| "Alta Kockers" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 20.10 | → |
| Production number: 20010 First aired: 29 November 2018 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Michael S. Chernuchin Directed By Alex Chapple | ||
Summary[]
The murder of an elusive, shy teenage author living a double life leads Benson and the rest of the Special Victims Unit on an investigation that uncovers a situation beyond their wildest imaginations.
Plot[]
plot
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Lieutenant Olivia Benson
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Ice-T as Sergeant Odafin Tutuola
- Peter Scanavino as Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr.
- Philip Winchester as A.D.A. Peter Stone
Recurring cast[]
- Eddie Hargitay as Officer Eddie Montero
- Michael Kostroff as Attorney Evan Braun
- Kathryn Kates as Judge Marlene Simons
- Erica Camarano as Officer Rachel Ortiz
- Mary Theresa Archbold as Doctor
Guest cast[]
- Judd Hirsch as Joseph Edelman
- Wallace Shawn as Benjamin Edelman
- Calhoun Koenig as Tammy / Bobbi O'Rourke
- Jayce Bartok as Walter Evans
- David McElwee as Will Glover
- Kody Christiansen as Robert Holdsworth
- Elijah Guo as Cal Carver
- Katie Hartke as Karen Glover
- Najat Arkadan Washington as Maggie
- Paytra Gessler as Faye
- James Beaman as Oscar
- Vanessa R. Butler as Chelsea
- Scott Eliasoph as Juror
References[]
Quotes[]
- Carisi: Was she raped?
- Benson: Apparently not.
- Carisi: Well, due respect, lieu, but what are we doing here?
- Benson: She's a not a she; physically, anyway. We may be looking at a hate crime.
- Carisi: We pulled prints from the brick, but they're not in any database. Now, Bobbi's got a learner's permit from North Carolina. He's sixteen years old.
- Benson: Did you try reaching out to his family?
- Carisi: Yeah, we tried, but the address wasn't real.
- Rollins: Hey, so, if his book is true, he ran away at 13 years old and he supported himself turning tricks at truck stops as he hitched rides to New York.
- Carisi: As if being transgender wasn't tough enough.
- Rollins: But Bobbi's not transgender. Robbie just figured out that he made more money pretending to be a teenage girl.
- Tutuola: The kid's a ghost. 'Til last night, nobody ever saw him but his publisher.
- Carisi: Yeah, the home address he gave the bank was the 92nd Street Y.
- Tutuola: And none of them recognized Bobbi or the guy in the video.
- Benson: Okay, guys, so let's... let's get back to basics here. Why would somebody want Bobbi dead?
- Tutuola: It could be money. He has over half a mil in his bank account.
- Benson: That's... a lot of books.
- Tutuola: He sold his rights to Hollywood.
- Carisi: Yeah, well, jealousy, all right? Another writer gets mad about his success.
- Tutuola: Enough to kill?
- Carisi: Well, Norman Mailer would've killed Gore Vidal on principle.
- Will Glover: What happens now?
- Rollins: Well, you deny that you killed Bobbi O'Rourke, and I get angry, maybe a little loud. I threaten you, but then Lieutenant Benson convinces you that a confession is just in the best interest for everybody.
- Carisi: Bobbi made a lot of money off that book. Why the hell would he go back out on the street?
- Benson: Look, he's been doing it a long time. It's all he knows. He doesn't know how to stop.
- Carisi: Or somebody was forcing him to keep hooking.
- Tutuola: You know, this book is filled with sex between Bobbi and scores of adult men, who all could be charged with statutory rape.
- Benson: Fin, I'm pretty sure that Bobbi didn't use any real names.
- Tutuola: Well, what if we could find him?
- Carisi: [scoffing] Come on. There's zero chance that this kid's gonna show his face now.
- Tutuola: Bobbi made a couple of online banking transactions, so I had TARU track the IP address.
- Benjamin Edelman: And this Bobbi boy...
- Tutuola: He dressed as a girl.
- Benjamin: Ah, a fegulah.
- Tutuola: Uh, yeah, but I don't think it's okay to say that word anymore.
- Benjamin: Why not?
- Tutuola: Because it hurts people.
- Benjamin: It's just a word.
- Tutuola: Yeah, but words can hurt more than a gun.
- Benson: Amanda, I can't tell you how many times in my career I've heard the exact same thing from survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
- Rollins: Only that's coming from a 73-year-old hoarder whose completely rejected and alienated society.
- Benson: I wanna talk about your book. It was, uh, it was powerful.
- Benjamin Edelman: You read it?
- Benson: I did. And it was... um, so real. And actually, I... I don't understand how you could've written it without...
- Benjamin Edelman: Oh, I... uh, I don't wanna talk about that.
- Benson: I know how hard it must have been.
- Benjamin Edelman: You know bubkes.
- Benson: No, Ben. I know that anyone who could've written a book like "Blue Barracuda" certainly must have lived through something. You wrote that book so you could tell the world how devastating, how horrifying it was.
- Benjamin Edelman: I wrote that book because we needed the money.
- Benson: And you were ashamed. That's why you didn't use your real name on the book. I could only imagine what you must have felt hate, rage, disgust. But shame... shame isn't on you, Ben. This wasn't your fault. Who did this to you? Who hurt you?
- [about Benjamin and Joseph Edelman]
- Benson: They were both abused as kids, Peter.
- Stone: And conveniently, they didn't say anything until they were charged with murdering their mother.
- Benson: I believe them.
- Stone: And I'll do my best to get it excluded at trial.
- Benson: Look, you won't have to. Neither of them will admit it. They won't even admit it to each other.
- Stone: So that's that, then.
- Benson: Look, the M.E.'s report said that Rose's cancer caused her intolerable pain.
- Stone: You and I both know that that doesn't matter.
- Benson: Cut them a deal.
- Stone: I worked one out with their attorney. One year jail time. Ten years probation.
- Benson: Well, that's generous.
- Stone: They turned it down.
- Benson: Look, they are sympathetic defendants.
- Stone: Until the jury hears that they kept Mom's body on ice in the basement.
Background Information and Notes[]
- The episode title "Alta Kockers" is a spelling variation of the Yiddish phrase "alte kakkers", meaning "old men".
- Another episode that deals with a writer of a book about their sexual abuse who turns out to not have been the true author is the Law & Order episode "Sweetie".
- "Shvartzah" is a derogatory Yiddish word for a black person.
- "Fegulah" is a derogatory Yiddish word for a gay male. "Faygala" is Yiddish for little bird and a euphemism for a gay male. While it has come to be seen as derogatory, it depended on who used it and how; for many, it was only about discretion. Its current nature can easily not be understood by Yiddish speakers of a certain age, like the brothers.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Pitch Dark Press |
Home of |
The Honey Well |
413 West 150th Street |
Rikers Island |
| Previous episode: "Mea Culpa" |
"Alta Kockers" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 20 |
Next episode: "Plastic" |