Two very different drunks wonderfully portrayed on Law & Order: SVU, “Hammered”
“Law & Order: SVU Hammered”
Rarely does the small screen accurately portray alcoholism and even less frequently, if ever, does it do so in one show with two very different strains. The episode of “Law & Order: SVU” entitled “Hammered” does so, and does it well.
IMDB.com summarizes the plot: “An alcoholic who fell off the wagon is charged in the brutal rape and murder of an abortion doctor. His defense argues that alcoholism is a disease, but why is ADA Paxton so bitterly opposed to the claim?”
ADA Sonya Paxton, played by Christine Lahti, is bitterly opposed because (warning: spoiler alert!) she turns out to be an alcoholic, although one with a dramatically different style.
Dalton Rindell, played by Scott Foley, wakes up naked with blood all over. He has no idea how a dead girl, who has been bludgeoned to death, got into his room. Nor does he recall how he got there, providing clue # 1 for the addiction-aware.
He calls the police and explains that a man must have killed someone in his room. “Do whatever you have to do,” including DNA swabs. He’s cooperative throughout, which takes the suspicion off of him. He’s got a splitting headache, is dehydrated and is given an I.V. at the hospital, but it still doesn’t hit him that he might have had something to do with the brutal murder. Detectives are led further astray because the victim, Audrey Hale, turns out to have been an abortion doctor, providing a motive for someone other than Rindell, who is a businessman trying to raise money from prior investors to save a development from failing.
Twenty-three minutes into the episode, after a girlfriend of Audrey’s tells the detectives that Audrey and Rindell were at a bar, Rindell is arrested. He protests that he hasn’t “been into a bar in over a year,” having gotten sober one year three months and eight days ago. Finally, the addiction-aware all but confirm their suspicions—Rindell committed murder during an alcoholic black-out.
We soon learn that Rindell’s parents divorced when he was young and that his father was repeatedly reported for domestic violence against his mother, who died from liver cirrhosis. His is a family filled with alcoholics.
The second half of the episode, as is the norm for “L & O: SVU,” focuses on the trial. ADA Paxton is nasty and sarcastic, as she has been during the prior three episodes of “Law & Order: SVU.” Even in the first episode, identifying Paxton as an alcoholic was an easy call; the addictionologist in me asked only if and when the writers would bring her out of the closet. The writers, thankfully, came through in spades.
Aware observers can learn a lot about alcoholism in this one episode. Rindell’s ex-wife tells us that the real Rindell is the greatest guy you’d ever meet and that when sober he’d never hurt a fly. His partner convinced him that a little liquid courage would help with the sales pitch to the investors and, in classic unaware fashion says, “I only gave him one. What harm could that do?” Rindell explains, “Once I have one in me, I can’t stop.” Paxton responds, “What a load of crap. He just didn’t want to stop….Alcohol is a crutch for weak-willed and pathetic losers.” Captain Donald Cragen (Dann Florek) tells Paxton he’s been in recovery for 20 years and struggles with it every day.
When Rindell finally admits that he “had a history of blackouts,” Paxton refers to alcoholism as “voodoo” science, pointing out that it cannot be used as an excuse. While, true, an expert witness explains that “addiction is a neurobiological disease. A brain disease.” Once Rindell begins drinking he loses volition. Paxton mocks this, pointing out that “alcoholics stop drinking all the time, out of sheer willpower alone. Do you know how they can do that? Because alcoholism isn’t a disease.”
When Paxton shows an animated version of the murder in which Rindell’s face is mistakenly superimposed, the judge sends the jury home. Paxton goes to a bar to work on her strategy, hoping to prevent the judge from throwing the entire case out. Detectives Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) find her in the bar, where she tells the bartender her friends need a drink. (At this point, while not clear, the two detectives are probably beginning to suspect something.) The next morning, Paxton shows up to court 45 minutes late, dazed and confused after a fender-bender on the way in. Rindell looks at her and exclaims in court, “She’s drunk! Trust me, I would know.” Paxton sneers back at him, “How would you know you tiny little man.” The judge orders Benson to the courtroom with a breathalyzer. Thinking it’s for Rindell, she is shocked when told it’s for Paxton. In response to the judge’s query about Paxton’s drinking the night before, Benson says she saw her consume two drinks. However, Benson points to Paxton’s bloodshot and watery eyes and stench of booze. “I thought you were my friend. Don’t do this to me,” Paxton pleads. “You did this to yourself.” When the breathalyzer shows her legally sober, Paxton says what shows is “residual from last night.” Although the end result is barely legally drunk at a tad over .08 per cent, the writers miss an opportunity to point out that eight hours earlier she would have tested at .20 per cent, the equivalent of over ten drinks over the course of four hours for a 140-pound person.
Several comments are made over the course of the hour-long show suggesting that the writers do not completely get alcoholism, even if overall they did a great job. Benson says pressure must have made Paxton drink, which would have been easy for the writers to refute (if pressure could make people drink alcoholically, all of the cops and detectives would be alcoholics). About 45 minutes into the episode, Benson says she doesn’t think that alcoholism is a disease. Sergeant John Munch (Richard Belzer) says he thinks that Benson’s mother, who was murdered, started drinking because she was raped. The writers could have easily shown the contradiction between their portrayal of Paxton and Rindell and such incorrect beliefs, but didn’t.
The defects are more than compensated for, however, in the portrayal of Rindell as a wonderful person who could turn into a monster when drinking, a perfect explanation of a blackout (knowing exactly what he was doing during the murder, but the memory never formed), and in the portrayal of Paxton’s alcoholism (Lahti did a great job). Although a bit of poetic license, the show ends on a positive note, with Paxton promising to make amends as she heads off to court-ordered rehab (the likelihood of such immediate self-admission is remote).