Selfish (Season 10, Episode 19)
Premise: A missing baby’s young mother looks guilty until the girl turns out to have died of measles, and Cabot puts the mother who refused to vaccinate her own son on trial.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 10, Episode 19
- 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), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), Defense Attorney Trevor Langan (Peter Hermann), CSU Ryan O’Halloran (Mike Doyle), CSU Tech Dale Stuckey (Noel Fisher)
- Guest stars
- Hilary Duff as Ashlee Walker, Gail O’Grady as Ruth Walker, Mike Pniewski as Ralph Walker, Anastasia Barzee as Monica Stewart, Annie Potts as Sophie Devere
- Ripped from the headlines
- Initial reports linked the episode to the case of Caylee Anthony, an Orlando, Florida, toddler whose grandmother reported her missing in July 2008 after not seeing her for a month; executive producer Neal Baer cautioned viewers that the story was not what it seemed.
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Mick Betancourt
Summary
“Selfish” begins when Ruth Walker tells Benson and Stabler that she has not seen her 11-month-old granddaughter, Sierra, for four days, and that the car her daughter, Ashlee, borrowed for a weekend in Atlantic City smells of death. Ashlee, hosing out the trunk, blames spoiled meat and says a sitter named Maria has the baby, but the address she gives leads nowhere. A woman named Maria Fernandez, found in Tompkins Square Park pushing a doll she treats as her son, never watched Sierra, and security video shows Ashlee buying a shovel and tarp with Maria’s stolen credit card. Ashlee insists the shovel was a gift for her father, Ralph, a recovering alcoholic who adores Sierra, while Ruth admits she recently hit her daughter. Ashlee is arrested for the card theft, and Ralph hires attorney Sophie Devere, who holds a press conference accusing the police of persecuting the family.
Soil on the shovel holds petroleum residue, and Ralph, drinking again, picks out a gas station site on a map where he used to collect Ashlee after nights of drinking. There, CSU finds Sierra’s body, though technician Dale Stuckey has tipped off reporters. At the arraignment, Cabot adds a murder charge, but Warner finds that Sierra died of encephalitis from measles; she had not been vaccinated and showed no signs of abuse. Cabot offers Ashlee a lesser charge with community service, therapy and alcohol treatment, and Ashlee confesses that she spanked her feverish daughter, found her dead the next morning and buried her in a panic. She is then told about the measles.
The squad traces the outbreak through an Amish teenager, Dennis Faber, to a park and a birthday party, and then to Monica Stewart, whose four-year-old son, Lucas, had measles weeks earlier. Monica refuses vaccination on principle. After Ashlee sues the city and the case makes national news, the district attorney has Monica arrested.
Spoiler, the ending: At trial, Trevor Langan defends Monica’s right to choose, gets Warner to concede that vaccines can rarely cause serious harm and notes that no law forced Monica to immunize her son. On the stand, Monica blames Ashlee. The jury acquits her of criminally negligent homicide, Ruth erupts in court, and Ruth then files a civil suit against Monica. Ashlee and Ruth later throw a brick through Monica’s window and shout for her to come out, and Ruth urges Ralph to teach her a lesson. Ralph points a gun at Monica, tells her she has now killed two people and shoots himself.
Why it stands out
- Hilary Duff plays Ashlee Walker, and Annie Potts returns as defense attorney Sophie Devere.
- Executive producer Neal Baer later singled out the episode for raising the question of a parent’s duty not only to their own child but to other people’s children.