Retro (Season 10, Episode 5)
Premise: A baby abandoned with untreated AIDS leads SVU to a doctor who denies that HIV causes the disease, and to the families who followed his advice.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 10, Episode 5
- 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 Kim Greylek (Michaela McManus), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), TARU Ruben Morales (Joel de la Fuente)
- Guest stars
- Martin Mull as Dr. Gideon Hutton, Paula Malcomson as Susan Ross, Aidan Mitchell as Tommy Ross, Viola Davis as Donna Emmett, Donna Murphy as Dr. Raye Massey
- Director
- Peter Leto
- Writers
- Story: Joshua Kotcheff; Story & teleplay: Jonathan Greene
Summary
“Retro” opens when a cab driver, Mr. Marong, rushes a feverish five-month-old girl to a firehouse, saying a woman left her in his taxi. Dr. Raye Massey finds the baby has advanced AIDS that has never been treated. The cab’s camera was off, but Warner matches the baby’s DNA to Joanne Suarez, an inmate at Rikers, who says the girl is Antonia and that she left her with a downstairs neighbor, Ida Jallow. Ida admits that she and Marong, afraid of deportation, made up the cab story, and that because they distrust AIDS drugs they took Antonia to Dr. Gideon Hutton, who prescribed vitamins and yogurt. Hutton, an AIDS denier, insists AIDS is not caused by HIV and that drug companies profit from the fear.
Greylek appeals to the public on television, drawing a lawsuit threat from Hutton’s lawyer, Russell Hunter. An anonymous tip leads to Susan Ross, whose four-year-old daughter, Lisa, died two months earlier after Hutton gave her amoxicillin; he signed the death certificate, so there was no autopsy. A school bell heard on the tip call points to Jack Luftin, a teacher and Susan’s former boyfriend, who says she infected him with HIV, which she blamed on a transfusion after a 2003 safari crash in Kenya that killed her husband, and that she breastfed Lisa on Hutton’s advice. Lisa’s body is exhumed, Warner finds she died of a pneumonia she has seen only in AIDS patients, and Susan is arrested.
At trial, defense attorney Donna Emmett attacks Warner’s findings, Hutton calls HIV harmless, and Susan testifies that Hutton saved her life. When Greylek confronts her with long-term survivors on medication, Susan has a seizure on the stand. She is diagnosed with toxoplasmosis, a brain infection of AIDS patients, tells investigators that Lisa was not Hutton’s only victim, and dies. Pharmacy records lead to two more children with HIV whom Hutton misdiagnosed. He pleads guilty to criminally negligent homicide and gives up his license, with Greylek recommending five years, and vows to keep preaching from prison. Lab records then show Susan tested positive in 1993, before her son, Tommy, was born.
Spoiler, the ending: Tommy refuses an HIV test, breaks two of Stabler’s ribs with a kick, and wins a restraining order through Emmett, hired by a group called Staying Strong. Stabler arrests him for assault so a judge will weigh in, but the judge rules that Tommy is mature enough to refuse, and Greylek drops the charge. Tommy then meets Kyle, a teenager whose Christian Scientist parents ignored his brain cancer until he went blind, and whose sight came back with treatment. Tommy takes the test, learns he is HIV-positive and says he does not want to die.
Why it stands out
- The episode, which takes on AIDS denialism, had the working title “Deniers.”
- Martin Mull plays Dr. Gideon Hutton, Viola Davis plays defense attorney Donna Emmett, and Donna Murphy plays Dr. Raye Massey.
- It was promoted as a showcase for Tamara Tunie, whose Dr. Warner performs Lisa’s autopsy and testifies at the trial.