| "Parents' Nightmare" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 16.22 | → |
| Production number: 16022 First aired (US): 13 May 2015 First aired (UK): 24 May 2015 First aired (CAN): 13 May 2015 First aired (AUS): 20 August 2015 | ||
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| Written By Kevin Fox & Brendan Feeney Directed By Jean de Segonzac | ||
SVU detectives race to find a boy kidnapped for ransom.
Summary[]
Eight-year-old Owen Farhidi disappears from school and his mother Dana receives a ransom request. When surveillance footage shows that Owen recognized his abductor, Detective Amaro works with Dana and her ex-husband Sam to find and arrest the suspect, but tensions between the estranged couple obstructs the investigation. Meanwhile, Sgt. Benson is asked to take the Lieutenant's exam to formally take the lead over her squad.
Plot[]
After Benson drops Noah off for his first day of daycare, Lt. Tucker waits for her in her office with big news: One PP wants a lieutenant running the SVU squad instead of a sergeant and Tucker wants her to take the Lieutenant's exam. Benson is reluctant, but intrigued about it. She makes an offer to Fin to be a sergeant, but he turns it down.
Meanwhile, across town, Dana Farhidi is getting her 8-year-old son Owen ready for school. After school, a man named Carlos picks him up and forces him into a van. When Dana goes to pick Owen up from school, he's not there.
It is revealed that Dana and her husband, Sam are going through a tough custody battle. After forgetting her cell phone from yoga class, Carisi goes to get it and finds numerous voicemails from Owen, begging his mother to answer the phone or the man won't let him come home.
When Amaro visits Sam at his restaurant, Sam swears that he didn't call the school to have someone pick up Owen and he didn't take him. After looking at security footage, Dana identifies the kidnapper as Javier, her babysitter Fabiana's boyfriend.
The police raid Javier's home, but he's not there. Just then, Dana gets a phone call from Javier demanding $37,000 in cash. The detectives prepare Sam to make the drop, but Javier gets away. After he is caught and Owen is rescued, Javier claims that Dana paid him to take her son.
When Olivia talks to Owen, Owen says that Javier was mad at his mother for not picking up the phone. Fin and Carisi talk to Dana, who says that she talked to Fabiana about her divorce and Sam's money. When Fabiana is questioned, she claims that she had nothing to do with Owen's kidnapping.
Carisi discovers the ransom amount that Javier demanded is the same amount of money that Dana accused Sam of concealing during their divorce. Javier claims that Dana told him the amount of money to demand from Sam. Dana hired Javier to take Owen, paid him the first two installments of $500, texted him the school number, told him how to sign Owen out of school and made sure that she would be late picking him up.
When the detectives show Dana deleted text messages from her phone to Javier, Dana claims that she never sent Javier the texts. When Carisi and Benson talk to Owen again, Owen tells them that Sam comes by the house even though he's not supposed to and that he goes through the e-mails on Dana's phone.
The detectives go back to Javier, who is willing to tell to them who set up Owen's kidnapping if he it gets a deal. He tells them that Sam set up the kidnapping and told Javier to say Dana did it.
The detectives put a wire on Dana and she goes to the restaurant to talk to Sam. Sam reveals that he just wanted to teach Dana a lesson for being irresponsible and was the one who set up Owen's kidnapping. In the end, Sam is arrested by the police.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Sergeant Olivia Benson
- Danny Pino as Detective Nick Amaro
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins (credit only)
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Peter Scanavino as Detective Dominick "Sonny" Carisi, Jr.
- Raúl Esparza as A.D.A. Rafael Barba (credit only)
Recurring Cast[]
- Robert John Burke as I.A.B. Lieutenant Ed Tucker
- Steve Rosen as Defense Attorney Michael Guthrie
- Michael DeBarge as Court Officer (uncredited)
Guest Cast[]
- Brooke Bloom as Dana Farhidi
- Frankie J. Alvarez as Javier Rojas
- Carmen Cabrera as Fabiana Caldera
- Kaeden Ruparel as Owen Farhidi
- Navid Negahban as Sam Farhidi
- Nancy Nagrant as Linda
- Toni D'Antonio as Principal Jo-Ann Stanwick
- Lauren Elder as Mrs. Dugan
- Amy Tribbey as Dr. Naomi Grodman
- Jessie Barr as Yanina
- Edmerald Gan as Diego
- David Mason as Roy
- Reggie Green as Clyde
References[]
Quotes[]
- Tucker: Well, I was sniffing around 1PP this morning, and the scuttlebutt is they want a lieutenant in here. They're not happy with a sergeant running the squad.
- Benson: Last I checked, I was doing a pretty good job. We busted Johnny D's sex trafficking ring. We took down Yates after Chicago botched it.
- Tucker: And they've noticed. They're open to the prospect of you staying on. That's why I told them you already filed for the Lieutenant's exam.
- Benson: I haven't.
- Tucker: Then do it. Don't make a liar out of me.
- Benson: I'm quite happy with the way things are, thank you.
- Tucker: They want a lieutenant. If it's not you, it's gonna be somebody else.
- Benson: I don't know what to say.
- Tucker: That's a first. Think about it. Also think about who your second whip would be. Better you pick than a blind draw.
- Benson: A mother would never do that to her own son.
- Dana Farhidi: [to Olivia about Owen] Can I take him now?
- Benson: The court gave you custody, but the question is, Dana, can you take care of him?
- Dana Farhidi: Look, I love Owen, but I am afraid to do this by myself. And Sam is a really good father, and I think that Owen needs him. Can you tell the DA?
- Benson: That's not your decision. The DA will plead this down to unlawful imprisonment, it's a misdemeanor, but Sam could get six months.
- Dana Farhidi: Six months? How will I support myself?
- Benson: You'll have to figure it out. You get a job. There are a lot of working mothers.
- Dana Farhidi: It's been so long, I wouldn't even know where to start.
- Benson: So learn. You have a child, Dana. It's not about you anymore. You need to be the parent, not Owen.
- Tutuola: [about Olivia] She's gonna need a new sergeant and wants me to take the exam.
- Amaro: Wow. Congratulations.
- Tutuola: I'm not interested. Not gonna happen. I don't need the headaches.
- Carisi: You got that right.
Background information and notes[]
- Tucker gives Benson a heads up that the higher ups want a Lieutenant running Special Victims Unit, so she has been asked to take the Lieutenant's exam.
- Benson lists off a few of her accomplishments since running Manhattan SVU to Tucker including:
- busting up Johnny D.'s Sex Trafficking Ring (SVU: "Undercover Mother")
- the capture and imprisonment of Greg Yates (SVU: "Daydream Believer")
- Fin states he does not want the headache of being a Sergeant, something he mentioned before in "Pattern Seventeen". He would later be a Sergeant in season 19 onward.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 |
|---|---|
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Farhidi's |
Surveillance Van |
| Previous episode: "Perverted Justice" |
"Parents' Nightmare" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 16 |
Next episode: "Surrendering Noah" |