Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Part 33 (2019)

Peter Scanavino: Detective Dominick 'Sonny' Carisi, Jr.

Quotes 

• Odafin Tutuola : [to Carisi]  Look, man, we can only do our job.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : What, that's all this is to you?

  Odafin Tutuola : Yeah. I get up in the morning and I get dressed. I come to the office. After that, I go home. At the end of the week, I get a check and the check clears. That's called a job.

• Amanda Rollins : Okay, you know what? It's not all on us, though, Carisi. We do our part, but the rest is up to a judge and jury.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : All right, so what happens upstairs, that doesn't concern you at all?

  Odafin Tutuola : The short and sweet is fine with me.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Oh, please, give me a break. This from the guy who flew to Cuba on his own nickel to catch a fugitive rapist.

  [to Rollins] 

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : And you, with that Labott girl...

  Odafin Tutuola : Enough. Carisi, have a donut.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Are you telling me that you never even think about this? I mean, the the responsibility? The... the power that we have? I mean, I could get up on that stand and I could lie. I could say, "Yeah, Annabeth told me" she planned on killing Thomas for the past six months. Now, I do that, she is done. No question. Or I could say I don't recall. I don't recall to anything that Stone asks me, and maybe she gets to live a nice, peaceful, safe life in a Chelsea apartment.

  Amanda Rollins : Or door number three, you tell the truth.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : All I'm saying is It's a lot of power. And who the hell are we?

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : Lieu, I'm sorry. I'm not feeling okay about this case, okay? Maybe I feel like SOBs like Tommy Pearl get exactly what they deserve.

  Amanda Rollins : When a cop gets killed, it's an itch I can't scratch.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : He's a cop who abused his wife!

  Amanda Rollins : With his words. Annabeth didn't have to listen.

  Olivia Benson : Look, guys, stop. Stop. And law without empathy doesn't help anyone, Rollins.

  Amanda Rollins : I... I'm all about empathy. Come on, it's... it's coming out of my ears. For eight years, I'm drowning in it.

• Amanda Rollins : You know what, I've got one question for you: Why didn't she walk out the door? Why didn't she leave the damn bastard?

  Olivia Benson : Are you kidding me, Amanda?

  Amanda Rollins : No! For it to be a justifiable homicide, there had to be an imminent threat of death or or serious physical harm, right? And was Tommy about to beat Annabeth? No. Was he about to rape her? No! You know how I know that? Because that's what she told you.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : When I was in the bag, I took a domestic disturbance call. All right? Craig and Ellen Carter. Their neighbor was complaining because they were screaming at each other all night. They were cursing. So I show up. I calm everybody down and do, you know, what we're supposed to do. And I'm looking at this guy and I can just see in his eyes. And he's got that smirk, you know? So I take Ellen outside, and I say, "Listen. Listen, you've gotta stand up for yourself." I told her that she needed to leave this guy, but there's no signs of physical violence, so that's that's all I can do. A month later, I get another call. The same house, same complaint. Only this time Craig is taking her head and bashing it against the wall, and she's dead. So don't you stand there and say that all she had to do was walk out the damn door!

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : [after speaking with a janitor]  Sometimes I wish I had a job like that guy.

  Amanda Rollins : Oh, so you could listen to cops bitch all day long?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Something without consequence.

  Olivia Benson : Think what you mean to say is that you wish that you weren't cursed with a conscience.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, it's definitely a burden. It also makes us human.

  Amanda Rollins : Unless you're a sociopath.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Oh, come on. You... you actually think that Annabeth is a sociopath?

  Amanda Rollins : I think she knew what she was doing, and I think she didn't care.

  Olivia Benson : Or she didn't see another way out.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, there we go.

  Amanda Rollins : Well, luckily we don't have to read her mind.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : But we do, Rollins. Eighty grand a year and we get to determine who's spending the rest of their life in a cage and who's gonna eat dinner at Del Frisco's.

  Amanda Rollins : Worrying about it is way above our pay grade.

  Olivia Benson : We do worry about it. At least at least we usually do.

  Amanda Rollins : Yeah? You never wanted to put a couple of pops between some guy's eyes? I mean, you know, 'cause I've wanted to, and I... I would have really enjoyed it. But I didn't.

  Olivia Benson : Because you knew that it was wrong.

  Amanda Rollins : Because I knew the consequences and I chose not to.

  Olivia Benson : [stands up and gets in Rollins' face]  And maybe she didn't have that luxury!

  Amanda Rollins : Annabeth chose it. She chose to end that man's life. She chose to take someone's life. To break the law. It's free will. I mean, come on, we all learn about it in Sunday school.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're... we're free, all right. We're free to believe in the guy upstairs or not. It's like a perjury trap.

  Amanda Rollins : Okay, all we have to do is go up on the stand and say what happened! There's no choices! There's no consequences to you!

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : They put a crown of thorns on Jesus, but that did not make him king.

  Amanda Rollins : [to Olivia]  What is he talking about?

  Olivia Benson : And neither does our shield.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : But what we say in that courtroom, Lieutenant, how we say it, this... this game could be over before it starts.

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : There was an EMS team on the scene. They determined that she sustained no physical injuries. They also said that she was in shock.

  Stella Russell : Did the paramedic indicate how long she was in shock?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : They didn't say anything about that, but it's it's possible that she was in shock before she fired that weapon.

  Stella Russell : Before?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, it's not unusual...

  Peter Stone : Objection.

  Judge : It's your witness, Counselor. Overruled.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : It's not uncommon for a victim to go into survival mode once they've been threatened. She may not have known what she was doing.

  Stella Russell : One more thing, Detective. This isn't exactly what the room looked like when you went into it, is it?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Uh, no. The television was on.

  Stella Russell : I'm confused. The apartment's not that big. If the TV was on when you walked in the front door, I think you would have heard it.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, the TV was on, but the volume was muted.

  Stella Russell : Almost as if Tommy and Annabeth spoke before she shot him.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : I wouldn't know about that.

  Stella Russell : But they might have, right? In fact, it is possible that Tommy said, "I love you, sweetie."

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, it's possible. It's also possible he said, "You ruined my dinner, bitch. Now I'm gonna kill you."

  Peter Stone : Your Honor!

  Stella Russell : Nothing further.

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : I knew Tommy, you know?

  Amanda Rollins : Who?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Thomas Pearl. The deceased. I knew him in the Academy. Once a prick, always a prick.

  Amanda Rollins : That explains a lot.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : And this son of a bitch was in the world for himself.

  Amanda Rollins : Not anymore he's not.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : This guy, he... he never picked up a tab in his life. He never paid off his bets. He was this... this macho piece of crap who was always bragging about how he cheated on his girlfriend. Thought a woman's place was behind a desk.

  Amanda Rollins : Yeah, him and how many other cops?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Come on, it's not like that anymore.

  Amanda Rollins : Oh, yeah? It's not? Good to know.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Wait, somebody's been screwing with you?

  Amanda Rollins : Oh, forget it, Carisi. Look, the guy may have been a dick, but if he's gonna take a bullet, it deserves to be from some... some yahoo hocking heroin or robbing a bank or something. Not from his wife.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Why? Because she promised to honor, cherish, and obey him?

  Amanda Rollins : Because he's a cop.

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : This room gives me the willies.

  Odafin Tutuola : The belly of the beast.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, well, my belly feels like the professor's about to hand out the final exam.

  Amanda Rollins : It's Annabeth that should be nervous, not you.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : This is wrong.

  Amanda Rollins : Don't go all Liv on us, all right? The woman shot her husband because he didn't like her dinner.

  Odafin Tutuola : Life should be so easy.

  Amanda Rollins : Come on, not you, too.

  Odafin Tutuola : I don't judge. Is it hot in here?

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Hell always is.

  Amanda Rollins : Yeah, he is. He's going full Liv.

  Odafin Tutuola : Somebody has to.