Episode Report Card Pooh: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Slaves
By Pooh | Season 1 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.18.2000
Chung-chung! We're at the apartment of Constanta Condrescu, at 207 West 95th. It's Tuesday, February twenty-second. The valedictorian of Central Casting's Eastern European Aunt class looks at the police drawing, swallows hard, and insists she doesn't recognize the young woman. Stabler prods her, "Constanta Condrescu is not a very common name. What are the odds that this girl would pull that name out of thin air?" Constanta stands up, pours herself a cup of tea, and admits that the girl is her niece, but they're not close. Benson and Stabler give each other the "Jackpot!" look as he pulls out his notepad. The girl's name is Ilena Condrescu. Constanta lied to them because "where [she] come[s] from, the less you tell the police, the better." Benson gently tells her that Ilena isn't in trouble there, but she may be in trouble here, and the SVU would like to help her. Benson picks up a framed photo of a beautiful young woman and asks Constanta if it is of Ilena. Constanta, voice breaking, says that it is. Benson asks if they can borrow the photo, and Constanta tells her to go ahead because it is of no use. Stabler says that since Ilena reached out to Constanta, Constanta must know where she is or who she's with. Constanta insists that she hasn't seen Ilena in three years, since Ilena first moved here on a student visa to attend NYU. She says she has to go, because her shift starts soon. Benson gives her one of her cards and asks her to call them if she thinks of anything that could help find Ilena. I give her one of my cards and ask her to call to explain how anyone who works any kind of shift work can afford an apartment that size (on the Upper West Side) in Manhattan.
Out on the street, Benson's saying they should have pressed harder, that Constanta is definitely hiding something. Stabler dials his cell phone as he tells her, "We're not the Romanian Secret Police. At least we got a name and photo out of her." He then tells the person on the phone to run a database check on Ilena, and if there's no hit, to check NYU. Unless Ilena flunked out or quit, she should be there. Benson then dials her cell phone and says she'll get Munch on it. Since when does Benson delegate work?
Over at NYU's admissions department, a redheaded admin lady is looking at a computer screen (shout-out) and telling Munch and Jeffries that Ilena never showed up. Munch asks if it says why. Redheaded Admin Lady rolls her eyes in unison with mine and says it does not. Munch asks if maybe something somewhere in her application files would say why. Redheaded Admin Lady rolls her eyes so hard they go bouncing away, and as she chases after them, she explains that tens of thousands of students apply to NYU every year, and that all these rows and rows of file cabinets we see are filled with student files. Hey, maybe they should get Ben and Felicity on the case. ["While they're at it, maybe they could find out how the Housing Office 'lost' my brother's application form last year." -- Sars] Back at the cop shop, Dr. Jackson, a.k.a. Skodetta (tm Wendola), is closing the blinds to the conference room. Cragen's all, "So, this is what it feels like." He means being the suspect. Skodetta smiles at his joke as he says he's just sort of kidding. She tells him to relax, and he scoffs at the notion. She asks him if he can't relax, and he says he golfs a little. Friendly chitchat about his handicap and the commitment he has to make to get out to a course. Skodetta asks what else he does for fun, to relax. Jogging, racquetball, and walking ("Audrey, it's New York. Everybody walks.") are all rejected. Skodetta gets to the point: "Don, you see it every day. Rape, murder, torture -- it's as sure as your morning cup of coffee. And on top of that, you've got responsibilities of command." Cragen asks what the question is. "How well do you think you handle the stress?" He says he handles it; she asks how. He gets all defensive: "This is ridiculous. Why don't you just come out and ask me?" Skodetta honestly doesn't know what he's talking about, so Cragen goes off on a rant: "The question you've been tap dancing around: Do I Get the Urge to Drink? See, that's the problem with you people [stands up, points at her]. You ask about golfing, or jogging, or whether a person was breast-fed or not. Everything else under the sun. Why don't you just come right out and ask me about my alcoholism? That's what this has been about, hasn't it?" Skodetta's not fazed by this little paranoid tirade, and very cordially asks if Cragen wants to talk about it. He doesn't, but he will. The cellos start in, and Skodetta begins to look concerned as he tells her, "Yes, I get the urge to drink. Every day. I see horrific acts of degradation, of brutality, of human evil. They make me angry. They make me sick. They get inside my head and I want to shut them up. I know if I crawl inside a bottle, they will stop." Skodetta looks down, humbled, and takes a deep breath before asking, "Do you think you will?" Cragen tells her to ask him tomorrow as he does the Cragen stomp outta there.