Wrong Is Right (Season 2, Episode 1)
Premise: A defense-industry analyst is found shot and burned and his missing teenage ward confesses, while a police commission reviews Stabler and Jeffries over their psychological evaluations.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 1
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Monique Jeffries (Michelle Hurd), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March)
- Guest stars
- Adam Kaufman as Michael Goren, Gerry Bamman as Craig Prince, Geoffrey Ewing as Ralph Noble, Paul Wesley as Danny Burrell, Erin Broderick as Maureen Stabler
- Director
- Ted Kotcheff
- Writers
- Story: Dawn DeNoon & Lisa Marie Petersen; Written by: Jeff Eckerle & David J. Burke
Summary
“Wrong Is Right” opens as Det. Elliot Stabler, driving his daughter Maureen home from the beach, stops to help two officers battling a fire near Black Bank Marsh in Queens. Beneath the flames lies a man’s body, shot in the head and burning at the groin, and Maureen sees it. The Morris Commission, meanwhile, is reviewing psychological evaluations: Det. Monique Jeffries is reported to have slept with a suspect, which she disputes, and Stabler has admitted to fantasies of killing child molesters. Cragen restricts Jeffries to desk work, and ADA Alexandra Cabot arrives as the prosecutor assigned to the unit.
The dead man is Andrew Croft, 42, a guidance-system analyst recently transferred to New York by defense contractor Radial Velocity. His 16-year-old ward, Michael Goren, is missing, and so is Croft’s Lexus. Croft’s supervisor, Craig Prince, and security chief Ralph Noble, a decorated veteran, cite national security and turn over files that are almost entirely blacked out, so Cabot secures a search warrant. State police find the car at the Millbrook home of Michael’s girlfriend, Denise Sadler, and Michael confesses at school, saying Croft hit him and the gun fired while they fought over it.
Croft has no record before 1991, but an old passport leads to his real name, George Kazinski: a sex offender with 11 arrests, five aliases and four convictions. Noble admits the company shielded Croft’s record during the Gulf War so border checks would not slow him, and the shield stayed up, letting a convicted child molester become an eight-year-old’s guardian. Michael denies any abuse, and Cabot says that without his account she will seek a murder indictment. A late-night talk with Maureen about whom teenagers confide in sends the detectives back to Denise, who points them to Michael’s former best friend, Danny Burrell. Danny says Croft tried to assault him in the apartment while Michael stood by.
Before the grand jury, forensic testimony puts the gun several feet from Croft’s head, which rules out a struggle. Faced with Danny’s statement, Michael admits Croft abused him from the age of eight and says he fired because Croft had begun bringing in a second man, Craig Prince, who lived across the street; he adds that the two men killed a boy in Belgium. Prince is arrested at a company briefing on charges including sexual abuse and sodomy.
Spoiler, the ending: The grand jury votes second-degree manslaughter rather than murder, and the DA’s office is ready to offer Michael a deal. Cragen defends Stabler before the commission, which clears him. In the final scene, Jeffries meets Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola, newly reassigned to the squad, and tells him he is there for her job.
Why it stands out
- ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March) makes her first appearance, joining the squad as its permanent prosecutor.
- Fin Tutuola (Ice-T), a former narcotics detective, arrives in the closing scene as the replacement for Monique Jeffries, who is moved to desk duty.
- Paul Wesley, credited as Paul Wasilewski, plays Michael’s former friend Danny Burrell, and Lance Reddick appears as an assistant medical examiner.