| "Fat" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 7.20 | → |
| Production number: 07021 First aired: 2 May 2006 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Patrick Harbinson Directed By Juan J. Campanella | ||
Plot[]
Stabler receives an expected break from Benson when he's paired with a rule-bending detective named Lucius Blaine. The two work on a case involving a 16-year-old girl who was violently attacked by a pair of siblings.
Summary[]
A teenager named Jessica DeLay is found badly beaten, sodomized and with a finger amputated, detectives suspect a store clerk named Hamzid Latif whose store was raided by the Manhattan Health Department, which Jessica works for. He says Jessica harassed him because he refused to sell her cigarettes. At the hospital, Jessica tells detectives that her assailants had kidnapped, sexually assaulted, brutally beat, and mutilated her. She also states that there was more than one suspect. Blaine finds Mia and Kenny at Coretta Scott King High School and take the siblings in for questioning. Kenny doesn't say anything other than asking for a soda while Mia asks to see her mother, Blaine intimidates Mia into confessing, resulting in a war of words and a brawl between himself and Stabler, which is quickly broken up. The two are called into Cragen's office, where Elliot is reprimanded and ordered to continue working the case with Blaine, despite their constant disagreements.
The detectives question Mia and Kenny's family, where they meet their brother Rudi. Rudi claims the two were at home the night of the incident. Rudi is himself badly beaten in a wheelchair. During the search, the detectives find the weapon used to sodomize and beat Jessica DeLay in Kenny's room. The weapon is presented to Mia, as well as the evidence her footprint matches one of the ones found at the crime scene. Mia says Jessica stole her brother Rudi's cap, and that's when she knew that Jessica was one of the people who beat up her brother Rudi. Kenny seconds this story, claiming Jessica is not as she seems, that she verbally assaulted all of them for being overweight, and that they did what they did in retaliation towards her behavior. Jessica continues to play victim.
Following public outrage towards the detective's perceived eagerness towards prosecuting Jessica's attackers, Rudi decides to finally file a case regarding his attack three weeks prior. He claims, while walking home from work, he was assaulted by two individuals in the park. He recalls lots of hateful comments regarding his weight, that they took his cap, and that one of the attackers ordered the other to 'take a picture'. This picture is found on a website where hate is spread, and the detectives arrest Jessica and her friend Tommy Strahan who was in the photo kicking Rudi. Rudi ID's him in the lineup but fails to ID Jessica. A video of the detectives arresting Strahan contaminates the lineup, as it was posted before Rudi saw the lineup, meaning he could've seen it prior and was therefore able to ID him. This means they couldn't hold Strahan, and as he was being released, Rudi arrives at the station, shooting Strahan dead.
Rudi Bixton is next prosecuted for shooting Tommy Strahan, where he is found guilty of second-degree murder. Rudi was not present for the verdict, due to being rushed to the hospital for kidney failure and an amputation of his left foot. Jessica is questioned again after finding a picture of her wearing Rudi's cap. Jessica's hate for fat people was fueled by her own trauma as a younger teen, when she was over 200 lbs. herself.
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 (credit only)
- Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- David Thornton as Defense Attorney Lionel Granger
- Mike Doyle as C.S.U. Detective Ryan O'Halloran
- Peter McRobbie as Judge Walter Bradley
- J. Paul Nicholas as Defense Attorney Linden Delroy
- Karl Kenzler as Father Denis
- Francis Jue as Dr. Fong
Guest cast[]
- Anthony Anderson as Detective Lucius Blaine
- Natalie Cole as Defense Attorney Serena Waldren
- Rooney Mara as Jessica DeLay
- David Bishins as Rufus Brownell
- José Ramón Rosario as Principal Rivera
- Paul Calderon as Eric Molina
- Omar Benson Miller as Rudi Bixton
- Billy Wheelan as Tommy Strahan
- Wallace Little as Kenny Bixton
- Shahidah McIntosh as Mia Bixton
- James Andrew Walsh as Detective Manny D'Aquino
- Ted Sod as Hamzid Latif
- Yvette Mercedes as Gloria
- Lauren Toub as Lori
- Georgienne Millen as Homeless Woman
- Patsy Wygle as Jury Forewoman
References[]
Quotes[]
- [about questioning a teenage assault victim]
- Lucius Blaine: Look, man, we've got a window of opportunity.
- Stabler: I understand that, but scaring the girl's not gonna get us anything.
- Lucius Blaine: Sorry. Forgot I was dealing with Detective Sensitive.
- [about Blaine]
- Stabler: Why'd you land this blowhard on me?
- Cragen: He's a good cop. Queens SVU speaks highly of him.
- Stabler: Right, that's why they dumped him on us. Where's Benson?
- Cragen: Computer Crimes. You needed a break from each other.
- Stabler: In whose opinion?
- Cragen: Decision's made.
- Lucius Blaine: We're looking for a 240 pound teenaged girl?
- Dr. Warner: Whose blood glucose is through the roof. When you arrest her, be sure and tell her she has Type 2 diabetes.
- Blaine: In Queens, we treat a victim like a victim.
- Stabler: Then go back to Queens.
- [about Kenny Bixton]
- Cragen: He say anything?
- Stabler: Yeah, get me a soda.
- Cragen: He needs to ease up on the soda.
- Blaine: No wonder your partner dumped you.
- Stabler: What'd you just say to me?
- Blaine: You screwed her, now you're trying to screw me.
- Cragen: You know why I put Blane with you?
- Stabler: Because you started drinking again?
- Cragen: So you know what you're like to work with.
- Stabler: What does that mean? I don't lie to kids.
- Cragen: He bends the rules. You do too.
- Stabler: Not with kids.
- Cragen: Do you want me to list every time you've crossed the line? You're a good cop. But God knows how Olivia put up with you for so long.
- Stabler: Oh. Well, Olivia's a saint.
- Blaine: Sorry about your shirt.
- Stabler: Sorry about your face...Look, we don't got any other choice. Let's just work this case. Alright?
- Lionel Granger: Why don't you go do your jobs and charge the little... sorry, large bastards who ruined this girl's life?
- Cragen: [on the phone] What, did Cheney shoot somebody else?
- Blaine: Why would you let your little brother and sister fight your fight? What kind of man are you? Why are they in jail when the people who attacked you should be, huh?
- Rudi Bixton: Because I got so damn fat, I let children beat me.
- Lucius Blaine: [referring to Jessica DeLay and Tommy Strahan] These two psychos. They started this whole thing.
- Novak: Yeah, and they've been punished. She was raped, beaten and mutilated, and he's dead. If the Bixton family didn't keep taking the law into their own hands...
- Lucius Blaine: Hey, they have no reason to trust the law.
- [about murdering Tommy Strahan]
- Novak: You weren't blind with rage. You planned the entire thing. He beat you. He humiliated you. You wanted to prove that you were a man. You aren't sorry you shot him, are you? Are you?
- Rudi Bixton: No. I'm glad he's dead. And I'd do it again.
- Stabler: [to Jessica DeLay] People can't help being black or gay, but being fat, well, that's their fault, right?
Background information and notes[]
- Anthony Anderson played Detective Lucius Blaine in this episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Anderson would later play Detective Kevin Bernard on Law & Order.
- Anderson and Omar Benson Miller would later appear together as cousins in Michael Bay's 2007 action sci-fi film Transformers.
- This is Natalie Cole's final acting credit before she died on December 31, 2015, at age 65.
- Rooney Mara's sister Kate previously appeared in the season two episode Pixies.
- Olivia says that she and Elliot had been partners for 7 years. However, when the series first began, it was said that they were already partners for about a year and a half. Also, in the 9th episode of the series there was a 6 month time jump. Thus, they had been partners for about 9 years at that point.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Manhattan |
Office of the |
Mercy General Hospital |
Coretta Scott King |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Apartment of |
Apartment of |
Trial Part 38 |
Trial Part 38 |
| Previous episode: "Fault" |
"Fat" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 7 |
Next episode: "Web" |