Extra-large ups to Wendola and Sars, who rock so hard I've got tinnitus. Also, major props to all the MBTV staff, who kick ass and take names on a daily basis.
So the season finale begins with Cap'n Cragen walking from his office into the squad room and announcing to the SVU detectives that the "latest directive" from One Police Plaza is bi-yearly psychological evaluations. "Bi-yearly?" Is that anything like biannual? So, since the SVU is a very high-stress unit, it's the guinea pig for this pilot program. The detectives are none too thrilled with this news, as Cragen hands out booklets of forms for them to complete and tells them, "You'll be receiving your appointment times from our resident psychologist." Munch asks if the results will go on their permanent records; Cragen assures him everything will be kept confidential. My boyfriend Elliot Stabler pipes up, "Yeah, but at the risk of sounding like John, what's their angle with this thing? Can you flunk it? And if so, then what happens?" Cragen doesn't know the answer to these questions, so we have Meaningful Looks all around. Benson's the least worried about all of this, and wants to know who goes first. Cragen does. "The blind leading the blind," he mutters, and walks away. As Munch and Jeffries head out of the room, Munch is theorizing that "they just slapped a new cover on the old Minnesota Multi-Phasic," and Stabler's all annoyed, "Do you believe this?" Benson's in good humor, flipping through her booklet and saying, "Shrinks get shrunk; maybe we could use a little." Uh, Olivia? There's a big difference between therapy and a psychological evaluation.
Benson looks up as she sees a short, bearded, middle-aged man reading the "Special Victims Unit" etching on the door to the squad room, and asks if she can help him. In an eastern European accent, he asks if this is the place to report sex crimes. Benson tells the man -- who sounds a little like Yakov Smirnoff, but without the "I'm a wacky Russian comedian" doofiness -- to come sit at her desk, and Stabler pulls up an extra chair. Benson's wearing her trademark sky blue, only instead of the tight turtleneck, it's a tight scoop neck, which shows us very clearly that her bra totally does not fit. ["Yeah, the bi-focal boob was pretty bad in that scene." -- Sars] Anyway, Yakov has a fruit stand on Lexington and Seventy-eighth, and two kids stole from him, so he started cursing at them in his native language, Romanian. Hearing this, a woman grabbed him and started begging him, also in Romanian, to help her. Yakov says it's because of "a man. She's trapped in a situation she cannot escape from. It does not translate well, but there is abuse." He thinks there is both physical and sexual abuse, but the woman didn't tell Yakov her name or where she lives. She only handed him a piece of paper with the name "Constanta Condrescu" written on it and told him to "tell her she was right. I need help." Then she took off. Stabler's taking notes and asks what time today this all happened. Yakov hesitates before answering, "Three days ago." Benson and Stabler do their patented "can you believe this shit" pre-credits look as we, well, go to credits.
After the break, Yakov is describing the woman to a sketch artist. Cragen is bitching, "Let me get this straight: some girl is being sexually abused by some guy somewhere in Manhattan?" Stabler snots, "Something like that." Heh. Cragen asks if they at least have a description, like what does he think the sketch artist is doing there -- caricatures for the precinct picnic? Anyway, Benson tells Cragen that the only reason Yakov even came in was because his wife wouldn't leave him alone about reporting it. Cragen wonders if Yakov is on the level, and, when assured that he is, wonders how they know if the girl is. Is this line of thinking really consistent with a sex-crimes captain? Wouldn't he want to check out every potential case of sexual abuse? Benson proves my point by whining, "Thousands of women everyday are abused by their lesser halves and never say a word about it. We have to at least check it out." Munch likens blowing this report off to Woodward and Bernstein having "blown off Deep Throat as a prank phone call." Um, okay. Thanks for coming out, Munchkin. Craven kvetches that either way, it's three days cold.
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.
Over at some place that looks like the front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but which I think is supposed to be the Columbus Circle entrance to Central Park, Stabler and Benson are showing the photo of Ilena around to anyone and everyone. A balloon-animal vendor, dressed like a clown, approaches Stabler and says, "You look like a wiener-dog guy." Stabler chuckles, tells him he's so wrong, and asks if he's seen the girl in the picture. Balloon Guy very casually says he sees her all the time, that she's got a cute accent. Stabler calls Benson over and asks if Balloon Guy knows who she is. All BG knows is he made her a green ladybug once. He never forgets a paying customer, but Ilena's "dropped a few pounds since that picture." He sees her with a little girl, around eight or nine years old. Benson says she's only twenty-one, she can't possibly have a child that age. BG and I are both like, DUH, BENSON! She's an American kid, Ilena's the nanny. BG last saw Ilena yesterday.
Back in the squad room, Cragen's booming, "Yesterday!" I guess that was when all his troubles seemed so far away, or something. Stabler says BG remembered Ilena as being serene and not giving the impression of being under any stress. Cragen's trying to get a grasp on the concept of Ilena's slipping an SOS note to Yakov three days ago, and then a couple of days later "strolling happily through the park with a kid." Stabler answers the phone as Jeffries asks if they're closing the case. Cragen's way too cranked up for that: "Four of my top detectives [uh, cuz there are so many other detectives around, right?] just wasted a whole day on a wild goose chase. That's thirty-two combined man-hours. I want this girl in here explaining herself." Easy, Don. Stabler hangs up the phone and advances the plot by telling us that "Homicide just caught a dump job off the Henry Hudson Parkway," and that Benson's card was in the victim's pocket. Gee, didn't Benson just give someone one of her cards a couple of scenes ago? Could there be a connection?
Oh, yeah. Over at the Henry Hudson, a female Homicide detective tells our heroes that the body was rolled in a rug and thrown over the guardrail. There has been minimal exposure to the elements, so they figure it was dumped sometime the night. No, there were no witnesses. A fisherman found her. She leads them to the body, which is, of course, Constanta Condrescu's. She's all laid out and gray. Stabler ominously says, "Something tells me she found a way to contact Ilena." Close up on Constanta's dead, gray face. Commercials.
Over at the ME's office, that cute ME we last saw in "The Third Guy" is telling Stabler and Benson that Constanta died before she was rolled up in the rug -- no fibers were inhaled. Something stopped her heart instantaneously, and the toxicology report will tell what that was. Cute ME places the time of death between 4:00 and 6:00 PM; Stabler says they left Constanta's apartment at four. Cute ME is troubled because "only an injection directly into the bloodstream would cause an attack this acute without affecting other organs, and [he] cannot for the life of [him] find a puncture wound." He says he checked all the "white-collar junkie's hiding places," and still nothing. Benson suggests looking under the tongue. Cute ME thinks about this for a second and says that for an accidental OD it would make sense. Then he PRIES OPEN Constanta's mouth with his hands, and it makes this godawful crunching sound. He takes out his little flashlight and tongue depressor, and makes to look under Constanta's tongue while babbling on about how "it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a killer to -- huh." Bingo.
Back in the cop shop, Cragen's befuddled. No, really. How did the killer manage this injection without leaving any signs of a struggle? Well, thinks Stabler, Constanta must have been sedated beforehand. Cragen's not buying it: "She hears her niece is in trouble, makes a beeline for this guy, and has a friendly albeit spiked drink with him." Stabler says that's about the size of it. Munch tells us all that he contacted Interpol, and Constanta's brother (Ilena's father) was also murdered, back in Romania. Cragen's excited about the possible connection, but it turns out this was back in 1989, during the Ceausescu regime. Munch prattles on about how the Romanian revolution was a case of "hello, new boss, same as the old boss" and Roger Daltrey hollers from England that Munch should get the damned lyrics right. Jeffries plays along, saying that maybe the Condrescu family knew where "the bodies" were buried. Munch says, "All roads lead to Romania." Cragen's like, whatever: "What do you say we start in Murray Hill?" Um, Constanta lived on the opposite damned side of the city from the Murray Hill area, so let's just call that a shout-out, shall we?
Over at Constanta's place, Benson's lamenting that "she didn't even finish her tea," like FOCUS, Benson! Stabler doesn't think Constanta was killed there, but they should "bag it up" anyway. He heads for the bedroom, where he finds an address book. No address for Ilena, but the page where it would fall is torn out. Jeffries calls out, "You guys in here?" Stabler playfully replies, "No!" just like I would. See? Meant for each other. Jeffries and Munch canvassed the first floor and got nothing. Benson hands them a shoebox full of papers from the closet and says, "Maybe you'll have better luck with her work. We'll take it from here." Again, I have to ask, who made Benson Queen for a Day? Geez. Munch looks at the pay stubs and muses, "Cafe Prokova. Soviet expatriates plotting coups d'etats over bowls of goulash?" Jeffries says, "My partner," with mock pride and they head out to . . .
. . . Cafe Prokova, where a waitress in a gypsy outfit is setting tables and talking to Jeffries, and it's snowing outside. They must have filmed this episode during the freak snowstorms in April in New York, and that's why they set the timeline in February. Anyway, the waitress tells Jeffries that Ilena never came to the restaurant, that in fact Ilena and Constanta had no contact at all since a big fight they had when Ilena first came to the States. The fight was over how she came here. Constanta was saving up to bring Ilena here to school, but it was going to take another year. Out of the blue, Ilena shows up. She met an American businessman in a club in Bucharest, and he offered to help her. Constanta yelled at Ilena for being naive, and Ilena cried and protested that the man had used his frequent-flyer miles to pay for the ticket and even had a part-time job lined up for her. The waitress doesn't know the man's name, but Constanta assumed that Ilena went to stay with him. Constanta contacted the man, but he insisted he'd never heard from Ilena. Constanta eventually gave up.
Conference Room. It's Benson's turn with Skodetta, and she seems pretty relaxed. Skodetta asks why Benson requested to be assigned to the SVU. Benson tells her about being the child of a rape. Skodetta asks how Benson that affects how she does her job. "I'm walking a tightrope," Benson admits, and then gives the world's briefest synopsis of the SVU series premiere, "Payback": "I uh, got too close to a case once. A Serbian rapist was killed by his victims, and I got my ass in a sling over it." Benson insists her mother's rape in no way interferes with her ability to be objective. Skodetta looks in a file and says, fairly innocently, "You had occasion to use deadly force a few months ago." Benson gets waaaaay too defensive about this: "My partner was about to be shot! It was a reflex. That's what we're TRAINED to do!" I would say that answers any questions Skodetta has about that incident. Skodetta changes track and throws a hypothetical at Benson: "Say you couldn't be a sex crimes detective anymore. What would you be?" Benson thinks about this, starts to speak, and then her face crumples for about ten minutes as she fights back the tears and we see that she's not a pretty crier. Oh yeah, that's healthy. Maybe she's thinking that she could still be making the beast with two backs with Cassidy if they didn't work together.
Stabler's waiting in the hallway of some building. Benson comes out of the elevator, calls to him, and apologizes for being late. He asks how it went. She's a little too casual as she says, "Cakewalk!" and keeps walking. Um, there was no opponent, so it couldn't have been a cakewalk. Piece of cake, yes. Mmmmm . . . caaaaake. Sorry. They go into some forensics lab, where Lab Chick tells them the rug is a $5000 Persian job. This is a total nod to Chris Meloni's rug collection. Stabler says the perp had serious money. Benson jokes that maybe Constanta was killed in a carpet store. Stabler's like, ha ha, not. Lab Chick says the only thing person- or place-specific she got out of the rug was a human hair, which she has on a slide and hands to Stabler. They study it very seriously, like staring at a hair on a microscope slide for five minutes is going to accomplish anything. Benson says they have no proof it's the killer's, but Stabler "would sure like to have a suspect to compare it to." Honey, I'll be your suspect any day.
The Chung-chung! Express takes us to the Air Bucharest Executive offices, where Munch and Jeffries are talking to some dink at a computer. They're asking him to look up the name of the person who used frequent-flyer miles to give Ilena her ticket in August of 1997. A phone starts ringing, and Munch orders the dink not to answer it because of the hell anyone calling an airline goes through with being on hold forever, and before the rant can really get any steam behind it, the dink points out that it's Munch's phone. Munch answers the phone and walks away as Jeffries tells the dink that Ilena flew out of Romania, probably into JFK. Munch snarks into the phone that they're trying to get the name of the person who flew her to the States. The dink has the name: Randolph Morrow.
Cut to Benson and Stabler banging on the door of a swanky townhouse, where no one is answering. A young woman comes up from the outdoor entrance to the basement and says hello in a friendly tone, and asks if she can help them. Benson looks at the girl and says in shock, "Ilena?!" For it is indeed Ilena, although she's completely anorectic compared to the photo we saw earlier. Ilena looks scared at the thought of being recognized, and is even more so when Benson introduces herself and Stabler. Stabler assures Ilena that they're there to help, and Benson tells her that they got the message she sent to Constanta. Ilena is playing dumb, and smiles when she says she doesn't know what they mean. A little blonde girl with braids comes running out of the basement and asks who's there as Ilena picks her up and gives the detectives a "See? Everything's FINE!" look.
Inside, Ilena is picking up toys and insisting that Mr. and Mrs. Morrow have been "very good" to her. They're at work now, but dinner has to be ready before they get home. She asks if there's anything else. Benson's all, "Yeah. There's a hell of a lot more." She gets in Ilena's face and tells her, "Your aunt was murdered an hour after we informed her that you were in trouble." Ilena's expression doesn't change as she insists, "I don't know anything about it. I told you I never gave anyone a message like that." Stabler wonders why someone would make up such a story, and Ilena doesn't know. He backs down from that tree and barks up a new one: "Regardless of who sent the message, we know your aunt [he says "ahnt"] came to see you." Ilena gives him a very serious look as she slowly says, "I haven't seen her in three years. Mr. Morrow really doesn't like dinner to be late. Please." As she shows them out the front door, Stabler offers his heartfelt condolences, and Ilena doesn't blink. Benson asks why Ilena didn't start at NYU three years ago, and Ilena shuts the door and goes back inside. Benson and Stabler do their patented "the hell?" looks to each other as we go to commercial.
After the break, the main cast is standing in a circle in the squad room, and Benson and Stabler are telling the others about Ilena's non-reaction to the news of her aunt's murder. "Stepford Nanny," says Munch, in a big fat shout-out to "Limitations" recap. Benson goes on to tell them that the only time Ilena showed any emotion was at the thought of dinner being late. From across the room, Skodetta announces, "It's Stockholm Syndrome." They all turn to look at her, sitting at what used to be Cassidy's desk (I think), as Cragen asks, "Brainwashing?" She nods, and even though nobody asked, Munch and Skodetta have fun showing off their big, juicy chess-club brains (tm Glark) by launching into a mini-history lesson. Long story short: in 1973, four hostages were taken during a failed bank robbery in (duh) Stockholm. After six days of captivity, they actively resisted a rescue attempt. When the hostages finally were rescued, they refused to testify and even raised money for their captors' legal defense. Cragen asks if Ilena is "another Patty Hearst." Skodetta gives another lesson in psychology, saying, "all it takes to brainwash a person is isolation, threats of death, violence, and then random acts of kindness. In as little as seventy-two hours, a person's psyche can be completely broken down." Benson reminds those members of the audience with short-term memory problems that Ilena's been with the Morrows for three years. Cragen says Ilena won't be any help if she has been brainwashed, and orders his staff, in a very whiny tone, to "get back there and find out what's going on in that house."
Munch's turn in the hot seat. Or not, actually, since he's standing behind the chair opposite Skodetta. She asks if he has a girlfriend. "Do you?" is his playful reply. Undeterred, she asks if he's dated at all since transferring to the SVU. He sits on the windowsill and answers, "Aah, I see where you're going with this. Does dealing with sexual deviance every day affect me? The answer is 'no.' Just ask my blow-up doll." Bad visual! Skodetta takes a deep breath and asks if he thinks his job has had any effect on his sex life. "No," he replies. "But I think I've pinpointed what has. Believe it or not, I have serious intimacy issues. [Skodetta starts writing] I'm critical, negative, have the occasional bout of, let's see, melancholy. I'm a lousy date, but a good cop. So. That covers about everything?" He makes to peel out, but Skodetta tells him they have another forty-five minutes. He makes a joke about accounting for his sexual history only taking a minute, and she asks, "Do you always deflect personal questions with jokes?" He fires right back, "Do you always deflect jokes with personal questions?" She asks if he's ever experienced any sexual dysfunction since taking this job. He answers yes. She asks when. He's not exactly sure, "but it was definitely in the last ten minutes." Skodetta's annoyed, and Munch apologizes, saying that he's not good at talking about himself. He sits and asks for her impression of him. I have to say, these two play really well off of each other. Skodetta obliges: "You've been married multiple times. Each wife was beautiful, spoiled, and not one of them matched you intellectually. [Munch looks impressed] You distrust all women, any form of government, and you could smell a conspiracy at a five-year-old's lemonade stand." Munch is starting to get uncomfortable, but playfully asks, "Anything else?" like he's daring her. Bad move, John Boy; she's got your number. "You've given up on relationships, but you still believe in true love. And the pain of never having found it is . . . unbearable." Munch looks very sad indeed as he wearily repeats, "Anything else?"
Cut to a pretty golden retriever being walked by a yuppie couple, who are talking to Benson and Stabler. Hi, doggie! The moral of the story is that the Morrows are good neighbors, good parents, and the neighbors are positive Ilena's only been with them a year. Hi, doggie! Sorry, I have a compulsion to say hello to all dogs, including those walking on the streets of New York City. Anyway, Mrs. Morrow's a veterinarian, and Mr. M is a "corporate type." Bye, doggie.
Cut to Andrew McCarthy, a.k.a. Randolph Morrow, sitting at a desk in a big office. He looks up from the paper he's reading and smiles as he bellows, "Sit!" Um, woof. Stabler and Benson come in to the big fancy office. Stabler heads for the small couch, and Benson sits in a chair by the door. Andrew tells her the couch is really much more comfortable, but she casually insists that she's fine. Andrew gives her a "fine, be that way" look that lets us know he's a big, smarmy control freak and she's pissing him off. Good for her. Andrew spiels that Constanta's death is a tragedy, but they didn't even know Ilena had a relative in the States, so he doesn't know how much help he can be. Stabler confirms that Andrew never met Constanta, and asks how he met Ilena. Andrew smarms, "I was in Romania, consulting on some privatization issues. Ilena wanted to come to the States; we needed a nanny. If only all mergers were that easy." Benson asks if Ilena has been with the Morrows for three years. "Yeah, I guess it has been. Listen, that chair is really so stiff." Benson ignores him and mentions that the neighbors reported only noticing Ilena in the past year. Meanwhile, a blonde assistant in a tight blue top brings in a tray with three bottles of mineral water and three glasses and heads over to the desk to grab some files. Andrew condescends to Benson that hey, it's New York, and doesn't think he knows anything about any of his neighbors. Benson's not backing down, saying the neighbors are very observant, and they're positive Ilena's only been there a year, so can he explain that. Andrew appears to be deep in thought, with his finger to his chin, so when he opens his mouth I'm ready for some bullshit explanation. Instead he asks his assistant, Louise, which is my mother's name (shout-out?), "What did we discuss about the blinds?" Louise is eager to please and recites the rule: "That you like them drawn halfway during the afternoon." Andrew asks her what time it is, and Louise gets really anxious when she realizes it's 3:30. He asks her to draw the blinds, now, as Stabler and Benson exchange "what a freak!" looks. Andrew holds his arms out and announces that he has "an afternoon FULL of meetings. Is there anything else?" Like nobody else on the planet is important enough to have meetings. And it's 3:30, so if you really had an afternoon full of meetings, you'd be in one right now, wouldn't you? Stabler just has one question. "Where were you on Monday between four and six PM?" Andrew consults his planner and says with a self-important smirk that he was "in negotiations with four corporate lawyers." He then magnanimously thanks the detectives for their time and stands at the door. As they're leaving, Benson stops and points out "something on [Andrew's] suit" and makes like she's picking link off of his shoulder. Andrew's like, "The fuck? Who told you to touch me? And who told that lint to be on my suit?" Well, that's what he's thinking.
Out on the street, Stabler compliments Benson on her sneaky trick to get the hair from Andrew's suit, which she's wrapping in a tissue to compare to the one from the rug. Stabler's Cell Phone of Plot Revelation rings, and the toxicology report is in. Constanta was killed with Beuthanasia, the drug used to put animals to sleep.
So that little tidbit Chungs us over to the Morrow Veterinary Clinic on East Seventy-Sixth, where Dr. Morrow is taking a spaniel (hi, doggie!) out of a kennel. She's played by Susan Floyd, who also plays Christopher Meloni's character's boyfriend's dead wife on Oz. Dr. Morrow works Tuesday through Thursday, and was home Monday, the day of Constanta's murder. Stabler asks if there were any visitors. She thinks for a second and says no. Benson asks if her husband came home during the day. She says no, and asks Barry, a vet assistant, for help with the spaniel. Stabler asks how things are working out with Ilena as Dr. Morrow takes a pill bottle from the drug cabinet. "Oh, it works!" she chirps. "We have a routine! My husband can explain it better." On her way back to the examining table, she drops the pill she was getting, and absentmindedly says, "Oh, dropped it." Like, okay, I think we're supposed to think that Dr. Morrow's not all there. Stabler asks if she and Ilena get along. By way of non-answer, she says, "My husband selected her. To help me." Benson asks how close Andrew and Ilena are, and Dr. Morrow again says they should talk to Andrew about these things. Another vet assistant sticks his head in the door and says they've got a hit-and-run. As if she had just been told there was a flower delivery and a surprise party waiting for her in the room, Dr. Morrow perks, "Oh! I should go!" Like, let's just start laying odds right now on which drug this lady's pilfering from that cabinet back there, okay. Stabler and Benson corner Barry before he can leave the room, complimenting the facility. He tells them the pharmacy's just down the hall, but the DEA monitoring isn't as stringent as it is at human hospitals. Stabler's all, "Yeah, not too many poodles become crackheads." Damn, I was hoping to give them a viable excuse for that hair. Anyway, he asks about the vets and the drugs. Barry's clearly uneasy with the questioning and begs out of there by saying, "Um, I really have to do a rectal." Okay, that's my new getting-out-of-uncomfortable-conversations line. Stabler puts one of his cards in Barry's pocket and tells him to give them a call if his conscience acts up. Okay, not in those exact words.
Conference Room. Jeffries and Skodetta. Skodetta asks Jeffries to tell her about her recent injury in the line of duty. Jeffries is totally relaxed and just shooting the shit as she tells about the minivan explosion in "Remorse," except that she says it happened a couple of months ago. Which it really didn't, because the timeline for this episode is February, and Remorse took place in April, so maybe it could be the following February, but then they wouldn't be talking about these events like they were in the recent past, and my brain goes reeling into a time-space continuum wormhole and I'm all 12 Monkeys trying to figure out the continuity of the show, and there's no answering machine at the carpet store for me to leave a message on for Sars, so I have to tell myself that it's just a television show and to snap out of it. When I do, Jeffries is telling Skodetta that no, she's not more hesitant or reluctant after her near-death experience. In fact, she's "never felt more confident," since she "always knew this day would come" and when it did, she walked away. She feels "alive -- clear. Like three shots of espresso without the jitters." Skodetta changes tack and asks if Jeffries is seeing anyone. We learn that Jeffries was in a long-term relationship until she started working at SVU. Dating in general ended at that point. She thinks for a second and tells Skodetta that she was celibate up until the accident. Like HELLO, MONIQUE! Red flag, much? Jeffries says she's dating again because the explosion made her realize how short life is, but she's not dating any one guy in particular. She's been feeling restless. She starts to say something, but stops, saying, "It's nothing." Skodetta prods her, and Jeffries walks to the windowsill, thinking about what she's going to divulge. She finally spills it: "A few nights ago I was at this bar, and there was this guy watching me. Staring at me. And we started dancing, and I thought I recognized him from somewhere, but I couldn't place it. It's dark in the bar, so when we got outside under the street lights it finally hit me where I recognized him from." Skodetta's enthralled and wants to know who he was. "A guy I'd been watching a year earlier on a case. We liked him for a suspect!" Horrified, Skodetta asks what Jeffries did. In a totally inappropriate "beat that with a stick" tone, Jeffries announces, "I went home with him." Oh my god! Welcome to Denial, Population: Jeffries.
Out in the hallway, Munch gets something from a vending machine and stops an incredibly lost-in-thought Jeffries as she's walking by to ask her if she's all right. She's all, "Yeah, yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He says he was thinking of the psych evaluation: "Dr. Giggles had me wanting to eat my gun." Jeffries, still obviously distracted, insists she's fine and walks away. As Munch calls after her, Barry the vet assistant walks up and asks to see Stabler or Benson. Munch takes him into the squad room.
In the conference room, Stabler's trying to get Barry to say that the inventory had been messed with. Barry has to go into a spiel first, saying, "Vets are under a lot of pressure [they are?], so when tranquilizers like Valium or Ketamine go missing, it's just the nature of the business." Wait a goddamned minute. I refuse to believe that tranquilizer abuse among veterinarians is accepted as SOP in the field. Whatever. Anyway, Barry continues that "Beuthanasia's another thing entirely." He says that Dr. Morrow took some from the clinic a few months ago, and he's positive that's what it was.
So now it's Dr. Morrow's turn in the interrogation room. She slurs that she took the Beuthanasia for herself, not to kill anyone else. Benson's on the attack: "Why, because your husband was having sex with Ilena right under your nose?" Dr. Morrow is in some kind of tranquilizer trance as she parrots, "Sexuality is about reaching our limits, and transcending them." Uh, just for the record: no, it's not. Benson and Stabler give each other a look that says they agree with me, and Stabler does that beautiful arm-crossing thing he does before he asks, "So, did your husband 'transcend' Ilena's aunt? Is that what happened -- she confronted him and he killed her?" Dr. Morrow says no. Benson tries to be sympathetic to a woman protecting her husband, and Dr. Morrow shuts her right up by slamming her fist down on the table and announcing, "That WOMAN. Showed up at the door, threatened him, threatened our routine. I knew what I had to do." Like hello, freak. Stabler asks what she did, and with a beatific smile Dr. Morrow says, "I calmed her down. I gave her tea." Stabler and Benson tell her that she drugged Constanta and then followed it with the Beuthanasia injection. Dr. Morrow shrugs by way of admission. The detectives ask if it was her idea or her husband's, and she goes back into her little trance to tell them, "It's like putting an animal down. You have to disassociate." Like, lady, I think you've got the disassociation thing wired. Stabler asks again if her husband told her to kill Constanta. She looks down and sadly tells him, "My husband didn't have to tell me anything."
Cut to a view of the Morrow townhouse door from inside. Benson and Stabler are banging on the door, and finally Stabler breaks the glass to unlock it and get in. He says he smells something and they head upstairs, where Andrew is in the study burning some papers in the fireplace. Stabler grabs him up and cuffs him to an exercise machine while Benson fishes the burning papers out of the fire. We see that they are photographs of a naked Ilena. Andrew says they have no right to be there. Stabler says there are exigent circumstances, which Andrew's lawyer will explain. Benson calls Stabler over to look at the pictures, which are, like, eight-by-ten color glossy nightmares. Stabler says they'll need warrants for the photos, and then asks Andrew where Ilena is. Andrew's all wide-eyed crazy man, and calmly answers, "Gone! She's not comin' back." Stabler calls out to Ilena and he and Benson go running into the master bedroom looking for her, calling her name, looking under the bed. Stabler finds a sliding door that reveals a padlocked, plywood door. Benson grabs something to break the padlock while Andrew just smirks in the other room. Stabler and Benson open the door to reveal a wall of torture devices, including a metal helmet and several leather restraints and shackles. They and I are seriously sickened.
In the interrogation room, Benson asks Andrew, "Where is she?" He coyly asks, "Who?" Benson gets down in his face and spits, "The girl you're torturing in all those photos." He ignores the question and tells her, "Honey, I'd like a mineral water. No ice." "And I'd like your balls in a blender," Benson replies, "but ain't life a bitch." She makes us all proud. Andrew puts his hand up, as if to deflect the vulgarity of her statement, and says he's rethought his approval of her "keeping [him] company" while he waits for his attorney. Benson plays along with his little delusion of running the show and says she's got some typing to finish anyway. Stabler holds back a chuckle as she leaves, and when she's gone he gets up from his seat and sits on the table at Andrew's end. He's playing the pal to Andrew's evil misogynist: "Maybe you shouldn't have called her 'honey.' Women. I've been trying to break her in for a long time now." Andrew commiserates, "I'd recommend the rack." Stabler says that sounds painful. Andrew says it's excruciating, like it's a good thing. He says you have to be careful, because you can cut off circulation and cause permanent damage. He says this like it might be interesting. He tells Stabler it has to be consensual, like it is with Ilena. Cragen walks in with Andrew's big-mouthed attorney, who bitches that a detective is talking to his client. Andrew stands up and tells "Terrence" to relax, and claps Stabler on the shoulder as he explains, "We were just discussing our common interests. Now, let's get me home in time for dinner." What is it with this guy and dinner? They leave, and Cragen tells Stabler that the hair found in the rug isn't Andrew's. It's his wife's.
Stabler books back to the squad room, where Benson really is typing, and says they need the warrant now. He's sure Ilena's still alive because Andrew spoke of her in the present tense. Now they have to find her before she dies.
Cut to the courthouse, where a mustachioed judge we've seen before is reviewing the warrant and asking ADA Foxy how they know the photos exist. The detectives saw them when they busted into the townhouse without a warrant. ADA Foxy sputters that they believed Ilena was in imminent danger, and then she really stumbles when she admits that they didn't actually find Ilena. But they did find evidence that she was held against her will! Judge says, "Please. New York is the home of more discipline and bondage shops than you can crack a whip at. Whips and chains do not necessarily denote nonconsensual acts." Foxy is totally frustrated and flustered and blurts, "Are you kidding me, Your Honor? Any IDIOT can see this woman is being held against her will!" Oh, slick move. He tells her she's close to contempt, and that they don't have probable cause, so they want him to give them a warrant so they can get probable cause, and no dice. He as much as throws the warrant back in her face and goes into the courtroom. Nice try, Foxy. Not.
Over at some hospital, Stabler and Benson are walking and talking with a lady doctor who says "She's still detoxing," and that "she" was on Ketamine, the animal tranquilizer. Stabler says they're familiar with it, that its street name is Vitamin K. The doctor says it's the "addiction of choice" in vet circles, and that "hers was pretty long-term." They arrive at the room of Dr. Morrow, who is in soft restraints and has an NYPD uniform guarding the door. She tells Stabler and Benson that she already told them everything, but they're not there for her. They want to talk about her husband's crime. "My husband didn't do anything wrong," she asserts. Oh, yeah? I got two words: Fresh Horses. Oh, sorry, they're talking about kidnapping and torturing Ilena. Dr. Morrow: "He disciplined her. He helped. Her. Learn." Like, ew. Benson asks if Dr. M knows that Ilena is missing, and this gets the good doctor's attention. Benson's on a roll: "Yep. You're gone, she's gone. I guess he's all alone now. Except for your daughter." "And all of his toys," Stabler reminds her. Dr. Morrow protests that Andrew treats the daughter like a princess, that she's his daughter. Benson says she's adopted, not even Andrew's own flesh and blood. Stabler: "You know he can't let that closet stay empty." Oh, god. Dr. Morrow bursts into tears, either at the thought of her daughter going through that or the memory of signing on to do that Then Came You pilot. Benson continues, "You know he's gonna do it. He did it to you, didn't he? Didn't he?" Dr. Morrow turns her head away, then turns back to blubber, "He was so good to me at first. And then he started asking me to do things." "So you let him hurt you," says Benson. "I wanted to escape so many times, but I was so afraid for our daughter." Benson is oddly unmoved by this: "So you stayed, hoping things would change, but they didn't, did they?" Suddenly the lights at Yankee Stadium go on over Stabler's head: "Until he abducted Ilena." Dr. Morrow is like, duh. "He said it was so perfect. A woman just in the United States. No one would even know she existed. He kept her chained in a closet for the first six months." OH MY GOD! "Except to rape and torture her," this from Benson. Dr. Morrow is all, "You have no idea what I went through." Stabler again with the big realization, "That's why you never did anything for Ilena. Because he stopped doing it to you. You're gonna help us." Dr. Morrow just blubbers some more. Bitch.
Back in the interrogation room, the director has set up this bitchin' shot where Stabler and Munch are standing against the far wall, and Andrew is sitting in the middle of the room, facing them. The camera is behind Andrew. Munch asks how easy it was to roll Dr. Morrow, and Stabler says it was "like dice down the chute." Munch walks up to Andrew's side as he says, "Ooh, that's gonna hurt. She was your number one submissive, wasn't she?" Andrew insists that she'll never testify against him. Stabler walks up to Andrew's other side and says that she will, because they control her now. "She doesn't even blink without my permission." "She blinked," Stabler informs him, as he and Munch crouch down to be at eye level with Andrew. Munch grabs Andrew's face, turns it towards him and says, "See, that's where you screwed up, Chuck. You broke her down too much, made her pliable." Stabler grabs his face and turns it the other way to tell Andrew, "You made it easy for us." Munch turns him back and says, "Most wives would go to the electric chair for their husbands, but not yours." Stabler tells him, "You really screwed up. Your power is gone, my friend. We took your control." He and Munch walk back to the wall. Andrew's all in a tizzy, trying to prove he's still boss, and busts out with, "I control Ilena! She doesn't eat, sleep, or urinate without my permission. I control her. I do." Like, congratulations on that amazing accomplishment, you slimy little freak. Oh, and my condolences on the size of your penis. Stabler comes back at him, asking, "You like to beat up on women? Huh, tough guy?" He stands right in front of Andrew and tells him to stand up. When Andrew's standing, Stabler tells him to sit. Before his ass hits the cushion, Stabler orders him to stand again. Before he's upright, Stabler hisses at him to sit down. Stabler grins and asks who's controlling whom now. He tells Andrew they've forced every move he's made. Andrew is squinting with hatred as Munch tells him, "Once we've started your run, it's screw-up city, pal." Andrew looks worried as he says they've never forced a move from him. Stabler stands in front of him, arms folded, and says, "Oh really? We forced you to move Ilena, didn't we?" Andrew thinks about this for a second, then kind of smiles and just leans back in his chair. Stabler realizes something and heads out to the squad room . . .
. . . where Jeffries and Benson are looking at the gruesome photos of the frightened, beaten Ilena. Stabler runs in, and Benson asks if Andrew broke. He says no, but he thinks Andrew "tipped his hand." He asks if all of they photos were taken in the house, and they say there's only one they can't place. It was burned in the fireplace, and it's of Ilena, in a wooden box, her face behind a metal grate. Oh, god. Jeffries says the only point of reference in the remains of the photo is a corner of rug. It's the rug Constata was rolled in! Stabler attacks the files on his desk, looking for Dr. Morrow's confession. She took the rug from the bedroom! Ilena's been there all along! Stabler and Benson haul ass on outta there.
Violins swell as they hit the Morrow bedroom, Benson calling, "Ilena, talk to us. Tell us where you are." They lift up the mattress and find nothing. Benson makes a big show of taking off her coat (whatever), and they both get down to look under the bed. Stabler finds something at the corner of the bed frame, which goes to the floor. He knocks a couple of pieces of wood out, then finds two slide locks. He undoes the locks and they lift the wood panel out and put it up on the bed. Benson looks under the bed and tells Stabler to grab something unseen and pull. They both pull what looks like a drawer out. It's Ilena, in the box, and she's gasping for air, sawdust on her face. Oh my god. The lift the top off the box, which we now see is just big enough to hold the malnourished Ilena. Stabler calls for an ambulance as Benson lifts Ilena out and tells her everything will be okay. Ilena is crying and begs Benson, "Tell them I didn't do anything. I didn't make a sound, I swear." Benson continues making "it's over, we're getting you out of here" noises, and Ilena continues with "tell them I was good" pleas as we dissolve to . . .
. . . an extreme close-up of Stabler's haunted stare. Skodetta asks him how long a case like Ilena's will stay with him. He says a while, and she asks how he deals with it. He blinks, thinks about it, sits down, and says, "I go home, hug my kids, kiss my wife." He seems very tired. Skodetta asks if he can discuss the cases at home. "No, no, no, no," he answers. "I don't let that world touch my family." Skodetta rightly points out that "that world is everywhere. You can't put them on twenty-four-hour surveillance." He acknowledges this is true, but "that doesn't mean [he has to] be their window into it." Skodetta asks if all of the cases involving children hit close to home. Stabler folds his arms, furrows his brow, and thinks about this. He grimaces and then, with a catch in his throat, asks her, "You ever, ah, see a child with no soul? I have." She asks how he handles this, and he says he thinks a lot, about "the crime, the victim, the people that do that sort of thing." She wants to know what else. The camera closes in and he answers, "How I could get away with killing them."
Cap'n Cragen's office. Skodetta asks if he's got a minute, comes in, and closes the door. She says she's seen everybody, and he asks if she's found "any bed-wetters or cross-dressers." He's standing at the window by the door, so over his shoulder we see Stabler, Benson, Munch, and Jeffries palling around in the squad room. Skodetta chuckles at his joke and answers, "No, I found a commensurate level of stress and neuroses that one would expect in this field of work. [Beat.] For the most part." This gets Cragen's attention. She tells him, "The purpose of this program is to identify detectives who are perilously close to a meltdown. It's not to punish them, but to protect the public from them. As well as themselves." Wow, what poorly constructed dialogue. Anyway, Cragen's amazed. "You can't be saying that you found someone at that stage in my unit." More shots of the happy-go-lucky SVU detectives, in a tight little circle. "I did," says Skodetta. "And I have to recommend that they be removed from duty. Immediately." Cragen looks out at his detectives once more, and they're all smiling and laughing. In a send-up of old-school cliffhangers, he turns his befuddled face back to her and the last thing we see before fading to credits is Cragen asking, "Who?"
We've got four months on the forums to figure it out.