PTSD (Season 10, Episode 9)
Premise: When a pregnant Marine who reported a rape in Iraq is killed in New York, SVU clashes with the military, while Benson struggles with the aftermath of her own assault.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 10, Episode 9
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), 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), Judge Lena Petrovsky (Joanna Merlin)
- Guest stars
- Ryan Kwanten as Master Sgt. Dominic Pruitt, Dominic Fumusa as Lt. Gary Rosten, Amy Spanger as Marlene Rosten, Frank Whaley as Navy Commander Grant Marcus, Brooke Adams as Margo
- Director
- Eriq La Salle
- Writers
- Judith McCreary
Summary
“PTSD” opens in a therapy group for military rape survivors, where Benson, a client of the therapist, Margo, takes a pistol from Army veteran Rochelle Rodriguez and is scolded for acting as a cop in session. Margo then asks her to find a missing patient, Marine Cpl. Jessie Crewes, who went AWOL from Cherry Point and is pregnant after being raped by a fellow Marine in Iraq. Fin locates Jessie’s towed car, and her body is in the trunk: she was choked and stabbed once, and her baby, about 32 weeks along, was cut from her womb. Warner finds a combat-style knife wound, and cord blood shows the father is white. Commander Marcus of the JAG Corps reveals that Jessie chose a restricted report, which brings care without an investigation, and threatens to take over the case.
Greylek bargains for the duty roster of the night Jessie was raped, and Jessie’s mother says a sergeant lost a stripe for spending time with her daughter: Master Sgt. Dominic Pruitt, a decorated Marine staying at a Midtown hotel. Benson and Fin find him attacking Lt. Gary Rosten, a pilot, and Benson, caught in a flashback, holds her gun to Pruitt’s head until Fin pulls her back. Rosten declines to press charges and says he reported Pruitt for fraternizing. Pruitt says he tracked Jessie down only to persuade her to return to base and denies raping her, but her landlord places him at her apartment, and his DNA is taken. Greylek fights to keep the case, warning that the military may seek a death sentence, but the judge sides with Marcus, and Benson testifies at Pruitt’s Article 32 hearing, where his military lawyer attacks her motives.
Spoiler, the ending: Pruitt’s DNA does not match the baby. Suspicion turns to Rosten, whose DNA does, and his wife, Marlene, confesses that she used a disposable phone from her husband to win Jessie’s trust and arrange a meeting, saying she did not know he meant to kill her. She says he threw the baby into the Hudson, and police drag the river and find him; Warner believes he was dead before he reached the water. Cragen urges Benson to take time off. Benson apologizes to Pruitt, who says he went after Rosten to force a confession, and she tells him she was sexually assaulted six months earlier.
Why it stands out
- Stabler does not appear; Benson works the case with Fin.
- Ryan Kwanten guest stars as Master Sgt. Dominic Pruitt, with Frank Whaley as Commander Marcus and Brooke Adams as Benson’s therapist, Margo.
- Benson’s therapy and flashbacks follow the assault she survived while undercover at Sealview prison in season 9’s “Undercover.”