Dominance (Season 4, Episode 20)
Premise: A spree killer forces Manhattan couples into sexual assaults before shooting them, and the trail leads to a building superintendent’s two sons.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 20
- 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), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)
- Guest stars
- Frank Langella as Al Baker, Ian Somerhalder as Charlie Baker, Jason Ritter as Billy Baker, Erik Palladino as Det. Dave Duethorn, Karen Trott as Brenda Nix
- Director
- Steve Shill
- Writers
- Robert F. Campbell & Jonathan Greene
Summary
“Dominance” opens with two late dinner guests finding four friends dead in an Upper West Side townhouse: Evan Briggs, his fiancée, Melissa Ziman, and another couple, all naked and shot in the head. The men were beaten, and the evidence shows the killer forced the victims to have sex with one another before killing them. Homicide detective Dave Duethorn is temporarily assigned to work with Fin. Jewelry, wallets and a framed photo of Evan fishing with his father, toy company chief Earl Briggs, are gone, and a seventh place setting leads to Paul “Buzzie” Dumont, found in a subway stairwell the night before and taken for a drunk. He has a fractured skull and soon dies; the detectives believe the killer struck him outside and used his flowers to get through the door.
Russell and Darlene Weston, both 51, are then found shot in Riverside Park with the same gun, a photo of their grandson missing from a key ring. Brenda Nix saw a man walk a couple into the park from a gold sedan, and a reconstruction identifies a Ford Contour reported stolen by Al Baker, a superintendent on Central Park West who drinks and lives with his sons, Charlie and Billy. The Contour turns up in Central Park beside two more dead men, Adam Darling and Craig Fischetti, whose dates, Barnard students Claudia Smullen and Diane Combs, are missing. Trace evidence points to a home-improvement store, where Billy works in lumber. Detectives tail him and arrest him using a stolen ATM card, Duethorn roughing him up, and stolen keepsakes and boots matching the prints turn up in a basement storage locker.
Billy says nothing until he can see his brother, and Charlie’s visit gets nowhere. Then Iris and Daniel Braverman are shot with the same gun while Billy is in custody; Daniel grew up in the Bakers’ building, and footprints reveal a second killer who walks with a limp, like Charlie. Charlie disappears. His ex-girlfriend, Marie, says Charlie forced himself on Billy during a threesome, and Al, who has been beaten by Charlie, admits he caught Charlie raping Billy and that Charlie planted the stolen goods. Al reveals Charlie is hiding in a vacationing tenant’s apartment, and he is arrested with a .380 Beretta.
Spoiler, the ending: Charlie refuses to say where the women are. Told that only his own boots were in the locker, and urged by his father, Billy turns on his brother, says Charlie made him kill and shot the women’s boyfriends himself, and reveals that the women are in the old water tower on their building’s roof. They are found alive with frostbite and taken to the hospital.
Why it stands out
- Frank Langella plays superintendent Al Baker, with Ian Somerhalder and Jason Ritter as his sons, Charlie and Billy.
- Jason Ritter’s guest role came a season after his father, John Ritter, appeared on the show.
- Erik Palladino guest-stars as Homicide Det. Dave Duethorn, who joins the squad for the case.