Chasing Theo (Season 18, Episode 8)
Premise: A six-year-old disappears from his bed during his mother’s late-night party, and the hunt runs through her ex-wife, her violent ex-boyfriend and finally the nanny who raised him.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 18, Episode 8
- 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
- Rachelle Lefevre as Nadine Lachere, Zoe McLellan as Dr. Fran Conway, Adriana Ducassi as Gloria Ramirez, Iain Armitage as Theo Lachere, Robert John Burke as IAB Capt. Ed Tucker
- Ripped from the headlines
- Appears to be inspired by the 2002 murder of seven-year-old Danielle van Dam in San Diego, whose parents’ private lives became an issue at her killer’s trial.
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Story: Brianna Yellen & Robert Brooks Cohen & Céline Robinson; Written by: Julie Martin & Robert Brooks Cohen
Summary
“Chasing Theo” begins as six-year-old Theo Lachere is tucked in by Gloria Ramirez, his nanny since birth, as his mother, Nadine, awaits guests at her loft. At 7:30 the next morning Gloria finds Theo gone, the front door open, his rug missing and a spot of his blood in his room. Nadine, hungover after a party that ran past 2 a.m., tells Benson she raised Theo, a donor baby, with her ex-wife, surgeon Dr. Fran Conway, who now sees him only a few times a month. A guest who took photos and asked about Theo is Kevin Dorsey, a private investigator Fran hired for a custody suit. Fran, who never adopted Theo, denies taking him and says Nadine plans to move him to Ibiza.
Nadine then admits she dated Gabriel Norton, a British musician with drug arrests who once gave her a black eye. His hair turns up in Theo’s room, and when detectives raid his Lower East Side apartment he goes out a window and is caught with an unregistered gun and cocaine. The squad doubts he is the kidnapper but holds him on the gun charge. Tucker drops by, worried because Benson killed a man a week earlier, but she has no time to talk. TARU finds footage from 4:37 a.m. of a man loading a rolled rug into a van near the loft, and the van’s company lists an employee named Oscar Ramirez, Gloria’s brother.
In the Queens home Gloria shares with Oscar, the detectives find a shrine of photos of Theo. Oscar admits Gloria gave him a key, had him roll Theo in the rug as a game after the guests left, prick his finger and mess up the room, and had him buy her an old Toyota Tercel. After an Amber Alert, the detectives reach a motel just after Gloria has left, with directions to Juárez behind her. A tow truck’s plate reader spots the car broken down at a gas station off I-95, and the squad catches Gloria on foot with Theo, who clings to her.
Spoiler, the ending: Gloria says she had to save Theo from neglect in Ibiza, recalling a party where he fell into a pool; Theo says she promised him a ranch in Mexico with goats. She will be charged with kidnapping, and Child Services takes Theo until a family court hearing, since Fran has no legal standing. Fran offers to testify that Nadine is a good mother, and Nadine agrees Theo needs both of them. Benson tells a doubting Rollins she is a great mother. Later, after Noah goes to bed, Benson and Tucker agree to end their relationship.
Why it stands out
- Benson breaks up with IAB Capt. Ed Tucker in this episode, after he raised the idea of retiring in “Next Chapter.”
- Rachelle Lefevre and Zoe McLellan play Theo’s two mothers, Nadine and Fran, and Iain Armitage plays Theo.