Ballerina (Season 10, Episode 16)
Premise: When a landlord linked to a double murder falls from his Park Avenue window, suspicion turns to his wife, a retired dancer, and the younger man she calls her nephew.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 10, Episode 16
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Sgt. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), CSU Tech Dale Stuckey (Noel Fisher)
- Guest stars
- Carol Burnett as Birdie Sulloway, Matthew Lillard as Chet, Vincent Curatola as Marv Sulloway, Robert Klein as Dwight Stannich, Yuval Boim as Efraim Iskiwitz
- Director
- Peter Leto
- Writers
- Daniel Truly
Summary
“Ballerina” begins with a man killed by a bullet fired through his apartment wall. Next door, Benson and Stabler find Tisa Flores raped and shot and her boyfriend, Alejandro Reyes, dead with the gun in his hand. New CSU technician Dale Stuckey calls it a murder-suicide, but Alejandro was left-handed and a hole in the wall sits too high for either victim. An ear print in the closet points to a third man who lay in wait. Tisa worked at the Bailarina Room, a taxi dance club in a building held in the name of Birdie Sulloway, a former dancer who lives on Park Avenue with her husband, Marv, and Chet, whom she calls her nephew. Marv denies knowing the victims.
Efraim Iskiwitz, a customer smitten with Tisa, is cleared by his ear print and says Marv was always after her. Birdie then visits Benson, calls Marv a drunken bully and says she plans to divorce him. Chet, she explains, is really a late friend’s son whom she raised, and most of her four earlier husbands were bad men; the third, Philip, was swept overboard on their honeymoon. She leaves behind a pen Marv chews, which yields his DNA. Before he can be arrested, Marv falls from the penthouse. Stuckey finds his thumbprints pointing down on the frame, as if he had his back to the opening, Warner matches his ear print to the closet and his blood is full of a tricyclic antidepressant.
Birdie, who has shunned doctors and pills since her father died in a hospital, admits that she and Chet became lovers when he was 18. Told that Birdie is talking, Chet breaks: he saw a pill bottle near the martinis, and Marv was emptying his safe into a duffel bag when he and Birdie began to fight. Her prints are on Marv’s glass and the pill bottle, and she is charged with murder. Her lawyer, Dwight Stannich, plans an extreme emotional disturbance defense, but Huang spots neurological symptoms, and a scan finds cancer spread from her lung; she has months to live.
Spoiler, the ending: Birdie tells Huang that Philip died in her arms, which does not fit his loss at sea. All five of her husbands turn out to have died in accidents or apparent suicide, and each had a criminal record. Birdie claims all five killings but points out that she was out of state for one death and could not have cut a brake line. Chet comes to her bedside, admits helping with Marv and the others, and says he would do it all again. Birdie then tells him he is going away, reminding him that he never learned not to cross her.
Why it stands out
- Carol Burnett plays Birdie Sulloway; many of the dance credits Birdie mentions are highlights of Burnett’s own career, and the role earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
- Noel Fisher makes his first appearance as Dale Stuckey, who introduces himself at the opening crime scene as the unit’s new CSU technician.
- Matthew Lillard plays Chet, and Vincent Curatola plays Marv Sulloway.