Under the Influence (Season 27, Episode 6)
Premise: An influencer hired to liven up a luxury open house is drugged and raped, and DNA from the shower drain leads the squad to two real estate brothers and the father who protects them.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 27, Episode 6
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), Det. Jake Griffin (Corey Cott), Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino)
- Guest stars
- Drew Garrett as Paul Ellis, Chris Webster as Nathan Ellis, Randall Newsome as Raymond Ellis, Shereen Ahmed as Skylar Wright, Harley Renault as Carly Wilson
- Ripped from the headlines
- Loosely based on the case of the Alexander brothers, New York real-estate brokers accused of drugging and raping women over many years.
- Director
- Norberto Barba
- Writers
- Story: Nicholas Evangelista; Written by: Nicholas Evangelista
Summary
“Under the Influence” begins at a luxury open house in a new NoMad building, where Skylar Wright, an influencer hired to add atmosphere, is plainly drunk. Another influencer, Grace, steers her away from a buyer who is hitting on her, but later finds a bedroom locked with a man inside telling her to go away. Thrown out by security, Grace calls 911. The squad finds Skylar drugged and raped, her hair wet, her dress inside out and the sheets gone, and collects hair from the new shower’s drain. The buyer, Chuck Harding, gives his DNA and points to the bartender, Alex Somer, who has been fired from bars over his behavior with women. Event planner Marvin Gibbs, who hires young women to promote properties, hands over a guest list under pressure.
Skylar, whose blood showed ketamine, recalls a man on top of her and a man watching by the door. The drain hair yields two unknown men who are half-brothers: Nathan and Paul Ellis of Ellis National Realty, sons of investor Raymond Ellis. A Morris County deputy, Mike Feldman, says that in 2017 the brothers crashed a car in New Jersey with a woman, Alicia Williams, in the back, that she was dead before she got in, and that the case was dropped. Another influencer, Carly Wilson, says Paul led her to a bedroom where Nathan raped her while Paul watched, and that a lawyer later paid her to sign an NDA. The emails trace to Gibbs, who says the brothers chose the women. The brothers are arrested; Nathan claims Skylar wanted Paul to watch, Paul denies everything, and their father storms in to end the interviews.
At trial, defense attorney Christine Vega gets Carly to admit she asked for more money. Nathan testifies that Paul went into the bedroom with Skylar, and under Carisi’s cross Paul keeps looking to Nathan until the judge steps in. Vega offers a deal in which Paul pleads to everything and Nathan walks. Instead Carisi and Benson get Paul his own lawyer and a deal. He admits luring women for Nathan, sometimes drugging their drinks, and watching the assaults, and says their father killed Alicia and told them to crash the car to hide it. An hour before he is due to testify, an inmate stabs Paul in the neck. He survives, and the squad ties a corrections officer who moonlights as Raymond’s bodyguard to the attack.
Spoiler, the ending: Paul testifies against his brother. Nathan is convicted of first-degree rape, and Paul takes a plea deal. Benson arrests Raymond Ellis for trying to have his own son killed and hands him to Deputy Feldman, who wants to question him about the murder of Alicia Williams.
Why it stands out
- Drew Garrett guest stars as Paul Ellis, one of the two brothers at the center of the investigation.
- Directed by Norberto Barba, who stepped down as an executive producer of the series before this season; he also directed “Clickbait.”