Benson and Stabler look for a man who impersonated a cop on the phone and tricked a man into strip searching his employee. The trail leads to Merritt Rook (Robin Williams, in an Emmy-nominated performance), who squares off in court against Novak and wins an acquittal.
Rook becomes a folk hero, saying we’ve all become sheep to authority. He organizes a flash mob in Grand Central Station where he kidnaps Olivia. Elliot tracks Rook to a recording studio where he’s holding his partner. Stabler hears Benson’s shrieks of pain from electric shocks, but they’re only sound effects. As the detectives arrest him, this supervillain has one more trick up his sleeve: he activates an explosive that blows up the studio and gets away. Benson and Stabler chase him to the banks of the East River, but Rook vanishes, never to be seen again.
We’re talking about SVU’s 200th episode: season nine, episode 17, “Authority.” Our guest from our February 27, 2019 show is Michelle Rubenstein from the "It Takes Three podcast" network. This episode was inspired by a 2004 phone scam at a Kentucky McDonald’s.
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