Sick (Season 5, Episode 19)
Premise: A 12-year-old’s violent online fantasies lead detectives to a wealthy toy heir who bought his family’s silence, and then to a second accuser whose story is not what it seems.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 19
- 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), Defense Attorney Trevor Langan (Peter Hermann)
- Guest stars
- Will Keenan as Billy Tripley, Cindy Williams as Nora Hodges, Shane Haboucha as J.J. Ostilow, James Colby as Jeremy Ostilow, Madeleine Martin as April
- Ripped from the headlines
- Based on the sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson.
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Dawn DeNoon
Summary
“Sick” begins in Denver, where college students read a chat-room user called Psychokiller describing the rape and mutilation of a five-year-old and threatening police. The account leads to the Manhattan apartment of Jeremy Ostilow, and an entry team finds that the writer is his 12-year-old son, J.J. His parents dismiss the posts as a prank. J.J. says imagining violence calms him, but his little sister, Lisette, shows Benson 23 dolls he has mutilated, and Cragen gets his father to sign him into Bellevue for observation. Neighbors and school staff describe tantrums, frightened smaller children and obscene drawings, and a bigger boy recalls J.J. beating him while shouting “rape” after a locker-room prank.
The detectives see classic signs of molestation, and J.J. tells Dr. George Huang his parents signed a contract that keeps him silent: three years earlier, at a sleepover, toy-company heir Billy Tripley abused him in the “Treasure Room” of his home, then paid the family. Bank records show $4 million going to Jeremy, a former middle manager at Tripley Toys. Tripley, represented by Chauncey Zeirko, says the money settled a patent deal and sees nothing wrong with sharing his bed with visiting children. Judge Joseph Terhune limits him to supervised contact with minors, but J.J. soon recants in writing and his parents send him away.
Novak persuades Terhune to appoint a law guardian for the boy, and Mary Clark takes the job. When Jeremy, advised by Trevor Langan, refuses to produce his son, he is jailed for contempt. A therapist, Jonas Haase, then sends the detectives to Nora Hodges, whose nine-year-old granddaughter, April, is said to be dying of leukemia and to have been undressed by Tripley during a party. Tripley’s investigator catches Nora shoplifting. Warner finds Tripley’s hair in April’s underwear, but the girl’s blood is normal and an X-ray shows no biopsy holes: April never had cancer and is suffering from mercury poisoning.
Spoiler, the ending: April says her grandmother drilled her with a scrapbook of news clippings, and Nora admits planting a hair from Tripley’s brush. Novak charges her with attempted murder and with fraud over about $60,000 raised for April’s care. J.J. is traced to an uncle in Maine but taken into Canada, beyond the court’s reach; his father stays in jail. With both cases gone, Tripley throws a victory party for the press, surrounded by children.
Why it stands out
- Peter Riegert makes his first appearance as defense attorney Chauncey Zeirko, a role he plays again in the next episode.
- Marlo Thomas returns as Mary Clark, this time as J.J.’s court-appointed law guardian, and Cindy Williams guest stars as Nora Hodges.