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"Taboo"
SVU, Episode 7.14
Production number: 07014
First aired: 17 January 2006
  th of 502 produced in SVU  
th of 502 released in SVU
  th of 1271 released in all  
Everett Drake & Ella Christiansen
Written By
Dawn DeNoon

Directed By
Arthur W. Forney

Summary[]

A college co-ed's tale of rape and an unknown pregnancy is suspected after detectives learn that she's been linked to not one, but two abandoned newborns.

Plot[]

A girl is running after her dog, when the dog is finally caught, it has afterbirth in its mouth. The girl and some passersby couple trace the afterbirth to the trash where they hear a baby crying. A baby boy is found and taken to the hospital where Benson and Stabler are getting his stats.

Evidence leads them to a college student, who claims she was never pregnant. After interrogation, she passes out as she is leaving and is taken to the hospital where Benson finds out she was indeed pregnant and had gotten an infection from leftover traces of the afterbirth in the uterus. However, she claims she never knew that she was pregnant until the day she gave birth. She confessed to Benson that she was raped, but refused to give up the name of the father.

After word leaked out to the media that she tossed a baby in the trash, the SVU detectives puts in their resources to figure out the case. Cragen then reveals that she was linked to another case of a child tossed in the trash, leaving them to assume that she lied about the rape, and is instead a serial baby killer. After interviewing other people that she was connected to trying to figure out who the father was, Doctor Warner reveals that her father and the baby's father are the same person. A paternity test later reveals that her abandoned children were the result of an incestuous relationship with her father.

In the end, she is acquitted of all charges by reason of mental illness/defect, and her father is permanently barred from having any contact with his son/grandson. However, he remains determined to claim the child.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Guest cast[]

References[]

Quotes[]

Dr. Palshikar: His umbilical cord was clamped off with this, or he'd have bled to death.
Benson: "Gourmet Coffee."
Stabler: Well, I guess he interrupted breakfast.

Stabler: [holding the baby's hand] Welcome to the world there, tough guy.

Tutuola: [about a homeless woman who believed she was pregnant] A fruitcake with baby fever.

Stabler: You look just like him.
Ella Christiansen: Who?
Stabler: Your son.
Ella Christiansen: I don't... this... I don't have a son.
Stabler: Carried him nine months. You didn't want him, you had legal options. You have a problem with abortion, that's your choice. I understand that. There's adoption. You chose to give birth!
Ella Christiansen: You have the wrong person.
Stabler: You chose to walk six blocks with him. Right past a firehouse! A hospital where, under safe haven laws, you could've just left him anonymously!
Ella: Why are you yelling at me?
Stabler: Because you tossed him in the trash, like the garbage you are! All the choices... how is that even an option?

Cragen: Interrogation 101: Overcoming resistance through compassion.
Stabler: I can't. Not with this one.
Benson: It's Saturday.
Stabler: Holding that kid, she just...threw away.
Cragen: Kathy still has custody.
Stabler: It's my weekend and the day's half gone. I'm still here.
Benson: Look, Captain. DNA's gonna close the case on this one.
Cragen: [to Stabler] Go on. Be with your kids.

Benson: You cold?
Ella Christiansen: Yeah.
Benson: Then why are you sweating?

[about Ella]
Cragen: What about the DNA test?
Novak: We can't get one now.
Cragen: Why?
Novak: CSU found nothing. Not so much as an e-mail mention or a baby-related Google search on her computer.
Cragen: What about her mattress?
Novak: No blood, no amniotic fluid, nothing.
Cragen: Then she either did an amazing cleanup job or used a plastic sheet and got rid of it somewhere else.

Benson: [to Ella] Are you okay?
Ella Christiansen: Cramps. I think I'm getting my period. I really have to go. [walks out the door]
Benson: [as she follows Ella] You know, women don't get their period for six to eight weeks after giving birth.
Ella Christiansen: Then I wish I had given birth then.

[after Ella passes out and is taken to the hospital]
Benson: [to Dr. Aiken] Hey, how is she doing?
Dr. Marnie Aiken: She'll be fine, thanks to you. It's a good thing you brought her in when you did.
Benson: Complications from childbirth?
Dr. Marnie Aiken: I'm afraid I can't tell.
benson: Well, you examined her. Isn't it obvious if she just gave birth?
Dr. Marnie Aiken: You're misunderstanding me. I'm saying I can't tell you. I'd be breaching doctor-patient privilege.
Benson: You examined a suspect earlier right in front of me.
Dr. Marnie Aiken: I had that patient's consent. And if I remember correctly, you were equally convinced that woman was guilty of a crime she didn't commit.
Benson: This is crazy. I had a court order in the works right before she passed out.
Dr. Marnie Aiken: That's all I need. Come and find me when you have it.

Benson: Ella, why didn't you go to the doctor earlier to have this baby?
Ella Christiansen: I had no idea I was pregnant.
Benson: Missing your period for nine months wasn't a clue?
Ella Christiansen: I swear, I had no idea. I didn't know.
Benson: You had to have figured it out at some point.
Ella Christiansen: No, not until it came out of me.
Benson: And you just panicked.
Ella Christiansen: It doesn't seem real. It just couldn't be real. And I didn't see why I was still being punished.
Benson: For having sex?
Ella Christiansen: For being raped.

Novak: Why haven't you arrested Ella Christensen?
Benson: She's not going anywhere. I have a guard on her at the hospital. I just wanted to look into this rape allegation.
Novak: She never reported being raped.
Benson: 60% of women don't.
Novak: And a bigger percent aren't looking at attempted murder in the second degree.

Cragen: This nutcase is a serial baby-killer.

Munch: What did she say happened to the baby?
NJ Detective: She disposed of it herself.
Tutuola: For future reference, that's called Murder Two.

Ella Christiansen: What's gonna happen to it?
Benson: Your baby? Well, thanks to the media attention, ACS is getting flooded with calls. His future's looking up.
Ella Christiansen: I'm sorry.
Benson: You're only sorry because you got caught. You got lying down to a science, don't you? That one about you being raped? That was a good one.

[about Ella]
Morton Berger: My client doesn't have as much as a parking ticket!
Novak: I'm sure if she did, she'd just throw it in the trash along with her babies.

Judge Lois Preston: As I believe the defendant is not a threat to anyone but her own offspring, the court is requesting that in exchange for a lower bail amount, she does not get pregnant again before the trail.
Morton Berger: That's unconstitutional!
Judge Preston: I'm not ordering that she be sterilized, Mr. Berger. But if you do become pregnant again, young lady, you will be found in contempt of this court. And bail will be rescinded.
Morton Berger: Your Honor has no right to legislate procreation.
Judge Preston: You think you can manage to comply with that order, Ms. Christiansen?
Ella Christiansen: ...I don't know.
Judge Preston: Bail is set at $2 million. Cash or bond.

[about Ella]
Dr. Huang: I think she's suffering from postpartum psychosis.
Benson: Giving birth made her crazy.
Dr. Huang: It's a hormonal imbalance stemming from pregnancy. Its onset can be quick and severe. Its symptoms include agitation, hallucinations, delusions...
Cragen: The Andrea Yates defense.
Benson: Look, the only thing making this girl crazy is the baby's father. I don't know what part he played, but I know that he's involved.

Benson: I'm sorry to be rude, Mrs. Drake. I just got a little upset when I saw your husband working on a third baby to kill. Did you tell your wife that her grandson is also her stepson?
Mrs. Drake: What?
Benson: Your husband's been cheating on you. With his own daughter.

Benson: How did it start, Ella?
Ella Christiansen: Do you have any idea what it's like to wonder who your father is your whole life?
Benson: What do you mean?
Ella Christiansen: I mean what does he look like? What does he do? Does he ever think about me on my birthday? On Christmas? Ever? I mean I never even knew his name. Do you have any idea what that feels like?
Benson: Yes.
Ella Christiansen: My mother could not stand the sound of my laugh. She said it was just like his and I mean, she always ignored me. But if I asked about him, then she wouldn't even talk to me for days. She'd...
Benson: She took what he did to her out on you.
Ella Christiansen: [crying] He didn't do anything to her. She just didn't want him. She didn't want him like she didn't want me.
Benson: Ella, I'm sure that that's not true.
Ella Christiansen: I knew she'd never love me. Just like I knew he always would.
Benson: You had never met him. You idealized him.

Benson: Ella was just telling me how you two lovebirds met.
Everett Drake: She showed up at my office pretending to be one of my constituents.
Benson: Oh, so she tricked you.
Everett Drake: She didn't tell me she was my daughter.
Benson: Well, how did you figure it out? Was it the first time you had sex with her?
Everett Drake: Before.
Benson: You're a sick man, Mr. Drake.
Everett Drake: We couldn't help it!
Benson: She's your daughter!
Everett Drake: I saw her as a woman, not as my child.
Benson: You took advantage of a young girl's desperate need for her father's love.
Everett Drake: You think I'm proud of this? You think this is something that I wanted to have happen? My life is ruined!
Benson: Well, it wouldn't have been if you'd succeeded in getting rid of baby number two.
Everett Drake: I wish to God Ella had told me about him. I would never have let her do it.
Benson: You can't still be claiming that you didn't know she was pregnant.
Everett Drake: I didn't.
Benson: Wow. Denial really does run in your family.

[about Everett Drake]
Benson: Arrest him for the incest.
Novak: Even if Jersey weren't outside our jurisdiction, it's a hard case to make.
Benson: [while looking at Ella and Everett] Take a picture! That's your case.
Novak: It was consensual sex between adults.
Benson: Adult incest isn't a crime?
Novak: Not a sex crime. Under New York penal code, it's listed right next to adultery as an offense affecting the marital relationship.
Benson: That's insane.
Novak: It's an "E" felony. He'd get probation.
Benson: He should rot in jail!
Novak: They'd have to try Ella as well. She committed the same crime.
Benson: So get him on attempted murder. I know that he's involved in this.
Novak: He has a solid alibi. We can't make him legally culpable just because we want him to be.
Benson: So Ella gets put away for attempted murder and he gets off scot-free? [looks at Ella and Everett again] Look at them.

Novak: Did you or did you not tell Detective Benson that your relationship with Ella was completely consensual?
Everett Drake: I was facing criminal charges and lied to cover my ass.
Novak: And now you're lying to cover Ella's.

Benson to Ella: So I think that I understand what you went through growing up. I could never understand my mother's inability to love me. Until after I learned the truth about myself.

[after Ella is found not guilty of attempted murder due by reason of insanity]
Benson: I think she had to be crazy, don't you think? She did what Everett told her to do.
Novak: I don't know. But I bet she'll have the hospital convinced that she's cured in a year or so.
Benson: Then back to Daddy.

Benson: Your father was involved somehow, wasn't he?
Ella Christiansen: No.
Benson: Ella, the trial is over. Double jeopardy is in play. No matter what you tell me now, you cannot be retried for attempted murder charges. Do you understand that? [Ella doesn't answer her] You know, I never knew my father either.
Ella Christiansen: What?
Benson: I have no idea who he is. To this day. My mother never told me about him until after I grew up.
Ella Christiansen: Why not?
Benson: I'm the product of my mother's rape.
Ella Christiansen: Oh, my God.
Benson: So I think that I understand what you went through growing up. I could never understand my mother's inability to love me. Until after I learned the truth about myself.
Ella Christiansen: Why are you telling me this?
Benson: Because I understand the desire to get rid of the constant reminder of your own rape. That's what I was to my own mother.
Ella Christiansen: I'm sorry.
Benson: That's what happened to you, isn't it? You just couldn't face it.
Ella Christiansen: No, I wasn't raped.
Benson: Yes, you were.
Ella Christiansen: No.
Benson: Did your father tell you to get rid of them?
Ella Christiansen: Everett had nothing to do with it. He never even knew about it.
Benson: He had to. He had to have helped you!
Ella Christiansen: No, he didn't! I got rid of them myself! I just thought if I just ignored them, they'd just go away, and... and, like, it never happened. But then once they were born, I couldn't ignore them because they just kept screaming and crying and screaming and they were... that's why I threw them away and then they really didn't exist anymore.

Drake: I can give him a home. And love. He belongs with his father.
Novak: But not with his grandfather. Hand the baby to Detective Benson or you will be placed under arrest.

Background information and notes[]

Episode scene cards[]

1 2 3 4

Gourmet Coffee Shop
108 West 91st Street
Friday, December 9

Einstein's Bar
581 Columbus Avenue
Friday, December 9

Manhattan Institute
Of Technology
602 Columbus Avenue
Saturday, December 10

Bellevue Hospital
Emergency Room
Saturday, December 10

5 6 7 8

Drake Residence
12829 Carter Avenue
Newark, New Jersey
Monday, December 12

Arraignment
Part 22
Monday, December 12

Trial Part 13
Wednesday, January 11

New York State
Facility for
Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Thursday, January 12

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