Blinded

A sassy old broad yammers on at an indulgent cop about a talking car, making sure to assure him she's not a "senile old bitch." Yeah, swearing old people are always hilarious. If she's not senile, then it might occur to her that the voice coming from the trunk might belong to a person, and not the car itself. And since the detective is apparently already looking for a kidnap victim, a little urgency might serve him well. He pieces it together eventually and surprises a nearby hotdog vendor by not ordering his usual (sauerkraut, heavy mustard) but by asking about the car that had been parked there. It being the only car a New York hotdog vendor has probably seen for weeks, he knows it was taken to an impound lot.

A crazy old lady and hotdog vendor's hearsay is enough for the SVU crew to go popping trunks and smashing windows of every car in the towing company's lot. I bet they were a little disappointed when the EMS guys showed up with the infrared camera and spoil their vandalicious fun. They find the girl, Sabrina, alive but barely breathing.

Sabrina was hit with a rock and raped. "She's only 11," laments the doctor. "Don't ask why, it'll only drive you crazy," says Olivia, who's always great at distancing herself from her cases. Chester shows up to tell the detectives the car was a rental, rented to Saul Picard (played by Arye Gross! How's it going?) from Louisiana, whom the detectives interview at his apartment, where he signed a month-long lease. He lives in Louisiana, in a place off Lake Pontchartrain, but visits New York every few months on business. "As you can see, I'm much too eccentric of an SVU character to be in one scene and then cleared," he says, but the detectives totally miss that. He says he returned the rental car, and has the receipt to prove it. His alibi is that he was working -- he's an artist. Picard's art is of elephants, and is pretty clearly illustrations for children's books. Elliot wonders if he knows Sabrina, but Picard doubts it. He talks some stuff about losing a home in Katrina, and how New Orleans "not the same there now." Elliot briefly attempts the "I'll drop a hint that I might be racist too and see if you speak a little more freely" play by saying "I wouldn't blame you for trying to get away," but gets nowhere. He suspiciously asks to see the detectives' badges again. They say they're going to check with the car rental place and clear everything up.

Sure enough, his story checks out -- he returned the car, but the guy he returned it to left it parked with the guys in it and it was stolen. Olivia has checked out the coffee shop, and they tell him Saul's been in and out a couple dozen times in the last couple of days.

Back at the crime lab, the crime scene guy has found some kind of pollen on Sabrina and in the car itself that only grows in Louisiana. Hilariously, this isn't enough of a connection for Elliot, but as soon as he finds out it grows around Lake Pontchartrain, where Picard has a place, he's all, "Let's get him!"

But they're too late -- Picard's long gone, the apartment cleaned out. But Saul's alibi checked out, so what'd they miss? Olivia comes up with it -- Saul returned the car, but then came out of the rental office and saw it sitting there, keys in it, and stole it.

Back at the squad room, the detectives flail around a bit. The FBI has nothing on Picard; he's not wanted in Louisiana for anything more than a couple of parking tickets. But before the alert went out for Picard yesterday, he managed to rent another car from the same company, a blue Ford explorer. So he's not exactly jetting off far away and out of reach. Olivia gets a phone call saying Sabrina has woken up.

A heavily bandaged Sabrina tells Olivia and Elliot that Saul pulled the ol' "Your mom is hurt, I'll take you to her" routine, and then kidnapped her. She tried to escape but the car doors were locked. She picks Saul out of a photo array, saying he told her his name was "William." She's not sure where she was taken, just that it was a park somewhere, and Saul kept saying "hearken to the arc" but she didn't really understand him because he talked "funny." She tried to escape in the park but Saul/William said, "Stop, Francine!" Elliot and Olivia then lecture her on how rude it is to make fun of other people's accents. Elliot gets his call on his cellphone, and he rudely answers it while Olivia questions the young rape victim, and also fucks with a lot of the electronic equipment in the hospital. Hope you can sleep with all the people you killed, Elliot. Olivia asks if the car was found, but that's not it. "Another girl's been kidnapped," says Elliot grimly.

Eve Holland, 11, taken from a bookstore. The mom was door, shopping. The detectives ask the bookstore guy if the recognize Eve, and sure enough -- she was right over there, reading books. I can see why she'd stick out. The detectives wander over and pick up the books sitting on the little table, including books by a "William H. Falstaff," which turns out is the pen name of Saul Picard, who writes books that Elliot reads to his kids all the time. I say Elliot's lying. The art in the books I read to my daughter is burned into my head; there'd be no "Don't I know this from somewhere?" More like, "This is from Alligator Pie! Arrest Dennis Lee!" The detectives recall what Sabrina said about "harkening the arch," and with the help of an Arc de Triomphe on the cover of one the books, Olivia says, "Maybe he took her here!" Elliot says, "The Arc de Triomphe in Paris?" says Elliot. Yes, in Paris, Elliot, because there's nothing like that in New York City or anything. The detectives quickly narrow it down to one particular one -- the arch at Grand Army Plaza (I believe it's called the All Eggs in One Basket Arch). Chester is no help here, which means his grandfather didn't build it. Not this particular arch, anyway.

The SVU detectives show up to find half of New York's uniforms have surrounded the park, lights flashing. So much for not spooking the guy. They haven't found anything yet, but it's a big park, points out the main uniform. Then, right after that, they find something on Lookout Hill.

It's a blue Ford Explorer, and Olivia and Elliot have gone in alone, since they don't know how Saul would react to the heavy police presence. In the back seat is Eve, sleeping (or unconscious). In the front seat: Saul, half-asleep and muttering. Olivia looks after Eve while Elliot sticks his gun in Saul's face. Eve seems to be okay, and the detectives march the two of them out of there.

Elliot tries to question Saul as they walk, but Saul spouts a lot of gibberish, including quotes from Alice in Wonderland and analysis of a recent speech by the president. So Elliot completely zones him out, much to his peril. A truck drives by with one of those billboards on the back. "Winter's coming -- time to escape," it reads. Clever -- not actually advertising the product on the billboard! (Then again, the car rental company from before was called Escape, so maybe that's it). Saul says, "Right now? Okay, but it's going to be hard," and glances meaningfully at Elliot, who is too busy ignoring the crazy, violent rapist to notice. So Saul clonks him, head to head, sending Elliot backwards into the rear driver's-side window, shattering it, and runs off into the woods. Olivia orders a uniform after Saul, so she can clutch Elliot to her bosom and whisper soothingly to him. So he's got that going for him, which is nice.

Elliot wakes up in the hospital. Eyes blackened, oxygen tube. This looks like me after my first basketball game this season, only I usually look worse off. "He's awake!" says Kathy. "Welcome back, Ell," says Olivia. So Kathy's there to inform Olivia when Elliot wakes up, is that it? "What's going on?" he says. Olivia tells him he's okay, he's in the hospital. "If I'm okay, where are you?" he says. He can't see anything. Well, he can, but it's a blur -- everything's fuzzed out. "I'm watching a Barbara Walters interview!" wails Elliot, while Kathy and Olivia look on, distressed.

The doctor explains to Cragen and Olivia that Elliot hit the car so hard that his brain bounced off the front and back of his skull. They both impressively manage not to say, "No offense, but that sounds kind of cool." Temporary blindness is common in injuries like this, and his vision should return by the end of the episode, assures the doctor. Fin strolls up to say there's a problem in Picard's room.

The problem is an FBI agent, who, we must never forget, are never actually pursuing their own cases, but show up solely to provoke jurisdictional squabbles with New York Cops. Looks like Picard crossed state lines when he kidnapped a girl in Mississippi and took her back to Louisiana. "So suck it, city cops," is the basic gist of this scene, and all scenes that involve the FBI.

Back in the squad room, Munch -- shouldn't we be calling Richard Belzer's appearances "cameos" by this point -- gives them all the relevant details about this Mississippi-Louisiana thing, but as Casey shows up, the big discussion is over who alerted the feds to the arrest, since the detectives didn't even have time to put Picard in the system yet. Casey tells them the feds have the jurisdictional upper hand, which I really hope isn't news to anybody there. Munch calls the feds' indictment a crock since the kidnapping happened in Mississippi, but they're charging him in Louisiana. Well, that's where the rape happened, and Casey informs everyone that this episode will now involve a death-penalty debate. Or, as she puts it, "Raping someone under the age of 12 in Louisiana is a capital crime."

Casey figures she can't do anything to stop the feds, so she enlists the help of Picard's defense lawyer. She lays out the situation for him, that Picard should be tried in New York, and not in Louisiana, where he'll be put to death. Since the feds are trying to extradite him under the table, that's violating due process, and...well, whatever. Does it matter? Is collaborating with the defence attorney to foil the feds even allowed?

Huang interviews Picard, who says the sign on the truck was meant for him. He says Francine's sending him messages. "Who's Francine?" asks Huang. It's Picard's sister, and Huang wants to know why she's sending him messages. "Because those boys raped her," he says. And the story comes pouring out. When he was seventeen years old, guys he knew from school raped his eleven-year-old sister, and he froze. Couldn't do anything. Had a psychotic break. Doctors put him on medication that worked, but changed it after his sister died last year, and since that made him feel like he was "swimming through cee-ment," he stopped taking it. And he sees those boys everywhere, and Francine is in the girls he kidnaps. He thinks he's saving her. He thinks he's making it right.

Huang's diagnosis: Picard's schizophrenic. Huang's really surprised that Casey wants to know if Picard, on medication, will be fit to stand trial, since he belongs in a hospital, adding that trying Picard for what happened is no less "cruel and unusual" than Louisiana wanting to put him to death. Well, except for the "putting him to death" part, but I see Huang's point. A text message informs Casey the feds are backing off, but Louisiana's probably still going to want to get their hands on him.

So it's "use the media" time, instead of "decry the media" time: Casey tells reporters that while she expects Louisiana to try to extradite Picard, they've got him. And they ain't letting him go. And it's got nothing to do with her feelings on the death penalty but on upholding the laws of New York.

Picard's defense attorney shows up while Casey is admiring herself on television to tell her that Louisiana's not wasting any time, and have filed the extradition order. Casey says she wants to try Picard here, and asks if Picard's been told about the order. Yes, says the lawyer, adding, "He wants to talk to you." Why is Louisiana even bothering? Don't they know how long child molesters last in prison? Save some taxpayer money, Louisiana. Damn.

So it's over to Riker's island, where a dozy Saul greets his attorney and Casey. He tells them his medication is working. "So you understand what you did," says Casey. He says yes, and apologizes for what he did to those girls. She asks if he wants to make a statement. He does. "Send me to Louisiana," he says. Surprised, Casey warns him that he's facing the death penalty back there, but that's just what Picard wants, saying if the state thinks killing him will stop one pervert from doing what he did, then it's work it. Might be a good time for Casey to bust out some statistics regarding the ineffectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent, but she says nothing. "Send me home to die," says Picard. Make it so, Casey.

Casey and Barry argue over whether Saul should stand trial: now it's the defense attorney who needs Casey's help, since Saul won't let him file to have his competency questioned. "He can't waive extradition if he's found incompetent," says Barry, and Casey argues that if he's found incompetent, he can't stand trial either. And she can't accept a plea, because Jack McCoy won't let her get away with that. "So that's what this is about," sneers Barry. "The new boss wants to show he's tough on crime, and you want to be a team player instead of doing the right thing." Do we drink every time Casey is urged to "do the right thing"? I mean, I've been drinking all episode anyway, but I just wonder if that was a specific drinking moment. Casey argues that Saul Picard is, you know, a girl-raper. Not that Saul Picard, points out Barry. Not properly medicated Saul Picard. Casey thinks about this and stomps off.

This is the part of the show where the detectives have an impromptu discussion on the merits of the death penalty, and this is the part of the recap where I skip it. Wait, is it Death Penalty Week on NBC this week? Because that would be awesome. The peacock dripping with blood... Olivia asks Casey if she'd be able to convict Picard. "Sabrina Farmer on the witness stand is all the evidence I'll need to convict," she answers.

More death penalty debate. Olivia and Fin are pro-, while Chester's anti-, for what it's worth, although it's possible Olivia's only for killing people who hurt her hunky partner. Anyway, Olivia wants to know when Casey needs her on the stand, but Casey figures she'll put Elliot on the stand, especially since the battered Elliot also demonstrates to the jury what Picard is capable of. Olivia decides she needs to protect her grown adult cop buddy from the ordeal of the witness stand, saying Elliot's got a better chance of recovering his eyesight even before the end of the episode if he avoids stress. Casey's unmoved and points out that Elliot's a grown-ass man and she'll ask him herself.

Elliot says yes. Of course he says yes. Elliot's going to say no to helping put a child-raper in prison? Elliot says he's having another child, which is scary enough. "But the thought that I was never going to be able to see that child...it terrified me. So Picard? Bring him on."

Aaaaand then things go south. As they usually do around the three-quarters mark. Oh, Elliot acquits himself well, as he explains what happened, and he gives everyone a thrill by having to put on his glasses to see Picard for the purposes of identification. But Casey starts to throw the match by asking Elliot about the sign Picard saw, and whether Picard seemed distraught, and whether Elliot would describe Picard as an "EDP" -- "emotionally disturbed person." Elliot answers yes, and is reluctant to answer the last question thusly, having twigged to the fact that Casey probably shouldn't be angrily questioning him like he's a hostile witness. Olivia, in the gallery to support her husband, I mean partner, also realizes something's up. After Elliot says Picard is an EDP, Casey says, "In other words, he's crazy," like the judge is going to come anywhere close to allowing that. Casey starts talking pointedly about the rape of Picard's sister, and does it long enough for Picard to start freaking out, railing at God, until he's escorted from the courtroom. Moredock stands up address the judge, but the judge is already on top of it: "After what the jury just witnessed, I'm declaring a mistrial," he says, and before the mistrial happens, there's going to be a 7-30 hearing (mental competence). Fortunately, Casey barely manages to suppress cheering. Getting down from the stand, Elliot gives her hell: "You want Picard in the loony bin and you used me to get him there." He's not wrong. He stumbles somewhat, and Olivia helps him, giving Casey the stinkeye. Kind of wish Elliot had pointed at his eyes and said, "I may be blind up here," and then point at Casey's heart and say, "but you're the one who's blind in there!" Maybe time Elliot gets blinded for a whole episode.

Casey's office. She's on the phone, saying, "Yes, sir. I'll be right up." But not before Olivia can show up to chew her out some more. "I don't need a lecture from you," she tells Olivia, who says she knows why Casey took a dive. And she reaches into Casey's desk, and fortunately the first place she looks is where she finds a picture of Casey with her "schizo ex-boyfriend." Casey calls her on her hypocrisy, saying Olivia only wanted payback for Elliot, and accuses her of telling the feds about Picard's arrest (she admits it), so he'd be sent back to Louisiana so he'd be killed. "Those little girls deserved some justice," says Olivia self-righteously. Casey calls it "revenge." Olivia: "He's my partner, Casey." Oh, well then. "And it's my case. And how I handle it is none of your business. Because I don't answer to you," snaps Casey, who stomps out of the office. "We'll see," mutters Olivia.

Chung-chung! Speaking of hypocrisy, we're in the offices of non-assistant district attorney Jack "Hang 'Em High" McCoy. "Excellent job you did as Saul Picard's defence attorney," he snaps at Casey, and it only gets worse from there. He's got a letter that's informed him of a disturbance call at Casey's apartment five years ago, when her schizophrenic boyfriend, off his meds, attacked her. Cops responded, and she backed them off by telling them who she was and begging them not to take him. McCoy says she abused her office for personal reasons back then, and she's doing it now. They argue back and forth, with Casey ultimately telling Jack that Picard belongs in a hospital, not a prison cell, "and you know it." Jack does not confirm or deny. "I'll tell you what I know," he says. "You're going to stay on this case through the 7-30 hearing, and you're going to behave yourself. Because if you don't, I'm not only going to fire you, I'll make sure the bar yanks your licence. And if you don't think I have the juice to do it, try me." Casey stomps off to bitch out Olivia, obviously the one who blabbed about Casey's old boyfriend. I think McCoy's just pissed because now that he's the big kahuna, his show's completely getting jerked around.

"Why'd you rat me out to the D.A.?" Casey asks Olivia back in the squad room. "Because you threw the case," says Olivia, and Casey says she had to after Olivia gave Picard up to the feds. Olivia says she's as guilty as Casey, who was right about Olivia doing it for revenge. The conversation's much more subdued, further driving down the chances for the two of them to start wrestling. Casey reveals that her ex-boyfriend was killed six months ago after being hit by a car, and she blames herself for making him leave. Olivia gently tells her she had to save herself. Casey's cellphone beeps, and she looks at it. "What?" says Olivia, like it's any of her business. "Picard made a noose out of his shirt and tried to hang himself in his cell," she said.

Casey shows up in the visiting room at the mental hospital to talk to Picard. "Why are you here?" she says. "I heard you tried to hurt yourself," she says. "I'm not crazy. I'm on my medication," she says. "That's good," she says. "I want to die. You should have let them execute me. I'd rather be dead than live with what I done," he says. "Maybe one day you can learn to forgive yourself when you realize it wasn't your fault," says Casey, who is actually talking to herself here. "Wasn't it?" says Picard. Well, don't let a crappy shirt-noose keep you from achieving your goals, guy. Those wrists aren't going to slash themselves!