Care (Season 3, Episode 9)
Premise: A five-year-old girl in foster care is found beaten to death, and suspicion moves from her birth mother to her foster brother to the women raising them.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 3, Episode 9
- 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)
- Guest stars
- Piper Laurie as Dorothy Rudd, Kathleen Wilhoite as Jane Rudd, Colin Fickes as Glenn Rudd, Erika LaVonn as Tashandra Adams, James Goodwin as Danny Marston
- Director
- Gloria Muzio
- Writers
- Story: Tara Butters & Michele Fazekas; Written by: Dawn DeNoon & Lisa Marie Petersen
Summary
“Care” opens with construction workers finding five-year-old Cassie Adams beaten to death in a house under renovation across the street from her foster home, next to a homemade wooden sword tied with her braid. Cassie lived with foster mother Jane Rudd, Jane’s mother Dorothy, Dorothy’s 14-year-old foster son Glenn and Cassie’s sisters, Tanya and Whitley. Her birth mother, Tashandra Adams, who has been fighting to regain custody, and her boyfriend, saxophonist Duke Henry, say they were working at a club that night, and at the precinct Tashandra attacks Jane. The girls mention a friendly worker, Danny Marston, who volunteers with youth programs; he denies wrongdoing and says he once saw Cassie and Glenn sword fighting in the house.
Glenn, a special-education student who is bullied at school and was abused as a small child, is absorbed in a knights-and-monsters video game. His hidden fort holds a penknife with a hair matching Cassie’s, but the medical examiner finds no sexual assault and says she was beaten over at least 12 hours with a smooth, cylindrical object, not the sword. Jane and Dorothy admit they were out playing cards that night, leaving Glenn in charge. Under questioning, Glenn mumbles about a Gorgon, harms himself and is sent to a psychiatric unit. Cragen plays the game to the end and learns that the hero saves a princess by tying her hair to a sword, and that the Gorgon is female.
Tashandra and Duke snatch the girls and are caught on a bus to Atlanta, after which Tanya says “Momma Rudd” beat Cassie. A private agency had warned that Jane should get no more children, but she simply applied elsewhere. With a law guardian’s consent, Cragen talks with Glenn, who says he carried Cassie away to protect her. Dorothy blames Glenn, but Jane admits that her mother made her tie Cassie up and then beat her with a cane all day after Cassie threatened to tell. Warner matches the cane to the wounds, the rope is found, and Jane takes a plea deal to testify. When Dorothy shouts at Glenn from the defense table, he accuses her directly.
Spoiler, the ending: Before a verdict, Dorothy dies of a heart attack at Rikers, ending the prosecution, and Jane’s deal stands. Cabot threatens the foster agency’s caseworker with charges unless Tashandra gets her daughters back at once, and the girls return to their mother. Glenn goes back into the system in an emergency foster placement.
Why it stands out
- Piper Laurie, a three-time Academy Award nominee known for The Hustler and Carrie, plays foster grandmother Dorothy Rudd.
- Kathleen Wilhoite, known for recurring roles on ER and Gilmore Girls, plays her daughter, Jane.