Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Episode 13.13 Father's Shadow

Benson speaks at a professional law enforcement conference when the entrance of ADA David Haden catches her eye. They share a smiling glance as Haden takes his seat. After the conference, Haden and Benson walk out together discussing cities around the world they would like to visit. Haden would go to Sri Lanka in a heartbeat while Benson dreams of seeing Paris. Haden asks if she's interested in grabbing a bite to eat; he knows a great Bistro nearby. Benson wants to say yes but declines because she's still on duty. "Besides you're a D.A. I'm a detective - conflict of interest waiting to happen?" Haden is disappointed but understands. As he walks away, he yells out, "Don't wait too long to see Paris."

Mallory Jenner, an aspiring actress, enters the casting office of a reality show. She excitedly shakes the hand of the show's producer, Fred Sandow, his assistant, Jess, and his associate producer and son, Eddie. Mallory is visibly nervous; Fred offers her champagne so she can relax and be the excited contestant he needs her to be. After a couple takes, Fred asks his assistant and son to leave the room. Once they're gone, Fred gives her one-on-one direction to best showcase her personality. Later at night, Mallory is passed out drunk on a park bench. A man in his early 20s passes by; he shakes Mallory, but she doesn't move. He looks around, and no one is insight; he climbs on top of her and unzips his pants. Soon a dog walker jogs by and notices the assault. He chases after the man and calls the cops. As the police handcuff the 20-year-old, he pleads with them that he's innocent. "I thought she was dead." Rollins and Fin exchange a look of disgust as they lead him away.

In the interrogation room, Munch can't believe the excuse the suspect is giving. "He thought she was dead? Thirty years in, that's a new one." Rollins discovers that the 20-year-old is wanted for several subway grind-and-goes, but escalating to full on rape doesn't fit his profile. Fin and Rollins talk to him. He admits to doing things to women, but he's not a rapist; he just likes rubbing up against soft fabric. At the Medical Examiner's office, Benson and Amaro learn that Mallory had alcohol and Quaaludes in her system. "That combo will knock anyone on their ass." Also found were grey pubic hairs, which surprises Benson because their suspect is in his early 20s. They determine that their current suspect was just a coat opportunist while the person that slipped her Quaaludes is still at large.

At Mercy Hospital, Benson and Amaro interview Mallory. She has no recollection of how she ended up on the park bench or the sexual assault; the last thing she remembers is throwing up in a taxi. Fin and Rollins find the taxi she rode in the night before; the cab driver says that a young guy paid him 50 dollars to take her home. They find Mallory's phone in the taxi, and according to her schedule, she had an audition yesterday at Sandow Films. Benson and Amaro visit the Sandow Films office and interview the assistant, Jess, and Sandow's son, Eddie. The son admits to putting Mallory in the cab last night and tells the detectives they'll have to wait to interview his father; he's in a closed-door audition. Amaro doesn't listen and opens the casting office door to find Fred on top of a blonde woman with his shirt and pants undone. The blonde woman's blouse is open and she appears to be drugged. Benson notices a glass of champagne next to the couch, and they place Fred Sandow under arrest. Eddie becomes frantic as his father is put into handcuffs; he charges towards Amaro and has to be restrained and handcuffed by Benson.

In the interrogation room, Fred and his lawyer explain to Rollins and Fin that he was rehearsing a scene for his reality TV show with the blonde woman when Detective Amaro barged in and jumped to conclusions. The woman was just acting helpless to be on his reality show; she was really in complete control. Rollins asks about Mallory Jenner, and Fred answers that she was drunk before the audition. Rollins counters that Mallory was drugged, and residue found on the champagne glasses will prove it. Fred emphatically tells them he did not rape those girls. "Why would I have to? They would do anything to get on stage." Benson interviews Lacey, the blonde girl from the audition room. She surprisingly tells Benson that she was not raped; everything was consensual. Benson tries to convince Lacey not to be scared of the truth, but Lacey sticks to her side of the story. "If he goes to prison, what happens to the show?" Benson and Amaro are left speechless by the lengths some people are willing to go to get on television.

Eddie vehemently stands up for his father as Benson and Amaro interview him. He swears that his dad is innocent, and Mallory was drunk. Later, Finn and Rollins interview Jess at the apartment she shares with her daughter and Eddie. After some prodding, Jess hands the detectives Malory's underwear and stockings she found on the floor the day after the audition and a list of other actresses who might have unwillingly slept with Fred. The SUV squad searches Sandow's office and find bottles of Quaaludes in his desk that match the residue found on the champagne glasses. At court, Fred is remanded to prison without bail to the dismay of Eddie. Later at the SVU squad room, Eddie physically confronts Benson and blames her for everything that is going wrong. He threatens Benson that if anything happens to his father, she'll be sorry. Later that night, Jess arrives home to find Eddie holding a gun on her daughter. He found out that Jess helped the detectives, and he is not letting her get away with such a betrayal of trust.

Eddie Sandow's apartment has turned into a full-blown hostage situation. Cops and SWAT set up a perimeter as they try to establish contact with the gunmen. Eddie has been asking for Benson, but Capt. Cragen is reluctant to let her go up to the apartment; he may be setting her up. Benson arrives at the apartment door wearing a bulletproof vest and tries to talk with Eddie. He is erratic and demands they release his father from prison or else he will kill Jess and her daughter. Benson tells the hostage negotiator that Eddie has no impulse control; their best option is to get the father to cooperate and come down to the scene to talk his son down. At Rikers Island, Rollins and Fin ask Fred to talk his son into giving up before things escalate past the point of no return. "You want my help, you pay my price. What are you going to do for me?" Fred asks. He is only willing to help if they make a deal with his lawyer to drop all the charges against him. Rollins and Fin are in shock that a father would act so coldly to a son in trouble.

Benson is in a tough situation as she learns that Fred is not coming to talk Eddie down. Suddenly Eddie opens the apartment door, gun at the ready. He asks when his father's arriving. Benson tells Eddie the hard truth; his father didn't want to come. Eddie doesn't believe her, calls Benson a liar, then slams the apartment door closed. Benson and SWAT discuss their options. They've decided to call Eddie's mother and sister down to help; then if no progress is made, they'll take the kid out. Benson warns them that his troubled relationship with his mother will just add fuel to the fire. Haden walks in and agrees with the SWAT teams assessment; they need to take the kid out. Benson fires back at Haden that he's wrong. Eddie is just a scared kid that just needs a chance. At night, Eddie's estranged mother and sister arrive. The sister tells Benson that it's a good thing the father is behind bars; when she was younger, Fred would molest her. That's why they are estranged from Eddie. He idolized his father so much that he wouldn't believe the hard truth. Inside the apartment, Jess and her daughter start walking to the bathroom. Eddie demands that they stop, but Jess refuses. They begin to struggle, ripping at each other until Eddie's gun goes off.

Benson runs up to the apartment door just before SWAT prepares to take it down. She pleads for them to wait; she can talk Eddie down. Eddie yells from the apartment that Jess has been shot. He swears it was an accident. Benson makes a deal to come inside the apartment to check on Jess. She slowly enters and finds Jess has been shot in the leg and is shaking in shock. Benson convinces Eddie to keep the gun trained on her while medics come to take Jess out. Benson talks to Eddie face to face, and she tells him the hard truth about his father -how he didn't want to come to Eddie's rescue, how he molested Eddie's sister when she was 15. That's why his mother and sister ran away, not because they didn't care about him, but because his father was a predator. Eddie collapses from the weight of the truth; he can't face the knowledge that his father was a bad person. He rationalizes that if something is wrong with his father then something must be wrong with him. He points the gun back at Benson and stands in front of the window. He's going to end it all, suicide by cop.

Benson pushes Eddie away from the window. "Why do you care?" Eddie screams. Benson tells him she knows how he's feeling. "My father did terrible things to women. To my own mother." She pleads with Eddie that he has a choice. He doesn't have to be like his father; she's nothing like hers. With tears rolling down his cheeks, Eddie releases the gun to Benson. Outside the apartment, Benson watches as a scared and helpless Eddie is put inside a police car and driven away. Haden walks up and asks Benson what she did to finally break through to Eddie. She solemnly looks at Haden, takes a deep breath and responds that she simply told him the truth.