A woman from Chicago plays "Name That Smell" at Hello Deli; after vilifying Commonwealth Edison, Alan gets beaten up by one of their employees; Ben E. King performs "Stand By Me."

Stabler and Benson find themselves on opposite sides when Valerie Sennet accuses her estranged husband, Miles Sennet, of breaking into her home and raping her. Because Miles has no history of violence and Valerie refuses to allow detectives to use her daughter Tessa as a witness, he is soon released, and Stabler and Benson continue to clash as Benson remains convinced that Miles raped Valerie and is a danger, and Stabler believes it may be a case of a wife crying foul to punish her soon-to-be ex-husband.

The Gallaghers' return for a fourth series, and its Lip's 18th birthday but not all is going to be clean sailing as there’s a few surprises ready to hit him. First the Maguires expect him to do something for them. But the biggest shock of all is his long-lost mother Monica turning up out of the blue with a bombshell that could turn their lives upside down.

Freem replaces superstantial in the opening sequence. Stephen thanks former Archbishop of Warsaw Stanis³aw Wielgus for being caught in a Catholic Church scandal of a non-sexual nature; scorns Democrats for taking a day off Congress for the college football National Championship game, with quick suggestion of taking a day off for a Ontario Junior League Hockey game; begins new segment "We the MEdiator" to pick sides in celebrity feuds, featuring Rosie O'Donnell vs. Donald Trump, Angelina Jolie vs. Madonna, and Amitabh Bachchan vs. Shahrukh Khan; and ends the show in tribute to James Brown by declaring himself the new "hardest working man in show business".