Weak (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)

"Weak"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode
Episode no. Season 6
Episode 125
Directed by David Platt
Written by Michele Fazekas
Tara Butters
Production code E5213[1]
Original air date November 30, 2004
Guest stars

See Guest stars section below

Episode chronology
← Previous
"Doubt"
Next →
"Haunted"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (season 6)

"Weak" is an Emmy Award-winning[2][3] episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. It originally aired on November 30, 2004.[1][4] B. D. Wong does not appear in this episode.[4]

Contents

Episode recap

A rapist attacks several disabled women from the same apartment building, and each woman confirms that they were attacked from behind, the rapist ordered them to tell him how good he was (after which he still failed to perform), and that he smelled like an ashtray. The third victim still works with a sketch artist; meanwhile, a local pedicurist remembers doing a man’s nails and that they were dirty but she also didn’t get a good look at his face. Later, a schizophrenic woman named Miranda Cole (Amanda Plummer) comes into the precinct with a picture of the sketch and then has a psychotic episode before falling asleep on the floor. At the hospital, Benson and Stabler get help from cop-turned-psychiatrist Rebecca Hendrix (Mary Stuart Masterson), who tells them that Miranda hasn’t been taking her medication, and that right then would be a bad time to attempt a rape kit because of her uncontrolled musings about terrorists recording her thoughts and her reliving of the rape in her mind.

Benson and Stabler then find a fourth victim, who is dead. They go back to the hospital to convince Hendrix to process the kit only to learn that she has already done so. The detectives then begin to interview Miranda, but when she gets into detail about the rape, she starts to have convulsions, so Hendrix ends the interview. Cragen then reports that the DNA from the rape kit matches Raymond Ettinger, who is also schizophrenic; because of this, Hendrix is convinced that the sex between him and Miranda was consensual, but she also still believes that Miranda was raped by someone else. All three of them return to the hospital to discover that Miranda has checked herself out.

Benson, Stabler and Hendrix track down Miranda’s sister Margo, who tells them that she bought Miranda a house that she hardly lives in. The three of them then go to the house anyway and find no lights (because Miranda believes terrorists are communicating via light sources). They then find Miranda cowering in a closet behind a wall made of tin foil while rambling; evidence shows that she was raped there. Miranda then mentions the same rape details that the first three victims said, but she also says that the rapist’s name is Thomas. The suspect is narrowed down to Thomas Mathers (Dallas Roberts) and he takes a DNA test, but Stabler doesn’t believe he did it because he is a closeted homosexual. While Thomas’ partner says that he was asleep in bed at the time of the rapes, Benson and Munch discover that Thomas was also at his mother’s house.

Munch and Tutuola go to see Mrs. Mathers’ house (which smells like an ashtray because of her chain smoking), and she says that Thomas came over and tried to fix her furnace. Munch goes to inspect it himself as Thomas shows up; then Munch comes back with dirty fingers and nails before he and Fin arrest Thomas. Hendrix notices that Thomas is bleeding from his neck (which Thomas says is because he cut himself shaving), and Novak is ready to process him until Cragen reports that Thomas’ DNA doesn’t match the blood from any of the crime scenes. Stabler and Hendrix still believe Thomas is the rapist, but Benson disagrees (and insults Hendrix, causing her to leave); Stabler thinks Benson is upset at Hendrix because she stopped being a cop. He then runs into Hendrix, and they learn that Thomas’ blood didn’t clot from the neck cut due to a low blood cell platelet count, which possibly was derived from a disease.

Stabler contacts Mathers’ college to get his medical records to explain why his blood isn’t clotting; meanwhile, Benson goes back to visit Miranda, who mentions that she saw the rapist in the library. At the library, she rambles about terrorists recording her thoughts again, and Benson interprets this as the library’s surveillance camera. After Stabler and Hendrix reveal that the blood from Thomas’ bone marrow belongs to a donor instead of him due to his previous bone marrow transplant, Benson produces the videotape documenting that Thomas stalked Miranda. After Thomas is arraigned, Hendrix tells Benson that Miranda committed suicide because the voices in her head told her to.

Cast

Christopher Meloni Det. Elliot Stabler
Mariska Hargitay Det. Olivia Benson
Richard Belzer Det. John Munch
Ice-T Det. Fin Tutuola
Diane Neal ADA Casey Novak
B.D. Wong Dr. George Huang (credit only)
Dann Florek Capt. Don Cragen

Guest stars

[1][4]

Primary

  • Mike Doyle as Ryan O’Halloran
  • Angela Pietropinto as Mrs. Mathers
  • Caren Browning as Judith Siper

Secondary

  • Becki Newton as Colleen Heaton
  • Casey Spindler as Raymond Ettinger
  • Ward Horton as Alan Richter
  • Justine Boyriven as Samantha Trager
  • Adata Almonte as Gina Kownacki
  • Greg Vaccarello as Officer Galloway
  • Paul Borghese as Officer Tanner
  • Joselin Reyes as Paramedic Martinez
  • Hettienne Park as Anne
  • Molly Noe as Veronica
  • Angel Desai as CSU Technician
  • Nilaja Sun as Triage nurse
  • Natalie Carter as Cathy
  • Archie MacGregor as Elderly man
  • Matt Wells as Uniform officer

References

  1. ^ a b c Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Weak – TV.com. Retrieved July 28, 2007.
  2. ^ Amanda Plummer at Hollywood.com. Retrieved December 31, 2007.
  3. ^ Amanda Plummer - Awards. Retrieved December 31, 2007.
  4. ^ a b c “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” Weak (2004). Retrieved July 28, 2007.

External links