Hammered (Season 11, Episode 4)
Premise: A recovering alcoholic wakes up next to a murdered abortion doctor with no memory of the night, and his trial exposes the prosecutor’s own drinking.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 11, Episode 4
- 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), Exec. ADA Sonya Paxton (Christine Lahti), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), Defense Attorney Roger Kressler (Ned Eisenberg), Judge Barry Moredock (John Cullum)
- Guest stars
- Scott Foley as Dalton Rindell, Chris Bauer as Bill Tattenger, Linda Emond as Dr. Emily Sopher, Elyse Mirto as Celina Rindell, Tia Dionne Hodge as Linda Peters
- Director
- Peter Leto
- Writers
- Dawn DeNoon
Summary
“Hammered” begins when real-estate developer Dalton Rindell wakes up with a cut on his head beside a naked woman beaten to death in his bedroom. Warner fixes the time of death at 12:57 a.m. from the victim’s broken watch, and Dalton’s hammer is missing from his toolbox. Dalton says he has never seen the woman, remembers nothing and neither drinks nor uses drugs. His partner, Bill Tattenger, says Dalton vanished from a tense meeting with investors whose money is sunk in an unfinished co-op building. The victim’s clothes and purse, thrown from Dalton’s window, identify her as Dr. Audrey Hale, who worked at a clinic that performs abortions. Her ex-husband, Michael, describes years of threats, Fin demands to know where Dalton stands on abortion, and the detectives question protesters and clinic staff.
Audrey’s friend Linda Peters says they stopped at a bar where Audrey hit it off with a handsome man whose name reminded her of a bookstore, and she recognizes Dalton. The bartender says Dalton bought Audrey drinks and left with her. Dalton, sober for over a year, is stunned, and as the lab ties him to a bloody print and the rape kit, he slips away. Cragen is furious. Dalton’s ex-wife, Celina, says he turned violent when drunk. He is caught beating Bill, who admits pressing one drink on him at the meeting; Dalton was also on an anti-anxiety drug and then drank seven or eight more on his own. A former assistant, Glenna Fletcher, says a drunken Dalton sexually assaulted her a year earlier and paid her off. Paxton calls drinking no excuse, while Cragen, sober more than 20 years, calls alcoholism an addiction.
The rape charge is dropped, and Judge Moredock rejects defense attorney Roger Kressler’s expert testimony that addiction is a brain disease. Benson recalls that her mother started drinking after being raped and died in a fall down a flight of stairs. At trial Paxton plays the jury the wrong version of a 3D crime-scene animation, one bearing Dalton’s face. Kressler seeks a mistrial, and if the judge finds misconduct, double jeopardy will bar a retrial. That night Paxton stays at the bar after Benson goes home.
Spoiler, the ending: Paxton arrives 45 minutes late to the next morning’s hearing, blaming a fender bender. Dalton says she is drunk, and the judge has Benson give her a breathalyzer, which reads 0.082. Paxton is removed from the courtroom, a mistrial is declared, and Dalton cannot be tried again. He tells a detective that watching Paxton made him accept that he killed Audrey, though he still cannot remember why. Paxton then stops by the squad room to apologize on her way to court-ordered rehab.
Why it stands out
- Scott Foley guest stars as Dalton Rindell, with Chris Bauer as his partner and Linda Emond as addiction researcher Dr. Emily Sopher.
- The episode ends Christine Lahti’s opening run as Executive ADA Sonya Paxton; she returns briefly in the season’s eighth episode.
- Cragen’s long sobriety and Benson’s memories of her alcoholic mother both come up as the squad argues over whether addiction is a disease.