Chasing Demons (Season 19, Episode 14)
Premise: After his courtroom outburst frees an accused child molester, Cassidy is suspected of killing him, and Benson risks her career to clear him.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 19, Episode 14
- 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 Peter Stone (Philip Winchester), DA Investigator Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters)
- Guest stars
- Lorenzo Scott as Dr. Markus West, Kylie Bunbury as Det. Devin Holiday, Pernell Walker as Kayla Price, Brett Gray as Reggie Price, Dominic Colón as Felix Ramos
- Ripped from the headlines
- Inspired by the trial of Larry Nassar, the USA Gymnastics team doctor who sexually abused hundreds of young athletes.
- Director
- Fred Berner
- Writers
- Story: Brianna Yellen & Robert Brooks Cohen & Céline C. Robinson & Elizabeth Rinehart; Written by: Richard Sweren & Allison Intrieri
Summary
“Chasing Demons” opens at the trial of pediatrician Dr. Markus West, accused of sexually abusing three boy patients, including ten-year-old Sammy Price, in a locked playroom. Peter Stone, who took over from Barba two weeks earlier, calls DA Investigator Brian Cassidy, who says West threatened to kill Sammy’s family. West’s lawyer raises Cassidy’s past and accuses him of beating West and calling him a racial slur during the arrest. Cassidy explodes, mentioning other victims and saying West is lucky to be alive, and the judge declares a mistrial and cuts bail to $50,000. Stone suspends Cassidy, the families are furious, and Kayla Price plans to send Sammy to his father in North Carolina. After Benson pulls a drunken Cassidy out of a bar fight, he turns up at her door asking for help.
West is found stabbed to death at home, and Homicide Det. Devin Holiday orders Rollins and Carisi off the scene. Hiding at Benson’s apartment in bloody clothes, Cassidy says he went to warn West, was knocked out from behind and woke beside the body; he gives her a small bloody object from his boot. Rollins, after taking Noah to school, works out whose boots are in the kitchen. Benson has the squad quietly check the families: Kayla admits someone slipped her $5,000 with a note promising more if Sammy skipped court, and Hector Ramos’s father, Felix, has no alibi. Stone objects to the parallel inquiry but lets Benson review his trial files, with Holiday to be told first.
Holiday shows Stone video of Cassidy dropping something into a sewer near the scene, where her team finds a bloody hat. Benson admits he has been staying with her and brings him in; Holiday questions him, calls his conduct racially driven and arrests him for murder. Fin tells Stone that Benson once sent him home when he was the hothead. The wounds hold traces of fish DNA, Sammy once needed stitches after a fishhook cut, and Kayla’s friend Glanville, who takes Sammy fishing, cannot find his bait knife. Benson then asks to see a fidget spinner belonging to Sammy’s older brother, Reggie.
Spoiler, the ending: With Stone, Reggie admits that West abused him too when he was 11 and that he killed him rather than see him go free and Sammy sent away. Cassidy asks Stone to go easy on Reggie and confides that a Little League coach abused him as a boy, the reason he once left SVU. Stone says he will see what he can do. Cassidy then tells Benson she is the love of his life; she reminds him they broke up long ago and that he was never going to open up to her, and he agrees.
Why it stands out
- Philip Winchester joins the main cast as ADA Peter Stone with this episode.
- Stone tells Reggie about his short career in the Chicago Cubs organization, ended by injury, a backstory carried over from Chicago Justice.
- Cassidy reveals the childhood abuse behind his early exit from SVU; Dean Winters played him in the show’s first season.