"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" Contagious (2005)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Aaron Lipstadt

Writer:

Jonathan Greene (writer)

TV Series:

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

Original Air Date:

11 January 2005 (Season 6, Episode 11)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

A medical exam after a car accident reveals a fourth-grader's sexual assault. The perpetrator is obvious -- but not as obvious as everyone thinks.

Plot Keywords:

Soccer | Soccer Coach | Detective John Munch | Little Girl | False Accusation

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 (credit only)
Dann Florek	...	Captain Donald Cragen
Mary Stuart Masterson	...	Dr. Rebecca Hendrix
David Lansbury	...	Larry Purcell
Jennette McCurdy	...	Holly Purcell
Pamela Stewart	...	Mrs. Purcell (as Pamela Holden Stewart)
Rebecca Lowman	...	Julie Dobbins
Peter Hermann	...	Trevor Langan
Daniel Hugh Kelly	...	Mark Dobbins
Zach Gilford	...	Kevin Wilcox

Company:

Wolf Films

Quotes:

[the case of a sexually abused girl is getting on Detective Stabler's nerves]
Detective Olivia Benson: You know, running away's not gonna help.
Detective Elliot Stabler: I'm a little beat for the dime store shrink routine right now.
Detective Olivia Benson: Elliot, that little girl is counting on you. You quit on her, and you're just another man she can't trust. That's not who you are.

Superb episode

There are some truly superb episode of "SVU", and this is one of them. I was fortunate enough to see it twice, and the second time it was even better than I had remembered.

Benson and Stabler are called in to hospital after Holly, a 9-year-old girl, brought in with her parents after a car accident, is found also to have been recently sexually assaulted. This seemed to be one of the most powerful victim portrayals in the way the character was written and acted (very well by Jennette McCurdy). Holly was scared, she fought, she cried, she lied, and it was absolutely heart-breaking watching her try to name her attacker.

Once the team think they have found her abuser, they feel they are doing the right thing when two other girls come forward and say they have been abused too. An investigation into the man begins, and the team doesn't have a doubt that they are doing absolutely the right thing.

In some ways the episode's ending is positive, but it's also incredibly sad. It shows a different victims that can be present after abuse accusations. I don't want to give anything away, but there is a typical "Law and Order" twist. A stunning episode.