Closet (Season 9, Episode 16)
Premise: The murder of a gay man exposes his secret marriage to a star quarterback, who is outed, beaten and charged, while a press leak puts Benson under investigation.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 9, Episode 16
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Sgt. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Chester Lake (Adam Beach), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Casey Novak (Diane Neal), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)
- Guest stars
- Bill Pullman as Kurt Moss, Bailey Chase as Lincoln Haver, Rick Hoffman as Gary Lesley, Beverly D’Angelo as Rebecca Balthus, Robert John Burke as IAB Sgt. Ed Tucker
- Director
- Peter Leto
- Writers
- Ken Storer
Summary
“Closet” opens when Sam Edelstein finds his boss, Jeremy Haines, dead in bed. The medical examiner finds signs of sexual assault, but Jeremy was asphyxiated and his body moved. Sam admits he pulled a ball gag from Jeremy’s mouth, put him in pajamas and dumped leather gear to keep it out of the papers, and his alibi holds. Freddie Ramirez, a teenager from the shelter for gay youths where Jeremy volunteered, sparred with him the week before and says his blood in the apartment came from a nosebleed during a Knicks game; the shelter’s security camera clears him. Freddie says Jeremy had a famous, closeted boyfriend, and a pole camera at the cemetery shows star quarterback Lincoln Haver at the grave at 3 a.m.
Lincoln, whose business manager Jeremy was, says they were lovers but that he spent the night with Natasha Gorsky, a model his agent, Gary Lesley, set him up with. Natasha learns the truth from the detectives and calls a friend in a rage. Lincoln’s semen is on the body, and a diamond pattern in Jeremy’s throat matches a dumbbell bar missing from his weight set. Before Lincoln is found, men shouting slurs fracture his skull, and a radio host outs him on the air. IAB Sgt. Ed Tucker suspends Benson after her phone records show a late call to newspaper editor Kurt Moss, who she reveals is her boyfriend. At Stabler’s urging, Moss talks to IAB and the suspension is lifted.
Waking from a coma, Lincoln is arrested and, under questioning, seems to confess to a drunken fight with Jeremy. His lawyer, Rebecca Balthus, argues that repeated concussions left him unable to form intent. Tests show short-term memory loss, brain lesions and seizures, though his last concussion was too long before the killing to explain a blackout. Lincoln testifies that he and Jeremy had married in Canada. Balthus portrays Stabler as biased against football players, which lets Novak play practice footage of Lincoln threatening to kill a rookie. He is convicted of second-degree murder.
Spoiler, the ending: Over drinks, Benson tells Stabler she has ended things with Moss. Then Gary, on TV, jokes about catching his new quarterback kissing a boyfriend in a restaurant bathroom, though he claimed not to know Lincoln was gay until after the murder. The bar turns up in his apartment, and Gary admits he saw the couple kissing at dinner, went to Jeremy’s apartment and, told they would soon come out and Lincoln would retire, choked him. Lincoln is freed, but team doctors bar him from playing because of permanent brain damage.
Why it stands out
- Bill Pullman guest stars as Kurt Moss, a newspaper editor Benson has been quietly dating; she breaks up with him by the end of the episode.
- Richard Lewis is the voice of radio host Sportsman Larry, and Laverne Cox plays gym manager Candace.