"Streetwise" | ||
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← | SVU, Episode 9.11 | → |
Production number: 9011 First aired: 1 January 2008 | ||
Written By Paul Grellong Directed By Helen Shaver |
Summary[]
A Park Avenue socialite's body is found in NYC's Central Park, and the investigation leads SVU to the father figure of a homeless "street family".
Plot[]
Cassidy agrees to testify, in exchange for a bus ticket to Miami because she wants to be away from Cole. Afterwards, Cassidy goes before a jury and incriminates Roderick as the murderer.
A couple soon approaches Stabler and tells him they think he located their missing daughter. Stabler is shown a picture of their daughter Helen who heavily resembles Cassidy.
Acting on a gut feeling Stabler confronts Cassidy and reveals that she is really Helen Braidwell, a former student at the exclusive Saint Winnifred's School. It is also revealed Helen lied about her lifestyle, as both her parents are depicted as loving and only wanted her to come home. Exposed, Helen reveals that she felt stifled by her privileged, comfortable life and ran away from her home on Park Avenue to join the Phalanx, a "family" of homeless children led by Cole Roderick.
Before the questioning can go on, Cragen brings in Mr. Braidwell who shut down the interrogation to take their daughter back home. Helen begrudgingly returns home.
Some time later, Larissa Rhedd, Cole Roderick's original "wife", was caught having sex with a drug dealer. Cole allowed "Cassidy" to decide the punishment. Helen/Cassidy expelled Larissa from Phalanx, and the girl soon found a new family. Helen/Cassidy, meanwhile, became Roderick's new lover. Shortly after, one of the "kids", Byrnesy Ross, threatened to undermine Roderick's authority, so Roderick declared that any who disrespected him must die. Needless to say, Ross was killed. This was a retroactive decree, and so Rhedd was tracked down and murdered as well.
A few months later, one of Helen/Cassidy's former friends, Shelby Crawford found her in the park with the Phalanx kids and in fear of being discovered, Helen/Cassidy claimed that Shelby insulted Cole, leading to Cole murdering Shelby and dumping her body in the woods, keeping one of Shelby's very expensive earrings to pawn for food. It was shortly after the murder that Josie Knox, a family member pawned the earring which would later get the family traced to the murder. Cole killed Josie for her 'betrayal' and with Helen/Cassidy's confession traced Cole to a warehouse.
After Cole's testimony for the murders, a guilty verdict is decided against Helen for second-degree manslaughter in Crawford's death and she is convicted. Before she is taken away, Helen silently murmurs she hates Novak.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Sergeant John Munch (credit only)
- Diane Neal as A.D.A. Casey Novak
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Adam Beach as Detective Chester Lake
- B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang (credit only)
- Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Joel de la Fuente as T.A.R.U. Technician Ruben Morales
- Joanna Merlin as Judge Lena Petrovsky
- J. Paul Nicholas as Defense Attorney Linden Delroy
Guest cast[]
- Mae Whitman as Helen Braidwell/Cassidy Cornell
- Thom Bishops as Cole Roderick
- Patricia Charbonneau as Paige Beddels
- Madeline Taylor as Josie Knox
- Kathleen Garrett as Mrs. Braidwell
- Bill Winkler as Mr. Braidwell
- Jeremy Jordan as Doug Walshen
- Emily Meade as Anna
- Fiona Hutchison as Lydia Crawford
- Latham Gaines as Mr. Crawford
- Johnny Hopkins as Tony Ramirez
- Charlie Kevin as Bert
- Michael Mandell as Big Jerry
- Natalie Hall as Shelby Crawford
- Nicole Weaver as Claire
- Beth Dodye Bass as Sandra
- Allan Kendall as Jury Foreman
References[]
- Arizona
- Astoria
- Felding's Warehouse
- Fort Greene
- Park Avenue
- Charles Manson
- Phalanx
- Prospect Park
- Quadrille
- Larissa Rhedd (victim)
- Byrnesy Ross (victim)
Quotes[]
- Stabler: What do we got?
- Benson: Jane Doe. Rape/homicide.
- Dr. Warner: From the lividity, I'd put time of death around ten p.m. C.O.D. blunt force trauma to the head.
- Stabler: Perp hit her with a rock?
- Benson: If he did, he took it with him as a souvenir.
- Stabler: Beat her up pretty bad. Forensics?
- Dr. Warner: Fluids in her underpants.
- Benson: A weekend warrior found her while they were playing paintball. All the players volunteered their DNA.
- Stabler: Her earlobes are torn. Perp take the earrings?
- Dr. Warner: He left one behind. There's blood on the wire.
- Stabler: He dropped it when he fled.
- Dr. Warner: It's an Engel. Very expensive. [Stabler gives her a look wondering how she knows that] My sister's a buyer at Saks.
- Benson: We'll send a notice to all the pawn shops in the tri-state.
- Dr. Warner: He'll definitely hock it. One of these babies is worth five grand.
- Stabler: It sure as hell wasn't worth this.
- Dr. Warner: Jane Doe's blood alcohol was elevated; .1.
- Stabler: Well, she must have been partying before she hit the park. CSU didn't find a bottle.
- Dr. Warner: And I found paint residue in the head wound. I'm trying to match the color.
- Stabler: Could it have come from one of the paintballers?
- Dr. Warner: [holding up a paintball pellet] These pellets are made of water, sorbitol, and wax. Residue in your victim's head wound is black latex wall paint mixed with rust flakes.
- Benson: Any luck with the players' DNA?
- Dr. Warner: They're clear. No match to the semen in your victim's panties.
- Benson: So all we know is something black and rusty killed her.
- Dr. Warner: Not quite. I saved the good news for last.
- Stabler: Rapist's in the system?
- Dr. Warner: No. Your victim is. Her name's Shelby Crawford.
- Stabler: What was she collared for?
- Dr. Warner: DUI. Wrapped her Saab around a lamppost.
- Doug Walshen: God, I can't believe Shelby's dead. I... I worshiped her.
- Stabler: She worship you back?
- Doug Walshen: What are you talking about? [showing him the picture he got from Shelby's parents]
- Stabler: You know, I got this picture from last night, and she looks like she's about to have a root canal.
- Doug Walshen: I would never kill Shelby.
- Elliot Stabler: But you'd bang her friend.
- Doug Walshen: That's what guys do: Anna's just a mattress
- Stabler: Doug's lying.
- Benson: Well, I like Anna for it, El. Girls can do crazy things when they're pushed.
- Stabler: And when a woman cheats on her man, he can blow a gasket.
- Cragen: [entering] What about Tony wham-bam? His DNA come back?
- Benson: Yup. And it's a match.
- Stabler: But the manager at the Roxy alibied him.
- Cragen: So Shelby wasn't raped. Fluids are from the quickie she had in the stairwell.
- Benson: Well, one of these two killed Shelby.
- Cragen: Put the rats in the cage, let 'em fight it out.
- Lake: 6-7-8-9 Peekaboo Lane, That's a fairytale, friend.
- Big Jerry: Now that you read it back to me, it does sound a tad bit suspicious.
- Tutuola: Play the tape, Einstein.
- Lake: [to the pawn shop owner] Man, you know it's illegal for underage kids to pawn.
- Big Jerry: Hey, a guy gotta eat.
- Tutuola: You need to go on a diet.
- Lake: This girl doesn't weigh eighty-five pounds soaking wet. No way she could take down Shelby by herself. Must've had friends.
- Big Jerry: Or family.
- Tutuola: What you talking about?
- Big Jerry: She said they were hungry. Hadn't eaten in days. That her dad told her to pawn the earring.
- Lake: So they're a homeless family.
- Tutuola: And murder's how daddy brings home the bacon.
- Benson: Where's Josie?
- Cole Roderick: Haven't seen her for weeks.
- Stabler: What kind of father are you, don't even know where your children are?
- Cragen: The girl is starving.
- Stabler: You want us to bribe her with food?
- Benson: I think coercion is more like it.
- Cragen: Interventions aren't pretty.
- Benson: Josie, if you talk to us, we can help you. But if you keep us the silent treatment, then there's nothing we can do. Now, we know that you pawned Shelby's earring. But I don't think that you killed her by yourself, so who helped you?
- Stabler: Was it Cole? Daddy's little girl help him do it?
- Josie: [spitting on him] Don't talk about my dad.
- Stabler: Thanks for joining us.
- Josie: I won't rat the only person who cares about me.
- Stabler: Social worker at the shelter cares about you.
- Josie: Paige isn't family. Dad's all I got.
- Benson: What about your real parents?
- Josie: Those asswipes? When I told my mom her boyfriend was sneaking into my room at night, she blamed me and kicked me out. I was nine.
- Stabler: So what happened that night?
- Josie: Cassidy heard the rich girl call my dad a name.
- Benson: And what name was that?
- Josie: Stupid fag. That's a no-no. Time for S.O.S.
- Benson: S.O.S.?
- Josie: Stomp On Sight.
- Lake: Remember that robbery in Riverside Park a couple months back where the victim was knocked out and chained to a tree?
- Stabler: It was all over the papers. They never found the guy.
- Lake: Read the last paragraph.
- Benson: "While the crow slept, the boss lion chained her to a tree. That made it easy to pluck her feathers. The lion cubs said it was the perfect crime."
- Lake: I had Manhattan Robbery pull the file. The victim said she was knocked out with a chain.
- Stabler: Just like Paige and Shelby. Josie's writing about her family's crimes.
- Lake: This one worries me most. It describes a bloody battle between lions and crows. "Three crows are buried in graves throughout a kingdom."
- Benson: A group of lions is called a pride.
- Lake: And a group of crows is called a murder.
- Stabler: Josie can finger Cole for three more homicides.
- Cassidy Cornell: I went to the shelter to look for Josie. I didn't think Cole was gonna go there.
- Stabler: Where would he take her?
- Cassidy: I don't know.
- Benson: Why should we believe you?
- Cassidy: I wouldn't lie. My being here is putting all of my other kids at risk.
- Stabler: But they're not your kids.
- Cassidy: I take care of them when they're sick, I listen to their problems, I tuck them in at night. I do all the things that a good mother would do, okay?
- Benson: A good mother doesn't let her kids rob and kill.
- Stabler: Just look at her. Eyes gouged out, her cheeks split from ear to ear.
- Cassidy Cornell: Please, stop!
- Benson: Stop? I'll bet that's what Josie said, only Cole wouldn't listen. The Medical Examiner says she was tortured for over 12 hours.
- Benson: [to Cassidy about Cole's whereabouts] Where is he, Cassidy?
- Cassidy Cornell: I don't know.
- Stabler: You keep telling us what a great mother you are. [about Josie] That's your daughter then! That's your daughter and that son of a bitch killed her.
- Cassidy: I don't think you get it! Cole Roderick saved my life! Before I met him, my mom rented my body to her drug dealers for three years! It was hell!
- Cole Roderick: You're gonna break my wrists!
- Stabler: I'm Irish, but I'm not that lucky. Cole Roderick, you're under arrest for the murder of Shelby Crawford, Paige Beddles, and Josie Knox. You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
- Stabler: You recognize them?
- Cole Roderick: Man, get this stuff away from me.
- Stabler: Matter, Cole? You don't like tripping down memory lane?
- Cole Roderick: No, I don't like liars. You PhotoShopped all that.
- Stabler: Well, we sure as hell didn't fake these. Read 'em. They're crime stories. Read 'em. They're yours. Even after you killed Josie, she still helped us nail your ass to the wall.
- Cole Roderick: I'm a provider. They come to me as refugees from Babylon.
- Stabler: Babylon?
- Cole Roderick: Yeah, your world. Where drones work McJobs and have no idea what it is to really be free. Where adults prey on children for sex behind closed doors. I set them free.
- Stabler: You make them rob and murder for you.
- Cole Roderick: Whatever they do, they do to support the only real father they have ever known.
- Stabler: You've got some set on you saying you're a real father.
- Cole Roderick: My father was a violent bastard who used to pound on me for laughs, okay? It was run or die. I've been on the streets my whole life. I understand my kids because they're just like me.
- Stabler: They're your pawns. You're a sociopath.
- Cole Roderick: [stands up] And you're a hypocrite!
- Stabler: Sit down.
- Cole Roderick: You lock up your kids and you call that love. I give them real love. Freedom to be themselves, freedom from the abuse.
- Stabler: Yeah, and if they cross you, you kill them.
- Cole Roderick: If someone threatened your family, wouldn't you kill to protect them?
- Benson: Cole got twenty-five years for each murder, consecutive.
- Stabler: Life without parole. Sounds about right.
- Cassidy Cornell/Helen Braidwell: They never had any time for me except to boss me around. 'Don't slouch dear, eat your vegetables, call your tutor, get to your lessons, keep up your grades or you won't get into a good college!' They smothered me with their rules.
- Stabler: They were acting like parents.
- Cassidy Cornell/Helen Braidwell: No, I'm a parent and I would never act that way!
- Stabler: Right, and now six people are dead.
- Stabler: Everything out of your mouth has been a lie. Here's the truth: you stood around while Cole busted heads. You're not responsible? You're not an uptown girl, you're not a street kid, so who the hell are you?
- Helen Braidwell: Does it make you feel like a big, tough guy? Boss people around and flash your little badge like it actually means something? Well, guess what, man? It means nothing!
- Benson: [to Cassidy] Shelby must have seen you in the park that night. You freaked out. You knew that she was gonna blast your fantasy life to pieces.
- Stabler: She didn't call Cole a stupid fag, hmm? You just told him she did because you knew he'd fall for it.
- Benson: You had to stop her from running back to school and saying that she saw Helen wearing rags in Central Park. 'cause you knew your parents would come looking for you.
- Helen Braidwell: I didn't want to go back. My life was a living hell.
- Stabler: Hell? With a cook and a chauffeur?
- Helen Braidwell: You don't understand.
- Benson: No, I don't understand a girl who has everything lying about being raped.
- Cole Roderick: I would never hurt Cassidy. I loved her.
- Benson: But what you loved wasn't real. She lied to you - about everything. She disrespected you.
- Novak: You're going to jail for the rest of your life. Why should we believe you?
- Cole Roderick: Because I'm not denying that I murdered six people. I may have been a strict parent, but I never lied.
Background information and notes[]
- Streetwise is the title of a photojournalist book by celebrated investigative photographer Mary Ellen Mark. She documented the homeless scenes, specifically of the children, and made namesake documentaries detailing her experiences of gathering such records of street life. She's also the inspiration for Paige Beddels.
- To get Josie to cooperate, Cragen suggests Benson and Stabler offer her something to eat, saying "interventions aren't always pretty". Though never mentioned on-screen, it's possible that, as a recovering alcoholic, Cragen is speaking from experience.
- At the start a sniper is seen placing his scope to his eye. This is wrong because to see through the scope you need to place you eye slightly behind the scope as recoil will push the rifle back into your eye.
- In the beginning, we see through the scope of a man with a rifle targeting a head shot on a woman. It is then revealed that he is playing paint ball. Paint ball players are taught to never target head shots with paintball guns since they still have quite a bit of force behind them and could seriously injure or blind someone if shot in the head.
- Actor Latham Gaines played a main role in Power Rangers Dino Thunder which also had a character called Cassidy Cornell.
Episode scene cards[]
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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Crawford Residence |
Rehearsal Loft of |
Big Jerry's Pawnshop |
New York Youth |
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
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Felding's Warehouse |
Trial Part 46 |
Rikers Island |
Trial Part 46 |
Previous episode: "Snitch" |
"Streetwise" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 9 |
Next episode: "Signature" |