Additional Cast:
Annie Potts (Sophie Devere), Skipp Sudduth (Philip Westley), Fred Dalton Thompson (DA Arthur Branch), Robert Foxworth (Dr. Lett), J. Paul Nicholas (Attorney Linden Delroy), Keri Lynn Pratt (Lauren Westley), John Patrick Amedori (Wayne Mortens), Adriane Lenox (Judy Galton)
Reviewing the Case:
A pregnant teen is beaten with a lamp badly enough to cause her child to be stillborn a few days later, but after detectives arrest her boyfriend, forensics indicate she had a hand (literally) in the baby’s death. Once both teens take the stand, the rest of the story emerges: That they were thwarted at all turns in trying to have a legal abortion, as well as stymied by anti-choicers in the guise of pharmacists and a supposed abortion doctor—which draws the attention of prosecutors.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Judge Donnelly holds feminist, pro-choice views; DA Branch is of the opposite bent. In New York, a fetus is not legally a person after birth unless it takes a breath. Spunky Annie Potts should be recognizable to viewers from
Designing Women
and
Any Day Now.
Episode 149: Storm
Original air date: November 29, 2005
Teleplay by Neal Baer and Amanda Green, directed by David Platt
Additional Cast:
Russell Hornsby (Alvin Dutch), Nickayla Tucker (Nicki Wright), Drucie McDaniel (Felicity Gill), Lou Sumrall (Clayton Miles), Matthew Settle (Jackson Zane), Barbara Lee GoVan (Mrs. Fontenont), Leo Marks (Michael Delphit), Birdie M. Hale (Goldie Prioleaux), Keke Palmer (Tasha Wright)
Reviewing the Case:
A convicted sex offender saves, then “adopts,” three sisters orphaned on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina and brings them to New York, but two escape. Detectives arrest the criminal, who promptly drops dead from anthrax, which journeyed from the Big Easy to the Big Apple in a van. The Feds hush up the details and try to wrest the case away, so Benson leans on a pesky
Ledger
reporter to get the real story out.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Some episodes seem overly complicated, with elements that don’t mesh, but there’s enough story in “Storm” to pack a feature film, and all of it riveting. Bonus points for finally giving Tamara Tunie more to do than poke around in corpses; pairing her up with Benson proves they’re a formidable team.
Episode 150: Alien
Original air date: December 6, 2005
Teleplay by Jose Molina, directed by Constantine Makris
Additional Cast:
Raquel Castro (Emma Boyd), Patricia Kalember (Judge K. Taten), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Judge Bernard), Ned Eisenberg (Roger Kressler), Sarah Knapp (Kate Boyd), Daniel Manche (Sean Hamill), Heather Fairfield (Lenore Hamill), Jack Koenig (Edgar Hamill), Amy Pietz (Zoe Dunlop), Sasha Neulinger (Charlie Monaghan), Todd Gearhart (Garrett Gillespie), Mary Beth Peil (Debra Boyd), Daniel Jenkins (Father Justin Miller), Stephen Bogardus (James Decker), Adam LeFevre (Ray Monaghan), Edmond Genest (Oliver Decker)
Reviewing the Case:
When a little girl named Emma is bullied at her Catholic school for having two women as parents, she lashes out at her tormentor, paralyzing him. But that’s only half the battle: Her hospitalized biological mom Kate worsens and her other mother Zoe has no legal custody of Emma, so the child is temporarily placed with Kate’s homophobic parents. While there, Emma claims that Zoe molested her—a charge buoyed by some questionable photographs. It will take a court case to sort out the truth from propaganda.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Raquel Castro held her own with J. Lo and Ben Affleck the year before this episode, as the titular
Jersey Girl
(2004 movie).
Episode 151: Infected
Original air date: January 3, 2006
Teleplay by Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas, directed by Michelle MacLaren
Additional Cast:
Annie Potts (Sophie Devere), Gordon Clapp (Ted Carthage), Malcolm David Kelley (Nathan Phelps), Ron McLarty (Judge Joseph Malloy), Nancy Opel (Mrs. Carthage), David Aaron Baker (Attorney Mike Getty), Glynn Turman (Dr. Young), Spencer Grammer (Katie), April Nixon (Monica Phelps), Amanda Plant (Candace Tanner), David Thornton (Lionel Granger)
Reviewing the Case:
After young Nathan Phelps’ methaddicted mother is shot while he hides in a closet, Benson takes him under her wing but fails to see the warning signs that lead him to gun down his mother’s killer. The case seems clear-cut, but a novel defense strategy—that witnessing a shooting makes a person more likely to shoot someone—gets the go-ahead from Judge Donnelly. A plea bargain is interrupted and stayed temporarily by the gun industry, which wants such a defense quashed for good.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Gordon Clapp will be most recognizable to fans of ABC’s
NYPD Blue
, on which he played Det. Greg Medavoy from 1993-2005. And trivia alert: The briefly seen Spencer Grammer is the daughter of Kelsey Grammer, of
Cheers
and
Frasier
fame.
Episode 152: Blast
Original air date: January 10, 2006
Teleplay by Amanda Green, directed by Peter Leto
Additional Cast:
Tom Verica ( Jake Hunter), Joe Lisi (Craig Lennon), Shawn Reaves (Daniel Hunter), Kaitlin Hopkins (Pamela Hunter), Gabrielle Brennan (Carly Hunter), Traci Lynne Kindell (Yvette Fennessy)
Reviewing the Case:
A kidnapper snatches leukemia-ridden young Carly Hunter from outside her school and demands no cops—but M.E. Warner is drawn in by circumstance and tries to help. The missing girl is recovered, but Stabler thinks her father may know more about the kidnapper than he’s letting on, and the detective is right: It’s the Hunters’ older, heroin-addicted son Daniel, who takes everyone hostage at a bank to get the money he needs. After an accidental shooting, Daniel becomes suicidal—and it requires an M.E. with nerves of steel to help this episode come to a conclusion.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Tamara Tunie’s M.E. Warner gets out of the lab again, thankfully, and her expanded role not only makes sense but is well-played. Viewers also learn that the character had two tours of Air Force duty at the Ramstein base in Germany during Operation Desert Storm, and once worked in a methadone clinic.
Relevant Testimony:
“The writers decided they were going to give Warner a show she was the catalyst for, and before Amanda Green put it on paper she talked to me. So I knew from the inception what it was going to be about, some of the new history we’re going to find out about Warner, all of that. There isn’t a lot of information out there about Warner. There’s still a lot of room to fill in the blanks about her. I did like the idea that she got a lot of her medical training through military service (discovered in ‘Blast’), so when it came time for her to have to handle a gun, to think under a duress-like situation she was cool, calm, collected, and able to do it. But still ultimately affected by it.”—Tamara Tunie
Episode 153: Taboo
Original air date: January 17, 2006
Teleplay by Dawn DeNoon, directed by Arthur W. Forney
Additional Cast:
Zeljko Ivanek (Everett Drake), Michael Lerner (Morty Berger), Patricia Kalember (Judge Taten), Schuyler Fisk (Ella Christiansen), Brandon Bales (Vincent Wensel), Piter Marek (Dr. Palshikar), Jack Mulcahy (Det. Brian Beal), Tijuana Ricks (Dr. Marnie Aiken), Greta Lee (Heather Kim), Curt Hostetter (Joe Shepherd), Gloria Biegler (Candace Shepherd), Anthony Bishop (Danny Hayes), Curtis Mark Williams (Jerry Spencer)
Reviewing the Case:
Brilliant college student Ella claims not to have known she was pregnant, and that she blacked out after giving birth, so doesn’t recall tossing the baby in the trash. Huang suspects post-partum psychosis. Benson thinks they’re being scammed, and then it gets creepy: The surviving baby’s DNA reveals an unholy union between Ella and her only recently discovered biological father. Still, the question remaining in a story V.C. Andrews would have approved of remains: Is Ella a sociopath, or truly off-the-beam?
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Guest Schuyler Fisk is Sissy Spacek’s daughter, and has the same haunting beauty as her mother. Stabler is feeling traumatized by his pending divorce and is let off of the case early (after an uncontrolled outburst) in order to spend more time with his kids. Zeljko Ivanek probably is familiar to fans of
Homicide: Life on the Street
,
Oz
, and
Law & Order
, among other shows. He won a 2008 Emmy for best supporting actor in
Damages
(FX).
Episode 154: Manipulated
Original air date: February 7, 2006
Teleplay by Jose Molina, directed by Matt Earl Beesley
Additional Cast:
Rebecca DeMornay (Tessa McKellen), Betty Buckley (Attorney Collette Walsh), Ned Eisenberg (Roger Kressler), Faina Vitebsky (Josie Post), Matthew Maher (Tim), Mark Love (Wally Rimaldi), Kevin Carrigan (Jeffrey Sobchak), Brian Slaten (Alan Winchell), Chris Potter (Linus McKellen), Holt McCallany (Walter Inman)
Reviewing the Case:
A murdered lawyer has been living a double life—stripping on the side, and sleeping with her paralyzed boss’ husband. At first, he seems a natural suspect, but when a second stripper is found dead in a locked room, that seems less likely. Detectives turn back to boss Tessa and expose more double lives, including a case of Munchausen’s syndrome and a guilt-ridden spouse who’s been framed and duped.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Rebecca DeMornay has the face of an angel, but routinely plays women one sandwich short of a picnic; she’s electrifying here in a story that feels more like a feature film. Her character’s lawyer is played by Betty Buckley, known as the “voice of Broadway” who sang the definitive version of “Memory” from
Cats
(1982−2000). The episode is excellent, but that said, no
L&O
final reveal should echo a 1976 episode of
Little House on the Prairie
.
SVU
has offered Betty Buckley “various psychopathic roles” over the years.
Relevant Testimony:
“I wasn’t that gung-ho about them. I love to play crazy people, but I kept opting for something more normal because I wanted the ability to come back! When I first met Mariska and told her, she thought I was nuts, because apparently all of the (
SVU
) parts I’d turned down, the actresses had gotten Emmy nominations.”—Betty Buckley
Episode 155: Gone
Original air date: February 28, 2006
Teleplay by Jonathan Greene, directed by George Pattison
Additional Cast:
Susan Saint James (Attorney Bradshaw), Fred Dalton Thompson (DA Arthur Branch), Anna Holbrook (Roberta King), Barry Bostwick (Oliver Gates), Harvey Atkin (Judge Ridenour), Haythem Noor (Sharif Damavandi), Ray Luetters (Sanford Warren), Rebecca Baxter (Amanda Durning), Edmund Davys (William King), Maggie Siff (Emily McCooper), Paul David Story (Nick Pratt), Teddy Eck (Doug Waverly), Barbara King (Jennifer Durning), Harry Zittel (Jason King), Sandor Tecsy (Keith Willis), Katie Bowden (Dana Simpson)
Reviewing the Case:
Students Doug Waverly, Jason King, and Nick Pratt are clearly guilty of something in the gang rape and disappearance of a visiting Canadian, but detectives have a hard time making anything stick until videotapes and pressure cause one of the young men to crack. But after his grand jury testimony, King goes missing and everyone fears the worst, except for Waverly and Pratt, who may get away with murder—twice. A sequence of scenes with Judge Donnelly, DA Branch, and Novak is worth the price of admission.
Noteworthy Discoveries:
Guest star Susan Saint James is a TV veteran who first came to wide notice as Rock Hudson’s spouse in
McMillan & Wife
.
Episode 156: Class
Original air date: March 21, 2006
Teleplay by Paul Grellong, directed by Aaron Lipstadt
Additional Cast:
Mathew St. Patrick (Roddy Franklin), Trieste Dunn (Gloria Culhane), Joey Slotnick (Walter Camp), Tess Soltau (Caroline Pereira), Michael Jay Bressman (Mark Duffy), Will Estes (Adam Halder), Jenelle Lynn Randall (Angela Franklin), Michael de Nola (Diamond Dov), Anjali Bhimani (Dr. Farouq), Scott Bailey (Brian Townsend), Nick Sandow (Doug Kirsten)
Reviewing the Case:
Police suspect a college student is prostituting herself through school when she’s found dead with a lot of cash, but it turns out she’s a poker player running with big boys. But when they turn up her ace in the hole—a silent partner who helped her scam an online poker site, where she lost a large sum of money—detectives discover that what motivates her killer all has to do with class. A well-woven episode that still requires a scorecard to keep track of the details.