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"Manipulated"
SVU, Episode 7.15
Production number: 07015
First aired: 7 February 2006
  th of 502 produced in SVU  
th of 502 released in SVU
  th of 1271 released in all  
Tessa McKellen
Written By
Jose Molina

Directed By
Matt Earl Beesley

When the body of a young woman is found murdered in her apartment, Detectives Benson and Stabler discover she's a successful attorney... and a stripper.

Plot[]

After the body of Vicky Riggs is found, Benson and Stabler delve into her private life and finally learn that in addition to being a respected lawyer, she was also a stripper. A surveillance photo leads them to Linus McKellen, her boss's husband, who was also having an affair with her. There isn't enough evidence to prove he murdered Vicky, but when Vicky's co-worker at the club, Josie Post, is also found murdered, DNA proves that McKellen's semen was found in her body, despite his disabled wife, Tessa's conviction that he would never murder anyone.

Suspicion turns on Tessa herself once the detectives interview the only man who seems capable of having committed the murders. Tessa is revealed to have been faking her illnesses and after she uses an insulin overdose to induce a seizure, she is ordered into a mental health facility instead of a trial.

Benson and Stabler talk to Linus and learn that he hasn't spoken to her neurologists in years so she may actually have gotten better and be cured of her paralysis which is proven when Linus shoves her into a pool and she swims to safety and then starts to walk. Linus leaves Tessa and presumably, this new evidence is enough to change the judge's mind to have Tessa stand trial for her crimes.

Summary[]

Episode summary

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Guest cast[]

References[]

Quotes[]

Wally Rimaldi: Do I look like a killer to you?
Benson: You look like a man who exploits women for a living, Mr. Rimaldi.
Wally Rimaldi: Joyce is about to bleed that guy for every dollar in his wallet. Who's exploiting who?

Tutuola: Hey, Tim. I hear you got a great wiener.

Tim: Vicky didn't love Alan. She wasn't going to marry him.
Tutuola: She tell you that between lap dances?
Tim: No. After work.

Cragen: "I catch killers for a living but even I wasn't prepared for the horror of Rosemary’s Bridesmaid." I gotta say this?
Munch: I've seen it. Believe me, nothing could prepare you for that piece of schlock.

Benson: I believe Linus. I don't think he slept with Josie.
Stabler: Well, a man's DNA doesn't just pop up inside a woman without his participation.

Benson: What do PMCs do?
Munch: Profit from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tutuola: Please, don't get him started on Dick Cheney again.

Jeffrey Sobchak: We're always looking for a few good men. [looks at Olivia] And women.

Munch: All right, let's try that again. Walter Inman, you are under arrest for the murder of Vicky Riggs and Josie Post, and for assaulting one of New York's finest, finest!

Stabler: Now where'd you get Linus's semen? Did you two have a little, "don't-ask-don't-tell" thing going on. Walter? Why'd ya do it?
Walter Inman: I don't know what you're talking about, but if you get any closer, I'll jam my knee into your balls so hard you'll have to spit 'em out.

Munch: I miss the day when revenge just meant shooting someone.
Dr. Warner: And I miss the days when I never had to say, "I ran more DNA tests on that semen."

Dr. Huang: From everything that you're telling me, it seems to me that Tessa has a factitious disorder.
Novak: Munchausen's syndrome. She's making herself sick to get attention?
Dr. Huang: She was in a nearly fatal car accident and she does have diabetes. The syringe that Olivia and Elliot took from her contained insulin, but my guess is that she just became addicted to all the attention she gets being sick.
Novak: Well, it's one thing to play sick to get attention and another to inject yourself with streptococcus bacteria. I mean, she could have died.
Dr. Huang: Patients with Munchausen's often do. I had a patient who catherized herself to pump egg whites into her kidneys and cause renal failure. She was about to be put on the transplant list when we caught her.

Dr. Huang: You know, some doctors might think that you have Munchausen's. You know what that is?
Tessa McKellen: I'm not making myself sick. Who would ever wanna endure what I've had to go through?
Dr. Huang: Good question. You're beautiful, you're rich. You have a great career. I think that you crave attention so much that you made your husband into your servant.
Tessa McKellen: My husband loves me.
Dr. Huang: Your husband had an affair.
Tessa McKellen: Vicky seduced him.
Dr. Huang: That's why you hired Inman to kill her.
Tessa McKellen: I haven't seen Inman since the Silverhammer trial.
Dr. Huang: He says that you gave him a list of bacterial cultures that you wanted him to steal.
Tessa McKellen: He is a liar.
Dr. Huang: The list is in your handwriting.
Tessa McKellen: He was in Special OPs. He has access to the best forgers in the world.
Dr. Huang: So you're saying that Inman's persecuting you?
Tessa McKellen: He hates me. I lost the case and now he's taking it out on me and my husband. If I wasn't stuck in this chair, I would kill him myself.

[after Tessa McKellan has a seizure in the courtroom]
Novak: The seizure was self-induced. Tessa McKellen intentionally OD'd on insulin.
Walsh: Proving my point. She is not fit to stand trial.
Novak: Your honor, she is manipulating the court. She's faking illness to get sympathy and dodge a life sentence.
Walsh: My client is sick, your Honor. She cannot stop. Whenever she's under stress, she will make herself ill.
Novak: Well, then, gee, why don't we let her off before she injects herself with HIV?
Judge Lena Petrovsky: Nobody is talking about letting her off, but I'm concerned about another incident like today. I don't think Mrs. McKellen is fit to stand trial at the moment. She needs psychiatric treatment.
Walsh: We agree, your Honor. And we ask that because of the rarity of this condition and her paralysis, that she be given treatment in a private hospital, which, of course, my client will pay for.
Judge Petrovsky: That sounds reasonable.
Novak: And when she gets out, who's she gonna kill next?
Judge Petrovsky: That's enough, Counselor.
Walsh: My client will surrender in the morning, your honor.
Judge Petrovsky: Her bail is continued and your request is granted.
Novak: Your Honor, don't fall for this.
Judge Petrovsky: Don't question the ruling of this court, Ms. Novak. If and when the defendant is well enough to stand trial, she will. Until then, she will receive the treatment she needs.

Novak: I have a bulletproof case against Tessa, but I can't put her on trial so long as she's hanging out at some cushy private mental hospital.
Dr. Huang: At least she'll be in some locked ward where she won't hurt herself or anybody else.
Stabler: Yeah, but she belongs in prison with her hit man buddy Inman.
Benson: Is there any way to change Petrovsky's mind?
Dr. Huang: Show her that Tessa's a manipulative calculating bitch who planned this defense meticulously just like the murders.

Linus McKellen pushes Tessa McKellen in her wheelchair into the pool. Linus, Olivia, and Elliot wait to see if anything happens. Tessa begins to swim and move her legs [supposed to be paralyzed from a car accident three years back]
Benson: Look it's a miracle, she can swim.
[Tessa swims to the edge of the pool and starts to climb out]
Stabler: And she can walk too.

Tessa McKellen: Who's going to take care of me?
Olivia Benson: The warden will. You'll never be alone in prison.

Background information and notes[]

  • "Son of Sam laws" don't deal with the seizing of assets acquired directly as a result of criminal activity, which is what Casey is threatening Walter Inman with when she says she will seize the money Tessa McKellen paid him to frame her husband. Instead they deal with keeping criminals from profiting from the publicity of their crimes, an example being selling the rights to the story of their crimes to a book publisher or a film studio.

Episode scene cards[]

1 2 3 4 5

Law Offices of
Jackson and Walsh
155 West 54th Street
Thursday, January 19

Tietjen & Otten
Architecture
122 Broadway
Friday, January 20

McKellen Residence
Mount Pleasant, New Jersey
Friday, January 20

Chambers of
Judge Petrovsky
Friday, January 20

Apartment of
Josie Post
327 East 43rd Street
Friday, January 20

6 7 8 9

Mercy General Hospital
Tessa McKellen's Room
Monday, January 23

Silverhammer
Training Base
Field Tent
Monday, January 23

Rikers Island
Monday, January 23

Competency Hearing
Part 46
Wednesday, January 25

Previous episode:
"Taboo"
"Manipulated"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Season 7
Next episode:
"Gone"
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