| "Ripped" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 7.04 | → |
| Production number: 07003 First aired (US): 11 October 2005 First aired (CAN): 11 October 2005 First aired (AUS): 5 June 2006 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Jonathan Greene Directed By Rick Wallace | ||
When his rage erupts during a case involving an ex-partner, Stabler consults a shrink, seeking to find out what's wrong with him.
Summary[]
When the teenage son of Stabler's old partner comes under suspicion for attacking a classmate, Stabler's inability to treat this like any other case gets him suspended.
Plot[]
Detectives answer a call from a high school girl Pamela Sawyer is assaulted. One of the teachers directs the detectives to a baseball player student who was shown running away at the assault.
Stabler and Tutuola find the baseball players with one player having blood on his shirt. When they question him, he becomes belligerent and assaults Tutuola. This causes Stabler taking down, with the young man stating his father is a cop. Stabler asks who his father is with him answering Pete Breslin. Hearing this Stabler realizes that the young man is named Luke and that his father was his old partner.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
- Diane Neal as A.D.A. Casey Novak
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
- Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner (credit only)
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Mary Stuart Masterson as Dr. Rebecca Hendrix
- Peter McRobbie as Judge Walter Bradley
- Stephen Gregory as Dr. Kyle Beresford
- Craig Wroe as Defense Attorney James Woodrow
- Joselin Reyes as Paramedic Martinez
- Joseph E. Murray as Paramedic Olson
- Tim Miller as Court Clerk
Guest cast[]
- Noah Emmerich as Officer Pete Breslin
- Paul Wesley as Luke Breslin
- Julia Weldon as Pamela Sawyer
- Ross Bickell as Principal
- Kene Holliday as Coach Veneziano
- Rick Washburn as Buster Flynn
- Bob Walton as Carl Sawyer
- Elizabeth Duff as Emily Sawyer
- Joseph A. Halsey as Officer Wood
- Andrew Dolan as Man in Suit
References[]
- Kathy Stabler
- Bipolar disorder
- PCP
- Steroid
- Epinephrine
- 22nd Precinct
- Joseph Stabler
- Kathleen Stabler
Quotes[]
- Stabler: I left a message for Huang. He's gonna come in and talk to him.
- Benson: Since when do we call the shrink before we make the collar?
- Stabler: I just think there's another explanation.
- Benson: It may not be worth it to make Pamela relive what happened? Who are you kidding? You're trying to make this go away.
- Stabler: I've known Luke since he was a baby. Always a sweet kid.
- Benson: Well, you haven't seen him since before he hit puberty. And he's not so sweet anymore.
- Cragen: What are you doing? You told the Sawyers that Pamela's better off not making a complaint.
- Stabler: Olivia tell you that?
- Cragen: No, Pamela's parents. This is worse than breaking the rules this time. You put the entire squad's credibility on the line.
- Stabler: Captain...
- Cragen: You did everything you could to get your ex-partner's kid a pass.
- Stabler: Captain...
- Cragen: As of right this minute, you are on vacation. Just get your ass out of my sight before I do something we both regret.
- Tutuola: [to the gym owner after it's discovered Luke is using steroids] You running a juice bar here, buster?
- Gym Owner: That stuff will give you pimples and shrink your balls. I swear I don't know where it came from.
- [after Elliot beats up Pete]
- Benson: Elliot, what the hell happened?
- Stabler: [dazed tone] I don't know.
- Dr. Rebecca Hendrix: How many times have you thought about eating your gun?
- Stabler: [indignant] Suicide is a sin.
- Hendrix: So is divorce.
- Stabler: I, uh, don't like being ordered around.
- Dr. Hendrix: You don't like being ordered around? Why'd you become a cop?
- [in a therapy session after Elliot beats up a cop who was beating up his teenage son; talking about Elliot's memories of his father]
- Stabler: Once, when I was in fifth grade. I had to make this diorama. Remember those things? The model you put in shoe boxes?
- Dr. Hendrix: Sure.
- Stabler: It was about the Civil War. And he told me where the put the cannons, and the soldiers, the trees... Nay, forget it.
- Dr. Hendrix: Did you get a good grade?
- Stabler: What?
- Dr. Hendrix: Did you get a good grade?
- Stabler: What difference does that make?
- Dr. Hendrix: It's just a question.
- Stabler: I don't understand what you want from me.
- Dr. Hendrix: The truth. I want you to start talking... really talking. What grade did you get on the diorama?
- Stabler: An F!
- Dr. Dr. Hendrix: You failed.
- Stabler: I didn't hand it in.
- Dr. Dr. Hendrix: Why not?
- Stabler: I moved one of the trees. And my father saw it as I was leaving for school. He took it out of my hands and he threw it on the ground and he stomped on it.
- Dr. Hendrix: It must have really hurt when he did that.
- Stabler: He took off his belt and he beat me with it... Because I cried... and only... pan... pansies cry... [he starts to cry] He said I was weak, and called me a failure. He called me that a lot.
- Dr. Hendrix: What did you see in that mirror today, Elliot?
- Stabler: The guy my father always saw.
- Dr. Hendrix: You're not weak. You're so busy being strong, and helping everyone, you've got nothing left for yourself. It takes a lot more balls to talk about your problems, than beat the hell out of a ghost.
Background information and notes[]
- "Ripped", along with other slang like "shredded", are sports and exercise terms often used to refer to built muscles and toned body form.
- The episode is partly based on the life and death of Taylor Hooten, a teenage high school baseball star who suffered increasing instability and eventually committed suicide due to a steroids addiction. (Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/26/sports/drugs-in-sports-an-athlete-s-dangerous-experiment.html)
- Elliot tells Pete Breslin that he and Kathy Stabler are going through a separation which we found out about in the episode "Doubt". Elliot then discusses the separation further with Dr. Hendrix in this episode.
- Pete Breslin mentions Kathleen Stabler's DUI and Elliot's subsequent coverup of it which happened in the episode "Blood".
- In this episode, Elliot reveals to Dr. Hendrix that his father (unnamed in this episode, later named Joseph Stabler) beat him because Elliot had moved a piece of a school project that his father had helped him with.
- Dr. Hendrix is now a blonde, when last season she was a brunette.
- This episode was given a rating of TV-14-L-V for language and violence. This was the first episode to get a sub-rating (i.e. D, L, S, V).
- Goof: When the gym manager is replacing the water cooler's bottle, he doesn't take the cap off.
- Goof: When Dr. Huang is describing his first conversation with Luke Breslin to Cragen and Benson, the three walk past a fire alarm which has clearly been pulled.
- Paul Wesley, who plays Luke Breslin, first appeared in the season 2 episode "Wrong Is Right" as Danny Burrell.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
Sawyer Residence |
Arraignment |
Breslin Residence |
| Previous episode: "911" |
"Ripped" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 7 |
Next episode: "Strain" |