Law & Order Special Victims Unit s13e22 Episode Script
Strange Beauty
In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous.
In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the special victims unit.
These are their stories.
I'm scared, mommy.
I want to come home.
If I got a car, would you pay for it? Okay.
Oh.
I will never understand white people.
Cuban-Italian.
It still doesn't make that right.
Nice view you got there, partner.
Oh, don't you start.
Nice one.
Hey, Nick, fin, this is Sam Reynolds.
How y'all doing? Hey, Sam.
This is my captain from Atlanta.
Got me transferred up here.
Don Cragen and I go way back.
- We hated to lose this one.
- Mm-hmm.
It's our gain.
Why don't you take over, Sam? My five-year-old attacks me at dawn.
You know what? I'm out of here too.
I just got off a double shift.
Do not bet against Rollins.
She's a shark.
- Hush up.
Hush up.
- I know it.
- Night.
- Later.
So, uh, how you doing up here, anyway? Uh, New York was a fresh start.
Lord knows I needed it.
Yeah, you had to get out of dodge, Amanda.
Drunk or not, the deputy chief was out of line.
I shouldn't have taken it so personally.
No lasting harm, no foul, right? Right.
Uh So you, uh You making any friends - up here in the big city? - Well, you just met my partner.
No, I said "friends.
" Anybody that calls you "Rollins" is another cop, not a friend.
Oh, lord.
Hey, you know I worry about you.
I know how squirrelly you can get.
I'm fine, papa bear.
Uh, captain Did you forget you're married? Separated.
I mean You can't say we both haven't thought about it.
I know.
But you're just catching me by surprise right now.
- I get that.
Okay.
- Yeah.
I tell you what-- Why don't I go get us another round? - Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
- And-- And you know what? I'm gonna take this real quick, okay? Help me! Help me! Please! This is detective Amanda Rollins.
I've got a possible taxi abduction-- a white female, struggling in the back of cab medallion They're heading down attorney from Houston street South.
Rollins, still here? What, are you fishing for O.
T.
? No, last night I saw a girl.
It's a possible abduction in a cab on the lower east side.
It could tie in with the yellow cab rapist, the sikh.
We have two open cases from last year.
Okay, anything more solid to go one? The medallion number matches a cab stolen in Chelsea yesterday, but the driver's report says he was struck from behind, so he never saw the assailant.
The cab turned up about an hour ago a couple of blocks from the Lincoln tunnel.
CSU's going over it now.
And I've got her description into missing persons, but no matches yet.
Hey, might've caught a break.
Desperate mother's been calling every squad in the N.
Y.
P.
D.
Says she got a panicked call at midnight from her daughter who never came home.
Description matches Rollins's girl.
All right, Rollins, you saw the girl, go talk to the mother.
Is this your daughter? That's Nina three years ago.
She's 19 now.
She's been in and out of the house for the last year.
Do you have any idea who she was with when she called you? No, I don't know where she goes.
I don't know who her friends are, but last night she called me, and--and she sounded like a scared kid.
She asked me if I had money to pay for a ride home.
She said that she was feeling out of control.
What do you think she meant by that? I don't know.
She--she's been going through a phase.
How so? Like change of hair, change of clothes? Try piercings, tattoos.
She got an octopus tattoo on her left ankle, and the next thing I know, she was covered with them.
Has she had any boyfriend issues lately? II don't really know her anymore.
Mrs.
Raedo, we're going to need some DNA samples.
Am I gonna see her again? That's the girl I saw screaming - in the back of the cab.
- Almost 12 hours ago.
So let's run her cell records, find out her last contacts.
Joaquin.
Little bitch.
Detective Amaro, nice suit.
Yeah, why aren't you at school? This is where the money is.
Detective Amaro will talk to you about that later.
You recognize this girl? Yeah, Nina.
She filled out some.
She got some tats.
She's fine.
Tell us where we can find her? Seems like you want to go to juvie, hustler.
All right, I'm not so sure about now, but she used to be with Pablo.
Pablo.
Is that her boyfriend? What, he live up on the roof? Yeah, he got some pigeons up there.
But take it slow, detective.
Pablo's golden gloves.
Eh, I ain't scared.
That sound like pigeons to you? More like a love shack.
N.
Y.
P.
D.
Nina Raedo? - What the hell? - Nina Raedo in here? Go away.
Why don't you come with me? Who's Nina? Who's Nina? Easy.
Keep your voice down, huh? Tiffany's mad jealous.
And I broke up with Nina three months ago.
The girl was just too wild for me.
What do you mean-- partying, drugs? Nah, man, she liked to cause trouble.
Like one time, we're at this club, started coming on to three dudes just to bait me into a fight with them.
Good times.
She make enemies, playing it close to the edge like that? I don't know.
I washed my hands.
And then last night, she comes over wanting to hook up.
Said she was scared.
She only felt safe with me.
I was like, "Nah.
" Sure about that last part? Tiffany was on her way over.
What time was that, Pablo? Around midnight.
All right, then you know how Nina got home.
Car service down the block.
She used it before.
Nina okay? You want a car, you got to call.
You see this girl last night? Yes, I told her the same thing.
You want a car, you got to call outside.
- So she was here.
- Yeah.
Twice I told her.
She gave me attitude.
Then she said she was gonna look for another car service.
But there aren't any others around here.
Right.
So where'd she go? I saw a cab pull up in front just as she came out.
I guess she went in.
Hey, I was very busy.
You got cameras in here.
We're gonna need to see your tapes.
That's her.
That's Nina.
Dispatcher's telling Nina, "You want a car, you call, but you got to call from outside.
" Catch-22.
This guy must've been in the army.
Well, there's a cab.
Switch to the outside camera.
That's the medallion number I saw.
Slow it down.
Push in.
This driver's not our sikh.
He's a white male.
Can you isolate on him? Any hits on her cell phone after this? No.
All right, well, we know she was abducted.
The question now is, when's she gonna turn up? You said we had to see this for ourselves? Just came in an hour ago.
A young woman's left leg, freshly severed.
With an octopus tattoo on her ankle.
Some guy fishing off his boat on the Gowanus Canal reeled in the leg.
The description matched Nina's tattoo.
We're running the DNA.
Pretty clean cut.
I'd say it was done with a surgical saw.
And there's still evidence of living response to trauma in the bony tissues.
You mean Nina could've been alive when her leg was amputated.
There was anesthetic in the marrow.
Why go to that trouble for a corpse? So a healthy leg, cleanly severed from a living person.
I mean, I've heard of that in drug wars, but I don't think that's what this is.
No.
There's something else.
A fisherman reeled it in? Nobody fishes in the Gowanus Canal.
It's so polluted, it's a superfund site.
So you got your workshop all set up here right beside your houseboat.
Guess that makes you pretty self-contained, huh? I--I'm the river keeper.
E-everything I need is down here-- the scraps for my inventions, the fish I eat for dinner.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, huh? So you're telling us you found the leg when you were fishing? You'd be surprised what comes floating by.
I found a tiger cage once No tiger, though.
What do you do with this band saw? I didn't use it to cut anybody's leg off.
See? See? This is why I don't trust the cops.
Right now we'd really appreciate a little cooperation, okay? Or we could just tear up your workshop looking for evidence.
Look around if you have to.
Bring on the luminol and the U.
V.
lights.
You won't find blood.
I was just trying to do the right thing Same as I did 11 years ago.
What happened 11 years ago? I found that other leg.
Isn't that why you guys are here? - Did you notify the police? - Yeah.
Wasn't much follow-through, though.
They got kind of busy.
It was three days before the planes hit the towers.
This Gowanus guy was telling the truth.
He fished it out of the canal Female, amputated two inches above the knee.
And it got set aside and left in a fridge at the city forensic anthropology department.
Fin and Rollins found saws at his workshop.
- Is there any way that-- - No.
I already checked.
Both of these women lost their left legs to surgical saws.
It's a different kind of scoring on the bone.
Wait.
So both were totally healthy limbs, - removed professionally? - Yes.
And the marrow in both bones had traces of the same anesthetic-- propofol.
What about the reaction in the bony tissue? Was this victim alive when her leg was cut off? I can't be sure, but I think so.
Good luck.
Yeah.
Liv, what are we looking at here? I have no idea.
Well, it just got weirder.
- Crime lab got a DNA hit.
- On Nina? No, on this leg.
And the woman it belongs to She's still alive.
Lisa Everly.
Yeah? - Can we talk to you a minute? - I'm not soliciting.
We know that.
That's not why we're here.
We're just-- we wanted to ask you about your leg.
What's it to you? Your boyfriend into that? Can you tell us what happened? It got cut off.
It was a long time ago.
- I'm not looking back, so - But whoever did this, he needs to pay for what he did to you.
He already paid.
Excuse me? For 25 grand, you can do whatever you want to me too.
Wait.
You took money in exchange for letting someone cut off your leg? I don't expect you to understand if you never been that far down.
I was already destroying myself anyway.
I was gonna get clean, go upstate But all the money went straight into my veins.
We just really need to know who did this to you.
Just another John.
I was so messed up back then, I wouldn't recognize him if I saw him again.
But do you remember where it happened? Eh He had a room at the Palace on bowery.
Were you under anesthetic? Yeah, it was good stuff But weird.
I was pretty out of it afterwards.
I don't remember anything else, and I'm not good with details now.
The palace hotel used to be a flophouse.
Now, down the block, they're getting two grand a night for a suite.
I'm still trying to-- Are we really looking for somebody who pays for the pleasure of amputating women's limbs? Nina wasn't paid, captain.
She was abducted.
Okay, so he's escalating? Or maybe he's just burned through all the willing victims, and now he's moved on to the unwilling ones? Well, I know it's been three days, but if Lisa survived, maybe Nina's alive too.
Maybe not.
Body just turned up near the Gowanus Canal.
Is it her? That poor girl.
Hope she was still under when she went.
Cause of death: Heart failure from a drug reaction.
She was full of propofol.
- Any sign of sexual assault? - Not that I can see.
All the damage to her body was done surgically.
So he puts her under general anesthetic to cut off her leg, and he accidentally administers too much? Or maybe he was done with her, and he deliberately left her to die.
There's something else I need to show you.
She had ear-pointing surgery.
What? A small wedge of cartilage is removed from the ear, then sewn into a point.
Uh well, it--I mean, these cuts are fully healed.
It's not from the same attack.
I was getting to that.
She had this done a while ago.
And the tattoos and the piercings are even older, right? Her body--it's a record of her journey into body modification.
How does that track with her leg being forcibly amputated? Well, that's your job.
What I can tell you about the subculture is it pushes the edge.
Tattoos used to be subversive.
Now kindergarten teachers have them, which means the fringe has to go even further.
I've seen stretched earlobes, forked tongues, steel plates implanted under the skin.
Amputation is the next frontier.
So maybe for Nina, the tattoo and the piercings was like a gateway drug, and whoever did this to her Was maybe somebody that she met from this world.
So we just follow her path.
I mean, look-- this tattoo right here is distinctive.
Looks like it even has an embedded signature.
The artist shouldn't be too tough to track.
- Kenji Yashimi? - Not now.
This your work? Yeah, a personal favorite from two years ago-- one of a kind.
Yeah, well, you can do it again.
The girl who had it is dead.
Can you sit tight? Nina's dead? What happened to her? When's the last time you saw her? About six months ago.
That's around the time Nina got her ears pointed.
- That your work too? - No.
I mean, Nina came in asking about having that work done, but like I told her, we have a celebrity clientele.
I don't do job stoppers.
"Job stoppers"? Face tattoos, elf ears, idiotic fads for people too young to realize they'll never have a career after that.
You know what I'm talking about-- that white tat.
Classy.
Do you have any idea who she might've gone to? Yeah, go bother Seth Moretz.
I heard him talking to Nina about elf ears.
- Chick was obsessed.
- Seth works here? Not anymore.
I fired him after I caught him trying to steer my clients towards his body-mod business.
- Hey, Seth.
- Come on.
Look, I don't have time for this.
I need to drop this bike off.
No, actually, you're gonna have to hold up here a minute.
We need to talk to you about Nina Raedo.
Nina who? The girl you talked to about getting the Spock ears.
Not Spock, grandpa--Arwen You know, Liv Tyler Lord of the Rings.
So you did talk to Nina about operating on her ears.
You're not gonna get me on that.
I don't mess with peoples' ears Except with my music.
Oh, yeah? What do you use this for? Just to fill up my bike tires.
Really? You need a face mask to--to fill up your bike tires? We got a tank of nitrous oxide-- serial numbers on it and everything.
Guess what.
You're going for a ride.
And you won't need your bicycle.
Hi.
Can I help you? Yeah, we're looking for Dr.
Gene Brightman.
He is in with a patient right now.
Yeah.
Uh, doctor, I need you up front.
Jess, I'm about to start a crown.
How can I help you? Yeah, we have a few questions.
Is there a more private place to speak? Jess, keep Mrs.
leary calm.
Don't ask her about her kids.
This way.
What is this about? It's a police investigation.
Nina Raedo-- she a patient of yours? No, I don't think so.
Why? You missing any nitrous oxide tanks? Not that I'm aware of.
Well, we found one where it shouldn't be and traced it back to your office.
You know a Seth Moretz? For God's sake.
That imbecile.
How do you know him? He used to date Jess, the receptionist.
I thought she'd gotten rid of him.
So it is possible that he stole a nitrous tank from your office.
This kid-- anything's possible.
I'll have Jess do an inventory.
Better do it yourself.
She's gone.
Jess Hardwick is not answering her cell phone.
We put her apartment under surveillance.
What else do we know about her? No priors, she worked for the dentist for five years.
Dr.
Brightman swears by her.
He blames her boyfriend.
Uh-huh.
That's fair enough.
Let's see who the boyfriend blames.
Bad news, Seth-- Talked to Dr.
Brightman.
He's pressing charges for a stolen nitrous tank.
What do you care about that, seriously? I didn't know dentists qualified as special victims.
Well, they don't, but Nina does.
Nina? I-I--what is that? I don't-- I-I-I had nothing to do with that.
You telling me you don't know her? Look hard.
And don't lie.
She might've come into the old shop.
You mean Kenji Yashimi's tattoo parlor.
He told us that he fired you for doing elf ears.
Did you do hers? No, that--that's wrong.
I swear.
I-I-I'm not good with snipping and sewing.
Oh, okay, now I get it.
He's just the steerer.
It's his girlfriend, Jess, who does the operations, right? So where is she? - I don't know.
- Hey, wake up, Seth! We already got you for possession of stolen property, and you're this close to homicide.
I didn't touch Nina-- I swear.
It was Jess.
She did her ears.
She's got the skills.
Seth, where is she? Try Coney Island-- Freak Night at the Mermaid Hotel tonight.
She'll be there, working.
You need a password to get in.
You got a tattoo.
I never noticed.
Yeah, my little reward for getting through march madness without putting down a bet.
Good for you.
Not what I expected.
It's a little tame for freak night.
Yeah.
Ready to party? Who are you? I hardly know, sir, just at present.
Enjoy your evening.
Damn.
Oh, my God.
Your ears are gorgeous.
- Do you mind if I stare? - Not at all.
Go ahead.
She's been thinking about getting hers done.
Yeah.
Did it hurt? Not if you know who to go to.
Yours are the best I've ever seen.
Do you mind? Who did them? Go see Jess.
She's working tonight-- cash only, like, 600 bucks.
- Baby? - Anything you want, boo.
You know I got you.
She's in the truck out back.
Great.
And my man can come, right? He likes to watch.
Jess is cool with that.
Open it up.
N.
Y.
P.
D.
, stop! Drop the blade.
Okay.
You don't need the guns.
Coming out.
Let me get this straight, you see yourself as helping people be the architects of their own body.
Exactly.
I thought that's what gyms are for, not blades and syringes.
Plastic surgeons change people's appearance every day-- face-lifts, nose jobs, breast implants.
Except they have medical licenses, and you don't.
And they buy their equipment, not steal it like you do.
Jess, we know about your side business.
We know you altered Nina Raedo's ears.
Yeah, and that was her choice.
And what about amputating her leg? Was that her decision too? Uh I'm sorry.
What? You injected her with propofol, cut off her leg, except something went wrong, and Nina ended up dead.
Nina's dead.
Yeah.
Tell us how it happened.
You didn't mean to give her too much, must've been a mistake.
I'm--I'm sorry.
This is wr-- This is all wrong.
I I would never use anything stronger than Lidocaine.
I would never get involved in an operation like that.
No? What happened to your leg, then? This? I lost it to bone cancer when I was 15.
Took a lot of work But now I'm proud 'Cause I'm extraordinary.
I help people achieve their own perception of beauty.
It's a vision of their true selves.
But I would never, ever subject someone to what I have been through.
Well, that was a pretty moving story.
Anybody else having a problem choking it down? Well, she's saying that she helps empower people through body modification and draws a clear line at amputation.
- And I believe her.
- I don't.
She and her boyfriend been robbing dentists blind-- nitrous, surgical tools.
We need to at least check and see if she's been stealing anesthetic too.
I agree.
This dentist she works for, Brightman-- what kind of practice does he have? His brochure says it's cosmetic.
Okay, good.
Then he shouldn't be ordering propofol.
Check with the controlled substance database, see what's on his scrip pads and who's signing them.
So Gene Brightman-- he's written prescriptions for oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin Heavy-duty painkillers, but no surgical anesthetics in the last six months.
- So Jess was telling the truth.
- Maybe.
But something strange did pop up.
I found several prescriptions for propofol under the name "Dr.
Hal Brightman.
" Okay, one six months ago, one from two weeks before Nina disappeared.
Was it a mistake in the data entry? It doesn't seem that way.
Different doctor, different address.
Ordering heavy-duty anesthetic? What kind of surgery does he do? Well, that's just it.
He doesn't.
He's a psychiatrist.
Nina Raedo No.
I don't know that name.
Can I ask what this is about? Is this your prescription? Propofol? There's no way this came from my office.
I have no use for anesthetic.
But is that your prescription pad? Yes, but it's not my signature.
Go through my order history.
I don't even like to prescribe Prozac.
I still believe in the talking cure.
So does anyone else have access to your prescription pad? I guess anyone who works in a pharmacy that my patients use and any of the assistants I've had over the years.
When did this start? We're looking at over five years--sporadic orders.
My God.
There's another possibility.
That drug can be used recreationally.
Some of my patients have substance-abuse problems.
Okay, well, we'll need their names.
I want to find whoever this is, but I can't violate confidentiality-- you know that-- even if I'm the victim of a crime.
Okay.
Do you know a Jess Hardwick? Yes, I do, actually.
She works for my brother.
Right, Dr.
Gene Brightman, the dentist.
- Yes.
Why? - Okay.
Can you think of any way that she would have access to your prescription pad? I'm trying to think.
I don't remember her ever coming to our country house.
Your country house? My brother and I share our mother's old house.
We've been fixing it up.
And you bring your scrip pad with you when you go there.
For emergencies.
Well, is it possible your brother used your scrip pad? Why would he do that? He has his own.
Excuse me.
I have a phone session with a patient.
Well, he shut us down fast.
Right when we started asking about his brother, Dr.
Gene.
That's a weird coincidence.
Nina sees Jess for her ears, and Jess works for Dr.
Gene.
And Dr.
Gene's brother has propofol ordered under his name that he's not aware of? Dr.
Gene--I mean, he's smart enough to know writing his own scrip for propofol could've tripped an alarm in the system.
And dentists have some medical training.
Maybe Jess isn't the only one doing body mod in Dr.
Gene's office.
I told you I don't know Nina Raedo.
Well, can you tell us where you were Saturday night? At the family country house in sag harbor.
Alone? Don't tell my brother, but I-I had a date.
Well, we'll need her name.
His name--Paul.
No one in my family knows, okay? Well, we'll need Paul's number.
Okay, but this cannot be a matter of public record.
Outing my client could seriously damage his practice.
Not as much as a murder charge.
These accusations are horrifying.
I would--I would never be involved with this.
Look When I was a little boy, my mother lost her leg in a car accident.
Okay, Gene.
But you do have a woman working for you in your practice who performs body modifications.
She uses your surgical instruments, your painkillers-- I told you I had no idea about that, no idea what she does outside of work.
And--and I fired her.
After we arrested her.
And these medical-supply orders-- a large bone saw-- also no knowledge? No.
Somebody stole your brother's scrip pad.
It might've been Jess.
Really? So how would she have access? I know this violates confidentiality, but she was a patient of my brother's for a long time.
She was a troubled girl.
He was the one who asked me to give her a job to help her out.
I-I thought that he'd stopped treating her, but for all I know, she goes back from time to time.
I never took Dr.
Hal's scrip pad.
With the work I do, you don't need propofol.
But you had been in Dr.
Hal's office--you were his patient.
Yeah, but not for years.
How long ago were you seeing him? I started when I was 14.
I'd been diagnosed with bone cancer.
I was depressed and anxious And then you were still seeing him when you were 15, right, when you lost your leg? Yes.
You know, Dr.
Hal was great.
He was so supportive and encouraging Helped me see myself in a new way.
So why'd you stop seeing him? I don't want to say anything bad about him.
What happened, Jess? After a while, I started feeling better about myself-- just, like like, stronger.
But I Felt like he didn't want to let me go.
He just kept saying that I was not ready and that we had more work to do, and I just felt like we were stuck.
We were just going over the same issues.
"Same issues"? You mean your leg? Yeah, my leg.
Did he ever tell you anything about his mother About her accident? - Mm-mm.
- Well, it turns out his mother lost her leg in a car crash when he was a boy.
Are you kidding me? Oh, my God.
Jess, is there any way that Dr.
Hal would've known about the work that you were doing on Nina? Um Wait a minute.
There-- - Yeah, there was at one time.
- When? At the office, he came in to drop by some keys for Dr.
Gene, and Nina was in there.
She'd gotten an infection after I did her ears, and she needed an antibiotic.
She pulled back her hair to show me, and He just kept staring at her.
So we've been looking at the wrong brother.
I know dentists are depressed, but if we're wondering who the crazy one is between a psychiatrist and a dentist, I'm gonna go with the head shrinker every time.
Suffolk County P.
D.
confirms the mother's car accident.
She lost her left leg when the brothers were 9 and 13.
When did Jess lose her leg? While she was in therapy with Dr.
Hal when she was 15, which makes it early 2001.
All right, so, six months later, he amputates Lisa the prostitute's leg.
Why? I mean Maybe he doesn't think he's hurting them, but that he's improving them.
Or maybe he does.
But just remember, he was smart enough to try to pin it on his brother last time you saw him.
So we let him think that we're still on that track.
You really think Gene did this to these women? I'm sure that this is very difficult to hear.
He had enough medical training.
He ordered the propofol.
He had an assistant who could help.
I need to speak to him about this.
Doctor, we're way past that now.
The only way you can help him now is by making us understand what led to this.
You know, psychological state can be a mitigating factor.
Can you think of anything from his past that can explain this? Well, it could have something to do with our mother.
She was in a car accident when we were kids.
It changed everything.
That must've been hard on both of you.
It was terrible.
It disfigured her inside and out.
She lost her beauty, her leg, peace of mind She was in a depression for the rest of her life.
Well, I can certainly understand why you would become a psychiatrist.
You want to help people.
My brother had the same motivation.
He saw how losing her looks affected our mother.
The whole lower half of her face was wrecked.
That's why he went into cosmetic dentistry.
So he healed the outside, and you healed the inside.
What we're trying to understand is Gene's fixation on limbs and amputation.
To the layperson, it sounds bizarre.
But I've seen trauma become sexualized in certain cases.
Gene was 9 when our mother was disfigured.
Do you think that those feelings could've been reawakened after you introduced Gene to Jess? I'm afraid it's possible.
A beautiful girl facing the loss of her leg with bravery and grace But that's the thing, though, doc, see? You're saying that Jess's sexuality awakened his obsession? Your brother's gay.
What? Did he tell you that? He did.
That can't be.
If my brother were gay, I think I would know it.
There seems to be a lot of things you don't know-- about your brother or yourself.
The pathology that you're projecting-- the details don't fit him.
They fit you.
You were 13.
You were the one who was hitting puberty when your mother had her car accident.
You were the one that was coming of age sexually.
And Jess was your patient when she was a teenager, coming into her sexual maturation, when she lost her leg, so You see how we're a little bit confused here? Yes, and I'm trying to help you people to get it straight.
Just like you helped Nina Raedo? I told you-- I don't know who that is.
We know that you saw her at your brother's office, Hal.
Remember, you couldn't stop looking at her When she moved her hair back from her ear? Jess told us.
She seemed like a very vulnerable girl.
And after I saw what she had done to herself, I thought that I could help her.
Help her deal with her body issues.
She had problems before she met me-- body dysmorphia, substance abuse.
- She was out of control.
- So you did talk to her.
Yes, and I offered her limited advice, but that is as far as it went.
But here's the problem, doctor, see? We have video footage of you putting her into the taxi.
I don't think I should say anymore.
We're not like these other people.
We know that you were trying to treat her, that you were trying to make her see her own true beauty.
Yes, but I did nothing to harm her.
She's dead now, Hal.
And we need to understand how that happened.
You only have two choices.
Either she threatened to report you, and you intentionally killed her with an overdose of propofol, or It was an accident.
You're not trained as an anesthesiologist.
She--she had a bad reaction.
So which was it? I tried to wake her up.
I did everything I could.
I would never hurt any of my girls.
She just Never woke up.
Hal, you just said you would never hurt any of your girls.
Were there more? None of them felt any pain.
I kept them under while they were here.
You took every precaution.
I can see that.
Didn't want them to suffer.
How many of them were there? Six in all.
Nina was a tragedy.
But none of the other five had any problems.
They're more complete now because of me.
I transformed them.
Why can people accept sex-reassignment surgery, but not this? This all started with Jess, didn't it? Yes.
But I never laid a hand on her.
It's just that when she lost her leg, she was so amazing.
The way she embraced her new body-- it was the most courageous thing I've ever seen.
I thought all women should be like her.
- Not like-- - Your mother.
You couldn't save her, so you save all these other girls by transforming them.
Who was the first? The hooker-- she needed help.
So you were gonna fix her to be more like Jess? She was better afterwards.
I'd follow her and watch her.
And after that, you just Kept going.
Every few years, there'd be a new girl.
And I'd pay her.
And she'd be grateful for what I did for her.
But there's only so many like that.
And that's why you went after Nina.
If Nina's heart hadn't stopped, she would've been grateful too.
Society's not ready for me.
I can look at women and know how beautiful and powerful they can be-- like you two.
You think you're special? You're boring.
But you could be so much more.
In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the special victims unit.
These are their stories.
I'm scared, mommy.
I want to come home.
If I got a car, would you pay for it? Okay.
Oh.
I will never understand white people.
Cuban-Italian.
It still doesn't make that right.
Nice view you got there, partner.
Oh, don't you start.
Nice one.
Hey, Nick, fin, this is Sam Reynolds.
How y'all doing? Hey, Sam.
This is my captain from Atlanta.
Got me transferred up here.
Don Cragen and I go way back.
- We hated to lose this one.
- Mm-hmm.
It's our gain.
Why don't you take over, Sam? My five-year-old attacks me at dawn.
You know what? I'm out of here too.
I just got off a double shift.
Do not bet against Rollins.
She's a shark.
- Hush up.
Hush up.
- I know it.
- Night.
- Later.
So, uh, how you doing up here, anyway? Uh, New York was a fresh start.
Lord knows I needed it.
Yeah, you had to get out of dodge, Amanda.
Drunk or not, the deputy chief was out of line.
I shouldn't have taken it so personally.
No lasting harm, no foul, right? Right.
Uh So you, uh You making any friends - up here in the big city? - Well, you just met my partner.
No, I said "friends.
" Anybody that calls you "Rollins" is another cop, not a friend.
Oh, lord.
Hey, you know I worry about you.
I know how squirrelly you can get.
I'm fine, papa bear.
Uh, captain Did you forget you're married? Separated.
I mean You can't say we both haven't thought about it.
I know.
But you're just catching me by surprise right now.
- I get that.
Okay.
- Yeah.
I tell you what-- Why don't I go get us another round? - Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
- And-- And you know what? I'm gonna take this real quick, okay? Help me! Help me! Please! This is detective Amanda Rollins.
I've got a possible taxi abduction-- a white female, struggling in the back of cab medallion They're heading down attorney from Houston street South.
Rollins, still here? What, are you fishing for O.
T.
? No, last night I saw a girl.
It's a possible abduction in a cab on the lower east side.
It could tie in with the yellow cab rapist, the sikh.
We have two open cases from last year.
Okay, anything more solid to go one? The medallion number matches a cab stolen in Chelsea yesterday, but the driver's report says he was struck from behind, so he never saw the assailant.
The cab turned up about an hour ago a couple of blocks from the Lincoln tunnel.
CSU's going over it now.
And I've got her description into missing persons, but no matches yet.
Hey, might've caught a break.
Desperate mother's been calling every squad in the N.
Y.
P.
D.
Says she got a panicked call at midnight from her daughter who never came home.
Description matches Rollins's girl.
All right, Rollins, you saw the girl, go talk to the mother.
Is this your daughter? That's Nina three years ago.
She's 19 now.
She's been in and out of the house for the last year.
Do you have any idea who she was with when she called you? No, I don't know where she goes.
I don't know who her friends are, but last night she called me, and--and she sounded like a scared kid.
She asked me if I had money to pay for a ride home.
She said that she was feeling out of control.
What do you think she meant by that? I don't know.
She--she's been going through a phase.
How so? Like change of hair, change of clothes? Try piercings, tattoos.
She got an octopus tattoo on her left ankle, and the next thing I know, she was covered with them.
Has she had any boyfriend issues lately? II don't really know her anymore.
Mrs.
Raedo, we're going to need some DNA samples.
Am I gonna see her again? That's the girl I saw screaming - in the back of the cab.
- Almost 12 hours ago.
So let's run her cell records, find out her last contacts.
Joaquin.
Little bitch.
Detective Amaro, nice suit.
Yeah, why aren't you at school? This is where the money is.
Detective Amaro will talk to you about that later.
You recognize this girl? Yeah, Nina.
She filled out some.
She got some tats.
She's fine.
Tell us where we can find her? Seems like you want to go to juvie, hustler.
All right, I'm not so sure about now, but she used to be with Pablo.
Pablo.
Is that her boyfriend? What, he live up on the roof? Yeah, he got some pigeons up there.
But take it slow, detective.
Pablo's golden gloves.
Eh, I ain't scared.
That sound like pigeons to you? More like a love shack.
N.
Y.
P.
D.
Nina Raedo? - What the hell? - Nina Raedo in here? Go away.
Why don't you come with me? Who's Nina? Who's Nina? Easy.
Keep your voice down, huh? Tiffany's mad jealous.
And I broke up with Nina three months ago.
The girl was just too wild for me.
What do you mean-- partying, drugs? Nah, man, she liked to cause trouble.
Like one time, we're at this club, started coming on to three dudes just to bait me into a fight with them.
Good times.
She make enemies, playing it close to the edge like that? I don't know.
I washed my hands.
And then last night, she comes over wanting to hook up.
Said she was scared.
She only felt safe with me.
I was like, "Nah.
" Sure about that last part? Tiffany was on her way over.
What time was that, Pablo? Around midnight.
All right, then you know how Nina got home.
Car service down the block.
She used it before.
Nina okay? You want a car, you got to call.
You see this girl last night? Yes, I told her the same thing.
You want a car, you got to call outside.
- So she was here.
- Yeah.
Twice I told her.
She gave me attitude.
Then she said she was gonna look for another car service.
But there aren't any others around here.
Right.
So where'd she go? I saw a cab pull up in front just as she came out.
I guess she went in.
Hey, I was very busy.
You got cameras in here.
We're gonna need to see your tapes.
That's her.
That's Nina.
Dispatcher's telling Nina, "You want a car, you call, but you got to call from outside.
" Catch-22.
This guy must've been in the army.
Well, there's a cab.
Switch to the outside camera.
That's the medallion number I saw.
Slow it down.
Push in.
This driver's not our sikh.
He's a white male.
Can you isolate on him? Any hits on her cell phone after this? No.
All right, well, we know she was abducted.
The question now is, when's she gonna turn up? You said we had to see this for ourselves? Just came in an hour ago.
A young woman's left leg, freshly severed.
With an octopus tattoo on her ankle.
Some guy fishing off his boat on the Gowanus Canal reeled in the leg.
The description matched Nina's tattoo.
We're running the DNA.
Pretty clean cut.
I'd say it was done with a surgical saw.
And there's still evidence of living response to trauma in the bony tissues.
You mean Nina could've been alive when her leg was amputated.
There was anesthetic in the marrow.
Why go to that trouble for a corpse? So a healthy leg, cleanly severed from a living person.
I mean, I've heard of that in drug wars, but I don't think that's what this is.
No.
There's something else.
A fisherman reeled it in? Nobody fishes in the Gowanus Canal.
It's so polluted, it's a superfund site.
So you got your workshop all set up here right beside your houseboat.
Guess that makes you pretty self-contained, huh? I--I'm the river keeper.
E-everything I need is down here-- the scraps for my inventions, the fish I eat for dinner.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, huh? So you're telling us you found the leg when you were fishing? You'd be surprised what comes floating by.
I found a tiger cage once No tiger, though.
What do you do with this band saw? I didn't use it to cut anybody's leg off.
See? See? This is why I don't trust the cops.
Right now we'd really appreciate a little cooperation, okay? Or we could just tear up your workshop looking for evidence.
Look around if you have to.
Bring on the luminol and the U.
V.
lights.
You won't find blood.
I was just trying to do the right thing Same as I did 11 years ago.
What happened 11 years ago? I found that other leg.
Isn't that why you guys are here? - Did you notify the police? - Yeah.
Wasn't much follow-through, though.
They got kind of busy.
It was three days before the planes hit the towers.
This Gowanus guy was telling the truth.
He fished it out of the canal Female, amputated two inches above the knee.
And it got set aside and left in a fridge at the city forensic anthropology department.
Fin and Rollins found saws at his workshop.
- Is there any way that-- - No.
I already checked.
Both of these women lost their left legs to surgical saws.
It's a different kind of scoring on the bone.
Wait.
So both were totally healthy limbs, - removed professionally? - Yes.
And the marrow in both bones had traces of the same anesthetic-- propofol.
What about the reaction in the bony tissue? Was this victim alive when her leg was cut off? I can't be sure, but I think so.
Good luck.
Yeah.
Liv, what are we looking at here? I have no idea.
Well, it just got weirder.
- Crime lab got a DNA hit.
- On Nina? No, on this leg.
And the woman it belongs to She's still alive.
Lisa Everly.
Yeah? - Can we talk to you a minute? - I'm not soliciting.
We know that.
That's not why we're here.
We're just-- we wanted to ask you about your leg.
What's it to you? Your boyfriend into that? Can you tell us what happened? It got cut off.
It was a long time ago.
- I'm not looking back, so - But whoever did this, he needs to pay for what he did to you.
He already paid.
Excuse me? For 25 grand, you can do whatever you want to me too.
Wait.
You took money in exchange for letting someone cut off your leg? I don't expect you to understand if you never been that far down.
I was already destroying myself anyway.
I was gonna get clean, go upstate But all the money went straight into my veins.
We just really need to know who did this to you.
Just another John.
I was so messed up back then, I wouldn't recognize him if I saw him again.
But do you remember where it happened? Eh He had a room at the Palace on bowery.
Were you under anesthetic? Yeah, it was good stuff But weird.
I was pretty out of it afterwards.
I don't remember anything else, and I'm not good with details now.
The palace hotel used to be a flophouse.
Now, down the block, they're getting two grand a night for a suite.
I'm still trying to-- Are we really looking for somebody who pays for the pleasure of amputating women's limbs? Nina wasn't paid, captain.
She was abducted.
Okay, so he's escalating? Or maybe he's just burned through all the willing victims, and now he's moved on to the unwilling ones? Well, I know it's been three days, but if Lisa survived, maybe Nina's alive too.
Maybe not.
Body just turned up near the Gowanus Canal.
Is it her? That poor girl.
Hope she was still under when she went.
Cause of death: Heart failure from a drug reaction.
She was full of propofol.
- Any sign of sexual assault? - Not that I can see.
All the damage to her body was done surgically.
So he puts her under general anesthetic to cut off her leg, and he accidentally administers too much? Or maybe he was done with her, and he deliberately left her to die.
There's something else I need to show you.
She had ear-pointing surgery.
What? A small wedge of cartilage is removed from the ear, then sewn into a point.
Uh well, it--I mean, these cuts are fully healed.
It's not from the same attack.
I was getting to that.
She had this done a while ago.
And the tattoos and the piercings are even older, right? Her body--it's a record of her journey into body modification.
How does that track with her leg being forcibly amputated? Well, that's your job.
What I can tell you about the subculture is it pushes the edge.
Tattoos used to be subversive.
Now kindergarten teachers have them, which means the fringe has to go even further.
I've seen stretched earlobes, forked tongues, steel plates implanted under the skin.
Amputation is the next frontier.
So maybe for Nina, the tattoo and the piercings was like a gateway drug, and whoever did this to her Was maybe somebody that she met from this world.
So we just follow her path.
I mean, look-- this tattoo right here is distinctive.
Looks like it even has an embedded signature.
The artist shouldn't be too tough to track.
- Kenji Yashimi? - Not now.
This your work? Yeah, a personal favorite from two years ago-- one of a kind.
Yeah, well, you can do it again.
The girl who had it is dead.
Can you sit tight? Nina's dead? What happened to her? When's the last time you saw her? About six months ago.
That's around the time Nina got her ears pointed.
- That your work too? - No.
I mean, Nina came in asking about having that work done, but like I told her, we have a celebrity clientele.
I don't do job stoppers.
"Job stoppers"? Face tattoos, elf ears, idiotic fads for people too young to realize they'll never have a career after that.
You know what I'm talking about-- that white tat.
Classy.
Do you have any idea who she might've gone to? Yeah, go bother Seth Moretz.
I heard him talking to Nina about elf ears.
- Chick was obsessed.
- Seth works here? Not anymore.
I fired him after I caught him trying to steer my clients towards his body-mod business.
- Hey, Seth.
- Come on.
Look, I don't have time for this.
I need to drop this bike off.
No, actually, you're gonna have to hold up here a minute.
We need to talk to you about Nina Raedo.
Nina who? The girl you talked to about getting the Spock ears.
Not Spock, grandpa--Arwen You know, Liv Tyler Lord of the Rings.
So you did talk to Nina about operating on her ears.
You're not gonna get me on that.
I don't mess with peoples' ears Except with my music.
Oh, yeah? What do you use this for? Just to fill up my bike tires.
Really? You need a face mask to--to fill up your bike tires? We got a tank of nitrous oxide-- serial numbers on it and everything.
Guess what.
You're going for a ride.
And you won't need your bicycle.
Hi.
Can I help you? Yeah, we're looking for Dr.
Gene Brightman.
He is in with a patient right now.
Yeah.
Uh, doctor, I need you up front.
Jess, I'm about to start a crown.
How can I help you? Yeah, we have a few questions.
Is there a more private place to speak? Jess, keep Mrs.
leary calm.
Don't ask her about her kids.
This way.
What is this about? It's a police investigation.
Nina Raedo-- she a patient of yours? No, I don't think so.
Why? You missing any nitrous oxide tanks? Not that I'm aware of.
Well, we found one where it shouldn't be and traced it back to your office.
You know a Seth Moretz? For God's sake.
That imbecile.
How do you know him? He used to date Jess, the receptionist.
I thought she'd gotten rid of him.
So it is possible that he stole a nitrous tank from your office.
This kid-- anything's possible.
I'll have Jess do an inventory.
Better do it yourself.
She's gone.
Jess Hardwick is not answering her cell phone.
We put her apartment under surveillance.
What else do we know about her? No priors, she worked for the dentist for five years.
Dr.
Brightman swears by her.
He blames her boyfriend.
Uh-huh.
That's fair enough.
Let's see who the boyfriend blames.
Bad news, Seth-- Talked to Dr.
Brightman.
He's pressing charges for a stolen nitrous tank.
What do you care about that, seriously? I didn't know dentists qualified as special victims.
Well, they don't, but Nina does.
Nina? I-I--what is that? I don't-- I-I-I had nothing to do with that.
You telling me you don't know her? Look hard.
And don't lie.
She might've come into the old shop.
You mean Kenji Yashimi's tattoo parlor.
He told us that he fired you for doing elf ears.
Did you do hers? No, that--that's wrong.
I swear.
I-I-I'm not good with snipping and sewing.
Oh, okay, now I get it.
He's just the steerer.
It's his girlfriend, Jess, who does the operations, right? So where is she? - I don't know.
- Hey, wake up, Seth! We already got you for possession of stolen property, and you're this close to homicide.
I didn't touch Nina-- I swear.
It was Jess.
She did her ears.
She's got the skills.
Seth, where is she? Try Coney Island-- Freak Night at the Mermaid Hotel tonight.
She'll be there, working.
You need a password to get in.
You got a tattoo.
I never noticed.
Yeah, my little reward for getting through march madness without putting down a bet.
Good for you.
Not what I expected.
It's a little tame for freak night.
Yeah.
Ready to party? Who are you? I hardly know, sir, just at present.
Enjoy your evening.
Damn.
Oh, my God.
Your ears are gorgeous.
- Do you mind if I stare? - Not at all.
Go ahead.
She's been thinking about getting hers done.
Yeah.
Did it hurt? Not if you know who to go to.
Yours are the best I've ever seen.
Do you mind? Who did them? Go see Jess.
She's working tonight-- cash only, like, 600 bucks.
- Baby? - Anything you want, boo.
You know I got you.
She's in the truck out back.
Great.
And my man can come, right? He likes to watch.
Jess is cool with that.
Open it up.
N.
Y.
P.
D.
, stop! Drop the blade.
Okay.
You don't need the guns.
Coming out.
Let me get this straight, you see yourself as helping people be the architects of their own body.
Exactly.
I thought that's what gyms are for, not blades and syringes.
Plastic surgeons change people's appearance every day-- face-lifts, nose jobs, breast implants.
Except they have medical licenses, and you don't.
And they buy their equipment, not steal it like you do.
Jess, we know about your side business.
We know you altered Nina Raedo's ears.
Yeah, and that was her choice.
And what about amputating her leg? Was that her decision too? Uh I'm sorry.
What? You injected her with propofol, cut off her leg, except something went wrong, and Nina ended up dead.
Nina's dead.
Yeah.
Tell us how it happened.
You didn't mean to give her too much, must've been a mistake.
I'm--I'm sorry.
This is wr-- This is all wrong.
I I would never use anything stronger than Lidocaine.
I would never get involved in an operation like that.
No? What happened to your leg, then? This? I lost it to bone cancer when I was 15.
Took a lot of work But now I'm proud 'Cause I'm extraordinary.
I help people achieve their own perception of beauty.
It's a vision of their true selves.
But I would never, ever subject someone to what I have been through.
Well, that was a pretty moving story.
Anybody else having a problem choking it down? Well, she's saying that she helps empower people through body modification and draws a clear line at amputation.
- And I believe her.
- I don't.
She and her boyfriend been robbing dentists blind-- nitrous, surgical tools.
We need to at least check and see if she's been stealing anesthetic too.
I agree.
This dentist she works for, Brightman-- what kind of practice does he have? His brochure says it's cosmetic.
Okay, good.
Then he shouldn't be ordering propofol.
Check with the controlled substance database, see what's on his scrip pads and who's signing them.
So Gene Brightman-- he's written prescriptions for oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin Heavy-duty painkillers, but no surgical anesthetics in the last six months.
- So Jess was telling the truth.
- Maybe.
But something strange did pop up.
I found several prescriptions for propofol under the name "Dr.
Hal Brightman.
" Okay, one six months ago, one from two weeks before Nina disappeared.
Was it a mistake in the data entry? It doesn't seem that way.
Different doctor, different address.
Ordering heavy-duty anesthetic? What kind of surgery does he do? Well, that's just it.
He doesn't.
He's a psychiatrist.
Nina Raedo No.
I don't know that name.
Can I ask what this is about? Is this your prescription? Propofol? There's no way this came from my office.
I have no use for anesthetic.
But is that your prescription pad? Yes, but it's not my signature.
Go through my order history.
I don't even like to prescribe Prozac.
I still believe in the talking cure.
So does anyone else have access to your prescription pad? I guess anyone who works in a pharmacy that my patients use and any of the assistants I've had over the years.
When did this start? We're looking at over five years--sporadic orders.
My God.
There's another possibility.
That drug can be used recreationally.
Some of my patients have substance-abuse problems.
Okay, well, we'll need their names.
I want to find whoever this is, but I can't violate confidentiality-- you know that-- even if I'm the victim of a crime.
Okay.
Do you know a Jess Hardwick? Yes, I do, actually.
She works for my brother.
Right, Dr.
Gene Brightman, the dentist.
- Yes.
Why? - Okay.
Can you think of any way that she would have access to your prescription pad? I'm trying to think.
I don't remember her ever coming to our country house.
Your country house? My brother and I share our mother's old house.
We've been fixing it up.
And you bring your scrip pad with you when you go there.
For emergencies.
Well, is it possible your brother used your scrip pad? Why would he do that? He has his own.
Excuse me.
I have a phone session with a patient.
Well, he shut us down fast.
Right when we started asking about his brother, Dr.
Gene.
That's a weird coincidence.
Nina sees Jess for her ears, and Jess works for Dr.
Gene.
And Dr.
Gene's brother has propofol ordered under his name that he's not aware of? Dr.
Gene--I mean, he's smart enough to know writing his own scrip for propofol could've tripped an alarm in the system.
And dentists have some medical training.
Maybe Jess isn't the only one doing body mod in Dr.
Gene's office.
I told you I don't know Nina Raedo.
Well, can you tell us where you were Saturday night? At the family country house in sag harbor.
Alone? Don't tell my brother, but I-I had a date.
Well, we'll need her name.
His name--Paul.
No one in my family knows, okay? Well, we'll need Paul's number.
Okay, but this cannot be a matter of public record.
Outing my client could seriously damage his practice.
Not as much as a murder charge.
These accusations are horrifying.
I would--I would never be involved with this.
Look When I was a little boy, my mother lost her leg in a car accident.
Okay, Gene.
But you do have a woman working for you in your practice who performs body modifications.
She uses your surgical instruments, your painkillers-- I told you I had no idea about that, no idea what she does outside of work.
And--and I fired her.
After we arrested her.
And these medical-supply orders-- a large bone saw-- also no knowledge? No.
Somebody stole your brother's scrip pad.
It might've been Jess.
Really? So how would she have access? I know this violates confidentiality, but she was a patient of my brother's for a long time.
She was a troubled girl.
He was the one who asked me to give her a job to help her out.
I-I thought that he'd stopped treating her, but for all I know, she goes back from time to time.
I never took Dr.
Hal's scrip pad.
With the work I do, you don't need propofol.
But you had been in Dr.
Hal's office--you were his patient.
Yeah, but not for years.
How long ago were you seeing him? I started when I was 14.
I'd been diagnosed with bone cancer.
I was depressed and anxious And then you were still seeing him when you were 15, right, when you lost your leg? Yes.
You know, Dr.
Hal was great.
He was so supportive and encouraging Helped me see myself in a new way.
So why'd you stop seeing him? I don't want to say anything bad about him.
What happened, Jess? After a while, I started feeling better about myself-- just, like like, stronger.
But I Felt like he didn't want to let me go.
He just kept saying that I was not ready and that we had more work to do, and I just felt like we were stuck.
We were just going over the same issues.
"Same issues"? You mean your leg? Yeah, my leg.
Did he ever tell you anything about his mother About her accident? - Mm-mm.
- Well, it turns out his mother lost her leg in a car crash when he was a boy.
Are you kidding me? Oh, my God.
Jess, is there any way that Dr.
Hal would've known about the work that you were doing on Nina? Um Wait a minute.
There-- - Yeah, there was at one time.
- When? At the office, he came in to drop by some keys for Dr.
Gene, and Nina was in there.
She'd gotten an infection after I did her ears, and she needed an antibiotic.
She pulled back her hair to show me, and He just kept staring at her.
So we've been looking at the wrong brother.
I know dentists are depressed, but if we're wondering who the crazy one is between a psychiatrist and a dentist, I'm gonna go with the head shrinker every time.
Suffolk County P.
D.
confirms the mother's car accident.
She lost her left leg when the brothers were 9 and 13.
When did Jess lose her leg? While she was in therapy with Dr.
Hal when she was 15, which makes it early 2001.
All right, so, six months later, he amputates Lisa the prostitute's leg.
Why? I mean Maybe he doesn't think he's hurting them, but that he's improving them.
Or maybe he does.
But just remember, he was smart enough to try to pin it on his brother last time you saw him.
So we let him think that we're still on that track.
You really think Gene did this to these women? I'm sure that this is very difficult to hear.
He had enough medical training.
He ordered the propofol.
He had an assistant who could help.
I need to speak to him about this.
Doctor, we're way past that now.
The only way you can help him now is by making us understand what led to this.
You know, psychological state can be a mitigating factor.
Can you think of anything from his past that can explain this? Well, it could have something to do with our mother.
She was in a car accident when we were kids.
It changed everything.
That must've been hard on both of you.
It was terrible.
It disfigured her inside and out.
She lost her beauty, her leg, peace of mind She was in a depression for the rest of her life.
Well, I can certainly understand why you would become a psychiatrist.
You want to help people.
My brother had the same motivation.
He saw how losing her looks affected our mother.
The whole lower half of her face was wrecked.
That's why he went into cosmetic dentistry.
So he healed the outside, and you healed the inside.
What we're trying to understand is Gene's fixation on limbs and amputation.
To the layperson, it sounds bizarre.
But I've seen trauma become sexualized in certain cases.
Gene was 9 when our mother was disfigured.
Do you think that those feelings could've been reawakened after you introduced Gene to Jess? I'm afraid it's possible.
A beautiful girl facing the loss of her leg with bravery and grace But that's the thing, though, doc, see? You're saying that Jess's sexuality awakened his obsession? Your brother's gay.
What? Did he tell you that? He did.
That can't be.
If my brother were gay, I think I would know it.
There seems to be a lot of things you don't know-- about your brother or yourself.
The pathology that you're projecting-- the details don't fit him.
They fit you.
You were 13.
You were the one who was hitting puberty when your mother had her car accident.
You were the one that was coming of age sexually.
And Jess was your patient when she was a teenager, coming into her sexual maturation, when she lost her leg, so You see how we're a little bit confused here? Yes, and I'm trying to help you people to get it straight.
Just like you helped Nina Raedo? I told you-- I don't know who that is.
We know that you saw her at your brother's office, Hal.
Remember, you couldn't stop looking at her When she moved her hair back from her ear? Jess told us.
She seemed like a very vulnerable girl.
And after I saw what she had done to herself, I thought that I could help her.
Help her deal with her body issues.
She had problems before she met me-- body dysmorphia, substance abuse.
- She was out of control.
- So you did talk to her.
Yes, and I offered her limited advice, but that is as far as it went.
But here's the problem, doctor, see? We have video footage of you putting her into the taxi.
I don't think I should say anymore.
We're not like these other people.
We know that you were trying to treat her, that you were trying to make her see her own true beauty.
Yes, but I did nothing to harm her.
She's dead now, Hal.
And we need to understand how that happened.
You only have two choices.
Either she threatened to report you, and you intentionally killed her with an overdose of propofol, or It was an accident.
You're not trained as an anesthesiologist.
She--she had a bad reaction.
So which was it? I tried to wake her up.
I did everything I could.
I would never hurt any of my girls.
She just Never woke up.
Hal, you just said you would never hurt any of your girls.
Were there more? None of them felt any pain.
I kept them under while they were here.
You took every precaution.
I can see that.
Didn't want them to suffer.
How many of them were there? Six in all.
Nina was a tragedy.
But none of the other five had any problems.
They're more complete now because of me.
I transformed them.
Why can people accept sex-reassignment surgery, but not this? This all started with Jess, didn't it? Yes.
But I never laid a hand on her.
It's just that when she lost her leg, she was so amazing.
The way she embraced her new body-- it was the most courageous thing I've ever seen.
I thought all women should be like her.
- Not like-- - Your mother.
You couldn't save her, so you save all these other girls by transforming them.
Who was the first? The hooker-- she needed help.
So you were gonna fix her to be more like Jess? She was better afterwards.
I'd follow her and watch her.
And after that, you just Kept going.
Every few years, there'd be a new girl.
And I'd pay her.
And she'd be grateful for what I did for her.
But there's only so many like that.
And that's why you went after Nina.
If Nina's heart hadn't stopped, she would've been grateful too.
Society's not ready for me.
I can look at women and know how beautiful and powerful they can be-- like you two.
You think you're special? You're boring.
But you could be so much more.