Genes (Season 18, Episode 13)
Premise: A rapist who claims a “rape gene” leads SVU to a therapy group where a serial attacker has confessed, and the law may protect what was said there.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 18, Episode 13
- Starring
- Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza), Dr. Peter Lindstrom (Bill Irwin)
- Guest stars
- Michael Torpey as Nick Brown, Alex Hurt as Sam Dalton, Dalton Harrod as Will Stein, Sean Patrick Reilly as Richard Witt, Greg Germann as Defense Attorney Derek Strauss
- Director
- Michael Pressman
- Writers
- Story: Brianna Yellen & Robert Brooks Cohen & Céline C. Robinson; Written by: Rick Eid & Céline C. Robinson
Summary
“Genes” begins when bartender Jessica Walcott is pushed into her car and raped after closing. Her attacker, she says, cried, apologized and claimed he was born a rapist. She suspects Rodney Marsh, a car salesman who pestered her that night, but bodega video shows him walking the other way, and his DNA does not match. A familial hit points to Mark Brown, serving time in Sing Sing for rape, and detectives get him to name his brother, Nick, by claiming a relative hurt in a car crash needs blood. Nick, an accountant, confesses as he is arrested, saying his father went to prison for rape and he inherited the same urge.
Through his lawyer, Nick offers to identify the River Rapist, who gags victims with wool socks, holds an ice pick to them and smells of cheap cigars. The details check out, and Barba offers a plea to second-degree rape. Nick leads the squad to a therapy group for men who fear they will rape, run in a warehouse by Richard Witt, who opens with the Lord’s Prayer. When Nick presses a member named Sam about three women he assaulted, another member, Chris, pulls a knife and police break up the meeting. Witt refuses to help, and so does young Will Stein, who says his father was a rapist. Sam Dalton is held on a trespassing charge; his three victims, Robin Landry, Sarah Perez and Kim Espinoza, identify him, and his DNA matches.
Early in the case, Benson tells Dr. Lindstrom she worries that Noah could follow his father, as she has worried about her own, and he answers that no rape gene exists. Defense attorney Derek Strauss argues that Dalton’s admission to the group is privileged like a confession to clergy, since Witt is an ordained minister, and the judge agrees that the group resembles Alcoholics Anonymous. With that confession out, the DNA and the identifications fall too. Will then reveals that Dalton admitted the three rapes to him alone over coffee at a diner, which is admissible, and the case goes ahead. At trial Strauss attacks one victim’s identification, and Will fails to appear; Carisi and Barba trade blame over the lost motion, and Witt admits telling Will not to testify.
Spoiler, the ending: Benson finds Will in despair, saying he would rather kill himself than hurt a woman, and tells him her own father was a rapist and that there is no such gene. Will testifies that Dalton told him about the three rapes and identifies him in court; no verdict is shown. Later Benson gets a call about a minor scrape Noah got playing tag at school, and at bedtime she tells him she will always love him.
Why it stands out
- Greg Germann, who played ADA Derek Strauss in Seasons 14 and 15, returns as Strauss in a new role as a defense attorney.
- Benson discusses both her own father and Noah’s, each a rapist, in a session with Dr. Peter Lindstrom.