Starved (Season 7, Episode 8)
Premise: A speed-dating sting catches a controlling surgeon suspected of serial rape, and the girlfriend who could convict him becomes the subject of a right-to-die fight.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 7, Episode 8
- 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), DA Arthur Branch (Fred Dalton Thompson), Judge Elizabeth Donnelly (Judith Light)
- Guest stars
- Dean Cain as Dr. Mike Jergens, Tina Holmes as Cora Kennison, Veronica Cartwright as Virginia Kennison, Teri Garr as Minerva Grahame-Bishop, Matt Walton as Jack
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Lisa Marie Petersen
Summary
“Starved” follows a masked rapist who picks locks, smells of baby powder and orders his victims to obey or die. All three, successful women in their thirties, met men through Speed Encounters, a speed-dating service run by Jack, a psychiatrist who lost his license for sleeping with patients. Each woman went out with a different name, but Ted Kaye, Peter Lowe and David Clark share one email account, and each describes a controlling date whom she refused to see again. Benson goes undercover as “Rachel” and is matched with “Jim,” who orders her a drink she does not want and calls his ex clingy. When he follows her home, he is arrested: he is surgeon Mike Jergens.
His lawyer, Minerva Grahame-Bishop, produces his live-in girlfriend, Cora Kennison, who says he was home the night victim Janice Clay was attacked, and without physical evidence Novak cannot indict. Benson tells Cora about her own date with Mike, and Cora admits he left that night with a gym bag and consents to a search; the bag holds surgical tools, latex gloves and baby powder. Judge Elizabeth Donnelly suppresses it because Cora keeps her own apartment and could not consent. Benson finds Cora unconscious from alcohol poisoning; she is a bulimic binge drinker. After Cora testifies, a grand jury indicts Mike on all three rapes, but she slips away from her mother, Virginia, and marries him at Rikers. Spousal privilege, however, does not cover crimes committed before the wedding.
At trial Cora admits Mike told her to lie, then says under cross-examination that she believes him innocent. That night Mike calls her from jail threatening suicide; she drinks, stops breathing and is left in a persistent vegetative state. As her husband, Mike asks to have her feeding tube removed, and Donnelly rules that he has the authority. Virginia, who wants Cora kept alive, takes her fight to the news media after Novak encourages her, and District Attorney Arthur Branch rebukes Novak. At an emergency hearing Mike testifies that after they saw a car crash, Cora made him promise never to let her live like that.
Spoiler, the ending: The judge lifts the injunction, and Cora dies with Virginia holding her hand. Mike then asks for a quick death certificate so he can collect $1.5 million in life insurance he took out on Cora after the wedding, and he is told he knew Cora would not survive without him. He tells his lawyer they need to start on his appeal. The autopsy confirms that her brain damage could never have healed, and a newspaper story about the crash shows that Cora did tell a reporter she would not want to live that way.
Why it stands out
- Fred Dalton Thompson makes a special appearance as District Attorney Arthur Branch.
- Dean Cain guest-stars as surgeon Mike Jergens, with Teri Garr as his lawyer and Veronica Cartwright as Cora’s mother.
- Judith Light’s Judge Elizabeth Donnelly rules on both the disputed search and the feeding-tube petition.