Next Chapter (Season 18, Episode 7)
Premise: A woman raped in her apartment blames the man who once stalked her, but the evidence against him was planted by the retired sergeant who rescued her years before.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 18, Episode 7
- Starring
- Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino)
- Guest stars
- Chris Bauer as Sgt. Tom Cole, Annie Monroe as Quinn Berris, Ben Cole as Ray Wilson, Enid Graham as Linda Cole, Robert John Burke as IAB Capt. Ed Tucker
- Director
- Fred Berner
- Writers
- Story: Brianna Yellen & Robert Cohen & Céline Robinson; Written by: Rick Eid & Gavin Harris
Summary
“Next Chapter” opens with IAB Capt. Ed Tucker telling Benson over dinner that he may retire and asking where they are headed; she gives no answer. That night Quinn Berris, 27, back from drinks with co-workers, is pushed into her West Village apartment by a masked man and raped at knifepoint. She tells Benson and Fin she is certain the attacker was Ray Wilson, who stalked her after one date at Rutgers, hid in her closet and went to prison for attempted sexual assault. Retired Sgt. Tom Cole, the officer who answered her 911 call back then and has since become a family friend, tells Benson and Carisi he recently warned Wilson to keep his distance.
The attacker wore a condom, and the only other clue is a fresh cigarette butt in Quinn’s courtyard. Wilson, now a sous chef in Manhattan, has an alibi: his church group in Belmar, New Jersey, and video of him doing the church’s dishes at 10:50 p.m., too late to reach the city. Quinn admits she exaggerated the years of stalking; she has simply felt watched since Wilson moved back to New Jersey a month ago. Co-worker Ryan Engel admits watching her building twice after she turned him down, until her ex-boyfriend, Jack Price, punched him. The cigarette then comes back with Wilson’s DNA, but it is too clean to have sat through the previous night’s rain, so the squad decides it was planted.
Wilson, fired after the police visit, remembers a black Cadillac idling near the restaurant, and footage shows its driver running to the kitchen door where he smokes, hours before the attack. The car belongs to Cole’s wife, Linda. Told that the DNA points to Wilson, Cole says he spent the night building a wine cellar and has never been to the restaurant. Linda tells Benson that Cole left angry that night, stayed out until morning and told her to say he was home. Before he can be arrested, Cole leaves Quinn’s hotel with her and her phone goes dead. Linda points Benson to his brother’s farmhouse in Harding, New Jersey, and a toll photo from the George Washington Bridge shows Quinn beside him in his car.
Spoiler, the ending: At the farmhouse Cole holds Quinn upstairs with a gun, and Benson keeps him talking by phone while Carisi works his way inside. Cole complains that Quinn was ungrateful, ignored his calls and canceled dinners, then apologizes to his wife and hangs up. When he gets the drop on Carisi, Benson shoots Cole dead. Benson comforts Quinn and tells her not to blame herself, and Carisi thanks Benson for saving him.
Why it stands out
- The first episode of 2017, it aired on January 4 after an eight-week break; that date had earlier been set for “Great Expectations,” which aired as the season’s 11th episode.
- Benson’s relationship with IAB Capt. Ed Tucker begins to strain here as he talks of retiring; it ends in the next episode, “Chasing Theo.”