‘Law & Order: SVU’: An Old Case Comes Back to Haunt the Team
Law & Order: SVU takes viewers along on a hunt for a killer. It’s an old case that comes back years later. Here’s what happened last time on Law & Order: SVU.
An old case haunts the team on ‘Law & Order: SVU’
Law & Order: SVU Season 22 Episode 14 (titled “Post-Graduate Psychopath”), revisits a case from 2013. Henry Mesner (Ethan Cutkosky) tried to kill his sister. He also shot a police officer and drowned his dog, Snowball. Henry’s therapist determined he was a psychopath. As a result, he was sent to a juvenile psychiatric facility until he turned 18 years old.
When he turned 18, he attended a hearing to make the case that he is fit to be released and return to society. He admits that when he arrived at the facility he was “incapable of empathy, lacking remorse, impulsive, and a pathological liar.” He also says he didn’t have control of his anger. However, he says he has changed. The judge grants his release.
After Henry is released, weird things start happening
Shortly after Henry is released, a college student is found brutally assaulted in her dorm room. Fin (Ice-T) says it looks like the girl was attacked by a “psycho.” He then says if a killer with an M.O. like this had ever been in the system, they would have never released him.
In another scene, Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) is at the park with her children. When she gets off the phone, she realizes her daughter, Jesse, is missing. Jesse eventually runs up to Rollins and tells her that a “nice man” gave her a stuffed dog.
When Rollins asks her more questions, her daughter tells her the man said the dog’s name is Snowball. Rollins realizes this isn’t a coincidence. The man who walked up to her daughter is most likely Henry.
Rollins later finds out that the stuffed dog came from the victim’s dorm room. When she and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) spoke to the college student at the hospital, she said the man who attacked her took one of her stuffed animals on his way out. When Rollins showed her a picture of the toy, the woman confirmed it was indeed hers. Rollins reminds Olivia about Henry’s case.
An important detail comes to light
The pieces start coming together after Rollins and Oliva talk to the girl’s mother, an adolescent psychiatrist. She was the one who told Henry his mother died. The woman says she sometimes spoke about her daughter during sessions. Unfortunately, Henry used this information to find her daughter and harm her.
Olivia and Rollins learn Henry is going on a killing spree. They’re on a mission to find Henry and stop him from hurting more people after they find out he killed his family. His goal is to kill everyone who hurt him. After Oliva talks to Henry’s girlfriend, she seems surprised to hear the police are looking for him. She describes Henry as a “gentle” soul. She also says the “demons” that used to haunt him are gone. This turns out to not be the case.
Rollins and Olivia eventually locate Henry. He’s holding his sister hostage. Rollins convinces him to let his sister go and surrender. “Wherever Henry ends up, they need to throw away the key,” says Rollins.
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