Impulsive (Season 9, Episode 3)
Premise: A high school teacher and her 15-year-old student accuse each other of rape, and the boy’s lawyer argues that a sex addiction made him do it.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 9, Episode 3
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), 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), TARU Ruben Morales (Joel de la Fuente), Judge Lena Petrovsky (Joanna Merlin)
- Guest stars
- Melissa Joan Hart as Sarah Trent, Kyle Gallner as Shane Mills, Quincy Dunn-Baker as Jimmy Trent, Annie Potts as Sophie Devere, David Conley as Earl Romaine
- Director
- David Platt
- Writers
- Jonathan Greene
Summary
“Impulsive” begins when a doctor learns that 15-year-old Shane Mills has gonorrhea, caught from a woman. Benson and Stabler arrest his English teacher, Sarah Trent, for statutory rape. Shane says she seduced him while tutoring him for the PSAT at his family’s apartment; Sarah says he pinned her to a wall and raped her, and that she threw out her torn blouse so her husband would not find out. Shane’s parents threaten to go to the press unless she is charged within three days. A search turns up antibiotics and unlabeled vials, and her husband, Jimmy, a firefighter, mentions that she once cut herself.
Morales traces Sarah’s phone to a family planning clinic, where she is having an abortion. Novak catches Judge Bradley at an elevator to sign a warrant for the fetal tissue, and Sarah is arrested and faints. Jimmy, a Catholic who learns of the abortion only then, attacks a detective and is held, then released and urged to forgive her. The DNA shows Shane was the father, and the vials are a fertility drug, since Jimmy is infertile. At the arraignment, defense attorney Russell Hunter claims the seizure violated Sarah’s religious freedom, and the obstruction count is dismissed. The squad watches both: Sarah slips out in a wig only to visit a church, while Shane meets a prostitute who says he asked her to act out being forced. Another prostitute says he bragged about tearing off his teacher’s clothes. The charges against Sarah are dropped, and Shane is arrested.
Shane’s new lawyer, Sophie Devere, calls him a sex addict, and Judge Petrovsky lets her argue that his impulses overpowered him. A prosecution psychiatrist describes genetic markers and brain-scan activity tied to compulsive sex but says Shane should still be held responsible. On the stand, Shane admits he forced himself on Sarah, doctored photos of her afterward, and knew rape was wrong. Sarah then asks Novak to spare him prison, and he pleads guilty in exchange for probation at a private treatment center for juvenile sex offenders, with the rape charge to be dismissed if he completes it.
Spoiler, the ending: At the Kastner Center, Shane is beaten and raped, and staff strip his bed before police arrive. Novak grabs the administrator, David Feldron, and Stabler talks him out of an assault complaint. DNA identifies the attacker as Earl Romaine, a Florida sex offender working there under a real guard’s name, and he is arrested. The center is shut down, Shane is moved to outpatient treatment on probation, and Kastner offers him a million dollars not to sue, which angers Jimmy Trent. Romaine says he cannot help himself.
Why it stands out
- Melissa Joan Hart plays teacher Sarah Trent, and Kyle Gallner plays her student, Shane Mills.
- Shot first among the season’s episodes, starting in April 2007, it aired third.