"Limitations" is an excellent episode where the SVU has to catch a serial rapist before the five-year statute of limitations runs out, which will be in just a few days. They don't have a name for the rapist, just his genetic material, which the SVU detectives try to get an arrest warrant on--something that is a legal precedent, and doesn't stand a good chance of success. While the legal wheels are turning, Benson, Stabler, Munch and Jeffries re-interview the original cops on the case, as well as the rapist's three victims.

The first big twist in the episode occurs when Benson and Stabler discover that one of the victims not only knows the identity of the rapist, but she had met and prayed with him. Convinced that he is now a changed man who has redeemed himself before God, the victim refuses to reveal his identity, based on her deeply held Quaker beliefs. Under the gun--both time-wise and from intense political pressure--the SVU detectives are forced to take draconian measures, including jailing the rape victim and then seizing the membership records of her house of worship. The scene where Benson, Stabler and Captain Cragen enter the house of worship to take the membership records, under the unflinching gaze of several dozen Quakers who are leading a silent protest against their actions, is gut wrenching. Benson and Stabler are clearly very uneasy at the extremes they must go to throughout this entire episode. But despite their discomfort, they get the job done. However, at the end, there's a final, ironic twist that robs the detectives of any satisfaction that they might have had about catching the bad guy. The very last shot, on Olivia Benson's somber expression, perfectly sums up the whole frustrating experience.

Astutely written and superbly executed, "Limitations" splendidly shows the gritty side of life that the SVU team must deal with. Unlike the simplistic world of certain cop shows and movies, where the police are superheroes who have everything clearly outlined for them in black and white, the detectives of the Special Victims Unit are just regular human beings who are simply trying to do their job amid the unpleasant realities of an imperfect world.