Parents' Nightmare (Season 16, Episode 22)
Premise: When an eight-year-old is taken from school and held for ransom, SVU has to work out which of his divorced parents set up the abduction.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 16, Episode 22
- Starring
- Sgt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino)
- Guest stars
- Brooke Bloom as Dana Farhidi, Navid Negahban as Sam Farhidi, Frankie J. Alvarez as Javier Rojas, Carmen Cabrera as Fabiana Caldera, Robert John Burke as IAB Lieutenant Ed Tucker
- Ripped from the headlines
- Drawn from a case in Lincoln County, Missouri, in which a family staged the kidnapping of their own son to teach him about “stranger danger.”
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Kevin Fox & Brendan Feeney
Summary
“Parents’ Nightmare” opens as Dana Farhidi, recently divorced and running late, sends her eight-year-old son, Owen, to school with a friend. IAB’s Ed Tucker warns Benson that One Police Plaza wants a lieutenant running SVU; he has told them she is taking the exam and tells her to think about who her second in command would be. That afternoon a man who signs out as Carlos Riva, a family friend, takes Owen from school after a phone call the staff believe came from his father. Dana, who arrived late and cannot find her phone, says her ex-husband, Sam, who is Iranian, wanted to take Owen to Iran. Sam, at his restaurant, denies any part in it.
Carisi recovers Dana’s phone from her yoga studio and finds voicemails from Owen saying a man will not let him go home until she answers. Traffic cameras identify Javier Rojas, the boyfriend of Owen’s part-time nanny, Fabiana Caldera, and a handyman Dana often calls. Fabiana claims not to know where he is. Javier then video-calls Dana demanding $37,000 and says Sam must bring it. Wearing a wire, Sam goes into a basement alone; the feed goes silent, but he comes out with Owen, and Javier is caught fleeing through an alley.
Javier says Dana hired him to take Owen, and his lawyer says she paid him $500 and texted him the school’s number. The texts did come from her phone, and the ransom matches the cash Dana accused Sam of hiding during the divorce, but she insists she never sent them, saying she often misplaces her phone. Owen tells Benson the man got angry when his mother did not answer. He later says his father visits when he should not and sometimes takes his mother’s phone. Javier changes his story and blames Sam. Barba warns that Javier’s word alone will not convict anyone else, so Dana agrees to wear a wire to Sam’s restaurant. Sam promises she will not go to jail and that he will take custody, then admits he staged the kidnapping to last half an hour, to scare Owen out of trusting strangers and to make Dana pay attention. As Dana appears to show him the wire, detectives move in and arrest him.
Spoiler, the ending: Dana gets Owen back and asks that Sam stay in his life, but is told the DA decides; the charge will likely be pleaded down to unlawful imprisonment, which could still mean six months, and she must now be the parent. Back at the squad, Benson asks a detective to hold down the fort as practice, since she may soon need a new sergeant.
Why it stands out
- Benson starts weighing the lieutenant’s exam after Tucker reports that headquarters wants a higher rank in charge of SVU; she is a lieutenant from early in Season 17.
- Robert John Burke appears as IAB’s Lt. Ed Tucker, who urges Benson to go for the promotion.
- Rollins does not appear in this episode, and Barba is only heard of, checking in by phone from St. Barths.