Monster (Season 8, Episode 24)
Premise: Pressed by Schiff before a primary election, detectives extract a confession from a known pedophile in the rape of a 10-year-old girl, only to find the real attacker works in her building.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 8, Episode 24
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt), Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Raymond Anthony Thomas as Owen Stokes, Paul Calderon as Jesse Castillo, Cliff Gorman as Gary Feldman, Robert Vaughn as Carl Anderton, Charles Malik Whitfield as Calvin Berry
- Director
- Ed Sherin
- Writers
- René Balcer & Richard Sweren
Summary
The Investigation
“Monster” opens in a housing project basement, where two boys find 10-year-old Malika Richardson beaten, raped and left in a coma, with insecticide sprayed into her mouth. She had been at a library alone, and a pizza napkin and a $20 bill lead the detectives to Calvin Berry, a drug lookout who picks out a sketch of a man seen with her. Van Buren’s request for extra officers is refused, and she learns the department wants her to resign over her discrimination lawsuit. Meanwhile, a jailed informant, Eddie Soto, offers Briscoe a deal: help with his burglary charge, and he will deal with Danny Jones, the dealer suspected of having Cathy Briscoe killed.
A crowd beats Owen Stokes, a man with a record for loitering near a schoolyard. He asks for a lawyer, but the detectives keep him at the precinct, and Berry identifies him. With the primary near, Schiff wants a confession, and McCoy passes the word. Briscoe and Curtis talk Stokes out of a lawyer, then threaten to put him in general population until he admits the attack. A building security guard, Jesse Castillo, also places Stokes at the scene.
The Trial
McCoy wins a ruling admitting the confession, while Gary Feldman, now running against Schiff, files a misconduct complaint against McCoy over an earlier case. A clinic then confirms Stokes was receiving a drug for sex offenders when Malika was attacked. A boiler repairman says Castillo vanished for half an hour that day, and the detectives find matching insecticide in a storage room he controlled. Castillo has a sexual assault arrest in Virginia. Judge Feldman dismisses the Stokes case, scolds the office, and takes Castillo’s case himself.
Ross tells McCoy she is leaving the office to fight her ex-husband for custody of her daughter. Malika’s doctor refuses McCoy’s request to say she may recover, but McCoy lists her as a witness anyway. Defense lawyer Mark Considine accepts a plea of 12½ to 25 years, and Castillo admits luring Malika with the pizza money. Feldman objects, but McCoy warns him that rejecting the deal and losing at trial would follow him into the election.
Spoiler, the ending: Feldman has no choice but to accept the plea. Carl Anderton visits Schiff to wish him well before the primary, and McCoy goes before the disciplinary committee, determined to answer every question. After a memorial service for Cathy, Briscoe agrees to meet with Detective Harry Spivak. No outcome of the primary or the hearing is shown.
Why it stands out
- This is Carey Lowell’s last appearance as ADA Jamie Ross as a series regular; Ross resigns to focus on her family and her divorce.
- Van Buren is pressured to resign over her discrimination lawsuit against the department, and her squad is denied extra officers.
- Briscoe weighs a jailed informant’s offer to take care of Danny Jones in exchange for help with a burglary case.