Valentine's Day (Season 13, Episode 18)
Premise: A wife’s rape and kidnapping, witnessed by her husband over a video chat, turns into a case against the supposed victim.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 13, Episode 18
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Casey Novak (Diane Neal), Defense Attorney Marvin Exley (Ron Rifkin), Judge Elana Barth (Jenna Stern)
- Guest stars
- Chloë Sevigny as Christine Hartwell, Rich Sommer as Boyd Hartwell, Shawn Hatosy as Kevin Fahey, Josh Randall as Justin Geld, Laura Benanti as Maria Grazie
- Director
- Peter Leto
- Writers
- Julie Martin & Warren Leight
Summary
“Valentine’s Day” opens as hedge fund manager Boyd Hartwell, waiting at the Hong Kong airport, tells his wife, Christine, over a video chat that he has canceled London to be home for Valentine’s Day. As he watches, a masked man forces his way into their Upper East Side house, attacks her in the kitchen and takes her away, warning Boyd that calling the police will get her killed. Boyd’s mother reports it hours later. Their daughter, Madison, five, spent the night with her. Cragen sends Fin and Rollins to Justin Geld, Boyd’s partner, who lunched with Christine while Boyd traveled and whose run-ins with the SEC cost Boyd fines, and Benson and Amaro to meet Boyd’s flight.
Boyd lands to a demand for $250,000 and bolts from the detectives, but the drop goes ahead in a park, and Christine herself comes for the backpack, screaming that three Black men held and raped her. Her rape kit points to one white man, and her blood shows cocaine and ecstasy. Her calls lead to a dealer, Darel Jefferson, who says she ordered drugs and sent her delivery man. Christine then names Kevin Fahey as a stalker. Kevin says they had a six-month affair and that she scripted the fake rape and kidnapping so they could spend the holiday in a Soho loft. The loft is Geld’s secret apartment, which Christine had also used with him, and his hidden camera shows her with Kevin, seemingly willing. The detectives notice that Christine slips between tenses as she tells her story.
Christine is charged with coercion, obstruction and false reporting, and Boyd hires defense attorney Marvin Exley. Kevin pleads to a misdemeanor and testifies for Novak. Under Exley’s attack, he blurts out that Christine dropped an earlier delivery man for bragging. Exley gets the man’s name from Christine, and Brad Hayes is found and testifies too. On the stand Christine calls Kevin her rapist and says all three men are lying, but Novak’s records show Hayes’s stops at her house ran about 40 minutes, against 12 elsewhere in the neighborhood. At home, Amaro’s wife, Maria, back for a week, tells him part of her has not yet returned.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury deadlocks. Novak suspects one juror of trading looks with Christine, but after questioning him the judge keeps him and declares a mistrial. A juror says the vote was 11 to 1 for conviction; the holdout believed Christine after looking in her eyes. Novak doubts her superiors will allow a retrial. On the courthouse steps Boyd calls his wife a survivor and says the ordeal has made their love stronger.
Why it stands out
- Chloë Sevigny guest-stars as Christine Hartwell; her casting was announced in February 2012, with filming set for the week of February 20.
- Diane Neal returns as ADA Casey Novak; she and Stephanie March, as Alexandra Cabot, were brought back as prosecutors in season 13.
- Though built around the holiday, the episode aired in April 2012, a week after “Justice Denied,” which was produced after it.