Harry Hamlin on Law & Order: SVU

So Harry Hamlin turned up “Pattern 17”, the 9th episode of Season 16 of “Law & Order: SVU.” Hamlin played Deputy Chief Patton, Detective Amanda Rollins’ (Kelli Giddish) former boss in Atlanta. Patton has history with Rollins that make her tense and uncomfortable with him, while he obviously is enjoying her unease. And he is also going to be in the January 7th episode.

Hamlin, by the way, plays Jim Cutler in AMC’s “Mad Men” and was playing Ned Lishman (Jimmy/Steve’s father) on SHO’s “Shameless”. And he’s not the only actor in “Pattern 17” that we recognized from our cable shows: Jordan Lage, who was recently in the flashback episodes of Boardwalk Empire as young Leander Whitlock, played the rapist, Albert Beck. Madeleine Rose Yen (young Gillian Darmody in the BE flashbacks) was one of the victims.

Albert Beck lands in New York City thanks to the untested rape kits of various other jurisdictions that failed to address their backlog issues, and Amanda Rollins recognizes the rapist’s M.O. because 3 of the cold cases were in her former backyard, Atlanta. He picks petite victims. He hums church music So Sgt. Olivia Benson sends Rollins and Fin off to Atlanta to get what they can, and in the meantime, she is put under A LOT of pressure to catch the Pattern 17 rapist from the higher ups. She is also facing a Family Court hearing brought about by child services caseworker, Miss Jackson, and her concerns that Olivia puts a higher value on her job than she does Noah.

Rollins’ trip to Atlanta yields the name of the tune he hums (“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”), but that went nowhere. and DNA evidence that eventually helps them catch Albert Beck and scare him into confessing to the bulk of his sex crimes. And it also yields future trouble since Deputy Chief Patton is going to make a trip to New York City when the series resumes January 7th. Fin has already sensed the tension between Rollins and Patton which promises to explode in “Forgiving Rollins”.

If you are a fan of Harry Hamlin, or even if you’re not, and just want something good to watch in the meantime, get a DVD of the 1984 mini-series, “Master of the Game”. Hamlin plays Tony Blackwell, Dyan Cannon’s son. The story really centers around Cannon as Kate MacGregor Blackwell, the heir to the diamond empire built by her father, Jamie MacGregor, played by Ian Charleson.