Law and Order: SVU - Persona (Episode 1008)

Screencap by svufans.net!This episode is off to a good start, ‘cuz the first thing we see is Clea Duvall!  I heart Clea Duvall.  Although I must admit it’s different to see her in a girly, chickie-poo role.  At the moment, Clea (AKA a character named Mia) is at a pharmacy asking for a morning after pill.  The pharmacist who apparently has not just a stick but an entire tree up her ass starts primly asking Mia if she’s considered adoption.  As she continues her smug self-righteous “alternatives” speech, Mia gets more and more upset.  Finally she grabs Prissy the Pharmacist’s wrist and insists she needs the pill.  Of course Prissy yells for security, and as the rent-a-cop drags Mia away she sobs that she was raped.  When Elliot and Olivia show up, Mia’s handcuffed in the back room.  As they cut her loose, Prissy wheedles, “I’m pressing charges!”  “Don’t press your luck,” replies Elliot.  

Mia’s covered in so many bruises, she looks like she’s been used as a punching bag.  She says that the creep grabbed her from behind and beat her before raping her in an alley at knifepoint.  She knows she’s ovulating, because she and her husband are trying to get pregnant.  “I don’t want to have his baby,” says poor pummeled Mia.  Elliot and Liv head over to the alley where the attack took place, but there’s a problem – there’s oil on the ground, and there was no oil on Mia.  She lied about the rape.  She’s clearly been beaten, and Elliot notes that the bruises were all v.v. conveniently located beneath her clothes.  They’re looking at a domestic case.  Elliot and Olivia head over to Mia’s, and she’s all squirrely and evasive as they ask what really happened.  Guess why?  ‘Cuz here comes hubby from Hell, Brent, carrying a bunch of flowers.  This guy’s posture just screams “violent douchenugget.” To divert attention from Mia, Elliot lies that they’re investigating burglaries in the ‘hood.  Brent scarily intones that he and his 89035467 guns are quite capable of taking care of his home, thankyouverymuch.  Then he gives Mia (who is clearly scared out of her gourd) the stinkeye when he learns dinner’s not ready.  Elliot and Olivia are understandably worried about Mia, so they decide to get some gossip from the neighbors downstairs.  

The older man in the apartment below, Jonah, is in a wheelchair.  He’s all Chatty McBlabberson about Mia and Brent’s noisy knock-down-drag-outs.  But Jonah’s wife Lynnie doesn’t want to get involved in the neighbors’ biznass – she’s scared of getting kicked out.  That is, until Olivia begs for her help.  Liv knows that Mia’s terrified, and needs someone to speak up about what’s going on.  Lynnie finally admits that Brent goes all cuckoo-bananas at night, and the next day Mia’s covered in bruises.  Liv and Lynnie plot to get Mia alone, and go all Intervention, making her look at herself in the mirror.  “Look what he did to you,” Olivia says in her best convince-the-victim voice.  “Let me protect you.”  Mia tells the classic battered woman story – Brent always apologizes and promises not to hurt her again.  He’s so controlling, he even tracks her ovulation, ‘cuz he wants a baby.  But Mia’s not so much all about popping out this psycho’s devilspawn.  When she told him she was too tired for sex, he beat and then raped her.  That’s all they need to hear – Elliot cuffs Brent, who’s a cocky bastard and is sure that his wife won’t follow through with her accusations.

Brent pleads not guilty to rape and assault, and posts bail.  Greyleck manages to not be completely useless and gets an order of protection for Mia, also convincing the judge to confiscate Brent’s 8594038756 guns.  Lynnie and Liv go back to Mia’s, and she’s freaking out, wondering how she’s going to live.  A typical abuser, Brent has cut off her support systems – she’s helpless (also penniless) if she leaves him.  Hey, I’ve got an idea!  She can swipe the furniture in this swanktastic Brownstone and pawn it all.  That would have a twofold benefit: 1) bring in some cash and 2) stick it to asshole Brent.  Liv tries to convince Mia that she’ll be able to make a new life, and, surprisingly, Lynnie chimes in.  She says she had a “friend” whose husband beat her.  But the “friend” escaped and found a good man and a better life.  Y’know, I really hate it when a verrrry obvious clue dangles in front of seasoned Detective Olivia Benson’s nose like some sort of delicious carrot, and she doesn’t see it.  This time I’m going to blame it on the fact that she’s focused on Mia.  Liv takes her to a safe house, where Mia gets a wistful, scowly expression that leads me to believe she won’t be sticking around these digs for long.  

Liv feels bad about “forcing” Mia into the shelter, which brings up a point of morality that I find interesting about SVU.  So often the detectives seem to pressure victims into something they aren’t especially comfortable with.  It may be the “right thing,” but ultimately can cause even more psychological (or physical) trauma to the victim.  I’ll be interested to see how this all turns out for Mia.  Sure enough, she recants on her statement and goes home to her asshat husband.  Olivia hightails it over to check on her, giving Brent her best “Fuck with me and you’ll be picking up teeth” expression on her way into the house.  Hee!  Brent has absolutely no idea what to do with a woman who stands up to him.  He'd better watch out or she'll beat him down with an unabridged dictionary.  Mia says that she’s fine, even though she’s cringing around like some kind of kicked puppy.  She insists she and Brent are going to live happily ever after.  For her part, Olivia looks absolutely horrified, especially when Brent smirkingly asks for his guns back.  Liv immediately goes to see Lynnie, who’s doing laundry in the basement.  Lynnie’s pissed, but not pissed enough to get on board with Liv’s latest wacky scheme.  Turns out there’s an old staircase in the shared laundry room that leads up to Mia and Brent’s.  Liv wants to hang out so she can go charging to the rescue when Brent starts laying the smack down.  Lynnie finally lets her stay, and Brent’s temper goes off like an atom bomb, right on schedule.  In an extraordinarily badass maneuver which furthers my girlcrush on her, Liv totally kicks the door down and charges into Mia’s kitchen.  And… shit.  It’s a baaaad scene.  Brent hasn’t shot Mia – he’s decided to go with a kitchen knife, instead.  Liv takes Brent down like the bag of crap he is and tries to help Mia as she lies gasping and spurting blood all over the floor with a giant friggin’ knife sticking out of her chest.  But it’s no use.  Mia dies right there, as Lynnie and Olivia watch in horror.  Bye, Clea Duvall!

For the 98524364758th time on this show, Liv is covered in blood and blaming herself.  It’s not helpful that Lynnie blames her, too, for pushing Mia.  The good news is that the case against Brent is cut and dry – he’s going to be somebody’s long-term girlfriend at Riker’s.  And the crime lab found something else very interesting.  Fingerprints at the scene match the suspect in an old homicide, a man name Victor who was shot six times as he slept.  His wife Caroline escaped before she could be tried.  Along comes a photo of ol’ Caroline… and guess what?  It’s Lynnie!  Liv and Elliot drag Lynnie into the precinct for questioning, and she says she’s been dreading this moment for thirty-four years.  Whereupon we get a loooooooooooong treatise about Lynnie/Caroline’s past, which I will do my best to condense into one paragraph.  After she escaped from jail, she lived on the street for three weeks before meeting Jonah in a diner.  She told him she was new to town and had been hustled at the airport, losing her suitcase and ID.  Lynnie never told him about her past, and in fact, she lied about a lot of things.  He thought she was infertile, but in fact she stayed don the pill just in case she was caught.  Every choice she made was out of fear that someone would recognize her.  Next, Lynnie tells us about the husband she admittedly shot.  He was one of those ironic peace-loving, poetry-reading hippies who somehow thinks it’s okay to knock around the wifey.  He blamed her for stifling his (bad) poetry muse, then beat her and talked about a murder/suicide.  Lynnie/Caroline hid some money and planned to leave, but Victor found her stash, and out of revenge he spent an entire night raping her in every disgusting way he could think of.  And when he fell asleep, she took his gun and shot him.  She still had the gun in her hand when the cops came, but didn’t tell a soul that Victor had raped her.  Dammit.  This is one of those episodes it’s really hard to find the snark for, because who can be snarky when wrinkly vulnerable old ladies are talking about getting raped?  Not moi.

Turns out that marital rape wasn’t a crime until 1984.  Greyleck wants to go easy on Lynnie, but suddenly in comes Judge Elizabeth Donnely, charging through the door like some kind of blonde bulldozer.  She’s clearly furious as she says she wants to prosecute this case as acting District Attorney.  Woot!  Way to boot out Greyleck, SVU!  Hey, that’s the second week in a row with slim to nil Greyleck.  Either I’m just really lucky or the PTB have realized how wooden and annoying this character is.  Anyhoo, Lynnie/Caroline pleads not guilty, whereupon Donnelly gets all nasty about how she shot a sleeping man with no violent history.  Wow.  Usually-fair Donnelly is uncharacteristically vindictive and bitchy in this scene.  Liv thinks so too, and goes to ask what the hell is up.  Turns out that back when she was the DA, Donnelly was in charge of prosecuting Caroline/Lynnie.  Then Lynnie requested a meeting with Donnelly, saying she needed help.  Before they met, Donnelly let her go to the bathroom, and Lynnie crawled out a window.  Har!  It’s that easy to escape from a New York jail? If I ever wan t to commit a crime, remind me to do it in the Big Apple. Anyhoo, as a woman, back in the day Donnelly already had to fight hard for every promotion, and Lynnie’s escape nearly ruined her reputation.  So the whole prosecution thing?  Yeah, it’s pretty much out of revenge.  “She plays the victim well, but she’s a smart, manipulative woman,” Donnelly comments to Olivia.

Now Olivia and I are both wondering if she’s been duped by the world’s most sneaky old lady.  She demands the truth from prison-scrubs Lynnie, asking about the day she escaped.  Why did she write to Donnelly and ask for help, if she wasn’t planning to scarper?  If for nothing else, she should knock off the fibbing for Jonah’s sake.  And so finally, Lynnie spills the beans, and we fade to her sitting on the witness stand as she testifies.  After Victor raped her and fell asleep, she knew he didn’t care about the pain he’d inflicted.  In fact, hurting her was the only thing that got him off.  When she shot him, all she could see was what he’d done to her.  Cross-examination time!  Donnelly wants to know why there were no bruises documented on Lynnie/Caroline, and why she didn’t happen to mention the minor detail of the brutal rape to police.  The story’s too convenient, and there’s no proof of any of it, and Lynnie’s a lying, escaping baddie.  And then… “I was pregnant,” whispers Lynnie.  “I ran so I could get an abortion.”   

Dead silence in the courtroom.  Lynnie explains that she knew she wouldn’t be able to get an abortion in prison, and there was no way she wanted her rapist’s baby.  She set up the meeting with Donnelly so that they could deal: Lynnie would plead guilty if she could end the pregnancy.  Whoa… abortion for a guilty plea after being raped.  Sometimes I forget how good we gals have it these days.  Lynnie says that Donnelly was so strong and confident, she was ashamed of her own weakness.  Now it’s Elizabeth Donnelly’s turn to look entirely horrified.  “I couldn’t tell you,” says Lynnie, tears running down her grandma-y cheeks.  “How could a woman like you ever understand a woman like me?”  Donnelly was talking about what a tough life it was for women, not even realizing how she’d contributed to another woman’s hardship.  Irony, thy name art Elizabeth Donnelly.

The verdict?  Not guilty on murder, guilty on escape.  Donnelly’s had an understandable change of heart, and recommends probation for Lynnie.  But it seems that this story won’t end happily, because Jonah is giving Lynnie the cold shoulder.  “Every decision you and I made was based on a lie,” he says.  He wanted children and grandchildren, but he’ll never have any because of her.  She may still be the woman he married, but he doesn’t know if he can ever forgive her.