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"Retro"
SVU, Episode 10.05
Production number: 10005
First aired (US): 28 October 2008
First aired (AUS): 4 March 2009
  th of 502 produced in SVU  
th of 502 released in SVU
  th of 1271 released in all  
Retro-2
Teleplay By
Jonathan Greene

Story By
Joshua Kotcheff & Jonathan Greene

Directed By
Peter Leto

Summary[]

Dr. Melinda Warner's expertise comes into play when a homeopathic doctor (who later admits he is an AIDS denialist) goes on trial for the death of a young girl with AIDS.

Plot[]

The detectives deal with a doctor who denies that HIV leads to AIDS and who discourages his patients from receiving proper antiviral medications, leading to a number of deaths. Stabler struggles with a teenaged boy who is the son and brother of these patients, and who may be facing a health crisis of his own. The doctor is charged with the crimes and while the mother, Susan, is testifying, she collapses from toxoplasmosis, a brain disease AIDS patients get. She finally believes that HIV leads to AIDS, but dies of the disease soon after awakening, but not before revealing to Benson that her daughter wasn't the only child to die.

The detectives find several more children that have died as a result of the doctor and make a deal with him to get his records and discover at least seven families that need to be notified that someone has HIV. They also discover that her son Tommy might have it, but he resists testing and breaks a few of Stabler's ribs. Stabler presses charges to force him to get tested, but drops them after it fails.

As Tommy owes Stabler for that, Stabler convinces him to meet a young cancer patient named Kyle who got treated against his parents' wishes and survived because of it. Kyle convinces Tommy it's better to know and he allows Warner to test him. At the end of the episode he reveals the results to Stabler: he has HIV. He is scared, but Stabler reassures him that his life isn't over.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Guest cast[]

References[]

Quotes[]

Dr. Raye Massey: Baby has severe oral candidiasis and a temp of 105. I'd say based on her size, she's about five months.
Stabler: You lost me at candidiasis.
Dr. Massey: It's a fungal infection commonly known as thrush.
Benson: That's not an STD, Dr. Massey.
Dr. Massey: Yeah, well, she wasn't sexually abused.
Stabler: So why did you call us? ACS handles abandoned kids.
Dr. Massey: What's happened to her is a crime. Kids only get this sick when they don't get treated.
Benson: Treated for what?
Dr. Massey: HIV.
Stabler: She has AIDS.
Dr. Massey: Advanced and her parents didn't do a damn thing about it. If that's not a crime, what is?

Joanne Suarez: Why are you here? Is Antonia okay?
Benson: Well, she's in the hospital with AIDS which means you're HIV-positive.
Joanne Suarez: But I quit using when I was pregnant. I did everything I could to keep her clean.
Benson: Except taking antiretrovirals before she was born which could have prevented this from happening.

[about treating Antonia Suarez for AIDS]
Dr. Gideon Hutton: I also instructed the Marongs to give her yogurt.
Benson: Yogurt for AIDS? Are you out of your mind?

Dr. Gideon Hutton: I have patients waiting.
Stabler: God help them.

Munch: According to Hutton, AIDS is a global conspiracy funded by pharmaceutical companies to make big bucks.
Tutuola: And commit genocide. My parents believed the government created HIV in a lab, and the CIA spread it in the prisons to kill blacks and gays.

Greylek: It's time we put Dr. Do-Nothing out of business.

Cragen: Ms. Greylek is doing the propagating, Counselor. Your beef is with the D. A.'s office.
Donna Emmett: No, it's with your detectives. They interrogated Dr. Hutton in his office without me present.
Stabler: That was a friendly chat. When we interrogate Dr. Hutton, he'll know it.
Dr. Gideon Hutton: You're scaring my patients.
Stabler: They should be scared.

Munch: Couple hundred people say that Hutton is the greatest doctor since Albert Schweitzer.

Dr. Warner: Two-thirds of the world's HIV-positive kids get infected during pregnancy or at birth from the mother. The rest acquire it during breastfeeding.
Greylek: Okay, so Susan could have passed the virus to Lisa either way.
Dr. Warner: It's a shame. HIV-positive women in this country have a 98% chance of having a healthy baby if they take antiretrovirals during pregnancy and put the child on meds after birth.

Susan Ross: You dug up my daughter? How could you do such a horrible thing?
Benson: How could you kill her?
Russell Hunter: My client had an absolute right to breastfeed her child.
Benson: But she didn't have the right to infect her with HIV and to withhold medication.

Donna Emmett: [to Dr Warner] True or false, Doctor: every disease allegedly caused by AIDS can also appear in people who don't have HIV.
Dr. Warner: True.
Donna Emmett: Was there HIV in Lisa Ross' blood?
Dr. Warner: No, but she...
Donna Emmett: Then isn't it possible that her PCP pneumonia was caused by something other than HIV? Yes or no?
Dr. Warner: It's not that simple.
Donna Emmett: Do you have a hearing problem, Doctor?
Greylek: Your Honor, is she going to let her finish a sentence?
Judge Walter Bradley: Ms. Emmett, that's enough.

Dr. Hutton: There are millions of people being wrongly treated, wrongly diagnosed.
Greylek: Like you misdiagnosed Lisa Ross.
Dr. Hutton: She died of an allergic reaction to antibiotics.
Greylek: No. She died of AIDS.
Dr. Hutton: According to your pet medical examiner and we all know what bias she has. Come on. Ask her how many of her friends or family members have died of AIDS either here or in Africa.
Greylek: Because she's black? How dare you?

Dr. Warner: [going after Hutton on court steps] City Health Department Study says New Yorkers contract H.I.V. three times the national rate. That a lie too?
Dr. Hutton: [turns to her] Wake up, Doctor. We have immunized people against every viral disease for two centuries. We know that people produce antibodies to H.I.V. So why is there no anti-AIDS vaccine and why hasn't one AIDS patient ever been cured?
Dr. Warner: You son-of-a-bitch. We all want a cure for AIDS. You're killing people with your outrageous beliefs.
Dr. Hutton: My beliefs are scientific fact.
Dr. Warner: They're junk science; you're a murderer and a false prophet.
Dr. Hutton: That's what they said about Jesus Christ.
[gives her a small smile and descends the stairs and Greylek comes into view to talk to Warner]
Dr. Warner: Hope the jury doesn't think he's the son of God.
Greylek: Jurors love conspiracy theories. I'm afraid they might buy the garbage Dr. Strangelove's selling.
Dr. Warner: [turns to Greylek] If we lose this case, it gives him credibility and more people will die.

[about Dr. Hutton]
Suran Ross: Why would he lie to me?
Benson: Susan, because if he admits the truth, then he has to take responsibility for what happened to your little girl.

[after Tommy gets his HIV test]
Stabler: You don't have to tell me.
Tommy Ross: I want to. The test came back positive. I don't want to die.
Stabler: Well, you've got your whole life ahead of you.

Background information and notes[]

  • This is the first time A.D.A. Kim Greylek is seen in the courtroom.
  • The circumstances under which Susan Ross claims to have contracted HIV are almost identical to the circumstances under which Dr. Andrew Copelan contracted HIV in "Positive".
  • By the time of her death, Susan Ross has been HIV-positive for at least fifteen years while Tommy, being infected probably through breastfeeding, has been HIV-positive for fourteen years. These in reality would be really unusual cases, since the prognosis for HIV-positive people who don't take proper medication is usually between nine and eleven years.
  • The original title of this episode was Deniers.

Episode scene cards[]

1 2 3 4

Office of
Dr. Gideon Hutton
369 West 21st Street
Tuesday, September 23

Ross Residence
602 East 73rd Street
Wednesday, September 24

Stamford
Preparatory School
Stamford, Connecticut
Thursday, September 25

Trial Part 38
Wednesday, October 22

5 6 7

Mercy General Hospital
365 West 32nd Street
Wednesday, October 22

Competency Hearing
Part 38
Monday, October 27

Mercy General Hospital
365 West 32nd Street
Tuesday, October 28

Previous episode:
"Lunacy"
"Retro"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Season 10
Next episode:
"Babes"
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