Swing (Season 10, Episode 3)
Premise: When Stabler’s daughter is arrested after breaking into a stranger’s home, a bipolar diagnosis forces him to turn to the mother he has kept out of his life.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 10, Episode 3
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Kim Greylek (Michaela McManus)
- Guest stars
- Ellen Burstyn as Bernie Stabler, Allison Siko as Kathleen Stabler, CCH Pounder as Carolyn Maddox, Fiona Dourif as Det. Nikki Breslin, Isabel Gillies as Kathy Stabler
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Amanda Green
Summary
“Swing” begins when a young woman is found naked in the shower of a family’s home and flees when confronted. Benson calls Stabler to the scene because the wallet she left behind belongs to his 19-year-old daughter, Kathleen, a Hudson University student who wandered in from a party next door. They find her on the swings in Riverside Park, giddy and high; she says a girl gave her pills. Her roommate, Julia, says Kathleen has stopped going to class and names Mikki Braithwaite as her source. When Stabler searches Mikki, she reveals she is Det. Nikki Breslin, an undercover narcotics officer looking into campus overdoses, and says Kathleen uses cocaine and Valium.
Kathleen slips out of the family home and is found overdosed at an abandoned dry cleaner’s where students get high. A hospital doctor diagnoses bipolar disorder. The homeowners, the Fosters, then report a diamond pendant stolen, raising the case to burglary and grand larceny. Greylek says she cannot help but hints that a psychiatric admission would prevent an arrest. Stabler hires defense attorney Carolyn Maddox, but Kathleen refuses to admit she is ill and is arrested, and Benson stays with her through booking. Maddox wants to suggest Mr. Foster brought Kathleen inside himself, and then proposes showing a family history of the illness. Stabler visits his mother, Bernadette, a painter living by the ocean whom he has not seen in years. She denies being ill, and Stabler recalls the night she fired his father’s gun at them.
Stabler returns the pendant, which Kathleen did take, to the Fosters himself. At her arraignment Kathleen pleads not guilty, curses the judge and is sent to Rikers, and both Maddox and Kathy are furious with him. Benson meets Bernie, who shows her a photo of young Elliot dressed as a carrot for a pageant and says her husband, Joe, once had her committed and forcibly medicated after a fight, which she refuses to repeat. Even so, Bernie visits Kathleen in jail, tells her about a 1969 snowstorm drive that ended in a lamppost and a broken arm for Elliot, and urges her to take responsibility, asking her not to tell her father about the visit.
Spoiler, the ending: Kathleen pleads guilty to a reduced misdemeanor and agrees to inpatient psychiatric treatment and medication, telling the judge she knows she has a problem. The charge will be dismissed if she completes treatment, with a status check in six months. When Stabler wonders aloud what happened, Benson answers only with a joke about his carrot costume.
Why it stands out
- Ellen Burstyn won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for playing Stabler’s mother, Bernadette.
- Kathleen Stabler’s storyline follows on from the season premiere, “Trials,” in which she took her father’s credit card.
- CCH Pounder returns as defense attorney Carolyn Maddox, this time hired by Stabler.