Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Sunk Cost Fallacy (2018)

Mariska Hargitay: Lieutenant Olivia Benson

Photos 

Quotes 

• Olivia Benson : You can't break the law, Alex.

  Alexandra Cabot : Why the hell not?

  Olivia Benson : Because it makes you a criminal, that's why.

• Alexandra Cabot : Betty Bluestone. It was a case I had about five years ago. Her husband, Mitch, used her face like a leg of lamb in a "Rocky" movie. I filed charges, and Betty fell apart on the stand.

  Olivia Benson : Case dismissed?

  Alexandra Cabot : So the happy couple goes home, and he blows her brains out on the bathroom tile. I did my job, and in the end, all I did for Betty was delay the inevitable.

  Olivia Benson : So you decided to take matters into your own hands.

  Alexandra Cabot : So I started volunteering at a women's shelter, and it grew from there.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : How many women have you disappeared?

  Alexandra Cabot : Hundreds. It's not just me. You wouldn't believe how deep and far this network goes.

  Olivia Benson : Alex, this is cruel. These women, their... their families, their friends think that they've been murdered.

  Alexandra Cabot : No, no, every case is different. In Jules' case, death was the only way Nick Hunter was ever gonna let her leave.

• Alexandra Cabot : You could have lied, Liv!

  Olivia Benson : No, I couldn't have. I was under oath.

  Alexandra Cabot : And what? You thought God would smite you? It is a fiction, Olivia. This entire "tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth" is a load of crap that we tell people so that they think the criminal justice system gives a damn about them. Who did what, who did what to whom...

  Olivia Benson : What happened to you?

  Alexandra Cabot : I opened my eyes. I opened them wide, and I saw that for 12 years, I was a cog in a holier-than-thou wheel, and the wheel just keeps spinning and tossing off bodies as it goes. Some remain standing, some fall. Nobody cares. Nobody gives a damn, as long as the wheel keeps turning.

• Amanda Rollins : This could be something. TARU traced the pings of Hunter's cell phone. He was at the Blue Hill Coutry Club at Pearl River the night before Ruby and Jules disappeared. That's- that's forty minutes north of the Upper West Side.

  Olivia Benson : Well, people do play golf, Amanda.

  Amanda Rollins : After midnight?

• Olivia Benson : I thought you moved to Florida, like the rest of the retired ADAs.

  Alexandra Cabot : Florida makes my hair frizzy.

  Olivia Benson : Yeah, well, who wants a kidnapper with frizzy hair?

  Alexandra Cabot : No one's being kidnapped. I only help people who want to be helped.

  Olivia Benson : Yeah, like Jules and Ruby Hunter? Ruby is four years old, Alex. At the very minimum, you're an accomplice to kidnapping.

  Alexandra Cabot : I'm helping them start an extended vacation.

  Olivia Benson : You faked their deaths. You planted evidence.

  Alexandra Cabot : Technically, the cops misread the facts.

  Olivia Benson : Don't play games with me, Alex, please.

  Alexandra Cabot : They were abused. I do what I have to do.

  Olivia Benson : Jesus. Alex, Nick Hunter is sitting at Rikers, charged with murdering his wife and his daughter.

  Alexandra Cabot : It's not like he doesn't deserve it.

  Olivia Benson : How many husbands are are sitting in prison because you decided to take the law into your own hands?

• Olivia Benson : [to Cabot]  You know, today, on the I was on the subway platform, and I saw these two cockroaches, and they were pulling at different ends of a crust of bread. And then the bread tore, and it fell onto the tracks, and and neither bug got their dinner.

  Alexandra Cabot : Are you proposing we work together?

  Olivia Benson : I could never do what you do, Alex.

• Olivia Benson : [on a stakeout, her phone rings]  Hey. Well, I can't say that I'm upset. Yeah. Thank you.

  [hanging up] 

  Olivia Benson : That was Rollins. Nick Hunter got roughed up last night at Rikers.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : We reap what we sow.

• Peter Stone : How's Carisi?

  Olivia Benson : He's a little wobbly, a lot guilty, but he'll survive 'em both.

  Peter Stone : Any luck connecting Nick Hunter to the accident?

  Olivia Benson : At the time of the collision, uh, Nick Hunter was at a cafe on the Upper West Side with a co-worker.

  Peter Stone : His next mistress.

  Olivia Benson : Yeah. It's all on the restaurant video, so we're checking phone records, e-mails, financials, but I'm not hopeful. This guy might actually get away with it.

  Peter Stone : And receive a lovely parting gift of $50 million. Well, the good news, the civil courts aren't what you'd call quick, and the city's attorneys know how to delay. Still sucks. I know.

  Olivia Benson : Every second that this guy's not in prison...

  Peter Stone : Yeah, well, tomorrow, you and I will get up, brush our teeth, comb our hair, and go after another bad guy.

  Olivia Benson : Makes you want to oversleep.

• Peter Stone : Look, I don't know if it means anything, but I didn't envy your decision about bringing Jules Hunter back.

  Olivia Benson : Well, I... I did what I needed to do. It's easier if you take yourself out of the equation. You know? Your sense of justice, morality, superego, whatever you want to call it.

• Amanda Rollins : [after a car crash]  I called in the plates. Vehicle was stolen two days ago from Short Hills.

  Olivia Benson : [seeing Jules dead]  Oh, dear god. He's responsible.

  Amanda Rollins : Nick Hunter?

  Amanda Rollins : Can you think of a better way to get sole custody of your daughter?

• Jules Hunter : I just needed him to believe I was dead. I don't want him to go to jail.

  Olivia Benson : But he hurt you.

  Jules Hunter : Yes, but then he'd apologize.

  Olivia Benson : And swear that he'd never do it again.

  Alexandra Cabot : Tell her about dinner at the Four Seasons.

  Jules Hunter : Um, it was my birthday. We had the Chateaubriand for two and a fancy bottle of Margaux. He was so sweet.

  Alexandra Cabot : Until...

  Jules Hunter : While we were waiting for dessert, I went to the ladies' room. Uh, when I got back to the table, I realized I forgot my purse, so I went back to get it. Nicholas thought I went back to flirt with the waiter. We skipped dessert. When we were outside, he... slammed me against the hood of the car.

  Alexandra Cabot : She got a concussion.

  Olivia Benson : Okay, did you go to the hospital?

  Ruby Hunter : [entering]  Mommy, I wanna go home.

  Jules Hunter : Mommy's talking. Go watch TV.

  [Ruby leaves] 

  Jules Hunter : I went to St. Vincent's.

  Alexandra Cabot : She told them that she hit her head while she was cleaning her kitchen cabinets.

  Jules Hunter : Once, I brought up divorce, but Nick threw a glass at me.

• Dominick Carisi Jr. : Not a pretty sight.

  Olivia Benson : Yeah, well, family court never is.

• Olivia Benson : That the contractor?

  Amanda Rollins : Yeah, Jorge Garcia. He has two DUIs and an assault collar.

  Olivia Benson : Okay. Doesn't make him a kidnapper.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : Or worse.

  Amanda Rollins : I'm not done. One of the neighbors, Mrs. Rhonda Persky, says she saw Jorge and Jules arguing outside their apartment the day before yesterday, and apparently, it got pretty heated.

  Olivia Benson : Talk to him.

• Alexandra Cabot : [about Jules Hunter]  We never should've brought her back!

  Olivia Benson : For God's sake, Alex, I followed the law.

  Alexandra Cabot : And it got her killed!

  Olivia Benson : You cannot be serious.

  Alexandra Cabot : That man belonged in prison.

  Olivia Benson : This is America, Alex. You can't lock someone up without proof.