| "Mood" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 19.02 | → |
| Production number: 19002 First aired (US): 4 October 2017 First aired (UK): 15 October 2017 First aired (CAN): 4 October 2017 First aired (AUS): 12 October 2017 | ||
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| Written By Allison Intrieri Directed By Michael Pressman | ||
The bizarre details of a woman's rape put the SVU at odds when Rollins and Carisi think her story is fabricated. Meanwhile, Benson goes on the offensive when her personal life is scrutinized.
Summary[]
The SVU team finds themselves at odds when not everybody believes the story of a supposed rape victim. Meanwhile, Benson takes action as her personal life gets closely examined.
Plot[]
The perpetrator of a rape meticulously cleans up his crime scene, while his middle-aged female victim weeps in the bathroom. He takes a blue diamond tennis bracelet from her room.
Savannah Ross, a 20 year-old woman, enters the squad to report her rape. Meanwhile, Benson is questioned by a DA's investigator about an allegation of child abuse toward Noah (SVU: "Gone Fishin'"). The investigator questions Benson about her visits to Dr. Peter Lindstrom and her violent altercation with William Lewis (SVU: "Surrender Benson").
Savannah describes her attack in similar detail to the attack on the middle-aged woman, though there is little evidence as the rape occurred two weeks prior. Savannah tells Rollins that the attacker wore a Prince Charming mask and that she is too afraid to return to her apartment and will need housing vouchers. Fin and Carisi search Savannah's apartment, finding stacks of unpaid bills. They track down a man who met her at a bar after the rape, but this is a dead end.
Carisi and Fin learn from Savannah's boss that he took her to the 21st Precinct to report the rape after he fired her for being late. A detective at the 21st Precinct tells Benson and Rollins he found her less than credible due to her hung-over state and and stating that maybe she dreamed the whole thing up.
Savannah bounced around 10 foster homes, though the detectives cannot find any sexual abuse allegations. One of her foster mothers is skeptical of anything Savannah says as Savannah was caught in bed with her foster brother, Clark, but then claimed she was raped when she had to be moved to a new foster home. She later said that maybe she dreamed the whole thing up.
Rollins wonders if Savannah cried rape only when she needed something. Benson informs Savannah that she cannot continue to use the housing vouchers as her story seems false. Meanwhile, Carisi and Fin visit the home of the middle-aged victim, Nancy Burns. Nancy describes her rapist as wearing a Prince Charming mask. Her attack shares several similarities with Savannah’s story. The detectives connect trace evidence at Nancy’s to the scene of a burglary in Brooklyn the year before.
Carisi and Rollins speak to the burglary victim and realize that the burglary was a planned rape that was interrupted by the presence of the victim's coworker in the apartment. The victim remembers signing a petition a few days before the burglary and that the canvasser remembered her by name a few days after the burglary. Savannah and Nancy both remember signing petitions. The squad narrows down the petitions to a company called the Cooper-Price Group.
Benson discovers that Noah's abuse allegation was fueled by information from Brian Cassidy, Benson's ex, and she confronts him. He tells Benson that he only told the investigator that Benson was a strong woman and that she was kidnapped by Lewis. Disgusted, Benson leaves.
At the Cooper-Price Group, Fin and Carisi discover one of their employees, Tom Williams, was captured in a selfie taken by Savannah. The detectives arrive at Williams' apartment and meet his mother. Fin excuses himself to the bathroom, while Carisi is forced to take tea with the domineering Mrs. Williams. Carisi notices that Mrs. Williams is wearing Nancy's blue diamond tennis bracelet. Fin returns with a jewelry box filled with rape trophies and a petition with Savannah Ross and Nancy Burns' signatures starred along with a third name, Vivian Stevens.
Carisi alerts the rest of squad to Williams' new target. Benson and Rollins arrive while Vivian's attack is in progress. Rollins attempts to connect with Williams when he runs to the roof, but he jumps to another nearby rooftop. Carisi attempts to apprehend Williams, but he slips while climbing around a railing. Though Carisi tries to save him, Williams loses his grip and falls to his death.
Rollins tells Savannah that the city will pay her rent for a few months while she finds a new place. Benson reconnects with her son and watches cartoons, ignoring a phone call from Fin.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Lieutenant Olivia Benson
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Peter Scanavino as Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr.
- Raúl Esparza as A.D.A. Rafael Barba (credit only)
Recurring cast[]
Guest cast[]
- Saxon Sharbino as Savannah Ross
- Robbie Collier-Sublett as Tom Williams
- Amirah Vann as Michelle Morrison
- Christina Rouner as Mrs. Williams
- Marion McCorry as Nancy Burns
- Leah Curney as Taylor
- Shannon Marie Sullivan as Anne Speer
- Tommy Buck as Detective Dal Santo
- Katy Grenfell as Emma Wilkinson
- Spencer Hamp as Nick Collins
- Michael Eugene as Director
- Ken Straus as General Manager
- Kellie Klein as Vivian Stevens
References[]
- Peter Lindstrom
- William Lewis
- Tracy Montgomery
- Bella Carisi
- Teresa Carisi
Quotes[]
- Carisi: What's up?
- Rollins: It's my dog walker. Franny just peed on my new shag carpet.
- Tutuola: That dog pees more than my diabetic granddaddy.
- Rollins: You got a granddaddy that's still alive?
- Tutuola: Grandpa Iggy Tutuola. 95, healthy as a horse.
- Carisi: Except for the diabetes.
- Tutuola: Where I'm from, diabetes is like a head cold.
- Michelle Morrison: This is all pro forma. Just think of it as...
- Benson: A conversation? If I had quarter for every time I've used that line.
- Michelle Morrison: Cards on the table. When they found William Lewis, you'd beaten him to a bloody pulp with a bed rod.
- Benson: But what I realized when I finally got to the other side, when I knew that I was gonna live, when I knew that I was gonna be okay, was that I wanted more. More than the job, more than a relationship. The reason that I fought so hard to stay alive... was for Noah. And I hadn't even met him yet. So if you want to know what I'm guilty of, I'm guilty of being distracted. I'm guilty. I was on the phone and I took my eyes off that boy for one second. That's what I did wrong.
- [about Savannah Ross]
- Carisi: She's behind on all her bills. Most of these credit card statements are final notices.
- Tutuola: That's what your twenties are for. Racking up credit debt.
- Carisi: I never paid a bill late in my life. Not even then.
- Tutuola: What? You couldn't handle all the Hail Marys?
- Carisi: God had nothing to do with it. I wanted to finance a Mustang. Bad credit, I would have been dead in the water.
- Carisi: This photo was taken Tuesday the 12th at 11:00 p.m. Savannah told us the rape happened at 9:00 p.m. So she goes out drinking with her friends two hours after she was raped?
- Tutuola: I know that guy's T-shirt. It's from a company called Pick-Up Kings. It's where tools teach other tools how to bed a different chick every night of the week.
- Carisi: So the numbers on the shirt...?
- Tutuola: Those are notches in his belt.
- Tutuola: 160, huh? Must've had a good week.
- Nick Collins: I don't brag.
- Carisi: [guesturing to his shirt] Oh, yeah? What do you call that, then?
- Nick Collins: A sales tool. Would you pay someone to teach you how to spice up your sex life who could count...
- Carisi: Do not say "conquests".
- Nick Collins: ...his successful dates on one hand?
- Tutuola: What's your secret?
- Nick Collins: That'll cost you.
- Carisi: [to Fin] Okay, you want to call Consumer Fraud or should I?
- Nick Collins: Fine. Look at me. What do you see? A little bit of Brad Pitt's younger brother, right? Around the eyes?
- Carisi: Yeah, if I had one too many and the lights were out.
- Benson: [to Detective Santo] You're supposed to call us.
- Detective Santo: I would have if she hadn't made the whole thing up. I did you guys a favor.
- Benson: Okay, a favor would have been letting us interview her, do a rape kit before two weeks passed.
- Detective Santo: [to Rollins] She always this pleasant?
- Benson: Hey, you want to find out?
- Rollins: Why don't you just tell us what happened?
- Detective Dal Santo: Look, a girl comes in, hung over. The whole time she's telling me what went down, she's looking back at her boss, like she's checking to see if he's listening.
- Benson: Yes, that's normal. Because she'd just went through the most traumatic experince of her life. She doesn't need an audience.
- Detective Dal Santo: Believe me, I get it. I have two daughters. That's why I told her boss to head back to the store, said I'd take it from there.
- Rollins: What did she say?
- Detective Dal Santo: I had her go over the details again. Suddenly it's "maybe this happened", "maybe he did this." I pushed a little, like we do, and that's when she said "Maybe I dreamed the whole thing."
- Rollins: You're kidding.
- Detective Dal Santo: Her exact words. I heard a lot of stories on the job, but that was definitely a first.
- Benson: 'Cause maybe you pushed too hard. And maybe that's why you're supposed to call us.
- Savannah Ross: After it happened, I didn't want to be alone. That's why I went out drinking with my friends. And if that makes me a liar...
- Benson: It doesn't.
- Savannah Ross: Just feel so alone, you know?
- Benson: What about family? What about your parents?
- Savannah Ross: What about them? Look at me. Exhibit A, all the wonders of the New York City foster care system in all its glory. Fourteen years living in other people's houses, sleeping in other people's beds... you know what you pray for most? A new lightbulb. It's crazy, right? But the other one kept burning out because I was too scared to shut it off.
- Benson: I'm so sorry.
- Savannah Ross: You know what's worse than being scared? Being pitied. Yeah, I should have told you that I already reported it to other cops. What's the point? People like you don't believe people like me.
- Benson: I believe you, Savannah. I believe you.
- Tutuola: Savannah was raped all right, by the system. Her parents are both drug addicts and all-around dirtbags. It took them dying to get her out of that house.
- Benson: Okay, well, false rape accusations don't come out of thin air.
- Rollins: Except when they do.
- Benson: That's not how we work, Amanda.
- Benson: Tracy Montgomery was a cashier who worked at a Chevron station at a minimart. She claimed she was raped at gunpoint by three guys in the storage closet.
- Tutuola: Only the cash register receipts showed she made six sales during the time of that attack.
- Benson: So I could have blown it off and I probably should have blown it off, but the bottom line is the truth of what her two cousins were doing to her from the time she was three years old, was far worse than anything she could have made up. Sometimes girls like Tracy, girls like Savannah, need to make up fairy tales just to get through the day.
- Benson: [to Savannah] You know, I know that you had it rough. Couldn't have been easy growing up in foster homes. But a lot of kids grow up in foster care. And a lot of kids have crappy lives.
- Savannah Ross: And a lot of them grow up to run for Congress or win Nobel Prizes in physics.
- Benson: Exactly, because they stopped seeing themselves as victims, so they stop being victims. Savannah, your life is far from over.
- Carisi: Hey, we got a DNA hit on the inhaler. It matches a hair that was found at the scene of a burglary that happened in Brooklyn last year.
- Benson: No rape?
- Carisi: Right.
- Rollins: Well, it wouldn't be the first time a perp changed lanes.
- Savannah Ross: Nobody believes me. I just have one of those faces.
- Benson: That's not true.
- Savannah Ross: You didn't believe me.
- Benson: That was 100% my fault. I made a mistake and I'm sorry.
- Savannah Ross: Can I get you something? I don't have anything to drink, but I have some cronuts. Not a croissant, not a donut. It doesn't know quite what it is. Just like me.
- Carisi: [to a Mrs. Williams mother] Ma'am, this is a warrant. It says I can touch whatever I want including that bracelet. Take it off and give it to me.
Background Information and Notes[]
- The song that the rapist plays from his speaker when he attacks women is "Liebestod" from the opera Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner.
- Actress Saxon Sharbino's sister, Brighton Sharbino, guest starred two episodes later in the episode "No Good Reason".
- An extended version of the ending scene with Benson and Noah was posted on Youtube.[1]
- In the on-screen text establishing the location of a scene, Mrs. Burns's last name is misspelled "Burn."
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Office of |
Savannah's Apartment |
Landucci's Market |
Brooklyn Public Gardens |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Sacred Haven Apartments |
Nancy Burn's Apartment |
Social Ad's Giant |
Cooper-Price Group |
| 9 | 10 |
|---|---|
|
Williams’ Apartment |
Marty’s Burgers |
Footnotes[]
| Previous episode: "Gone Fishin'" |
"Mood" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 19 |
Next episode: "Contrapasso" |