| "Bound" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 5.23 | → |
| Production number: E4427 First aired: 4 May 2004 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Barbie Kligman Directed By Constantine Makris | ||
Plot[]
The murders of three elderly women are linked to a home-nursing facility where the owner, Matt Spevak, is considered a suspect. But when Matt is found murdered during the investigation, the SVU squad turns their attention to Matt's sister, Emma, who is a nurse that might be responsible for not only the death of numerous elderly women, but her own mother as well, out of jealousy over the affection she gave her brother rather than her. Huang believes the rest of the murders were committed as revenge on her mother.
The mother's body is exhumed, and from her grave, which has the names and birthdates of all of the family, the detectives learn that Emma and Matt are actually fraternal twins. Huang figures that Emma has always been in Matt's shadow as she's the younger twin, and the rope she used to murder the women was a sign of that. Warner's autopsy proves that the mother was murdered as she has the same puncture mark as the last victim, but they don't have enough evidence to charge Emma, so at Huang's suggestion, Stabler and Benson act like Stabler is very bossy and demanding of Benson like Matt was to Emma and Benson pretends to sympathize with Emma to get her to confess: Emma's mother was dying of cancer for five years and Emma took care of her. She killed her to end her suffering while her brother was in medical school. She reveals that there's more than five victims (six with Matt): there's dozens who she doesn't know the names of. She murdered them with air embolisms while she was going to school and all she knows of their names is that they were called "Mama."
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
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Callie Thorne as Defense Attorney Nikki Staines
- Mike Doyle as C.S.U. Technician Ryan O'Halloran
- Daniel Pearce as Defense Attorney Egan
- Caren Browning as C.S.U. Technician Judith Siper
- Tom O'Rourke as Judge Mark Seligman
- Joanna Merlin as Judge Lena Petrovsky
- Philip Bosco as Judge Joseph P. Terhune
- Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner
- Harvey Atkin as Judge Alan Ridenour
- Peter McRobbie as Judge Walter Bradley
- William Whitehead as Judge Philip Wyler
- Gibson Frazier as Forensic Technician Pat Fisher
- Joselin Reyes as Paramedic Martinez
- Joseph E. Murray as Paramedic Olson
- Kevin Jiggetts as Officer Green
Guest cast[]
- Anthony Rapp as Matt Spevak
- Richard Easton as Richard Sutton
- Isabel Glasser as Josette Brooks
- Edmund Lyndeck as Mr. Zelman
- Jane Krakowski as Emma Spevak
- James A. Stephens as Harvey Cohen
- Eunice Anderson as Alexis Sutton
- Trevor Jones as Ben Pawler
- Paul Urcioli as Eddie Wooding
- Michael Howell as John Ridley
- Mark Fairchild as Dr. David Brelsford
- Lisa LeGuillou as Lisa DiMarco
- Tara Greenway as Lori Smith
- Diane Bradley as Estelle Garson
- Carmen Dell'Orefice as Marion
- Jan Owen as Mrs. Rabinowitz
References[]
- Donna Brooks (victim)
- Vivian Calas (victim)
- Claudia Wooding (victim)
- Susan Zelman (victim)
- FBI
- New Jersey
- Korean War
- Harry Truman
- Serena Benson
Quotes[]
- Benson: What the hell happened?
- Stabler: Heart attack.
- Benson: Is that the victim?
- Stabler: No. More like the perp.
- Harvey Cohen: [to Olivia] Oh, shame on you, Detective. A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell.
- Stabler: A gentleman doesn't rape and murder his girlfriend.
- Ben Pawler: Donna and I left class together. Went back to her place. What's the big deal?
- Stabler: I'd say about a 40-year age difference.
- Ben Pawler: You should try it. Older women, they have more experience. They're less inhibited. And you don't have to worry about getting them knocked up.
- Benson: You forgot to mention 'financially independent'.
- Ben Pawler: Donna has a lot of dough, definitely sweetens the pot.
- Stabler: Had a lot of dough, ass-wipe. Donna was murdered last night.
- Ben Pawler: She was fine when I left her. No, I take that back. She was satisfied.
- Benson: Benny, Harvey, Sutton. Donna got around.
- Stabler: Guess she was packing a lot of living into the days she had left.
- Benson: She should've had better taste in men.
- Dr. Matt Spevak: My company is doing well. I don't need their money. I started this foundation to give something back.
- Benson: You gave three women back to God. Does that count?
- Dr. Huang: I'm not so sure Spevak's guilty.
- Stabler: Well, gee, Doc, do you know something that we don't or are you just extending Spevak a little professional courtesy?
- Munch: Answering machine's blinking.
- Tutuola: Probably a collection agency.
- Answering machine: Hey, Spevak, you're late again. You better pay up, Doc, or we're coming over.
- Tutuola: Doesn't sound like MasterCard.
- Munch: Explains why he killed the old ladies. He needs money, fast.
- Huang: Chances are Emma dumped it. I looked at the autopsy photos of the first three victims. [to Stabler] Strangle me?
- Stabler: I'll try.
- Novak: I just need Your Honor's signature...
- Alan Ridenour: You just hit the jackpot, dearie.
- Judge Bradley: I'm in.
- Judge Terhune: I believe you all know A.D.A. Novak.
- Novak: Judge Ridenour, Judge Petrovski, Judge Wyler, Judge Bradley. I've had this nightmare before, only I was naked.
- Judge Petrovsky: Charming.
- Judge Terhune: What is so important that it couldn't wait until morning?
- Novak: An exhumation order.
- Judge Wyler: You better sign it, Joe. The corpse might be a flight risk.
- Judge Terhune: And you want me to disturb the sanctity of the dead on your say so?
- Novak: I have a very convincing but long argument that'll disrupt the sanctity of your poker game.
- Stabler: You protect your brother and he almost kills you. You're pathetic.
- Emma Spevak: I loved my brother.
- Benson: Elliot, leave her alone.
- Stabler: Shut up! You know what the problem is? Women shouldn't be cops, they shouldn't be doctors. They're too weak and stupid.
- Emma Spevak: I was always the good girl. Always the helper. "Emma, do this. Emma, do that."
- Benson: I know how you feel. My mother was a drunk. I had to carry her into her bed every night, had to scrub the vomit off the floor. I thought I'd never escape.
- Emma Spevak: But you did.
- Benson: Yeah. After she died. It's the only time that I ever felt free.
- Emma Spevak: Mothers are all the same. You try to be good to them and all they do is treat you like dirt.
- Benson: How did you do it, Emma?
- Emma Spevak: With a little shot of air. It always worked so quickly.
- Benson: What do you mean?
- Emma Spevak: When I was in nursing school, I'd see daughters by their mothers' beds, trapped, watching their lives disappear.
- Benson: So you helped them.
- Emma Spevak: I set them free.
- Olivia Benson: How many were there?
- Emma Spevak: Dozens.
- Olivia Benson: Do you remember any of their names?
- Emma Spevak: They were all called Mama.
Background information and notes[]
- Though not inspired by anything, there was a true crime similar to the storyline. In Mexico, Juana Barraza murdered many elderly women, because of a grudge she had against her own grandmother. She was arrested in 2006, and was known as La Mataviejitas ("The Little Old Lady Killer")
- After the body of the suspect's mother is exhumed, the medical examiner states that she was able to find the evidence that the mother was injected with an air embolism because NY State requires that a deceased person be embalmed. NY State does not require the deceased to be embalmed.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Jackson Heights |
Federal Bureau |
Office of |
Office of |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Apartment of |
Arraignment |
Office of |
Sherman Cemetery |
| Previous episode: "Painless" |
"Bound" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 5 |
Next episode: "Poison" |