| "Mask" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 12.13 | → |
| Production number: 12013 First aired: 12 January 2011 | ||
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| Written By Speed Weed Directed By Donna Deitch | ||
Summary[]
When a woman is raped by a masked man with her domestic partner tied on the bed beside them, Benson and Stabler try to identify the man. Ann Jackson is left in critical condition, but her partner remembers details that strike a chord in Ann's father's memory. Unfortunately, Captain Jackson is a psychiatrist who invokes privilege, which leaves Benson and Stabler to investigate the doctor and what turns out to be quite a colorful and dissolute history.
Plot[]
Two brothers are peeping on what they believe is a sexual act before they realize its a crime. The detectives are called in by the boys to investigate the rape of a woman named Debbie as well as the physical attack on Debbie's domestic partner, Ann, which left her unconscious. Benson wishes to talk to Debbie to have a rape kit done, but it turns out Debbie is a surgeon and is operating on Ann. She doesn't have the time to consent to the kit.
Ann's father, Captain Jackson, is visiting her in the hospital. Debbie provides details about the attack, and how the rapist had worn a mask and told her that he'd "cure her of Falmouth." Jackson is surprised at that statement and the detectives think he knows more about the case than he is revealing.
The same mask has been spotted being used by a serial rapist in Virginia, and Jackson admits he may know the attacker's identity because he is a psychiatrist who treats sex addicts, but he can't tell the detectives who it is because it would break doctor/patient confidentiality. Stabler says that sex addicts can't be cured, but Jackson disagrees and tells him that he was a sex addict himself and believes he is cured.
Jackson says he and Ann grew estranged after an incident in Falmouth. He can't remember what actually happened, but he was drunk and had sex. After that, Ann refused to speak with him anymore. Stabler accuses Jackson of raping his daughter. Huang figures out the mask the rapist wears is the Hindu God of Love and Redemption. He seems to want to "cure" women who'd been raped by raping them again. Huang also finds several other cities where the rapist struck.
The rapist strikes again, but his victim manages to stab him in the forearm with a knife. The knife is taken as evidence and DNA analysis. Stabler goes undercover at Jackson's sex rehabilitation clinic in order to track down the rapist, who is probably one of Jackson's patients. Stabler hopes to find the one patient with an injured arm.
Jackson confesses to Benson about that night in Falmouth. He honestly believes that he had raped his daughter, but also says the masked rapist deserves to be saved and not caged. Stabler meets with other sex addicts and finds that one of them does have a bandaged arm.
Stabler meets Courtney in the group, and she starts flirting shamelessly with him because he's her type. When she catches him talking on his phone, she accuses him of being a cop and grabs his phone and says she'll have sex with him in exchange for the phone. When Stabler refuses, she takes his phone anyway. The therapy session proceeds, but Jackson enters the room and is shocked to see Stabler seated in the circle.
Stabler believes the rapist is a patient named Clay who has bandages on his arm. Meanwhile, Linda, one of Ann's old friends, goes to visit her in the hospital. Jackson confronts her and asks if she remembers what happened at Falmouth. Linda confesses that Jackson was drunk and had seduced her, but the sex was consensual. He did not rape his daughter that night. When Linda had revealed to Ann what happened with Jackson, she stopped speaking to her father as she was Ann's first love and they broke her heart. Stunned by this revelation, Jackson personally agrees to help Stabler catch the rapist.
Stabler and Jackson concoct a story that Stabler's "urges" come from experiences with his father and that he had a thing about rolling up sleeves as an excuse to get the patients to roll their sleeves up. Stabler and Jackson are surprised when Clay's bandage reveals a freshly inked tattoo. If the rapist isn't among the patients, then he has to be among the staff but investigation had revealed all of them clean. Stabler brings up the rapes in other cities and Jackson suggests that because the other clinics use a database the rapist could have simply hacked in for them but his clinic doesn't use the database because one of his staff, Brett handles it. The two realize Brett is the rapist as he had access to the information on the victims and was there when Jackson talked about his believing he raped his daughter.
Stabler calls his phone, which is still in Courtney's possession. Courtney has relapsed and received a note from what she believes to be Stabler and went to an abandoned cop bar, as Stabler orders her to leave before Brett suddenly shows up, wearing the mask. He grabs the screaming Courtney and the phone call is disconnected.
Brett ties Courtney up, while stating he's curing her to make her respectable before Stabler and Jackson rush to the bar and stop Brett before he can attack Courtney. A fight breaks out but ends with Brett being beaten and unmasked. They also found the knife bruise on Brett's arm, confirming their suspicions. Brett pleads to Jackson and explains that by raping them, he's 'curing' the women of their tendencies. Disgusted by this, Jackson angrily states that he personally hopes for the authorities to lock Brett in prison forever for what he did to these women, including his daughter. At that point, Stabler arrests Brett for the assaults and takes him away, while a stunned Courtney affirms that Stabler was a cop all along, as she earlier suspected.
Following Brett's arrest, Ann is still in a coma, and Jackson tells the detectives that his clinic will be shut down because he broke confidentiality and a detective had been working undercover there. Stabler is sorry that this has happened because while some of the patients deserve to go to jail, Jackson was really helping some of them. Jackson sits by his daughter's hospital bed and waits for her to wake up.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Sergeant John Munch (credit only)
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola
- B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
- Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner (credit only)
- Dann Florek as Captain Don Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Jeremy Irons as Dr. Cap Jackson
- Melissa Sagemiller as A.D.A. Gillian Hardwicke
- Mariette Hartley as Attorney Lorna Scarry
- Anne James as Dr. Jane Larom
Guest cast[]
- Chris Meyer as Clay Gibson
- Lindsey Kraft as Courtney
- Chandler Williams as Dr. Brett Kincaid
- Jennifer Roszell as Linda
- Geoffrey Cantor as Victor
- Karen Ludwig as Receptionist
- A.J. Cook as Dr. Debbie Shields
- Jeremy Bobb as Donny Greenway
- Michael Devries as Professor Wilson
- Julia Bray as Holly Dimeo
- Dylan Blue as Dwayne
- Gabriel Rush as Harry
- Craig Bockhorn as Fritz Landry
- Marguerite Stimpson as Ann Jackson
- Dina Ann Comolli as Zoe
- Mark Fairchild as Surgeon
References[]
Quotes[]
- [Fin brings in two boys who witnessed the attack]
- Tutuola: Will you settle for a couple of peepers from across the street? Dwyane and Harry called 911 right after they got done playing a little Rear Window.
- Fritz Landry: When God makes you pregnant, stay pregnant. When God makes you barren, stay barren.
- Stabler: When God gives you a uterus, maybe we'll listen to your sermon.
- Stabler: [to Cap Jackson] How do you think your daughter is going to feel when she finds out you protected her attacker? She gonna wake up and say, "Thank you, Daddy?"
- Hardwicke: Shrinks want to call sex addiction an illness like depression or schizophrenia?
- Stabler: [to Cap Jackson] No wonder you want sex addiction to be a disease. Lets you off the hook for being a lousy husband.
- Stabler: So, Doc, earlier today with Jackson, you were just flattering him to get him to talk, weren't you?
- Dr. Huang: Sex addiction is real, Elliot. Cap Jackson is a pioneer.
- Stabler: We always say the victims aren't to blame. Now you're telling me rapists aren't to blame either.
- Dr. Huang: Most sex addicts are not rapists, but some rapists might be sex addicts acting out on compulsions they can't control.
- Stabler: Every defense attorney we face is gonna be quoting you.
- Dr. Huang: Alcoholics who drive drunk go to jail. So should sex addicts who rape.
- [about the rapist]
- Dr. Huang: He's a narcissist.
- Stabler: Of course he is: he thinks he's a god!
- Holly Dimeo: I was on my way to work when this freak comes out of nowhere and pushes me into the basement.
- Cragen: Where do you work, Holly?
- Holly Dimeo: At Double-D Light. I'm a stripper, okay?
- Stabler: It doesn't matter what you do. It's not an invitation to be sexually assaulted.
- [When Courtney tries to seduce Stabler]
- Stabler: Courtney, there's no need for this.
- Courtney: You gay or something?
- Stabler: Courtney, listen to me. My daughter had trouble with drugs. She was promiscuous, but she's clean. You're clean.
- Courtney: You're a walking douchebag. Won't screw a perfectly good piece of tail.
- Brett Kincaid: [as he is cuffed] I cured them Cap! Now tell him to let me go.
- Cap Jackson: [finding a wound on Kincaid's arm] I hope they lock you up for life.
- Courtney: (watching Elliot arrest Kincaid) I knew you were a cop!
Background information and notes[]
- At one point, Cap holds a lion toy. His actor, Jeremy Irons, voiced Scar in The Lion King. This is possibly a reference to this role.
- Jeremy Irons plays the recurring character of Dr. Captain Jackson who aids the SVU in the pursuit of a pedophile. He had previously played the most famous fictional pedophile of all, Humbert Humbert, in the 1997 adaptation of Lolita (1997).
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 |
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Tri-State |
The Jackson Clinic |
| Previous episode: "Possessed" |
"Mask" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 12 |
Next episode: "Dirty" |