"Post-Graduate Psychopath" | ||
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← | SVU, Episode 22.14 | → |
Production number: 22014 First aired (US): 20 May 2021 First aired (UK): 3 September 2021 First aired (CAN): 19 May 2021 First aired (AUS): 27 May 2021 | ||
Teleplay By Brianna Yellen & Micharne Cloughley Story By Brianna Yellen & Warren Leight Directed By Norberto Barba |
Summary[]
Rollins must revisit an old case when a child sent to juvenile detention is released after his 18th birthday.
Plot[]
In 2020, Henry Mesner, a teenager who spent eight years in juvenile detention, is released by Hon. Roberta Martinez. His psychologist declares him recovered from his psychopathy and sociopathy.
On Saturday, April 2, 2021, the SVU is called when Libby Blandon, a college student, is found tied up, tortured with cigarettes, beaten nearly to death, and raped, in her dormitory room. Analyzing the crime scene, Sergeant Tutuola states that whoever did that, had they been arrested before, would never have been released. In the meantime, Detective Rollins is spending her free time at the children park, when her daughter Jesse comes to her with a white stuffed dog, saying that a man gave it to her and that it was called "Snowball".
When SVU interviews Blandon, she explains her rape in details. She also states that she doesn't know her assaulter in person and that the assaulter robbed her of her debit card and of a stuffed white dog, which she identifies as the same one given by a stranger to Jesse. Rollins mentions this to Captain Benson, also linking this to Henry Mesner who, nearly ten years before, drowned a white dog with the same name.
Fin and Detective Tamin interview Keys, a clochard who used Blandon's credit card. He says that a strange man made him withdraw 50 dollars and buy things from an ironmongery. At the same time, Benson and Rollins talk to Blandon's mother Gretcher. When she mentions her profession, psychiatrist specialized in pre-teen behavior, Rollins tries and mentions Mesner. Gretcher says that she worked with Mesner five years before, admits having told him that of his mother's death and that she has one daughter (for the purposes of the therapy), and acts scared before the possibility that Mesner is now free.
The same night (Sunday, April 3), the SVU breaks into Mesner house. They find the living room destroyed, and the dead bodies of Tom Mesner, of his second wife Holly, and of Arlo Mesner, the five years old son of Tom and Holly. All were stabbed multiple times and left in a lake of blood. They also find an empty gun safe. Ruby Mesner, Henry's sister, is missing, but they soon find out that she had stayed at friends place for the night, in Nassau.
Tamin and Rollins head to Nassau to tell Ruby of her family's massacre and interview her. Ruby says that Henry openly hated Arlo out of jealousy. She also mentions that mr Mesner had recently started insisting that Henry found himself a job, but Henry instead used to spend the whole day in his room playing video games; when Rollins insists, Ruby mentions that Henry may have made some friends during detention. In the meantime, Benson interviews Mrs. Davis and her daughter Charlotte, Ruby's friends, who say that Holly was scared by him and that she had insisted to buy a handgun for self defense, despite Tom's disproval — he believed that he could win Henry's love by showing him affection. Benson orders two agents to control the house.
Fin and Rollins head to the facility where Henry had served his detention, the Hesland Juvenile Psychiatric Facility. Henry's former psychiatrist, Dr. Mackie, guarantees that Henry's clinical history was impeccable and that he had (apparently) completely overthrown the diagnosis. She also adds that when he had turned eighteen, he was released by order of a judge, and upon the family's request. Dr. Mackie, questioned by Rollins, admits that this may be a concrete case of a psychiatric theory that group therapy is not recommendable for psychopaths, because they may learn how to pretend to act completely normal. Dr. Mackie says that Henry may have tricked her and her whole staff into believing that he had recovered, which would be a first case in her 30-years career. Then, Fin and Rollins talk to Connor Jackson, another inmate of Hesland and (according to Dr. Mackie) Henry's only friend. Connor says that Henry used to say to be "angry with the world" and blames his behavior, stating that rage isn't a constructive emotion. Connor insists he is very different from Henry, and sends Fin and Rollins to his older sister Cora: according to him, Cora and Henry had bound.
The police breaks into Cora Jackson's place. She says that Henry is her boyfriend, and that he is completely sane. At the police station, Cora says that Henry loves water and the ocean. She also mentions that she and Henry share a cloud, where they automatically upload any pic they take with their phones. Rollins checks the folder, finding several photos of Libby Blandon, of her daughter Jesse, and also of Ruby.
As the last photo of Ruby was taken that very morning near Ruby's friends place, the SVU heads to Nassau again, only to find the agent tied up in the police car's trunk, Megan Davis fainted in the kitchen, and Charlotte tied in the shower. They are both scared, but alive. The squad tracks Henry down at a nearby luna park.
Henry helds Ruby at gunpoint in the ghosts house. Rollins calms Henry down and persuades him to release Ruby with the gun. Then, the two confronts: Henry remembers when he went to the sea with his family and two family friends, and that when he was six he witnessed the death by drowning of his childhood friend, Oscar, and the boy's mother, whereas he was thrown away by the sea currents and recued by sea guards. He says that in that moment he learned to be "different" from other people, because he didn't care of Oscar's and Oscar's mother's death, he only was annoyed because he couldn't see well. Henry also blames his parents for having "taken [his] childhood away" from him.
Rollins takes Henry out of the Ghost house and he is arrested. Questioned by Benson, Rollins admits that she had been driven by her innate curiosity for the brain's functioning; her deduction from her dialogue with Henry is that the only thing the boy had thought about in his eight years of detention, was his family's massacre. In her opinion, Henry has no chance of escaping life detention.
After the interview, the forensic psychologist, Dr. Lindstrom, cannot produce a definitive judgement on Henry's psychological state; he had technically been declared recovered by a judge, four months before, but it's also true that Henry had showed dangerous deviations from the standard behavior when he was only ten years old. He also suggests, to A.D.A. Dominick Carisi, Jr.'s approval, that the defense will likely point on Henry's mental incapacity of discerning good from bad: Henry used to feel ignored by his family, which built his rage towards them, and later they also sent him to a mental facility. When they asked for his release, they "set gasoline on fire". In short — Carrisi and Lindstrom argue — the defense will blame the State for the decision of freeing Henry. The psychologist also points to the fact that the State provides no sufficient resources for psychological help to criminals, raising several moral and ethical questions and also a new problem, that Henry, should he be convicted and sent to prison, won't receive any psychological help.
During the arraignment, Dr. Lindstrom declares Henry mentally sane (from a legal point of view at least) and able to face the trial. However, Henry's rage explodes when the judge interrupts his attorney. He insults the judge and assaults A.D.A. Carisi, stabbing him in the ear with a pencil, and is taken away by the police. While talking to Carisi at the hospital, Rollins realizes that Henry only wants to be declared mentally insane, so to avoid prison and be sent back to a mental facility. Carisi admits that, realistically speaking, Henry's insanity is out of question, at this point, given his sequence of efferate murders (his father, his stepmother and his five-years old stepbrother). In the final scene, Rollins is visiting Henry in prison. The boy is sedated, irresponsive, and vacuous. She tells him that, should he ever get out of prison, and go to Carisi, or some of her family members, she would kill him with her own hands. When she leaves, he is seen smirking.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Ice-T as Sergeant Odafin Tutuola
- Peter Scanavino as A.D.A. Dominick Carisi, Jr.
- Jamie Gray Hyder as Detective Katriona Tamin
- Demore Barnes as Deputy Chief Christian Garland (credit only)
Recurring cast[]
- Bill Irwin as Dr. Peter Lindstrom
- Ethan Cutkosky as Henry Mesner
- Erin Anderson as Attorney April Andrews
- Charlotte Cabell & Vivian Cabell as Jesse Rollins
- Mary Hodges as Judge Anita Wright
- Yvonna Kopacz-Wright as Dr. Darby Wilder
- Olga Merediz as Judge Roberta Martinez
- André De Shields as Keys
- Gabrielle Carrubba as Libby Blandon
Guest cast[]
- Deirdre Lovejoy as Dr. Mackie
- Maxine Wanderer as Ruby Mesner
- Margaret Reed as Gretchen Blandon
- Lucy Powers as Sydney Peters
- Sideara St. Claire as Cora Jackson
- Will Ehren as Connor Jackson
- Dana Winkle as Megan Davis
- Catherine Ashmore Bradley as Charlotte Davis
- Jason Cottle as Tom Mesner
- Daniel Hilt as Nassau Uni
- Kelly Anne Burns as Holly Mesner
- Whit K. Lee as Uni #1
- Billy Rick as ESU Lieutenant
- Latrisha Talley as Nurse
- Tyler Joseph as ESU Officer
References[]
- Nick Amaro
- Pippa Cox
- Donald Cragen
- George Huang
- Arlo Mesner
- Holly Mesner
- Viola Mesner
- Noah Porter-Benson
- Beth Anne Rollins
- Jim Rollins
- Elliot Stabler
Quotes[]
quotes
Background Information and Notes[]
- This episode is the second and final part to the fourteenth season episode "Born Psychopath", which saw the return of Henry Mesner, Ruby Mesner, and Tom Mesner.
- Both Tom and Ruby Mesner are played by different actors in this episode from their previous appearance in "Born Psychopath".
- Libby Blandon, however, returns in the episode "Tangled Strands of Justice". Henry Mesner is mentioned as well in that episode.
- Lindstorm mentions that Elliot Stabler reappeared in Benson's life from out of nowhere, which happened in his episode "Return Of The Prodigal Son".
- George Huang was initially meant to make an appearance but didn't for unknown reasons.
- Many fans and critics have praised this episode, calling it the best episode of the season as well as one of the best episodes of the entire series.
- Kelli Giddish revealed on the "That's Messed Up" podcast that this episode and its predecessor have always haunted her.[1]
Episode scene cards[]
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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Family Court |
Mercy Hospital |
Cooper Square |
Home of |
5 | 6 | 7 |
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Home of |
Hesland Juvenile |
Competency Hearing |
Previous episode: "Trick-Rolled At The Moulin'" |
"Post-Graduate Psychopath" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 22 |
Next episode: "What Can Happen In The Dark" |