Father's Shadow (Season 13, Episode 13)
Premise: A reality TV producer who drugs and assaults young performers is jailed, and his devoted son takes hostages to force his release, leaving Benson to talk him down.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 13, Episode 13
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), Exec. ADA David Haden (Harry Connick Jr.), Bureau Chief Michael Cutter (Linus Roache)
- Guest stars
- Cameron Monaghan as Eddie Sandow, Michael McKean as Fred Sandow, Miranda Lambert as Lacey Ford, Kelly Karbacz as Jess Whitley, Charlotte Graham as Mallory Jenner
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Warren Leight & Julie Martin
Summary
“Father’s Shadow” opens with Benson summoned to a hostage standoff because the gunman has asked for her by name, then steps back to show how it began. Benson speaks at a conference on drug-facilitated sexual assault alongside Exec. ADA David Haden, who afterward invites her to dinner; she declines, citing the conflict between a cop and a prosecutor. That night aspiring actress Mallory Jenner, fresh from an audition for producer Fred Sandow’s reality show, is found unconscious in Central Park while Jose Silva, a serial subway groper drawn to soft fabrics, gropes her. Silva says he thought she was dead. Tests find alcohol, Benadryl and Quaaludes in her system and semen from two men, one with gray pubic hair.
A cab driver says a young man paid him to take the sick Mallory home after her audition. At Sandow Films, assistant Jess Whitley and associate producer Eddie Sandow, Fred’s 19-year-old son, try to keep Benson and Amaro out, but the detectives hear cries and find Fred on top of actress Lacey Ford. Fred calls it improvisation, and Lacey, eager for the part, denies anything happened, so the DA’s office balks at charges. Quaaludes in a champagne glass bring a search warrant, and Jess, who lives with Eddie, hands over Mallory’s underwear and stockings, found under the office couch. At the arraignment Cutter calls Fred a serial predator and has him remanded to Rikers. Fred accuses Eddie and Jess of betraying him, and Eddie blames Benson.
The next morning Eddie holds Jess and her eight-year-old daughter, Lily, at gunpoint in his apartment and demands his father. Fred will help only if every charge is dropped. When Benson tells Eddie his father is not coming, the chief in command pulls her back. Fin and Rollins bring Eddie’s mother and sister from Canada. When Jess tries to take Lily out, Eddie shoots her. Benson goes in unarmed, lets Amaro carry Jess out, and offers herself in Lily’s place.
Spoiler, the ending: Benson tells Eddie what his sister, Alicia, told her: their father molested her when she was 15, and their mother left to protect her, kept away afterward by Fred’s threats. Eddie releases Lily, then tries to get the snipers to shoot him. Benson steps into their line of fire and tells him that her own father hurt women, including her mother, and that he does not have to become his. Eddie gives her the gun. Jess survives and Lily is unhurt; Fred’s case is still pending as the episode ends.
Why it stands out
- Country singer Miranda Lambert makes her acting debut as Lacey Ford, opposite Michael McKean as Fred Sandow.
- Soap actress Ilene Kristen plays Eddie’s estranged mother, Evelyn Higgins, and Cameron Monaghan plays Eddie.
- Benson’s plea draws on her own history: she tells Eddie her father hurt women, her mother among them.