A Single Life (Season 1, Episode 2)
Premise: A writer’s fatal fall from her apartment window leads the detectives to her psychologist, a TV anchor and a father whose abuse she spent her adult life escaping.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 1, Episode 2
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Monique Jeffries (Michelle Hurd), Det. Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek)
- Guest stars
- Dennis Boutsikaris as Dr. Mark Daniels, Laila Robins as Ellen Travis, Michael Nouri as Dallas Warner, Paul Hecht as Robert Sidarsky, Angie Harmon as ADA Abbie Carmichael
- Director
- Lesli Linka Glatter
- Writers
- Story: John Chambers & Wendy West; Written by: Miriam Kazdin
Summary
“A Single Life” begins when a young woman crashes through her eighth-floor window on East 82nd Street and lands on a parked car, half-dressed. Her apartment shows no forced entry, just two half-finished glasses of wine and a pack of condoms. Benson and Stabler learn that the victim, freelance writer Gretchen Quinn, left her emergency contact blank, barely knew her neighbors and saw psychologist Dr. Mark Daniels twice a week. Meanwhile, Stabler testifies against a professor accused of groping a subway rider who turned out to be dead.
Daniels cites confidentiality but names a sister, Ellen Travis, in Denver. The medical examiner finds every injury came from the fall and no sign of forced sex. A print on a wine glass matches Daniels, and with his brother acting as his lawyer he claims a brief lunchtime visit and an evening dinner with a fellow therapist, who backs him. A pricey restaurant bill leads to married network anchor Dallas Warner, who has an alibi with his wife. A bartender saw Quinn crying beside him days earlier, and Warner, refusing to talk to Benson, tells Stabler that Quinn met him for a drink and said she was sleeping with her psychiatrist, but he will not repeat it to a grand jury.
An overdue Sylvia Plath book from Patterson High School gives the victim’s real name, Susan Sidarsky. Daniels then reveals she told him her father sexually abused her from age 13, that she ran once she graduated, and that her relationships were anonymous and joyless, and he admits he betrayed her trust by sleeping with her. Ellen, who claims their father is dead, has not spoken to her sister in over 20 years and plans to sign the release forms and fly home. A records search shows Susan never touched a trust fund worth about $3.5 million that her father, Robert Sidarsky, manages from his sneaker company in New Jersey, where he lives with a new wife and a 10-year-old daughter. Over a quiet drink, Cragen tells Benson about losing his wife, Marge, a flight attendant, in a plane crash, and urges her to think like the victim.
Benson persuades Ellen to stay by warning her about the half-sister she never knew she had.
Spoiler, the ending: With the detectives listening, Ellen confronts her father, accuses him of abusing both daughters, and says she will take her story to a New Jersey grand jury. She then reads him an obituary Susan wrote herself and mailed to Denver, announcing her suicide and naming Warner, Daniels and her father as the men she held responsible. The death is revealed as a suicide, and no charges are brought on screen.
Why it stands out
- Angie Harmon makes a special appearance as ADA Abbie Carmichael, her character from Law & Order.
- Cragen reveals that his wife, Marge, a flight attendant, died in a plane crash, and speaks of his struggle not to drink.