| "Alien" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 7.11 | → |
| Production number: 07002 First aired: 6 December 2005 | ||
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| Written By Jose Molina Directed By Constantine Makris | ||
What initially starts as an investigation into the stabbing of a young schoolboy leads to concerns for the welfare of the daughter of a lesbian couple and a custody battle for the little girl.
Plot[]
After 12-year-old Sean Hamill is stabbed in the back at the schoolyard, detectives are led to Charlie Monaghan, the older boy who had previously gotten into trouble over Hamill, but it isn't long before their attention turns to Monaghan's 8-year-old half-sister Emma Boyd. Sean is a brutal bully who had been torturing Emma for months because she has two mothers, one of whom is Zoe Dunlop. The other is Emma's biological mother Kate Boyd, who is in the hospital, dying of lupus. After the case against Emma is dropped, Benson and Stabler are thrown for a loop when Emma's biological grandparents, Oliver Boyd and Deborah Boyd, accuse Zoe, who had never legally adopted Emma, of sexually molesting Emma, and evidence seems to support their claims. But they learn that evidence can be deceiving, and Novak becomes suspicious of Oliver and Deborah's homophobic attorney, James Decker.
Summary[]
12-year-old Sean Hamill is dumped at a hospital. He was stabbed in the back at St. Victor's Catholic School, the school where he's a student, and left paralyzed from the waist down. The detectives are led to Charlie Monaghan, an older boy who had previously gotten into trouble over Sean, but it isn't long before their attention turns to Charlie's 8-year-old half-sister Emma Boyd, who is a student at the school.
Sean turns out to be a brutal bully who had been viciously and brutally tormenting Emma for months, because she has two mothers, meaning a lesbian couple, one of whom is Zoe Dunlop. The other is Emma's biological mother Kate Boyd, who is in the hospital, dying of lupus. They both love Emma more than life itself. Zoe, Kate, Emma, and Charlie are their own family, and there is nothing wrong with it.
Sean has been negatively influenced by his parents and St. Victor's Catholic School, all of whom are homophobic, and he felt entitled to constantly bully Emma for having two mothers. Charlie had already beaten Sean up once, in order to stop the bullying, and that still didn't stop it, though it did keep Sean away from Emma for a time. Sean also regularly insulted Charlie over his weight, even sometimes harassing Charlie's girlfriend.
After all the torment that nothing was done about, and with Emma being under enough stress already because of the condition that Kate's been in, Emma couldn't take any more of the torment. When Sean tried to kiss Emma without consent, and sadistically cut Emma's ponytail off with a pair of scissors to make her look like what Sean called a "dyke," Emma had understandably snapped, and stabbed Sean with a pair of scissors. Charlie took Sean to the hospital in a car belonging to Father Justin Miller (Daniel Jenkins), the parish priest at St. Victor's, and Charlie, who genuinely cares for Emma, took the rap himself in order to protect Emma.
Father Miller had kept silent about Sean bullying Emma, out of fear of a possible lawsuit from Sean's parents if he did anything about the bullying. But when Father Miller found Emma's ponytail in the school's art classroom, he realized that Sean did it. Miller makes up for his silence by providing Benson with a lengthy transcript of homophobic messages that Sean sent via the school's social networking site. That backs up the truth that Sean has been viciously bullying Emma because she has two mothers. Sean's victim credibility is shot. The case against Emma is dropped, as no jury would convict Emma after realizing what Sean had been doing to her, but Emma is sentenced to a month of counseling.
Benson and Stabler learn that Kate has passed away. And then Benson and Stabler are thrown for a loop when Emma's biological grandparents, Kate's parents Oliver Boyd (Edmond Genest) and Deborah Boyd (Mary Beth Peil), accuse Zoe, who had never legally adopted Emma, of sexually abusing Emma during massage therapy sessions with Zoe. However, after sitting in on Benson's interview of Emma, Dr. George Huang disagrees with the accusation, concluding that the so-called "molestation" was a legitimate massage therapy session, which Oliver and Deborah had manipulated Emma into believing was something sinister.
It turns out that James Decker, the homophobic attorney representing Oliver and Deborah, had used discredited statistics to fool them into wrongfully thinking that homosexual people are more likely to sexually abuse their kids, adoptive or not, and that led Oliver and Deborah to trick Emma into thinking she was being abused so Decker could get Oliver and Deborah custody of Emma. Decker has a long history of representing straight clients who are fighting custody battles with their homosexual exes.
Novak finds a way to trip Decker up. Novak offers a plea to Oliver and Deborah for a lesser prison sentence, in exchange for Oliver and Deborah testifying against Decker. After Novak provides evidence of Decker's trickery, Oliver and Deborah agree to testify against Decker, and they apologize to Zoe. Zoe gets custody of Emma. But Zoe is angry about the abuse accusation, and that it caused her to almost lose Emma after already losing Kate -- Zoe is so angry that she admits that she doesn't know if she'll ever be able to forgive Oliver and Deborah, as she can't trust them anymore after they tried to frame her as an unfit parent. Zoe bans Oliver and Deborah from ever seeing Emma again.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
- Diane Neal as A.D.A. Casey Novak
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
- Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner (credit only)
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Ned Eisenberg as Defense Attorney Roger Kressler
- Paula Garcés as C.S.U. Technician Millie Vizcarrondo
- Patricia Kalember as Judge Karen Taten
- Stephen Henderson as Judge Bernard
- Stephen Gregory as Dr. Kyle Beresford
Guest cast[]
- Amy Pietz as Zoe Dunlop
- Raquel Castro as Emma Boyd
- Daniel Jenkins as Father Justin Miller
- Stephen Bogardus as Attorney James Decker
- Dorothy Lyman as Principal Parker
- Todd Gearhart as Assistant Corporation Counsel Garrett Gillespie
- Edmund Genest as Oliver Boyd
- Adam LeFevre as Ray Monaghan
- Sasha Neulinger as Charlie Monaghan
- Mary Beth Peil as Deborah Boyd
- Jack Koenig as Edgar Hamill
- Heather Fairfield as Lenore Hamill
- Daniel Manche as Sean Hamill
- Sarah Knapp as Kate Boyd
- Dallas Snoderly as Adam
- Violet O'Neill as Helena
- Sage Doviak as First Grader
- Rob Puterman as Doctor
References[]
- American Psychological Association
- American Sociological Association
- Luis Miguel
- Lupus
- Mercy General Hospital
- National Association of Social Workers
- Parental Alienation Syndrome
- Pixy Stix
- St. Victor's Academy
Quotes[]
- Emma Boyd: Lying's a sin. A vanilla sin, not the mortal kind. But all sins are bad, so you have to never do them no matter what.
- Vizcarrondo: Found these scissors in the school dumpster.
- Tutuola: She means I found them, underneath the tuna casserole. All she did was stand there and point.
- Munch: Since when did New York become a red state?
- Stabler: Emma would've been much better off if Zoe had just gone along with Kate's lie to the school.
- Benson: You think Zoe should stay in the closet just to make a bunch of homophobes happy?
- Stabler: You don't send your kids to military school if you're a pacifist. Not without expecting some friction.
- Benson: So you agree with the school.
- Stabler: I'm just saying it's complicated. Being Catholic means believing in certain things.
- Tutuola: But she wanted to make a point. Take the school to court. Win one for the cause.
- Munch: Somebody's gotta fight the fight.
- Tutuola: But it shouldn't be an eight-year-old. Emma's so messed up, she has to see a shrink twice a week.
- Emma Boyd: I didn't do anything.
- Benson: Emma, even if it was an accident, you need to tell us. We know that school's been tough lately and kids can be really cruel.
- Stabler: Is that what happened with you and Sean? Did he say something mean?
- Emma Boyd: He said I was a freak, and I was gonna go to hell.
- Stabler: Why?
- Emma Boyd: Because I have two moms instead of a mom and a dad.
- Zoe Dunlop: Sweetie, we talked about this, didn't we? What did we say?
- Emma Boyd: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words may never hurt me.
- Benson: Emma, Charlie lied to us. We know that he drove Sean to the hospital. Now, if you don't tell us the truth, he's gonna get in a lot of trouble.
- Emma Boyd: I am telling you the truth!
- Zoe Dunlop: Detective, Emma didn't hurt Sean, just like she's never hurt any of the other kids who are mean to her at school.
- Stabler: [to Father Justin] Still, you knew Sean was tormenting Emma, and you kept quiet to save your own neck.
- Father Justin Miller: I like being a priest and I am this close to having the church remove my faculties. I didn't want the school to get any bad press.
- Stabler: So spin control's more important than keeping two kids from ruining their lives.
- Sean Hamill: Well, I only bother Emma because she's so weird.
- Stabler: She is, huh? Why is she weird?
- Sean Hamill: Her mom's a lesbian. It's just wrong. The Bible says homosexuality is a sin.
- Stabler: I don't remember seeing that in the Bible.
- Sean Hamill: Corinthians says gay people are going to hell. That's in the new testament. The old testament is way harsher. It says gays should be put to death.
- Stabler: All right. And so that makes it okay for you to cut off Emma's hair. Why'd you do it, Sean?
- Sean Hamill: I didn't hurt her. It was just a joke!
- Stabler: You went after a little girl with a pair of scissors.
- Sean Hamill: All I did was cut her hair. She stabbed me in the back and now I can't walk. It's not fair.
- [about Emma]
- Edgar Hamill: Did that girl stab Sean?
- Stabler: Yeah.
- Edgar Hamill: Then I don't care if he called her a f** dyke w**** bitch from hell. Arrest her!
- Benson: [to Emma] We know what Sean really did to you.
- Zoe Dunlop: What did he do? Emma, what happened? You've been lying to Mommy, Zoe?
- Emma Boyd: [in tears] Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't... I didn't mean to hurt Sean. It's just, he kept yelling, saying, "You're a dyke! You're a dyke!" And I told him I'm not. And he said, "prove it." And then he went to kiss me, so I pushed him away. And then he grabbed me and cut off my hair. And said, "Yes, you're a dyke and now you look like one." I was so mad. I was so ugly. I grabbed the scissors, and I hurt him in the back with them. He fell down and hit his head.
- Novak: How'd it go?
- Benson: Great. I love putting eight-year-olds in lockup overnight.
- Judge H. Bernard: Miss Dunlop, you claimed you had no custodial rights over Emma when she was arrested, but now you want to invoke them. You can't have it both ways!
- Benson: Here's your proof that Sean's a bully. "I wanna teach you a game after school. It might hurt, but it'll cure you from being a queer." Does that sound like a sweet kid? And that's not the worst of 'em. You know that I have to share this with the Defense. The minute that I do, Sean's credibility goes right out the window and so does yours.
- Garrett Gillespie: Your Honor, The People request a half hour recess.
- James Decker: Detectives, sorry to catch you so late. You need to remove Emma from Zoe Dunlop's custody.
- Cragen: Mr. Decker, custody matters belong in family court. Unless there's been a crime, it's out of our hands.
- James Decker: Zoe Dunlop has been sexually abusing Emma ever since Kate got sick.
- Stabler: We're gonna have to hear that from Emma.
- James Decker: You will. She's at the hospital with her mother right now. You can't let her go home with Zoe.
- Benson: We've never heard any allegations before. It's a pretty big coincidence that this comes out just after Zoe gets custody.
- James Decker: Emma showed this to her grandparents. [shows the detectives photographs] Why does a grown woman take pictures of herself in bed with a naked 8-year-old girl?
- Stabler: [to Zoe about the photographs of Emma] You got an 8-year-old lying naked in the bed.
- Zoe Dunlop: Emma has always been shy. Kate and I wanted her to have a positive body image, so I took these to show her how beautiful she is.
- Stabler: Well, giving her self-esteem is one thing, but you got her vamped for the camera like she's a Playboy mode
- Zoe Dunlop: If you think these are sexy, you're the one with the problem. She looks like an angel.
- Zoe Dunlop: You think because I'm gay, I'm molesting my own daughter? If I were straight, would this even be an issue?
- Stabler: This is not about who you are. It's about what that girl said you did to her.
- Dr. Huang: Emma, do you think that it's wrong that your mommies sleep in the same bed together?
- Emma Boyd: God says it's against nature. Women are supposed to be with men, otherwise they go to hell.
- Benson: Is that what you learned in school?
- Emma Boyd: My grandmom told me. She said Mommy Zoe was gonna go to hell for what she did.
- Benson: You filled Emma's head with lies to keep her away from her mother...
- Deborah Boyd: Her mother is dead...Zoe is ruining my granddaughter's life - it's our moral duty to protect her!
- Stabler: Try following the Eighth Commandment: "Thou shalt not bear false witness."
- Novak: Your Honor, Mr. Decker clearly coached his clients into manipulating an abuse allegation out of Emma. That's not just outrageous, it's criminal.
- James Decker: I offered advice on how to talk to an abused child. That's all.
- Novak: Mr. and Mrs. Boyd never would have accused Zoe of molesting Emma had it not been for Mr. Decker.
- Judge Karen Taten: That's enough! Counsel, approach.
- James Decker: Your Honor, Miss Novak has no absolutely basis for these allegations.
- Novak: And Mr. Decker has a history of representing straight clients fighting custody battles with their gay exes.
- James Decker: So I get slandered for choosing who I want to represent?
- Novak: You fed your clients anti-gay material before custody was even an issue because you were gearing up for a fight. That means you conspired to keep Emma away from Zoe which means you committed a hate crime.
- James Decker: That's ridiculous! Not to mention you can't prove any of it.
- Judge Taten: Mr. Decker, at the very least, this is a serious breach of ethical conduct.
- James Decker: Your Honor...
- Judge Taten: I have no choice but to remove you as counsel and declare a mistrial.
Background information and notes[]
- The title is derived from the word "alienation", which is used in the episode's context to mean isolation and seclusion away from desired or healthy environmental exposure and daily living. It can be used both for social dynamics and for psychology.
- In some TV broadcasts, Sean's father telling Stabler to arrest Emma is shortened, removing the line, "Then I don't care if he called her a f** dyke w*** bitch from hell."
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Apartment of |
St. Victor's |
Clinton Hospital |
Home of |
Apartment of |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Family Court |
Family Court |
Apartment of |
Trial Part 83 |
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"Alien" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 7 |
Next episode: "Infected" |