A Story of More Woe on Law & Order: SVU

The title of Episode 13 of SVU’s 20th season (1/27/2019) is straight out of “Romeo and Juliet”

“For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

Of course, the play figured into the story in a twisted way as one of the tools that Greg Callahan, a manipulative predator, used to seduce 13-year-old Laura Moore and then get Laura to convince her almost 16-year-old sister Britney to murder their father.

Britney and Laura Moore

The episode began with Laura putting in a call to 911 about a masked man breaking into their home and attempting to molest her and her sister. “He’s hurting my dad,” she sobs, gives the operator her apartment number, then begins to act like she is witnessing her father being stabbed to death.

Greg Callahan and Susan

The detectives arrive on the scene and the father’s bloody corpse is on the sofa. The girls are next door with neighbor Greg Callahan and his girlfriend Susan. Olivia Benson introduced herself to the girls and assured them she was there to help. She was a little shocked when Laura acted like her father was still alive and Britney matter-of-factly stated “Daddy’s dead. Tell her. He’s dead.”

The detectives get separate accounts of what happened from the girls but their stories start to unravel faster than a cheap suit at the medical examiner’s. Daddy was incapable of trying to fend off an attacker because most likely he was passed out drunk when he was stabbed. Furthermore, it was a shallow enough wound that would not have caused his death because he would have been able to put pressure on it and call for help if he was sober. The detectives find more holes in the story when they go over the crime scene again.

Confronted with these discrepancies, Britney admits that she killed her father because he was molesting her little sister. She says that Greg Callahan can corroborate this version because she “tried” to tell him. But Callahan professes ignorance and horrified surprise when informed that is what Britney was attempting to tell him.

It then comes to light that Douglas Moore left a legal directive appointing Callahan the legal guardian of the girls in the event of his death. Upon closer inspection of the actual document, Fin finds it strange that Britney’s middle name is listed as “Katherine” while her birth certificate says “Cathryn.” Benson says, “Even bad parents know how to spell their child’s middle name.” Fin and Carisi go off to visit Izzy Budnick, the attorney who helped draw up the papers. She thought Doug Moore was the “salt of the earth” only the picture she identifies as her client is Greg Callahan. Fin wondered how she figured this guy was old enough to be the father of teens. “Well, he had a photo ID and he had his daughter’s IDs. He paid with a credit card… why would somebody lie about that?” was her incredulous reply.

The girls are removed from Callahan’s custody. Laura screams that she loves Greg and begs him to “tell them” while Callahan is put in handcuffs, all of which took place in front of Greg’s ostensible girlfriend. In interrogation, glib Greg has his cover stories all cooked up claiming he got the guardianship papers because Doug Moore was planning to commit suicide. Laura has a schoolgirl crush on him but he is in love with Susan. He’s being charged with fraud, forgery, kidnapping, and endangering a minor but Peter Stone doesn’t think the kidnapping charges will stick without testimony from Laura and Britney, or at least some evidence that he has been “grooming them for years.”

Greg’s girlfriend Susan disputes any notion that anything was going on between Greg and Laura but she knew about the incest allegations. She didn’t go to the police because Greg was trying to get evidence to make sure Doug went to prison. She says Greg was more of a father to the girls than Doug and doesn’t waver even when shown the “from Romeo to my Juliet” inscription Greg wrote in Laura’s copy of the play.

Benson had an easier time breaking down Laura’s defenses when she revealed that Greg told them he loved Susan. “Susan doesn’t even have a ring on her finger,” Laura says, pointing out that Olivia doesn’t either. But Laura has that sign of true love. She fishes out an engagement ring Greg gave her and announces that they’re getting married when she’s 18.

Their last hope is that Britney isn’t as deluded as those two and they have better luck. Britney is plenty angry that she killed her innocent father over a pack of lies. She agrees to set up a sting on Greg and meets him at a diner wearing a wire. In the course of the conversation, she goes off script and tells him that Laura is pregnant and they need a test to see if the baby is her father’s. This forces Greg to admit that it’s his baby and Britney loses it. She picks up a butter knife and stabs him in the face as the SVU team swoops in. “Help me! I’m bleeding,” Greg whines. “Shut up! She should’ve killed you,” says Fin.

So apparently, now they have enough evidence to convict Greg Callahan of kidnapping and so on, but we feel compelled to point out that if it was Barba, he would be charged with first degree murder. As for Britney and Laura, they were going to get therapy and probation, but we feel compelled to point out that Britney’s solution of stabbing anyone who pisses her off enough would surely rate a deeper look into her mental stability in real life. That’s girl’s a menace!

Also in this episode: Amanda Rollins was close to giving birth to her second child when she got a proposal of marriage from the baby’s father, Dr. Al Pollack (not the father of her daughter, Jesse– that’s Lt. Declan Murphy). Rollins turned Dr. Al down with a simple “I don’t love you,” and was grateful that he took it so well. She named her beautiful and healthy baby girl Billie.

Selected Cast of “A Story of More Woe”
Mariska Hargitay – Olivia Benson
Ice-T – Odafin “Fin” Tutuola
Kelli Giddish – Amanda Rollins
Peter Scanavino – Dominic “Sonny” Carisi
Philip Winchester – ADA Peter Stone
George Newbern – Al Pollack
Alex Kramer – Greg Callahan
Zoe Colletti – Britney Moore
Talitha Bateman – Laura Moore
Bethany Caputo – Izzy Budnick