| "Collateral Damages" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 17.15 | → |
| Production number: 17015 First aired (US): 17 February 2016 First aired (UK): 20 March 2016 First aired (CAN): 17 February 2016 First aired (AUS): 2 June 2016 | ||
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| Written By Samantha Corbin-Miller Directed By Rosemary Rodriguez | ||
Summary[]
An undercover sting leads to the takedown of an online pedophile ring and the arrest of two high-profile suspects.
Plot[]
Rollins and an undercover officer go into the private office of retired boxing champion Teddy Hawkins. Hawkins begins taking racy photographs of the undercover officer. Hawkins begins to remove his pants, at which point Rollins puts him under arrest as the rest of the SVU squad burst in.
At the precinct, Abraham applauds Benson and Barba for their action, as the publicity will be great. After he leaves, they note on his unusual praise before Benson informs Hawkins that the press is on the way, and he will make global headlines because the NYPD needs a win and he is that win. However, Teddy stops her and offers to expose a child pornography ring for a lesser charge. After Barba agrees to a deal about this for a lighter sentencing recommendation, Teddy informs him that the ring members strike at midnight.
Surely enough, various men are shown being arrested by SVU for being connected to the pornography ring.
In one apartment, an old man is accused by the detectives of being connected but he is revealed to be innocent because he does not have a computer. However, he does tell the detectives that his neighbor has connected his cable television set-up. Carisi discovers part of the cable set-up is a modem and Wi-Fi with the signal directed toward the neighbor. His neighbor is revealed to be Pippa Cox. The Detectives convince her to let them in her house and she reveals that her husband is awake in his office.
Pippa shows the Detectives the office and they open the door to catch her husband Hank Abraham in the middle of uploading child pornography. Abraham immediately closes the site and tries to deny these allegations, but the detectives contact Benson, and the rest of the squad appear along with Ed Tucker who is shocked by this news. Benson then asks that Abraham be brought in without being cuffed in front of his family. Before getting brought in, Abraham tells Pippa to call Roger Kressler.
Tucker tells the squad to conduct the search but Benson requests that she be allowed to talk with Abraham's family. Afterwards, the squad search and soon they find flash drives, with incriminating videos.
At the precinct, Tucker and Benson inform Barba of the videos and how Abraham is married to Pippa Cox a lawyer who defends children from this event. Barba is stunned at this news and Rollins reports that Kressler says they are ready to talk. Barba asks if anyone will join him, with Tucker going in. Barba questions Hank, who tries to put up a facade, claiming that this is a political take-down and trying to blame the whole incident on him mixing signals with his neighbor. Kressler finishes by saying it only happened once, but Barba and Tucker reveal they found that he visited the site multiple times in the last week and the two flash-drives loaded with child porn under his bedroom drawer. Hearing this, they ask his shocked attorney if he needs more time with Hank.
Meanwhile, Benson finds herself facing Pippa who is adversarial especially after her children are needed to be interrogated. After that is done, she inquires on her husband, but Benson can't say. When Barba comes back to Abraham and Kressler, they are refusing to talk more and Barba tells them if they do then he has to arraign Abraham while his lawyer says there is no need to rush to that, so Barba tries to offer a plea to spare Hank's family from the scandal of an arraignment, but Hank refuses. He is in denial and refuses to admit his guilt, despite Barba pleading to him.
While this is happening, Dodds is on the road to recovery and is in better spirits. His father is also happy and hopes the Dodds will use the praise from his superiors to move up the ranks.
At the arraignment, the judge sets Hank's bail at $30,000, and requires Hank to be released to home detention, to wear an ankle bracelet, to relinquish his passport, and bans him from using any computers and cellphones. As she leaves the courtroom, Pippa is bombarded by paparazzi on the allegations against her husband until Benson gets her away. Pippa believes it is all payback for something until she suffers an emotional breakdown after realizing it's all true, before crying in Benson's arms.
Sometime later, Pippa leaves her home while bumping into Barba along the way. Barba reveals to her that Hank's lawyer called him for a meeting between the three of them. Barba then asks about her kids Jordan and Lia, as she reveals they are with her parents in Pennsylvania. She thanks him for the concern and leaves the area, while Barba looks after her before continuing on.
At the same time, Dodds and Benson meet up with him voicing surprise at the Abraham scenario.
At his home, Hank finally admits his guilt while having a conversation with his attorney and Barba, where he tries to work out a deal in which he does no prison time. However, Barba informs him that it was too late because the federal authorities are trying to take the case and if Hank doesn't agree to jail time, they intend to charge him. He tries to offer up more pedophiles, but Barba says his arrest was too public and they would see it coming. Hank tells both attorneys to leave.
Meanwhile, Benson and Pippa are at a café and they talk, with her stating that her parents are furious with both her and Hank, Jordan isn't talking as much as he used to, and Lia is back to sucking her thumb. Through tears, she says that she must have been blind not to see the signs. Benson replies that pedophiles are very clever at hiding what they do and that it was not her fault.
A while later, Benson and Barba are a wreck over the case, noting unlike others that feel compassion for the perp and family. Barba soon gets a call that reveals that Abraham slit his wrists.
At the hospital, Pippa reveals she went to her old apartment to get some clothes only to find Hank sitting in the bathtub with slit wrists in a suicide attempt. She calls 911 and after Hank is released from hospital, he pleads guilty. Pippa and Olivia are at his sentencing. Hank looks at Pippa and Pippa looks away from him, upset and angry. Pippa is a wreck and says that he is still her husband. She states she is shocked that she had children and slept with a man that was a pedophile.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Lieutenant Olivia Benson
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Peter Scanavino as Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr.
- Raúl Esparza as A.D.A. Rafael Barba
Recurring Cast[]
- Andy Karl as Sergeant Mike Dodds
- Robert John Burke as I.A.B. Captain Ed Tucker
- Jessica Phillips as Assistant Corporation Counsel Pippa Cox
- Ned Eisenberg as Defense Attorney Roger Kressler
- Josh Pais as Deputy Commissioner Hank Abraham
- Susie Essman as Defense Attorney Arlene Heller
- Peter Gallagher as Deputy Chief William Dodds
- Stephen C. Bradbury as Judge Colin McNamara
Guest Cast[]
- Danny Johnson as Teddy "Brown Sugar" Hawkins
- George Morfogen as Mr. Markowicz
- Sarah Mezzanotte as Amber
- Mayank Saxena as CCS Officer
- Peyton Lusk as Jordan Abraham
- Jadyn Tattoli as Lia Abraham
- Alex Driscoll as Daniel Pullman
- Adam Lim as Li Guo
- Jessica Sharples as Naomi
- Bill Kocis as Reporter #1
- Dawn Yanek as Reporter #2
References[]
Quotes[]
- Hank Abraham: [to Carisi & Rollins] I'm assuming Lieutenant Benson told you to walk out of here.
- Carisi: Actually, she's on her way.
- Hank Abraham: For an innocent mistake? I clicked too many buttons.
- Carisi: We caught you in the act of distributing child pornography.
- Hank Abraham: I have a secure modem from the NYPD.
- Carisi: Which is why you cadged wi-fi from your 80-year-old neighbor.
- Hank Abraham: Oh, this gets crazier and crazier.
- Rollins: You know what? I'm gonna go outside and wait for Liv. [leaves the room]
- Hank Abraham: [to Carisi] Look, I don't want to put the two of you in a bad position. I know you're just the messengers, but this could go wrong in a lot of ways.
- Carisi: I hope that's not a threat, Deputy Commissioner.
- Tucker: [to Olivia after hearing about Hank Abraham] I know you live to make my life miserable, but J.C., Mary, and Joseph, this?
- Tucker: CCS processed the flash drives. Hardcore pornographic images, videos. Girls, boys, all pre-pubescent.
- Barba: Uh, I don't even know what to say. We get the images to NCMEC?
- Tucker: They're running facial recognition.
- Barba: Just so I'm clear, in addition to these flash drives, he was also cadging a wi-fi signal from the old man next door?
- Benson: Rollins and Carisi entered Hank Abraham's den and caught him file-sharing at his laptop.
- Barba: Who else had access to the den?
- Benson: His wife, their two kids. He has a daughter, Lia, who's 4 and a son, Jordan, who's 11.
- Barba: What about a cleaning lady? Sitter? Anyone?
- Benson: We dusted his computer for prints. Hank Abraham's were the only ones on it.
- Tucker: And the password he used for the Cradlerobberz chat room? Same one he uses for the NYPD server.
- Barba: Where's his family?
- Benson: They spent the night at a hotel. We had unis monitoring them. Pippa's on her way here now with those kids for their interview.
- Barba: She's Corporation Counsel for Children and Family Services and her job is to protect abused children and she had no idea?
- Benson: I really don't think so. She walked Rollins and Carisi straight into that den when he was online.
- Barba: [to Roger Kressler] So how about your client agrees to a plea and you and I work out a deal?
- Abraham: But I'm not guilty.
- Barba: It would be better for your family if this gets settled quickly and quietly.
- Abraham: There's nothing quiet about a charge like this. You know that. That's why you're doing this.
- Barba: Hank, you've been handling other peoples' crises your whole life. I want you to think about what you would advise a client in your position to do.
- Mike Dodds: I took a bullet and ended up dodging one.
- Pippa Cox: [about her husband] I married him. I slept with him for 12 years. I didn't know what he was like. No radar went off. How blind am I? How stupid?
- Pippa Cox: [to Olivia] Does this ever stop getting worse?
- Benson: No. Not until your husband accepts where he is.
- Rollins: Stay in this job long enough, all your heroes die.
Background information and notes[]
- Pippa Cox is revealed to be married to Abraham with two kids.
- This marks the final appearance of Hank Abraham.
- In this episode, Mike Dodds declines a transfer to the Joint Terrorism Task Force at the behest of his father. In the season finale, it is revealed that Dodds ended up transferring to the unit but he is killed on his last day with SVU.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
Physical Therapy Clinic |
Arraignment Court |
Supreme Court |
| Previous episode: "Nationwide Manhunt" |
"Collateral Damages" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 17 |
Next episode: "Star-Struck Victims" |