Design (Season 7, Episode 2)
Premise: A pregnant woman’s rape case against a rich scientist collapses into a hunt for her body, then for the truth about her baby and the men she targeted.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 7, Episode 2
- 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
- Estella Warren as April Troost, Julian Sands as Barclay Pallister, Lynda Carter as Lorraine Dillon, Ronny Cox as Dr. McManus, Bobby Flay as Leo Ashford
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Lisa Marie Petersen
Summary
“Design” begins with Benson talking a pregnant woman, April Troost, down from a hotel ledge. April says she was raped and names Barclay Pallister, a wealthy scientist whose company has a method of reducing cadavers to dust by flash-freezing. Pallister denies having sex with her, but a DNA test shows he is the baby’s father, and the defense turns to consent. At trial April describes a violent attack, and Novak rejects an offer of probation. On cross-examination the defense raises a $500,000 settlement, and April admits that she wanted to take it after Pallister’s lawyer warned she could lose her baby. Novak plans to recall her to reject the money.
The next morning April fails to appear, and her burned-out car is found at the bottom of a drop beside a road with no guardrail. Suicide is assumed until her apartment turns out to have blood scrubbed away with hydrogen peroxide, a lab chemical pail from the wreck appears to have jammed the accelerator, and Warner finds no remains in the car at all. Pallister admits dining with April that night and says he gave her $500,000 in cash. Roger and Monica Mason, who kept calling her, say they were paying $50,000 to adopt her baby, and other couples paid the same. April’s mother, Lorraine Dillon, whom April had described as dead, mentions a safe deposit box. It holds photos of successful men, including Pallister, musician J.J. Price, restaurant owner Leo Ashford and baseball player Don Lacey. Each recalls a drink with April and waking up ill; one failed a drug test for Rohypnol. She drugged the men and took their sperm by electroejaculation.
The trail leads to the McManus Institute, a sperm bank selling “genius” donations, where April worked. Dr. McManus, who wants to improve the human race through breeding, holds a $5 million policy on her life but says he could not have killed her: April is his daughter, and she is alive. Arrested for fraud and extortion, she claims the baby was stillborn. In an interview she says her mother raised her to run cons, and she offers to reveal where the baby is in exchange for no jail time. After McManus fails to change her mind and Pallister pleads for his child, Novak agrees.
Spoiler, the ending: April gives up her mother, whom the detectives find posing as a robbed grandmother to get a train ticket to Florida with the baby; the two were working together. A detective tells Lorraine that nothing she did this time can be proven a crime but vows to catch her. Baby Sarah is medically cleared and handed over to Pallister, who remarks on her genes.
Why it stands out
- The case continues on Law & Order in the crossover episode “Flaw.”
- Lynda Carter and Estella Warren play a mother-and-daughter team of con artists, and chef Bobby Flay, then married to former cast member Stephanie March, plays one of their marks.