Families (Season 5, Episode 15)
Premise: A 16-year-old prep-school student is found dead and pregnant, and the baby’s DNA reveals a family secret that ties two New York households together.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 15
- 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 Casey Novak (Diane Neal), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)
- Guest stars
- Jane Seymour as Debra Connor, Helen Slater as Susan Coyle, Tom Mason as Jason Connor, Patrick John Flueger as Aidan Connor, Spencer Treat Clark as Brian Coyle
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Jonathan Greene
Summary
“Families” begins when a police dog chasing a rape suspect on the Upper West Side finds the body of Shannon Coyle, 16, a student at William Theodore Prep. Warner finds that a blow to the head killed her and that she had sex shortly before she died. Her mother, Susan, and brother, Brian, say she had no boyfriend, and her father, Barry, an engineer, has been working in Africa for months. Suspicion falls on choir teacher Steve Abruzzo, who left his last school after a student’s complaint, when his fingerprint turns up on condoms in Shannon’s bag. The detectives find him at his apartment in bed with her best friend, Lisa Faber, who is also 16.
Lisa explains that she lent Shannon a key to Abruzzo’s apartment so Shannon could meet her boyfriend, Aidan Connor, whose parents, Jason and Debra, had forbidden the relationship. Aidan says they shared a cab and he was dropped near home at 8:30; Shannon then took a call and had the driver take her back to school. Warner reports that Shannon was eight weeks pregnant and that the baby’s father was a close relative. Susan turns on Brian, but his DNA does not match, and phone records show the last call to Shannon came from a phone billed to Jason Connor.
Before he can be questioned, Jason is shot dead in his car outside one of his construction sites with a gun registered to Susan, who has left town with Brian and is stopped near the Canadian border. Warner’s further analysis shows that Jason Connor and “Barry Coyle” were the same man, which makes Aidan both the baby’s father and Shannon’s half brother. Stabler breaks the news to Aidan, who is shattered. Susan says Shannon’s death was an accident: after Jason told her the truth, she pushed him away, slipped and hit her head, and he left her in an alley. Susan was to meet Jason in Havana, though only tickets for her and Brian turn up, and she used forged ID to clear $2 million in diamonds out of Debra’s safe-deposit box.
Spoiler, the ending: Susan goes on trial for Jason’s murder and testifies that she gave him the gun years ago. Aidan then tells Stabler that he killed his father, but the detectives doubt him, and Debra confesses instead: she found and canceled the Havana ticket, took Jason’s gun to confront him and shot him after he told her everything. She is arrested, and Aidan is told that none of it is his fault and that Brian, his half brother, now needs him; the two boys sit down to talk.
Why it stands out
- Jane Seymour guest-stars as Debra Connor, with Helen Slater as Susan Coyle and Michael Boatman as defense attorney Dave Seaver.
- Patrick John Flueger, who later joined the cast of Chicago P.D. as Officer Adam Ruzek, plays Aidan Connor.