The Book of Esther Recap: Law & Order: SVU

In the 5/2/2018 Law & Order SVU episode, “The Book of Esther,” the writers really outdid themselves in terms of the out-of-control SVU squad breaking rules left and right. Seriously, we would have had an entirely different ending on this one, but here’s how it went down.

Rebekah Kennedy (Esther Labott), Ray McKinnon (William Labott) and Brandy Zarle (Debbie Labott)

The plot: Esther Labott escapes from a house, running frantically down the street. No one knows who she is. She gets on a train at a Long Island Railroad stop and locks herself in the bathroom. At the last stop, the conductor calls the cops when they can’t get her out. Fin and Amanda Rollins to the rescue. Esther won’t give them her name until Rollins tempts her with candy. At the hospital, she is found to be severely malnourished and ravenously hungry. The doctor warns against letting her eat everything in sight. At SVU, Rollins thinks 2 slices of pizza won’t do any harm and manages to learn that it was her home that she escaped from but not why. They also learn that she recently had sex with an uncle or brother. Esther recites scripture whenever she feels threatened and is surprised that Rollins knows the Bible, too. With no missing persons reports, they have to put Esther on the news. Meantime, Fin and Carisi check the LIRR security cameras and see two guys scouting the tracks. They have on the same army surplus jackets as Esther. A visit to the local Army surplus store is nonproductive. At SVU, a man named William Labott shows up and wants his daughter. His wife saw Esther’s photo on the news. He shows a Toms River, NJ ID and says the local police wouldn’t take a missing persons report for 24 hours. SVU wants to turn Esther over to child protective services but Labott informs them that Esther is not a child. She is 27 years old. Despite Rollins’ protests, they have no choice but to let Esther leave with her father.

SVU Gone Wild: Rollins tells Lt. Olivia Benson that she needs a couple of mental health days, after apologizing for overreacting. Benson sees through this maneuver but merely tells Rollins to keep her in the loop and not ruffle any feathers in New Jersey. Rollins finds out that the Labotts don’t even live in New Jersey anymore. She tracks them down to their home in Douglaston in the Borough of Queens, and sees Daddy Labott load a whole passel of kids into a van. She follows them to a bowling alley and takes their picture. Esther spots her but keeps mum. Back at SVU, Rollins shows Fin and Carisi the photo with 9 kids who all look as hungry as Esther. Rollins declares this setup a “patriarchal cult” and is determined to save the kids and get the father locked up. She goes back and sneaks around the house. When she hears a kid crying for food, she peeps in and sees the kid is chained up. She breaks in and tries to tell the child she will help but the kid keeps hollering. Esther comes in, followed by Debbie, Esther’s mother. Daddy Labott shows up with a shotgun and order Rollins out. She wisely leaves and calls the local police.

They soon arrive as do the rest of the SVU detectives. ESU and hostage negotiators are on the way. After some wrangling over who’s in charge, they try to get William Labott to talk or come out. ESU Capt. Sasso decides to escalate by getting up on the roof to get some tear gas inside. The officers are shot through a skylight. Some Labotts come out, shepherded by the mother. Inside weapons begin firing, presumably led by the father. The police spray the whole front of the house with a virtual fusillade and you see Rollins fire two shots. Suddenly Benson stands up, telling the cops to hold their fire. The father shouts “No, no!” from inside and rifles are thrown outside. William Labott comes out to surrender. The police enter the house to find children hiding and dead bodies. One of them is Esther, dead on the floor with a bullet through her forehead. William Labott says to Benson and Rollins: “You killed my children. For what?”

The aftermath: Daddy Labott insists he was a good father. Rollins is about to go ballistic when she is kicked out of the interrogation by Benson. Carisi deals with Debbie Labott, demanding to know how she could sit by and watch her children be treated like that. Outside, Benson informs Rollins that the preliminary ballistic tests are back. “That fast?” Rollins marvels. Yes, and the fatal shot to Esther’s head came from Rollins’ gun. Rollins is grief-stricken while Benson is confident that she will be cleared of any wrongdoing and will be back on the job in a few days. Rollins later finds some solace at a church.

Assuming that we even got to the point where Rollins breaks into the Labott home, in our version, it would have been better for the father to shoot Rollins, but not fatally. Esther calls the police and the whole cult thing is exposed with the minor children taken off to child services and the parents in custody.

Anyhow, the SVU writers really need to stop with this vigilante SVU squad. It’s beyond ridiculous. Take a look at the description of the real New York City Special Victims Unit. It says the Special Victims Division has separate Borough Patrols — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Once Amanda Rollins found out where the Labotts really lived, she should have handed the case off. It was bad enough that Benson allowed her to go to NJ to investigate “unofficially,” now, Benson claims Rollins will be back at work in a few days despite the fact that if it were handled properly, no one would have died. We get that the SVU detectives are crusaders but they need to crusade inside the law a lot more!

Kelli Giddish is getting a lot of props for her “range” in this episode, but how about Rebekah Kennedy as Esther — playing a malnourished 27 year old who everyone thinks is a teenager? She is really 34 years old! How’s that for range?

Also, in case you want to know: Is incest really legal in New Jersey?

Selected Cast of “The Book of Esther”
Mariska Hargitay – Olivia Benson
Kelli Giddish – Amanda Rollins
Ice-T – Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola
Peter Scanavino – Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr.
Rebekah Kennedy – Esther Labott
Ray McKinnon – William Labott
Brandy Zarle – Debbie Labott
Sami Molly Bray – Rachel Labott
Shawn T. Andrew – ESU Captain Sasso
Stan Demidoff – Sgt. Costello
Eric Elizaga – Dr. Hale