Influence (Season 7, Episode 22)
Premise: A teenager’s false rape claim and a fatal crash reveal that she quit her bipolar medication on the word of a rock star.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 7, 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 Casey Novak (Diane Neal), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)
- Guest stars
- Brittany Snow as Jamie Hoskins, Norman Reedus as Derek Lord, Peter Riegert as Chauncey Zeirko, Jeff McCarthy as Mr. Hoskins, Marsha Dietlein as Mrs. Hoskins
- Director
- Norberto Barba
- Writers
- Ian Biederman
Summary
“Influence” starts with a janitor finding 16-year-old Jamie Hoskins in a boys’ bathroom stall at Lanchester Prep; she tells Benson that classmates Danny Morrison and Cameron Shaw raped her. Her exam shows injuries consistent with an assault, but the boys, questioned separately, say the encounter was her idea and describe a points game students play for hooking up in public places. Cameron’s father says his son’s Cornell scholarship is at stake. A student documentary about casual hookups and an interview with Jamie’s friend Leslie Sweeney reveal that Jamie wanted to lose her virginity because the boy she liked, Trevor Olsen, refuses to sleep with virgins.
School security video shows Jamie walking into the bathroom with the boys rather than being dragged, and the lab finds fresh floor wax on the backs of the boys’ shirts but not on her blouse, contradicting her account of being pinned down. Novak says the physical evidence still supports charges unless Jamie recants, and Benson gently draws out the truth: she invited the boys, and they did not force her. The boys are expelled, and Cameron’s father demands that Jamie be charged for her false report.
Soon after her release, Jamie drives her parents’ car onto a crowded sidewalk, killing 14-year-old Elena Ramirez and injuring others; with no skid marks and no seat belt, the crash looks like a suicide attempt. Her tox screen shows bipolar medications at low levels. Her parents say she never missed a dose, but Jamie tells Benson she quit after hearing rock star Derek Lord call psychiatric drugs poison on television. Novak views Elena’s body at the medical examiner’s office, then charges Jamie with vehicular manslaughter. Lord offers to pay for the defense, Chauncey Zeirko takes the case, and an offer of six months in a psychiatric facility is turned down.
At trial Zeirko questions the psychiatrist’s lack of any lab test for the diagnosis, and Novak’s cross-examination of Jamie ends with her blaming her parents. Her parents then tell Novak that Jamie has stopped her pills again, and the judge sends her to a juvenile hospital ward where the drugs can be given by force. Back on medication, Jamie accepts responsibility and says Lord’s story about his own parents swayed her. Novak cross-examines Lord about being committed at 14 after a suicide attempt and given electroshock therapy, and asks whether psychiatry saved his life.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury finds Jamie guilty of second-degree vehicular manslaughter, and Novak tells her she will recommend a juvenile sentence, likely in a residential psychiatric facility. Afterward Novak recalls her law-school fiancé, Charlie, whose untreated schizophrenia ended their engagement; the last she heard, he was homeless.
Why it stands out
- The seventh-season finale, with Brittany Snow as Jamie Hoskins.
- Norman Reedus plays rock star Derek Lord, who pays for Jamie’s defense.
- Novak reveals that her fiancé from law school had schizophrenia and refused treatment.