| "Control" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 5.09 | → |
| Production number: E4413 First aired: 18 November 2003 | ||
 | ||
| Teleplay By Neal Baer Story By Dick Wolf Directed By Ted Kotcheff | ||
Summary[]
The Detectives find themselves hunting for a person who cut off a man's genitals, and left him to die. But what starts out looking like a homeless-crazy man may have done the deed, further investigation reveals a much more sinister reason behind why Mr. Gorman was butchered. Olivia finds herself re-visiting the abduction and rape of a woman she didn't believe four years earlier, because the woman was drunk, and her complaint sounded too outrageous.
Plot[]
An elderly man, Horace Gorman is found mutilated in a train station, but then it is discovered that Mr. Gorman is responsible for abducting women and forcing them to marry him & stay in his dungeon. Olivia is shocked when it is discovered that a former rape victim, Hilary Barclay, was a victim of Mr. Gorman. After Mr. Gorman is found murdered in a hotel room, Olivia is the first at the scene which makes the defense attorney accuse her of murdering him instead of Hilary's mother Juliet who confessed before the attorney got it thrown out. After the murder weapon is determined to be 99% gold and 1% rhodium, Stabler, Finn and O'Halloran are able to find it in Juliet's antique shop. On the stand, Novak questions Hilary about it and she confesses to the castration and murder though her mother claims Hilary is only doing it to protect her. With no other choice, Novak drops the charges against Juliet and has Hilary arrested for murder. However, that night as the group is leaving the station, Novak turns up with a shocking piece of evidence that Juliet's attorney gave her: a security tape proving that Hilary was elsewhere at the time of the murder. Juliet did murder Gorman and Novak can't charge her now due to double jeopardy. Hilary doesn't care that she's going to prison, admitting that she was the one that castrated Gorman in revenge for her experience. Juliet murdered him to protect her and she lied to protect her mother. She shows no remorse for her actions as Gorman can no longer harm anyone.
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[]
- David Thornton as Defense Attorney Lionel Granger
- Caren Browning as C.S.U. Technician Judith Siper
- Mike Doyle as C.S.U. Technician Ryan O'Halloran
- Joanna Merlin as Judge Lena Petrovsky
- Linda Powell as Lauren White
- James T. Williams II as Officer Marvin Bryson
Guest cast[]
- Jacqueline Bisset as Juliet Barclay
- Austin Pendleton as Horace Gorman
- Mickey Hargitay as Grandfather
- Joseph McKenna as Samuel
- Samantha Mathis as Hilary Barclay
- Eddie Korbich as Nick Petracho
- Kellee Stewart as Neva
- Leonid Citer as Dr. Amos Dudayev
- Pierre Epstein as Rabbi Goldberger
- Abigail Savage as Dot
- Bryant Fraser as Desk Clerk
- Ken Forman as Larry Delay
- Ben Bailey as Transit Sergeant Ambrose
- Mackenzie Milone as Maria
- Rick Zahn as Concierge
- Darren Mathias as ESU Cop #1
- Sulinh Lafontaine as Cambodian Victim
References[]
- B'nai Barak Synogogue
- Grand Central Station
- Lydia Hotel
- Serena Benson
- Joseph Hollister
- Melinda Warner
- Bob the Builder
- Horace Gorman (victim)
- Lucifer
- Porphyria
- Samael
- Payton v. New York
- Roger Silver
- Eric Plummer
Quotes[]
- Officer Marvin Bryson: Still haven't found the package.
- Benson: What package?
- Stabler: Uh, Mr. Gorman's. His penis and testicles were cut off. And they're still missing.
- Benson: Maybe Mr. Gorman didn't want to be a man anymore.
- Stabler: You really think he wanted his Johnson hacked off?
- Munch: He could've been the member of some cult. In ancient Rome, priests of the goddess Cybele would castrate themselves to achieve divine status.
- Tutuola: How d'you know that?
- Munch: The Internet.
- Cragen: So either Gorman was snipped by a homeless guy, or had a voluntary penectomy. [pause] Not a word I get to use everyday.
- Munch: You're an allergist!
- Dr. Amos Dudayev: I'm still a doctor.
- Tutuola: That doesn't give you a license to relieve men of their peckers.
- Dudayev: You ask me to beat you and I do, have I committed a crime? Someone wants me to excise their testicles or penis, it's the same thing.
- Munch: Is this one of your volunteers?
- Dudayev: Never seen him, but I'd be happy to take a referral.
- Benson: So any sign of his... missing goods?
- Stabler: Don't tell me, Catholic vampire?
- [about Hillary Barclay]
- Juliet Barclay: She's brought me nothing but grief. She's a junkie. When she wasn't in and out of rehab or psych wards, she was stealing from my store, wrecking my marriages, telling outrageous lies. My pregnancy ended my modeling career.
- Stabler: Sounds like you never wanted her.
- Juliet Barclay: Women didn't have a choice back then. So whatever she's done now, it is her problem.
- Dr. Huang: He released Hillary, I'd say he lets them go when he gets bored.
- Munch: So we've got half a dozen women who would love to make this guy a falsetto.
- [after Olivia is found in a hotel room with Mr. Gorman's dead body]
- Stabler: Are you protecting her?
- Benson: You think that I'm covering for Hilary?
- Stabler: Where'd you drop her off?
- Benson: At her mother's.
- Stabler: They're estranged, remember?
- Benson: Hilary wanted to talk to her.
- Stabler: When'd you leave her there?
- Benson: A couple of hours ago, and I don't need you interrogating me.
- Stabler: Why didn't you come back to the squad?
- Benson: Because I had a hunch. I checked out five hotels, and this one was number six.
- Stabler: Without backup! What the hell's the matter with you?
- Benson: Elliot, don't start with me.
- Stabler: You're out of control.
- Benson: I never had control of this one, remember? I lost my judgment.
- Stabler: Everyone makes mistakes. Get over it.
- Cragen: What's going on?
- Benson: I can't do this anymore.
- Cragen: It's not your fault.
- Benson: One of those victims must have killed Gorman and the worst part is none of this would've happened if I would've just believed Hilary.
- Cragen: These are vulnerable women no one would believe. You can't control what other people do. There'll be perps and victims.
- Benson: You think you need to tell me that? The only reason I'm standing here is because my mother let herself get raped.
- Cragen: Let herself? Since when do you blame the victim?
- Benson: My mother was drunk. So was Hilary. And that's why I didn't believe her. Now these women are paying for it.
- Cragen: Okay, quit. Quit. Throw away the good you've done and the good you'll do over one mistake.
- Lionel Granger: Ready to talk plea?
- Novak: Not on your life.
- Granger: You don't have anything.
- Novak: I have the spontaneous admission in the apartment. Juliet said, and I quote, "I did it." What more do I need?
- Novak: [her opening statement] Horace Gorman was an evil man who committed unspeakable acts of violence, depravity, and cruelty. Nothing would have pleased me more than to convict him and send him to jail for the rest of his life, but I can't. I can't because this woman took the law into her own hands and executed Horace Gorman. Now some of you may be thinking, "Hey, good for her" or you'd do the same to anyone who hurt your child. We all understand the impulse to take revenge, but that doesn't mean we should do it. No one is above the law. Murder is murder, no matter who commits it or why.
- Lionel Granger: [during his opening statement] Ms. Novak's arguments make sense to me, and I hope to you. Murder is murder, no matter who commits it, but, ladies and gentlemen, we don't know who killed Mr. Gorman. Sure, the DA indicted my client, but an indictment isn't evidence. Juliet Barclay may have had a motive to kill Horace Gorman, but motive isn't evidence. And if it was, Juliet Barclay is only one of any number of women with the same motive. There's one woman with more than just a motive to kill Horace Gorman. She also had the means and the opportunity. A woman who knew exactly where Horace Gorman was hiding and went there alone to take her revenge. A woman with a desperate desire to see Mr. Gorman pay for his sins and atone for her own. That woman is Detective Olivia Benson.
- Novak: Objection, Your Honor!
- Judge Petrovsky: Order! Order, or I'll clear the courtroom!
- Benson: I can't believe that Granger's making me a suspect.
- Novak: You went to the hotel alone. You were found with the body. He's trying to create reasonable doubt.
- Benson: So what the hell do I do?
- Novak: Fall on your sword.
- Benson: Meaning what?
- Novak: You'll admit that you screwed up four years ago and that you went to the hotel room alone. Then you'll deny you murdered Gorman.
- Benson: Casey, I...
- Novak: I gotta talk to my boss. See if I can fix this mess. [leaves the room]
- Benson: She didn't even ask me if I did it.
- Stabler: She can't. Look, if she did, and you admitted killing Gorman, she couldn't put you on the stand without suborning perjury.
- Benson: You didn't ask me either.
- Stabler: I know you didn't. You'd have shot the bastard.
- Granger: Explain why, after finding the body, you didn't radio your partner?
- Benson: I was about to when he arrived.
- Granger: Really? The desk clerk said there was a ten-minute interval between your arrival and that of your colleagues, and no one else went to the room.
- Benson: The desk clerk was too busy playing cards to notice who arrived.
- Granger: Answer the question, Detective Benson. Why didn't you call when you found the body?
- Benson: 'Cause I was stunned.
- Granger: Murder can have that effect on people. Well, you know that. You've murdered twice before, haven't you?
- Benson: I shot two suspects who were armed and about to commit murder.
- Granger: Two killings and no charges. I guess the third time's the charm.
- Benson: [to Hillary] Venti whole milk latte. That's what you ordered at the coffee shop when your mother murdered Gorman. We saw you on their surveillance tape.
- Hilary Barclay: Are you going to arrest her?
- Benson: We can't. Double jeopardy.
- Hilary Barclay: I don't mind going to jail.
- Benson: Because you castrated him?
- Hilary Barclay: I followed him for days, waiting for the right moment to kill him. He saw me on the subway platform. I said, "I know who you are," and that I was going to tell his dirty secret. He laughed and said, "Go ahead. No one's going to believe a whoring junkie." He turned, and I hit him on the back of the head, and I dragged him to the end of the platform. And he was lying there, and I had the perfect chance to kill him, but then I realized that castrating him would make him suffer even more.
- Benson: And you told your mother what you'd done? When did you find out that your mother murdered him?
- Hilary Barclay: Not until after you came to arrest me. She did it for me. She wanted to keep me safe. I couldn't let her go to jail.
- Novak: She belongs there. Now, what happened to you is horrible, and I am sorry, but nothing gives you the right to lie, or your mother the right to murder.
- Hilary Barclay: Well, he'll never torture another woman again, will he?
Background information and notes[]
- Mariska Hargitay's father, Mickey Hargitay, has a cameo as the grandfather who appears in the episode's opening.
- Horace Gorman was based on John Jamelske, a millionaire serial rapist-kidnapper, who kept his victims in an underground "sex bunker."
- The name "Gorman" might be a mash-up of the names "Gor" and "Norman". Between 1967 and 1988, an author named John Norman (née John Lange) wrote a series of books called The Chronicles of Gor, about an alternate world where much of the female population have given up all their rights to the men, who dominate them and often rape and humiliate them.
- This is the 100th episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
- Granger mentions that Benson has killed two people before, though he does not name them: Roger Silver in the episode "Disrobed" and Eric Plummer in the episode "Wrath".
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
Home of Dr. Amos Dudayev |
Apartment of |
Apartment of |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|
|
Lydia Hotel |
Grand Central Station |
Chambers of |
| 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|
|
Trial Part 46 |
Trial Part 46 |
Trial Part 46 |
| Previous episode: "Abomination" |
"Control" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 5 |
Next episode: "Shaken" |