Torch (Season 11, Episode 21)
Premise: A father is charged with setting the fire that killed his two young daughters, until the new SVU prosecutor, his accuser, comes to doubt the fire marshal’s science.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 11, Episode 21
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Jo Marlowe (Sharon Stone), DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston)
- Guest stars
- Kevin Anderson as Frank Sullivan, Justine Cotsonas as Emily Sullivan, Brad Dourif as Dr. Iggy Drexel, P.J. Benjamin as Deputy Fire Marshal Couric, Jeremy Allen White as Michael Parisi
- Ripped from the headlines
- Based on the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, a Texas man executed in 2004 for a 1991 house fire that killed his three young children; experts later cast doubt on the evidence that the fire was arson.
- Director
- Peter Leto
- Writers
- Mick Betancourt & Amanda Green
Summary
“Torch” opens with a house fire that kills sisters Kedzie and Faye Sullivan, ten and eight, while their father, Frank, escapes with burned hands. The new SVU prosecutor, Jo Marlowe, calls Benson and Stabler to the scene; she is Stabler’s former partner and training officer, who left the force for law school and has been sent by Jack McCoy to replace Cabot. Deputy Fire Marshal Couric finds signs of an accelerant and rules the fire arson.
The girls’ mother, Marcy, lost custody after a court-ordered psychiatric exam; she once drugged them so she could sing at an open-mic night, and after the ruling she said that if she could not have them, nobody would. Marcy mentions a man who groped Kedzie; Frank’s older daughter, Emily, 18, knows him as Pizza Face from a bodega and says he was laughing when Kedzie found its cat burned. He is Michael Parisi, 23, with three earlier sex-abuse arrests involving young girls, and he carries a lighter and accelerant. Stabler gets a confession by playing on his thrill at fire, but Marlowe warns it will be thrown out.
Couric then blames Frank: a pour trail runs from the girls’ beds to the front door, and Frank walks without trouble though he says he ran through the burning hall. Parisi is let go and Frank is arrested. He has been jobless since the summer, owes more than his house is worth and insured it for $1.1 million, and Emily admits he had her car reported stolen and burned to avoid a repossession. Frank sobs but denies setting the fire. Marlowe charges him with arson and two counts of murder, and he is held without bail.
Marlowe offers 25 years to life, but Frank fires his lawyer, Mitch Shankman, swears to Marlowe alone that he is innocent, then tries to kill himself in front of her. Convinced, she hires Dr. Iggy Drexel, an independent fire scientist, who says the cracked glass comes from hose water hitting hot windows and that a rush of air when Frank opened the front door could have left the same floor marks. McCoy tells her to let a jury decide, but she reminds him of his own lesson that great prosecutors get justice.
Spoiler, the ending: Drexel burns a condemned house built and furnished like the Sullivans’, starting the fire with a shorted space heater and no accelerant. In court Couric insists only an accelerant leaves the patterns he found, then sees the same patterns from the test fire, and an animation of the fire matches Frank’s account. Marlowe moves to dismiss the case. Emily apologizes to her father, and Marlowe leaves to hand McCoy the bill for the house.
Why it stands out
- Sharon Stone joins the series as ADA Jo Marlowe, Stabler’s former partner, for a four-episode arc that runs through the season finale.
- Sam Waterston appears as DA Jack McCoy from Law & Order, the first time the character is seen in the SVU squad room.
- Brad Dourif plays fire scientist Iggy Drexel, Kevin Anderson plays Frank Sullivan, and Jeremy Allen White plays Michael Parisi.