Pique (Season 2, Episode 20)
Premise: The rape and murder of a software company’s personnel chief lead to a security guard who idolized her, a string of hatpin attacks, and a confession that exposes his mother’s abuse.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 2, Episode 20
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong)
- Guest stars
- Chad Lowe as Jason Mayberry, Margot Kidder as Grace Mayberry, Bruce MacVittie as Mr. Tandy, Doris Belack as Judge Margaret Barry, Bruce Smolanoff as Greg Spencer
- Director
- Steve Shill
- Writers
- Story: Dawn DeNoon & Lisa Marie Petersen & Robert F. Campbell & Jonathan Greene; Written by: Judith McCreary
Summary
“Pique” opens with the body of Veronica “Ronnie” Tandy, 34, head of personnel at the software company Compugame, who was choked from behind, raped and stabbed once in the back. The autopsy shows she was about seven weeks pregnant, which her husband did not know. Coworkers point to two former security guards: supervisor Greg Spencer (called Spector in the episode), fired after being accused of using the cameras to zoom in on women, and Jason Mayberry, whom Tandy had recommended for the Police Academy and who quit two weeks earlier. Spencer says Jason was the one who misused the cameras and that Tandy had started to doubt him.
FBI psychiatrist Dr. George Huang, newly on loan to the squad, advises that Stabler question Jason alone. Jason first claims Tandy harassed him, but his Academy file shows he failed the psychological exam and that Tandy withdrew her recommendation. He lets slip that he knew she was pregnant. Cabot warns Stabler that Jason is free to leave and that questioning him in custody without Miranda warnings would taint anything he says. Following Huang’s advice, Stabler poses as a bitter husband, and Jason says Tandy offered to fix his application if he slept with her.
Photos of Tandy cover Jason’s locker at his new armored-car job, and a search of his apartment finds a woman’s clothing and a box of bloody hatpins labeled with places that match six attacks on women in crowds. Huang identifies piquerism, sexual arousal from piercing flesh. Jason’s mother, Grace, turns up and will not say where she sleeps when she stays over at his small apartment. Pressed by Stabler, Jason, who has asked for a lawyer and been talked out of it, breaks down over his mother’s sexual abuse of him as a child and confesses.
Jason is charged with murder, rape and six assaults, and bail is set at $1 million. The hatpins stay in evidence as items in plain view, but the judge suppresses the confession, ruling that Jason was in custody when he asked for a lawyer. Released, he goes home to his mother in New Jersey. Stabler and Cabot blame each other until Cragen stops them, and prosecutor Malcolm Sanderson says the evidence is too thin for a warrant to search Grace’s house for the knife, which Huang believes Jason would keep there.
Spoiler, the ending: A detective suggests a friendly judge might still sign a warrant. The episode ends at the Mayberry home, with someone calling for Mrs. Mayberry and Jason saying he told her he is not a little boy anymore. What has happened to Grace is not shown, and the case is left unresolved.
Why it stands out
- BD Wong makes his first appearance as Dr. George Huang, introduced as a psychiatrist on loan from the FBI.
- Margot Kidder plays Grace Mayberry opposite Chad Lowe as her son, Jason.
- Doris Belack makes a special appearance as Judge Margaret Barry.