LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT {LAW AND ORDER: SVU}: I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU A STAR {TWENTY-FIRST SEASON PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The twenty-first season premiere in this series of police dramas—a spin-off of "Law & Order"—about the sexual crimes investigated by the elite Special Victims Unit of the New York Police Department. In this episode, the team surprises Carisi with a good-bye party as he prepares to join "the dark side" as assistant district attorney under Bureau Chief Vanessa Hadid. Elsewhere, aspiring young actress Pilar Reyes meets with Sir Tobias Moore, head of famed film production company Picflix, and she is shocked when he orders her to find the character's "sexuality" by removing her clothes. Later, she tells Olivia and Rollins about the assault, but Hadid is hesitant to move ahead with an arrest with further evidence, instructing the detectives to "vet" Pilar more thoroughly. Pilar reluctantly agrees to wear a wire for a "controlled meet" with Moore, but she is unable to get him to fully admit to his crime against her, and Carisi stops Olivia and Rollins from arresting Moore at his latest film premiere, explaining that his boss wishes to "slow things down."
Hadid instructs Olivia to subpoena the "audition" tape, which will presumably show Moore's assault of Pilar, but Olivia decides to approach Moore directly, claiming that she doesn't believe Pilar's claims and considers Moore the victim of a "shakedown." He is not fooled by her technique, but she manages to recover his glass for DNA. Olivia then learns that former Judge Alana Barth is now defending Moore, and Barth drops hints of "rumors" about Pilar's salacious past before handing over the obviously edited tape featuring Pilar and several other women, whose auditions end before any assault takes place. The detectives track down the various women, most of whom decline to testify or explain that they signed non-disclosure agreements with Moore, but one woman, Gemma Brooks, vividly describes being raped by Moore in a hotel and even provides her dress from the incident.
Using the DNA from Moore's class, Olivia moves ahead and arrests him without waiting for approval, and Hadid scolds Carisi for being unaware of his former colleagues' plans. Matters grow worse when Gemma formally recants her accusations on TV, but Carisi notices that Moore's office has been entirely refurbished since the incident with Pilar. Surveillance tape footage shows Moore's assistant Cindy Morrison overseeing the speedy removal and replacement of his furniture, and they haul her in for questioning, pointing out that she can be charged with destroying evidence and serving as an accessory to rape. The team then recruits vice detective Katriona "Kat" Tamin to go undercover and "audition" for Moore, and she encourages them to let him "rough her up" in order to get sufficient evidence to arrest him. During their meeting, Moore immediately becomes aggressive and begins strangling Kat, and Rollins, Olivia and Fin, afraid for her safety, opt not to wait for her code word and rush in to rescue her. Moore boasts that he will beat the charges, but a large group of women, including Pilar, gather at the station house, holding signs indicating that they too were assaulted by the rich and powerful Moore in the past and were unable to obtain justice. Hadid changes her tune and publicly takes credit for the arrest, and Dodds informs Olivia that he has been demoted to Staten Island's Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Task Force because of the Moore case – meaning that Olivia is now captain of SVU. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: November 30, 1999 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:41:06
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 137198
- GENRE: Drama, police/detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/detective; Drama, legal; Sexual harassment and rape
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1999-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Peter Jankowski … Executive Producer
- Arthur W. Forney … Executive Producer
- Mariska Hargitay … Executive Producer
- Julie Martin … Executive Producer
- Norberto Barba … Executive Producer, Director
- Dick Wolf … Executive Producer, Created by
- Warren Leight … Executive Producer, Writer
- David Brownfield … Co-Executive Producer
- Brianna Yellen … Supervising Producer
- Mark Dragin … Supervising Producer
- Michael Ciliento … Producer
- Kenneth Brown … Producer
- Jonathan Strauss … Co-Producer
- Lisa Takeuchi Cullen … Consulting Producer
- Peter Blauner … Consulting Producer, Writer
- Mike Post … Music by
- Mariska Hargitay … Cast, Sergeant / Captain Olivia Benson
- Kelli Giddish … Cast, Detective Amanda Rollins
- Ice T … Cast, Sergeant Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola
- Peter Scanavino … Cast, Assistant District Attorney Dominick "Sonny" Carisi, Jr.
- Ian McShane … Cast, Sir Tobias Moore
- Zuleikha Robinson … Cast, Bureau Chief Vanessa Hadid
- Peter Gallagher … Cast, Captain William Dodds
- Jamie Gray Hyder … Cast, Katriona Tamin
- Carmen Berkeley … Cast, Pilar Reyes
- Jenna Stern … Cast, Elana Barth
- Elizabeth A. Davis … Cast, Gemma Brooks
- Frances Eve … Cast, Amelia James
- Anna Rizzo … Cast, Monica Belasio
- Victoria Oliver … Cast, Nina Phelps
- Rachel Towne … Cast, Cindy Morrison
- Matt Buechele … Cast, Uni Jones
- Nancy Giles … Cast, Herself
- Annika Pergament … Cast, Tabloid Reporter #1
- Chris Harnick … Cast, Tabloid Reporter #2
- Rebecca Bratland … Cast, The Duchess