Frequency (Season 27, Episode 14)
Premise: A baby monitor intercepts a live feed of a caged, non-speaking boy, and the squad races to find him while Griffin tries to reach him.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 27, Episode 14
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), Det. Jake Griffin (Corey Cott)
- Guest stars
- Eric Edelstein as Costa Lykos, Camden Everett Kwok as Avery Li, Elizabeth Sun as Lauren Li, Regina Aquino as Dr. Paige Chou, Carmine Famiglietti as Graham Roberts
- Director
- Brenna Malloy
- Writers
- Story: Nicholas Evangelista; Written by: Brant Englestein
Summary
“Frequency” opens with young Lexi Levinthal telling her parents a boogeyman is in her room. Her baby monitor is picking up a live feed from another camera, showing a crying boy in a dog cage. Benson speaks to the boy through it, but he does not answer. TARU finds that the two cameras share a radio band. Griffin reaches the boy over the link until a man threatens the child for making noise, and the feed drops. TARU narrows the signal to two Upper West Side blocks near the Azura, a former hotel now used as a shelter that houses sex offenders, and Griffin points out that the boy rubbed his arm the way his late brother, who was autistic, used to rub his head.
Rollins shows the image to pediatrician Dr. Paige Chou, whose son Spencer vanished more than a year earlier, but she cannot be sure, and Spencer was not autistic. Lauren Li, though, says her son Avery, who is autistic and non-speaking, disappeared outside a bakery, and she shows a badly misspelled letter from his abductor promising to care for the boy. Detectives sweep the blocks with a signal meter, clearing two offenders, while a ham radio operator’s antenna turns out to be boosting the signal. Rollins profiles the kidnapper as a white man who may be dyslexic and a collector. Benson refuses to let Griffin risk talking to Avery again; he tells her about his brother, Scott, who could not speak and died in a car accident, and she tells him about a girl she found through a 911 call who became a cop and later died on duty.
Tracing sales of a recalled camera, Rollins reaches the apartment of Costa Lykos, who collects newspapers and blames his cousin George. Phoning Benson, she repeats the address with the letter’s misspelling of “street,” and Benson tells her to stall him while Bruno and Griffin set up. Costa shuts Rollins in a dark room and flees, and Bruno chases him into Grand Central, where he escapes into the tunnels. With time short, Benson lets Griffin use the monitor, and he teaches Avery to touch his nose for yes. Avery confirms his name, then signals when Bruno’s siren passes; Rollins finds the address of Costa’s mother on West 70th Street, and the squad frees Avery from the cage.
Spoiler, the ending: Avery, malnourished but with minor injuries, is reunited with his mother, and Costa’s body is found on the train tracks. Griffin apologizes for questioning Benson, who tells him a good leader welcomes questions and that one day he may have to choose whom to follow.
Why it stands out
- Griffin reveals that his older brother, Scott, was non-speaking and autistic, and that the two shared their own sign language before Scott died in a car accident.
- Benson recalls a girl she rescued after a 911 call who grew up to become a police officer and was killed in the line of duty.