Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series) Execution (2002) User Reviews

Character actor takes it to the hilt!

[garrard · 9/10 · 5 March 2010]

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" was just in its third season when it aired this episode which featured an award-worthy turn from guest star Nick Chinlund.

Chinlund is riveting as a death-row sociopath who holds valuable information for a case investigated by Stabler and Benson. The actor pulls out all the stops, using much of his body language and glances to create a character that is truly memorably evil and without a conscious.

His assault on both Stabler (Chris Meloni) and Dr. Huang (B.D. Wong) is both unexpected and savage.

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences missed an opportunity when it failed to nominate Chinlund for an Emmy for 2001-2002 season of SVU.

Stabler and Huang try to break the will of a human monster

[snicewanger · 9/10 · 30 September 2018]

A really great episode featuring Christopher Meloni. He is joined by BD Wong in one of his earliest appearances as Dr George Huang.The real star ,however, is Nick Chinlund as convicted serial killer Matthew Brodus. Brodus is facing eminent execution in a New Jersey Prison and Stabler with Huang's help is try to pull a confession to a ten year old unsolved murder from Brodus. Chinlund plays Brodus as a combination Hannibal Lecter and the Frankenstein Monster. As his hour of execution is coming ever closer and having nothing to gain by cooperating, the serial killer plays mind games with the two. The fact that Stabler and Huang seem to competing with each other as to which is the cleverest at breaking down Brodus isn't lost on him and Brodus uses that fact to his advantage. This episode was one of the most suspenseful and terrifying in the whole series history

Getting used to

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 10 August 2014]

B.D. Wong was not even an SVU regular yet when he did this story as one of the guest cast. His character is an FBI profiler who gets teamed with Christopher Meloni as Meloni goes to interview a convicted sex offender serial killer Nick Chinlund about a new lead on an old case.

Of course later on when Wong becomes detached from the FBI and part of the team they work well. But now it becomes something of a contest as Meloni and Wong match expertise. Guess who wins?

But this features a pair of specimens who are clearly arguments for the death penalty. Nick Chinlund and a former cellmate Timothy Wheeler will terrify you. In fact Wheeler gets over on Stabler causing him no small amount of embarrassment.

Some people are pure evil and this episode demonstrates that. It also shows that Dr. George Huang and Detective Elliott Stabler will take a bit of getting used to.

Mind games

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 4 August 2020]

On my first watch of "Execution", it really stood out amongst the rest of the episodes of Season 3 and of the early seasons in general. Namely because of the atmosphere, which the episode is rich in, and its truly memorable villain, and also because of its interesting story structure. With it starting from the climax and most of the rest of the episode being in flashback, detailing the events in what came before. It never struck me as dull even if not one of the show's most eventful episodes.

"Execution" still holds up on re-watches, an example of an episode that got even better with each viewing with more to like and observed. It was a great premise and brilliant in execution. What struck me as particularly striking on first watch still strikes me as particularly striking now and even more so, for examples the whole mind games being creepier. One of my favourite episodes of Season 3 and the best 'Special Victims Unit' episode since "Monogamy", the episodes in between that and this saw a quality-dip (not massive but enough for it to be noticeable) in my view so this is saying quite a bit.

The production values are still going strong, the prison setting is creepy and made creepier by the intimate but never over-claustrophobic photography. The music is spare and has presence without being over-scored and there is some clever and ominous use of sound at the beginning. Christopher and BD Wong (who comes into his own here) are excellent. Even better is a terrifying, even when saying nothing, Nick Chinlund as one of the most monstrous supporting characters of Season 3 and of the early seasons.

It is with him and his chilling mind games that he plays when with Stabler and Huang, that plays a big role in the episode and that whole dynamic really blisters when at its peak and the main source of the vast amount of suspense "Execution" has. The story is a slow burner but is always atmospheric, suspenseful and exciting with an unforgettable ending that sees the episode at its most action-oriented.

Stabler and Huang work beautifully together, proof that Stabler can work with team members other than Olivia. It was great to see his compassionate side too, a good remedy for somebody who was put off by his attitude in "Ridicule".

Brilliant episode all in all, one of the season's best. 10/10