Lost Reputation (Season 14, Episode 1)
Premise: Captain Cragen wakes beside a murdered escort and is charged with killing her, while an outside prosecutor and an interim captain order SVU to stay away from the case.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 14, Episode 1
- 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), Det. Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), Capt. Steven Harris (Adam Baldwin), Bureau Chief Paula Foster (Paget Brewster), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), Defense Attorney Marvin Exley (Ron Rifkin)
- Guest stars
- Brooke Smith as Delia Wilson, Peter Jacobson as Bart Ganzel, Pippa Black as Carissa Gibson, Amy Hargreaves as Iris Petersen, Laura Benanti as Maria Grazie
- Director
- Michael Slovis
- Writers
- Warren Leight & Julie Martin
Summary
“Lost Reputation” opens where the previous season ended: Capt. Cragen wakes in his apartment next to escort Carissa Gibson, her throat cut, with no memory of how she got there. Carissa was a witness in the squad’s inquiry into the feud between madam Delia Wilson and rival Bart Ganzel. Bureau Chief Paula Foster of the DA’s Public Integrity Unit takes the case, and Capt. Steven Harris arrives as temporary commander, bars the detectives from it and demands their memo books and mileage logs. Cragen tells Foster that Carissa called him offering information on the killing of former Governor Fletcher, met him at a diner and claimed Amaro had behaved inappropriately with her. His DNA is under her nails and his prints are on the knife, but tests also show alcohol, though he has been sober for 20 years, and Benson is sure he was drugged.
Cassidy, undercover inside Ganzel’s business, tells Benson and Munch he suspects Delia. Delia visits Amaro at home and warns him that Ganzel and Cassidy are playing him. The police commissioner resigns, and Cragen is charged with first-degree murder and held in solitary at Rikers. Delia and her lawyer, Marvin Exley, give Foster and Benson photos suggesting Cragen has hired escorts before and offer testimony against him in return for dropping her prostitution charge. Foster tells Benson that Cassidy works undercover for her and that her wiretaps exposed Benson’s relationship with ADA David Haden. Cragen admits to Benson that he paid for a few dates, only for company. At home, Amaro’s wife, Maria, says she has taken a Pentagon job and is moving to Washington with their daughter, Zara.
Iris Petersen, Delia’s former booker and the chief witness against her, tells detectives that Carissa once worked for Delia and was the governor’s regular. The next morning, an hour before she is due to testify, Iris is found dead with her wrists cut, and Warner agrees to leave the ruling open. Foster questions Amaro about his three calls with Carissa that night and whether he suggested a hotel; he blames Cassidy for the story. The squad keeps Amaro out of its unofficial digging because he is a witness, and Anya Solar, the last witness against Delia, dies in a crash outside Cartagena.
Spoiler, the ending: Harris orders the squad back to its assigned cases, among them a celebrity accused of groping hotel masseurs, and asks where Amaro is. Amaro has found Cassidy at dinner with his mother; he pulls him aside, draws his gun and threatens to shoot unless Cassidy says who he really works for. The standoff carries over into “Above Suspicion.”
Why it stands out
- This is the first half of a two-part season premiere that aired as a two-hour event on September 26, 2012, resolving the cliffhanger of the Season 13 finale, “Rhodium Nights.”
- Paget Brewster plays Paula Foster; she had appeared on the show before as a different character in the Season 8 episode “Scheherazade.” Adam Baldwin begins a three-episode stint as interim commander Steven Harris.
- Newscaster Sue Simmons appears as herself, reporting on the scandal.