Career Psychopath (Season 27, Episode 11)
Premise: After a gunman ambushes Rollins and Carisi at home, SVU finds a string of attacks on people who helped convict Henry Mesner.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 27, Episode 11
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Jake Griffin (Corey Cott), Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly), Chief Kathryn Tynan (Noma Dumezweni), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong)
- Guest stars
- Ethan Cutkosky as Henry Mesner, Maxine Wanderer as Ruby Mesner, Kimball Farley as Phillip Wingate, Kakra Nunoo-Brown as Rose Pratt, Colin Walker as Warden Fred Muller
- Director
- Michael Smith
- Writers
- Story: Nicholas Evangelista; Written by: Nicholas Evangelista
Summary
“Career Psychopath” opens on Rollins and Carisi’s second wedding anniversary. At home they find a masked young man waiting, who holds a gun on Carisi, makes Rollins give up her weapon and orders her to tie up her husband with a cord. Rollins shoots him, and he escapes down the fire escape to a blue Honda with a covered plate, getting into the passenger seat. Benson sends a protective detail to the couple’s children and parents on Staten Island and moves Rollins and Carisi to a hotel, and Chief Tynan pledges every resource. Rollins, on modified duty while the shooting is reviewed, combs her old cases; Curry and Griffin visit Bruce Ingram, an acquitted man who once threatened Carisi, and released rapist Michael Simmons, and Rollins rules both out by their voices.
The attacker’s blood matches an attack in Brooklyn a week earlier on Diana Vitale, a retired court reporter who worked many of Carisi’s trials and later dies of her wounds. Benson asks Dr. George Huang to come out of retirement for Rollins’s psych evaluation; he clears her and urges her to slow down. A ViCAP search turns up the murder of Julia Pratt, 20, in Queens, and her sister, Rose, says their aunt and guardian is Judge Anita Wright. The cases the four share point to Henry Mesner, who abused his sister Ruby, murdered his family and stabbed Carisi, and is serving 60 years at Sing Sing. The blue Honda belongs to Ruby, now 18, whose foster parents describe her drug use and a boyfriend named Phillip. Benson visits Henry herself, but he only wants Rollins.
The phone Ruby used leads to Phillip Wingate, 28, whose townhouse is full of journals obsessed with Henry; police find Ruby there but not Phillip. Ruby says Phillip sought her out to get close to Henry and had her drive. When Rollins berates Ruby, Benson takes her off the case. Rollins goes to Sing Sing anyway, goads Henry into claiming he planned the attacks, then tells him Phillip did it without him. Hoping she will visit again, Henry reveals fan letters signed “PW” and a hint that the next target is the doctor who treated him as a child: Huang.
Spoiler, the ending: The squad reaches Huang as Phillip attacks him, and Huang survives. Phillip runs, refuses Rollins’s order to drop his knife and is shot. Ruby is offered probation that begins with a year of inpatient rehab, on condition that she ask for help the next time she feels trapped. Huang thanks Rollins for her insubordination, and she and Benson make peace once Rollins promises never to go around her again.
Why it stands out
- Ethan Cutkosky plays Henry Mesner for a third time, after season 14’s “Born Psychopath” and season 22’s “Post-Graduate Psychopath,” whose titles this episode echoes.
- BD Wong’s Dr. George Huang, who appeared at Cragen’s memorial in the season premiere, comes out of retirement at Benson’s request.