The last time we saw Brian Cassidy was in the SVU episode “Chasing Demons” (which aired on February 28, 2018). In that episode, Cassidy admits to Stone he was molested when he was playing on a little league team .The title of the current episode – “Facing Demons” – made it obvious on how this story would play out; Cassidy would eventually reveal his secret to Benson and tell his story on that stand. This was Law & Order SVU's 450th aired episode.
This didn’t make the story any less compelling, with Dean Winters aptly depicting how this abuse has affected Cassidy over the decades. Benson moans that she lived with Cassidy and thought about having his children but he never told her his dark secret, yet Cassidy told Stone, someone he barely knew. But dealing with victims for as many years as she has, she still doesn’t get why Cassidy didn’t confide in her, and it takes Rollins - of all people – to offer an explanation. Benson’s “spider senses” should have kicked in to overdrive when she saw Cassidy in a youth league team photo in the home of someone they suspected was a pedophile. She knew something was off but didn’t press the issue firmly enough with Cassidy. She may have been stunned by seeing another woman freely enter his apartment, but that was no excuse to not pursue the matter with him at a later time. Benson was not smart to go off alone to arrest Gary, at least for her own safety. I suppose we are to believe that Benson did this with the purpose of roughing him up, which was another stupid move on her part. Why risk creating problems for a case that was already hard to make with the slim evidence they had?
It was interesting to see Stone take a deeper, personal interest in the case and become more passionate about the prosecution once he realized that Cassidy was one of the suspect's victims. Thankfully he stopped Cassidy by doing something he’d regret. In the end, it’s Benson who is able to connect with Cassidy to help him find the courage to testify, and hopefully this will be very healing for him. It’s a fitting close to this story line, and maybe the next time we see Brian Cassidy he’ll be much happier with his life. Maybe something is brewing with him and his female neighbor friend who is doing his laundry?
Parts of this episode also takes place on the same day as the previous episode “Brothel”. It’s not impossible that they could be working both cases simultaneously. But a cursory glance at the time cards and related scenes for both episodes, the clothing that Fin and Carisi are wearing on February 11 doesn’t seem to match between both episodes. It’s a nitpick I know, but it’s just a pet peeve with me. If they use these time cards, then they should make sure there are no inconsistencies.
Update February 25, 2019 – a deleted scene with Kelli Giddish and Dean Winters has been added after the recap.
Here is the recap:
At a bookstore, Micah Fuller leads a group of kids discussing a book. Later, he drops off his dog with a friend as he will be gone 2-3 days. At a later time, when the friend tries to walk the dog, the dog pulls her to Micah’s apartment, and the door is open. She finds him on the sofa, suffocated to death.
Later, Benson and Carisi are at the scene; Rollins is not there as Jesse has the flu. The officer on the scene explains how the body was found. No sign of a struggle and there were a few sleeping pulls from an almost empty bottle on the nearby table. It looks like a suicide but SVU was called as there were pictures on the floor of young children and one photo is marked “I’m sorry.” Carisi thinks being a pedo caught up with him, and Benson says Micah may be dead but his victims aren’t.
At SVU, Rollins tells Benson TARU is doing a sweep of Micah’s devices and he took Polaroids and so far the kids are not identified. Rollins uploaded them to NCMEC and sent the originals to the lab. The neighbors say he was quiet and polite and had a girlfriend briefly; his parents are at the morgue. He worked at Alistair Bookstore downtown. Benson tells Rollins to stay with the photos and she will have Carisi hit the bookstore.
At Alistair Bookstore at 154 Duane Street on Monday, February 11, Carisi speaks with a co-worker who says Micah ran their YA reading group on Saturday. Micah did not want the parents there, feeling more comfortable with teenagers. The kids were aged 11-15 and 2 boys were Caucasian. Carisi asks for their names.
Meanwhile, at SVU in the interview room, Rollins speaks with one of the kid’s parents – the Fullers - and explain the situation. The photos are not of their son Jason. Benson speaks with another parent – Mr. Meyers - who says the same but says Tommy spoke of Micah all the time. Micah’s parents arrive and Mr. Meyers confronts them and Benson and Rollins separate them.
Benson and Rollins speak with Micah’s parents who explain Micah broke up with this girlfriend Helen a week ago. Benson explains the Polariods and Mr. Fuller wants to see them, saying her son is also a victim. They show them the photos and Mrs. Fuller recognizes Micah in one of the photos – then in all of them. She recognizes their rooms in their home. Benson urges them not to jump to conclusions and asks for Helen’s last name.
At Nish Nush at 88 Reade Street on Monday, February 11, Rollins speaks with Helen. Helen says Micah took things slow and did not kiss her until the fourth date. They never had sex, Micah wanted to wait. She thought it was her. They finally decided to sleep together and he couldn’t and he explained he was molested as a kid. He never said who, he did say the guy asked him to take pictures of himself. She felt like a jerk about breaking up with him but at 20 years old she wanted a normal relationship. When Rollins asks if Helen would know anyone who would know, she mentions a guy named Billy Ryan who used to be his best friend.
Fin and Carisi are at Billy Ryan’s place as he plays a video game. He asks how did he… then says sorry, don’t tell him. Carisi explains that Micah’s girlfriend told them that they were pretty close in middle school, and Billy says yes, they grew up down the street from each other. Fin asks when was the last time he saw Micah, and Billy states not for a while. He recalls that Micah emailed him 2 days ago and he hadn’t opened the email yet. He gets his phone and says the message was from Saturday night. He reads the message where Micah says sorry for being out of touch and that he might be hearing some things about him in the near future that will be hard for him to understand and that if he wants to know why, ask Gary. He doesn’t know who is Gary. He comments if he read this, maybe he could have…Fin asks him to go back to the beginning, asking what he and Micah were in to when they were 12 or 11 years old. Billy replies playing video games at their apartments, went to movies, the park. Fin asks if Micah was in to anything else, and Billy remembers Micah used to do magic tricks. He made nerdy YouTube videos with a costume and props and Gary was the guy who taught him magic. One day, Micah threw away all of his magic stuff; he remembers that being super weird to be so into something and..,game over.
Back at SVU, the group watches videos of Micah as a young boy doing magic tricks. Fin spoke with the Fullers who have no idea who Gary is. Micah made 9 videos and the last one was June 20, 2009, the same age as he was in the Polariods. Benson sees a poster on the wall for the Gray Rabbit Magic Shop. She tells the guys to go.
At Gray Rabbit Magic Shop at 198 East 39th Street on Tuesday, February 12, Fin an Carisi speak with Gary, who says he’s worked there 15 years. Fin shows him Micah’s photo and he says he does not recognize him. He walks off. The detectives notice “customer appreciation” Polariods and when Carisi asks to see the camera, Gary said it broke a long time ago. He still does not recall Micah. The detectives leave.
