Daddy Issues on Law & Order: SVU “Dear Ben” Recap

There were a lot of daddy issues in “Dear Ben,” the 13th episode of Season 20 (1/17/19) of Law & Order: SVU. Peter Stone learned that one of his long-held grudges against his dad was groundless, and he was able to help lock up a serial rapist whom Ben had pursued for years. Noah had some questions for Olivia about his real father.

Peter Stone, Noah and Olivia Benson

Let’s start out with Olivia Benson and her Noah troubles. The episode opened with ADA Peter Stone giving Noah some baseball coaching. Benson complained that Noah was a pain sometimes and she thinks what he needs is some “masculine energy.” Stone said he hears that kids go through phases but by the end of the episode, it was clear that he took the bait when he showed up to take Noah out for some more practice much to Benson’s delight. Before that, after being a brat, Noah confided to Benson that a kid named Jeremy kept asking him about his father and he wanted to know if his real father loved him. Are we looking at a future happy family here? Stone marrying Benson sure seems like the perfect solution to this daddy problem and the lack of masculine energy in both Benson’s and Noah’s lives, right? We doubt it.

Victims, Claire Newbury and April Baker

The first rape victim in “Dear Ben” was April Baker who initially appeared to have been assaulted by “Infinity,” a serial rapist with a distinctive M.O. involving the infinity symbol and china. Never apprehended, he has been inactive for 25 years. The second victim was Claire Baker, a reporter who wrote 3 books about Infinity and interviewed Peter’s father, Ben, who toiled endlessly on the case. It is said that Infinity was Ben’s “white whale.”

Perps, Edgar Noone and Karl Patton (Crazy Boy)

April was raped by Infinity wannabe, Karl Patton who planned the attack to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the real Infinity’s last crime. The detectives were wondering if Patton was trying to set up an insanity defense, but it was no act. He was genuinely crazy, having had an ongoing obsession with Infinity since he was a teenager. They got everything they needed to lock Karl up, including his proud confession.

The news reports on April and Karl moved the real Infinity to rape Claire Newbury, partly to prove that he’s still alive and (maybe?) partly as revenge for the books she wrote about him. They dig out the old case files on him to see if there is anything that will help them uncover his identity. True, Ben Stone couldn’t do it, but technological advances since then, blah blah blah. Indeed, they find a postage stamp that has some of Infinity’s DNA on it from when he licked it to mail Ben Stone a letter.

There are no hits in CODIS on the DNA, but Sonny Carisi takes the liberty of sending it to learnmylineage, much to Benson’s initial horror. However, when she learns that he got a hit on a female relative, she’s down with it. And that’s how they found Edgar Noone, through Amy Gardner, his niece. Although they arrest him and Claire Newbury makes a positive voice I.D., the case gets thrown out before it gets off the ground because Carisi had no right to send the DNA to the genealogy site. Noone taunts Peter Stone with “Your father would have done better.”

Amy Gardner didn’t want to believe that her sweet uncle could possibly be guilty of 24 sexual assaults but she also believes that DNA doesn’t lie so she met with Carisi and gave him some information about the abusive childhood her mother and uncle were exposed to. Their father would lock them in a room and make them listen while he abused their mother. This, Olivia Benson later opines, is the basis for Edgar Noone’s pathology.

Ben Stone and Peter Stone

Peter Stone, in the meantime, has realized that the real reason his father left him and his sister, Pamela, with their grandmother was because Infinity threatened to harm them. He now sees that his father was protecting his kids and not shirking his parental responsibilities.

The detectives look for something to arrest Edgar Noone for and catch him driving with a suspended license. Benson and Peter Stone then use their knowledge of his daddy issues to get him to reveal that he really is Infinity. He tells Peter Stone that Ben Stone loved him, not Peter. Apparently, he committed all those crimes (well, maybe not the first one) just so he could take up so much of Ben Stone’s time that there would be none left over for his real family.

We think another lesson both Peter Stone and Olivia Benson should get out of this is that it would be a horrible idea for them to hook up and co-parent Noah. With two parents in law enforcement, what if somewhere down the road, some psycho in one or both of their cases decides to target the boy or one of them? In addition, neither of them has any relatives. Nope! Benson should take a trip to French Canada and see if she can find some masculine energy with a guy who has more brothers and sisters than Celine Dion. Then Noah would have uncles and aunts and cousins and learn French, too.

Selected Cast of “Dear Ben “
Mariska Hargitay – Olivia Benson
Ice-T – Odafin “Fin” Tutuola
Kelli Giddish – Amanda Rollins
Peter Scanavino – Dominic “Sonny” Carisi
Philip Winchester – ADA Peter Stone
Ryan Buggle – Noah Porter-Benson
John Raymond Barker – Karl Patton
Jude Ciccolella – Edgar Noone
Eden Malyn – April Baker
Rebecca Creskoff – Claire Newbury
Elizabeth Stahlmann – Amy Gardner