Sacrifice (Season 3, Episode 7)
Premise: A young husband is shot and raped in an alley outside a gay bar, and his silence hides a family supporting a sick child through work in pornography.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 7
- 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)
- Guest stars
- Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Wesley Jansen, Elizabeth Banks as Jaina Jansen, Tom Gilroy as Cal Oman, Kevin Geer as Phil Kastner, Joseph Murphy as Ray Borland
- Director
- Lesli Linka Glatter
- Writers
- Story: Tara Butters & Michele Fazekas; Teleplay: Samantha Howard Corbin; Story & teleplay: Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Summary
“Sacrifice” begins outside Puffy’s, a gay bar, where off-duty Det. Steve Nathan hears gunshots and finds a young man shot in the stomach in the alley. Doctors find semen from three different men, and homeless former master sergeant Phil Kastner, 64 days off heroin, describes a brown-haired shooter with a snub-nose revolver. The bartender says the victim met a regular, Willem Mueller, who handed him a thick envelope. Mueller, an ex-convict who lives as the “houseboy” of Ray Borland, a man Narcotics knows from big drug cases, takes the Fifth, and the detectives get a warrant for his DNA.
Fingerprints identify the victim as Wesley Jansen, who left Cedar Creek, Arkansas, at 17 in 1993. He walks out of the hospital and is found at home with his wife, Jaina, and daughter, Mara; he denies any rape and claims a mugger took $4,500 he earned working on Borland’s house. His parents fly in and clash with Jaina, who lost both parents to a murder-suicide and was then sexually abused by her aunt’s boyfriend. Once Mueller’s DNA matches, Borland explains that he produces gay pornography and that Wesley was paid for a group scene.
The detectives trace Jaina to a set run by director Cal Oman, where Mara is waiting. Jaina is charged with child endangerment; Mara has cystic fibrosis, and the couple’s film work pays for her care. Oman, suspected of mob ties, once dated Jaina, and his alibi witness, actress Delia Sarton, admits lying and says he treats Jaina as his property and has booked her for an extreme stunt in Las Vegas. Wesley finally says Oman shot him after Jaina tried to quit, but he refuses to testify for fear of what might happen to Mara. Phil relapses, and his shaky photo identification is not enough for Cabot.
Oman is then found shot in the back, with Wesley’s prints on the gun. Wesley is arrested after showing his mother how to do Mara’s chest therapy, first claims self-defense, then says he shot Oman to free Jaina, and pleads guilty to first-degree manslaughter.
Spoiler, the ending: His father insists Wesley never touched guns, and the lab finds the weapon was wiped and its stiff trigger is beyond his injured right hand. The detectives stop Jaina as she leaves for a $50,000 contract in Las Vegas, leaving Mara with her in-laws. Faced with a gunshot residue test, she admits shooting Oman and says he beat and threatened her. She pleads not guilty and claims self-defense, and her chances are said to look poor.
Why it stands out
- Mark-Paul Gosselaar, best known as Zack Morris on Saved by the Bell, guest stars as Wesley Jansen.
- Elizabeth Banks, later Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games films and director of Pitch Perfect 2, plays his wife, Jaina.