Bullseye (Season 12, Episode 2)
Premise: When a starved girl is raped near a children’s club, a neighborhood anti-predator group and its eager volunteer push the squad toward a registered offender.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 12, Episode 2
- 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), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong)
- Guest stars
- Henry Ian Cusick as Erik Weber, Ruby Jerins as Rose Samonsky, Stephen Tobolowsky as Edwin Adelson, Madeleine Yen as Mandy LeCompte, Francie Swift as ADA Sherri West
- Director
- Peter Leto
- Writers
- Daniel Truly
Summary
“Bullseye” begins at the hospital, where a starved ten-year-old who has been raped won’t give Benson and Stabler her name, saying only that her attacker took photos. A pizza delivery woman recognizes her, and police force their way into the home of Amber and Jeff Samonsky, a couple consumed by an online fantasy game. Amber, hurt when a bus hit her, insists her daughter, Rose, is an impostor, which Huang identifies as Capgras delusion. Jeff, Rose’s stepfather, had shut her in a room without food, but Rose says a masked stranger raped her at the playground of the Laffy Time kids club after she went out looking for something to eat.
The club’s owner is hiding her adult son Stuart Linderby, who has Noonan syndrome and landed on the sex offender registry after urinating in a park. Flyers branding him a predator came from COAP, the watch group whose karate teacher is Erik Weber. Erik offers help, and the detectives let him show Rose’s photo around, but Rose’s picture soon turns up on live TV, and a second girl, Mandy LeCompte, is raped by a masked man with a camera. A roundup of local offenders goes nowhere. Benson then meets Erik at his apartment, where he shows her a painting of his sister, Grace, and reveals that he slipped spyware onto offenders’ computers disguised as a security program. Among the images it captured, Benson spots Rose and Mandy, uploaded from the computer of Edwin Adelson.
Adelson, a tax consultant with past molestation convictions in Connecticut and Maryland, has hidden that history from his pregnant wife, Louise. Officer Al McCutcheon, whose daughter swims with Mandy, talks his way into the squad and beats Adelson after reading COAP’s “creep tweets.” The arraignment judge faults Cragen for the attack and grants bail over ADA Sherri West’s objection, and Adelson kills himself outside court amid COAP protesters and reporters. Erik gives Stabler a drive full of his evidence, and the detectives suggest he teach Mandy karate, but Mandy is terrified on meeting him and then tells the detectives he is the man who raped her.
Spoiler, the ending: Benson goes back to Erik’s apartment and accuses him of moving to the neighborhood as cover, then planting the photos on Adelson’s computer. When Erik insists Grace hanged herself in 1982, Grace, tracked down in Delaware, steps forward and says he raped her when she was nine. Erik admits he cannot stop himself, lashes out at Benson and is handcuffed as the confrontation turns into a struggle.
Why it stands out
- This episode aired right after “Locum” on the same night, as the second hour of the season premiere.
- Henry Ian Cusick’s Erik Weber, introduced in “Locum” as a seemingly helpful stranger, makes his second and final appearance.
- Stephen Tobolowsky plays Edwin Adelson, and Ruby Jerins plays Rose.