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"Possessed"
SVU, Episode 12.12
Production number: 12012
First aired: 5 January 2011
  {{{nNthProducedInSeries}}}th of 502 produced in SVU  
{{{nNthReleasedInSeries}}}th of 502 released in SVU
  {{{nNthReleasedInAll}}}th of 1271 released in all  
Possessed
Written By
Brian Fagan

Directed By
Constantine Makris

Summary[]

A young woman's past as the unwilling star of a series of child pornography videos comes back to haunt her when she is attacked by a former fan.

Plot[]

The episode begins when Larissa Welsh's boyfriend Patrick Binder visits her apartment when she doesn't turn up to work one morning. The landlady lets him in, but when he finds the door latched shut, he finds his girlfriend tied to a chair wearing only underwear and pig-tails. He breaks in and tries to free her but Larissa’s attacker, Eldon Balogh, comes out half-naked, wearing a clear plastic mask and attacks Patrick and after a scuffle knocks him unconscious.

Two young victims of Eldon Balogh

Before attacking Larissa (a.k.a., Brandy), Balogh went after two little girls in Connecticut and New Jersey.

Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler talk to the doctors at the hospital where Larissa and Patrick are being treated. They learn that the attacker shaved Larissa from the neck down. Larissa's boyfriend Patrick Binder admits that Larissa was shy; it took Larissa two years to open up to a relationship. He says that Larissa hated the name "Brandy", which was the name stitched on the underwear Larissa was wearing. Detectives Stabler and Olivia find no DNA the perp left on Patrick. However, Fin reveals the attack may be related to two young girls who may have encountered the suspect. They all admit that the man films them and sexually abuses them.

Stabler finds child porn videos and photos in Eldon Balogh's apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Pedophile rings have trading symbols that allow them to identify each other. Forensics comes in and shows them that they were able to take fingerprints off of a video and the man’s identity is Eldon Balogh, a notorious sex offender.

Balogh is clearly a member of a pedophile ring, as Stabler and Fin check out his apartment but find he is not there though they do find several types of incriminating evidence before they discovered he is at the hospital when he emails himself a video of Larissa there.

It is soon discovered Larissa is missing, as Benson has the staff lockdown the hospital to find him. Benson and Stabler search the hospital for Eldon Balogh. They find Larissa and Balogh in room 820. Larissa has been attacked again, and Stabler angrily beats on the offender. Fin stops Stabler from beating him to death.

After reviewing evidence, the detectives find that Larissa was "Brandy" with the star birthmark from the rape videos. She was only a child when the videos were filmed. Larissa admits that men recognize her as Brandy from the video all of the time. She knows that it was one of the fans that raped her, rather than the man who raped her as a child. In police custody, Balogh said he had been looking for Brandy for years. He defends himself by saying that it wasn't rape because the love was pure and natural. Apparently, an elderly man named Orville Underwood knew Brandy as a child and led Balogh to Larissa after having the info beat out of him by Balogh.

Young Larissa Welsh as Brandy

Larissa as a foster child in one of the "Brandy" videos made by Orville Underwood.

Benson and Stabler visit Underwood’s home, where they find the old man gasping for breath. Underwood was suspected of raping Brandy 10 years ago, and ever since he has been tormented by men who want to fulfill a sexual fantasy. The pillowcase from Underwood's home matches the pillowcase with child porn found at Balogh's. Underwood's dried semen is found on a child porn photo. Underwood, who became a lawyer after his rape case in 1996, claims he never raped anyone.

While awaiting bail, Hardwicke reveals Balogh was murdered by prisoners in Rikers after bragging about having sex with his underage victims. The detectives question Larissa about Underwood, but the last time she saw him was at the rape trial ten-years ago. She is positive Underwood was her childhood rapist. Benson and Stabler want to put Daniel on trial as new accuser because he was in Underwood's video with Larissa. Larissa positively identifies Daniel Brooks in one of the videos from the 1990s. The video triggers a memory of Daniel burying peanut butter jars in the backyard with notes in them. He would place note to his parents in them and call them wishing jars. Larissa had buried a wristband from Daniel in her foster parents backyard; she wished that Daniel might find her. The detectives dig up the wristband, and the lab finds five partial DNA markers.

Using the DNA, they find that Daniel was reported missing in 1995 when he was twelve. Since then, he has been arrested for shoplifting and prostitution. He owns an abandoned factory in lower Manhattan. Daniel is found filming child porn in the abandoned warehouse, where Stabler and Benson arrest him. At the police station Daniel tells Stabler and Benson that he is not a victim anymore. The psychologist says that Daniel raping children is a way to take control of his own life. Child porn books are found hidden at Underwood’s house. They charge Underwood with conspiracy to commit rape. Underwood argues on his own defense, saying that fiction is protected under the first amendment and there are no photos and/or no children were harmed in the writing of these books.

Orville Underwood in Legal Action

Orville Underwood taking the stand in his own defense.

The opposing side argues that Larissa was hurt after her rapist followed Underwood’s rape instructions. Larissa's lawyer claim that Balogh highlighted sentences from Underwood's written instructions, but Balogh cannot back this up because of his murder. After review, the judge reluctantly grants the defense motion for dismissal. The argument fails to present a strong case, but a stronger case would have a chance. Larissa wants Daniel to testify. She visits Rikers Island to talk to him. Daniel refuses to testify, but offers her a comforting grip on her arm before leaning over and whispering something in Larissa's ear. His words are shown to leave Larissa crying while he looks at her sadly before the guards take him away.

The next day, Detectives and Hardwick discuss the case before they get ready to go home but Elliot tells them that Underwood has called 911 to alert them about a girl named Brandy, who barged into his house with a gun. When police get to the door, arguing is heard before two gunshots go off from inside. Elliot finds Larissa holding a gun and Underwood is dead on the bed, shot in the chest and head. As Larissa surrenders, there's the sound of crying and Benson finds a young girl in the bathroom wearing very little who reveals that Underwood hurt her. Larissa reveals that Daniel told her at Rikers that Underwood was still going after young girls.

Afterwards Christina, the young girl Underwood was about to rape, is taken away in an ambulance while Larissa sees her off and the detectives ask Hardwicke on what to do about Larissa. Hardwicke says that since Larissa killed Underwood while rescuing Christina, that it's use of deadly force while defending a third person and she will not be charged, to their satisfaction. The detectives approach Larissa who expects to be arrested before she learns she will not be charged on the grounds of justifiable homicide. Olivia tells Larissa it's over but Larissa only says "Maybe".

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Guest cast[]

References[]

Quotes[]

Munch: Only in New York can you have no witnesses to a masked man running down the street in his tighty whities.

[about Eldon Balogh]
Orville Underwood: [to Stabler and Tutuola] Gentlemen, I don't know how much time you spent with him, but he's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.

[about Underwood]
Hardwicke: The guy's not dumb, he went to law school.
Tutuola: Since when was that mutually exclusive?

Stabler: [to Underwood] I hope you die a slow, painful death. Have a nice day.

Larissa Welsh: [to Stabler] I'm so sorry I threw up on you.
Stabler: I needed to get my suit dry cleaned anyway.

Orville Underwood: [about Hardwicke] Your Honor, her case fails by all criteria. Conspiracy requires two or more people to actually agree and intend to agree to commit a crime. Unless Ms. Hardwicke is a mind reader, she is talking out of her ass!
Judge Barry Moredock: Counselor, you're out of order.
Hardwicke: Your Honor, I can take anything this toad can dish out.

Larissa Welsh: Daniel, what happened? How could you grow up to be like them? You were my savior.
Daniel Brooks: But you never came back for me.
Larissa: I tried.
Daniel: Not hard enough.
Larissa: So now you wanna hurt more children... for payback?
Daniel: No. I love all my kids.
Larissa: Daniel, you're forcing them to make movies.
Daniel: It's better than the lives they had. They're throwaways. With my movies, they get to feel my love and the love of our family.
Larissa: Daniel... you had a family. Underwood stole you from them. He did it to me too. Please... the police really need your help. I really need your help. We gotta put him away once and for all.
Daniel: You wanna punish him. What will that change?
Larissa: He deserves to be punished.
Daniel: We're broken. Nothing can fix us.
Larissa: I don't believe that.
Daniel: [starts crying] It's been 15 years, Larissa. Are you fixed yet?
[whispers something into Larissa's ear before leaving]

Larissa: I had to. I had to. [Benson follows the sounds of crying to a young girl in the bathtub] At Rikers', Daniel told me that Underwood was still doing it.
Christina: He hurt me.

Stabler: So? What do you wanna do?
Hardwicke: She used deadly force to stop Underwood from raping Christina. That's defense of a third person. She walks.
Stabler: Works for me.

Larissa: You guys going to arrest me now?
Benson: No. You saved Christina. It's over.
Larissa: Maybe.

Background information and notes[]

  • Two of the episode's guest stars, Sabrina Carpenter and Peyton Roi List became stars on two Disney Channel series, Sabrina Carpenter plays Maya Hart on "Girl Meets World" and Peyton Roi List played Emma Ross on "Jessie", respectively.
  • While investigating the Larissa Welsh versus Orville Underwood rape trial, the detective found several articles on-line. The byline on the New York Ledger article "Underwood Trial Enters Third Week" was Jeff Crye and the byline on the article "Arrest Made in Kidnapping" was James Bedark. Both work in the Law & Order: SVU Art Department, Jeff Crye as the Art Director and James Bedark as the Art Department Coordinator.
  • This episode, part of a doubleheader, marked the series' move to its new timeslot of Wednesdays at 10:00 pm E/P (9 pm CT). This was likely in response to less than stellar ratings in the 9 pm timeslot and the pairing with Law & Order: Los Angeles not having become the power block of programming everyone had hoped.[edit]
  • Peyton List is erroneously listed in the transcribed end credits as having played the part of Larissa Welsh, a part actually played by Taryn Manning who was listed in the guest titles at the beginning of the episode. Peyton actually only played the younger Larissa shown in the videos.[edit]
  • Visible on Detective Olivia Benson's desk in this episode is a photo of her and President Barack Obama. This photo is from an event held at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle. Cropped out of the photo is journalist Barbara Walters.
  • The taxi that Larissa gets out of that Underwood is trying to get into has the same number 5Y62 as the taxi the uncle in the previous episode "Pop" drove.
  • This is the last episode to feature Stephen Gregory as Dr. Kyle Beresford who has appeared since 2004.

Episode scene cards[]

1 2

Hickman Residence
51 Harrison Avenue
Montclair, New Jersey
Tuesday, December 28

Townhouse of
Orville Underwood
160 Grove Street
Tuesday, December 28

3 4 5

701 East 13th Street
Wednesday, December 29

Pre-Trial Hearing
Part 67
Tuesday, January 4

Rikers Island
Interview Room
Wednesday, January 5

Previous episode:
"Pop"
"Possessed"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Season 12
Next episode:
"Mask"
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