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"Scavenger"
SVU, Episode 6.04
Production number: E5207
First aired (US): 19 October 2004
First aired (UK): 25 April 2005
First aired (CAN): 19 October 2004
First aired (AUS): 16 March 2005
  th of 502 produced in SVU  
th of 502 released in SVU
  th of 1271 released in all  
Benson Scavenger
Written By
Dawn DeNoon & Lisa Marie Petersen

Directed By
Daniel Sackheim

Summary[]

The detectives are in a time crunch when they try to solve clues left by a serial killer who is basically taunting them to find him before he gets another victim.

Plot[]

Two joggers find a baby alone in a stroller with a note taped to him saying that his mother was kidnapped. The note reads, "The mean, mean man has a monster in his head. Find him by tomorrow or my mom will be dead. Rupert Daniel Kilmore"

Benson and Stabler interview a watchmaker named Rupert Kilmore about the rape and abduction. He expresses his disgust that a rapist used his name, when a call comes from an anonymous man telling Rupert to "Give the detectives the fax". The fax reads "Once there were so cops so dumb, they took hours to get to clue number 1. Mommy's running out of time, so the answer is written above the rhyme."

Benson and Stabler track down a junkie who sent the fax to them at the watch store. He has a message for them but he is too high to remember. After 8 hours the clues they get are the words Hog, Pat, Mend, Top, Yarn. Eric Liebert comes to the precinct saying that the baby was his son and finds out his wife Julie is the kidnapping victim. Captain Cragen receives a envelope via messenger with Julie Liebert's severed ear.

Munch, Cragen, and Staber crack the code from the clue words given by the junkie. Benson and Stabler go to the payphone only to discover they were too late and missed the call. They trace the call and are led to a warehouse where the discover Julie's body with "RDK is," with an arrow pointing to the woman's back, indicating it means "RDK is back", and another riddle saying that he's abducted another woman.

The detectives discover the body of the second victim covered in roses with symbols drawn on her feet and a newspaper from that day expressing his disappointment in the lack of media attention.

They talk with a surviving victim of the original RDK killings and find out she was interviewed by someone impersonating a reporter, which leads them to Humphrey Becker. He is not the real RDK, but a copy cat. They search Humphrey's apartment and find a diary indicating where he plans to take his next victim, a showgirl. While picking up his next intended victim Benson gets a call saying the survivor from the original murders is missing. Benson goes to her apartment and finds Humphrey lying in her bed.

During interrogation, Humphrey refuses to say where Jeanette is, telling Stabler that he buried her alive with an oxygen tank good for fifteen hours of air. Stabler presses him for details, eventually getting him in a chokehold, but Cragen and Doctor Huang enter the room and Cragen orders Stabler out, leaving Huang to deal with Humphrey. As the interrogation continues, Huang deduces that Humphrey was emotionally scarred by his mother as a child, which is why he targeted only victims who were mothers but left the sons alive. Reasoning that it might be the key to locating Jeanette, Benson locates Humphrey's mother. After her introduction into the interrogation, Humphrey becomes more and more agitated, displaying the tension between the two. His mother reveals that Humphrey was a difficult child and that she would lock him in a dark closet when she went out to keep him from hurting himself, leading Huang and Stabler to realize that Humphrey is afraid of the dark and claustrophobic because of this. Benson and Stabler lock Humphrey in a closet where he starts to screaming to be released. They promise to do so when he reveals Jeanette's location and he complies.

They find Jeanette trapped in an old refrigerator, but alive.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Guest cast[]

References[]

Quotes[]

Stabler: He's got quite a book collection.
Benson: They're all mysteries. And he takes good care of 'em: humidifiers. Steals from libraries.
Stabler: And collects night lights.
Benson: A serial-killing kleptomaniac who's afraid of the dark.

Stabler: These are all rejection letters.
Benson: Why would he put them up on his walls?
Stabler: He's insane?

Novak: I just set a world record getting these search warrants, not to mention risking my life to interrupt Judge Terhune's poker game... again!
Munch: Oh poor baby, I haven't slept in 40 hours.

[after Stabler's cellphone goes off during the interrogation]
Humphrey Becker: Why, Detective, is that your phone vibrating in your pocket, or do you just find me terribly exciting?

[Huang has told Becker that the FBI have gotten involved in the case]
Humphrey Becker: And what are they saying about me?
Dr. Huang: That you're impotent.
[pause]
Humphrey Becker: Now why would they say that?
Dr. Huang: All of RDK's victims were raped. None of your victims were.
Humprey Becker: They have no idea what I did to those women.
Dr. Huang: Well, you didn't rape them.

Huang: What did your mother do to you?
Humphrey Becker: Please! With you people it's always about the mother.

Ida Becker: I couldn't take him anywhere. Not even to my movies.
Humphrey Becker: Shut up!
Ida Becker: As soon as the lights went down, he'd throw a tantrum until they asked us to leave.
Humphrey Becker: Well, you sure in hell found a way to go to them anyway.
Huang: How'd you manage that?
Ida Becker: Left him at home.
Humphrey Becker: Shut up!
Stabler: Alone?
Ida Becker: I made sure he couldn't hurt himself
Humphrey Becker: [visibly agitated] Please...
Stabler: You locked him in the closet.
Ida Becker: It was only for two hours. But he'd get so worked up, he'd soil himself.
Humphrey Becker: [enraged] Shut up! Don't you ever shut up?! [screaming] DON'T YOU EVER SHUT UP?!

[Elliot drags Humphrey into the hall]
Humphrey Becker: No! Where're you taking me?
Stabler: MY game room! [to Olivia] The closet!
Humphrey Becker: NO! Don't put me in there!
Stabler: [Olivia breaks the light bulb] Let's see how YOU like being left in the dark!
Benson: [they close him in] It's just a game, Humphrey!

Background information and notes[]

  • The episode title is a reference to both scavengers and the term "scavenger hunt".
  • During the episode, Becker leaves a note saying, "Who do I have to kill to get on page 1 above the fold?" This is similar to the opening of a letter written by BTK killer Dennis Rader, who wrote, "How many do I have to Kill before I get a name in the paper or some national attention."
  • Novak mentions she had to interrupt Judge Joseph P. Terhune's poker game again to get the warrants they need. She had done so before in the episode "Bound".
  • Another SVU episode that deals with an imposter trying to take the mantle of a long time serial rapist from the past is the episode "Dear Ben".
  • During Humphrey Becker's interrogation, Detective Stabler offers to take the death penalty off the table. This episode aired nearly four months after the (real life) New York Court of Appeals ruled in People v. LaValle that the state's death penalty statute was unconstitutional. That, in turn, proves that this episode must have been filmed sometime before June 24, 2004, which was the day of the Appeals court ruling.

Episode scene cards[]

1 2 3

Kilmore Time
Sales & Repair
Staten Island, New York
Tuesday, September 28

Apartment of
Jeannette Henley
38 West 84th Street
Wednesday, September 29

Conrado's Cigar Club
& Lounge
253 East 51st Street
Wednesday, September 29

Previous episode:
"Obscene"
"Scavenger"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Season 6
Next episode:
"Outcry"
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