"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" Charisma (2004)

Director:

Arthur W. Forney

Writers:

Dick Wolf (creator) and
Tara Butters (writer)

TV Series:

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1999)

Original Air Date:

16 November 2004 (Season 6, Episode 7)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

A career con artist, forger and thief turns to murder and serial pedophilia to populate the cult he created and get his hands on a multi-million dollar trust fund.

Plot Keywords:

Detective John Munch | Detective | Victim | Rape | Cop

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Jan. 5

1:00 PM

USA

Charisma

#6.7

Cast

Christopher Meloni	...	Detective Elliot Stabler
Mariska Hargitay	...	Detective Olivia Benson
Richard Belzer	...	Detective John Munch
Diane Neal	...	A.D.A. Casey Novak
Ice-T	...	Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola
B.D. Wong	...	Dr. George Huang
Dann Florek	...	Captain Donald Cragen
Jeff Kober	...	Abraham / Eugene Hoff
Shannon Cochran	...	Cindy Cramer / Sarah
John Ortiz	...	Officer Zermeño
Peter Maloney	...	Geoffrey Downs
Bruce Norris	...	Reg
Margaret Reed	...	Sarah's Attorney
Tamara Tunie	...	Dr. Melinda Warner
Holliston Coleman	...	Melanie Cramer

Company:

Kaledo Productions

Trivia:

In Memory of Emmy Ann Wooding (1947 - October 24, 2004). She died in a car accident and had worked at Universal Studios Television for thirty-seven years and was a longtime assistant at Wolf Films.

Quotes:

Detective Olivia Benson: [tosses the wallet onto the table in front of Sarah/Cindy] Recognize that? Cindy...
Sarah's Attorney: [Sarah/Cindy looks up at Benson, startled] Her name is Sarah, Detective... Get your cases straight.
Detective Olivia Benson: [points to the wallet] It belonged to John, your husband. The one you said abandoned you ten years ago.
[Sarah/Cindy is obviously confused. She picks up the wallet and looks at it]
Detective Olivia Benson: This is what's left of him. He was shot in the back of the head and buried in the wall in the house where you lived.
Sarah's Attorney: You're accusing my client of murder?
Detective Olivia Benson: No. Just of being stupid. And gullible. You know, it's interesting how Abraham only surrounds himself with women and girls. There's no men anywhere. I wonder if he didn't like the competition.
Cindy Cramer: [teary-eyed, shakes her head] No.
Detective Olivia Benson: No? He killed your husband. The father of your child. What exactly does he have to do for you to stop defending him?
Cindy Cramer: Abraham told me... that John fell in love with another woman. And I believe him.
[...]

One of the most suspenseful episodes of L&O: SVU History

It is episodes like this why I watch the show. The close-up shots of all four detectives as they looked at the children in the dark is gut-wrenching.

Meloni's acting was awesome in not "dealing" with his emotional issues from that scene wanting to get his psych eval "overwith". It was awesome seeing how that previous scene affected each of the detectives differently and the one person who we thought was a ROCK was sent home without a gun.

Mariska's scene confronting Sarah in the interrogation room, getting in her face, yelling, was awesome and very moving. Now THAT was what makes Mariska one of the best actresses out there! And the ending scene when Abraham says, "What are you going to do, detective? You going to shoot a pregnant child?" and her reply, "You son of a bitch." was dead on spot on awesome. The way she said that line was amazing and she delivered it with such power and such disgust. I was on the edge of my seat in the last few minutes of this episode not knowing how it was going to end.

The ending was awesome and everyone's acting jobs were spot-on worthy of nominations. THIS is why I watch the show. Awesome, disturbing and dramatic. Very powerful.