Flight (Season 12, Episode 15)
Premise: A 12-year-old French girl’s rape claim against a billionaire defense contractor uncovers a network of girls brought to his massage room, as he uses his connections to fight back.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 12, Episode 15
- 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 Gillian Hardwicke (Melissa Sagemiller), TARU Ruben Morales (Joel de la Fuente)
- Guest stars
- Colm Feore as Jordan Hayes, Kristina Alexandra Gliklad as Dominique Moreau, Kelli Barrett as Dahlia Jessup, Robert Klein as Dwight Stannich, Christian Campbell as Dr. Ari Nathan
- Ripped from the headlines
- Inspired by the case of financier Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
- Director
- Alex Chapple
- Writers
- Dawn DeNoon & Christine M. Torres
Summary
“Flight” begins on a plane to Paris, where 12-year-old Dominique Moreau screams that the man beside her tried to rape her when he reaches over to close the shade. Questioned in Paris by video link, she says she was flown to New York on a billionaire’s private jet for a modeling job that turned out to be his birthday party, where he made her give him a massage and raped her, leaving her bleeding until a doctor came. She refuses to return to testify. The man is Jordan Hayes, a defense contractor with powerful friends, and Cragen orders the squad to tread lightly. A customs officer’s records show Dominique flew in with Nicole Philippe, 15, and Hayes’s on-and-off girlfriend, Dahlia Jessup. Dahlia admits bringing the girls to the party, and Hayes’s pilot will not talk.
Hayes then walks into the squad room with his lawyer, Dwight Stannich (called Standish in the episode), to report that Dominique raped him: he says he fell asleep naked in his massage room awaiting a “present” from Dahlia and woke to find the girl on him, threatening to cry rape. His private physician, Dr. Ari Nathan, is found treating Dahlia for an overdose of pills he prescribed; arrested for failing to report the girl’s injuries, he claims she was only having her period. Nicole backs Hayes’s story and soon lands a cosmetics contract. Hayes shows Benson and Stabler that he records his massages but says that one was not taped, and Judge Miranski refuses Fin’s request for a search warrant.
Munch, posing online as a 12-year-old abuse survivor, encourages Dominique to blog about the attack. The blog spreads widely, and at least eight more girls come forward. A 14-year-old says Dahlia recruited her to massage Hayes for money, that he molested her, and that his house manager paid her $500 and asked for her friends. With a warrant, the squad arrests Hayes, who beats a cellmate for touching him. Morales cracks the tapes hidden in Hayes’s panic room, and Benson tells Dahlia that Hayes groomed her too, having moved her in at 17.
Spoiler, the ending: Cragen then tells the squad that federal prosecutors have made a deal with Hayes and are taking the case and the tapes. As Hayes leaves with his lawyers and federal agents, Dahlia, told she faces up to 80 years, begs him not to abandon her and screams that she is on the tapes doing everything he asked. He walks out.
Why it stands out
- Colm Feore plays Jordan Hayes; he said the hard part was working out the psychology of a man who preys on girls.
- Comedian Robert Klein plays Hayes’s lawyer, Dwight Stannich, and Joel de la Fuente’s TARU Lt. Ruben Morales cracks the encrypted tapes.