Monogamy (Season 3, Episode 11)
Premise: A pregnant woman survives an attack in which her baby is cut from her body, and the case against her husband turns on whether the child was ever legally born alive.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 11
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), Defense Attorney Trevor Langan (Peter Hermann)
- Guest stars
- John Ritter as Richard Manning, Tricia Paoluccio as Nicole Manning, Bobby Cannavale as Kyle Novacek, Marianne Hagan as Erin Sena, Erin Broderick as Maureen Stabler
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Tara Butters & Michele Fazekas
Summary
“Monogamy” opens when blood drips onto a departing couple’s car in a parking garage, and an attendant finds Nicole Manning, seven months pregnant, beaten and raped on the second level, with her baby removed by a crude cesarean and gone. Nicole, a nurse at a methadone clinic, survives but must have a hysterectomy, and a homeless man later finds the baby boy dead in a dumpster. Her husband, psychiatrist Richard Manning, says he was waiting for her at a restaurant, and the rape kit excludes him.
Prints on Nicole’s car, which she was selling, lead to Kyle Novacek, a former heroin user who says he only test-drove it. The clinic points the detectives to Erin Sena, a nurse who lost her job and license after Nicole reported her for stealing methadone. Brought in after failing a probation drug test, Sena reveals that Novacek was Nicole’s lover. Novacek admits they slept together that afternoon and says the baby was his, and Nicole confirms she had told Richard she was leaving him and that he was not the father.
Nicole adds that Richard set their dinner for 7:30, not the 7:00 he claimed. Cell-site records place his calls near Lincoln Center, close to the garage, and he signed in at a gym there at 8:00. A search of his home with Dr. George Huang turns up traces of blood on his keys, and Manning is arrested. Meanwhile Stabler, worn down by the job, admits to Benson that he forgot to mail Maureen’s Columbia application fee and does not talk to his wife about his work.
Cabot will not charge murder over a fetus without proof of a live birth, a question that divides Stabler and Benson. Warner then finds the baby’s lungs show he breathed, so Cabot drops the attempted murder and abortion counts and charges murder. At trial, defense lawyer Trevor Langan gets Warner to concede that decay could explain the result and that no one can say when a breath was taken. Manning testifies that learning of the affair caused a complete break with reality.
Spoiler, the ending: On cross-examination, Cabot introduces a paternity test showing Novacek was not the father. Manning, who insists he knew everything happening in his home, is left facing the fact that the baby was his own son. When Cabot asks whether the child cried, he answers that the boy cried only a little, admitting on the stand that the baby was born alive. No verdict is shown.
Why it stands out
- Peter Hermann makes his first appearance as defense attorney Trevor Langan; he and Mariska Hargitay met on this episode and later married.
- John Ritter, who won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for playing Jack Tripper on Three’s Company, plays psychiatrist Richard Manning.