Maternal Instincts (Season 17, Episode 6)
Premise: A celebrated flautist accused of rape blames an escort he says drugged him, and Rollins recognizes the escort as her fugitive sister.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 17, Episode 6
- Starring
- Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Deputy Chief William Dodds (Peter Gallagher), Sgt. Mike Dodds (Andy Karl)
- Guest stars
- Virginia Madsen as Beth Anne Rollins, Lindsay Pulsipher as Kim Rollins, Zach McGowan as Anton Krasnikov, Elizabeth A. Davis as Alessandra Bay, Wass Stevens as Slice
- Ripped from the headlines
- Partly inspired by the case of German violinist Stefan Arzberger, charged in 2015 with assaulting a woman in a New York hotel.
- Director
- Michael Pressman
- Writers
- Story: Robert Brooks Cohen & Brianna Yellen; Teleplay: Warren Leight & Julie Martin
Summary
“Maternal Instincts” opens at Rollins’s baby shower, thrown by her mother, Beth Anne, the day before Deputy Chief William Dodds brings his son, Mike, to SVU as Benson’s new sergeant. A case arrives at once: Alessandra Bay, lead violinist of a touring ensemble, says the flautist Anton Krasnikov forced his way into her hotel room and raped her. Krasnikov first reports his $50,000 flute stolen, then says he remembers nothing and that an escort calling herself Savannah must have drugged him. Hotel video shows him naked and dazed at Alessandra’s door.
The flute surfaces at a Harlem pawn shop, and its camera shows that “Savannah” is Rollins’s sister, Kim, wanted in New York on a manslaughter warrant. Rollins confides only in Fin, claims the footage will not open and gets her mother to set up a meeting. In a park, Kim says Anton gave her the flute, denies drugging him and runs. Dodds and Carisi lean on her pimp, Slice. Once DNA confirms that Anton raped Alessandra, Benson wants the escort dropped; Rollins confesses that she saw and lost Kim, and Benson orders all of Rollins’s family contact recorded; Dodds then brings Benson a facial-recognition match of his own.
Questioned on camera with Dodds present, Beth Anne takes a call from Kim and reveals she is at Amanda’s apartment, where Beth Anne stashed her money. Kim is arrested outside; upstairs, Slice has been stabbed, and Kim claims self-defense. With her lawyer, Lorenzo Desappio, she repeats that the flute was a gift and says Anton took pills she did not supply. Anton, whose tests found no drugs, is charged with first-degree rape and held without bail. Kim rejects a plea to second-degree manslaughter, pleads not guilty to everything and is sent to Rikers. Beth Anne accuses Amanda of choosing work over family and leaves town, and Rollins is rushed to the hospital when her blood pressure spikes.
Spoiler, the ending: Rollins is sent home to rest. Dodds assures Benson that nothing that happens in the squad will reach his father. At Rikers, Kim tells Amanda she will now seek a plea and testify against Anton, since Desappio has warned that a trial would expose Amanda’s secrets, from hiding Kim’s identity to her past gambling. Kim adds that she expects Desappio to propose.
Why it stands out
- Andy Karl debuts as Sgt. Mike Dodds, son of Peter Gallagher’s Deputy Chief Dodds; the casting reunited Karl and Gallagher, who had starred together in the 2015 Broadway revival of On the Twentieth Century.
- Lindsay Pulsipher returns as Kim Rollins, last seen in the Season 14 episode “Deadly Ambition,” and Virginia Madsen plays the sisters’ mother, Beth Anne.