Runaway (Season 2, Episode 16)
Premise: When a narcotics sergeant takes hostages to find his runaway daughter, the squad hunts for her through New York’s rave scene while Internal Affairs questions every step of the search.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 16
- 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
- Sean Nelson as Tito Frank, Kelly Karbacz as Jill Foster, Reg Flowers as Lance Kanick, Dan Ziskie as Frank Foster, Darrell Hammond as Ted Bolger
- Director
- Richard Dobbs
- Writers
- Story: Dawn DeNoon & Lisa Marie Petersen; Written by: Nick Kendrick & David J. Burke
Summary
“Runaway” opens with a standoff: Sgt. Frank Foster of Brooklyn narcotics, searching for his runaway daughter, Jill, takes hostages at an internet magazine after her image turns up on its website, filmed by Tito Frank, who records street kids with a hidden camera. Cragen, Foster’s friend since the police academy, talks him out without first taking his gun. Much of the story is told through Internal Affairs interviews in which Cragen, Stabler, Benson and Cabot answer for how the search was run.
In Tito’s footage Jill complains about her parents, and she has been seen with Lance Kanick, a rave promoter and former escort-service operator who served seven years for beating a prostitute to death. Cragen borrows Monique Jeffries back from Vice to coordinate, and Tito volunteers to help. Foster, in custody, admits he never hit Jill but called her a junkie. A 14-year-old girl found dead of a mix of rave drugs is later identified as Gina Lang of Washington; the medical examiner finds years of old fractures and a body waxed in a way the detectives link to child pornography, and a boy tells detectives he was paid to have sex on camera after a rave.
Jill’s brother says she wanted to see “Dumbo,” which leads Benson and Stabler to the Brooklyn neighborhood. Posing as a gangster, Fin pays Kanick’s lawyer, Ted Bolger, for an hour of his time and gets Kanick’s cell number, but Kanick, once found, cannot be held. Teenagers taken from the loft of artist Lorna Frankel are freed when Bolger arrives, and Cragen rebukes Munch and Fin. During a police raid on a rave, Tito gets Jill out but cannot persuade her to go home. Frankel, arrested on tapes of minors having sex, agrees to help against Kanick. Tito is found murdered, killed by Kanick for bringing the police down on his rave.
Spoiler, the ending: Facing a capital murder charge, Kanick rejects Cabot’s offer of life without parole in exchange for Jill’s location and evidence against Bolger, and Cabot refuses to go lower despite pressure from the squad. Fin drives Kanick to booking and comes back with an address, but Jill is found dead of an overdose in an abandoned building. Kanick accuses Fin of beating him. Cragen is docked five vacation days for failing to supervise his detectives, and he tells IAB that Foster’s career is over while Tito and Jill are dead.
Why it stands out
- Michelle Hurd makes her final appearance as Det. Monique Jeffries, who has transferred to Vice and is lent back to the squad for this case.
- Darrell Hammond plays Ted Bolger, lawyer to Kanick and his rave company, and Lance Reddick appears as an assistant medical examiner.
- Although it aired 16th, the episode carries one of the season’s earliest production codes, E1405.