Photo: Michael Parmelee / NBC
Island Getaway
Remember in the last season finale, that psycho Lewis attacked Benson? Well, in the premiere, he continues attacking her, all over Long Island.
Previously, there was a cliffhanger.
We pick back up with William Lewis (Pablo Schreiber), who's home-invaded Liv (Mariska Hargitay), beaten her, duct-taped her mouth, and made a lot of threats. He goes on to steal a car; trick his lawyer (Lauren Ambrose) into taking him back to his parents' house on Long Island; killed her father; raped and beaten her mother; stolen a couple more cars; and handcuffed Liv to a bed, promising that he's about to wind up his torture when the home owner's cleaner comes by to clean...with her five-year-old daughter.
"One day, [my dad] got wasted. He passed out, right? She comes out of the room. She asks me if I want to play. She puts me in her mouth. God, it felt good. Then my daddy came out, he slaps her in the face. She's bleeding from her nose and mouth. He grabs her, pulls her pants down, does her on the floor...." "Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" "It was one of the best days of my life."
Once Liv has freed herself by breaking one of the slats on the bed frame, counterattacking Lewis and getting his gun (and sent away the witnesses with warnings that because they're undocumented, they shouldn't talk to the police about any of this), Liv cuffs Lewis to the bed and, while he's still unconscious, muses about what might happen under other circumstances. "I want to shoot you in the head right now. Watch you bleed out. Maybe that's too easy. My old partner, he'd know what to do. He wouldn't question himself, after what you've done. He would kick your teeth in. Break your legs, break your arms, break your back, break your face. Maybe I should get him." Then Lewis comes to and basically Palpatines her into ignoring her training (and the law) and beating him most of the way to death with the slat she broke -- while he's still cuffed to the bed, which seems like something that might turn into a problem for her if Lewis doesn't die of his injuries in the hospital, because we also see her lie to an investigator about his having tried to escape and lunged at her.
Cragen (Dann Florek) seems to feel guilty that this all happened when he'd sent Liv home on two days' leave and then didn't check on her at all.
When Lewis suggests that Liv is still hung up on her old partner, she doesn't really deny it. Like The Newsroom's Maggie before her, Liv cuts off her own hair in a fit of rage and horror, except Liv's hair ends up looking almost exactly like her Season 1 hair, HMMMMMMM. Liv is seeing a new therapist, Dr. Lindstrom (Bill Irwin!), to whom she seems to have told the real story of how her captivity came to an end, and that Lewis "got to [her]." Amaro (Danny Pino) doesn't drink coffee.