Blackout on Law & Order: SVU

The teaser for “Blackout”, SVU’s 3/21/2019 episode said that “Benson reluctantly looks to her own for a suspect” after defense attorney Nikki Staines is sexually assaulted, and we don’t know why. Maybe we missed something but Benson wasn’t looking at anyone in her unit in particular, though at one point she wanted to subpoena 50 cops to eliminate them as suspects. Whatever– as soon as Amanda Rollins dramatically pronounced “there’s no such thing as a Loganville accent”, our suspicions about the bad guy were confirmed.

Don’t try to play me, y’all

This was a rather hilarious contrivance when it was brought up much later after it happened. Before the assault, Benson and Rollins were introduced to attorney Rob Miller at a police philanthropy event by Chief Dodds. Miller is co-counsel to the NYPD’s lawers on a civil rights lawsuit brought by Nikki Staines, who is also at the shindig being a thorn in Carisi and Fin’s sides with her “friendly sparring.” Benson has heard of the eminent counselor because he made the top 10 attorneys in New York Magazine last year. Miller is all compliments to Benson and Rollins and that is when he commented to Rollins that he recognized her Georgia accent, adding “Loganville?” Rollins replies “That’s a first,” and he says he went to school down south, then suggests to Benson that they grab a coffee sometime. Benson didn’t say yes or no and the ladies left the party. Rollins told Benson that she thought Mr. High-Powered Attorney was hitting on her. Benson was surprised. “Me?” she countered, “What about you? Loganville?” Rollins laughed that off saying all she has time for is kids. If it was so unusual as Rollins made it out to be later, why didn’t she bring it up then?

Rob Miller (Titus Welliver) and Nikki Staines (Callie Thorne)

The next thing you see is Nikki Staines staggering through the streets. The police find her in a stairwell the next morning, after a woman comes across her and reports it. Nikki doesn’t know what happened to her, thinks she was drugged and needs “a goddamn rape kit.” She is carted off to the hospital where she wants to take control of things but Rollins tells her to let the detectives do their job. When Nikki wants to call her daughter, she realizes that her phone is missing and freaks out. The phone has a lot of sensitive information on it and she accuses the police of losing her phone but Fin says no way.

Nikki’s tox screen proved inconclusive for drugs. Her blood alcohol level was .12 but this is the next day. Benson thinks Nikki still could have been drugged. Drugs would not show up on the test if one molecule was changed. yada yada. There was evidence that Nikki had sex but no signs of force. Carisi doesn’t like Staines and wishes their victim wasn’t somebody suing the police department for millions of dollars. Benson doesn’t want to hear it. They have to treat all victims equally, whether they like them or not. They got no DNA hits on the semen in the underwear but they had a hit on a hair fiber, too. They didn’t say where they found that hair fiber but it belonged to a former client of Nikki who recently finished a 3-year sentence for filming porn. They pay him a visit and don’t even mention the hair fiber! They talk about Nikki’s phone and the ex-con helpfully explains that she used to say a lot of people would be crying if her phone got in the wrong hands.

When Nikki finds out about that she accuses the cops of trying to pin it on one of her clients so they don’t have to look at one of their own. After talking it over with Carisi and Rollins, Benson goes to Chief Dodds to request a subpoena for records of the 50 police officers at the philanthropy event. Dodds rejects that. Nikki is the enemy, according to him, but Benson says, this time, she’s the victim. Dodds tells Benson to talk to Rob Miller to vet Nikki’s motives for steering them in the direction of the cops.

At Rob Miller’s law firm, he has way more to offer than Benson anticipated. He already has a list of suspects from the sex crimes database who were in the area when Nikki was assaulted. He also has a file on Nikki that he thinks Benson should check out that speaks to Nikki’s credibility, with documents showing that Nikki was cited for contempt several times and a judge threatened to impose sanctions on her for suborning perjury and making false statements. Miller also wants to meet Benson for a drink the next day. Benson said she’ll let him know.

Back at SVU, Rollins learns about the Bad Nikki file and tells Fin and Carisi and Fin that it’s odd for Miller to be doing opposition research against Nikki, his courtroom adversary, in the big lawsuit. He should be looking for the goods on the plaintiff, not Nikki. And then she drops the big Loganville bombshell. Rollins goes off to get the goods on Rob Miller.

In short order, she finds a guy who used to be a junior associate at Rob’s firm. Miller got him blackballed because he applied for a job at a rival firm and now he’s a lowly barista. Rollins also shows Nikki the file. She can’t believe that Miller is so desperate to win or that the bit about the sanctions is in there. That took place in the judge’s chambers and Miller had nothing to do with that case. Rollins goes to see the judge and practically interrogates him. The judge told her “you’re bringing kitchen matches to a firefight,” and she better watch her step. Carisi, meantime, spoke to a law professor about the judge, who believes there’s a shady connection between the judge and Miller. “One thing about Miller, he’ll steal your cattle and never leave tracks,” says the professor.

Rollins goes to Benson to fill her in on all that. Benson is getting ready for her Rob Miller date. Rollins doesn’t have to go into too much detail because Benson already had bad vibes from the moment that Miller handed her the file on Nikki. That’s why she agreed to have a drink with him.

Incredibly, Benson brought along a crime scene tech, disguised as a busboy, to get DNA off Rob Miller’s glass. Even more incredibly, Rob Miller immediately divines what is going on. Benson asks him if they run his DNA against what was found in Nikki’s rape kit, will there be a match and he admits that it is likely, now coming up with a story of how he gave Nikki a ride home, they had consensual sex and she insisted on being let out of the car. Things are getting more hostile by the second, with Benson questioning why he didn’t mention any of that in his office and threatening to get a warrant for his arrest. Miller scoffs at her and Benson leaves.

At Nikki Staines’ apartment, Rollins tells her that Rob Miller is their target and Nikki flips out. She says she doesn’t want anything to do with going after him. She is in the middle of a custody case and could lose her daughter. Rollins calls Benson and informs her that Miller got to Nikki, and just to emphasize how much pull Miller has, a patrol officer rolls up on Benson and accuses her of operating her vehicle in an unsafe manner, changing lanes without signaling. Benson denies it because her son, Noah, is in the car. She tells him she’s NYPD. He doesn’t care about that or the kid seeing him mistreat Benson and makes her get out of the car.

The next day, Benson unloads on Chief Dodds. He is checking into what happened with the traffic stop. She tells Dodds that it’s all about Rob Miller and lays it out for him how she threatened to arrest him and the next thing you know, she’s being hassled by the State Police with her boy in the car. Dodds thinks she should slow down and Benson accuses him of being in Miller’s pocket, reminding him that he is the one who sent her to Miller to vet Nikki’s motives. Dodds obviously is under Miller’s thumb in some way. He says “if we strike at the king and miss, it will be both our heads on the chopping block.” Benson retorts “So let’s make sure we don’t miss.”

So Dodds goes to meet with Miller wearing a wire, asking very pointed questions that eventually make Miller realize he’s on candid camera. Before he figures it out, Miller has already admitted to having Nikki’s phone and that, ironically, there was nothing about him on it. He also implied that Nikki could be silenced in other ways and threatened to release a memo of Dodds if Dodds could not control his people.

Out come the detectives and Miller tells Benson a story about how we are either lambs and wolves in this world and what made him decide to be a wolf. Carisi tells him he ought to shut up and cuffs him. Miller says he’ll be out in an hour. Benson thinks that Miller’s friends (does he even have any??) are going to turn on him because “nobody helps the wolf when he is bleeding.”

We didn’t learn what was in the memo that had Dodds quaking in his boots but it couldn’t have been that bad– he gave a copy to Benson. Fin knew (Why??) that it was written after Noah got kidnapped. Benson wondered if she should be worried about her job but Fin said he has always had her back and always will.

The episode ended with Nikki Staines breaking down in Benson’s office after learning that Rob Miller was being held without bail. Nikki wasn’t crying over her ordeal with Miller. She was suddenly overwhelmed with guilt over what she herself has been putting victims through in court. Benson actually comforted her with “you were just doing your job.” Nikki doesn’t see how she can do her job anymore but Benson assures her that she will be able to continue to rip victims apart on the stand because she’s good at it. Okay, that’s not really how Benson put it, but hey, that is Nikki’s job.

Selected Cast of Facing Demons:
Mariska Hargitay – Olivia Benson
Kelli Giddish – Amanda Rollins
Ice-T – Odafin Tutuola
Peter Scanavino – Dominick “Sonny” Carisi
Peter Gallagher – Deputy Chief Dodds
Callie Thorne – Nikki Staines
Titus Welliver – Rob Miller
Ian Blackman – Judge Leonard
Ryan Buggle – Noah
Jillian Rose – Attica Staines