The Good Girl (Season 20, Episode 20)
Premise: A pregnant 13-year-old names her drama teacher as the father, but after her stepfather kills him, SVU learns the stepfather legally married her in Missouri.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 20, Episode 20
- Starring
- Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ADA Peter Stone (Philip Winchester)
- Guest stars
- Derek Cecil as Garrett Howard, Eowyn Young as Mackenzie Tolliver, Stephen Tobolowsky as Mr. Kayman, JD Taylor as Quentin Dreyfus, Richard Prioleau as John Woodward
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Lawrence Kaplow & Brianna Yellen
Summary
“The Good Girl” starts when police bring Garrett Howard and his 13-year-old stepdaughter, Mackenzie Tolliver, to the hospital after a neighbor reports screaming and broken glass, and Dr. Patel tells Benson that Mackenzie is pregnant. Mackenzie, whose mother, Angela, died two years earlier, says the father is a stranger with a blue BMW she met while shopping, and that she was willing. A photo on her secret Instagram account leads to two classmates at Saint Matthew’s; one describes her as flirtatious and points to drama teacher Quentin Dreyfus, who drives a blue BMW and offers his DNA. Garrett refuses a paternity test, saying Mackenzie will keep the baby, and Stone moves to compel one. Rollins presses Benson about an abortion she believed Benson had once admitted; Benson says she never said so and that the story is complicated.
Mackenzie then arrives at the squad room by cab, saying she told Garrett it was Dreyfus and he stormed out. Benson and Carisi find Garrett in Dreyfus’s apartment with the teacher dead on the floor; Garrett says he swung a trophy in a rage and didn’t mean it. His lawyer, Mr. Kayman, rejects a manslaughter offer. Dreyfus’s fiancé, John Woodward, tells Stone that Dreyfus was gay, had never been with a woman and was killed with a trophy from their LGBTQ bowling league. Benson finds Mackenzie cooking Garrett’s favorite dinner and suspects she is shielding him. When Stone calls Mackenzie at trial, Kayman produces a Missouri marriage license from August 2018: she is Garrett’s wife, and spousal privilege bars her testimony. Her father, Marcus Tolliver, signed the consent; found through her aunt, Penelope Archer, he admits Garrett paid him $10,000.
In Family Court, Mackenzie says she loves Garrett as a wife, and Judge Joan Calahan upholds the marriage despite the payment. The trial judge then bars any mention of it. Told that Mackenzie’s first prenatal visit came six months after the wedding, Stone bets that Garrett truly cares about her.
Spoiler, the ending: Stone tells Garrett he may drop the case against him and instead charge Mackenzie, whose lie set off the killing, warning that her baby would be born in prison. Garrett confesses that he killed Dreyfus deliberately: told of the pregnancy by police, the teacher had come to Mackenzie out of concern, and Garrett feared their secret would come out. Stone offers first-degree manslaughter with 20 years, threatening to add statutory rape because spousal privilege does not cover child abuse, and Garrett is led away. Benson tells a sobbing Mackenzie that Garrett took her childhood.
Why it stands out
- Stephen Tobolowsky guest stars as Garrett’s defense attorney, Mr. Kayman.
- Benson tells Rollins she never actually said she had had an abortion, correcting an assumption Rollins made from an earlier conversation about regret.