| "Payback" | ||
|---|---|---|
| SVU, Episode 1.01 | → | |
| Production number: E0901 First aired (US): 20 September 1999 First aired (CAN): 20 September 1999 First aired (AUS): 31 January 2000 | ||
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| Written By Dick Wolf Directed By Jean de Segonzac | ||
Detectives Benson and Stabler investigate the stabbing and genital-mutilation of a cab driver.
Summary[]
The grisly murder and dismemberment of a New York cabbie draws the elite Special Victims Unit of the NYPD, including veteran Detective Elliot Stabler and his partner, Olivia Benson, who soon discover that the victim had assumed the identity of another man, mainly because he himself was a wanted war criminal.
Plot[]
On a rainy New York night, a cab driver is found stabbed and dismembered in his cab. Benson and Stabler wonder where they come into the picture in this case until a fellow officer tells them the victim's "cigar" was cut off and taken.
Cassidy is sent to investigate a man molesting a dead body. Cragen assigns Munch to help Benson because Stabler's needed in court. Stabler testifies to arresting a flasher named Kloster in the park. Defense lawyer Jerry Kleinert asks why Stabler volunteered for the sex crimes unit. Stabler says that sex should be one of the best parts of life, not the worst, and that he doesn't want any of his 4 children exposed to Kloster's "shortcomings". His pride injured, Kloster lashes out and whips out his manhood for the court to see, and is taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Benson informs Stabler that the dead cabbie had a false cabbie license under the name of Victor Spicer. The real Spicer is at Rikers serving 11 months in prison for assault.
Benson and Stabler question Spicer at Rikers. Spicer admits he sold his cabbie license to a man with a young boy, the deal being set up by "foreign gentleman" he knew at a coffee shop but doesn't know the man's name. Next, they question a waitress at the coffee shop, that Spicer told them about, but doesn't know too much. Another cabbie listening in tells the detectives that the victim's real name is Steven and that Steven has a son and pregnant wife. The cabbie claims he saw Steven leave the coffee shop as he was arriving, picking up two women as cab fares.
Munch informs Benson, Stabler and Cragen, in Cragen's office, that the cab company Victor Spicer worked for received a call asking for the work times of Spicer but were unable to distinguish whether it was a man or woman who called. Cragen gets a call and receives the address for the victim's home. His full name is Steven Panachek.
At Panachek's residence, the detectives inform his wife that he has been murdered. Mrs. Panachek informs them that they married five years ago and that Steven was from Czechoslovakia.
Munch and Cassidy question two men who had been previously caught in incriminating positions with Spicer. The detectives suspect that the wives may be behind Panachek's murder. One man's wife turns out to be a paraplegic, and the other's wife is aware and accepting of her husband's sexual preferences, as is he of hers.
It's discovered that Steven Panachek's real name is Stefan Tanzic, and that he is actually a Serb under indictment for war crimes, specifically ethnic cleansing and raping 67 women. The results of the autopsy tell Benson and Stabler that there are two killers, not just one.
Benson and Stabler have a small argument after visiting the widow Panachek/Tanzic a second time. Benson had laid it on thick to the widow that her dead husband was a rapist before the widow told them to get out. Benson believes that the widow is useless and guilty of obstruction while Stabler thought she went too far and tells her that she's on thin ice with Cragen.
Benson and Stabler track down the women in the New York area who were victims of Tanzic. The first woman has long since been blinded by Tanzic. The second woman they visit, Marta Stevens, isn't at home but her husband is. Benson immediately notices that her son resembles Tanzic, and must be his son.
Benson goes to check on Marta Stevens at her work without Stabler. She questions her whereabouts on the night of the murder. However, it's obvious the woman is nervous and hiding something. She eventually recounts how Tanzic killed all the men in the village she was in and raped her and admits she isn't sorry Tanzic is dead.
Stabler is called by Benson at a parent teacher conference and becomes upset when he learns that she questioned Marta Stevens on her own. Benson has dinner with her mother Serena and talks about her feelings about the case. Their conversation reveals that Serena was raped, and that the rapist is Olivia's biological father.
Eventually, Benson and Stabler seek out the third woman, Anya Ragova. They note that she has a cut on her hand, which she claims is from a kitchen accident.
Marta is arrested and is standing outside Anya's restaurant as Anya is about to be arrested. Anya sees Marta in handcuffs and asks to call her lawyer before Stabler can take her in. She heads to the phone but hesitates before grabbing a knife off a nearby table and stabbing herself. Anya whispers something to Stabler as she lays dying.
Marta confesses they knew it was Tanzic once they heard his voice in the cab. The detectives and ADA Abbie Carmichael discuss how Marta will most likely only get 18 months at a psychiatric ward if she's sentenced by a good judge.
Cragen is angry that Marta will basically walk and that Anya wasn't punished. He tells Benson that she has used her one "get out of jail free card".
Back at their desks, Benson asks Stabler what Anya had whispered to him. He tells her that Anya said that she just wanted to be with her family.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Dean Winters as Detective Brian Cassidy
- Michelle Hurd as Detective Monique Jeffries
- Isabel Gillies as Kathy Stabler
- Angie Harmon as A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael
- Leslie Hendrix as M.E. Elizabeth Rodgers
- Judy Del Giudice as Judge Elizabeth Masullo
- Chris Orbach as Detective Ken Briscoe
Guest cast[]
- Gordana Rashovich as Anya Ragova
- Elizabeth Ashley as Serena Benson
- Ned Eisenberg as Jerry Kleinert
- Tina Benko as Mrs. Panachek
- Ronald Guttman as Gallery Owner
- Mark Zimmerman as Mr. Dupree
- Mili Avital as Marta Stevens
- P.J. Brown as CSU Frank Bremmer
- Ramsey Faragallah as Taxi Driver
- Rebecca Creskoff as Becky
- Angela Bullock as Prosecutor
- Mark Nelson as Robert Stevens
- Jeremy Bergman as Nicholas Stevens
- Matt Skollar as Victor Spicer
- Irma St. Paule as Aunt Jashari
- Sevanne Martin as Ileana Jashari
- Daniel Bess as Policeman
- Bill Driscoll as Mr. Kloster
- Vivian Nesbitt as Farley
References[]
- 23rd Precinct
- 27th Precinct
- Anita Van Buren
- Dupree Investment Group
- Stefan Tanzic (victim)
- Rikers Island
- Sarajevo Restaurant
- Serbia
- Ken Starr
- Adam Schiff
Quotes[]
- [About a murdered taxi driver]
- Stabler: Okay, so it's not a robbery, but stabbings aren't necessarily sexual. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Is there a specific reason you called us out?
- Detective Frank Bremmer: Whoever did this sliced off his "cigar" and took it with him. Is that specific enough?
[Olivia and Elliot look at the victim and then look at each other] - Benson: Works for me.
- Jeffries: Doesn't sound like there's much doubt on the C.O.D.
- Munch: Do you think that you're conclusional pole vaults are personality or gender-driven?
- Jeffries: I don't know, John. What about deductively logical?
- Munch: Oh really? I had what looked like a stabbing once in Baltimore, it turns out some guy was getting divorced and drank drain cleaner and his soon-to-be-unmarried widow discovered him dead-no alimony. She stabbed him 15 times out of pique.
- Ken Briscoe: [entering the squad room] Captain, the Sergeant just got a call for a Sex Crimes detective at the 96th street I.R.T...
- Cragen: Why?
- Briscoe: Some guy molesting a body.
- Cragen: Oh, that is just terrific. Who's up?
- Cassidy: Me and Munch?
- Cragen: Well, listen, I think a dead molestee can be handled by one detective. Cassidy you go. Munch give Stabler and Benson the benefit of your vast puncture wound experience.
- Cassidy: Sir, if the body's dead, is that considered a sex crime?
- Cragen: Just go. Investigate, interrogate, write up a DD5.
- Munch: [to Benson] What about your erstwhile partner?
- Stabler: Oh, I'd love to John, but my presence is required in court this morning.
- Cassidy: I read about it in the news. City councilman right?
- Stabler: Weenie wagger.
- Stabler: [after being asked why he joined SVU] I think sex should be one of the best experiences in life, not one of the worst.
- [after Stabler testified in court, the defendant flashed the jury and was forcibly removed]
- Benson: Hey. How'd it go?
- Stabler: He's in Bellevue.
- Benson: Jury came back that fast?
- Stabler: He waved his flag at them before they had a chance. Nobody saluted.
- Benson: I went down to the hack bureau. Our dead guy, Victor Spicer? His licence was suspended when he got 11 months for assault.
- Stabler: And?
- Benson: He's still in Rikers.
- Cragen: [offers a bucket of Twizzler] You can't trust the computers, they get backed up and don't input the releases.
- Benson: That's why I spoke to the watch captain and had him check personally. Spicer's still there.
- Cragen: Why is this ours?
- Stabler: Doer sliced off the vic's unit.
[Captain Cragen spits out part of the Twizzler he just took]
- Benson: Question - Who'd want to cut your penis off?
- Victor Spicer: Take a number.
- Victor Spicer: Hey, you doing anything Saturday night? [blows Elliot a kiss']]
- Stabler: [smiles] Oh, I'd hurt you.
- Cragen: Okay, Olivia, let's just say the vic had the misfortune of buying the wrong hack license. Spicer's the target. Who wanted him dead?
- Munch: Whoever called the dispatcher.
- Stabler: Wow.
- Benson: Nice. Good stuff. Keep that.
- Stabler: Thanks, thanks a lot.
- Munch: It never stops. [to Cragen about donuts] You know they have more varieties than that.
- Stabler: That was the M.E. The stab wounds... 37 of them. This still reads gay to me.
- Cragen: Panacek's prints are clean here, right?
- Stabler: Yes.
- Cragen: So do this by the numbers. He's illegal, send a set to Interpol too.
- Stabler: Forensics report...
- Cragen: What?
- Stabler: They found part of a fingernail in the front seat of the cab with red nail polish on it.
- Benson: Dispatcher said that he thought it might have been a woman who called about Spicer.
- Cragen: Kind of undercuts your gay theory, huh?
- Stabler: Could be a he/she?
- Cragen: Didn't two of Spicer's married johns take a bust?
- Benson: Yeah, about six months ago vice was targeting the piers.
- Cragen: I'm sure their wives must have been thrilled. [Munch chuckles] What are you doing?
- Munch: Eavesdropping.
- Gallery Owner: Unfortunately Spicer's is a disgusting little piece of street meat, but he has a extraordinary gifted orifice in the middle of his face.
- Gallery Owner: My wife's bisexual, but she prefers women.
- Stabler: Oh, lucky for her.
- [Gallery Owner has given Benson and Stabler his wife's number]
- Gallery Owner: Her name is Clarissa. [looks Olivia over] You should give her a call.
- Munch: A military plane drops J.F.K.'s coffin in the middle into 9,000 feet of water three years after the assassination. You don't fund that suggestive-perhaps even a tad bit disquieting?
- Cassidy: No.
- Munch: No? The Justice Department waits 33 years before they impart this tidbit on the American people. And then they say they did it because it wasn't evidence? What are you sheep? Will you believe anything?
- Jeffries: Hey, you guys going to eat all this?
- Munch: Suppose we say 'yes'?
- Jeffries: Suppose I'm just being polite?
- Munch: Oh, that would be a first...
- Cassidy: That's cool, John doesn't eat vegetables.
- Jeffries: Yeah? The way I heard, that's the only thing John never gets to uh... eat.
- Cassidy: Ouch.
- Munch: No way! I'm never setting foot in the city of Baltimore again as long as I'm on this mortal sphere!
- Cassidy: Why? You're rich. Did your 20, got your pension, and you're on the job here.
- Munch: I earned that pension with the sweat of my mind, while surrounded by intellectual insects. Not to mention the fact that I lost a wife after less than one night of connubial bliss to someone who was not only another detective, but a member of my own squad.
- Stabler: [handing a report to Cragen] Take a look at that. Fingerprint check on Pancek. I'd say that gives us a whole different kind of motive.
- Cragen: [glancing at the report] See if any of the victims are in the New York area. Your partner may not like this.
- Stabler: Why? It's a murder investigation.
- Cragen: Yeah. Yeah, it is. Just don't let her forget we don't get to pick the vic.
[Much and Cassidy exchange confused glances] - Munch: Are we missing some key piece of information here?
- Stabler and Cragen: Shut up, John.
- Cragen: You just used your Get Out of Jail Free card, Olivia. There's only one in the pack.
Background information and notes[]
- A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael (played by Angie Harmon) was a member of Law & Order's regular cast during seasons 9, 10 and 11. She appeared in five other SVU episodes, until the second season, when Alexandra Cabot was introduced as a regular character.
- Captain Donald Cragen (played by Dann Florek) previously appeared in the first three seasons from Law & Order as the commanding officer of the 27th Precinct. He was succeeded by Lieutenant Anita Van Buren who he also mentions in the episode.
- In this episode, Detective Olivia Benson's mother Serena (played by Elizabeth Ashley) is seen for the first and only time in the series. She is mentioned in several other episodes and seen in a flashback in "The Five Hundredth Episode".
- Ned Eisenberg reprises his role as Defense Attorney Jerry Kleinert from the franchise's only movie Exiled: A Law & Order Movie. He later appears as another defense attorney named Klein Rothberg and more frequently as an attorney named Roger Kressler.
- This pilot episode was directed by Jean de Segonzac. He also directed the pilot episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent ("One") and Law & Order: Trial by Jury ("The Abominable Showman‎"), along with the first episode of the Law & Order season 21 revival, "The Right Thing".
- The episode name "Payback" is also used for the Law & Order season 14 episode, "Payback (L&O)".
- Another episode featuring a group of women who castrate a man who sexually abused them is the nineteenth season episode of SVU "Contrapasso".
- Mili Avital, Gordana Rashovich and Ramsey Faragallah would later star in the 300th episode "Manhattan Vigil" together, with Avital portraying Laurie Colfax, Rashovich portraying Mrs. Lomatin and Faragallah portraying Rudy Singh. Avital would also return as Colfax in the seventeenth season episode Depravity Standard.
- Benson and Stabler are at Rikers interviewing an inmate. Benson is taking notes and you see her "writing", pen pressed to the pad, then she lifts the pen off the pad and clicks the pen. When she does this the pen comes out. So the entire time she was "writing" nothing could have been written.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
Supreme Court |
Rikers Island |
Dupree Investment Group |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|
|
Office of Medical Examiner |
Fellowes & Kinsolving |
Sarajevo Restaurant |
| Previous episode: "None" |
"Payback" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 1 |
Next episode: "A Single Life" |