Branded - Recap

A mom arrives home with her two kids. She reminds them that it's family
night, and they start grousing about not wanting to watch that stupid
show dad likes, where stars do the tango. The kids go to put their stuff
away, and she finds her husband stripped and bound behind the dining
room table. She calls the cops. Fin fills in Ell & Liv on the specifics.
There's no sign of a forced entry, so either he let them in, or they had
a key.

They question the victim. Last thing he remembers, he was setting up the
board game for family night. He asks if his kids are going to be okay,
and Elliot tells him he needs to tell them what really happened. For
starters, what's he trying to hide on his chest? He's been branded with
a coat hanger, it says "ruiner" on his chest. His pulse starts dropping
and the medics move in to transport him.

When they swing by the hospital to check on him the next day, his doctor
tells Ell & Liv that Mr. Dixon slept reasonably well last night, all
things considered. He has two broken ribs and numerous contusions. She
says he's lucky that the branding only involves second-degree burns. He
was knocked out by a veterinary tranquilizer. He was drugged from
behind, and violated. Several unusual objects were found in his rectum.
Liv asks if that's as opposed to the usual ones? The doctor says she's
seen all manner of things that people claimed they slipped and fell on,
but it was never three dice and a little timer.

Elliot talks to Bill Dixon, while Olivia talks to his wife, Joyce. They
both say he's not cheating, they have a great relationship. Elliot tells
Bill that somebody went to an awful lot of trouble to cause him a fair
amount of pain; who could have a grudge. He says it may have been Josh
Rothenberg. Liv asks Joyce who that is. He's the president of the
Crooked Pond Greenbelt Association. Rothenberg and his enviro-nazi
friends tried to stop Bill from making snakeskin belts. They wrote him a
threatening letter. He said that Bill was going to pay for destroying
the environment; that Bill ruined everything he touched. Liv asks if he
has access to their building, and Joyce says she assumes so, since said
letter was taped to the door of their apartment.

Ell and Liv talk to Josh Rothenberg, who is enraged at the cruelty we
inflict on animals. He holds up a trap to make his point, and Ell notes
that it looks like a coat hanger. Liv asks him where he was last night,
but he was at a lecture. Elliot ends the call and the interview, because
Fin was on the line telling him how the perp got in at Dixons.

The building super said the box was delivered at 5:32 last night. When
the super went to open it, it was empty. The actual package was
delivered later that morning. Whoever had himself shipped to the Dixon
building was a brilliant hacker. He hacked the delivery company's
computer system and then had a trojan horse running around the world to
cover his tracks. The nearest IP address doesn't even have Wi-Fi.

They're going to take another crack at Dixon, but that will have to
wait. Another man has been through an identical attack. This time, the
word "Traitor" is branded on his chest, and a candle was inserted. His
name is Victor Ramos. He's a widower, with two daughters. He is now
dating a woman from church, and he's never betrayed anyone. Stabler
shows him a picture of Dixon, and he says he doesn't know him.

Huang is watching, and says that his anguish is genuine. Liv asks if
he's lying about anything, and he says he's not a lie detector, and asks
if there is any connection between him and Bill Dixon. The answer is no.
Liv says whoever did this, targeted them. Huang said they're assuming
that the perpetrator isn't delusional. Liv doesn't believe this is a
coincidence. Huang thinks that they won't cop to knowing each other if
the perpetrator was paying them back for victimizing him. They're going
to need to be under surveillance to see if they attempt to contact each
other. Since they both know Liv and Ell, Fin is going to be on their
tails. He didn't have to wait long. Ramos went straight to Gammon
Imports. Bill Dixon was already there, having a heated verbal
altercation with another man. Fin takes a video for posterity, and
reports in.

cragen, Fin, Benson and Stabler watch the video. When asked, Fin says
that the third man is the importer, Alexander Gammon. Nobody can read
lips, but judging by body language, Stabler says he'd swear Dixon is
telling Gammon "You're next." Cragen says they need to find out why
Gammon was in a screaming match with the victims.

When Olivia and Elliot question Gammon, he promptly says he has no idea
who those two men are. Liv shows him the video, and he immediately
reverses course. He says they were having a business discussion. He
refuses to say about what, but even when he does spill, it sounds fake.
He gets high-end belts from Dixon, gives them to clients for Christmas
gifts. Victor speaks Spanish and does accounting work on as "as-needed"
basis for the office in Puerto Rico. Liv doesn't buy it, but he says
that's all it is. He's known the men for ten years. Elliot tells him
that they were sodomized and branded, and he'd appear to be the only
connection between the two men. He'd hate to see Gammon be next. Gammon
shows his gun and says he has a permit. If anybody comes after him, it's
at their own risk.

As Benson and Stabler are exiting the building, they see the same
package being delivered that carried the perpetrator into the Dixon
residence. They watch the security camera for hours, and see the
perpetrator leave the box and enter Gammon's apartment, syringe raised.
Elliot is in the chair, pretending to be Gammon, and Olivia approaches
from behind. The perpetrator is a woman, the one who helped them track
packages at Transfertogo, Camille. They arrest her for sodomy and
assault with a deadly weapon. She refuses to speak. As long as she's not
talking, Liv reads her her rap sheet. Her mom died when she was five,
her dad went to Bellevue when she was a teen for schizophrenia. She's
been in numerous foster homes.

At 16 she took a state-administered IQ test and scored in the
"exceptional" range. Her psychiatrist filed a report which stated that
"Camille Walters' prodigious intellect is matched only by her aggressive
hatred of authority figures." Liv asks her who she is and she says "I'm
nobody. Who are you? Are you nobody, too?"

Elliot brings all three men to see Camille. Bill says she couldn't have
done it, but Victor thinks anything's possible. Alexander remains cocky
and arrogant. He says that Camille is loony tunes, that's her motive.
Bill seconds the thought that she's mentally ill. Elliot asks if that's
their story and they're sticking to it. Gammon asks if that's how it
works; you can't make a case, so you harass the victims? The men walk
out, and Cragen walks in. There's nothing to connect the men to Camille,
but she's guilty of several felonies.

ADA Jillian Hardwicke tells them she can't prosecute this case. Cragen
makes the introductions, and Elliot asks what she means. She says
there's not enough evidence. Jill has a 92% conviction rate, and she's a
big fan of Elliot's unit. That last line obviously came out wrong.
Cragen tells her this should be an open-and-shut case, but she
disagrees. Because Camille is a hacker, she has made herself appear to
be shopping (timestamps and all) at the time of the crimes. Liv feels
Camille is the real victim here, but until they find the link between
the four of them, she can't prove it.

They went back ten years, but that obviously wasn't far enough. A
catalyst must have brought the trauma back to the surface, and that's
why she waited until now to attack. They get a warrant and search
Camille's apartment for the marker that Huang said would point to the
trauma. Liv checks under the couch cushions and finds a sheaf of papers
and photos. One is from summer camp, and a girl's face is erased. Top
left looks like Alexander Gammon. They visit the camp, and a Mrs. Holmes
says that he was a counselor in 1996. She looks at the pictures and says
that Bill Dixon was a lifeguard, and Victor worked in the kitchen. She
remembered Camille, said she was a sweetheart from a very rough
background. She becomes defensive when told that Camille may have been
attacked or assaulted at the camp, but when Eli asks her to think back,
she remembers a morning when she found Camille dazed on the dock. She
remembers asking Camille if she was okay, and she remembered her answer,
because it rhymed. It was the same thing she said to Liv. "I'm nobody.
Who are you? Are you nobody, too?"

Liv goes to talk to Camille about camp, and what happened in 1996. She
refuses to talk, but Liv gently prods her, and she finally opens up. It
was after 4th of July fireworks. She was walking back to her cabin, and
she saw Alexander. He told her a bunch of people were going to go into
the woods and drink and play games. Victor and Bill were there, too.
They were already drunk. When they led her into the woods, she asked
where everyone else was. They laughed and said it was a private party.
She breaks down, and the continues. Alexander and Bill held her down.
Victor tried to get them to stop. Alexander ripped off her shorts and
raped her. And then Bill - and she was bleeding ... Liv murmurs "He
ruined you", and Camille nods. She goes on to say that Victor didn't
want to but Alexander pushed him and said he was a punk if he didn't get
a little. Liv interjects "Making him a traitor" and Camille nods
agreement. When they were done, Alexander told her that if she told
anyone, he'd deny it. And who'd believe the word of a nobody anyway. She
branded them, and she wishes she would have branded Alexander. She was
going to put "Hell" on his chest, because that's where she was going to
send him.

Liv asks why she waited so long and she tells her that she was in
Central Park South and she heard a girl laugh and it sounded exactly
like herself, when she used to laugh. Her daughter. They got her
pregnant. She couldn't bear to keep her, knowing one of them was the
father. She gave her up the day after she was born.

Jill blocks Liv every time she opens her mouth. Statute of limitations,
Camille could be lying, adoption records are sealed. Ell asks why they
don't collar the men for obstruction. They did lie about knowing each
other. Jill says any jury would toss that out. She's going to prosecute
Camille even though she has irrefutable evidence that she was raped.
Jill says she has no choice; they gave her Camille's confession on tape.
Liv asks her if keeping up her percentage is what's going on here.

Liv is on the stand at Camille's trial. The judge has removed portions
of the confession which she has deemed irrelevant to the case. The judge
says Liv will get a contempt citation if she continues talking. Her
comment about the jury not getting the whole story is to be stricken.

Bill Dixon testifies that he did not, neither at camp, nor anytime
since, have any intimate contact with Camille. He said because she was
only 14. Jill asked why he thought Camille branded him, and he said
because she's insane.

When Alexander testifies, he says his impression of Camille was moody,
prone to lying, sexually provocative. He caught her skinny-dipping in
the lake several times with a number of boys. Camille calls him a liar,
and the judge order her attorney to calm her down. He claims she had a
schoolgirl crush on him, and he let her down gently. Jill questions why,
since he let her down gently, would she attempt to brand him as well?
Alexander says he's not a shrink, but her father was a whack job, had to
be locked up in Bellevue - Camille interrupts him by yelling "SON OF A
BITCH!" The judge called for order and instructed the jury to ignore
Miss Walters comments. 15 minute recess so Camille can get a grip.

Outside the courthouse, Elliot confronts Victor Ramos. He has daughters.
One of them is the same age Camille was back then.

Victor takes the stand. He says that Camille had a crush on Alexander
all summer. Camille has another outburst. "I heard her; she was
laughing! I took a picture." Jill has a concerned look on her face.

Liv confronts Jill, and she continues with her hard-assed routine. She
gives Liv a folder to deliver as long as she's storming off, with a mock
warning not to look inside. Liv does, of course.

Defense calls Hannah Milner to the stand. When she walks in, Camille
whispers "It's her." She takes the stand. She points out her adoptive
parents, and her biological parents. she had DNA tests that prove that
Camille is her mother, and Victor Ramos is her father. Victor admits
that is his daughter, and also says that Alexander Gammon has been
paying them off for years. As Victor is being wrestled from the
courtroom, he's yelling the whole time. "There's other women, he raped
other women, he paid them off ..."

Elliot tells Gammon that Bill Dixon and Victor Ramos are going to do
some time for perjury, but he is going to be going away for a very long
time. Gammon asks how they did the blood test. Ell tells him it was from
his coffee cup, and Bill and Victor's hospital tests. He shows Gammon
two women that he raped and paid off. The statute of limitations has not
run out on them. He's going to jail.

Camille is only going to be sentenced on two minor counts of trespass.
And somebody wants to say hi to her. It's Hannah. She just wanted to say
good luck in court. They hug, and both cry.

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