Deception (Season 4, Episode 2)
Premise: A kindergartner’s drawing leads the squad to suspect her actress mother of abusing her teenage stepson, and the case turns into a murder investigation when the boy’s father is killed.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 2
- 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), Defense Attorney Trevor Langan (Peter Hermann)
- Guest stars
- Sherilyn Fenn as Gloria Stanfield, Jonathan Bennett as Kyle Fuller, Frank Grillo as Frank Barbarossa, Tom Mason as Lawrence Fuller, Jennifer Michelle Brown as Chloe Fuller
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Tara Butters & Michele Fazekas
Summary
“Deception” begins when five-year-old Chloe Fuller draws her family with herself in tears and tells Benson that her mother reads to her teenage half-brother, Kyle, behind a closed door, and that she once saw the two of them in bed without clothes. Chloe’s father is telecom executive Lawrence Fuller; her mother, Kyle’s stepmother, is former film actress Gloria Stanfield. An exam finds no sign of sexual abuse. Kyle turned 17 last month, so a relationship would be legal only if it began after that. Kyle and Gloria both deny it, but the housekeeper, threatened with a tax inquiry, admits seeing Gloria kiss Kyle passionately.
After the parents brawl at Chloe’s school, each accusing the other of abuse, the state takes custody of both children. That evening Lawrence is found beaten to death in the family apartment. A baseball bat under Kyle’s bed bears only his fingerprints, the doorman says Gloria and then Kyle left soon after Lawrence came home, and Kyle, who has a black eye, is charged with murder. Represented by Trevor Langan, he makes $1 million bail. Gloria says she left while father and son were fighting and insists Kyle is innocent.
The detectives learn she and Kyle flew to Virginia and back, and they find the pair in bed: they have married, so neither can be made to testify against the other. Gloria says the affair started only after Kyle turned 17. A judge revokes Kyle’s bail for leaving the state. A tabloid reporter reveals that Gloria is three months pregnant, but a paternity test shows the baby is not Kyle’s. Gloria then turns up in the hospital saying she was raped by her former lover, personal trainer Frank Barbarossa, the baby’s father, who she says threatened to kill her as he killed Lawrence. Barbarossa denies the rape, but building records put him there on the night of the murder.
The lab finds that the semen in Gloria’s rape kit had been frozen and contains spermicide, a sign she planted it from a used condom. Barbarossa takes a deal for second-degree murder and says Gloria asked him to kill Lawrence, gave him the alarm code and told him where to find Kyle’s bat so Kyle would be blamed. Phone records show Gloria called both men from a pay phone shortly before the killing. Shown the paternity results, Kyle admits that Gloria told him to leave the apartment that night.
Spoiler, the ending: Kyle meets Gloria as she arrives for an appointment to end the pregnancy and hands her a petition for divorce, and she is arrested for her husband’s murder. No trial is shown on screen.
Why it stands out
- Sherilyn Fenn plays actress Gloria Stanfield, with Jonathan Bennett as her stepson Kyle and Frank Grillo as her trainer, Frank Barbarossa.
- Peter Hermann appears as recurring defense attorney Trevor Langan, who represents Kyle.
- The episode first aired on NBC on October 4, 2002.