"Father Dearest" is the twentieth episode of the thirteenth season of the police procedural television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the 292nd episode overall. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on May 2, 2012. In this episode, the Special Victims Unit requires assistance from their former forensic psychiatrist, Dr. George Huang (B. D. Wong), to track down a twisted seducer of young women.
The episode was written by John P. Roache based on a story developed by Roache and showrunner Warren Leight. It features guest appearances from James Van Der Beek as well as B. D. Wong who reprises his role as Special Agent George Huang for the first time since his departure from the main cast at the end of Season 12.
"Father Dearest" received mostly positive reviews, with critics mostly commenting on the performances of Wong and Van Der Beek. According to Nielsen ratings, the episode's original broadcast was watched by 6.62 million viewers and acquired a 1.9/5% share in the 18–49 demographic. It ranked third in its time slot while being the highest-rated NBC program that evening.
Plot
Detectives Benson and Amaro (Mariska Hargitay and Danny Pino) investigate the disappearance of a girl, Cate (Shannon Maree Walsh), who was researching children born through sperm donation. They learn that Cate was conceived with donor sperm, and that she had tracked down the donor. She was going to meet the man against her mother's wishes.
Tutuola and Rollins (Ice-T and Kelli Giddish) locate the girl, who insists she wasn't kidnapped, but refuses to tell them about her donor father. Rollins notes that on a child donor website that Cate viewed, four other possible girls discussed the same sperm donor; their mystery man suddenly had an urgent need to meet his potential offspring. Tutuola and Amaro interview another teenager (Ryann Shane) who met with "donor 141" through a donor connection website thinking that he was her biological father.
Dr. George Huang (B. D. Wong) says it could be genetic sexual attraction, a condition where children who are separated from their parent or siblings at an early age find a sexual attraction takes place when they're reunited with them. Rollins finds a Dr. Colin Barnes (Eric Close) who matches the description from the file that she and Benson got from the donor bank. Detectives Benson and Amaro meet with Dr. Barnes, his wife Anne (Sonya Walger), and his teenage daughter, Taylor. They ask him about his relationships with his offspring that came through sperm donation. He denies ever seeing or wanting to see any of the children conceived through his sperm. Benson puts Colin in a line-up, but none of the girls identify him as the man claiming to be their father.
The squad checks with Colin and Anne to see if they have any enemies and discover that Colin had a contentious relationship with Phillip Kelly. Colin fired Kelly from the hospital after he discovered him operating while under the influence. Rollins and Fin interview Kelly, who does not fit the description of the suspect. Later, Colin anxiously tells the SVU detectives that his daughter Taylor is missing. The detectives look in Taylor's room and discover that she was listening to the same jazz song, "My One and Only Love", that the other teenage girls were listening to when they danced with their donor father.
Colin tells the detectives about Sean Albert (James Van Der Beek), a former college boyfriend of Anne's whom she stopped seeing when she met Colin. Dr. Barnes had Sean arrested when he discovered him taking the MCAT exam for other people. Anne suddenly receives a text message from Sean who threatens to hurt Taylor unless she meets him at a bar. Later, Fin and Rollins confront Sean at the bar, but he refuses to talk to anyone except Anne. Sean confesses to having a vendetta against Colin and the egotistical attitude he throws in everybody's face. He reached out to Colin's daughter because she needed someone who truly cared for her.
Sean realizes that Anne is watching his interrogation from behind the glass mirror. He says he'll only tell Anne where Taylor is, and only if she dances with him. Anne reluctantly agrees. When the song ends, Sean whispers in her ear that he killed Taylor. Anne screams in agony as everyone rushes in to separate Sean from her. Rollins says killing Taylor doesn't fit Sean's MO. Benson and Amaro follow up a hunch to search east side hotels. They find Taylor in a hotel room, alive and well, awaiting Sean's return. Benson tells Taylor that Sean deceived her, but she insists that he's her real father.