Patrick John Flueger Was a Part of a Wild SVU Incest Episode Before Chicago P.D.

ong before his days as Adam Ruzek on Chicago P.D., Patrick John Flueger played an emotionally tumultuous role on a 2004 episode of fellow famed Dick Wolf procedural, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

An extremely complicated and challenging character for such a young actor, Flueger portrayed him with an impressive sense of urgency.
Who did Patrick John Flueger play on Law & Order: SVU?
Flueger’s role was on Season 5, Episode 5 (”Families”). Flueger played Aidan Connor, a teenage boy who Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Chris Meloni) interviewed after the body of his friend, Shannon Coyle, is found, succumbing to blunt force trauma of the head. Benson and Stabler later find out Aidan and Shannon had been secretly dating, as their parents forbade them from seeing each other. This made Aidan an original suspect of the murder.

However, that isn’t the only major secret that Aidan had been keeping from the detectives. It’s learned that Shannon was pregnant at the time of her death, but DNA testing revealed that the father of the baby was a result of incest. Therefore, Aidan was then removed as a suspect from the case.
In a major plot twist, Jason (Aidan’s father) is shot and killed at his construction job. The murder weapon was registered to Susan Coyle, Shannon’s mother. In another harrowing curveball, it’s also discovered that Jason Connor is actually Shannon’s biological father, and that Aidan and Shannon are half-siblings. This mean that Aidan was the one who impregnated Shannon all along.

Aideen Connor (Patrick Flueger) and Debra Connor (Jane Seymour) sit in a courtroom.
Aideen Connor (Patrick Flueger) and Debra Connor (Jane Seymour) appear in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 5 Episode 15 — “Families”. Photo: Will Hart/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
Aidan is completely unaware that he had been Shannon’s sibling the whole time, and upon hearing the news, has a mental breakdown. At the trial, Susan explained how Shannon actually died: Jason went to meet with Shannon in private to confess to her that she and Aidan are siblings. Devastated, Shannon told Jason that she is pregnant, and when she went to pull away from him, she fell and fatally hit her head.

As for Jason’s death, Aidan confessed that he was the murderer, although it was immediately apparent that the confession was fake. After Aidan expresses suicidal ideation on the stand, Debra confesses that she was actually the one that shot Jason after learning that he was going to leave her. Aidan knew the whole time that his mother was the killer, and faked the confession in order to protect her. However, Debra ended up sparing her son.

With his sister and father dead, and his mother going to prison, Aidan felt like he had no one left in his life other than his brother, Brian Coyle. Wanting to start a friendship with Brian, the episode ends when the two meet for the first time.
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