Law & Order: SVU: "Harm" (Episode 188)

A young girl is walking down a lonely set of stairs at night....oh man, you just know that something ill is going to happen. As soon as she reaches the bottom of the steps a ski-masked figure rips her shirt and pulls her underwear down. She screams and so the figure backs off for a millisecond and then lunges forward and shanks a Rambo knife into her chest. The would-be rapist snatches her purse as she shakes and quivers on the ground.

When Detectives Fin and Lake arrive on the scene Doctor Melinda Warner is already there probing the deceased with a fresh rape kit. Warner informs them that she laid out all night and bled to death over a few hours. As Detective Chester Lake, aka Dances with Bad Acting, bends down to do some investigating and possibly caressing of the carcass, Warner advises him to keep his distance because the corpse has a nasty legion on her arm and no one knows what it is.

A library card identifies the deceased as Kate Symes. Her mom is dragged down to the meat locker to ID the body and throws a hizzy while providing Benson and Stabler with a few answers as to who exactly she is, I mean, was. First things first, Kate used to have long blonde hair and now she is rocking the short brunette look. The only enemy she has is the father of one of her students. Kate was a college counselor and sent out letters to prospective colleges bashing a former student named Jackie Solomon. Jackie Solomon made a youtube-esque video that was "insensitive" to muslims because it featured her all girl band wearing burkhas and bikinis taunting male terrorists. Hmm...the music was crap but if the band's name was Burkhas and Bikinis then I would probably at least buy a t-shirt. They investigate the father of Jackie and he is a ball-less putz and so they move on.

Dr. Warner has some more information regarding the mystery legion (sounds like a comic book). The legion on her arm was from a Sand Fly and these are indigenous to South American and Middle Eastern countries. A look into Kate's personal records show that she recently withdrew a large sum of cash and took three weeks off of work and didn't tell anyone. Some Big Brother snooping revealed photos of Kate getting on the plane to Turkey as blonde, exiting the plane as a brunette, and entering Iraq with a scarf covering her face. Say what you will, but Globalization and One World Government has certainly made things easier for fictional television detectives to track down loads of information in one quick scene and, hey, freedom isn't free commie.

Turns out Kate was a pretty busy girl. Aside from pulling Madonna style self-reinventions and traveling across the world she also volunteered at a woman's refugee center and spoke fluent Arabic. Stabler and Benson interview a co-worker at the refugee center and find out that Kate received a zillion crazy phone calls the morning of her death. A quick call to the phone company gives them a trace and Stabler goes knocking. He knocks on the door probably expecting some creepo rapist and instead gets some lady who I think was a witch. She wore heavy black robes, talked with a strange voice, and lacked any femininity...oh wait, she was just a muslim woman wearing traditional garb. This woman, who had that self-righteous "your government did this" tone, had no problem letting a couple of cops right into her apartment so that she could tell them her story. Her husband, Abhas, was detained in Iraq and was tortured. He was let out and fled to, where else, the US. Abhas's wife explained that he died the same day as Kate but it was presented as a heart attack but she believed he was murdered.

Melinda Warner confirms Abhas's wife's story by saying that his body showed signs of torture. No, he wasn't tied down and forced to listen to Maria Carey for hours on end, but it was torture nonetheless. He had stomach ulcers and heart problems that were often the results of "benign" torture. To get more information about Abhas's condition the detectives track down his primary care physician. Wow, this Iraqi cab driver must have had better insurance than I do because his doctor actually knew his name from his photo. Where's Michael Moore when you really need him? A video shows Abhas being interviewed with Kate about his torture and he reveals that he saw one of his captors on the morning of his death.

Chester Lake becomes useful for the first time all season and explains that immigrant cab drivers tend to stick to their own and hang out in the same coffee shops. Apparently all the Iraqi's visit the diners and coffee shops on Fifth Avenue (probably conspiring to drive their cabs into a Starbucks). After canvassing numerous crappy diners they finally find a waiter that ID's Abhas. He said that the man turned ghostly white and then threw up on his counter. A couple went up to him to offer help and he bolted. Aha, this considerate couple must be his former torturers. A search of credit card receipts takes them to Dr. Faye Sutton.

Doctor Faye Sutton just looks like a bitch. I don't know how else to describe her other than that she looks like a high school teacher that lives to break balls. She admits to seeing Abhas and states she was having coffee with an old army buddy name George Tomforde. The detectives go to Tomforde's house and it is completely vacant. A quick search on the super computer shows that Tomforde was an ex-special forces commando who now works for a private security firm called Helios. This isn't the type of private security that some actor gets to watch his Malibu home and walk his dogs while he cruises through a Botox drive-thru, no this is the type of private security that employs armies of men carrying AK-47s who will kill, kidnap, and torture for a price, yeah, the type of private security that 50-Cent has.

Stabler and Benson go to Helios to see what they can dig up. The New York Office instantly tries to distance itself from Tomforde but his file shows numerous complaints and also lists Dr. Sutton as being a member of his "interrogation team". The detectives drag Dr. McBitchy Bitchface back to the interrogation room where she remains straight forward and unapologetic about her job in Iraq. While watching the interrogation, Dr. Warner goes nuts and complains about the doctor's ethics and is opposed surprisingly by Dr. Huang. Huang, apparently, does have person opinions and is actually willing to stand up to someone within SVU rather than just being a punching bag for the creeps they force him to interrogate. Good for you Huang, but you sadly chose the wrong side to fight on this time.

District Attorney Casey Novak knows that there is no way to get Tomforde extradited back to the US. Dr. Warner, needing to be reminded that her place is in the medical examiner's office, sticks her opinionated nose into everyone else's business and demands that Casey go after Dr. Sutton. She claims that Doc Sutton knew her methods could cause possible death and therefore should be arrested for criminal negligent homicide. No one told Dr. Warner her medical degree doesn't license her to practice law but Casey Novak loves throwing people in jail so much that she is willing to look past it and go after Dr. Sutton. Hell, if it works she will just tell people that it was her idea.

After the initial bail hearing the two attorneys fight it out over jurisdiction. Even though the alleged torture occurred in Iraq, Dr. Sutton developed the methods, was hired in and returned to New York. This leads to "continuous jurisdiction". Whatever, can we just get to the scenes of Casey fighting it out in court, I love seeing her self-righteous and angry. A part of me has always had a thing for those that would prosecute me. The defense attorney and Casey have a philosophical battle on the courthouse steps...so dramatic in primetime. The defense attorney tells a story about using illegal force on a perp in order to save a girl's life and Novak counters with "what if you had been wrong?". Ok, I agree with Casey's stand on this but her skills in this particular debate are pretty shitty especially considering that she is an attorney.

The trial begins and both sides point fingers and claim to stand up for "American Rights' (whatever those are). In the middle of a rather lengthy fillibuster by Dr. Bitch McGee a juror slumps over and has a heart attack. Warner and Sutton immediately work to revive the juror and Novak dials for help on her cell phone and is clearly annoyed that the evil doctor she is putting on trial is about to save someone's life in front of the jury. A mistrial is declared.

A mistrial ain't gonna stop Miss Docta Melinda Warner though. Nope, she forges ahead on her quest to get Dr. Sutton booted out of medicine and she arranges for a hearing in front of the Medical Board. The Board temporarily suspends Dr. Sutton for her actions violating the hypocratic oath in Iraq.

Good job, Warner, you solved the case. It isn't that surprising though, hell, I kind of though Stabler would become friends with Sutton after hearing about the way she tortured suspects.