Futility (Season 4, Episode 22)
Premise: An accused serial rapist acts as his own lawyer, using the trial to confront his victim and to challenge the confidentiality of her rape counseling.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 22
- 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
- Fred Savage as Michael Gardner, Myndy Crist as Carrie Huitt, Tyra Ferrell as Bethany Taylor, Lauren Ward as Erin Russ, Dana Eskelson as Karen Leighton
- Director
- Alex Zakrzewski
- Writers
- Tara Butters & Michele Fazekas
Summary
“Futility” begins with Michael Gardner arrested at his own poker night after a fingerprint ties him to a serial rapist who chokes women unconscious, rapes them and cuts their breasts. As he is taken in, he punches Benson in the face. There are four victims, but only Carrie Huitt, who pretended to be unconscious, saw the attacker. With rape crisis counselor Bethany Taylor beside her, a frightened Carrie picks Gardner out of a line-up. His wife posts his bail, and orders of protection for the women mean giving him their addresses. Gardner soon turns up in Carrie’s coffee shop and then outside the home of another victim, Karen Leighton, where he is arrested again.
Acting as his own lawyer, Gardner gets those charges thrown out. He keeps representing himself at his rape trial, with his attorney, Erin Russ, as standby counsel, and persuades Judge Lois Preston to split the four cases and to dismiss three for lack of evidence. Carrie nearly refuses to testify, then faces Gardner’s cross-examination. Questioning Benson, he shows that Taylor saw him in handcuffs before speaking privately with Carrie ahead of the line-up, and he subpoenas the counselor. Taylor will not break privilege and is jailed for contempt, so Benson asks Carrie to waive it. Carrie, who has ended her engagement and barely sleeps, agrees. The judge hears Taylor in chambers and finds nothing that helps Gardner, but Taylor later tells Benson that six of her clients have stopped counseling.
Benson tells Stabler she wonders whether the cost to victims is too high. Then Gardner fails to come back to court. Evelyn Sharpe is found strangled on Staten Island with her face slashed, and the medical examiner finds a bite mark the killer tried to cut away that matches Gardner’s teeth. Check-cashing video shows him leaving in a white SUV with a woman, and phone records reveal an affair with Russ.
Spoiler, the ending: At Russ’s apartment, Benson and Stabler find Gardner dead. Russ says she found the murder weapon in her car and that he kept denying everything. When the killing is described as justifiable if he attacked her, she answers by stressing the word “if.”
Why it stands out
- Fred Savage guest-stars as Michael Gardner, a serial rapist who defends himself in court.
- Tyra Ferrell plays rape crisis counselor Bethany Taylor, who goes to jail rather than reveal what a victim told her.