Written By Amanda Green
Directed by David Platt
ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) returns from witness protection to help solve the murder of a wealthy couple who laundered money for South American drug lords.
This episode provides examples of:
- Antagonist Title: Ghost, or Fantasma, is Liam Connor's Code Name.
- Arc Welding: This Villain of the Week is revealed to be the gunman hired by Cesar Velez to shoot Alex back in early Season 5. His capture strongly convicts Velez over Alex's supposed murder along with his other crimes.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Villain of the Week is put behind bars, but Alex still has to go back into witness protection, and she had to take Antonio with her.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Alex Cabot returns after a year and a half in hiding.
- Det. Mike Sandoval, whom Fin worked with earlier this season, also returns.
- Continuity Nod: The events of Alex's final episode is brought up.
- Decoy Protagonist: Elena and Jason Brevet appear to be the episode's victims of the week, but it's actually Antonio and the returning Alex.
- Double-Meaning Title: "Ghost" is the Villain of the Week's Code Name, which is also used to describe his swiftness in crime. The episode also has Alex returning from "the dead", then returning to "it" (along with Antonio) by the end of the episode.
- Evil Redhead: Liam Connors is an Irish mercenary, stereotypical red hair and all, and a ruthless mercenary.
- Fighting Irish: The Villain of the Week is an Irish mercenary.
- Friend to All Children: Det. Sandoval easily gets along with Antonio. It helps that they both speak Spanish.
- Internal Reveal: Capt. Cragen and the rest of the cast finally learns that Alex is only Faking the Dead.
- Le Parkour: The chase for Connors involves several leaps through walls and cars.
- Loophole Abuse: When it comes out that Alex Cabot is alive, Conners' defense attorney immediately tries to have charges brought against Benson and Stabler for false imprisonment. Casey notes that had Benson and Stabler arrested Conners for the crime he's now charged with (attempted murder rather than murder), he would have been in jail for the same amount of time and therefore suffered no actual loss of civil liberties. The judge agrees.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: Alex laments how she wasn't able to attend her mother's funeral thanks to being in witness protection.
- Noodle Incident: Turns out Alex and Casey already know each other.
- Oh, Crap!: Benson and Stabler have this when Casey orders Conners arrested for the murder of Alexandra Cabot; they know that Alex is alive and therefore they know arresting Conners for her murder would be a crime, but the only way to refuse Casey would be to tell her about Alex in open court, which would put Alex's life in danger.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: After Conners is arrested for Alex Cabot's murder, Agent Hammond comes by Cragen's office to chew him out for having his detectives make a knowingly false arrest. Cragen is baffled and defensive at first, not understanding why Hammond would have any reason to be angry about this since Conners had also murdered one of Hammond's fellow agents. Once Hammond uses the word "perjury", Cragen immediately realizes that Alex being alive is the only explanation for this being a concern, while Hammond is himself stunned to realize that Cragen didn't know.
- Pillow Silencer: The criminal of the week named Ghost attempt to kill a six-year-old boy by shooting him through a pillow.
- Sequel Episode: To Season 5's "Loss", being a resolution to who gunned down Alex.
- Shout-Out: The office workers having a water cooler chat at the beginning of the cold open were talking about (without naming) the show Desperate Housewives.
- Spanner in the Works:
- The Villain of the Week didn't make sure Antonio is dead, allowing the boy to testify against him.
- Casey having Connors arrested for Alex's supposed murder immediately after he was acquitted for the murders of Antonio's family and the Brevets due to sufficient evidence ultimately leads to Alex being forced to come out of witness protection.
- Thought They Knew Already: Capt. Cragen learns about Alex being alive during a conversation with somebody who thought he already knew the truth.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Capt. Cragen did not appreciate being Locked Out of the Loop by the Feds or his detectives regarding Alex's true situation.
- Would Hurt a Child: An interesting variation. The Villain of the Week is willing to kill a child, but can't bring himself to look at Antonio while he does it or to check afterwards to make sure that Antonio is dead. This ends up saving Antonio's life; the pillow the assassin places over Antonio's face is the reason he is only grazed.
