“Rhodium Nights”

Guest Star Pippa Black

This week is the season finale for Season 13 on Law & Order SVU.  The show has it all - sex, drugs, corruption, conspiracy, pimp wars between a traditional scumbag and a suburban mom/farmer madam, and finally, a cliff hanger involving a dead hooker in a cop’s bed.  The show opens on a NYC Bachelor Party circa 1980’s, with athletes, journalists, brokers and other movers and shakers ogling scantily clad high end call girls with recreational drugs on the glass coffee table.  As is always, what happens to break up the party - the dead body of one of the half-naked girl in the coat room.  Except when the cops show up, the dead girl’s story is retold as “She was skinny dipping in the lap pool, must have passed out, I tried to resuscitate her…”  Turns out the cover-up is needed due to the A-listers caught trying to leave the scene in the stuck elevator.  Awkward.  Cue the theme music.

No one is talking.  Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) wants to know why they are not pounding the witnesses harder.  Captain Don Cragen (Dann Florek) says the harder they push, the quicker they lawyer up, so proceed with caution. The Medical Examiner ME (Tamara Tunie) says the victim didn’t drown.  There is no water in her lungs.  She died from an overdose of Scopolamine, a common knock out drug used for date rape.  The case does not appear to be a homicide.  The silicone implants from the dead girl identifies her as a 16 year old from Winnepeg, Canada, Maggie Murphy (Meg McCrossen). Chances are most of these call girls are under-aged.  Miracle of miracles, a video camera recording shows the bachelor innocently getting lap dance from multiple girls and no where near the victim.  The footage proves fruitful.  This is not a summary of the episode; it is a recap of the five best moments of the show.  Here’s the countdown to the Five Best Moments of the Show.

#5 Best Moment of the Show.  Clayton Hannigan (Eric Laden) who owns the penthouse was there with a friend, Carissa Gibson (Pippa Black).  Carissa gets called into the squad room and zeroes in on Detective Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) right away.  She works for Bart Ganzel (Peter Jacobson) as an escort and is a good one at that.  She immediately sees Amaro’s marriage trouble and pounces.  Amaro looks like he’s wavering.  After all, who doesn’t like to ‘talk about anything you want’. 

#4 Best Moment of the Show.  Detective Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters) is a cop working undercover at Ganzel’s escort service.  Cassidy gets a tip on his cell phone and high tails it out of there.  Too late, it’s Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) and Amaro at the door.  Unfortunately, he taunts Amaro who asks for an ID.  He then proceeds to punches out Amaro.  He is cuffed like a perp. 

#3 Best Moment of the Show.  Turns out there is another madam working the same clientele as Ganzel.  Ganzel has been taking top girls away from Delia Wilson (Brooke Smith).  Amaro and Benson chase the lead to a farm full with cattle.  If Delia Wilson is NYC’s most notorious madam, she’s doing a good job of hiding it.  We find her bottle feeding a new born calf whose mother she had to put down days ago.  This is a madam?

#2 Best Moment of the Show.   The former governor is found dead in his sitting room, apparently from a heart attack, but with one oddity.  His pants are on backwards and unzipped.  The governor apparently died naked.  He was getting a ‘happy ending’ from his Japanese masseuse, Yuko Sakura (Pei Pei Lin).  She called her booker, Iris, who told her to get away from the scene of the crime.  The ME says he has four times the amount of erectile dysfunction drugs in his system as well as Scopolamine, the same chemical found in the first dead body.  Finally, the first one who confesses is Iris, the former governor’s aid.

The madam, Delia Wilson, is arrested with bail set at $2 million.  Only a second later, she makes bail.  How?!?  Her high price lawyer, Marvin Exley (Ron Rifkin), put up his own townhouse as collateral.  He gives the cops some free legal advice, “Walk away.  Delia has the goods on everyone, everyone you will ever work for.  You are way in over your head.”

Finally, the #1 Best Moment of the Show.   Carissa reaches out to Amaro.  She’s scared she might be the next dead girl.  She wants protection but is too scared and leaves without taking Amaro’s advice.  The next scene has Cragen waking up in his bed with her dead body next to him - Cliffhanger.

Law & Order SVU is on summer hiatus until the fall.  I can’t wait to see how they wrap this cliffhanger up in a nice tidy bow.  But then again, it may not be nice or tidy.  Will Cragen take the fall?  Will Benson’s affair with Hagen cost both of them their jobs?  Will Amaro’s marriage be over?  Tune in next fall.

"Strange Beauty"

Guest Star David Eigenberg

This week on Law & Order SVU, the show opens on a young girl on the cell phone to her mom.  She’s scared and she wants to go home.  Minutes later, she gets abducted by a cabby and it’s all caught on surveillance tape.  Meanwhile Detective Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) and Odafin Tutuola (Ice-T) runs into Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) and Sam Reynolds (Myk Watford), her old Captain from Atlanta, who comes onto her.  Rollins leaves the bar to get away and witnesses the abduction while the cab speeds away.  She manages to get the medallion number.  Good job detective.  Cue the theme music.

There just happens to be a slew of cabby abductions.  Rollins and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) interview the mother who reports a daughter missing, and called her for help last night and then nothing.  The mom says the daughter, Nina, has changed recently.  First she gets one tattoo of an octopus on her ankle, now she’s covered with tattoos.  The investigation leads them to the cabby dispatcher, and the surveillance tape reveals all.  The next scene is the most gruesome.  This is not a summary of the episode; it is a recap of the five best moments of the show.  Here’s the countdown to the Five Best Moments of the Show.

#5 Best Moment of the Show.  A single leg shows up on the medical examiner’s (ME) table.  It was brought in by some guy fishing on the Gowanas Canal.  Surprise, surprise, it has an octopus tattoo on the ankle.  Three guesses whose leg it is.

#4 Best Moment of the Show.  It gets worse.  Turns out the same guy found another single leg 11 years ago in the canal.  The ME says the girl was alive when the leg was cut off.  Turns out the girl whose leg it belongs to is still alive.  She was paid $25,000 for it.  She says it was just another John.  She says she couldn’t recognize the guy who did it if she wanted to. 

#3 Best Moment of the Show.  Nina’s body was found, missing a leg, of course.  Nina’s body has been modified many times.  The ME says the subculture of body modification causes people to push the envelope beyond just piercings and tattoos.  The ME says she’s seen stretched earlobe, forked tongue, steel plate under the skin.  Nina’s ear has been sharpened to a point, ala Arwyn from Lord of the Rings. 

#2 Best Moment of the Show.   Rollins and Fin chase the case to Freak Night at a club at Coney Island.  It’s so exclusive; you need a password to get in.  Inside is a world of contortionist, designer burn scars, odd piercings, and tattoos.   The one legged receptionist, who lost her leg due to bone cancer when she was 15, is performing body modifications on people for profit. 

Finally, the #1 Best Moment of the Show.   Turns out, Dr. Hal Brightman, a psychiatrist, has been scamming his brother the dentist’s prescription pad, to get his rocks off by anesthetizing six girls and cutting their legs off to relive his childhood obsession with his own mother’s one leggedness due to a car accident when he was an adolescent.   This episode is freak show central.  You need a tough stomach for this.

Next week on Law & Order SVU, a bachelor party goes horribly wrong.  A conspiracy warns all to walk away now.

"Valentines Day"

Gues Star Chloe Sevigny

This week on Law & Order SVU, the show opens on a businessman checking in at the airport in Hong Kong.  He sits down and takes out his laptop to video chat with his wife.  She’s at home in New York City.  Next thing he knows there is a home invasion.  A masked gun man tells him, via video chat, that if he calls the police, his wife is dead.  His wife, Christine Hartwell (Chloe Sevigny) is raped right in front of him, on video chat.  The next scene, Detective Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) does the run through.  By the time the cops show up, the wife is gone.  All that is left is the crime scene.  Cue the theme music.

This is not a summary of the episode; it is a recap of the five best moments of the show.  Here’s the countdown to the Five Best Moments of the Show.

#5 Best Moment of the Show.  By the time the cops get to the airport to meet the husband, Boyd Hartwell, from Hong Kong, Boyd is already on the phone with Christine about a ransom.  She made him promise, "No cops", or they will kill her.  He tries to make a run for it, but of course the cops catch him.  They play the cell phone conversation.  There’s a drop off place and an ask for $250,000.

#4 Best Moment of the Show.  Amaro’s wife shows up in the squad room, dressed to the nines.  Amaro lets out an audible, “Oh shit!”  It turns out they had a date for Valentine’s Day.  He goes out to greet her, “Did you forget?  I’m home for a week and already you’re taking me for granted.”  He says, “Never”.  But we know otherwise.

#3 Best Moment of the Show.  The drop is made.  The place is crawling with undercover cops.  Next thing we know, a blonde woman comes in for the pick up.  The cops move in.  It turns out, it’s the wife!  It’s Christine Hartwell.  “Please just let me give them the money.  They’ll kill me.  Please.”  What?!?

#2 Best Moment of the Show.  

Christine has quite the tale to tell.  She describes three black males who assault her.  Fin and Rollins trace her cell phone to a health food store clerk who says he’s Christine’s dealer.  He supplies her with all the drugs she wants.  She even has a regular delivery man, Kevin Fahey, who brings it to her house.  The cops take the delivery man into the station.  It turns out he’s been having an affair with Christine.  Kevin says it was all Christine’s idea to go to a loft her husband’s partner owns.  It turns out the partner has a thing on the side with Christine.  It turns out his partner has a motion sensor camera hooked up.  It turns out the camera caught Christine and her supposed kidnapper on videotape.  It turns out Christine was not a victim after all.  Boyd is shown the video tape, but he still stand by his wife.  Despite all this mounting evidence, Christine still maintains her innocence.  Finally, it starts to go bad for Christine, but she has a plan.  During the break, she corners a male juror in the stairwell.  We don’t know what happened, but back in the courtroom we find she’s done her job.  The jury is hopelessly deadlocked, 11:1.  The judge declares a mistrial.  She’s going to get away with it!

Finally, the #1 Best Moment of the Show.   We see Amaro tailing his wife who knocks on the door of a townhouse.  Another man answers the door.  His wife goes into the house.  It’s obvious she’s having an affair with the man.  This is not a happy ending for an episode titled, “Valentine’s Day”.

Next week on Law & Order SVU, a vigilante squad who calls themselves, The Justice League, take justice into their own hands.  The cops want them to stop. 

"Child’s Welfare"

Guest Star Michael Weston

This week on Law & Order SVU, the show opens on a young woman screaming in labor inside a rock dungeon.  As soon as the woman gives birth, the baby is taken from her by a faceless man.  Cut to Benson’s brother, Simon (Michael Weston) and wife, Tracy (Nicole Behare), being interviewed by a social worker. She misreads all the signals and thinks the bump on the boy’s head means he’s been abused.  Within 24 hours the kids are taken by uniform cops, screaming, from the parents.  Cut to Simon running into the squad room to tell Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) he needs her help.  “It’s about my kids.  The city just came and took them from us.  I have a boy, Tye, my stepson, and a daughter, Olivia.  I named her after you.  She’s your niece.  Look, they just took them, I need your help.”  The camera freezes on Benson’s stunned face.  Cue the theme music.

Detective Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) and Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) is at the hospital.  A baby was found abandoned on the steps of a church.  He is fresh and surprisingly well cared for.  The umbilical cord is still wet.  Detective Munch (Richard Belzer) and Tutuola Odafin (Ice-T) interviews the homeless who found them.  The canvases turn up nothing.  Meanwhile Benson reaches out to Defense Attorney Bayard Ellis (Andre Braugher) to reunite her brother and his kids.  He hears her case and concludes, “This is a clear pattern of profiling.  The only way to change the system is to challenge it.”  Alright, now we have a hired gun on board.  

This is not a summary of the episode; it is a recap of the five best moments of the show.  Here’s the countdown to the Five Best Moments of the Show.

#5 Best Moment of the Show.   The cops determine that 13 year old Celia, a missing girl, is the baby’s mother.  “At least now we can tell the family she’s still alive.”  The mother of the missing girl can’t believe what she’s hearing.  Turns out the last one to see the daughter alive, three years ago, is now the ex-husband.  “Leo’s story never made any sense.  They were out on a bike ride.  He said she was grabbed and put in a van.  They asked if Leo and she were ever too close.  I always thought something happened between them and he covered it up.  Oh my God.  I’ve been blaming Leo for something he didn’t do.”  The father is questioned in the squad room by Benson and Fin.  “I lost my marriage, my savings.  I’ve been paying a private detective to find her.”  That’s one girl abducted and three shattered lives. 

#4 Best Moment of the Show.   The next scene is a court room with Defense Attorney Ellis questioning the uniform officer who arrested Simon, Benson’s brother.  Ellis is determined to prove racial profiling.  “I remind you that you are under oath.  Why did you ask my client to empty his pockets?”  “Something seemed odd.”  “Isn’t it true that all but three of your arrests are above 96^th Street, and that you arrested my client just because he was part of an interracial couple?”  The court rules in Ellis’ favor.  “It’s a bad search, pure and simple.”  The judge agrees.  Benson is in the audience.  “Nice work counselor.”  “It’s what I do.”  The next scene, we see Simon’s nuclear family with Benson.  “You want to meet your niece?”  “She’s beautiful.”  Simon says, “Liv, this is your family.  You know when the kids come home.  We should set up a regular Sunday dinner.”  “I’d like that.”  Looks like Benson’s found the family she so desperately needs.

#3 Best Moment of the Show.  Meanwhile, Amaro and Rollins find out another abandoned baby has the same father as the case they are investigating.  Turns out that baby was adopted by an upper class couple, who said a teenager came up to them when they were in Central Park with baby Dillon and sniffed his hat.  The teenage girl said that’s when she was sure. Dillon is her baby.  They even took a photo with their cell phone, just in case they needed to file a restraining order.  Detective Munch and Rollins track the teenage girl to a soup kitchen, where she even told people she was kidnapped and held in a dungeon.  But then again, everybody has stories.  Amaro and Benson question the girl who said a couple abducted her and made her call them ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’.   “How long did they keep you there?”  “Over a year, until I had my baby, and he got rid of it.  He said no boys in the house.  After they took my baby they dumped me.”  These people are predators, plain and simple.

#2 Best Moment of the Show.  Cut to Captain Don Craigen (Donn Florek) telling Benson her brother Simon was arrested trying to kidnap his children from their foster home.  The man cannot catch a break.  All he wanted was to have his kids back.

Finally, the #1 Best Moment of the Show.  Munch and Rollins finally catch a break.  It turns out all the abandoned boy babies are well cared for because the accomplice ‘mommy’ is a neonatal nurse.  She is trapped and leads the cops to the hiding place where they’ve been keeping the kidnapped girls.  The cops find Celia safe and sound in the dungeon, with her 3 year old daughter.  All’s well that ends well…not so fast.  What about Simon?  The best deal Ellis could make for Simon is to separate his case from Tracy, his fiancé.  Tracy gets custody of both kids while he gets six months in jail and supervised visitation for a year.  This sucks.  “Yes, but you were looking at 25 years to life”, says Benson.  The show ends with Benson comforting Simon, as they both mourn for what could have been.

"Hunting Ground"

Guest Star Fred Arsenault

This week on Law & Order SVU, the show opens on dueling dates.  Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Executive Assistant District Attorney David Haden (Harry Connick, Jr.) are getting hotter and heavier, from movie night to her apartment.  She puts up a phony fight, but gives in at the end.  Cut to a man, ‘Brewster’ (Fred Arsenault) calling for a date from The Village Voice newspaper advertising for the ‘girlfriend experience’.  Turns out the girl, Haley (Emily Kinney) is a pretty 16 year old blonde with a child, trying to make a living while her mom watches the baby.  The date goes well until he opens the car door for her to get in, and she hesitates.  She should have run for it.  In the next scene, we see her in the back of his car, locked behind the dog gate, pleading for her life.  Cue the theme music.

Let me just say, this is the best episode of the season, so far.  Perhaps due to the fact that the cold blooded killer was off screen for most of the episode and we knew nothing of his motivations until the end, or perhaps the clock was counting down to whether or not the kidnapped victim was still alive, or perhaps finally, Benson resolved her feelings for Haden.  For all these reasons and more, it worked.

This is not a summary of the episode; it is a recap of the five best moments of the show.  Here’s the countdown to the Five Best Moments of the Show.

#5 Best Moment of the Show.   Haley’s mom (Alison Bartlett) plays a taped phone recording for Detective Benson and Nick Amaro (Danny Pino).  It’s her daughter admitting to her sins.  She’s been ‘a bad girl’.  She’s obviously being tortured and made to repeat lines from a script.  The mom holds the granddaughter in her arms.  This cannot end well.

#4 Best Moment of the Show.   Detective Tutuola Odafin (Ice-T) and Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) questions the ‘madam’ at the ‘escort’ service.  She’s obviously defensive. “I just match up consenting adults.  She (Haley) just started with me.  She told me she didn’t feel safe at her other agency.  A girl went out on a date Christmas Eve.  She never came back.”  Fin and Rollins proceed to ‘escort service #2’ and find out the name of the second missing girl and a matching profile of the ‘john’ that took both girls out on ‘dates’.  The second madam is an older blue collar type dispatcher.  There is nothing high-end about him. “Says his name was Brewster, paid cash, says his wife is nosy.”  When Fin and Rollins questions him about the girl that went missing on Christmas Eve, he cries foul, “My top earner, Roxie.  When I found her, all of her teeth rotted from the Meth.  I bought her new veneers, cuspid to cuspid.”  He thinks he got the short end of the stick.  What a bunch of predators.  At least now, the manhunt begins.

#3 Best Moment of the Show.  Benson and Amaro question the bartender from date night.  They get lucky.  The bartender recognizes the photo, can tell they were on a first date, that the guy paid cash, and asked for a doggy bag when all he had on the plate was a bone.  Big foreshadowing.  The next scene, Haley is running for her life in the woods, with ‘Brewster’ and his dog chasing her with his crossbow.  This is a vicious psychotic torturer.

#2 Best Moment of the Show.   The Village Voice ran all the ads of the underage ‘escort’ girls that have fallen prey to the killer.  Benson thinks The Voice is facilitating underage sex trafficking.  She wants to set up a sting, she thinks they are complicit.  Haden hangs tough to the letter of the law, “The paper hasn’t broken any laws.”  Good think Haden has a pair on him.  He didn’t cave into Benson’s knee jerk reaction to lock everyone up. 

Finally, the #1 Best Moment of the Show.  Benson and Amaro finally catch a break.  A uniform cop remembers seeing a guy walking without a leash.  “Poor guy had a shovel.  He just buried his other dog.”  The detectives exchange knowing glances.  They trace the lead to Dead Horse Bay.  The cops finds a body.  The K-9 unit finds another body.  The camera is trained on four K-9 units, all find dead bodies on the beach.  This is going to be gruesome.  Next scene, “We’re up to 11, all women ages 18-25.”  All the victims were asphyxiated.  Who gets out of the car, but EADA Haden.  He says, “I wanted to see for myself.  I want to have the scene in my head, before I go after the downtown boys.”  The next scene, EADA Haden is on camera giving a press story.  My office and the NYPD are going after the person responsible and the newspaper who pimp out these girls and mark them as easy prey.  Each of these women was someone’s daughter, mother, sister…  They will not be forgotten.”  That sealed it.  Benson falls for him, hook, line, and sinker.

Final Wrap-up.  The etymologist traces ticks on the dead girl to ulster county.  The detectives even find a girl that got away.  She’s still in the psych ward from what ‘Brewster’ did to her.  They trace ‘Brewster’ all the way to his apartment where they find all the paraphernalia of a psychotic serial hunter/killer.  He’s a game keeper at a wildlife preserve.  At his shack, ‘Brewster’ gets the drop on Benson and the monologue drags on.  Finally, Amaro gets a shot from under the crawl space.  He brings ‘Brewster’ down.  Benson and Amaro come back to the squad room.  Benson calms Craigen, “Captain, it was a good shooting.  I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”  Craigen wants to hold Amaro’s hand, “It’s your first one?  I’ll walk you through the paperwork.”  Amaro puts him off, “Captain, can I have a minute?” Amaro takes his tablet and walk back to the restroom to skpe his wife in Afghanistan.  She’s happy he got the perp.  “I love you.”  “I love you, too.”  “Stay safe.” “You too, okay?”  This is the most bonding we’ve seen yet between Amaro and his military wife.  It feels forced.  This does not end well.

Next week on Law & Order SVU, Benson’s brother shows up.  He wants her help to return his kids to him.  She’s caught between helping the only family she ever knew and obeying the law.



"Home Invasion"

Guest Star Esai Morales

This week on Law & Order SVU, the show opens on a family of three (mom, dad, and daughter) relaxing at home.  The dad and daughter are watching a basketball game on TV.  The mom, Joan, has to answer the door bell.  They think it’s the Chinese food delivery boy.  It’s not.  It’s a gun man who takes the mother out, then everyone else.  By the time the detectives arrive on the scene, the word ‘Queer’ has been graffiti on the living room wall.  The mom was an executive at the Gay Rights Coatlition.  Even Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) is shocked at the vicious execution style killing of a whole family.  Cue the theme music.

This is not a summary of the episode; it is a recap of the five best moments of the show.  Here’s the countdown to the Five Best Moments of the Show.

#5 Best Moment of the Show.   Detective Benson and Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) are questioning the remaining head of the Gay Rights Coalition when she reveals that Joan and she ‘were involved’  ‘She was my life.’  Joan was going to leave her husband, Sydney, as soon as her daughter Emmie got a little older.  OMG, she was living a secret life.

#4 Best Moment of the Show.   Benson and Amaro are questioning the maid who Sydney accuses of stealing from her employer.  “I never stole any jewelry.  I would never.  14 years I work for them.  Sydney gets in trouble, he blames me…He pawned those earrings himself.  Sydney was a gambler, he owed big.  He had already sold off his autograph baseball, his watch.’  Where were you Friday night?  “Bible Study.  My brother (the ex-con) was leading the session”  Cut to Esai Morales leading the congregation in a frenzy of a sermon.  His sister was telling the truth, bible.

#3 Best Moment of the Show.  Detectives Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) is just finishing pumping gas when the bar tender/bookie from the last scene comes up behind her and punches her in the stomach.  He punches her again as he threatens her.  “You’re into it good.  If you’re even thinking of going to your Captain, you won’t even see us coming.”  That’s a threat she takes seriously.  Smart girl.  But she still comes clean to her partner, Detective Odafin Tutuola (Ice-T), who backs her all the way.  He engineers a crackdown on the illegal gambling operation, and uncovers all the dirty cops who are in bed with the loan shark.

#2 Best Moment of the Show.   Rollins finally works up enough nerve to come clean with Captain Craigen.  Turns out he already knows about her gambling.  He completely understands, because he’s been in her shoes.  Years ago his own Captain got him help instead of firing him.  “You’re a good detective, Amanda.  I don’t want to end your career.  So I’m going to get you help.  But if you screw up again, you’re going down.”  Rollins loses it and gets all tearful.  In barges Benson and Amaro, “Father (Syndey) and daughter (Emmie) tested positive for the same strand of Herpes.”  Man, the bad news just keeps coming.

Finally, the #1 Best Moment of the Show.  Turns out Sydney has been abusing his daughter Emmie for months.  She told the housekeeper and her brother.  Both were determined to save her from ‘the devil’.  But Emmie wanted both her dad and her mother dead.  You see her mother knew about the abuse and didn’t stop it.  Emmie says, “She was more worried about saving the world than saving her own daughter.”  Her boyfriend hugs her, wants to save her.  But she motions for him not to worry, because “I’m free.  I’m free now.“  I’d have to agree.  The abusers are out of her life, for good.

Craigen takes Rollins to a gambler support group, “You’re here.  It’s the first step.”  Looks like Rollins took that all important first step on the road to recovery.

Next week on Law & Order SVU, seven victims of a serial killer were ‘ripped from the headlines’.  Benson decides to turn the table on him.

"Father's Shadow"

Guest Star Michael McKean

This week on Law & Order SVU, the show opens with a gritty film noire look.  Captain Don Craigen (Dann Florek), Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), and Detective Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) walk over to the uniform at a hostage situation who says the perp asked for her by name.  The next scene then announces itself as ‘Five Days Ago’.  This style of storytelling has been used many times by other dramas, but is a first for Law and Order SVU.  Cut to the next scene where Benson is on stage delivering a speech on “…increase in drug facilitated assault,…survivors suffer from guilt, self-blame.”  Cut to what is obviously an actress arriving to an audition; Malory Jenner meets the producer of the reality show for the first time.  The producer, Burt Sandow (Michael McKean) says, “Show me you will do whatever it takes to get this job.  Hold the documentary trophy, seduce the audience.  Let them know you want this.”  Next scene, it’s night time, a girl is zonked out on the park bench.  A creep comes up upon her.  He makes a lame attempt to wake her, “Miss, you okay?”, then proceeds to take advantage of her.  Are you kidding me?  What a creep!  Another guy comes by walking his dog and sees what’s going on.  He is the Good Samaritan that chases him down and stops him.  The cops come for the clean-up.  Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) says, “No purse, no wallet, no stalking, shoes on the wrong feet.”  The perp tries to blow off the arrest.  “I thought she was dead”.  Detective Odafin Tutuola (Ice-Y) can’t believe his ears, “Excuse me?”  Cue the theme music.

This is not a summary of the episode; it is a recap of the five best moments of the show.  Here’s the countdown to the Five Best Moments of the Show.

#5 Best Moment of the Show.   The perp is in the interrogation room.  He pleads his innocence, “I’m no rapist.  Okay, I’m not saying I haven’t done things.  I just like shearling.  Check her coat.”  Turns out he only rubs up on women in subways, but they must have a shearling coat on first.  He is not and has never been a rapist.  He's just a creep with a shearling fetish.  That’s rare.

#4 Best Moment of the Show.   Burt Sandow is sitting next to his attorney in the interrogation room when Amaro and Benson question him.  Sandow says, “I didn’t rape those girls.  Why would I have to?  They’d do anything to get on stage.”  Cut to Benson walking into Amaro questioning Lacey Ford (Miranda Lambert), the latest victim.  “Lacey, the counselor at the hospital says you refused the rape kit.  Mr. Sandow assaulted another girl.  He assaulted you.  We need your help to stop him.”  Lacey counters, “If he goes to prison, what happens to the show?  I really want this part.”  OMG, Sandow was right!  These girls are driven by fame at any price.

#3 Best Moment of the Show.  Detectives Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) give Sandow news of the hostage standoff.  “You want me to talk Eddie (his son, played by Cameron Monaghan) off the ledge, what are you going to do for me?  You want my help.  You pay my price.  All charges dropped.  I go free.  A public apology.  When my lawyer signs off, then we’ll talk.”  Sandow won’t cooperate.  Are the cops stupid?  Anyone who’s been watching the show can see this coming.  People who have been looking out for themselves all their lives do not suddenly think of others in a crisis.  It felt good to say, “I told you so.” to the screen.

#2 Best Moment of the Show.   The situation is tense inside the apartment.  Eddie has two hostages, his girlfriend Jess (Kelly Karbacz) and her daughter Lily (Emma Rayne Lyle).  Jess wants to take her daughter to the bathroom.  Eddie says no.  There is a struggle, the gun goes off, Jess gets shot in the leg.  The cops want to rush the room, but Benson talks them out of it.  She talks Eddie into letting her in to see to the wounded.  Brave girl.

Finally, the #1 Best Moment of the Show.  It’s the world against Benson.  She’s the only one who says she can talk the kid down.  All the ATTs are ready to take the sniper shot and kill the 19 year old.  Benson ends it.  First she gets the kid to realize how evil his father is, and then the kid thinks he’s just like his father, “I’m a monster”, and the only thing to do is to take himself out.  But then Benson reveals her past, “My father did terrible things to women, to my own mother.  You have a choice.  I’m nothing like my father.  You don’t have to be like yours.”  It worked!  The kid gives up the little girl hostage and his gun.  It’s all over.  “Good job, detective.”

Next week on Law & Order SVU, we find out the hard way that Detective Amanda Rollins is a closet gambler with a debt to a loan shark, who exacts payment for her outstanding debt. 

"Official Story"

Guest Star John Doman

This week on Law & Order SVU, the show opens on a group of Occupy Wall Street protestors carrying signs reading “99%” and “Kill Rand” behind police barricades.  A stretch limo pulls up and a businessman gets out of the car.  A protestor (Jacob Wallach) confronts him, “How do you sleep at night, Rand?”  “I’m serving my country, man.  I sleep just fine.”  William Rand (John Doman), CEO of Battle Tested Security is seen on TV in an interview.  Cut to Detective Nick Amaro (Danny Pino) who opens the door to his home and sees his wife, Zara Amaro (Alison Fernandez).  “Surprise!”  His daughter rushes to her arms.  “Welcome home.”  Cut back to Rand, back in his limo, supposedly headed home at the end of the day.  He takes a drink out of a water bottle and starts to feel woozy.  He asks the driver why he is going uptown, “We’re supposed to be going to the Heliport.”  He blacks out.  Obviously, the drink was drugged.  Cut to a kid on a school field trip that spots a disheveled and tied up man in the grass by the park.  It’s Rand with the words, “Payback is a bitch” written on his naked body.  The tour guide says, “Get the kids out of here.  I’ll call 911”.  Cue the theme music.

Turns out, all this is about something that happened four years ago.  Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Amaro gets the whole story from the real victim, Cory Green (Megan Ketch).  She retells the whole nightmare.  She was working for Battle Tested Security in Bahrain for less than a month.  They drugged and raped her, then held her for 72 hours in an interrogation room.  Finally, she was able to call her dad.  After she reported the crime to the Department of Justice (DOJ), her rape kit disappears.  “It’s not just what these guys did to me.  It’s that they knew they could get away with it.”  The cops are even more determined to nail the bad guys.  In walks David Haden (Harry Connick Jr.) the new Executive Assistant District Attorney.  The DA is here because it’s a kidnapping of a high profile figure.  He has pull and gets into the US Attorney’s Office.  “You mean now that we are privatizing war, these contractors are above the law?”  The US Attorney pushes back, “They are prosecutable, at the DOJ’s discretion.  If you can prove there is a cover up of the rape.”  Amaro even reaches out to his wife about how much she deals with these contractors.  She says she knows someone and will hit them for more information.  “These people have reach.”  She assures him, she can handle herself.  “Can we let this go for now?  I’m only here for a few more days.”  It’s obvious they are still in love.  Meanwhile Benson and Haden are having a romantic dinner.  Haden pointedly lets it slip that he’s divorced and the ex has the kids.  He pushes for Benson to have another round.  She is interested but gives him a rain check. 

This is not a summary of the episode; it is a recap of the five best moments of the show.  Here’s the countdown to the Five Best Moments of the Show.

#5 Best Moment of the Show.   The Occupy Wall Street guy who confronts Rand is questioned by Benson and Amaro.  He says he saw a military guy hanging around with the decal ‘Special Forces’ on the back window of his car.  Surveillance cameras caught him.  His name is Donald O’Keefe (Holt McCallany), former marine.  He’s doing security, escorting oil to Somalia.  Captain Craigan gives the go ahead to bring him in.  “Handle with care.  This is a guy who shoots pirates for a living.”  The cops go in with extra reinforcements.  They find O’Keefe inspecting arsenal by a ship yard.  The cops are expecting trouble.  Instead, O’Keefe was expecting the cops.  “Is this about Donald Rand?  What took you so long?  After what he did to my little girl, he got what he deserved.”  Turns out his daughter is Cory Green, the real victim.  After all that backup heat, O’Keefe gives himself up without a fight.  Looks like it was much ado about nothing.

#4 Best Moment of the Show.   O’Keefe spills everything, “My daughter worked for Rand’s company in Basraid for only a month before four of those animals drugged and raped her.  She reported it to the nearest base commander.  Four years later, no charges have ever been filed.  The Department of Justice (DOF) says it’s out of their jurisdiction.  They are not military.  Detective Odafin Tutuola (Ice –T) responds, “So a rape for another rape, that’s okay with you.”  O’Keefe replies, “I gave him enough of the baton to make him think about it, every time he sits down.”  The mental picture is not a pretty one. 

#3 Best Moment of the Show.   Now that the cops have O’Keefe in custody, Rand asks for a line up.  The suspects are all lined behind the one way glass.  Rand takes one look and denies ever remembering anything.  He turns around and walks back out with his assistant.  WTF?  The cops feel so used.  Everyone thinks Rand recognized O’Keefe and plan to even the score himself.

#2 Best Moment of the Show.   Finally, Haden has his ace in the hole.  Dr. Rausch (Annie Meisels) spills everything.  She examined Cory after the crime.  She performed the rape kit.  She remembers Cory’s wounds.  She remembers everything.  She spills it all in Haden’s office.  The next day Dr. Rausch sits in front of the grand jury and denies having any memory of the incident.  Haden goes apocalyptic. “You do realize you’re under oath here”.   It’s no use.  She’s obviously been gotten to.  She looks shaken, but still holds onto her story, “Yes I do.” 

Finally, the #1 Best Moment of the Show.  The last moments of the show was on light speed; so hang on tight, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.  In one continuous scene, every loose string is tied up.  O’Keefe gets a shiv in the gut from another inmate.  Cory is held down and raped again.  George Coleman (Craig Walker), who is supposed to be in protective custody (as he is the only insider who will flip), is found dead in bed, supposedly from alcohol overdose.  Benson’s apartment is tossed and Amaro’s wife is threatened as ‘they’ know where and when she will be deployed.  But all is not lost.  Another insider flips.  This time, it’s someone with insurance.  He has secured the rape kit just for a rainy day.  It’s Joe Marshall (Billy Brown).  “I was told to secure the rape kit.  I removed it from army custody and transported it to corporate headquarters.”  Amaro asks, “Who gave you those orders?  “The CEO of Battle Test Security, William Rand.”  Rand is arrested seconds before he boards his helicopter.  By the time Cory gets to tell her dad on the phone, “They got him daddy.  They got them all.  We did it.  I love you too.” It’s almost anticlimactic. 

Epilogue.  Amaro tells his wife over the phone, “Hey, how was your flight?  You okay?  No, it’s done.  You be safe over there.  Yeah, I love you too.  I miss you.”  He hangs up and kicks his desks in frustration.  You know it’s not over for him.  He still worries about her.

Next week on Law & Order SVU, Mariska Hargitay reminisces over her two favorite episodes.  Sounds like old footage to me.