"Home"
←	SVU, Episode 5.16	→
Production number: E4420 First aired: 17 February 2004
	th of 216 produced in SVU
←	th of 216 released in SVU	→
	th of 836 released in all
Written By Amanda Green Directed By Rick Wallace

Home is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. It was released on February 17, 2004.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Summary 3 Cast 3.1 Main cast 3.2 Recurring cast 3.3 Guest cast 4 References 5 Quotes 6 Background information and notes 6.1 Episode scene cards

Plot Edit

SVU investigates the death of a boy previously found eating from the trash, but was returned to his paranoid mother.

Summary Edit

Jacob Nesbit is found eating out of the garbage. He explains to Detective Stabler that most food is forbidden by his mother. Benson and Stabler investigate the unusual parenting of Marilyn Nesbit. After Marilyn's husband was shot in a holdup, she kept her sons very close. According to Marilyn, processed food causes cancer, school is a place where children are shot and bullied, the city streets harbor killers around every corner, and foster homes lead children into lives of abuse and misery.

When she learns ACS is coming to check on Jacob and his older brother Adam, Marilyn is sure her children will be removed. That night, Jacob calls Stabler for help. Stabler rushes to the apartment to find Jacob shot, with Marilyn and Adam missing. With the help of Autopilot (a system like OnStar), detectives track her car. They remove her and Adam from the home of a friend and fellow home-schooler.

Marilyn explains that she kept a pistol for protection, and Jacob must have accidentally shot himself. Forensics rules this out. Marilyn tells detectives that she couldn't have shot him; she was careful to be seen shopping at the time of the shooting.

Adam confesses to shooting Jacob, but insists that he was saving his brother from the hell of children's services. Adam repeats the same paranoid views of his mother. Novak talks to the Kester family--the only friends of the Nesbit family. The daughter, Polly Kester, gives Novak emails implying that Marilyn convinced Adam to shoot Jacob and himself.

Novak decides to charge Marilyn too. At the grand jury, Marilyn says that the system is persecuting her, including the police, lawyers, and DYFS. Novak realizes that Marilyn means the Division of Youth and Family Services, which is an agency in New Jersey similar to ACS. Benson and Stabler find she lived in New Jersey several years ago, with her sons Adam and Daniel. Daniel was her first child. She beat him after her husband died, and he was placed in foster care. She told Adam that Daniel died in a foster home and she moved to New York.

Novak brings Daniel to see his brother Adam. Adam realizes that his mother is delusional and agrees to testify against her.

Cast Edit

Main cast Edit

• Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
• Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
• Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
• Diane Neal as A.D.A. Casey Novak
• Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
• B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
• Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen

Recurring cast Edit

• Isabel Gillies as Kathy Stabler
• Audrie J. Neenan as Judge Lois Preston
• Lauren Vélez as Attorney Shamal
• Harvey Atkin as Judge Alan Ridenour
• Donnetta Lavinia Grays as Officer Ramirez
• Jeffrey Scaperrotta as Dickie Stabler

Guest cast Edit

• Marlo Thomas as Judge Mary Clark
• Diane Venora as Marilyn Nesbit
• Joseph Cross as Adam Nesbit
• Kevin Thoms as Daniel Nesbit
• Beth Ehlers as Mrs. Kester
• Dixie Carter as Denise Brockmorton
• Jesse Schwartz as Jacob Nesbit
• Rose Arrick as Hazel Crane
• Marceline Hugot as Leslie Price
• Larry Fleischman as Steve Krauss
• Jennifer Piech as Poppy Conlon
• Ebbe Bassey as Iris Jordan
• Maura M. Knowles as Heather Thompson
• Bill Winkler as Sam
• Julie Fain Lawrence as Elise
• Laura Lehman as Polly Kester
• Rick Johnson as Court Clerk

References Edit

Division of Youth and Family Services

Quotes Edit

• Olivia Benson: [to Elliot] The cops tell me that my kid is down at the station, I'd be there right away.

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• Judge Mary Conway Clark [to Casey]: You should ask yourself why this kid isn't rebelling against his mother like a normal 13-year-old boy.

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• Casey Novak: Bringing up Adam with paranoid fears isn't against the law. I mean, you can raise your kid to be a racist so long as it doesn't cause harm.
• Elliot Stabler: Well, there's your difference, right there.

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• Marilyn Nesbit: Be careful. If you don't live your lives by their rules, they'll come after your kids, too.

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• Marilyn Nesbit: [to Dr. Huang] You see, for me, you're just a short little man with a nasty little mind, and you're trying to twist my words and get me to say things. You think I'm stupid. And you're right, I am, for sitting here and listening to you.

Background information and notes Edit

• Mrs. Kester told Casey that Marilyn Nesbit was too protective and isolated the two boys, but yet she did not question why Mrs. Nesbit only had Adam with her when she picked them up at the mall.
• Goof: When Casey confronts Adam Nesbit about the e-mails, she mistakenly refers to Polly Kester as Polly Nester.
• Trivia: Mrs. Nesbit is a reference to Toy Story, when Buzz Lightyear goes slightly insane and believes he is Mrs. Nesbit, a tea party socialite.

Episode scene cards Edit

1	2	3	4
Apartment of Marilyn Nesbit 252 West 97th Street Tuesday, January 6	Office of Iris Jordan Department of Education Homeschool Liaison Tuesday, January 6	Auto-Pilot GPS Navigation Systems 320 West 52nd Street Wednesday, January 7	Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward Thursday, January 8

5	6	7	8
Kester Residence The Bronx, New York Friday, January 9	New York State Supreme Court Grand Jury Monday, January 13	Division of Youth & Family Services North Bergen, New Jersey Monday, January 13	Office of Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak Tuesday, January 14

Previous episode: "Families"

"Home" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 5

Next episode: "Mean"

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