| "Hysteria" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 1.04 | → |
| Production number: E0908 First aired (US): 11 October 1999 First aired (CAN): 11 October 1999 First aired (AUS): 28 February 2000 | ||
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| Written By Dawn DeNoon & Lisa Marie Petersen Directed By Richard Dobbs | ||
Stabler and Benson investigate the murder of a young woman who is the latest in a long line of victims.
Plot[]
A young African-American woman is found dead in alley with her skirt hiked up, and is believed to be a prostitute. While the woman remains unidentified, SVU discovers that there have been cases similar to theirs and try to find leads on other victims. Later, the M.E. informs that the rape and drug tests were negative, and that the hooker oddly had great teeth.
Meanwhile, Munch testifies against a doctor who videotaped his sexual assault on his patients during his treatment for hysteria. The treatment in question is making the patient orgasm to relieve them of their symptoms.
Back at SVU, there is a possible match to their Jane Doe: 19 year-old Tracy Henderson, who had been missing for two days. Benson and Stabler go to question the Henderson's, who also I.D. the body via a picture. When Stabler tells the parents that Tracy's attacker was targeting prostitutes, they both become angry.
Benson and Stabler meet Dennis Caulfield, Tracy's boyfriend, who gives the detectives an alibi, and points them in the direction of Tracy's volunteer center at a literacy club. One person did not show up that day, a Travis Hall, who is a parolee from Rikers. Benson and Stabler find Hall dead from an overdose in his apartment.
Their possible living victim, Lorinda Gutierrez, is tracked down. After she is questioned and describes her attack, Stabler and Benson reenact the attack in front of the squad. Munch points out that the flashlight beam from Gutierrez's attack is from a cop, and Benson and Stabler canvas the streets and question the prostitutes. Vice officer Sal D'Angelo comes up from the questioning, and he was coincidentally the first officer at the scene of Tracy's murder, and knew the other victims.
Cragen meets up with Lennie Briscoe, who worked with D'Angelo in the '70s. Briscoe informs him that D'Angelo had a temper at a golf tournament, but points the direction of D'Angelo's partner, Ridley. Ridley's I.A.D. file is full of assaults, a few of them against prostitutes. Ridley's neighbors tell Benson and Stabler that Ridley's mother was a prostitute, and if she had a customer in the house, she would leave saltines on the doorstep as his dinner and make him sit there all night.
Stabler goes home to kick soccer balls at his daughter Kathleen, practicing as a goalie. He tries to use soccer as metaphor for giving her the sex talk, but she becomes angry at him, stating that she is a virgin. The next morning, Stabler arrives at SVU to find that Benson spent all night cross-referencing attacks on prostitutes to precincts where Ridley worked over the last 30 years. When he is arrested, Ridley confesses to them all, showing no remorse, yet informing the detectives that he did not murder Tracy Henderson.
The squad concludes that Tracy does not fit Ridley's pattern, and divert their attention back to Dennis Caulfield. Benson and Stabler question Caulfield's alibi, Bill, who tells them that Caulfield is not Tracy's boyfriend, and he is engaged to another girl. Caulfield had seen Tracy at a club one night, looking for jungle fever, but Tracy is extremely inexperienced and had never even had a glass of wine, let alone sex. The morning after, Tracy wakes up, madly in love with Caulfield, and calls him up to go dancing with him, saying that she'd wear something hot for once. Bill says that Caulfield came home alone after standing her up, and asked Bill to lie for him.
The shoeprint found at Tracy's crime scene is examined, discovering that it is from an exotic Italian shoe brand. The squad searches through Caulfield's shoe collection, but are unable to find them. Benson and Stabler visit Caulfield's parents, and question them, running into Dennis. The detectives interrogate Dennis, and Benson suddenly realizes that Dennis is wearing the shoes they're looking for.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Dean Winters as Detective Brian Cassidy
- Michelle Hurd as Detective Monique Jeffries
- Isabel Gillies as Kathy Stabler
- Erin Broderick as Maureen Stabler
- Holiday Segal as Kathleen Stabler
- Patricia Cook as Elizabeth Stabler
- Jeffrey Scaperrotta as Dickie Stabler
- Lisa Tharps as A.D.A.
- Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe
- Leslie Hendrix as Dr. Elizabeth Rodgers
- Judy Del Giudice as Judge Elizabeth Masullo
Guest cast[]
- Garrett M. Brown as Officer Peter Ridley
- Joe Lisi as Officer Sal D'Angelo
- Frederick B. Owens as John Henderson
- Jillian Bowen as Rose
- Brad Beyer as Dennis Caufield
- Lisa Summerour as Mrs. Henderson
- Delphi Harrington as Evelyn Caulfield
- Gloria Sauvé as Jacelyn Myers
- Page Johnson as Harry Rosen
- Redman Maxfield as Charles Caulfield
- Susan Willis as Mrs. Overton
- Dan Snook as Bill Griswold
- Shantell Herndon as Angel
- Selenis Leyva as Lorinda Gutierrez
- Anne Kanengeiser as Court Reporter
- Katy Grenfell as B.J.
- Dana Lynn Mauro as Maria
- Bridgit Antoinette Evans as Tawana
- Sondra James as Agnes Rosen
- David Newer as Defense Attorney
- Irene Mazeski as Candy
- Nashom Benjamin as Chick
- Scott Weston as Lola
- James Coyle as Forensics Tech
- Welly Yang as Medical Examiner's Assistant
- Tom Gerard as Fredo Valenti
- Kimberly Reddrick as Tracy Henderson
References[]
- Frommer's
- 31st Precinct
- Atlantic City, New Jersey
- China
- FBI
- Vice Squad
- Carmel Jones (victim)
- Tracy Henderson (victim)
- Imelda Marcos
- Mexico
- Bill Griswold
- Travis Hall
- Columbia University
- Scarsdale
- Vermont
Quotes[]
- Cragen: Well, while you wait take her photo around, see if you can find a co-worker who knew her, all right. Munch, Cassidy! You available?
- Munch: To do with as you will, after court.
- Cragen: Oh, right, Doctor Buzzjoy.
- Jeffries: Oh, that's an open and shut case, Munch, try not to screw it up with your insane rambling. And stop looking at my ass.
- Munch: Miss Webber was told to disrobe, put her feet up in stirrups, and try to picture David Hasselhoff on Baywatch.
- Defense Attorney: Objection! Your Honor, this witness is not qualified to testify on the treatment for hysteria.
- Munch: Actually, sir, I am. Up until 1952, hysteria was one of the most commonly diagnosed illnesses among women. The medical treatment was hysterical paroxysm.
- Stenographer: Could the witness spell that?
- Munch: O-R-G-A-S-M.
[Stenographer looks shocked] - Defense Attorney: Objection! Would it surprise you to learn that, historically, the onus fell upon physicians to bring about relief of these ladies' symptoms?
- ADA: Your Honor, please instruct counsel to withhold his questions until cross.
- Munch: [to Judge Masullo] I don't mind, Your Honor. [to ADA] In fact, I believe the manual version of this treatment dates back to Hippocrates, and was attested to right up through the Middle Ages, up into the 1890s, when the vibrator was invented to speed things along.
- ADA and Defense Attorney: Objection!
- Judge Elizabeth Masullo: Sustained.
- Stabler: I'd never let my daughters go out dressed like that.
- Benson: Yeah, right. Just wait.
- Stabler: What does that mean?
- Munch: Ah but we digress, back to the dead whore.
- Jeffries: Jerkwad, have some respect for the victim!
- Munch: Hey, I respect hookers, at least they earn their money upfront, unlike ex-wives who get you with that lucrative backend deal.
- Jeffries: Oh, so you're saying all women are whores?
- Munch: Don't be ridiculous. I don't know all the women in the world.
- Munch: What does this look like? Here's a clue: non-gun hand to the side...
- Stabler: A cop.
- Munch: Pow.
- Cragen: When you were at the 3-1, did you know a cop named Sal D'Angelo?
- Briscoe: The '70s are a blur.
- Cragen: Tell me about it. Closest I ever came to time travel.
- Briscoe: D'Angelo's a bastard. C'mon. So are you. So am I. We're all bastards.
- Captain Cragen: I'll have a Perrier.
- Briscoe: You're still drinking that French swill? Gimme a bottle of Pelligrino.
- Cragen: You still gotta one-up me, Lennie.
- Stabler: 18 gets you a needle in the arm, same as 19.
- Ridley: I know. That's why I want my record properly documented. For posterity.
- Stabler: You know what they call an accomplice in prison, Billy? Bunkmate.
- Benson: Oh, my God. He's wearin' them.
- Stabler: Nice shoes.
Background information and notes[]
- Law & Order star Jerry Orbach makes his second crossover appearance as Detective Lennie Briscoe, after appearing in the previous episode "...Or Just Look Like One".
- Actress Lisa Tharps appears for the first time as the Assistant District Attorney assigned to the Special Victims Unit.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Intersection of |
Supreme Court |
Home of |
Kershaw, Naughton |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Clinton Community Center |
Intersection of |
Landmark Tavern |
Kew Gardens |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Special Victims Unit |
Forensics Laboratory |
Home of |
Roosevelt Hospital |
| Previous episode: "...Or Just Look Like One" |
"Hysteria" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 1 |
Next episode: "Wanderlust" |