Relevant Testimony:
“All the rights are with the defendant in this system. If you put on a uniform, you’re a target . . . The ‘blue wall of silence’ is designed to protect them. It’s not malevolent in its intent, though it can be abused.”—Judith McCreary
Episode 80: Mercy
Original Air Date: January 31, 2003
Teleplay by Christos N. Gage and Ruth C. Fletcher
,
directed by David Platt
Additonal Cast:
Judd Hirsch (Dr. Judah Platner), Larry Bryggman (Attorney Rowan), Sheila Tousey (Judge Danielle Larson), Elizabeth Mitchell (Andrea Brown), Viola Davis (Donna Emmett), Gregg Edelman (Daniel Brown), Stephen Schnetzer (Rabbi), Ned Luke (Roger Swanson), Heather Goldenhersh (Ellen Swanson), Nathalie Paulding (Patty Swanson), Keno Rider (Dr. Klein), Gerry Rosenthal (Paul Howley), Allison Briner (Colleen Swanson), Michael Deeg (Frank Savvas)
Reviewing the Case:
When a baby washes up in the Hudson River, a lethal dose of anti-depressants is determined as the cause of death. After a disagreement between Cabot and Bureau Chief Donnelly about privacy rights, detectives query students at a nearby college who have been pregnant and a fifteen-year-old who got an abortion. The fact that the infant showed signs of Tay-Sachs Disease narrows down the search to a particular woman and her pediatrician.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Elizabeth Mitchell is yet another
SVU
guest star who went on to become a regular on ABC’s
Lost
. Judd Hirsch later signed on to the CBS series
Numbers
.
Episode 81: Pandora
Original Air Date
:
February 7, 2003
Teleplay by Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, directed by Alex Zakrzewski
Additional Cast:
Lothaire Bluteau (Erich Tassig), Dagmara Dominczyk (Kate Logan), Pam Grier (Claudia Williams), Billy McNamara (Sam Bishop), Stephen Gevedon (Nick Taylor), Zena Grey (Samantha Gilligan), Ellen Lancaster (Mrs. Van Wagner), David Deblinger (Ron Crowley), Alexis Dziena (Mia Van Wagner), Ben Bode (Mike Pearson), Gina Rose (Amy Taylor), Rob Grader (Gerald Lockhart), Jeff Blumenkrantz (Mike Schwartz)
Reviewing the Case:
A dead woman who has been beaten, raped, and stabbed was investigating a cyber-porn ring involving adolescent girls, one of whom left the country to be with her much older online boyfriend in Prague. Stabler travels to the Czech Republic to find her, pairing with a local law enforcement official to visit a border region where it’s everything-goes for sexual predators. Back home, he has teamed up with the boyish-looking Detective Bishop, whose enthusiasm often gets the better of him. U.S. Attorney Claudia Williams returns, but in this episode the Feds are cooperating with city cops.
Relevant Testimony:
“As soon as the wall fell, Eastern Europe became a magnet for child porn and the sex trade.”—Michele Fazekas
“Ted (Kotcheff, an executive producer) said we’d have to go to Canada. I told him I could make it happen here. While walking my dog, I remembered the Spanish Institute in Manhattan has a phenomenal courtyard. I took a look and thought, ‘Omigod, this is Prague!’”—Trish Adlesic, location manager
Episode 82: Tortured
Original Air Date: February 14, 2003
Teleplay by Lisa Marie Petersen and Dawn DeNoon
,
directed by Steve Shill
Additional Cast:
Margaret Colin (Mrs. Krug), Illeana Douglas (Gina Bernardo), Frederick Weller (Preston Bennett), Charlie Hof heimer (Jerry Dupree), Steve Schirripa (Paulie Obregano), Paul Fitzgerald (Ryan Chambers), Latarsha Rose (Laurie Schneider), Ryan Postal (Brendan King), Jolly Abraham (Detchen Gyatso), Travis Guba (Marshall Brown), Sara Barnett (Greta Thorson), Erin McLaughlin (Clara Johnson), Judy Del Giudice (Judge Corwin)
Reviewing the Case:
The issue of torture is once again examined, but is that really an essential element in the murder of a Tibetan woman who survived a nightmarish ordeal in her homeland? This tangled, unpredictable tale keeps viewers guessing. The victim’s American husband becomes a chief suspect. Ditto for Paulie, a palooka implicated by virtue of a couch he may have tried to sell to the deceased. At a neighborhood bakery, other secrets rise to the surface.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Dr. Huang explains that a shoe fetish is “cross-wiring in the control map of the brain.”
Episode 83: Privilege
Original Air Date: February 21, 2003
Teleplay by Patrick Harbinson, directed by Jean de Segonzac
Additional Cast:
Erik Von Detten (Drew Lamerly), John Bolger (Douglas Lamerly), Sarah Wayne Callies (Jenny Rochester), John Ottavino (Tom Paysen), Tina Sloan (Camilla Hartnow), Scotty Bloch (Ms. Blundell), William Wise (Roger Burnbaum), Dan Snook (Angus Rochester), Malaya Riviera Drew (Susie Fleckner)
Reviewing the Case:
Arrogant rich people are among
SVU’
s favorite targets. Carmen, a young woman dressed in a maid’s uniform, has fallen to her death from a luxury high-rise in an apparent suicide. The detectives learn she was having a torrid affair with the scion of the wealthy family living there. He claims her pre-mortem injuries were the result of the rough sex she demanded. His grandmother fiercely defends him, but that testimony might not be such a good thing.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
An ex-cop says, “SVU—I thought you were just the panty police.”
Episode 84: Desperate
Original Air Date: March 14, 2003
Teleplay by Amanda Green, directed by David Platt
Additional Cast:
Rob Estes (Dan Hoffman), Signy Coleman (Kim Hoffman), Max Weinstein (Tommy Hoffman), Haviland Morris (Dawn Trent), Adam LeFevre (Police Chief), Stephen Mailer (Mr. McGuire), Welker White (Jill Hoffman’s Attorney), Sandra Bernhard (Priscilla Chaney), P. J. Benjamin (Lloyd Jackson), Richard Thomsen (Allen Wheaten), Mark Lotito (Mike Rizzo), Kate Goehring (Dr. Sally Ivers), Christy Baron (Ariana Kane), Michelle Hurst (Vita Weldon), Amy Love (Dana McGuire)
Reviewing the Case:
Tommy, a small boy gone mute after witnessing the rape and murder of his step-mom, is the only real clue SVU detectives have. Turns out she was on the run from her slick husband Dan, whose first wife—Tommy’s biological mother—went missing a few years back. The locals in upscale Rye think she was a slut. The detectives believe Dan’s a serial abuser but the guy is a pillar of his community.
Relevant Testimony:
“That’s a favorite episode of mine. I loved working with that little boy, Max Weinstein. He’s so sweet and we had a terrific rapport.”—David Platt
Episode 85: Appearances
Original Air Date
:
March 28, 2003
Teleplay by Stephen Belber, story by Liz Friedman, Vanessa Place, and Stephen Belber, directed by Alex Zakrzewski
Additional Cast:
John Cullum (Barry Moredock), Brian Kerwin (Stanley Billings), Eric Thal (Tommy Hedges), Julie Boyd (Sally Lathan), Susan Kellermann (Mrs. Hedges), Paul Doherty (Jeff Lathan), Michael Hobbs (Mr. Routhel), Gabriel Millman (Kevin Routhel), Bailey Slattery (Amy Prescott), Ellen Whyte (Mrs. Prescott), Carolee Carmello (Sylvia Price), Chan Casey (Rob Canotti), Sherry Anderson (Mrs. McNamara)
Reviewing the Case:
This episode’s inspiration, the JonBenet Ramsey case, is mentioned early on by detectives investigating the rape and murder of an eight-year-old Long Island beauty queen. She had bleached blond hair and a nose job—the lengths to which her ambitious father was willing to go for success on the pageant circuit. But the evidence points to a registered pedophile taking testosterone to reverse his chemical castration. Cabot has much bigger fish to fry, namely a cyber-porn merchant who tempts predators with “youthenhancement software” that transforms older girls posing legally into jailbait material.
Episode 86: Dominance
Original Air Date
:
April 4, 2003
Teleplay by Robert F. Campbell and Jonathan Greene, directed by Steve Shill
Additional Cast:
Frank Langella (Al Baker), Ian Somerhalder (Charlie Baker), Jason Ritter (Billy Baker), Richard Bekins (Earl Briggs), Erik Palladino (Dave Deuthorn), Don Sparks (Renny Nix), Karen Trott (Brenda Nix), Andrew McGinn (Det. Stubel), Jen Ordham (Tara Burnett), Freddy Bastone (Ralph Sloan), George McDaniel (Harold Darling), Ciara Hughes (Marie Douglas)
Reviewing the Case:
The crime scenes are incredibly perverse in an Upper West Side murder-robbery spree. Multiple victims have been forced to rape each other before they die. A building superintendent and his two sons come under suspicion. After tossing a little incest, ménage-a-trois, elder abuse, and sodomy into the mix, the episode creaks but still moves at a crackling pace.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Ian Somerhalder joins what is becoming the show’s long line of eventual
Lost
castaways. Could the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 be merely a Dick Wolf dream?
Relevant Testimony:
“Frank Langella told us, ‘I don’t do TV unless I need the money or I’ve never played that part.’”—Neal Baer, executive producer
Episode 87: Fallacy
Original Air Date: April 18, 2003
Teleplay by Barbie Kligman, story by Barbie Kligman and Josh Kotcheff, directed by Juan J. Campanella
Additional Cast:
Robert John Burke (Ed Tucker), Fred Dalton Thompson (Arthur Branch), Katherine Moennig (Cheryl Avery), Bridget Barkan (Veronica), Tanisha Lynn (Ricky), Lonas Wadler (Jordan), Ariel Arce (Sarah Avery), Mary Elaine Monti (Annabella Avery), Nicholas J. Giangiulio (John Avery), Michael Garfield (Matt Roberts), Leland Gantt (Stew Matos), Chad Lindberg (Eddie Cappilla), Michael Lerner (Morty Berger), Karen Shallo (Judge Schechtel)
Reviewing the Case:
At a party gone wild, Cheryl Avery appears to have killed Joe Cappilla in self-defense after he tried to rape her, despite the fact that she’s been dating his brother Eddie. The girl’s story starts to fall apart, which is what happens to her boyfriend when he learns she’s actually a pre-operative transsexual. The episode isn’t all that far-fetched, even though some of the events may seem preposterous. And Katherine Moennig’s performance is mesmerizing.
Episode 88: Futility
Original Air Date
:
April 25, 2003
Teleplay by Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, directed by Alex Zakrzewski
Additional Cast:
Fred Savage (Michael Gardner), Audrie J. Neenan (Judge Lois Preston), David Lipman (Judge Arthur Cohen), Myndy Crist (Carrie Huitt), Tyra Ferrell (Bethany Taylor), Dana Eskelson (Karen Leighton), Lauren Ward (Erin Russ), Jenny Maguire (Kimberly Gardner), Annie Burton Alvarez (Janet Todesco), Jennifer Riker (Renee Bassett), Ray Demattis (Artie Kabzinski), Adam J. Stern (Brendan Leighton)
Reviewing the Case:
Unlike most episodes, “Futility” begins with the apprehension of a suspect rather than a crime scene. Michael Gardener, a smooth-talking yuppie, is a known sex offender whose M.O. has become apparent in the rape of four women. One of them is being advised by Bethany, a rape-crisis counselor. She winds up in jail after refusing to testify at Gardner’s trial for fear of betraying her client’s right to privacy.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Benson’s morale hits bottom with this case: “There’s always another child molester, always another rapist. So what the hell’s the point?”
Relevant Testimony:
“(Benson began) feeling like she was useless, but saving (even) one life matters. If you can help one person, it’s all worth it.”—Mariska Hargitay
Episode 89: Grief
Original Air Date
:
May 2, 2003
Teleplay by Adisa Iwa, directed by Constantine Makris
Additional Cast:
Joe Morton (Ray Bevins), Jerry D. O’Donnell (Off. O’Brien), Ed Bogdanowicz (Sgt. Traymor), Paul Leyden (Perry Williams), D.J. Cotrona (Donovan Alvarez), Viola Davis (Donna Emmett), Michele Hicks (Kimmie Robinson), Sophie Hayden (Mrs. Kligman), Matt Servitto (Fred Hopkins), Linda Powell (Julie White), Larry Cahn (Prof. Schreiber), David New (Dr. Timothy Allston), Josiah Early (Peter Kligman), Martha Millan (Lindsey Hay)
Reviewing the Case:
The rape-sodomy and shooting death of a cocktail waitress is is much murkier than it initially appears. Vanessa, a nineteen-year-old college student who had exhibited erratic behavior, leaves a trail of potential clues—like a cat covered in blood—and perps. Was she a druggie? Is her ex-boyfriend to blame? How about her sadistic boss? Vanessa’s grieving single father wants revenge.