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A cabbie and his wife are looking after a convict’s baby, which turns out to be HIV-positive. Distrustful of American medicine, the couple have brought the baby to Gideon Hutton, an AIDS-denier physician who treats patients with yogurt and garlic and beetroot. The SVU investigation leads to an anonymous tip about a dead young girl, who had AIDS the doctor wasn’t treating.
The courtroom becomes the scene of a lot of grandstanding about Big Pharma and its conspiracy to keep everyone sick. The mother of Lisa Ross is HIV-positive, but didn’t go on anti-retrovirals during her pregnancy, and -- possibly fatally -- breastfed her daughter for a year, on Hutton’s advice, whose trial defense suffers when the mother (who, along with the doctor, is charged with her daughter’s death) has a seizure on the stand and dies of AIDS-related toxoplasmosis. Your honor, I’d like my client’s death to be stricken from the record!
So that just leaves brother Tommy, who it turns out may also have been given HIV by his mother. But having been raised by one AIDS-denier and treated by another, the teenager’s in no mood to get himself tested. Various courtroom shenanigans prove useless, so Elliot introduces Tommy to a bald kid with brain cancer whose Christian Science parents opted for “prayer” over “medicine” as a form of treatment. Parents suck! “They thought I was dissing God,” says the kid. Tommy’s scared enough to get tested now, and he’s positive, but the episode ends with a bit of hope. AIDS isn’t necessarily a death sentence anymore, but it shouldn’t be a sentence for crappy melodramatic episodes, either.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!The hardworking men of Engine 99 are responding to a report of a fire in a brownstone, but they're barely out of the firehouse when a cab pulls up in front and blocks them. A distraught cabbie is holding a sick baby that he says a woman left in his taxi, so he took it to the firehouse. This guy's never heard of a hospital? The fireguys take the baby and call for help, instead of putting a firehat on it and letting it adorably help with the ladder at the burning brownstone.
At the hospital, Elliot and Olivia listen as the doctor says the 5-month-old baby has candidiasis, better known as "thrush," common enough in newborns that Elliot's worried he's going to get called out every time some baby is colicky. The baby wasn't sexually abused (I mean, thank GOD the show isn't going down that route), but the doctor says the reason the baby is as sick as it is is that it's got HIV, and the parents didn't do a damn thing about it. "If that isn't a crime, I don't know what is," she says. Try to think up an excuse not to do your work now, Elliot!
Elliot talks to the cab driver, a Mr. Marong, who says he didn't notice the baby in the backseat until it started crying after her mother left. Only when Elliot checks the "cab cam" with the TARU tech, there are no pictures of the woman. Marong fesses up that he turned off the camera because he kept the meter off when the woman was in the car, because pocketing a couple extra fares is the only way to pay for gas these days. Topical!
Elliot confers with Olivia, who tells him Munch didn't find any recent reports of missing baby girls or anything, and Marong doesn't have a record. His cellphone rings, so Olivia goes over to tell Marong she's going to have him describe the woman to a sketch artist. I really think the sketch artists should be like the boardwalk artists who draw caricatures and put everyone in dune buggies or skateboarding, you know? Anyway, that was Warner on the phone: they're needed at the morgue. Oh, God, no, please. Don't you dare. I'm tearing up just thinking about this. Don't DO this to me! For god's sake, I cry at the end of Monsters Inc. when Sully has to say goodbye to Boo and then he goes back into the closet and she gets out of bed to open the closet door and it's her regular closet again! You're really going to kill a baby girl on me?
No, thank God. "Did the baby die?" asks Olivia as soon as they arrive. You know, Elliot probably could have asked that question. Warner says the baby's septic, and Dr. Massey's loading her up with antibiotics. Meanwhile, Massey sent over an oral swab with the baby's DNA. "Why? The baby's not going to be in the system," says Olivia, who really ought to know that there could be a mitochondrial match with the mother, who might be in the system, since a lot of HIV babies are born to women with criminal records. "Junkies and hookers," says Elliot, helpful and compassionate as usual. She got a hit: Joanne Suarez, a "frequent guest" of the correctional system. In fact, she's currently at Rikers.
[But wouldn't it have been funny if the baby had been in the system, like for armed robbery, or passing bad checks or something? - Zach]
Over at the prison, Suarez denies having a kid and tells the detectives to check her intake forms. Elliot clues her in on the DNA match, and Suarez admits she didn't want Social Services to find out about her: "They take your baby when you're high." She had the baby at home and didn't get a birth certificate. She doesn't know who the father is, either. "She's a trick baby, but that doesn't mean that I don't love her." Aww. Hallmark should totally devise a line of "trick baby" cards for Mother's Day.
She wants to know why the detectives are here, and asks if Antonia's okay. Olivia breaks the news about Antonia being in the hospital with AIDS, which means Joanne's HIV-positive. A stunned Joanne says she quit using when she pregnant and did everything she could to keep Antonia clean. "Except taking anti-retrovirals before she was born," says Olivia. Elliot asks who she left her baby with when she got locked up. "Ida Jallow," sobs Joanne. Jallow's her downstairs neighbor, who promised to look after the baby for her.
So the detectives pound on the door, and Ida Jallow answers it, surprised to see the police there. "There are here for me," says a man, and it's Marong. "You have more questions," he says, pleasantly, to the police. Elliot and Olivia stare at him all, "Yeah, suddenly, a lot more."
So, back at the station, Marong and Jallow explain that their green cards were about to expire and they were going to be sent back to Gambia, while Antonia got sicker and sicker. They didn't know what to do. "We loved her like she was our own," he says, and Ida adds that everything was fine until Antonia stopped eating. Ida thought she just missed her mother until she just saw the white spots in her mouth, and she knew it was AIDS, since back in Gambia, she raised her sister with the same illness.
Okay, so fine: why not take Antonia to the hospital? Well, because AIDS drugs are poisons, say the couple, who tell an incredulous Elliot and Olivia that their president has a cure, a mixture of herbs that he rubs on patients' chests, every Thursday! And then gives them a bitter yellow brew, and two beers, and then they're cured! This sounds suspiciously like this medicine my old priest used to administ-- oh, no. Oh, NO.
The detectives want to know if they tried to cure Antonia themselves. Well, no, that would be crazy! The president's recipe is secret. You know, like Colonel Sanders' recipe. But they found a doctor on the Internet who believes as they do, and he gave Antonia some vitamins, but she just got sicker. "This doctor -- what's his name?" says Elliot.
It's Dr. Gideon Hutton, played by Martin Mull, who assures the detectives he also told the Marongs to give Antonia yogurt. Olivia asks him if he's, you know, out of his mind, and he says that not all AIDS patients need medication. Antonia was also supposed to come back for more treatment: "Like what? Pudding?" says Olivia. Anti-fungal medication, says the doctor, which any medical professional would prescribe. "A medical professional would have given the child its HIV-positive medicine on the first visit. You're a quack," says Elliot. We're through, says the doctor, but Elliot's only just getting warmed up, asking the doctor how many patients he's cured with vitamins and yogurt, and Hutton scrams to go look after patients. "God help them," says Elliot.
No love from Greylek, who tells the detectives to turn the "walking malpractice suit" over to the state medical board, because "Yogurt's not a murder weapon." Well, maybe if you fed someone enough of that laxative yogurt? Greylek points out that holistic medicine has a place in the law, and Elliot counters with, "That's when it's based on science, and not voodoo."
As usual, Munch has been hard at work Googling, and he brings up the good ol' doctor's website, and it turns out Gideon Hutton is an AIDS denier, claiming the disease is a conspiracy dreamed up by Big Pharma to make big bucks. Ice-T steps in for his only scene to bring up the genocide theory, that AIDS was cooked up in lab to be released in prisons to clear out blacks and gays.
Munch talks about AIDS deniers who don't believe AIDS even exists, and by now Greylek has done a complete 180, saying, "His denial nearly killed Antonia Suarez," who, by the way, is doing okay, although her doctor doesn't think she'll make it to high school. "It's time to put Dr. Do-Nothing out of business!" says Greylek, like, how nice to have you on board, counselor. Since Hutton's not talking and his patient files are confidential, Greylek says she'll call "some reporter friends" and use the media to smoke him out.
Turns out "some reporter friends" include the entire New York journalistic community, judging from the throng who've turned out for the press conference, in which Greylek shows a picture of Antonia under the pretense of looking for the father. "If you have any information, please call SVU's confidential tip line, at the number on your screen," she says, instead of just SAYING THE NUMBER so as not to rely on the news outlet to put up a graphic. And the muttering journalists manage to ask just the right questions so Greylek can mention Gideon Hutton, who is not currently under investigation, but if anyone has any information on any of his other patients, that'd be great. And we now move out from the televison, on "News 8" which not only obligingly put the phone number up, but also -- hilariously -- appears to use the same font as the "chung-chung!" scene transitions on Law & Order.
Gideon's in Cragen's office, yelling, "This libellous trash has been on all afternoon!" His lawyer, Ms. Emmett is there, and Cragen tries to pass her off to the DA's office, since that's where her beef should be, and Emmett says the detectives interrogated Hutton in his office without her present. "That was a friendly chat. When we interrogate Dr. Hutton, he'll know it," smirks Elliot. Emmett demands a public apology within 24 hours, or they'll be on the business end of an expensive lawsuit.
They storm out, almost knocking over Munch, who comes into the office to say a couple hundred people have phoned the tip line to let them know Hutton is the second coming of Albert Schweitzer. Except for an anonymous tip that he has a patient, Lisa Ross, who has HIV, and Hutton isn't doing anything about it.
So Elliot and Olivia head over to the Ross residence, where a teenage kid opens the door. "Lisa Ross live here?" asks Elliot. "No. She used to," says the kid. "Did she move?" asks Olivia, who can't see what's coming barreling down the track towards them. "My sister's dead," says the kid. Thankfully, the completely stunned detectives aren't all, "Sorry, must have the wrong place, then."
The detectives sit with Lisa's mother, who shows them a picture of a young girl from two months ago, just before she died. "We are so sorry for your loss," says Olivia. The mother says Lisa died of an allergic reaction to penicillin. She had a cough and a fever, so she took Lisa to the family doctor, Gideon Hutton, who prescribed amoxicillin, only after she gave Lisa a dose, she was having trouble breathing, so she rushed her back to the doctor. "He gave her a shot of adrenalin, even shocked her heart, but it was too late. She was gone."
Elliot's surprised the doctor didn't know Lisa was allergic to penicillin, but the mother says she didn't know either; Lisa was perfectly healthy until she had the cold. Olivia brings up the anonymous phone call that says Lisa had HIV and the doctor wasn't treating her for it, and the mother's slightly evasive, saying it wasn't his fault. "We need to make sure," says Olivia, and asks to see Lisa's medical records. The mother declines, saying she lost her husband before she knew she was pregnant with Lisa, and with Lisa gone, she can barely get out of bed. She wants the detectives to leave her and Tommy alone.
Over at the DA's office, Greylek can't even pronounce "Hutton," saying, "If Heddon made a mistake, the ME would have sent her case to you," to Olivia, who tells her that there was no autopsy and Heddon himself signed the death certificate, and Greylek, who was all gung-ho a moment ago, has reverted to "let me tell all the ways we CAN'T proceed" mode, saying that without an autopsy, they have no way of knowing for sure that Lisa was HIV-positive. So the only way to get probable cause is to figure out who the anonymous tipster was.
"It'd be a lot easier to find your guy if we could trace your tip lines," grumbles the TARU tech, and Olivia has to give him a brief explanation of what "anonymous" means and how useless tip lines would be if they weren't anonymous. Meanwhile, Elliot's discovered that Susan Ross taught English at a private school in Connecticut until a few years ago, when she suddenly became a stay-at-home mom with a bank account of more than $2.3 million dollars. Olivia and the tech listen to the tip line call (featuring the most bored Munch you can imagine) and fortunately there's a noise on the tape that turns out to be a school bell, so the detectives think it could be Jack Lufton, a chemistry teacher and former colleague who co-signed for her car loan.
"Yeah, I called your tip line," says Jack at the school, not at all concerned that the detectives figured out who he was. He's not surprised Lisa's dead, and tells the detectives that he dated Susan for a while, was monogamous the whole time, and then surprise! He turns up HIV-positive on an insurance physical. "You tell Susan?" asks Elliot. "I went nuts," says Jack, adding that Susan didn't think it was a big deal, saying, "HIV doesn't make you sick." Jack says in '03, Susan, her husband and Tommy were on safari in Kenya when their Jeep flipped, killing her husband. The blood transfusion that saved her life was infected, Jack tells them.
Jack, naturally, is the poster boy for the anti-Hutton school of thought; he's on anti-retrovirals, his something-or-other count is low, and he feels great. And yeah, the school knows -- that's how Susan got fired, because she refused to do anything about it. And they paid her the seven figures that are in her bank account so she wouldn't sue them, and I have no idea how THAT ever flew. "What if she cuts herself, and one of her students gets exposed? Hell, she doesn't even take precautions with her own kids!" Olivia asks him what he means, and Jack says Susan breastfed Lisa for a year after she was born, because Dr. Hutton told her it was all right.
It's pamphlet reading time, as Warner and the SVU squad team up to bombard us with statistics about the danger of HIV-positive women breastfeeding their children and the importance of retrovirals. Is there anyone out there who enjoys these scenes? Where the detectives all chime in like this? This one's not even that bad, because Munch and Fin are nowhere to be found, and Chester's in jail or dead or a lesbian or however it was he was removed from this show. What it all comes down to is that Susan's criminally negligent in exposing her daughter to HIV, and Hutton had a duty to make sure Susan's kids were tested. "Even if he believes that HIV doesn't cause AIDS?" asks Olivia, and Warner reads the answer from that particular part of the FAQ (short answer: yes). So how do they prove Lisa died of AIDS and not actually from an allergic reaction, asks Elliot. Greylek, the genius, says they have enough probable cause to subpoena Hutton's files. Yeah, great. The DOCTOR DOESN'T BELIEVE IN AIDS, Greylek. Warner shakes her head. "There's only one conclusive way to find out what killed Lisa," she says.
Of course, anyone who's watched this show at all knew long ago that there was going to be a backhoe digging up a child's grave. Child died a while ago under disputed circumstances? Yeah, she's coming up.
Fortunately, we're spared the accompanying cliché scene of the parent wailing away at the gravesite. Susan does her yelling at the precinct. "How could you do such a horrible thing?" she screams. Olivia's completely unmoved, all, "At least I didn't kill my daughter." Basically. Susan's lawyer talks about her right to breastfeed her baby, which Olivia says isn't the right to infect her daughter and withhold medication. "I loved Lisa. I did not make her sick." I love lamp!
Warner's autopsying, and narrating that there's no sign of abuse-related trauma on the skin, but there are needle punctures, indicating life-saving measures taken.
Which is what Ms. Emmett's yelling about now, saying Hutton did everything he could to save Lisa. "Everything but treat the time bomb he knew was ticking inside her," says Greylek. Elliot says the only thing they don't know is if Lisa was his first mistake. "But you can bet your ass she's your last."
Back to Warner, who says the organs are all accounted for, with the liver and kidneys slightly enlarged. There's an ulcerated lesion on her upper lip, which suggests a viral occlusion.
Back at the squad, Susan says Dr. Hutton told her it was a canker sore. What, are they watching the autopsy live or something? "So you took her to see him before the day she died," says Olivia. Yes, says Susan, but he didn't prescribe any antibiotics until the day she died.
In the other interview, Hutton says Lisa was sick for three weeks. "She had a hell of a cold," he says. Douchebag! GOD. "Never thought it might be more serious?" says Greylek, who is permanently stuck on righteous anger. Hutton says it wasn't until Susan brought her back again that he prescribed amoxicillin. No point in giving her needles or exposing her to the radiation of an X-ray needlessly. Amazing how the fact that she's DEAD doesn't shake this guy's certainty that he did the right thing. "I listened to her lungs. They were clear," he says.
Not so, Warner tells the doctor. They were severely congested. Lisa had pneumocystis pneumonia, which she's never seen in anyone but AIDS patients. So, manner of death? asks Elliot. Homicide, says Warner. Olivia immediately goes into the interrogation room to handcuff Susan. "You're arresting me?" she says. "For murdering your daughter," says Olivia.
In the other room, Hutton's just as pissed about being handcuffed, too. "I delivered that child. I didn't murder her! And neither did her mother!" Naturally, Tommy's just kind of wandering around the squad room, and is upset to hear that his sister was murdered, and even more upset to see his mother being arrested. He kicks and screams while the detectives hold him back, and Susan tells him, "Stay strong! Don't go against your conscience! You know the truth!"
God, this is going to be an annoying trial to get through, isn't it? Warner's on the stand, and we're watching a fancy-schmancy cartoon while getting a lecture on AIDS, specifically how totally REAL it is, and the front row of people in the spectators gallery are wearing red AIDS ribbons. Amusingly, at first I thought Greylek was looking at the jury.
Emmett gets up and immediately starts badgering Warner, and it takes Greylek a ridiculously long time to object, at which point the judge is all, "Not cool," to Emmett, and turns the floor over to Warner to calmly shoot down any idea that Lisa didn't die of an AIDS-related illness. "And Dr. Hutton refused to treat it," she says, and SHE ACTUALLY POINTS HER FINGER at Hutton. J'accuse!
But it's only going to get worse, because now Hutton is on the stand, saying that HIV doesn't cause AIDS because it's a "retrovirus" or RV. "As in 'recreational vehicle'?" says Emmett, and I couldn't believe that she said it, except then Hutton is all, "Actually, kinda," saying that RVs transport hundreds of organisms through the body harmlessly. "No RV has been proven to kill cells," he says, only I'm still too amazed that the defense is to compare HIV to a friggin' motorhome. He goes off on the "propaganda" that AIDS is the country's biggest health threat and that we're all at risk, which is an argument I don't think anyone makes anymore, and says, "How else could researchers get billions in funding to cure a disease that kills mostly drug addicts and gays?" Yeah, you know what else would earn billions? A CURE FOR AIDS. Could this doctor be more of a cartoon? How about we make him call Warner's testimony into question, because she's obviously biased; after all, she's black, so therefore she has plenty of family members back home in Africa who have died of AIDS. "Because she's black? How DARE you," says Greylek. I can never hear that line without thinking of Harrison Ford saying, "How dare you, sir!" in Clear and Present Danger. Hutton just starts ranting right at the jury, with Emmett sitting in her seat, the look on her face conveying, "I knew I should have requested cash up front." The judge eventually shuts Hutton up by threatening him with contempt.
Oh, but it only gets worse, because now here's Hutton on the steps of the courthouse without his lawyer, and here comes Warner to confront a defendant with some more statistics, like maybe she's going to convince him of ANYTHING. "You son of a bitch. We all want a cure for AIDS. You're killing people with your outrageous beliefs," she says. She calls him a murderer and a false prophet. "That's what they said about Jesus Christ," says Hutton smugly, and walks away.
Greylek strolls up and strangely doesn't chew Warner out for that ridiculous display. "Sure hope the jurors don't think he's the son of God," she says, so it looks like I need to remind Hutton AND Warner that Jesus was found guilty and executed. Feel better? No, Greylek's afraid the jury's going to buy what "Dr. Strangelove's" selling, and Warner says if Hutton wins, he'll have more credibility and more people will die. No pressure or anything, Greylek.
Susan's on the stand now, testifying about anti-retrovirals making her sick, and Hutton taking her off them and saving her life. "Your witness," says the defense lawyer, all smug like he just scored major points. Greylek starts talking about Dr. Hutton's "gospel" and angrily asks her questions. Seriously, does Greylek ever deliver any lines in any other style than "clenched-teeth righteous fury"? "ARVs almost killed me, I was not about to give them to my little girl," says Susan. Then Greylek walks over to the front row of the gallery so she can introduce the people sitting there, who dutifully stand up while Greylek rattles off the circumstances of their health, and how they were saved by ARVs. She only gets in a couple before the judge sees fit to put the kibosh on the little stunt, so she resumes yelling at Susan. "Look at them, Susan! They're alive, and Lisa is dead because you withheld treatment that would have saved her life!" Then Susan starts having a seizure. I swear to god. Just right there. If Greylek's worried about losing the jury, I think badgering the woman who, responsible or not, lost her daughter isn't the greatest idea in the world. Especially since it seems to have induced the seizure. I know I'd fake it to get Greylek to shut the hell up.
Over at Mercy General Hospital, Olivia -- one of the investigating detectives, remember -- is somehow alone in Susan's -- remember, Susan's a defendant -- room when she wakes up, which is a good thing, because who else would tell Susan that she's got toxoplasmosis: "a brain disease that people with AIDS get." Thanks, Dr. Benson. Susan says she got migraines after Lisa died. "Dr. Hutton said I was grieving, that it would pass." Well, now you have holes in your brain. Olivia says she knew she had HIV, so it was only a matter of time before she got sick. "Dr. Hutton was wrong. He was wrong about Lisa, and he was wrong about you," she says. "But he's the doctor," says Susan, and Olivia explains that if Hutton admitted the truth, then he'd have to take responsibility for what happened to Lisa and what's happening to her.
"It's my fault Lisa's dead. I killed her," sniffles Susan. "Because Dr. Hutton misled you," says Olivia, who I seem to remember calling Susan a murderer. Way to backpedal! [Well, to be fair, they're both backpedaling. - Zach] She wants Susan to help her stop Hutton before someone else dies.
"Lisa's not the only one," whispers Susan. "The only what?" says Olivia. "Children who died," she says. Then she starts to flatline. "Tommy," she says. Why, what could that possibly mean? And now she's gone, and we all know she's gone, even as the doctor comes rushing in.
Elliot brings Tommy to the hospital room, where he's greeted by a sad-looking Olivia. "I'm sorry, Tommy," she says. Tommy walks past her into his mother's room, where she's lying dead on her bed. He hugs her, and manages to show less emotion than the corpse. "I'm sorry. I love you," he says, nuzzling her neck. At least, I think that's what he said. I could barely hear him over my laughter.
So, another victim, meaning Greylek's now subpoenaed the doctor's pharmaceutical records and are going through all his patients, and have found two other dead kids who likely had HIV, and I'm not sure why she's offering a deal now as the case is getting stronger, but whatever. She offers five years for criminally negligent homicide, and he surrenders his license. "I'm not making any deals," he says. "Take it, Gideon. It's over," says Emmett, and at first I thought she said, "Take it, idiot." So he agrees, but warns Emmett that he will speak the truth from his prison cell: "And people will listen." Who? The bunkmate who's Andy Dufresne-ing you in the stockroom?
All that's left now is for Elliot and Olivia to go through the patient records to figure out how many other patients they have to notify. Seven so far. Then Olivia picks up another form. "Oh, no," she says. Yeah, everyone knows what's coming, right?
"It's the lab report on Susan's file," she says, and hands it over to Elliot, who reads that Susan was HIV-positive in 1993. You can actually see the wheels turning in his head before he realizes that Tommy was born in '94, so Susan must have lied to her ex-boyfriend about how she contracted it. "Tommy could have HIV," says Elliot -- like, THANKS, WE ALL FIGURED IT OUT. Olivia says they have to get a court order and have him tested. I like how she goes right to "court order" instead of just showing the kid the information and asking him first.
Because then we wouldn't get a scene in which Tommy struggles with Dr. Massey while refusing to get tested, and he kicks Elliot in the ribs. They don't get a sample before Emmett shows up with a restraining order to prevent the test, saying Tommy has the right to refuse treatment if he's competent.
Greylek, in the hospital while Elliot gets dressed after his X-ray -- like, A LITTLE PRIVACY, PLEASE -- explains that competence hinges on someone being aware of the consequences of their decisions. "Well, obviously he doesn't," says Elliot. Dr. Massey, who's been studying the X-rays, tell Elliot he's got two broken ribs, which Greylek thinks is great, because they can use it to their advantage, and Elliot winds up strolling into Tommy's school to arrest him for assaulting a police officer. "You're just doing this to make me take the test," says Tommy, no dummy, and Elliot admits as much, saying, "If you're not going to help yourself, maybe a judge will."
So: the competency hearing. Tommy talks about learning about HIV in school, but how his mother explained how there was no proof to what they said, and it made sense. Greylek asks what it was his mom said that made so much sense. "That HIV is not the kind of virus that makes you sick," says Tommy. "That drugs for AIDS can kill you, and the doctors and the drug companies won't tell you the truth so they can keep making money off it." The rest of the scene is such nonsense: Greylek clues Tommy in to the existence of Holocaust deniers to make a dubious point that just because someone believes something, it doesn't make it true. Then she winds up yelling at this 14-year-old, who's lost his father, sister and mother in the past few years, and likely has HIV himself. Tommy is remanded into custody for assaulting a police officer, and Elliot leans forward to gently ask Greylek if she's lost her freaking mind, essentially. "His only crime was being born to the wrong mother. We're not sending a kid to jail," he says. She hisses that Elliot pressed the charges, and he says that was just to force Tommy to get tested, but they lost. Greylek, steam practically coming out of her ears, tells the judge they're dropping the charges.
Tommy comes over to thank Elliot. "You still owe me for the busted ribs," says Elliot, and Tommy says he's not getting tested. "I know. Just do me one favor," he says.
Back over to Mercy General Hospital, where Elliot introduces Tommy to Kyle, a bald kid. Even Tommy sees where this is going. "You're not going to change my mind just because this kid has AIDS," he warns Elliot. Kyle says he has brain cancer, not AIDS, and his parents, Christian Scientists, don't believe in doctors or medicine. "What'd they tell you to do?" asks Tommy. "Pray," says Kyle. And he did like they said, because he believed like they did. "Then I went blind," he says. "You couldn't see," says Tommy. Yay, Tommy! Way to know what "went blind" meant! So Kyle asked his friend to take him to the hospital, where the doctors gave him chemo and radiation, and he's already got his sight back. "Your folks must have been happy," says Tommy. "No, they were pissed. They thought I was dissing God," says Kyle, and I'm sorry, but after "dissing God," I can't do the rest of this scene.
I guess there are no other doctors available, so a medical examiner has to give Tommy the test? Okay, then. Warner tells Elliot, who's hanging around outside the room, that Tommy wants to talk to him.
Elliot goes in, and sits down to Tommy. "You don't have to tell me," says Elliot. Why, because everyone already knows? "The test came back positive," says Tommy. Elliot starts to rub Tommy's back. "I don't want to die," says Tommy. "You've got your whole life ahead of you," says Elliot. Which is pretty much true no matter how long that is, really.
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