9.30pm thursday / OCTOBER 16

Cynthia Yellin is found raped and murdered, but there’s little evidence because her housekeeper cleaned the apartment before finding the body. Cynthia’s neck was broken and it looks like a professional hit. Detective Benson finds a wedding dress in the closet and learns that she was to be married in a week. Her grief-stricken parents say the groom was Stephen Dashiell, a CIA agent in an anti-terrorist unit.

The detectives suspect an Indonesian terrorist group could be behind the killing, but Munch finds that Dashiell was reported missing in action in Afghanistan. His pre-paid cell phone was refilled from a convenience store in Staten Island by Malcolm Royce, who lives with his wife and three kids.

Malcolm comes clean and admits he stole Dashiell’s identity so he could marry Cynthia, even though he already has a family. He says he was with his children the night of the murder and his alibi checks out, except his wife Lindsay drove to Manhattan that night. She knew about the affair and is now the prime suspect. But when the detectives go back to her house, she and her three kids are dead and Malcolm has been shot, but survives. All evidence points to Lindsay.

Stabler is so upset that he goes home to check on his own children, and ex-wife Kathy, tells him to stay the night. Soon enough, he’s called back to the Royce house, where O’Halloran explains that the crime scene was staged – the trajectory of the bullet doesn’t match Malcolm’s story.

Stabler rushes back to the hospital where Malcolm is about to jump off the roof… but Stabler talks him down and arrests him.

Did Malcolm kill Cynthia, Lindsay and his kids because he didn't want his life of lies to be exposed? If not, then why is he about to jump?