Intersection (Season 24, Episode 13)
Premise: A man posing as an EMT rigs traffic lights to cause crashes and rapes injured women at the scene, until a third crash turns deadly.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 24, Episode 13
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Joe Velasco (Octavio Pisano), Det. Grace Muncy (Molly Burnett), Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino)
- Guest stars
- Lucas Van Engen as Clark Young, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz as Emma Dunn, Marcus Anderson Jr. as Josh Wagner, Daniel Passaro as George Kalazakis, Stephanie Wright Thompson as Shari Young
- Director
- Norberto Barba & Juan J. Campanella
- Writers
- Story: Kathy Dobie & Nolan Dunbar; Written by: David Graziano & Julie Martin
Summary
“Intersection” opens as Josh Wagner takes Emma Dunn to a spot near the Brooklyn Bridge and proposes. Minutes later their car is hit at an empty intersection, and a man in an EMT uniform pulls the unconscious Emma into his ambulance and rapes her as the injured Josh watches. The day after Captain Duarte’s funeral, Fin brings Det. Terry Bruno from the Bronx for a trial run, and Benson takes him to the hospital. Emma remembers nothing and her new ring is gone; Josh describes the attack.
Cameras show the other car, driven by Rob Malone, running the light; his father, lawyer Harris Malone, threatens to sue the city until the detectives raise Rob’s bar crawl and three earlier DUIs, and Rob hands over a photo of the ambulance’s plate. The plate was stolen, but faded markings lead to an auction purchase made with the dealer’s license of used car salesman George Kalazakis. After a talk with Bruno, Josh picks Kalazakis from photos. Kalazakis will not give an alibi, but his wife, Stephanie, tells Muncy and Velasco that her brother followed him to a girlfriend that night, and his DNA does not match. Bruno is sure he is hiding something, but Benson lets him go.
In a second crash, with lights green both ways, Danielle Thomas, who resembles Emma, swerves into a cyclist, and the fake EMT rapes her in his ambulance until she kicks free. Bruno’s ex-wife, Rose, shows how an InfraPass, which emergency crews use to change signals, could be altered to do this. Benson also hands Muncy a recording Officer Tonie Churlish made of Velasco. A third rigged crash kills several people. The attacker’s next target stuns him with a Taser, and fleeing her husband and other bystanders, he grabs Callie Burns, out walking her dog, and holds shears to her neck. Benson negotiates herself. He is Clark Young, 41, of the city’s Department of Weights and Measures, and he wants his wife, Shari, to apologize. Shari wears a ring he gave her three nights earlier: Emma’s. Coached by Benson, she says she still loves him, and he drops the shears.
Spoiler, the ending: Shari’s lover was Kalazakis, and Clark kept Kalazakis’s dealer permit in his desk; with that, the DNA and the ring, Carisi charges him with several rapes and homicide. Benson returns the ring to Emma and Josh and offers Bruno the empty desk if he wants it. On the recording, Velasco tells a gang recruiter that his boss once made him kill a man; Muncy thinks he was lying to win the man over. Benson orders her to take a few days off, ignore Velasco’s calls and tell no one.
Why it stands out
- Det. Terry Bruno starts working with the Manhattan squad on a trial basis, and Benson ends the episode by offering him Rollins’s old desk.
- Brian Cade appears as Harris Malone, the father of a witness; he plays defense attorney Harris Malone in later episodes.
- The episode was directed by Norberto Barba and Juan J. Campanella.