Mariska Hargitay, Naveen Andrews on SVU Set (Photos)

Here are a few photos of Mariska Hargitay and guest star Naveen Andrews (“Lost”) on the set of Law & Order SVU as they film an episode in lower Manhattan. I don’t believe the name of the episode has been released, but I did hear that it will air in January. Naveen will be an excellent guest star; I really enjoy his work on “Lost.”









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Also, see my companion Law & Order site,These Are Their Stories.

Law & Order “For The Defense” Recap & Review

All Photos from NBC

Law & Order “For The Defense” was another highly satisfying episode for the mothership, proving that there are writers out there who can bring personal matters into the cases without having those situations smother the episode. In fact, the writers seem to have a very good feel for all the main characters, and as a result, we get dialog that sounds real, and that makes the characters very believable.

This case brings back the smarmy, slimy, and slippery Marcus Woll, to whom we were introduced in last week’s episode, Boy Gone Astray. Jonathan Cake did a fantastic job at playing the former ADA now defense attorney, who seemed just a little to sure of himself in more ways that one. We find that he and Connie Rubirosa (Alana De La Garza) had a brief fling, a fact that takes Michael Cutter (Linus Roache) by surprise. A scene which had me laughing was when Cutter, in speaking with Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) about this affair, says, “We’re supposed to be smarter than that here, aren’t we? I mean, who’d put themselves in a situation like that?” We all know that Jack wrote the book on that matter, and I think Cutter knew that too, he just plain forgot. Of course, Jack has no shame in quickly reminding Cutter that Cutter means everyone but him. During Linus Roache’s first year as Michael Cutter, I wasn’t quite sure if I liked Cutter very much, but I think they have tweaked the character a little bit and I find that now I like him a lot. Roache and Alana De La Garza make a great team and I find myself getting more interested in their characters with each episode.

It was good to see Cutter turn the tables on Woll at the very end. I wondered if he had let Connie in on his ruse, or if he was just making her squirm by his questioning on purpose, maybe to make her think about what a stupid thing it was that she did by getting involved with Woll. Somehow, while Cutter says he has a rule about not having sexual relationships with a colleague, I bet he would break that rule for Connie, given half a chance.

The “dirty ADA” story has been done before in the Law & Order universe, but it wasn’t too bothersome that they resused the threat of reopening all those cases. Jack’s sanctimonious comment about not being afraid of some paperwork was promptly deflated when he was stunned at seeing only a portion of what paperwork was to come. I found it to be another great scene that humanizes the characters.

Lupo (Jeremy Sisto) and Bernard (Anthony Anderson) have also become a cohesive pair, and I was glad to see the writers work in some action for both of them while they were hiding a witness. It never ceases to amaze me, however, at how dumb some people can be. Really now, if you were in protective custody, would you open a door without looking who was behind that door? Personally, I wouldn’t even go NEAR a door or a window. By watching Law & Order, one would think that all New Yorkers are idiots when it comes to personal safety like that. I suppose that they wouldn’t have been able to work in that dramatic shooting scene if they didn’t have an idiot for a witness.

I was also highly amused at Anita’s (S. Epatha Merkerson) serious case of the munchies. I am glad to see that her off-book treatment is working for her. Epatha did a wonderful job is showing how she was enjoying eating and that look on her face when she was practically praying they would bring her back a pie. I loved it. It also made me very hungry.

All in all, another excellent episode from Law & Order, a show that despite being on for 20 years, is showing no sign of old age.


Here is the recap:

A prosecutor, Max Cavanaugh, is in the courtroom making his opening statement. The defense lawyer reserves his opening statement. When the Cavanaugh is asked to call his first witness, he says that his witness is not there.

Elsewhere, there is a woman’s body lying on the sidewalk outside a hotel. The doorman tells Detective Kevin Bernard (Anthony Anderson) that she was a guest for a week but her did not see her until today. She came out and he asked if she needs a cab and all of a sudden, a blue Audi parked nearby started up, drove over, and started shooting. The woman went down and the car took off around the corner. He saw that the plates were from New York and missed the last few plate numbers. Bernard walks over to Detective Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto), who is looking over the body, and says the woman took one to the face and one to the body. A crime scene guy notes that it got a pigeon too, as one lay dead nearby on the sidewalk. Lupo says there are two shell casings from a .45 and there might be some more around. Bernard gets the woman’s ID; her name is Maggie Hayes, with an address in the Bronx. As Lupo wonders out loud why she would stay there, Max Cavanaugh runs up, frantic, and identifies himself as being from the Manhattan DA’s office. Lupo comments that he is a little early as they don’t think they are ready to arrest anybody yet. Cavanaugh tells them she was supposed to testify for him today in a murder case. Bernard comments that she stayed there to hide from somebody, and Cavanaugh says that her ex-boyfriend is one of the defendants and made some crazy threats. She lived and worked in the Bronx so they figured that putting her in Manhattan was good enough. He adds that it doesn’t do his case any good. Lupo asks if there was any way her ex knew she was staying there, and Cavanaugh says he told her not to tell anyone. Bernard quips that maybe a little birdie told him, as we look down on the dead pigeon.

At the 2-7, the detectives have Maggie’s ex, William Avery, in custody, but he denies doing anything, saying he was in court at the time.

The detectives enter Lt. Anita Van Buren’s office, and she has a serious case of the munchies, saying it’s the first time she’s had an appetite in 6 weeks. She said that the partial license plate and there are 100 possible matches and not one is an Audi, so she wonders if the doorman got the make wrong or the number. As Van Buren continues to eat, Lupo said Maggie’s boyfriend used to meet her after work in a bar in Greenpoint but the DA said she worked in the Bronx, he thinks Maggie lied to the DA. Her payroll record was in the Bronx but she actually worked at Amstrad Shipping in Brooklyn. Van Buren says there are docks in Greenpoint, and then adds there is a bakery down there that makes an amazing key lime pie, folding her hands as if praying they will bring one back for her. Bernard says they are on it (the pie, that is).

At Amstrad Shipping, they question Paige Regan (Betty Gilpin), who ran the office with Maggie, and Bart Rainey (Casey Siemaszko). Rainey thinks it was her boyfriend Avery as he knew she was testifying and she was afraid of him. He didn’t know where Maggie was staying and Paige says she didn’t know either. When Bernard asks what kind of business Rainey has, he says he exports cars to Latin America. While Bernard talks, Lupo goes to check out the cars and snaps a photo. Rainey says a shipment just went out. Lupo asks if one of the vehicles, a 95 Eddie Bauer Bronco, is for sale, saying he used to have one in college. Rainey tells him 9 grand and Lupo says he will check his piggy bank. As the detectives leave, Bernard asks if he got the numbers. Lupo says yes, and asks if he thinks he fooled him. Bernard says nope.

Back at the 2-7, Bernard tell Van Buren they ran the plate and it is supposed to be n a Miata. Van Buren comments it could be mismatched plates, just like the blue Audi the shooter was driving. Lupo says maybe the doorman wasn’t wrong after all. Bernard says the Feds have Rainey on their radar as an associate of the Pontano family – loan sharking, extortion, Van Buren adding now exporting stolen cars to Latin America. But Bernard shows her that they ran the Bronco’s VIN, and find it was turned in on the cash for clunkers program. Bernard says the point of the program was to get the gas-guzzlers off the street and Rainey found a way to put them on someone else’s. Van Buren adds that the ozone still gets messed up down there it is still going to bite us in the ass up here. Lupo thinks Rainey was worried that Maggie was going to spill the beans as he knew she was talking to cops and the DA. But Rainey said he didn’t know where she was staying, and they chuckle that he wouldn’t like about that. Van Buren reaches down and grabs the box with the pie in it, and tells them to check the hotel surveillance video, and says thanks (for the pie).

The detectives watch the surveillance video and see Paige knock on her door, and when Maggie steps out, they lock lips. Page had told them she didn’t know where Maggie was, and Bernard says, “liar liar pants on fire.”

Back at Amstrad, they stop Paige as she is leaving and they tell her about what they saw on the video, showing her a picture. She says she has a boyfriend and she was seeing Maggie on the down low. Maggie was lonely. When they ask her if she told Rainey and if he ever drove a blue Audi, and when they tell her that is what Maggie’s killer was driving, she gets rattled and says she can’t talk to them and she has to go.

Back at the 2-7, they tell Van Buren that they think Paige knows Rainey did it. They also tell her the car is already on a cargo ship to Columbia.. There is an NYPD detective in Bogotá doing intel and they will have him intercept the car.

Later, the detectives tell EADA Michael Cutter (Linus Roache) that they found the Audi in South America and it is in the personal custody of an NYPD detective. He searched it and found a .45 shell casing and it matches the casings found at the crime scene. ADA Connie Rubirosa (Alana De La Garza) says all they have to do is put Bart Rainey in the car at the time of the murder. The detectives think they have someone who can, and Cutter comments that would be the victim’s lesbian lover who is too scared to testify. Lupo says they were thinking of making her too scared not to, and shows Cutter Paige’s signature on the ship’s manifest. As Cutter begins to outline what they can get her for, we cut to Bernard in the 2-7 interrogation room, who finishes the list. Paige says Rainey will kill her, and Lupo reminds her - like Maggie. She begins to cave, and says he told her to find out where she was, he needed to see her about a problem with the books and she believed him. She wanted to see her anyway. She told Rainey where she was. They next day when Maggie was killed she told herself it was her old boyfriend, but when they told her about the blue car, she said that Rainey drove it that afternoon.

There is a knock on the door and Van Buren enters, telling Paige there is a lawyer out there who says he represents Miss Regan and she said she would see if there was anyone in her by that name. Paige says she didn’t send for a lawyer. Lupo gets up and tells her to wait there.

Van Buren asks Lupo and Bernard if they remember Mr. Woll (Jonathan Cake) and Lupo says he represented the Mexican drug cartel. They play dumb about Paige. He says that Paige did not come to work and her employer, Mr. Rainey was concerned and called her apartment and her roommate said the police had taken her. When he asks if she is here, Lupo says Rainey got bad information. Woll smiles and says, “Well then, sorry to bother you” with a suspicious grin on his face. When he walks out, Lupo thinks Woll is going right back to Rainey to report. Bernard says they could have asked him for a ride.

When the detectives arrive at Rainey’s, Woll is already there, and said he could have given them a ride. They arrest Rainey for Maggie’s murder, and Rainey said whatever Paige said, she is lying. As Bernard reads him his rights and says he has a right to an attorney, Woll says they have that covered.

At a Supreme Court motion hearing, the judge (Jenna Stern) hears Woll’s motion, saying there was a flagrant abuse of prosecutorial power. She says again, not like when he was a DA. He gives her a motion to suppress the blue Audi, who says that the Columbians are tainted. But Cutter reminds him that Woll may be generalizing from the Latin Americans that he hangs out with, but there is no evidence of corruption in this case, Rubirosa adding that an NYPD detectives was involved in every step of the way. The judge denies Woll’s motion.

Outside the court room. Marcus says win some, lose some, he will just have to beat them the old fashioned way. Cutter says - nice to see you again too. Woll says, “Frankly Mike, you I can take or leave, but Connie, when are you going to leave these bureaucrats and come work for my firm?” When Rubirosa says she really couldn’t say, he says, “Ooooo, heart breaker.” Woll says to Rubirosa, while Cutter looks on curiously, that he knows they are not obligated, but can he take a look at their witness Miss Regan and just ask a few questions. Cutter interrupts, saying no offense but the last time Woll beat them the old fashioned way, it was because their main witness was terrified out of testifying by the murder of one of his friends. Cutter says he can peek at Miss Regan all he wants when she takes the stand. Cutter and Rubirosa step into the elevator. Woll looks at Rubirosa, she looks back at him looking a little uncomfortably.

At Manhattan Towers Hotel, Paige is in protective custody with Lupo and Bernard. She asks what happens to her after the trial. Lupo tells her that the DA will look at the situation and if Rainey was convicted and there is still a threat to her…she finishes that they will move her to some little town in North Dakota, and she does not know how to grow wheat. Lupo heads to make a bathroom break, and Paige asks Bernard if Lupo has a girlfriend. Bernard says he thought SHE had a girlfriend. When a knock comes to the door and Paige goes to answer it, Bernard stops her and gets it. He looks through the peephole and sees it is Rubirosa and he opens the door. She needs to go over a few things with Paige about her testimony. Another knock comes to the door, saying it is room service, and Paige, standing right by it, moves to open it (idiot!). Rubirosa tells her to wait, but Paige says it is just room service. Lupo sees a man with a gun at the opening door, and as the man begins to shoot, Rubirosa pulls Paige away and Lupo steps in to cover Paige. Bernard runs out into the hall and chases the gunman. There are other people in the hall and the man continues to shoot. But Bernard is able to shoot the guy as he gets in the elevator.

The detectives try to remove Paige from the hotel to go to another one, but she’s fed up. Lupo says he will take her wherever she wants. Lupo tells Bernard it looks like he is going for a drive, and Bernard says the shooter team is waiting for him upstairs. Lupo asks if her is OK, and Bernard says yeah.

Meanwhile, in the office elevator, Rubirosa is telling Cutter that Lupo drove Paige to her sister’s house in Watertown and that she said she will not come back for the trial. She said they can try to convince her or arrest her as a material witness. Cutter, looking concerned, asks Rubirosa if she is sure she is alright. She says she is fine, it all happened so fast. He asks if she needs some time off, but she wants to keep working. As they enter the office, she tells Cutter the shooter was a freelancer from out of town and they are still looking for connections. Cutter wonders how he knew Paige was in that hotel, and Rubirosa said only Cutter, Lupo, Bernard, and she knew. Cutter says all they need is another witness but Rubirosa tells him people aren’t lining up to testify. Cutter wonders if someone told Rainey that Maggie was ratting him out, someone who knew that Rainey would kill her, and Rubirosa says it could be someone like William Avery. Cutter comments it is in Avery’s interest for her to be killed.

At the office of Les Gomez, Avery’s attorney, thinks that Will Avery is too dumb to pull it off. He was convicted after the DA found a video that Avery put on YouTube waving the murder weapon. He adds that Maddie’s testimony would not have helped the DA anyway, Gomez knew she worked for Rainey and was going to slam her on cross with the fact that she worked for a mobster which would expose Rainey in open court. He did not mention it to Rainey. Rubirosa looks at the motion that Gomez was planning to file on the case and wonders how he had the time to do it, but he says he had an outside consultant who did it pro bono, and they find it is Marcus Woll.


Later, with DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) at a formal affair, they tell him about Marcus Woll’s knowing about Maggie and Rainey. Cutter says in every case Woll touches someone drops dead. Woll got involved in the Avery case to find out what Maggie knew about Rainey, and when he found out she would be trouble, he reported back to Rainey and Maggie got killed. McCoy asks about the attempt to kill Paige, and Rubirosa tells him Rainey needed Woll to find out where Paige was located. When McCoy asks how he would know that, Rubirosa said when she worked with Woll when he was an ADA, they used a few hotels to hide witnesses, and she used one of those hotels to hide Paige. McCoy says Woll told Rainey where to look, and adds that Woll is a serial killer – and he used to work for them. He tells them to apply for a warrant to bug his conversations with Rainey.


At the chambers of Judge Gus Ishikawa, Cutter and Rubirosa make their case for the warrant but are turned down. When they exit the judge’s chambers, Woll is there and asks how it went. He worked in the DA’s office long enough that if someone goes to a judge ex parte he will hear about it. Cutter tells him that it was a false alarm and it wasn’t about him. But Woll goes on to talk about all the cases he worked as and ADA he got 102 convictions and he put a lot of people in jail, asking Rubirosa if she remembers. She says they only worked together briefly. Cutter stops walking and turns and faces Woll, looking up to him. Woll goes on to say that if word got around somehow that he was the kind of lawyer that crossed the line or was dirty, how long do they think it would be before 102 attorneys came up with 102 motions to overturn every one of his convictions? Cutter glares at him, and Woll asks if he really has that kind of spare time on his hands, and he smirks and walks off.

Back at the DA’s office, McCoy comments about Woll’s balls, with him blackmailing them. Cutter asks if they really want to deal with all the appeals, and McCoy said they are not going to let a killer go free because they are afraid of a little paperwork. McCoy enters the meeting room and sees Rubirosa at the table with tons of paperwork. He says, “On second thought…” and when Cutter says it is a sampling, McCoy says it is a nightmare. He asks if Woll was dirty when he worked for them, and Rubirosa one defense witness who did not show up for trial, and McCoy says they tend not to be perfect witnesses. Rubirosa said there was a case she worked with Woll in her first month when he convicted Alvin Jackson for murder. McCoy refers to him as Alvin “mad dog” Jackson, a drug lord. Cutter says the case made Woll’s reputation. There was an eyewitness for the defense, a pharmacist named Henry Lovett, who swore someone else committed the murder. Lovett never showed for trial, and Rubirosa sees that he was found dead, 2 years after the trial, already decomposed and found in a construction site. Cutter says since he was found two years after the trial, no one made the connection. McCoy says it may not be too late, and tells Rubirosa to call the police.

The detectives are visiting Jackson (Ty Jones) in prison, who says that one of Eddie Rice’s boys did it. The pharmacist would have cleared him, and Woll said he didn’t want to hear that. Jackson says of course Lovett is dead. When Bernard says that Rice got him killed to protect himself, and have Jackson sent away, Jackson said now he is detecting. It is too little too late now that Eddie is dead too.

At the home of Shelley Lovett (Irene Glezos), she tells the detectives that the last time she saw her husband, it was the Friday before he was supposed to testify. He saw some suspicious characters in front of their building so he decided to spend the weekend with cousins in Queens. He took a walk Sunday night and never came back. She didn’t tell anyone where he was, except someone from the DA’s office who called to arrange protection, and she has the name.

Outside near the court house, the detectives speak with Cutter while Rubirosa is off getting coffee. They tell Cutter that Woll wasn’t the one who called the wife about the protection. When Cutter asks who, they look uncomfortable, and as Rubirosa walks up with the coffee, they tell him it was Rubirosa. He looks stunned as Rubirosa hands Cutter his coffee, and he looks a little distressed.

In McCoy’s office, she tells him about the matter, and that she was helping 5 lawyers at the time and it was her first month and she didn’t recall at first. Woll asked her to find the witness so he could talk to him before he testified, and she adds that it wasn’t for protection but Woll told her to say that to improve their chances of getting the information. She says she got that man killed, but McCoy tells her Marcus Woll did that. Cutter thinks Rainey will roll on Woll.

At Rikers, they talk with Rainey, saying that if he tells them about his attorney aiding and abetting the murders of Maggie and Paige they will talk a deal. But he isn’t having any of it and refused to tell them anything and he leaves. As they leave the room, Rubirosa says Woll kills or tries to kill three witness, the pattern is consistent but there is no evidence because he murders the evidence. Cutter asks what if the pattern IS the evidence. She says legally it isn’t and he agrees but says if they get multiple murders in front of a jury they won’t split legal hairs and they will convict. Rubirosa says this is why a decent judge won’t allow it. Cutter says a decent judge says 50-50.

They take it to the judge and the both seem late in arriving to respond to Woll’s motion to dismissing the charges against Rainey. They tell the judge they have no evidence, and as she is getting ready to dismiss, Lupo and Bernard walk in and arrest Woll for the murders of Maggie Hayes and Lovett, and the attempted murder of Paige. As they cuff him, he asks the judge if she was about to rule, and says his trouble should not be taken out on his client. She says that is fair enough and dismisses the charges against Rainey, and tells Cutter and Rubirosa they can bring the charges again if they get enough evidence. Woll thanks her and says he will have a motion on his own behalf later today. ]

In the judge’s chambers, they confer with her on the case with Woll, his attorney (Kate Burton) present. They speak of the pattern which is his signature, but Woll calls it bootstrapping. The judge says that the arraignment judge agreed as his bail came quick and easy. She tells Cutter it is a stretch with the indictments coupled together. Rubirosa jumps in and says they will amend it to a single charge of conspiracy to murder Henry Lovett, saying there is a co-conspirator who is alive and willing to cooperate with the prosecution. Wa=oll looks stunned and asks who, and she says “me” as they all look at her with blank faces. The judge clarifies what Rubirosa is saying and then says the hearing is adjourned pending a superceding indictment and tells Woll his bail is continued, and tells Rubirosa to get a lawyer.

In the hallway, Cutter tells Rubirosa she does not want to do this, but she said that sonofabitch was about to skate. He says they will find another way, she says they have a way, and walks off. Woll approaches Cutter, and says, “You too, mate?” When Cutter doesn’t understand, Woll adds that she is hot as hell, and just do it – he did. He gives Cutter a creepy smirk and walks off, leaving Cutter with a determined face.

In McCoy’s office, Cutter says that Woll claims he and Rubirosa had a sexual relationship and did everything but show him the dirty pictures. When McCoy asked if he asked her, Cutter says that would be crossing the line. He doesn’t have sex with people that he works with and he doesn’t ask them about their sex lives. He says, “We’re supposed to be smarter than that here, aren’t we? I mean, who’d put themselves in a situation like that?” McCoy looks at him with a half smirk, and says, ”You mean besides me?” Cutter says it is worse for a woman, it demeans them and a calls into question everything they have accomplished. McCoy says she deserves extra credit for stepping forward, and says he assumes Cutter still finds her competent. He does, but they are colleagues, not lovers and that is the way it is supposed to be.

Back I Supreme Court, Jackson is on the stand talking about the case involving Eddie Rice. He says that Woll came after him and got his headline. He found Woll a witness who saw it wasn’t Jackson, and that witness was gong to testify until he got killed. Under cross, the defense attorney only asks him about him being convicted for murder, clearly trying to discredit him.

Later in Cutter’s office, he and Rubirosa talk about the case, asking about how to address her relationship with Wol When she says she wants to jump into a time machine and make it never happen, Cutter looks at her and says he never would have thought, her and Wol. She says that’s life, things happen. He says it was dumb and she is not dumb. She says thank you with some sarcasm. She asks if maybe someone else should be handling the trial, and he laughs and says he is afraid she is stuck with him. She says then they should probably get back to work. He asks how to deal with her relationship with Woll, and she says tell the truth, keep if brief, and move the focus back to the crime, that’s what he tells her to do when they have a damaged witness. He says yes.

Outside her apartment building, Wol is waiting for Rubirosa and asks if he can give her a lift, they are going to the same place. She says no. He says they are co-conspirators, it seems natural to spend time together. She comments that it’s the day she is going to testify against her, is he planning on having her shot like the others? He says she does not have to do through it, it isn't going to do her any good. She tells him that he has no idea how much good this is going to do her. He smiles, commenting that it is tragic, the whole thing is breaking someone’s heart, saying it is “poor Mike Cutter. ” When she turns back in surprise, Wol adds that Cutter never realized she was available.

At Supreme Court, Rubirosa is on the stand and talks about her involvement with Lovett and Wol’s asking her to call him and get the information where Lovett was hiding. She spent the weekend working on the case, and Wol never interviewed Lovett, even after she found him for Woll. She did not think it was odd at the time and when Lovett didn’t show up, it was moot. Cutter comments that Lovett did not show up because he was dead. She did not know that then. Woll  also asked her to work on a draft of his closing statement for Monday, but that was when Lovett was supposed to testify. Cutter implies that Woll seemed to know that Lovett was not going to be there.

Under cross, Wol’s attorney reminds Rubirosa she has not been charged as yet, and implies she wants to get Woll.  Rubirosa says not any more so than any other murderer. The attorney asks her how many other accused murders she has slept with, and as Cutter objects, she withdraws the question. She then implies that Rubirosa had sex with Woll that weekend she was supposed to be working with Woll. She admits she did have sex with Woll other times, once or twice. Rubirosa says the affair ended when she came to her senses. She says there was nothing to get even for, she had practically forgotten about it, it wasn’t that memorable. Woll smiles but looks annoyed. Cutter looks at Rubirosa with an approving smile.

Woll is now testifying. He says that he tried to contact Lovett himself over that weekend and he did not arrange his murder. He never thought Rubirosa would go this far, and thinks she actually believes her version of what happened, and that is what is really scary. Under cross, Cutter – with someone else as second chair – finds no phone calls to Lovett on Woll's  phone records. Woll implies he made a call on another phone. Cutter did find calls to Eddie Rice, saying that maybe it was done at the suggestion of the defendant. When Cutter comments that Woll thinks Rubirosa is delusional, Woll says he is not a psychiatrist. Cutter then seems to imply that Rubirosa was the one who called Eddie Rice to tell him where to find Lovett, in order to help Woll and that maybe she was in love with him. Rubirosa looks a little uncomfortable that Cutter seems to be implicating her. He adds that maybe they were in on it together and she was an equal partner and she should be charged right along with him. Woll says nobody should be charged because nobody was murdered. Cutter says somebody murdered Henry Lovett, and nobody knew where he was except Woll and Rubirosa. Woll blurts out to have it Cutter’s way, she did it, and he doesn’t murder witnesses. This is exactly what Cutter wants to hear, because now he can bring in all those other cases to discredit Woll, much to Woll’s dismay. Woll has to admit he has heard of those other people who were witnesses who were murdered or attacked. As Cutter continues to press on details, Woll complains to the judge, and Cutter says he will make it simple, why is it that witnesses opposing his interests have a consistent habit of getting killed? When Woll complains, “Your honor!” Cutter withdraws the question. Cutter stares back at a rattled Marcus Woll, and Rubirosa looks on, satisfied. When Cutter wants to begin talking about Maggie Hayes, Woll looks beaten.

In the DA’s office interview room, Woll is there with his attorney, who comments that Cutter got his pattern in. Cutter indicates the jury noticed it too. She suggests they drop the case and they will give him something real, and Woll says he has never shot anyone or carried a gun. Woll says he will give them everything they need on Rainey. His attorney suggests that Woll will get a walk and Cutter will get a stone cold killer. Cutter replies that he would rather make the deal with the stone cold killer, and is sure Rainey will find the recording he just made very interesting. Woll has that “I am royally screwed” look on his face.

Later in McCoy’s office, Cutter says they cut a deal with Rainey for 12-14 years and he will give them Woll. McCoy is happy they will both be in Attica, adding that it is charming. He says the appeals for Woll’s cases are already coming in and they will have another 100 by the weekend, saying ”You two will have to work together day and night, that won’t be a problem, will it?” he walks away for Cutter and Rubirosa to ponder that, and as Cutter looks a little blank Rubirosa gives him a small smile as we fade to black.





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Law & Order SVU Schedule Update

Photo from NBC

Neal Baer, Exec Producer for Law & Order SVU, has provided an update for the scheduled episodes for the show, up to the beginning of the Winter Olympics. Here it is: (Note: Updated on 12/18 based on a "tweet" from Neal Baer)

November 18 - Perverted
December 9 – Anchor (got moved again!)
January 6 – Quickie
January 13 - Shadow
February 3 – Confidential
February 10 – P.C.

Now you’re up to date! I don’t have episode details for some of these, but will publish the information as soon as it is made available.




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Law & Order “Shotgun,” SVU “Perverted” Episode Information, Week of November 15, 2009

The new episosdes just keep on coming! Here’s what’s up for Law & Order, and Law & Order SVU, for next week.


Law & Order SVU “Perverted” Air Date 11/18/2009 (9 PM ET/ 8C Friday NBC)
A MEMBER OF A DANGEROUS BIKER GANG IS KILLED, AND BENSON IS THE PRIME SUSPECT

While in the park, a family stumbles upon the sexually mutilated body of Clyde Vandyne, a member of a biker gang known for prostitution and contract killing. To everyone’s surprise, incriminating DNA evidence points to Detective Benson (Mariska Hargitay) as the prime suspect. Munch (Richard Belzer) and Fin (Ice-T) investigate the murder, while Stabler (Christopher Meloni) fights to prove his partner’s innocence. The detectives must find the missing link to both Vandyne’s murder and Benson’s involvement. Also starring: Dann Florek (Captain Donald Cragen), and Tamara Tunie (Dr. Melinda Warner).

My recap and review of Law & Order SVU "Perverted" can be found here.


Law & Order “Shotgun” Air Date 11/20/2009 (8 PM ET/ 7C Friday NBC)
A VIOLENT ARMED ROBBERY EXPOSES DEEPER INTENTIONS.

When an elderly man defends his shop from an armed robbery, Detectives Kevin Bernard (Anthony Anderson) and Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto) suspect that this incident could have been an inside job. After further investigation, the detectives discover that the mugging might have been a scare tactic for a shakedown. Also starring: S. Epatha Merkerson (Lieutenant Anita Van Buren), Sam Waterston (District Attorney Jack McCoy), Alana De La Garza (Connie Rubirosa), and Linus Roache (Michael Cutter).

My recap and review of Law & Order"Shotgun" can be found here.

SVU “Perverted” Promo




Check out my blog home page for the latest Law & Order information, on All Things Law And Order, here.

Also, see my companion Law & Order site,These Are Their Stories.

Law & Order CI and SVU Lands Guest Stars Michael Gladis, Kathy Griffin

Several sources are reporting that Law & Order Criminal Intent and Law & Order SVU have added a few notable guest stars for upcoming episodes.



Kathy Griffin, best know for her show “ My Life on the D List,” will be featured in an episode of SVU that is scheduled to begin filming around the first of the year. She will be playing a gay activist. The name of the episode and her character’s name has not been released as yet.







Michael Gladis, who is currently on the AMC show “Mad Men” as a copywriter, is slated to appear on an episode of Law & Order Criminal Intent as suspected serial killer Randall Haig in an episode that is reported to be named “Love Sick”. Criminal Intent is not scheduled to return tot he USA Network until the spring of 2010.




Check out my blog home page for the latest Law & Order information, on All Things Law And Order, here.

Also, see my companion Law & Order site,These Are Their Stories.

Linus Roache, Alana De La Garza Interview for “Talk Stoop”

Here is a new video interview with Law & Order’s Linus Roache and Alana De La Garza, which was done for NBC New York’s “Talk Stoop.” (Thanks to Lisa who brought this to my attention.) Move over Mariska and Chris, because Linus and Alana have great chemistry!






Check out my blog home page for the latest Law & Order information, on All Things Law And Order, here.

Also, see my companion Law & Order site,These Are Their Stories.

Law & Order SVU “Turmoil” Recap & Review

All Photos from NBC

Law & Order SVU “Turmoil” was aptly named, as there was enough Stabler family turmoil packed in this one episode to last a whole season. I have never been a fan of Stabler family drama, so when I saw the previews, I approached the episode with a sense of dread. While the episode did have some great parts, I think that the case of the girl who was raped, and Cabot being scrutinized by the state bar, were far more interesting than the Stabler family drama. The problem child in this episode is Elliot’s son Dickie – and I laughed when Dickie’s friend’s mother said he hates being called Dickie. It was never my favorite name either, so I was glad to hear that maybe down the road he will be referred to as Dick or better yet Richard. But I certainly hope that we don’t hear from Dickie-Dick-Richard for a long time. In fact, I hope that the writers forget about the Stabler family for at least the next two seasons. This includes the Stabler parents, kids, spouses, grandparents, illegitimate children, well, you get the picture. Pets, however, would be fine because they can’t have any speaking lines and rarely get into trouble that requires the police force or the legal system. (As I write this, I am sure the writers are creating a Stabler dog that happens to have gotten off its leash and is a witness to a sex crime while running free.)

The real problem child in the SVU universe is Elliot Stabler. Wow, he has some issues. My recommendation is that he seek immediate help for his control issues, his anger issues, his family issues – the list could go on and on. Stabler is just a mess and frankly he is becoming almost completely dysfunctional not only as a father but as a detective. Don’t get me wrong, Chris Meloni does a fine job in this role, it is just that I am tiring of seeing Stabler, week after week, seem to lose more control over his emotions and behavior every week.

And poor Don Cragen, he always takes the heat for what Stabler or Benson does. Munch says this would be Cragen’s last suspension and the next time he is out. Unfair, I say, since Cragen can’t be with Stabler and Benson every second of the day to control their every move. My suggestion is that if Stabler can’t clean up his act, then Cragen should consider suspending him.

I also feel some pain for Cabot. She’s taking the heat for the problems with SVU – just as Sonya Paxton did. The pressure of trying to clean up SVU likely pushed Paxton over the edge with her drinking, and I don’t think Cabot got it right away that Paxton was trying to give her a kick in the pants so Cabot will learn to watch out or herself. Paxton hit the nail on the head when she said that Benson and Stabler are loyal to each other and not to Cabot. That became evident when Benson basically throws Cabot under the bus by putting in a formal request for a new ADA on the grounds of professional ethics, accusing Cabot of sacrificing a rape victim to save her own ass. For the number of times that Cabot has come through in her career to cover the screw ups of Benson and Stabler, I think that Benson had a lot of nerve kicking Cabot when she was down. I’m glad, though, that things worked out for Cabot with this case.


Here is the recap:

It’s morning in the Stabler household, and Elliot Stabler (Chris Meloni) tells his son Dickie (Jeffrey Scaperrotta) he will be late for school. Dickie tells him he is waiting for Shane, but Stabler doesn’t like Shane driving Dickie anywhere, and tells Dickie not to take the expressway. He tells Kathy that he is looking for a green folder, he needs it for court, it’s for the Nikki Sherman rape case. Dickie finds the folder on the table under his backpack, and says Nikki is the sophomore at Manning Prep who said she got raped by the football player, and says she likes to party. Stabler gets a weird look on his face, and asks if Dickie knows her. He says no, but everyone says she is a lying slut. Stabler tells Dickie not to ever talk about a victim like that, and Dickie rolls his eyes, saying it’s their words, not his. But when he says the photos were pretty hot, Stabler asks which photos. Dickie says it’s the ones with her top off like “girls gone wild.” Kathy (Isabel Gillies) says she doesn’t want him on that web site, but Dickie says they were on Shane’s phone. There is a knock on the door, and Shane (Joshua Page) walks in. Stabler walks up to him and Shane says hello, and when Stabler walks up to him, Shane asks if something is wrong. Stabler takes Shane’s hat off and says "no hats indoors” and asks who sent him photos of his rape victim. Shane says he does not know, it was viraled out to hundreds of kids, and then adds, “sir.” Stabler glares at him and then says drive straight to school, no stopping.

In a Supreme Court pre-trial hearing, as Detective Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Nikki Sherman (Shana Dowdeswell) are in the gallery, the defense attorney (Joseph Siravo) says the prosecution is concealing evidence and that Nikki Sherman was not raped. ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) objects, saying they turned over everything. But the defense attorney asks about Nikki’s recant of her statement, where she admitted she wanted to have sex with his client. When Cabot has no idea what he is talking about, he says he has a witness who said she recanted. Cabot says it is a desperate attempt to intimidate Nikki, but he says she changed her story and that the prosecution buried it. As they continue to argue back and forth, a man stands near the courtroom door, and Judge Petrovsky (Joanna Merlin) takes notice, and she tells Cabot to request a continuance. When Cabot seems confused at what the judge has told her to do, saying she does not need more time, Petrovsky says she will give her 48 hours to review her evidence. Cabot is even more confused. She sees the man standing by the doorway as Nikki’s father gives her an earful. She also reassures Nikki there will be a trial and they will win.

Benson and Stabler approach Cabot and they say they gave her all the evidence. But Cabot says Petrovsky gave her two days to get her story straight, and apparently she is being investigated by the state bar. They turn to look at the man at the door, who motions to Cabot.

Outside the courtroom, she tells the man, Liam Black, that this is just fallout for Sonya Paxton’s drunken performance. He says to keep telling herself that, and state bar. He says word is that Manhattan SVU likes to bend the rules. Stabler says he can dig all he wants they won’t find any dirt, but Cabot clarifies they are investigating her, not them. He says if her license gets yanked, they are next. He says collateral damage is like Jell-O, there is always room for more.

Back at the SVU squad, Benson and Stabler return to find Captain Don Cragen (Dann Florek) waiting for them as they get off the elevator. He tells them that since their cell phone was off while they were in court, Kathy called him, his son Dickie is missing. Stabler moves to leave and Benson says she will go with him, but he says he will call when he knows something.



Stabler gets home to an anxious Kathy, who has not been able to get Dickie on his cell phone. He started a fight with a kid at school and no one has seen him since lunch, but Stabler thinks he is just with Shane. A detective is there, and asks who is Shane. He says Shane Newsome is just the kind of trouble he doesn’t want hanging around his kid, he’s into drugs and he has a record. Kathy said his calls are going to voice mail. When Stabler says Dickie is not a runaway, she tells him to let them help look for him. Stabler seems to object, but Gomez asks about the fight in school, and Kathy tells her the other boy was Danny Proctor. The teacher did not know what the fight was about. Gomez asks if there were any other personality changes, mood swings, etc. but Kathy say no. Stabler says if his son was taking drugs he would know it, but she reminds him he just said he hangs out with an addict. Kathy wants her to file a missing persons report and Stabler relents. Kathy gives him a picture, and asks for permission to use the cell phone company to access his chip to try to locate him. Stabler says he will go make the call and walk out.

Kathy follows him and he tells her she is overreacting, but she says she wishes he would. His phone rings, and it is his bank. Dickie tried to use his emergency credit card at an ATM in Manhattan. When Kathy says the card is not set up to give cash, he tells her he does not know that. He tells her to call the cell phone provider to track his calls. He is going to have a heart to heart with Shane’s mother.

At the Newsome residence, he asks where Shane is. She says Shane relapsed twice but is straight now, he takes a urine test every morning. There is tension between them, and he says he knows how an addict works, and she says his son is a good influence and she thought a cop would understand. But he says he is also a parent. He asks her for a list of Shane’s friends and the place he hangs out. But she wants to know why he is looking for him, and he says when he finds him he will find his son. He tells her Dickie is truant, and she says he is blaming Shane. She adds it may come as a shock, but Richard is not perfect. He says his name is Dickie, and she says it shows how well he knows him. No one calls him that any more, he hates it. He hands her his card and asks if she hears from Shane to give him a call, but she doesn’t take it, saying he won’t hear from him anymore and asks him to leave. He puts the card down by her phone and leaves.

Back at the SVU squad, Cragen asks what he is doing there, and Stabler says he is working the rape, he thinks Dickie is out joyriding with Shane and trying to get money out of his ATM. He’s ready to work the rape case. They go over the evidence, saying they have Nikki’s statement that Sam Baylor raped her in a basement bathroom at am unsupervised party. Fin (Ice-T) says Baylor’s DNA matches, and she says rape and he says it was consensual. Munch (Richard Belzer) confirms all they had went to Cabot. Stabler says Nikki did not recant. When Cragen says he will tell Cabot they have all the bases covered and she had nothing to worry about, Stabler says maybe not. He mentions the photo that Dickie said was floating around the Internet. Cragen asks if this just slipped his mind, and he said he just found out about it this morning and did not have a chance to track it down. Cragen is not happy and tells him that they may have to reopen the case, and tells him that problems with his son is affecting his judgment. He says all he needs is more time, but Cragen says that it seems he had enough time to put out a BOLO on Shane’s car and it is sitting in impound, it was towed from Harlem. Stabler asks Fin to pull the footage from the last ATM and Cragen nods for him to go ahead. Cragen tells him to work Dickie’s whereabouts while they wait for the photo and tells Benson to handle the Proctor interview, the boy that Dickie fought with.

At Cardinal Catholic Prep School, Benson catches up with Proctor, who seems to be passing around a bottle with his pals. When Benson says she hopes that is soda he is guzzling, he says, “I already have a mom, bitch!” causing Stabler to grab him forcefully, and throwing him down. Stabler asks him to start talking about Dick, ad he said Dick started it, Dick jumped him because he pounded Shane for selling him a stolen DVR, saying he needed cash quick. His mother showed up and took it back. He said Shane wanted the money to get into the army. He says Shane and Dick are always talking to the recruiter on campus. Benson and Stabler walk off, with Stabler wondering what a recruiter is doing talking to a minor.

They head to the recruiter and Stabler asks about Richard Stabler. Sgt. Jordan (Réal Andrews) knows about it, saying that they wanted to enlist in the buddy system, Shane is 18 and he didn’t want to wait. But Stabler says he is 16 years old, and the recruiter says some parents sign their kids over for training in discipline and loyalty. Stabler says his son is going to college, and the recruiter says he hope he is planning on paying as Dickie’s grades won’t land him a scholarship. Stabler tells him if his kid comes in again to kick his ass out. Jordan says the army has no intention of turning him down, and in two years Stabler no longer has a say. Stabler glares at him. Meanwhile, Benson has received a call saying the ATM footage is in.

Back at the SVU squad, Shane is there on the ATM video with the credit card and someone is standing behind him and it does not seem to be Dickie. Dickie is still not answering his cell but has made calls to Newsome, which is pinging towers in Harlem. Stabler wants to go and look for him. Munch enters and says he found Nikki Sherman’s photograph, she’s topless at what looks like a party. Munch also notes Sam Baylor in the photo and says TARU says it is not photoshopped. It looks bad for Nikki.

Cabot is at SVU, complaining that it is 3 AM and why is she just hearing about this now? Cragen says extenuating circumstances because Stabler’s son is missing. But she says they just showed her a photo that will make the jury think that the rape victim is a liar, and asks what they are going to do. When Benson says they would question Nikki, Cabot says don’t bother, she will do the interview herself. Stabler says the state bar is not climbing down his neck, but she adds because he missed the photo. She asks if he forgot Nikki’s recant statement as well. He says not a chance. She says they are being watched and anything he does against protocol stacks the deck. He says she doesn’t get it, he doesn’t care. Cabot looks to Benson and back to Stabler, saying that her head is not the only one the chopping block. We then hear Mrs. Newsome asking Fin if they called her down there to find her son or not, and he says he just has a few questions. When Cabot asks who that is, Stabler says it is Shane’s mother, he and Dickie are missing. Cabot says Stabler does not belong in that interview, and he says he wasn’t going to, he knows procedure. She tells him if he did, she wouldn’t even be there. He gives her a look and walks off. Cabot turns to Cragen and says Stabler is screwing up her rape case and now she can’t even talk to Nikki Sherman until the morning. Cragen tells her to cut him some slack, but she says personal investigations involving family members are completely against procedure, he knows it, she knows it, and so will One PP. She walks off.

Mrs. Newsome is in an interview room, and she has a record of Shane’s calls, and besides many from Dickie, there is one she does not recognize. She accused them of not caring about her son. Fin reminds her Shane is an addict, which is a lifetime disease, and Benson says he also has two counts of assault and a burglary with no jail time. Mrs. Newsome says Shane goes to counseling and still does community service. But when Benson shows her that Shane is using Dickie’s credit card to take money out of the account, she pauses and asks if they think Shane forced Richard into giving it to him. Fin reminds her that Shane gets violent when things don’t go his way, but she says that was when she was using. She also clarifies that the DVR was not stolen, his father sent it to him and he had every right to sell it. She thought he was using again and says she jumped to conclusions, just like them. Benson asks if there is anywhere special where they would go and wants permission to access the GPS on his cell phone so they can find him. But Newsome says not to pretend that they care, and that the next time they talk it will be through a lawyer.

In the observation room, Stabler tells Cragen they have to subpoena the cell phone provider, but Cragen tells him the case belongs to Queens. They cannot prove that Shane broke the law. Fin enters and says he traced the unidentified number on Shane’s cell, the call cane from a payphone across the street from a homeless shelter in Harlem. Benson recalls that Shane’s mother said his sponsor works at a shelter. It is also the same area where Dickie made his last call. Cragen tells him to stay out of this and send Fin and Benson to talk to Shane’s sponsor.

At the homeless shelter, the sponsor tells Benson and Fin that Shane is clean and sober and he likes it here. Shane seems close to Harold Moore, and Shane thinks he can save him. She wanred him that Harold cannot be trusted. Harold is the only person that Shane trusted to give his number, and she told that to Richard. She identifies Dickie Stabler. She says he is a great kid, he was just there an hour ago. She tells them Harold can be found 10 blocks east by the old church. When Fin and Benson exit the shelter, they see Stabler, and they tell him they may have just found Dickie and Benson tells him to get in the car.

Meanwhile, Cabot has come to Nikki’s school to talk with her. She shows her the photo and Nikki asks where she got it. When Nikki hears it was on the Internet she begins to cry. Cabot asks her to tell her everything. She says it was a party and they spiked her drink but does not know with what. A football player threw the party and her friend Amy had to get her out of there because she didn’t remember. Cabot thinks she was dosed with rohypnol – a roofie. She said the party was three weeks before she was raped. When Cabot asks her why she would go to another party after that, Nikki says they are seniors and popular and everyone wants to be friends with them. Cabot tells her she is going to call her father and is bringing her home. She tells her that her father will find out sooner or later and it is better that it come from her.

Back with the detectives, they come up on Dickie beating up Harold (Rob Campbell), the homeless guy. Stabler runs out and yells for him to stop and then grabs him. Dickie says he is looking for Shane. They take Harold in to have his injuries looked at, and when Stabler wants to take Dickie home, Benson stops him and says his son just assaulted a man with a 2 by 4 and there is no way he is going home. She tells him not to make this worse than it already is.

Back at the SVU squad, Benson asks Dickie to walk through it, but Dickie is worried that Shane is out there hurt. While Stabler watches from the observation area, Dickie tells Benson he gave Shane the credit card. He says Shane needs the money to get into the military. Dickie says Shane is not taking drugs. She says they must be pretty close, and he says he is not stupid, he knows where she is going, and his dad does this all the time when he tries to get personal. As an example, he asks “How about you, ever sleep with your partner, detective?’ Stabler looks up with a stunned face. Benson answers “Never. Are we done playing games?” Dickie says he doesn’t have a lot of friends because his father is a cop. He thinks Harold knows where Shane is, when Shane called for the bank code he heard Harold in the background. Stabler turns off the sound, and comments he won’t get father of the year award. Cragen says maybe next year after Stabler re-channels Dickie’s energy to contact sports. Benson walks out, and asks what they are going to do about the assault charge, and Stabler says if Harold presses charges he will bring him back. Munch says Mrs. Newsome called and authorized Queens to track Shane’s cell phone, and they just called with his position. It’s central booking.

At Manhattan Central booking at One PP, Stabler and Benson arrive looking for Shane. His name is not on their list and there are no minors in the tank. In the property room they are calling Shane’s cell phone and follow the ringing to a phone that came in with a drug collar for possession with intent to distribute, the suspect’s name was Douglas. Benson sees there is blood on the phone.

Back at SVU, Dickie is sitting next to Stabler’s desk. Benson hands him a sandwich but he won’t take it. Stabler asks him what is his problem, and he says his dad thinks Shane talked him into drugs. Dickie doesn’t think his father gives a damn about Shane. But Stabler asks him if he knows who he is, and he says he is his father, not a friend. This is why Dickie says he did not call him for help. Stabler says his job is to worry about him 24/7 and the people he hangs out with are his business. But Dickie says Stabler does not get to chose his friends. He says he is done listening to him. Stabler asks him if he has lost his mind, and Dickie says he is not the first Stabler to do that, is he? Stabler pauses for a second and then his face changes, and then he stands up and grabs Dickie and slams him against something. Benson stands up, but Stabler stops himself and Kathy also walks up to try to calm him, and she walks away with Dickie.

Munch comes in with the lab results from the blood on the cell phone; it’s Shane’s. Benson finds that Shane’s phone was found on Neal Douglas, who was arrested for possession with intent and assault with a deadly weapon, he pistol-whipped a man. The charges were dropped with the victim recanted. Man 2, the charges were dropped when the witnesses disappeared. Benson and Munch look to Stabler who seems to be trying to still calm himself, and when she mentions his names, he takes a deep breath and says they should head to the tombs and rattle his cage. But Munch says they have to call Cabot, he says to tell her to meet them there.

Benson asks Douglas about the phone, and he says he does not talk without his suit. When Stabler asks another question, Douglas asks him if he just asked him a question without his lawyer here, Cabot walks in and says he just violated his right to counsel but don’t take it personally, that is Stabler’s M.O. He asks her what she is there for, and she said nothing. She ends the interview.

Outside of the room, she says she is not going to the DA on a missing kid that is not even in her jurisdiction. Stabler reminds her that Shane’s blood is on the phone found in Douglas’ possession. Cabot says the same kid he thought was a suspect is now a victim because he let his personal bias get in the way. He says blaming him will not help find Shane. She says there is nothing she can do, and he asks, can’t, or won’t? She walks away from him.

With Liam, Cabot tells him that SVU turned the picture of Nikki over to her the night before last. He asks if she turned it over to the defense, and she said an hour ago. He asked why the delay, and she said they wanted to prove it was genuine and get the victim’s side of the story. But he says this does not prove she did not withhold evidence, it just means she is not doing it now. She asks what she can do to convince him, and he says to find the recant statement. She says there isn’t one, and he says if her cops aren’t doing their job, file a complaint. She says she is not calling One PP, but he says she’d better do something because the defense has a witness that claims that Nikki recanted. When she asks who, he says she knows he can’t tell her that. She says he has a right to know who her accuser is, and he says if charges are filed against her. She says she can’t do her job with a noose around her neck. He says he promises not to leave her hanging. He leaves, and Cabot’s phone rings. She answers the phone, and says, “Where the hell are you?” She says nothing and quickly walks out of the office.

As Cabot is leaving the courthouse, a voice calls out to her. It is ADA Sonya Paxton (Christine Lahti), some sort of beverage in her hand. She waves, and Cabot walks over, saying she thought she stood her up. Paxton said she couldn’t quite make it through the door, she wasn’t quite ready. She wants to give Cabot some much-needed advice – don’t give the state bar any more ammunition. She said she didn’t blow a trial by blowing vodka on to a judge and she sure as hell wasn’t forced to take a Breathalyzer in open court. As Cabot starts to walk away, Paxton said it was scotch and she has never been accused of a Brady violation. Cabot is angry, saying that she takes her oath very seriously and she did not withhold evidence. Paxton says even if the cops didn’t turn over every scrap of evidence she is still culpable and they will yank her license. Cabot says Benson and Stabler would not do that. Paxton says they are good cops but their loyalty is to each other, not to Cabot. Cabot responds that she knows Paxton did not get along with Stabler but this is low, even for her. Paxton denies having an ax to grind, but Cabot says Paxton just wants to bury it in their back. Paxton asks who she will blame when she looses her job? Cabot asks if she is telling her not to trust them, and Paxton says no, she is telling her to do her job and watch her ass. She walks away, leaving Cabot standing there looking a little concerned.

Meanwhile, Stabler is on the phone with Kathy and asks her to put him on the phone, but Dickie will not talk to him. Benson comes up and asks if Dickie is still not talking to him, and Stabler says he will get over it. They see Nikki enter the SVU squad and ask her what is wrong. She yells at them, saying that they promised if she pressed charges she would get justice. She tells them that Cabot talked to her father about the picture and then she dropped the charges against Sam. She tells the stunned detectives he is already celebrating and says she should have never listened to them and pressed charges. They asked if she told anyone else that, and she said just her friend Amy Wagner. She said Sam had a lot of friends that were going to come after her. She has been shoved against a locker and gets nasty phone calls saying she was asking for it. Stabler asks her to give them some names, but she says what for, they won’t do anything. She just wants to go home. Benson says she will take her home.

Stabler walks back into the squad room and seen Munch standing near Cragen’s office door, peering in. He tells him Cragen in getting is ass handed to him because of Stabler. Cragen opens the office door and says, “Munch, you’re in charge” to which Munch replies, “Not again. For how long?” Cragen says they have not decided yet. Stabler says he is sorry, and Cragen says to save it for Mrs. Newsome, they have a body dump matching Shane’s .

ME Warner (Tamara Tunie) is on the scene and says Shane was found naked. He took a lot of blunt force trauma with stab wounds. No sign of sexual assault. Benson sees blood spatter on the blacktop. There are patterns marks on his neck. Cabot comes up and tells Stabler he should not be here, and he says he’s been hearing that a lot lately. He asks her if she wants a badge, she should come to him, not Cragen. She says she did not call One PP and if he was doing his job he would have kept him on a leash. Benson pipes up and says she is so busy telling them how to do their jobs she forgot to do her own. Cabot asks if she talked to Nikki, and Benson says she did and she also put in a formal request for a new ADA. When Cabot asks on what grounds, Benson says professional ethics, accusing Cabot of sacrificing a rape victim to save her own ass. She walks away, leaving Cabot standing there stunned.

At the morgue, ME Warner says Shane was stomped to death. There were 15 stab wounds but they weren’t deep enough so the perp used his boots to kill him. His ribs have multiple fractures but it was the compound fracture to the 8th rib that killed him. The cartilage snapped and punctured the lung. It was a slow death, about 36 hours ago. Tox screen prove that Shane has been clean for months. Stabler, meanwhile, overhears this while he sanding nearby and gets a look of regret.

At the Manhattan Detention Complex, Benson enters a room and sees Cabot who says, “After you.” Cabot walks in the holding cell where Douglas is there with his lawyer, who asks what she is offering. She says she is offering the same thing she offered before, nothing. He says then she shouldn’t have talked to him at all, he heard there was a state bar investigator in town. Cabot says while he is chumming the waters, Douglas will be arraigned for murder 2. Douglas seems shocked to hear this, and he asks who is dead. They tell him it is Shane and he had his phone in his pocket. He says it wasn’t him, but Cabot says if he doesn’t come up with a name, it was him. His lawyer says talking to him will violate his 5th Amendment rights, but Cabot doesn’t care what his client does for a living, but murder trumps narcotics every day of the week. He says his regular customers bring things to barter and most of it is worthless. The guy got 4 dimes and he got the phone, he didn’t know he dropped a body for it. He doesn’t know the customer’s name. When Cabot says he needs to know it now, he stands up and says he doesn’t check ID and it’s a nasty-ass homeless guy who hangs out by the church. Benson gets on the phone to Fin and asks him to pick up Harold Moore from the hospital and put him in the box.

Back at the SVU squad, Stabler is looking at the ATM photo and photo of Shane’s body, and Benson asks him how he is doing. He asks how should he be doing. She reminds him that Warner said he was murdered probably right after he asked for the back code and there is nothing they could have done. He says that is wrong, he pulled the footage from a drug store next to the ATM and all he had to do was look at it earlier, he could have saved him. She says he doesn’t know that, and he says she can tell that to his mother, she won’t believe her any more than he does, and he walks off.

Fin tells Benson that Moore left the hospital against doctor’s orders and they will have to troll the alleys. She asks if he can take Munch, who asks where she is going. She says to check on Nikki Sherman. Munch says maybe she should not push her to re-file charges because she is shaky right now, but Benson thinks they can prop her up because Sam raped her and he belongs in prison. Fin tells Munch they should roll, but Munch says he can’t because he is in charge. Fin asks how long is the suspension this time, and Munch says 10 days but there won’t be a next time. If Cragen gets jammed, the brass will show him the door.

Fin arrives where Harold Moore is pushing his cart, and when he tries to stop him, Harold cuts at him with a knife. Fin gets out his gun and while Harold points the knife at Fin, Fin tells him that he will shoot him, so Harold drops his knife. Fin tells him to get his ass on the ground, and as he cuffs him, Harold sobs that it was not his fault.

At Nikki’s home, Benson knocks on the door and asks her to open up. A neighbor opens her door and asks if she can help. Benson shows her badge and asks if she knows Nikki Sherman, and she says she should be home and she looks in on her when her father is gone. Benson says Nikki is not answering so the woman gets her keys. Benson unlocks the door, and calls out to Nikki. She sees her laying on her bed and she is not moving. She sees an empty bottle of pills, and she tries CPR.

Meanwhile, back at SVU, Fin questions Harold about Shane, saying that Shane was a friend who bought Harold food and talked to him. But Harold repeats that it is not his fault. Fin says Shane knew he was a lost cause but wanted to help him anyway, he saw Harold like God sees him. Harold knew Shane from before when they sued to get high, He said it was the bottles, times are hard and no one throws them away anymore, and how can he survive without redemption? Meanwhile, Stabler is at Mrs. Newsome’s but she closes the door in his face. While Fin continues to talk to Harold, Benson is with Nikki as they rush her in to the hospital. Harold, meanwhile, is angry that Shane said he didn’t have any money but he lied, he had a bank card and Shane pretended the card didn’t work.. Harold screams that he needed that money. Fin calls him a sorry son of a bitch as that wasn’t even Shane’s card and that he killed him for nothing. Harold says he got his phone. Fin says he belongs in a body bag but he is going to put him in a cage for life instead. Harold makes a run for Fin, but Fin flips him to the ground like a rag doll, and puts his foot on Harold’s throat. Harold says he did not mean to kill him, but Fin, standing over him, says yes he did. He pulls Harold back up and says took Shane’s stuff and left him naked in an alley. Fin throws him against the grated window, and Harold asks, why not, he didn’t need them anymore.

Meanwhile, Cabot is with Sam and his attorney, saying she decided to comply with their demand for a missing witness statement. The lawyer asks why, she already dismissed the indictment. She says she re-filed again this morning, along with additional charges of witness tampering and obstruction. They look stunned and the lawyer says she better have the evidence to back that up. She gets on the intercom and asks someone to send in her witness. Sam asks his lawyer what is going on, he thought he said it was over. Amy walks in, and Sam asks what she is doing here. Cabot says they remember Amy Wagner, she’s the witness that they said that Nikki had recanted. The lawyer said that is right, the prosecution has to make full disclosure, he doesn’t. But Cabot says he didn’t do his homework, and she asks Amy to tell them what she told the police last night. Amy said that she told them that she lied about Nikki saying Sam didn’t rape her. Sam gets an slightly angry look on his face. Amy goes on to say that she did it because Sam gave her things and she got invited to parties and hang out. But Sam gets really angry, and calls her a lying bitch, he didn’t give her anything. His lawyer tells him to shut up, and then says to Cabot if Amy lied to him, then she is probably lying to her, saying she isn’t a very credible witness. Cabot says she thinks a jury will believe her. She asks Amy if she is wiling to testify that she sold Nikki out for some clothes and an Ipod. She glares at Sam and then says yes. The lawyer asks Cabot to make him and offer, and she says no. He asks if she is really going to put a suicidal teenager through a rape trial. Cabot tells him all Nikki wanted was her day in court and she intends to see she gets it. Sam asks what that means, and Cabot says it means he is going to prison and he is going to find out exactly how Nikki felt when he raped her on the bathroom floor.


Back at the Stabler home, Dickie comes in from outside, and his father is there, saying, “You don’t get to do this.” Stabler looks at him and says Dickie was gone all night, no way, no more. Dickie says Mrs. Newsome won’t even see him and he lawyer says she does not want him at Shane’s funeral. Stabler seems to soften, and says that is his fault, he can’t fix it. Dickie says he can, and he slaps down Army consent forms, and he tells his father to sign them and he is out of here. Stabler says he can’t do that. Dickie yells for him to sign them, and he walks off and says if he makes him wait until he is 18 he will never see him again. He throws the pen down on the paper and yells again for him to sign them. But Stabler reaches out and grabs his son and hugs him and they both begin to cry. He says he is not signing them, he is his son. He repeats he is his son, while Dickie continues to cry, and Stabler continues to hold his son as we fade to black.


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Law & Order “Doped” Recap & Review

All Photos from NBC

This episode of Law & Order “Doped” ended with a line from Michael Cutter - “20 years it is” - which was the sentence for the murderer in question. But, I also thought it may also have been a reference to the 20th season of Law & Order, which seems to be getting more enjoyable with each episode.

“Doped” was clearly "ripped from the headlines" from the tragedy on the Taconic Parkway in July of this year, when Diane Schuler drove on the wrong side of the Parkway, got in an accident and killed 8 people, and alcohol was found in her car. But in the Law & Order universe, the driver in this episode only did it because someone spiked her drink and spiked her nasal spray. I guess that is a nice way to avoid any possible lawsuits from the Schuler family. Still, the writers took this real life story and spun an interesting fictional version of the outcome.

While I knew that when Zach (played by Rich Sommer from one of my favorite TV shows, “Mad Men”) was desperate to get to the bathroom that there was trouble coming, I assumed that when Lupo kept Zach's jacket that maybe trouble would be averted. Needless to say I was surprised at his attempt at suicide by ballpoint pen, which has to be one of the bloodiest scene on Law & Order, at least in my recent memory. I found myself yelling for them to not pull out that pen, although they looked tempted to do just that, which certainly would have cause Zach to bleed even more quickly. This was a great scene, in part because it was somewhat different for the show, and in part because it was a bit of a surprise.

My heart went out to Anita when Connie and Rodgers were discussing the drug Lextenda and how it only minimally extends life. Either Connie and Rodgers don’t know about Anita’s illness, or they just plain forgot, otherwise their commentary may have been more empathetic. Anita’s outlook on the drug may have been different before she found out she had cancer, but now it is clear that every minute of her life has become precious, and she can see why some people would want to extend it no matter what the cost.

It wouldn’t be Law & Order lately without a political or social statement or sermon of some sort, and Jack McCoy gets the big honor in this episode, with his statement about politicians being in the health industries’ pockets. Personally, I think that is a very simplistic and narrow view of the problem with health care, health insurance, and pharmaceutical industries. But as it may be the popular view right now, I will cut the writers some slack since this show can’t address all the problems with health care, big business, and politics in a one-hour drama. By the way, the writers are doing a great job with dialog that is not only believable and realistic but sometimes a little funny. One example: Connie comments about the doctor's golf balls.

All in all, a very good episode. With each episode this season, it seems like Law & Order continues to provide solid stories that are told in a very realistic way. My only hope is that it doesn't get overlooked in the Friday time slot.

Here is the recap:

Brenda Sawyer is driving a minivan full of kids. She seems slightly giddy. A car honks at them and Nicky, in the front seat, tells his mother to watch where she is going. She says she is just having a little fun. She sneezes, and asks for Nicky to get her spray out of her purse.

Two guys exit a building, and as they stand in the street in the process of crossing, the minivan shoots by them, going the wrong way on a one-way street. Cars honk and swerve to avoid the minivan, which enters an underpass, still going the wrong way.

Later, Detectives Kevin Bernard (Anthony Anderson) and Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto) arrive on the scene of a car accident. The minivan had entered the ramp going the wrong way, witnesses said it was doing 60 minimum, and hit another car head on. All three in the car are DOA, and two in the minivan, both little kids. The driver of the minivan plus two other kids were rushed to St. Agnes’ hospital. Lupo comments the minivan drove 20 blocks on the wrong side. Bernard looks inside the van and finds a bottle of grain alcohol, 151 proof. Lupo adds that it has no taste and packs a wallop. Bernard sees there are still a few drops in the bottle, and says that this is why he takes the subway.

At the hospital, Brenda Sawyer’s husband Matt (Chris Bowers) talks to the detectives, saying that his wife was taking the kids upstate for the weekend and had their nieces with her. He wonders what he will tell Sandy and Bob. She was coming from work, Woodmoor Pharma where she is a sales manager. She originally wasn’t supposed to take the kids, he was supposed to pick them up from his sister’s but at the last minute he had to stay late at the bank. He called his wife and told her at about quarter to 5. She sounded OK. Bernard asks if his wife drinks, and Sawyer said no, and Bernard tells him they found a bottle of grain alcohol in the van. This upsets Sawyer, who says his wife was not drunk. He leaves them to check on his son.

The doctor tells Lupo and Bernard it is not hopeful for Brenda Sawyer. Her blood alcohol was .09. When Lupo asks if they will be able to talk to any of the surviving kids any time soon, they hear sobbing coming from one of the rooms and a child’s body is being covered up. One of the surviving girls, Sarah Renhquist, died 20 minutes ago, and the doctor had just told her parents, Bob and Sandy. Bernard asks if they should talk to them, and Lupo says he would say no. They head over to talk to the parents, and Lupo introduces themselves, apologizes for their loss, and asks if they can ask a couple questions. They tell them Brenda came just before 5 and she seemed fine and said she was going to stop and get the kids ice cream. Sandy got a call from her daughter who said there was something wrong with Brenda and she wasn’t making any sense and was driving all over the road, she told her daughter to tell Brenda to pull over but then she heard her daughter scream. Bob is angry and asks if she was drunk. When Matt calls over to them, Bob begins to yell at Matt, pushing him up against the wall, saying his drunk wife killed their baby. Matt says no, he swears she wasn’t drunk, and the detectives have to separate them and pull Matt away.

Back at the 2-7, Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson) is going over the details with the detectives. They have her turning on to the west side highway, turning north into the southbound lanes. She accelerated and one caller said she was going through the intersection at about 55. Bernard says the lady was smashed, but Lupo says that is a lot of bad driving for a .09 blood alcohol. They argue over details, and Van Buren says, “You two done?” When they look at each other and get quiet, she tells them Brenda's blood alcohol has already been leaked to the media, and with 6 fatalities including three dead kids, if Brenda ever makes it out of the hospital people will want to string her up. She wants to nail this down so there can be no doubt. She tells them to find out what she drank, where she drank it, and who saw her do it.

At Woodmoor Pharmaceuticals, they speak with Zach Marshall (Rich Sommer) who says they are in shock. Brenda was part of their sales team. She was good when she left at 4:15 or 4:30. As the detectives go through her desk, and ask if she drank he says maybe a glass of punch at a Christmas party. A woman, Leslie, watches with a wary eye from the adjoining cubicle. He adds when she left on Friday, she mentioned she was going to be cooped up with 4 kids over the weekend and after that she was going to need a stiff drink but he thought she was kidding. The woman in the cubicle is hearing a news story about the incident, an interview with Patrick Foster, who lost his wife, daughter and fiancé in the accident. Zach tells Leslie to turn it off and for everyone to go back to work. The detectives find no secret stash or breath mints at Brenda’s desk. Bernard recalls that she told her sister she was going to get the kids ice cream so they decide to check out places between her sister’s and the highway.

At the ice cream shop, the guy behind the counter remembers her, and the detectives watch the security video. Brenda is sipping something from a cup, but the guy says she seemed in a good mood. They see Brenda tossed her drink, but the garbage was already put out for sanitation that night.



They head to the Sawyer residence, and Matt is insistent she did not drink. Lupo says it is hard to admit but he needs to tell the truth so they can move on. Matt says his in-laws hate him and he can’t leave the apartment because the papers turned him into a pariah, his daughter is dead and his wife and son…he trails off, and then adds his mother is dying of cancer. He says something is off. His mother pipes up from the other room, saying her daughter in law is a terrific mother and would never put her grandkids in danger. Matt begs them to find out what happened. As Matt tends to his mother, Bernard says that they could show him photos of his wife swigging grain alcohol but he wouldn’t believe it. But Lupo says when you know somebody, you know somebody. Matt’s phone rings, and as he answers it, Lupo’s phone also rings. As Matt sobs, Lupo tells Bernard that Brenda is dead. Lupo says, “One more look, okay?”

At the shop, Bernard says Brenda’s cell phone records confirm the call from her husband at 4:45 and she got a call before the crash from a cell phone registered to her company, the call lasting less than a minute. Lupo finds a damaged nasal spray in the pieces of the wreck and puts it in an evidence bag and says he is sending it to the lab.

At the morgue, ME Rodgers (Leslie Hendrix) tells them the contents of Brenda’s GI tract corroborate the hospital tox screen and shows grain alcohol mixed with orange juice, banana, and coconut. They tell her about the over the counter nasal spray, and she tells them nothing besides alcohol was detected. She says there is no big mystery, she was hammered on jungle juice.


Back in Van Buren's office, they tell her it all comes back to Brenda being drunk. She says she would feel a lot better if they can find the store that sold her the booze. ME Rodgers enters, and tells them that after they told her about her allergies, she took another look at her nasal mucosa. There was chronic inflammation, so she checked with the tox lab about the nasal spray. There was propofol in it, which is an anesthetic. Rodgers said it is also known as “Milk of Amnesia” and it would cause immediate disorientation and lack of control if she sprayed it in her nose. It dissipates in minutes and would not show on tox screens. Somebody spiked her nasal spray. Lupo looks and Bernard who says, “When you’re right, you’re right.”

At the 2-7, Lupo tells Van Buren the lot number on the nasal spray traces to a pharmacy on 23rd St. She tells him to alert the health department to pull all the sprays from the store to have them tested. Bernard finds that one of the companies that makes propofol is Woodmoor Pharma, where Brenda works. Van Buren wonders if someone there had a beef with her and tells them to talk to he husband.

At the pediatric unit at St. Agnes Hospital, the detectives tell Matt the news when he wants to tell others that it wasn’t Brenda’s fault, they tell him to take things one step at a time. First they want to find the person who tampered with her nasal spray. They ask about work problems and he says she was under a lot of stress and she had been staying late at work. He and Brenda have not had a lot of time to talk. When he leaves to tend to his son who just got out if the ICU, Lupo wonders about the “staying late at work” comment.

The head back to Woodmoor and speak with Leslie. She said Brenda was always spritzing stuff up her nose, and kept her nasal spray in her purse on her desk. Everyone thought the word of her. She and Zach were working on a big project together. The night before the accident they were in his office in a big “hush-hush” and they stopped when they saw her. On the day of the accident, Zach called in after he left looking for Brenda and she said she went to pick up her kids and he didn’t seem too happy. She gives them Zach’s company cell phone number. When Leslie leaves, Lupo wonders if the big hush-hush was personal, professional, or mineral. Bernard says Zach’s number matches the number that called Brenda in the minivan and wonders if her son overheard the conversation. Lupo asks, “Her son who just got out of the ICU. You IA guys are cold.”

Back at the hospital, they speak with Nicky, giving him a small detective's badge. He remembers his mother getting a phone call from her boss. She couldn’t hear him so she hung up. She was acting weird. She said her boss was nice and he bought her a jam juice smoothie, the one she was drinking when she stopped to buy them ice cream.

Back at the 2-7, Lupo tells Van Buren that the jam juice franchise near Woodmoor Pharma made a delivery Friday afternoon, 8 smoothies, enough for the whole sales staff, charged to Zach’s corporate card. Van Buren thinks he spiked her smoothie and her nasal spray. Lupo goes on to say that she parked in the garage and he could have planted the grain alcohol in her minivan. Van Buren thinks Zach wanted them to think she crashed her car because she was drunk, not because she was on propofol. Bernard tells them that the 911 calls about the minivan were all made between 5:24 and 5:25 except one, which was made at 5:16, from a pay phone in Tuckahoe, which is 10 miles from the west side highway. Van Buren comments that someone must have big crystal ball. Bernard goes on to say that Zach’s phone call to Brenda made two minutes earlier hit off a cell phone tower in Tuckahoe.

The bring in Zach to the 2-7, and he says he treats his team to smoothies every Friday as a motivator. He did not see Brenda add anything to her drink. He denies calling her after they left the office. When Bernard shows him a list of calls he made and shows him a call he did make to her, Zach claims the phone was in his back pocket and he had her on speed dial and hit it by mistake. When Lupo asks to see his phone, he balks and said he deleted Brenda’s entry and may have deleted some others moving them around. When Zach asks if it is important, Lupo says it is, Zach and Brenda have been working late the last few weeks and people saw them. He asks what they were working on and Zach says he can’t say because it is confidential. Lupo asks if he is sure he was working, and Zach asks what else it would be. Bernard says, “You tell us.” But Zach says no, no way, he is married and so is Brenda. Bernard shows him the photos of the kids that were killed before the accident and asks if he wants to see the after pictures. Zach gets rattled as Bernard and Lupo continues to push, telling him about his 911 call from Tuckahoe., playing back the 911 recording with Zach’s voice. They accuse Zach of calling to try to get Brenda pulled over before she used the nasal spray with the propofol he put in there. Zach said he did not mean for it to happen. Zach starts getting very rattled and as they continue to yell at him, Zach begins to cough and screams he has to go to the bathroom. They take him in there and he runs into a stall, with Lupo and Bernard waiting by the restroom door. Lupo hangs on to Zach’s jacket. They don’t hear much and Lupo asks Zach if he is OK. When there is no response only noises, Bernard looks in and sees blood on the floor. He yells for Lupo to get a paramedic and he kicks open the stall door. Zach stuck a pen in an artery in his neck and he is spurting blood everywhere. Bernard holds onto the pen, Zach tells him to let him die. Lupo rushes back in to help contain the bleeding. As they look at each other, as if thinking maybe whether to pull out the pen, Bernard says don’t think that didn’t cross my mind. The paramedics rush in.

Later, in the jail medical ward, Zach is being arraigned, with his lawyer Mr. Cooper present. Cooper says Zach pleads not guilty to murder in the second degree, 7 counts, and ADA Connie Rubirosa (Alana De La Garza) requests remand. Cooper says his client is under a doctor’s care and not a flight risk, but Rubirosa reminds him that is because of Zach’s suicide attempt, which implies consciousness of guilt. Cooper says it was not guilt, it is the allegations. He says Zach tried to avert the tragedy, but Rubirosa says it sounds like Cooper is admitting intentional murder and asserting renunciation. He has not necessarily, but the judge says she suggests he figures it out. She remands him.


Outside walking with EADA Michael Cutter (Linus Roache), Rubirosa says Cooper stumbled into a confession. Cutter says they can use a confession, as a smoothie and a suicide attempt won’t convict Zach. She tells him the police found a foil wrapper for the nasal spray in Zach’s house, the same brand as the one in Brenda’s car. He says it’s better, but not as good as evidence of an affair or putting the propofol in his hands. She says his company stores it in a warehouse in White Plains, and he tells her to have a nice drive.

At Woodmoor’s warehouse, Rubirosa sees that Zach has been out there several times, but they tell her that Zach would not be given any propofol. When she asks if it is normal for a sales manager to visit a warehouse so often, the manager there says he would if he had a problem with distribution, and he didn’t have any that he could recall. She sees that Brenda sometimes came with Zach and sometimes she came alone, she was looking at sales data for one of their drugs, Lextenda. Brenda didn’t rep that drug but said there was an issue with distribution to a cancer clinic that one of her relatives was using.

At Matt’ Sawyer’s home, Rubirosa speaks with Matt's mother. She knows she will not beat colon cancer. Rubirosa asks her about Lextenda, her clinic had her on it but Brenda made her stop taking it, she didn’t think it was right for her. It was after Brenda spoke with Albert’s son, Albert was at the clinic also with colon cancer. When Albert’s son found out that Brenda worked for Woodmoor, he got very upset. She is not sure if it was over Lextenda, but Brenda spent a lot of time talking with him.

At the home of Nelson Quintana, he tells Rubirosa that Lextenda cost $1,000 a day. The cancer maxed out their insurance so they had to pay for the drug out of their own pockets. His father kept getting worse, the drug did not help. The clinic talked his mom into keeping him on it and she spent all her money keeping him on it. Now she can’t afford to live in her own home. He admits he lost it with Brenda when he found out she worked art Woodmoor, he says she was an angel and he listened to him. She promised she would look into Lextenda and is not sure what she found out. He lost touch with her after his father died. She got into a “big thing” with Dr. Price at the clinic.

Rubirosa talks to Dr. Price at the clinic. He says people who are terminally ill want miracles and when they don’t get it they blame the doctor and the drugs. Brenda didn’t want her mother in law on Lextenda and she wanted to show him some data on her laptop. But she was a salesperson and she had no medical training. He says that Nelson’s father using the drug was none of Brenda's business – or Rubirosa's for that matter. She asks him what percentage of his terminally ill cancer patients are on Lextenda, and he says he doesn’t see how that is relevant. She says she will decide what is relevant, or if he’d rather, she will come back with a subpoena for all of his records. He tells her why doesn’t she do that and in the meantime he will talk to his lawyer. As she gets up to leave, she notices some golf pictures of him and comments that he is a golfer. She comments about all the locations of Woodmoor invitationals and says, “You get around, you and your little golf balls.” She turns and leaves.

Back at the 2-7, ME Rodgers tells Van Buren and Rubirosa that she got Dr. Price’s data through the state’s morbidity studies and he has prescribed Lextenda to all his end stage patients. Compared to similar patients, Price’s Lextenda patients lived 36 days longer. Rubirosa says that is on the low end of Woodmoor’s marketing materials. But Van Buren is quick to add that it is 36 days they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Rodgers says a couple lived a few more months and one a year, but the vast majority was a week or to. She says it is living, but barely. Rubirosa adds at $1,000 a day.

At the DA’s office, DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) says that drug company perk are nothing new. But Rubirosa says this is for a rescue drug that extends life by days but at an exorbitant cost. Cutter says not to mention it targets a vulnerable and desperate group of patients. McCoy says unless the company is paying the prescribing doctors to misrepresent the drugs effectiveness, and Cutter says maybe Brenda found that they were. Rubirosa reminds them Brenda was in the warehouse along with Zach. Maybe she confided in Zach and he didn’t share Brenda’s outrage. Cuter says he is a sales manager and if Brenda blows the whistle, Lextenda’s sales may tank and along with it, his career and the company. McCoy questions if he silenced Brenda, saying a company man may only go so far. Rubirosa says asks if they know how much Woodmoor grosses annually on Lextenda, and when she shows McCoy the numbers, he says that would buy a lot of loyalty.

At Rikers Island in the counsel room, Zach has a new lawyer, Mr. Hoyt, courtesy of Woodmoor Pharma. Hoyt says their case this sounds very circumstantial. Rubirosa tells him Brenda was about to blow the whistle on Lextenda, When Cutter and Rubirosa explain their case further as to why they think Zach did it, Hoyt comments this means that they can’t put the alcohol or the propofol in Zach’s hands. When he gets no answer from Cutter or Rubirosa, Hoyt tells them he will contact them when he gets up to speed – or not. He and Zach leave to make a bail application to get him home to his family.


Back at the DA’s office, McCoy tells Rubirosa and Cutter that it sounds like damage control and if they can force them to cut Zach a quick deal they can keep Lextenda out of it. Cutter wonders if Zach cut his own deal to keep his mouth shut in return for high priced legal representation. Jack asks how they are on the Lextenda issue and Rubirosa says Brenda’s research was on her company laptop and Woodmoor security removed it from her office when she was killed. Cutter says that laptop hold their motive. McCoy says with a half smile that he is sure if Cutter asks Woodmoor nicely they will hand it right over.

At a Supreme Court motion hearing, Woodmoor wants to quash the subpoena for the laptop. The attorney and Cutter argue about the laptop and Lextenda, with McCoy watching from the gallery. Cutter give the court his guarantee that anything unrelated to Lextenda’s sales, marketing and distribution will remain confidential and secure. The Woodmoor lawyer says Cutter is fishing and the judge agrees and quashes Cutter’s subpoena. McCoy makes a face of disappointment and Cutter turns to him and says, “Asking nicely didn’t work. What’s plan B?” McCoy says “I’ll ask.”


At the Woodmoor offices, McCoy meets with Austin (Stephen Bogardus), the CEO of Woodmoor. He thanks him for the campaign contribution, and then they talk the case. McCoy tries to put the pressure on him and mentions Lextenda as part of it. Austin says Lextenda is an effective product and McCoy says Brenda thought they were selling hope to desperate people at $1,000 a day, but co-opting doctors with time shares and tropical vacations is a rigged game. Austin tells McCoy not to get self-righteous on him, saying if corporations didn’t make profits where would politicians like him be? McCoy says he is right and it stinks, there are too many office holders that are in the health industry’s pockets and one of the reason why they can’t pass a decent health care bill. McCoy returns the money that Austin contributed to his campaign. When Austin asks what he wants him to do, McCoy tells him to grow a conscience, unless he wants to be personally named as an accomplice, he can order his people to hand over the computer.

The TARU people now have the computer, and all the files have been deleted and the tech guy tells Cutter he could only recover the clock, address book, and calendar. Cutter looks at the detail, and Rubirosa arrives and says there is nothing on Lextenda on Zach’s computers. Cutter sees an appointment the week after she died for a J. Wigand at Tuesday at 10 AM and there is no J. Wigand in her address book. Cutter thinks it is Jeffrey Wigand, the king of the whistleblowers, they think this is a code name for a meeting with a regulatory agency, maybe the FDA.

At the FDA NYC Office of Criminal Investigation, they find that someone called from Woodmoor to set up an appointment but never gave her name and she never showed for the meeting. She wouldn’t even tell her what drug she was calling about, an when Rubirosa mentions Lextenda, the FDA man says later that week he got a call about Lextenda from a doctor. He was eager to move forward and they sent him an information packet. When Cutter asks for his name the man says they can’t give him that under the whistleblower laws without a court order. Cutter says they will take care of that. The FDA guy says that he wouldn’t be surprised if there was an uptick on complaints, there is a lot of money in it for the companies and for whistleblowers who get a piece of any penalty against the company.

Back at McCoy’s office, Cutter says Brenda expected Woodmoor of illegal marketing and McCoy says Zach saved his company a tidy sum. Rubirosa enters and said the FDA just turned over the name of the man who wanted the info on blowing the whistle and it was a Dr. Sharon from Dobbs Ferry. Cutter thinks that of Sharon gives them some info they can use it to convince his friends at Woodmoor to cut Zach loose. McCoy says, “ My friends Ha!”

At National Mailbox at Dobbs Ferry, they find that Dr. Sharon hasn’t been in there for a while. Cutter asks if they can look at the box, and when Rubirosa tells the mailbox guy it is about the woman who killed all those kids in the accident, he lets them have the contents. The last time he came in he had a package sent by registered mail and he had to get Sharon’s DEA number because it was medication. The package was from Woodmoor Pharma, and when Rubirosa shows him a photo of Zach, the mailbox guy says that was Dr, Sharon.

Back in the DA’s interview room, Rubirosa and Cutter confront Zach and his attorney with the information from the PO box, saying it was one vial of propofol sent to Zach. Cutter says they are ready for trial. When Hoyt says this is circumstantial evidence, Zach asks if he is kidding him. Despite Hoyt’s comments to Zach to keep his mouth shut, Zach spills the beans. He just wanted to have Brenda get pulled over for a DWI and it would ruin her credibility as a whistle blower. He said she was going to give all the reward money away, and says he didn’t care about Woodmoor. He wanted them to go to the FDA together but she wanted to give all the money away, which outraged him because he didn’t have money like her. He thought she would only get in a little fender bender. When he called in, he found out she had the kids with her and he tried to stop her. He called her and told her to come back but she could hear him and he called 911. He is very upset, asking himself what did he do. Hoyt says if he is not mistaken, his client has a viable renunciation defense. Cutter laughs, and says now you are kidding. Cutter says he will take his plea of 7 counts of depraved indifference murder, 20 years to life, subject to approval by the victim’s families. Zach says OK. Hoyt says then they are done, and gets up to leave, but Cutter says not quite. Cutter asks Zach where is the evidence he was turning over to the FDA, and Hoyt says it is immaterial. Cutter says unless he gives it to them, there is no deal. Zach tells him it is on a flash drive in a knapsack in his son’s closet.

Later, Cutter and Rubirosa speak with Matt Sawyer about Zach’s plea deal, they wanted to come to him first. He tells them his mother died last week. His son is doing well. Brenda was never a mean minded person so he thinks 20 years is fair. He wants some of the reward money to be given to Brenda’s sister and the other family, and the rest as Brenda had outlined, to cancer research. After Matt leaves, Cutter says, “20 years it is” and walks out, with Rubirosa following him as we had to black.




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