Manhattan Vigil

"Manhattan Vigil" is the fifth episode of the fourteenth season of the American police procedural Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the 300th overall. It first aired on October 24, 2012, on the NBC network in the United States. The episode's plot focuses on the kidnapping of a young boy from the subway in Morningside Heights. Captain Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), Sergeant John Munch (Richard Belzer) and Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) realize the case echoes a similar kidnapping in the same neighborhood 13 years prior. As the SVU squad try to find the missing child, they also try to solve the earlier case and learn from their mistakes.

The episode was written by Peter Blauner and directed by Jean de Segonzac. The story was conceived in July 2011, but it was not intended to be the 300th episode until late in its development, when Dick Wolf noticed that it contained qualities that made up the main show. Showrunner Warren Leight wanted "Manhattan Vigil" to have various references to the show's first episode, "Payback," and several actors from the pilot made appearances in "Manhattan Vigil." Filming for the episode began on September 17, 2012. de Segonzac merged footage from the show's first season into the episode, to portray the detective's flashbacks to the previous case, which did not occur previously in the series.

"Manhattan Vigil" was seen by 6.77 million viewers, making it the most watched program on NBC that night and the third most watched program in its timeslot. Critical response was mostly positive, with one critic calling it "a gut-wrenching story," while another said the opening scene gave him "goosebumps." However, Kristen Elizabeth from TV Equals did not think it was interesting enough, and said previous episodes contained better interrogation scenes. Several critics chose the episode as their highlight or show of the week. The storyline was revisited in the season 17 episode "Depravity Standard" on November 18, 2015.