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"Hothouse"
SVU, Episode 10.12
Production number: 10012
First aired (US): 13 January 2009
First aired (AUS): 22 April 2009
  {{{nNthProducedInSeries}}}th of 502 produced in SVU  
{{{nNthReleasedInSeries}}}th of 502 released in SVU
  {{{nNthReleasedInAll}}}th of 1271 released in all  
Stabler Benson Hothouse
Written By
Charley Davis

Directed By
Peter Leto

Summary[]

After a teenage girl is found dead, Benson goes undercover as a madam to catch a sex trafficker. Then the detectives learn the girl was a child prodigy, not a prostitute, and the investigation leads them to her gambling-addict father.

Plot[]

The body of a young girl wearing skimpy clothes and a cross is found in a pier. Warner determines that she was dead before she went in the river, that she was abused in the past, and that she was recently in New York and in the Ukraine. The detectives figure that the girl was trafficked for sex. However, when their leads take them to a Ukrainian sex trafficker named Alik, he reveals that the dead girl was not only not one of his, but also that she was not trafficked at all; she is soon identified as child prodigy Elsa Lychkoff. Fin uncovers that that Elsa went to Morewood, an exclusive boarding school with graduates that usually go on to prestigious schools including MIT, Cal Tech and Harvard.

Wondering how Elsa ended up in the water, Stabler and Benson question the dean of Morewood, who tells them that Elsa was one of her brightest students and was about to get early decision to MIT. She says that Elsa was in the Ukraine on a leave of absence to visit her dying grandmother. The dean finds that Elsa checked out of the school at noon on Saturday and was due in tonight. She also claims that Elsa was close to Jennifer Banks, her roommate.

Upon being interviewed, Jennifer says that everything came easy to Elsa because of her genius-level IQ and that she barely spent anytime studying. She also claims that Elsa often snuck out at night, flirted with boys, and dressed slutty when she went out, even showing Stabler and Benson what appears to be her clothes.

The detectives then meet with Elsa's parents. Elsa's father Joseph says that he was the only one who understood his daughter, and that she had to have her mind nourished by the best school. Noticing Joseph's smoking habit, they inquire about Elsa's burns, but get nowhere.

Fin tells Stabler and Benson that Joseph was fired from Boeing and now works insurance scams and Ponzi schemes. The Lychkoffs' other daughter, Katrina, arrives at the station and says that her father was abusive towards her and her sister. She shows them a room in which he used to teach them using abusive methods in order to "stimulate their minds", and explains that he eventually threw her out to focus solely on Elsa when she couldn't keep up. Katrina further tells Stabler and Benson that Morewood was just as bad; they gave her dad a healthy bonus after enrolling Elsa on scholarship, and that Joseph constantly entered her in competitions for the prize money; he was making Elsa into the family's cash cow. Joseph and Elsa's mom arrive, and while the latter is overjoyed to see Katrina, but Joseph hits her and reaffirms his disownment of his oldest daughter before Stabler arrests him.

At the station, Joseph continues to lie about his successes in life with his engineering degree, while Elsa's mom reveals the truth: Joseph failed exams, was kicked out of school, and then went to the U.S. for work, never getting his Ph.D. He also developed a bad gambling addiction and Elsa's mother was forced to work multiple jobs to keep the family above water. When Benson accuses Joseph of riding Elsa too hard and beating her to death, he gets up and begins to beat his own head into the wall in a distressful rage. Cragen calls for the medics as Joseph passes out.

Joseph is brought to the hospital where he dies of a cerebral hemorrhage minutes afterward. Fin says that he found surveillance video that shows that Joseph was at the casino when Elsa was killed. Cragen then reveals that some of Elsa's fellow students have criminal records.

After interviewing a group of students at Morewood, the detectives learn that Elsa hung out with a boy named Danny Burke. Stabler and Benson meet with Danny, who says that Elsa was like a little sister to him. He goes on to explain how toxic Morewood is and that Elsa hated it there and wanted out. When Olivia asks Danny about Elsa's clothes, he says that the clothes did not belong to Elsa and that she would not even wear makeup. When asked about Elsa and Jennifer's friendship, he reveals that the two actually hated each other. Danny explains that Jennifer was pathologically jealous of Elsa's genius to the point of asking her several times to do poorly on a test so she could be the number one student for a change; in turn, Elsa was resentful of Jennifer for her wealth and for constantly shadowing and trying to leech off of her successes instead of charting her own path. He even tells them that things got so bad between them that Elsa wanted either herself or Jennifer transferred to another dorm, and when that request was denied, she resorted to shutting Jennifer out completely by giving her the silent treatment, which Danny notes might have sent Jennifer over the edge.

Stabler and Benson confront Jennifer, who is prepping for a chess tournament, over her lies. When she asks to see her mother, they bring her to the station. Upon arriving, Jennifer's mom is stunned and refuses to believe that her daughter would hurt anyone. However, the detectives take note of how antsy Jennifer is acting and push her by noting of how Elsa was always on top while she was stuck in second place.

Suffering a psychotic breakdown, Jennifer confesses that she followed Elsa to the ferry when she went to see Danny, figuring that she could corner her into talking to her in the middle of the Hudson River. She reveals the two fought, but because of the weather, there were no witnesses. During the fight, Elsa tried to scream for help, but the ferry horn drowned her out. Jennifer eventually bashed Elsa heading into the railing until she was dead and pushed her body into the river. She tells her mother that she did this because she wanted to be the best like the latter had always told her repeatedly, saying this while as she is consoled by her devastated mother. The detectives are left stunned, as they watch as Jennifer breaks down crying in her mother's arms.

Stabler and Benson ask Greylek to try Jennifer in a family court, citing that she's only fourteen, but Greylek tells them that the ferry was in New Jersey when the murder took place, and New Jersey tries kids as adults.

New Jersey ADA Gill tells Stabler and Benson that she wants Jennifer tried as an adult, citing that Jennifer has no history of abuse, had an IQ of 160 and knew what she was doing. In court, Gill has Stabler and Benson testify against Jennifer, forcing them to note her lack of remorse and her intelligence, though they try to argue that she needs help, not prison. Nonetheless, the judge decides that he wants to hear Jennifer's case in an adult court. After his decision though, Jennifer suffers another breakdown and is taken out of court to a cell. When Jennifer appears to have memory problems, she reveals to Benson that she hasn't slept in nearly a week and that she's been taking ADHD medication that Morewood helped her get to stay awake in order to study. At her direction, Benson goes to Jennifer's room and finds the pills; she also looks at Jennifer's journal and sees that it ends up in a rambling mess.

Later, Warner tells Benson that a person who has been up for 17 hours is equivalent to a person with a .05 blood alcohol content. Warner says that Jennifer's abuse of the medication and lack of sleep might have caused her to suffer sleep deprivation psychosis. Benson then meets with Gill and tells her Warner's findings, citing that Jennifer was in a psychotic state when she killed Elsa and was not entirely responsible for her actions. She further tells Gill that she knew a cop who accidentally killed himself with his service weapon after suffering an asthma attack after not sleeping for three days straight, and gives Gill Jennifer's journal and tells her to read it.

In court, Gill, having read the journal, comes to a plea bargain with Jennifer's lawyer, telling the judge that that new evidence shows that Jennifer's mental status at time has come to light and that she deserves leniency. The judge accepts the plea and sentences Jennifer to a minimum of seven years in a juvenile facility, during which she will receive counseling. After Jennifer is taken away, Gill tells Stabler and Benson that her next case involves a 15-year-old boy who raped and killed his stepsister with no remorse and stated that he would do it again. She asks if they want him out at 21 as well, leaving the detectives to acknowledge that there are kids out in the world who truly are bad apples.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Guest cast[]

References[]

Quotes[]

[about the murder victim]
Benson: She was beaten and tortured. She still believed in God.
Stabler: You'd think he could have protected her just a little bit.

[inspecting the teeth of one of Alik's girls]
Benson: You need to lay off the meth, honey.

[about him prostituting young women]
Alik: You make it seem so tragic. Their lives aren't terrible.
Benson: So what do you call daily beatings, rape, exposure to HIV? The good life?

Alik: Ah, here comes the boss lady.
Greylek: Save the grin, ass-wipe. There's no deal unless the name checks out and your alibi holds up.

[about Joseph Lychkoff]
Tutuola: Lychkoff got fired by Boeing after six months, then hired by Lockheed and they dumped his ass four months later.
Stabler: Sounds like our genius is one dumb son of a bitch.

Stabler: What's with the rice? Did he make you eat down here too?
Katrina Lychkoff: No, he had us kneel on it. It's not so bad at first, but after a while the grains dig into your skin and you start to bleed.
[shows her knees with old rice grain indentions]

Stabler: Aren't you a little old to be rebelling against your high school?
Danny Burke: "Be the best. Great isn't good enough. Maximize your potential." They even feed their students a special diet to increase brain activity. Omega-3s and all that crap. That place is toxic.
Benson: Is that why you dropped out a month before graduating?
Danny Burke: I couldn't take it anymore and neither could Elsa. She wanted to be a kid, not their effing robot.

Danny Burke: You ever see a nerd spaz out? It's ugly.

Benson: This isn't a vocabulary test, okay? Elsa was murdered.
Jennifer Banks: Look, I don't have time for this, okay? They put me in a tournament next week, and I need to study Molnar-Nagy 1966. I'm in zugzwang, but if I can solve it, maybe it's H7 to J6...
Benson: Hey, the only way you're going to solve this is by talking to us.

Suzanne Banks: Jennifer, that's enough. I think we'd better go now.
Jennifer Banks: Don't tell me what to do! Don't! Don't tell me what to do! I'm sick and tired of everyone always telling me what to do, what to say, how to think, how to act. I just wanted to talk to her. That's all. I just wanted to talk to her and then take the next ferry back, but she screamed at me. Why was I following her? She called me a loser. She said I was pathetic and dumb, and that I was only at Morewood because my family is rich. That I'd never be able to make it on brains alone like her. She tried walking away and so I grabbed her arm and she pushed me, so I jabbed her chest with my pen! And she pushed me again...
Suzanne Banks: [in tears] Jennifer, stop!
Jennifer Banks: And so I pulled her hair and I slammed her head into the railing over and over and over again!
Stabler: Did anybody see you fighting?
Jennifer Banks: Everyone was inside because it was raining. She tried screaming for help, but no one could hear her because the ferry horn started to blow. That's when she fell down and I pushed her into the river.
[to her mother] I'm number one now, mom. [beat] Aren't you happy for me?

[about Jennifer Banks]
Kendra Gill: Your rich white girl has a 160 IQ and no history of abuse, addiction or mental illness. Don't tell me she didn't know what she did was wrong.
Benson: She's 14 years old. Are you the same person that you were back then?
Kendra Gill: At 14, I wasn't a murderer.

[about Jennifer's handwriting]
Dr. Warner: This type of hypergraphia is common with Provigil abuse. The drug was developed to treat narcolepsy and other sleep disorders, then the government discovered its military value as a stimulant, gave it to the troops to keep them alert in the field.
Benson: Now kids are using it to cram for their exams.
Dr. Warner: When used properly, it is an effective treatment for ADD.
Benson: Properly, yeah, right. Tell me those kids at Morewood popping pills all have attention deficit.
Dr. Warner: I'll tip off a friend in the Health Department. See if we can stop the pill-pushing.

Kendra Gill: Yeah, I've gone two days without sleep... only thing I murdered at the end of it was my pillow.
Benson: I knew a cop who worked double homicide for 41 hours straight, went home and went to bed. He had an asthma attack and reached for his inhaler, but he grabbed his service revolver instead. He put it in his mouth and blew his brains out.

Background information and notes[]

  • When Jennifer appears in court, she is wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, which is something a defense attorney would never let a client do. Having the defendant wear prison-issue clothing in court can potentially bias the jury, and possibly even the judge, against the defendant. Prison clothing can make them think of the defendant as a prisoner, and not a person. That is why the law allows for a defendant to change into normal clothing for all court appearances, including motion hearings. Most judges will insist that the defendant be given the option to change clothing in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
  • When Jennifer is in a cell and Olivia is talking to her, Jennifer is having a breakdown and doesn't remember killing Elsa. However, when Olivia asks her how long she had been awake when she killed Elsa, Jennifer responded immediately as though she hadn't forgotten.

Episode scene cards[]

1 2 3 4

Center for
Abused Women
205 Pearl Street
Sunday, December 14

Little Odessa Café
106 Second Avenue
Sunday, December 14

Lychkoff Residence
25-54 78th Street
Queens, New York
Monday, December 15

Morewood School
656 West End Avenue
Tuesday, December 16

5 6 7

Hudson County
Courthouse
Jersey City, New Jersey
Wednesday, January 7

Hudson County
Courthouse
Courtroom 805
Jersey City, New Jersey
Thursday, January 8

Hudson County
Courthouse
Courtroom 805
Jersey City, New Jersey
Monday, January 12

Previous episode:
"Stranger"
"Hothouse"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Season 10
Next episode:
"Snatched"
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