It was a busy Sunday, darlings, so I had not turned on the TV all morning. Nevertheless, around 1PM, I decided to check if there was an "'SVU' Marathon" or anything, and discovered they were airing a very special episode, "Closure," which introduced the unforgettable character of Harper Anderson, played by Michael J. Fox's wife, Tracy Pollan, in an award winning, Emmy-nominated performance!!!!
How I wish, with the state the show is in, currently, that Harper would come back and work for SVU as a Victims Advocate, because, when it comes to taking care of oneself, honey, Harper shows us how!!!!
I love Harper for her beauty, sophistication, vulnerability, and toughness!!!! Just like me, darlings!!!!!!
Structurally, the episode is one of the best written, and the first half is done in a semi-documentary style. The time of night appears on each scene. The story opens, with the camera panning an obviously broken into apartment. It comes to an attractive young woman (Harper), robed and disheveled, smoking a cigarette, staring into space, shocked and frightened. A telephone is in her hand. She eventually picks it up, gets 911, and then says into the receiver words no one ever wants to say, "I've just been raped."
From here, the episode takes the viewer step by step through what procedure a rape victim has to undergo, in the wake of emotional trauma. Olivia arrives and begins questioning Harper, and her rape kit is assembled--DNA swab, vaginal smear, combing of pubic hair, and meds to prevent pregnancy, HIV and STD's. Not the way anyone wants to spend a Saturday evening. Elliot is there, too, but, honey, let me tell you, this is Olivia's call.
Harper is taken back to the precinct, where they get her story. She lives downtown, and a street fair was going on nearby, so she put in ear plugs to sleep. She awoke, and saw a man standing in her room. He told her to close her eyes, pulled her nightgown up over her head, splayed her apart with his knees, and did it. But he ejaculated onto her stomach. Harper says she was in shock, but could see her clock; the whole thing took about 42 minutes. She describes the assailant as tall, sandy haired, around her age, wearing expensive cologne. During the rape, he kept saying, repeatedly, "Is this how you like it????" When it was done, he kept her eyes closed, pointed what he said was a gun at her, and steered her to the shower, where he proceeded to wash her. He then tells her to count to 20 after he leaves, and not to call the police. The important thing here, darlings, is that Harper survived.
Olivia takes Harper to her boyfriend's place. Then Harper's apartment is searched. It is discovered she was smoking a joint, and Brian Cassidy (a hot YOUNG Dean Winter, in the days before he became the aged All State guy, and who has just had a one-night stand with Olivia!!!) hypothesizes that perhaps, while high, Harper imagined the rape. He finds evidence in her bathroom suggesting she might have staged the rape, which Olivia vetoes vehemently!!!! She and Elliot go to Harper's boyfriend, Ben, who says she was restless, could not sleep, and went to work, at Le Poeme, a restaurant where she waits tables.
While there, they question Harper about the joint. She says she needed to mellow out, because of a job interview, acerbically adding that NOTHING happening the night before was part of her routine. Now, they, and we, know how spirited Harper is; I love how bitingly Tracy Pollan delivers her lines, here!!!! Go, Harper!!!!
A family heirloom ring was taken from Harper that night, which she described, and her wallet, too. The latter turns up near her apartment, cash intact, but a credit card missing, and discovered having been used!!!! They find the thief, a low life, and try to pin Harper's rape on him!!!! He says her has done some things in his time, but he never raped anybody!!!!! They are stymied; they thought they had a perp, now they have nothing!!!!! And Harper is becoming frustrated; she has said she could identify him in a lineup, shows up at the precinct believing they collared the man, angry that they had to let him go. She is frightened; as she says, "Then he's still out there!"
We jump ahead six months. Olivia is going out on a date, and Cassidy is still nursing wounds over his thwarted affair with her. Suddenly, Captain Cragen calls her into the office, where it is revealed another victim has been attacked; a woman, named Jane Tyler. Same motive, same approach, right down to the words, "Is this how you like it?" Olivia is sure it is Harper's guy, but when she goes and talks to Jane, she discovers that, while Jane was raped, she was too scared to report it.
That leaves Harper, but she cannot be found. Her building super said she moved out soon after the incident, with no forwarding address. Her boyfriend, Ben, says they broke up a few months ago. She could not sleep, was becoming hyper vigilant, lost her job...and finally left. But he does provide them with an address, where they find a newly coiffed, hostile Harper, who orders them not to come there again!!!
But Jane's attack leads them to a potential new perp, a wealthy tax accountant named Kenneth Cleary. Not only does he fit the description Harper gave, he is as slick and sleazy as can be!!!! I love the scene where the Clearys come to the door--the sweet, clueless wife, and Kenneth holding his son in his arms!!!! Oh, brother!!!! Darlings, this is NOT "Father Knows Best!!!!"
What clinches Cleary is that Olivia notices his wife is wearing Harper's ring!!!!! They drag him in, and he gives them one song-and-dance story after another!!!! Finally, Olivia and Cassidy go to Harper's again. This scene is classic!!!
Harper lets them in, but she is just as hostile as before. Olivia says it is obvious she is not over this, but Harper asserts she is. That she did the counseling, the Yoga, the haircut, the candle lighting, and she is fine. But you can see she is NOT. Then, to make matters worse, while Harper is out of the room, Cassidy, talking to Olivia, refers to the perp as the guy who "did her." This is classic Harper, darlings, and why I love her!!! Hearing that, she confronts Cassidy--
"DID me???? DID me???? He RAPED me, you ass!!!!" Go, Harper!!! Just what I would have said.
Recognizing Harper's vulnerability, Olivia delivers a great speech about closure being a myth, how everyone changes a little each day, and nothing is EVER the same. It gets to Harper, and she agrees to come with them, and identify her attacker in a lineup!!!!
The group of men, Cleary included, are led into the room, and asked to say the words, "Is this how you like it?" They all do, with the camera focusing on Cleary. But Harper, with certainty, says he isn't there. Olivia, with a bluff face, says she has something to show her.
Another classic scene, darlings!!!! As they go to Olivia's desk, Harper says she is glad he wasn't there, that she was afraid of seeing him. Olivia takes something out of an envelope, and gives it to Harper. It is her family heirloom ring. Harper's armor cracks. She realizes the perp WAS in the room. She says she always thought she would recognize the man who did this to her. She thanks Olivia for the ring, then tearfully delivers the following-- "My mother died a long, slow death. And after that, I thought nothing bad could ever happen to me anymore." She embraces Olivia, sobbing, Olivia holds her, (you know I am sobbing, too, darlings!!!) and the scene and episode ends on a blackout!!!!
Wow!!!! What a script, and what performances, especially Tracy Pollan as Harper!!! She is brilliant in the role, deserved every accolade for it, and serves as an inspiration to all of us.
I have the Harper episodes on DVD, (She comes back to the show, in an episode called "Closure, Part 2," which I will report on another time!!!!) and let me tell you, over time, Harper's inspirational story has gotten me through some rough times. In fact, something quasi-Harper just happened to me the other night.
It was this past Friday, which just happened to have been my birthday. Monsieur and I were walking back to his place, along Bleecker Street, just past the record shop, coming to Christopher. Two guys were walking in our direction, and as they approached, I could see that one of them particularly, had a very hostile look on his face. Monsieur clearly said to me, "I hope nothing is going to happen to us," and as soon as he said that my left hand went to the keys in my pocket. We got real close to the guys, when they, to our relief, sidestepped us, and continued on their way, as we did ours. We were tremendously relieved, but, I am telling you, darling, if, at that moment of passing, there had been so much as a hand movement, I would have taken the keys out, and, in true Harper fashion, gouged, scratched, bit--whatever it would take to defend us from an attack. Which goes to show how even in
places where one feels safe, the unexpected lurks. Fortunately nothing happened to us. And I thank God for that!!!!!
Just like I thank the airing of the Harper episode yesterday, and thank Tracy Pollan for her brilliant, memorable performance. If you have not seen it, girls, you must!!!! Harper takes action, and shows us all how to do it!!!!!
May you all be spared her experience, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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