I can't.

Stabler

Why not?

Benson

Because what if it doesn't work out?

Stabler

And what if things work out?

What kind of sicko rapes a woman at the scene of an accident?

Benson

He targets the vulnerable just like every other predator on the planet.

You weren't in the room. The air had a certain funk.

A funk???

Yeah, it malingered.

Fin

Now that you mention it, the air did have a certain mildew-y smell.

Like when someone's lying to you.

Benson

Guys, he's a used car salesman. If he's breathing, he's lying.

Fin

I have done things I'm not too proud of.

Benson

Fortunately, you don't have to have a great past to have a great future.

Fin

You have a supervisor on site we could talk to?

He's home, asleep. Why? What's this about?

Benson

We are investigating a rape.

Fin

Which tends to keep our ADA up at night.

Benson

So unless you want to find out what he does when he's cranky, I highly suggest you tell us which room she visited.

Benson

Can we trust this CO?

The guy is a grade-A scumbag with more self-interest than most.

Benson

I feel bad for you, Velasco.

Bad? Bad how?

Benson

Because you're 180 pounds of water in the shape of a man, and you take on the shape of anything that you're poured into. Duarte asked you to flip a banger, and you end up playing just as dirty as the guy that we're hunting. I mean, up until now, Velasco, you've been living a performance, not a life. That changes now. Understood?

What do you want me to do?

Benson

You owe a debt to the two people that were killed, even though they were drug dealers. It doesn't have to happen today, and it doesn't have to happen tomorrow. But you will find that friend, and you will bring him to justice.

[as Benson starts to walk away] Captain, wait. People change, you know?

Benson

Velasco, being a cop isn't some sort of penance. Putting your friend away for murder is.

So that's what it takes for me and you to be all right?

Benson

That's what it takes for me and you to be all right.

Let me get this straight. Cooper Davis, the 23-year-old nephew of the victim's deceased husband, is a DNA match for her rape kit?

Benson

The short answer is yes.

The long answer?

Fin

Not much longer.