It was some night, girls! Monsieur and I went to a Passover Seder at the Actors Temple--my very first; after 29 years of living in Highland Park, New Jersey, you would think, "It's about time!"--which was both delicious and interesting. It was also lengthy; the Catholics don't drag things out this long, let me tell you.
So when we got home, there was a special treat. A double dose of 'SVU'. One of these was the episode, entitled "Branded," which I had seen before, but Monsieur slept through. As soon as the opening scene began, I told him, "It's the one with Camille!" You have GOT to see this!"
"Branded" takes its cue from "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." Two men are attacked at home, drugged unconscious, and sexually assaulted by having things inserted up their......back ends!!!!!!! And these are straight men; the kind who would stick out their tongue, or worse, when walking past a gay bar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One attack is bad enough. But when a second happens, everyone assumes a connection, which the men deny. Till Finn tracks them down, finds not only do they know each other, but they are keeping a secret. Knowing that the sleaziest of them, Alex Gammon, is next they stage an attack, where Elliot is the decoy, catching in the act a young girl named Camille Walters, who works for a delivery outlet, and has computer skills to be believed!!!!!!!!!!!
Camille is played to a fare thee well by Bess Rous, who had me cheering for her the minute I heard what happened. It seems she and all the men "knew" each other when they were at summer camp. Camille was a camper, and Alex Gammon (Jason Wiles), Bill Dixon (Michael Gaddis) and Victor Ramos (Kevin Alejandro) were counselors or workers, who knew each other. That July 4, they lured 14 year old Camille into the woods and gang raped her. Alex's Daddy was rich, so he was SO sure of himself, calling her "a little nobody," because of her checkered past--a schizoid father in Bellevue and a series of stints in foster homes. Victor didn't want to rape, but the others made him; you know, the old "If you don't, you are not a man" crap. Yeah, right!!!!!!!
What turns things around is when Camille reveals the rape got her pregnant, and produced a daughter, whom she gave up. When she heard a child laughing on the street, it triggered these memories, and she went after her tormentors--branding Bill "Ruiner," Victor "Traitor," and saying she would have carved "Hell" on Alex, and sent him there. Too bad she did not.
This episode also introduces Melissa Sagemiller as ADA Jillian Hardwicke. Hardheaded is more like it. This one is just too career bitch for me, darlings, and her alienating, if well intentioned, behavior, to everyone concerned is off putting.
But things resolve in a manner very positive and surprisingly understated for this show. Ramos is found to be the biological father of Camille's daughter, Hannah, who is produced and testifies, he turns against his cronies, revealing Gammon has raped other women and has been paying off everyone for years. Big hero, Victor, but you took the money, all those years, not even sending it back, just to keep yourself in gravy?????? Sorry, you are as big a sleaze as the rest of them. Bill and Victor get carted off for perjury. Mr. Gammon, the worst of the lot, is looking at a longer sentence, and possibly gang rape himself in the slammer. As Chris Meloni says to him "You go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200."
And once again, Monsieur slept through it!!!! But remember, loves, the episode is called "Branded" not "Camille." I don't advocate vigilante justice, but I sure understood where Camille was coming from!!!!!!!!!!!
No taking the law into your hands, girls!!!!!!! Just maybe dating a hot cop or two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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