Heightened Emotions (Season 18, Episode 4)
Premise: An Olympic-hopeful pole vaulter who secretly works as an escort accuses a client of rape, while Rollins takes in her newly paroled sister.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 18, Episode 4
- Starring
- Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza), Judge Karyn Blake (Ami Brabson)
- Guest stars
- Brit Morgan as Jenna Miller, David Alpay as Chad Miller, Theo Stockman as Michael Wheeler, Lindsay Pulsipher as Kim Rollins, Hari Dhillon as Sunil Varma
- Ripped from the headlines
- Based on the life of three-time Olympic runner Suzy Favor Hamilton, who admitted in 2012 that she had secretly worked as an escort.
- Director
- Alex Chapple
- Writers
- Story: Brianna Yellen & Robert Cohen & Celine Robinson; Written by: Julie Martin & Celine C. Robinson
Summary
“Heightened Emotions” opens as Rollins’s sister, Kim, tells a parole board she has found faith and wants to meet her one-year-old niece, Jesse. Paroled, Kim moves in with Rollins, who lays down strict rules after Benson warns that covering for Kim again will cost Rollins her shield. Meanwhile, police pick up Jenna Miller, a Long Island mother, at 3:30 a.m. in SoHo after she runs from officers, drunk and shouting that she won. A nurse finds bite marks, bruises and anal bleeding. Jenna first says nothing, then tells her husband, Chad, that she was raped, and tells detectives that a man named Phil forced himself on her in a downtown hotel room.
A bartender knows Jenna as “Barbie,” and hedge fund trader Michael Wheeler, who goes by Phil, says he paid her $500 and that rough sex was what he paid for. Jenna admits she has worked as an escort for about a year, and Chad reveals that she is a world-record pole vaulter who just missed the Rio team and is favored for Tokyo in 2020. Several escorts say Wheeler hurt or raped them; one took $5,000 from him. Jenna wears a wire to meet Wheeler, but he laughs at her demand for an apology, Chad punches him, and her secret comes out. Her agent, Dave Kaller (called Derek Kaller in the episode), who heard from her that night and told her to go home, agrees to testify and then drops her as a client. Jenna decides to testify.
At trial, defense attorney Sunil Varma attacks Benson for judging Jenna’s injuries, and Jenna testifies that Wheeler forced anal sex on her after she said no. Under Varma’s cross-examination about her body and her motives, she lifts her shirt in court to prove her body is perfect. Rollins, without checking with Benson, urges Jenna and Chad to consider a mental illness; psychiatrist Dr. Cohen diagnoses bipolar disorder and testifies that someone manic would more likely call forced sex consensual than invent a rape.
Spoiler, the ending: Before Jenna can retake the stand on medication, Wheeler pleads guilty to second-degree assault, a felony carrying two to five years but no sex-offender registration. Jenna sets Tokyo aside to focus on treatment. At home, Rollins finds that the sitter has left early and catches her taking pills; Kim says they are lithium and asenapine, prescribed for the bipolar disorder she was diagnosed with a year ago.
Why it stands out
- Lindsay Pulsipher returns as Kim Rollins, newly paroled; the episode ends with Kim revealing her bipolar diagnosis to Amanda.
- Brit Morgan guest-stars as pole vaulter Jenna Miller, with Theo Stockman as Michael Wheeler.