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"Florida"
SVU, Episode 8.19
Production number: 08018
First aired: 1 May 2007
  th of 502 produced in SVU  
th of 502 released in SVU
  th of 1271 released in all  
Benson Florida
Written By
Jonathan Greene

Directed By
David Platt

Summary

Benson risks her career to protect her newfound half-brother, but an investigation into his past reveals even more family secrets.

Plot

Benson is reunited with Agent Porter, who's left the field of tracking domestic terrorists and now hunts fugitive sex offenders. He's tapped her to help him find her half-brother Simon, who's wanted for rape. When Simon pulls a runner, Benson is given time off, and decides to use that time to learn about the father she never knew, in hopes of gaining insight into Simon. Her world is shaken when she discovers evidence that her father did not rape her mother, as she's long believed, but that the sex between them was consensual.

There's no time for mourning dead perceptions. Benson learns that the cop who busted Simon for rape, Cap. Julia Millfield, framed him because she believes he raped her sister years earlier, and since Julia's sister has recently died of a drug overdose, a grief-maddened Julia now intends to use Simon's escape from custody as an excuse to kill him. Simon is tracked down by Benson, Stabler and Porter, but they find him holding a shot Julie at gunpoint claiming it was an accident while Julie claims he did it on purpose. Benson gets Simon to let her talk to Julie and Benson reveals she has put together the truth of Juile's sister, Carrie's supposed rape: Simon claims he merely kissed her and accidentally ripped her dress a little and that's all before she freaked out. Benson reveals Simon is innocent as he claims and there's a reason Carrie reacted like that, she sees it everyday: Carrie was molested and it caused her to freak out when Simon kissed her. Julie is horrified when Benson asks her about this as Carrie once told her their father raped her, but Julie didn't believe it as Carrie's mind was addled by drugs at that point. Julie was never raped or molested herself so she was unaware of the truth of what her father did. Benson makes her realize that neither Julie or Simon is responsible for Carrie's decline into drugs and subsequent death, her father is. Julie, weakening from her wound and letting go of her vendetta against Simon, confesses she tried to set Simon up before they arrived and his shooting of her truly was an accident as he claimed. She also confesses to framing him for rape, having convinced the victim to pick Simon out of the line-up as well. Simon gives over his gun and ends the stand-off and Julie is taken away in an ambulance and expected to survive her wound. Porter takes Simon away with him, but in light of Julie's confession, it's merely to go to his office and sort the whole mess out and Simon is not under arrest.

Cast

Main cast

Recurring cast

Guest cast

References

Serena Benson; Joseph Hollister; 1967; Columbia University; Hudson University; Manhattan Technical College; Orange County; Donna Leonte; Moorepark; Florida; River Park, New Jersey; Carrie Millfield

Quotes

Suspect: Is it just me you got a thing for or is it all men?
Olivia Benson: Oh, you’re the one with a “thing” problem, Micky… Those two girls said you got soft when you raped them. Is that why you hate all women?
Suspect: What I hate is a bull dyke who gets a little power and thinks she has to use it.


Simon: Olivia, please believe me, I didn't rape anybody, I'm not a rapist!

Olivia: I don't believe rapists, and I know you are one, Simon.


Ryan O'Halloran: How many times have you found someone's head hair in a victim's underwear?


Background information and notes

  • Olivia says her mother worked in the dining hall at Columbia University to pay her way through college. She would later be an English professor at the university.
  • Elliot's father took him to a police camp every summer.

Episode scene cards

1 2 3 4

Office of Julia Millfield
River Park
Police Department
River Park, New Jersey
Tuesday, April 17

Book 'Em Café
186 Crosby Street
Tuesday, April 17

Marsden Residence
93 Ogden Avenue
Moorepark, New York
Wednesday, April 18

Office of the Coroner
Orange County, New York
Wednesday, April 18

5 6 7

Willet-Marcus Residence
248 Brewster Road
Scarsdale, New York
Thursday, April 19

River Park
Police Department
River Park, New Jersey
Friday, April 20

Hollister Residence
476 Jessup Road
Florida, New York
Friday, April 20

Previous episode:
"Responsible"
"Florida"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Season 8
Next episode:
"Annihilated"
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