"Perfect" | ||
---|---|---|
← | SVU, Episode 4.24 | → |
Production number: E3126 First aired: 9 May 2003 | ||
Written By Robert F. Campbell & Jonathan Greene Directed By Rick Wallace |
The investigation into a missing girl leads the detectives to a doctor of reproductive therapy, who runs shelters for troubled girls. When she is found at shelter, the doctor's sinister agenda is revealed.
Summary[]
A murdered fourteen-year-old girl leads the detectives to a prominent physician who specialises in reproductive therapy. In order to fund his research into human cloning, he has set up shelters around New York for troubled teenage girls. When they discover a missing girl in one of them, the SVU learns that the shelters actually indoctrinate the girls into a cult with the purpose of impregnating them. The doctor's own children are sold to naive couples unable to conceive who think that their own DNA has been used to produce a cloned baby. With many subordinates taking the fall, ADA Cabot is unable to prosecute the doctor until the missing girl's shelter leader comes forward with the truth.
Plot[]
When the body of a murdered 14-year-old girl is discovered in a back alley, Detective Benson and Stabler discover the victim was a missing Pennsylvania teenager believed to have been kidnapped eight months earlier. It's discovered that, as a result of having no food and water for nearly a week, she developed a blood clot in her left lung that killed her. Ultimately its discovered she's part of a cult led by Doctor Garrett Lang to supposedly clone dead babies, while he really impregnates the girls with his own children. The head of the place she was living, Paula Haggerty initially plans to go down for the girl's death to protect Lang, but another of the girls convinces her to help them put him away for good.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
- Stephanie March as A.D.A. Alexandra Cabot
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Joanna Merlin as Judge Lena Petrovsky
- Peter Hermann as Attorney Trevor Langan
- Caren Browning as CSU Captain Judith Siper
- Tamara Tunie as Dr. Melinda Warner
- Robert John Burke as IA Sergeant Ed Tucker
Guest cast[]
- Barbara Barrie as Paula Haggerty
- Kimberly J. Brown as Jessica Morse / Margery Maddox
- Laura Harring as Attorney Joan Quentin
- Adriane Lenox as Mrs. Tassler
- Chuck Cooper as Mr. Tassler
- Brian Reddy as Ross St. Clair
- Karen Ludwig as Marcie Kinderski
- Gale Harold as Dr. Garret Lang
- Anna Kathryn Holbrook as Karen Morse
- Russ Anderson as Roger Morse
- Benim Foster as Detective Jim Jordan
- Peter Yoshida as Store Clerk
- Jack Mazzola as Officer Cummings
- Juliet Adair Pritner as Officer Bailey
- Reginald Huc as Officer Taylor
- Dale Dymkoski as Perp
References[]
- Samantha Tassler
- Jim Jones
- Fertility fraud
- Cloning
- Lovebombing
- Foundation for Knowledge Expansion
- Josef Mengele
- Carrie Haggerty
- Lang-Foy Clinic
- Knowledge Builders
- NCMEC
- Kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart
Quotes[]
- Olivia: (to Dr. Lang) So you see yourself as the new Darwin? Maybe even the Messiah?
- Dr. Lang: I wouldn't go that far.
- Dr. Huang: (about Dr. Lang): He's a narcissistic bastard and he's calling all the shots. You saw the way his lawyer deferred to him.
- Olivia: I can understand a 14-year-old being taken in by Lang, but not a smart, educated woman like Quentin.
- Dr. Huang: Jim Jones got hundreds of his disciples to drink poisoned Kool-Aid because he had a charismatic personality. Lang uses his to get people like Quentin and Haggerty to love and obey him.
- Elliot: Those teenage girls couldn't be more vulnerable. They're not that attractive. Probably got bad grades in school. They're just social outcasts.
- Olivia: So this cult is a place for them to fit in.
- Dr. Huang: And inundate them with approval and affection. It's called love bombing: "You're perfect the way you are."
- Olivia: Right, which is what every teenage girl wants to hear.
- Elliot Stabler: (to Paula Haggerty): All Lang has done is manipulated your pain. He's used you to help him experiment on girls who love you. They trust you. You're the only one who can stop him.
- Dr. Lang: (as he's being led out of the courtroom) Science and the future wait for no one. If not for me, someone will clone a human being. You wait and see!
Background information and notes[]
Episode scene cards[]
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
---|---|---|---|
Lang-Foy Clinic |
The Foundation for |
Office of Joan Quentin |
Knowledge Builders |
5 | 6 | 7 |
---|---|---|
Morse Townhouse |
Trial Part 46 |
Trial Part 46 |
Previous episode: "Grief" |
"Perfect" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 4 |
Next episode: "Soulless" |