Relevant Testimony:
“I know a lot of cops and sometimes they do bad things.”—Judith McCreary
“Police are just a microcosm of our society.”—David Platt
Episode 30: Taken
Original air date: December 15, 2000
Teleplay by Dawn DeNoon and Lisa Marie Petersen, directed by Michael Fields
Additional Cast:
Jenna Lamia (Siobhan Miller), Derek Cecil (Russell Ramsay), Tim Hopper (Terrance Wilde a.k.a. Michael Berkman a.k.a. Kyle Kivlihan), Bill Winkler (Beau Miller a.k.a. Clayton Farnsworth), Nealy Glenn (Patty Ann Miller), Craig Braun (Allen Thorpe), Michelle Daimen (Ramsay’s Public Defender), Susan Rollman (Terri Wilde), Steven Mark Friedman (Thorpe’s Attorney), Ismail Bashey (Dr. Dhar)
Reviewing the Case:
Benson and Stabler set out to find the stranger who raped Siobhan Miller, a seventeen-year-old from North Carolina registered along with family members at a posh new Manhattan hotel. In a lineup, she identifies an affable slacker in his twenties with a previous conviction for sleeping with an underage girlfriend. But apparent evidence on surveillance videotape may not be what it seems, and Cabot may lose out on what she thinks should be a “slam dunk” conviction. This is yet another legal tangle with dreadful, unintended consequences.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Benson learns that her long-suffering mother, portrayed by Elizabeth Ashley in the series premiere during season one, has died in a drunken fall. Munch reveals that his brother is a mortician.
Relevant Testimony:
“Ah, the Irish grifters. Yes, of course it’s fun to write about grifters! I hate being conned . . . (The characters appear to be) this religious family but they’re not; they’re grifters. They are the opposite of what they look like.”—Dawn DeNoon
Episode 31: Pixies
Original air date: January 12, 2001
Teleplay by Tracey Stern, directed by Jean de Segonzac
Additional Cast and Guest Stars:
Philip Casnoff (Elya Korska), Kate Mara (Lori), Armand Schultz (Kyle Hubert), Steven Marcus (Willie Maxwell), Elaine Bromka (Nancy Meyerson), Richard M. Davidson (Sterner), Julia Mueller (Ann Brice), Terry Layman (Martin Meyerson), Ariel Arce (Danielle), Fidel Vicioso (Det. Reynaldo), Alba Oms (Mrs. Pappov), Courtney Jines (Hannah Miller)
Reviewing the Case:
A dead Jane Doe, who appears to be thirteen, might have been a hooker. Instead, she was an Olympics hopeful training with a ruthless coach. His ambitious students starve themselves to stay thin and keep practicing despite injuries. The trail also leads the program’s wealthy middle-aged benefactor, who buys expensive presents for these adolescent girls. The cops are successful in pinpointing the killer in this engrossing episode, but abuse in the guise of a popular sport continues.
Episode 32: Consent
Original air date: January 19, 2001
Teleplay by Jeff Eckerle, directed by James Quinn
Additional Cast:
Michelle Monaghan (Dana Kimble), Craig Wroe (James Woodrow), Zak Orth (Wally Parker), Tammy Blanchard (Kelly D’Leah), David Jung (Lockhart), Chris Beetem (Joe Templeton), Marika Dominczyk (Tess Michner), Matt Kautz (Hank Ludlow), Alton Fitzgerald White (Nick Monroe), Mary McCann (Ms. Wilkerson), Brian Keane (Dr. Peters)
Reviewing the Case:
The date-rape drug GHB is the focus of a case involving college students. When Kelly unwittingly drinks a chemical concoction, someone takes advantage of her during or after a campus frat party. Is it Harry, the vagrant spotted leaning over her unconscious body? Smug Lothario Joe Templeton? His hapless friend Hank? Awkward Wally Parker? Did the rapist also transmit the gonorrhea that now infects Kelly, previously a virgin? And what’s with her conniving sorority sisters? Everybody’s got an alibi but there are plenty of clues left behind at the crime scene.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Cragen has no children. The case prompts Stabler to worry about how dangerous college might be one day soon for his daughter.
Relevant Testimony:
“There was a lot of news back then about the date-rape drug. One dealt with frat boys who drugged and gang-banged. I thought that this is such an interesting time in the life of a young person—their first chance to cut loose. But they face peer pressure. A lot of kids go to college unprepared. My thought was, ‘Jesus, where were the parents?’”—Jeff Eckerle
Episode 33: Abuse
Original air date: January 26, 2001
Teleplay by Dawn DeNoon and Lisa Marie Petersen, story by Gwendolyn M. Parker, Dawn DeNoon, and Lisa Marie Petersen, directed by Richard Dobbs
Additional Cast:
Hayden Panettiere (Ashley Austin Black), Carolyn McCormick (Dr. Elizabeth Olivet), Craig Wroe (James Woodrow), Leslie Ayvazian (Family Court Judge), Christine Andreas (Ricki Austin), Francesca Faridany (Sarah), Amy Bouril (Holly), Teresa Yenque (Housekeeper), Ryan Woodring (Dr. Mandolar), James Weston (Edwards), Fiddle Viracola (Mrs. Roqueford)
Reviewing the Case:
This bizarre episode sifts from sexual abuse to celebrity privilege to what Olivet diagnoses as “corrective detachment disorder.” After a boy’s accidental death, there’s a swift resolution of the red herring that points to a supposed pedophile. But his parents, both self-involved pop stars, are guilty of neglect and their precocious daughter is very needy. So needy, in fact, that viewers might go from empathy to revulsion. Not Benson, though. She bonds with the girl against all reason, continuing to investigate even when Cragen decides to close the case.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Ashley is played by Hayden Panettiere, who grew up to inhabit the role of an embattled teen cheer-leader on NBC’s
Heroes
.
Episode 34: Secrets
Original air date: February 2, 2001
Teleplay by Robert F. Campbell and Jonathan Greene, story by Wendy West, Robert F. Campbell, and Jonathan Greene, directed by Arthur W. Forney
Additional Cast:
Frank Deal (ADA Don Newvine), Dean Nolen (Philip Montrose), M. Neko Parham (Ethan Chance), Tom Bloom (Dr. Bennett Alston), Daniel McDonald (Dr. Byron Marks), Harry S. Murphy (Brian Denker), Omar Sharif Scroggins (Marcus Cole), Robert Patrick Brink (Host), Chevi Colton (Mrs. Cutler), Sophina Brown (Mrs. Williams), Saidah Arrika Ekulona (Principal)
Reviewing the Case:
Teacher Marnie Owens has been honored for working wonders with inner-city teens on the Lower East Side, so her murder stuns the community. Even more shocking is that this apparently saintly educator had a dark, dangerous hobby: An addiction to frequent rough sex, often with multiple partners, many of them strangers. When did this woman get a chance to grade papers? The investigation encompasses her students, bedmates, internet porn, incest and proprietors of private clubs for “consenting adults” that encourage copious copulation.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Munch recalls an embarrassing experience in Baltimore, while still a
Homicide: Life on the Street
detective, that involved his ex-wife exhibiting a large photo of him in the buff. Asked if he has any secrets, Finn divulges his political preference: Republican
.
Relevant Testimony:
“I was a very loyal
Homicide
viewer and a very loyal
Law & Order
viewer. Once I got here I was, like, ‘Wow, I get to write this stuff.’”—Jonathan Greene
Episode 35: Victims
Original air date: February 9, 2001
Teleplay by Nick Kendrick, directed by Constantine Makris
Additional Cast:
Eric Roberts (Sam Winfield), Ann Dowd (Louise Durning), Rosemarie DeWitt (Gloria Palmera), Sylva Kelegian (Lindsay Branson), Phyllis Somerville (Mrs. Moss), Jay Christianson (Trent Wills), Rob Sedgwick (James Campbell), José Ramón Rosario (Mario Tomassi), Susan Pellegrino (Dr. Weddington), Tony Cucci (Erik Pulham), Joe Bacin (Det. Dalton)
Reviewing the Case:
Predators released from prison have the misfortune of living in a community with a vigilant neighborhood watch organization. The group’s leader is a former cop with a checkered history. Is he behind the shootings of some registered sex offenders or was it the vengeful mother of a traumatized young rape victim? When a third ex-con is targeted, all previous theories begin to unravel. Initially reluctant to work on the case, Stabler realizes he’s the right man for the unnerving job.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
When a cut on Stabler’s hand comes in contact with the HIV-infected blood of a suicidal woman, he must start a regimen of anti-viral medication. His interrogation of Winfield includes a personal recollection of an old case, in which he almost shot a particularly evil but unarmed pedophile.
Episode 36: Paranoia
Original air date: February 18, 2001
Teleplay by Jonathan Greene and Robert F. Campbell, directed by Richard Dobbs
Additional Cast:
Khandi Alexander (Sgt. Karen Smythe), Chris McKinney (Michael Towne), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Todd Smythe), Kirsten Sans (Lab Tech Felicia Young), Brennan Brown (Bates’ Attorney), Liam Craig (ADA David Goreman), Jason Kolotouros (Mitch Murray), Brian M. O’Neill (Chief Sullivan), James Hanlon (Austin Bates), Dominic Fumusa (IAB Lt. Coates), Sam Coppola (Uncle Sammy)
Reviewing the Case:
Although a bit convoluted, “Paranoia” brings back a favorite nemesis: Internal Affairs, which is interfering with the SVU investigation of a cop’s rape. Sgt. Karen Smythe is assaulted while she and her partner are checking out an abandoned warehouse. The M.O. resembles that of an earlier crime in Queens. Nothing is quite what it seems, as Cabot must weigh sexual abuse versus dirty cops.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Stabler sweats out most of the episode waiting for results from his HIV test. Munch offers another of his anti-establishment observations about the NYPD keeping “secret files like J. Edgar Hoover.” Give that man a raise! Although a fourteen-year veteran on the force and the woman who trained Benson, Smythe is still a beat cop?
Relevant Testimony:
“Karen Smythe is a sergeant. We had a family friend who did not become a sergeant until he’d been on for twenty-five years so it’s not uncommon for that to happen. . . . People like different things; some people like the streets, some people like being a detective.”—Jonathan Greene
Episode 37: Countdown
Original air date: February 23, 2001
Teleplay by Dawn DeNoon and Lisa Marie Petersen, directed by Steve Shill
Additional Cast:
Jeffrey Scaperrotta (Dickie Stabler), Frank Deal (ADA Don Newvine), Jeffrey DeMunn (ADA Charlie Phillips), Kent Cassella (Det. Palmieri), Patricia Cook (Elizabeth Stabler), Debbon Ayer (Mrs. Douglas), Andrea Bowen (Sophie Douglas), Jonathan Fried (Clayton Mills), Ray Iannicelli (Saul Garner), Ann Talman (Mrs. Lehr), Kristin Rohde (Det. Becker), Christine Toy Johnson (Dr. Anderson), Rafael Ferrer (Det. Trainor), Lisa Summerour (Defense Attorney Dylan), Jim Gaffigan (Oliver Tunney)
Reviewing the Case:
As tense as episodic television gets, “Countdown” zeroes in on the frantic race to save a little girl from the serial rapist-murderer whose crimes always go like clockwork. After she’s accidentally rescued from his clutches, her mother does not allow Benson to conduct a thorough interview. When another child is snatched, the entire squad spends three days with virtually no sleep trying to find the victim and identify her kidnapper. Tempers flare.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Benson must postpone a dinner date with someone named Michael. Stabler’s twins are having a birthday.
Relevant Testimony:
“It’s fantastic to have a time clock. It just heightens the bar, you just immediately tense. The audience is counting down along with you. (Snaps her fingers) It speeds up the pace.”—Dawn DeNoon
Episode 38: Runaway
Original air date: March 2, 2001
Teleplay by Nick Kendrick and David J. Burke, directed by Richard Dobbs
Additional Cast:
Sean Nelson (Tito Frank), Darrell Hammond (Ted Bolger), Michelle Hurd (Jefferies), Reg Flowers (Lance Kanick), Kent Cassella (Edmond Love), Lance Reddick (Dr. Taylor), Dan Ziskie (Sgt. Frank Foster), Jared Blank (Will), Joseph Franquinha (Teen One), Kelly Karbacz (Jill Foster), Anna Kathryn Holbrook (Lorna Frankel), Kristen Griffith (Mrs. Foster), Baird Wallace (Jill’s Brother)
Reviewing the Case:
An amateur documentarian interviews street kids and posts his videos on the Web. An old friend of Cragen’s spots his junkie-hooker daughter in the footage, but the girl’s whereabouts are unknown. Her pimp is a convicted sex offender who organizes raves, where young people indulge in drugs and pornography. His sleazy attorney has a cocaine habit. An orgy-prone older woman is also immersed in this dirty business and Cabot offers her a deal in return for information: “You’ll be out of jail before menopause.” The outcome, however, is not particularly good for victims, witnesses, perps, or cops.