Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Hammered (2009)

Dann Florek: Captain Donald 'Don' Cragen

Quotes 

• Captain Donald Cragen : I've been sober over twenty years. But I struggle with it every day. It's not something you ever get over.

• Olivia Benson : Please, people do bad things because they're bad people. Getting drunk to do it is just an excuse.

  Executive A.D.A. Sonya Paxton : Olivia, finally, we agree on something.

  Captain Donald Cragen : Liv, if there had been a cure a decade ago, your mom might still be alive.

  Executive A.D.A. Sonya Paxton : [to Olivia]  Wait, Mommy liked her cocktail or...?

  Olivia Benson : My mother was a falling-down drunk. She died going down a flight of stairs.

  [walks away] 

• Captain Donald Cragen : [to Olivia and Elliot]  Now, what part of taking a killer rapist on a field trip sounded like a bright idea?

  John Munch : Dalton wasn't technically under...

  Captain Donald Cragen : Zip it, John. They are perfectly capable of making their own half-assed excuses.

• Executive A.D.A. Sonya Paxton : [about Dalton's alcoholism]  What a load of crap. It's not that he couldn't stop. He just didn't want to.

  Captain Donald Cragen : It's not that cut and dry, Sonya. Alcoholism is a recognized addiction.

  Executive A.D.A. Sonya Paxton : That millions of people have successfully overcome.

  Captain Donald Cragen : I've been sober over 20 years, but I struggle with it every day. It's not something you ever overcome.

  Executive A.D.A. Sonya Paxton : But you're not drinking, are you? Proving my point. Alcohol is just a crutch for weak-willed, pathetic losers.

  Captain Donald Cragen : How many coffees and cigarettes you have today, Sonya?

  Executive A.D.A. Sonya Paxton : [scoffs]  Oh, please. I can quit anytime I want and if I committed a felony, I wouldn't trot them out like the old Twinkie defense.

• Captain Donald Cragen : [about Sonya]  SVU was too much for her. The pressure must have triggered her drinking.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Explains why she was such a control freak. White-knuckle drunk just hanging on by a thread.

  Olivia Benson : What a hypocrite.

  Captain Donald Cragen : She was a good lawyer with a bad problem.

  Olivia Benson : I definitely saw a lot of my mother in her.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Well, her career's over. There's no way she's coming back from this. I mean, she's a walking cluster...

  [Sonya walks in the room] 

• Bill Tattenger : Dalton was dripping flop sweat. You have no idea how crucial it was to instill the investors with confidence.

  Captain Donald Cragen : Of course I do. That's step number one in "The Idiot's Guide to Flimflamming."