Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – First Light

By starrymag | January 23, 2025

By: Kaylyn Bell

 

 

A husband and wife, Katharine (Amy Landecker) and Harris (Leland Orser) Vernon, are talking when she says she has to get to work. He offers to drive her, and as they leave the house, they find “whore” painted in red on their garage door.

Carisi (Peter Scanavino) apprehensively enters the bodega where he was recently held hostage to get his morning coffee. Once inside, he is hit with flashbacks of the event and decides to go elsewhere.

At work, Katharine receives an anonymous package. She opens it to find a thumb drive labelled “whore.” Meanwhile, her husband receives the same package. Katharine inserts it into her laptop and discovers a video showing a man entering her house and them having sex. She immediately calls her husband crying and explains that she has no idea who the man is in the video.

Carisi meets Benson (Mariska Hargitay) at the precinct upon her request. She asks how he’s been doing since the robbery. Carisi says he’s good, and she asks if she’s supposed to pretend that’s true. Benson adds that she heard from Amanda that the kid involved in the robbery has changed his plea to not guilty. Carisi frustratedly tells her that the fact that he’s getting a deal after being directly involved in a robbery, rape and homicide is not justice. Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) interupts to tell them that there is a distressed couple waiting in her office.

In Benson’s office, Harris tells her that they think Katharine was raped. They explain the video and writing on their house, and that she doesn’t know the man in the video. Benson directs Harris and Carisi to go speak with Fin (Ice-T) while Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) helps her with Katharine.

Curry and Benson review the video with Katharine. Curry suggests they send the video to TARU, and Benson hands her the drive in an evidence bag. Benson conveys to Katharine that at this point it will be hard to prove lack of consent, but there must be an explanation. Benson asks if she takes sleeping medications, and Katharine confirms that she does sometimes.

Carisi and Fin review the footage with Harris, and he tells them he must not have been home because even though he sleeps in a different room than his wife, he would’ve heard the man enter as he’s a light sleeper.

They send the couple home and reconvene to discuss their thoughts. Fin suggests she may have cheated and is using this to cover it up, but Benson tells him to look into the actual evidence, starting with who spray-painted the garage.

Bruno (Kevin Kane), Velasco (Octavio Pisano), Silva, and Curry investigate the Vernons’ house. They find the discarded paint can when Silva notices a ring camera across the street. From that footage they’re able to identify the vandal as Annette Gallagher (Kirsten Scoles).

Back at the precinct, the squad updates the evidence board. They recognize Annette’s husband, Tommy (Alex Morf), as the man from the sex video. They can’t find any further connection between the Gallaghers and Vernons. Benson tells Curry to speak with Annette and asks Carisi to go with her.

At Annette’s house, Curry shows her the video. Annette admits she did it, explaining that that “whore” was sleeping with her husband. Curry tells her that he might not have just cheated but assaulted her. She rebuts the accusation, saying she was sure it was cheating because she found messages with another woman on his phone. She explains that is when she hired a P.I. to follow her husband, who produced the video.

In the other room, Carisi speaks with Tommy, and he claims the sex was consensual. He says he started messaging with Katharine, and she said she wanted this, that she had a “sleeping beauty fantasy.” Tommy adds that he was able to get into the house because she told him it would be unlocked.

The next day, Carisi shows Curry and Benson transcripts of an online forum where Tommy was messaging Katharine. Amanda (Kelli Giddish) arrives, surprising Benson, and she explains that Carisi asked her to use her contacts to determine if Katharine wrote the texts. Amanda explains that her contact just needs a sample of Katharine’s writing so they can compare it with the transcripts.

Fin and Curry meet with a tech from TARU (Kat Donachie) to learn more about the forum. The tech says all the posts came from the same address, but they weren’t from Katharine’s personal computer, it was the Vernons’ home computer. She was also able to determine that they were mostly sent between 10 am-3 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Upon investigation, Curry discovers that Katharine was at work during those times whereas Harris had days off work on Mondays and Wednesdays. She updates Benson that evidence suggests Harris is responsible. Benson and Curry arrive at Katharine’s house to deliver the news and notice a pile of sleeping pill containers. Katharine explains she doesn’t want them anymore, so they collect them to be tested at the lab. Benson takes out a file with the forum messages, and Katharine confirms the website and messages are unfamiliar to her. Curry explains that someone made an account for her using her email, and they suggest it’s her husband. Katharine says that’s an insane accusation because Harris loves her, and that she must have done it while on her sleep medication. She tells them to leave. Outside the Vernons’ house, Benson tells Curry to see if there were others on the forum propositioned by Harris.

Benson meets with Carisi and Amanda to update them on the case. Carisi tells her this will be an impossible case, especially since Katharine is blaming herself. Benson explains that she’s just being gaslit by her husband, but Carisi says even so she can’t be put on the stand as she has a contradicting story. Amanda gets a message from her contact that has confirmed that based on the writing comparisons, Katharine did not write the messages on the forum.

The squad interrogates all the men they found who spoke with Harris on the forum, but it proves to be unhelpful as none of them followed through with an in-person meetup. Amanda points out that this kind of behaviour from Harris wouldn’t have come out of nowhere, so Benson says she’ll get Silva and Velasco to canvas the university where he works to see if he’s ever involved students before.

At the university they meet a student, Derek (James M. Reilly), who people on campus directed them to when asked about Katharine. Derek asks if he’s in trouble because everything that happened with Katharine was Harris’ idea. Silva asks what he means by that, and Derek explains that Harris said his wife found him attractive and asked him to hook up with her while he watched.

Benson shows the footage from Derek’s interview to Katharine. She’s taken aback, then apologizes to Benson for the other day, explaining she just didn’t want to face it. Benson says she understands, and tells her that it’s time to face it now because her marriage was already over a long time ago she just didn’t know it.

Velasco and Silva arrest Tommy while Fin and Bruno arrest Harris.

In court Benson is on the stand. She explains that the footage was anonymously sent to the couple, and that Katharine was devastated because she had no memory of the encounter. She furthers that upon investigation they uncovered that Harris orchestrated the encounter. While the defense (Selena Anduze) questions Benson, Carisi is experiencing PTSD and has trouble focusing.

Next, Carisi questions a pharmaceutical psychologist (Keri Safran) about Katharine’s sleep medication. She says testing confirmed it was tampered with to be a higher dose, and that Katharine wouldn’t have any cognitive ability at that dose. Derek testifies after, establishing Harris’ pattern of behaviour.

The next day Katharine is on the stand sharing her account, asserting that she never gave consent or expressed the desire for a sleeping beauty fantasy. When the defense questions her, Carisi is unfocused, letting the line of questioning go too far. The judge (Victoire Charles) addresses him, but he is stuck in a flashback. Benson looks at him from the gallery concerned, but he snaps out of it.

Benson finds Carisi after court to check on him. Carisi explains that he let Katharine down today and there’s no coming back from that. He confesses that he feels nothing, unable to even smile with his kids, and he’s worried because you can’t win a case without passion. Benson says he sounds angry and reminds him that that is a feeling. She firmly tells him not to let a manipulator take away everything he’s worked for.

Annette meets Carisi in his office. She says her husband is stupid, but he’s not a rapist. Carisi says they’ve given Tommy every opportunity to take a deal, but he refuses. Annette says it’s because he believes Harris’ line of crap. Carisi asks what that means, but she says she promised to keep it quiet. Carisi explains that she did Katharine a favour by exposing her husband, and if she has information that would help bring Harris down, she’d be helping even more. Annette, wanting to see Harris in prison, explains that before the trial, Harris met with Tommy. Harris convinced him that if they stuck together, they’d both walk free and offered to pay their mortgage.

Carisi meets Tommy and his lawyer. Carisi says there’s no way he didn’t know Katharine was drugged, so he will get time, but he wouldn’t have to have that proven in open court as long as he testifies against Harris. Later Benson and Carisi meet Harris and his lawyer with this new evidence and encourage him to confess and take a plea.

After court, Carisi informs Benson and Katharine that Harris took a deal earning him 15 years, and Tommy 7 years.  After he heads out, Benson asks how Katharine is doing, and she defeatedly says her life will never be the same again. Benson replies, “It will not be as it was, but from where I’m standing, that’s a glorious thing.”

Amanda and Carisi are out for dinner with their kids. He stares off watching his girls playing together, and Amanda tells him they’re going to be okay. He smiles and replies, “We are.”