Obscene (Season 6, Episode 3)
Premise: The rape of a teenage TV star pits a decency crusader against a shock jock, until the culprit turns out to be the crusader’s own son.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 6, Episode 3
- 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), Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly (Judith Light)
- Guest stars
- Dana Delany as Carolyn Spencer, Lewis Black as BJ Cameron, Maggie Grace as Jessie Dawning, Raviv Ullman as Danny Spencer, Nestor Serrano as Franco Marquez
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Jose Molina
Summary
“Obscene” starts on the set of the TV series Girl, Undercover, where a police dog wanders off mid-take and leads the crew to the show’s 16-year-old star, Jessie Dawning, unconscious and raped in her trailer. Executive producer Franco Marquez points to Carolyn Spencer, whose decency group pickets the set and who once said the world would improve without Jessie. Jessie’s blood holds opiates, and her trailer holds a dozen bottles of painkillers and sleeping pills. Crew DNA tests expose a sample Marquez faked by paying an actor; Jessie then reveals that she and Marquez, who is 40, are married, with her parents’ signed consent. But a pubic hair from the rape kit belongs to someone else.
A nurse is caught selling a hospital photo of Jessie, and a photographer’s pictures show students sneaking onto the set to steal her underwear for the radio show of shock jock BJ Cameron, who ridicules Jessie on air. A third boy who called himself Speed slipped past security. Cameron’s mail includes an e-mail with phone photos of Jessie on her trailer couch and of Spencer’s picket line, and Spencer’s son, Danny, is arrested. He claims Jessie agreed after he read her a poem; Jessie, who does not recognize him, says Marquez is her only partner. Danny repeats his boast on Cameron’s show, and a producer says the broadcast was cut off just before Danny said Jessie was passed out. Cameron refuses to testify until Novak leans on the station’s owners and their advertisers.
Spencer turns down a plea of one to three years on Danny’s behalf, and Jessie dreads testifying. The detectives bring her to confront Danny, and he pleads guilty, admitting that he had sex with her while she slept and fled when she began to stir. Soon afterward Spencer shoots Cameron in the shoulder outside his station. Donnelly urges a plea, but Novak tries her for attempted murder against a defense of extreme emotional disturbance. Phone records and a newspaper check show that a colleague, Jim Willoughby, photographed the shooting at Spencer’s request; Danny, learning this, offers to testify against her, and she still rejects a plea to assault.
Spoiler, the ending: After two weeks of deliberation the jury deadlocks six to six, and the judge declares a mistrial, leaving Spencer on bail while prosecutors decide whether to retry her. Back on the air, Cameron rants that she should be executed. Danny awaits sentencing.
Why it stands out
- Dana Delany plays Carolyn Spencer; the writers had wanted her on the show for years and wrote the part with her in mind.
- Comedian Lewis Black plays shock jock BJ Cameron, whom Delany described as a Howard Stern–type character.