Emmy winner Bradley Whitford makes his return to Law and Order: SVU in a very different role in Law and Order SVU Season 24 Episode 15 airing on February 23. This is Hargitay’s sixth time directing an episode of the drama in which she has starred since the show’s inception. In the episode titled “King of the Moon”, Whitford plays the role of Pence Humphreys, a dementia-stricken man who admits to killing his beloved wife (Nancy Travis), but both Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and ADA Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino) are convinced that there is more to the story. Are you sure about that? Or did he end up murdering his wife? “He simply believes that he did it,” she explains. Later on, when he tells Benson, “I don’t want to stay here without her,” she is seen comforting him and reassuring him that everything would be okay. In another part of the episode, Sergeant Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (played by Ice-T) puts pressure on Detective Joe Velasco (played by Octavia Pisano) to reveal the truth while suspicions are circulating around the squad room. Read on at tvacute.com for a comprehensive recap of what happened in Law and Order SVU Season 24 Episode 15 to find out everything you need to know.
Law and Order SVU Season 24 Episode 15 Recap
The episode opens on a private school’s spelling bee when a young man spells a word correctly and becomes the school’s new champion. His rival donated it to him when she could have won. That she read his story and found it enjoyable is an understatement. Here we are, many years later, and the couple is getting married and settling down together. Indeed, Pence is here too. To rewind to 2003, she warns him that he would be late to the ceremony where Rockefeller University will award him the Lewis Thomas prize if he does not act quickly. In his words, “I almost forgot.” Now we’re in 2015, and Pence is going to have an MRI. 2023 The Vice President is taking his medication. He is sound asleep later that night when he hears something. He awakens, calls for Winnie, and is reassured to return to his slumber by her voice. As he accuses her of cheating, she tells him not to be so dumb because he is her king. And she gently puts him back to sleep. Pence is standing there calmly in broad daylight while Winnie lies lifeless on the floor, surrounded by police; Pence claims responsibility for the murder. He had sex with her, and then he murdered her. As Benson and Fin discuss the Velasco incident, he urges Fin to give him and the white shield a chance to sort things out.
It’s interrogation time, and Velasco and Churlish have been ordered to sit down. As Carisi visits Benson, he gives her a portrait of Pence, who suffers from dementia. To prevent his condition from worsening, he records a video in which he admits to having raped and smothered his beloved wife. According to Carisi, something doesn’t seem quite right here. It’s absurd that, according to Carisi, Pence and his wife shared a 40-year “fairytale” marriage. He understands that she is quite busy, but he would still like her opinion. Velasco is currently listening to a clip of him saying, “I grew up just look, I saw a lot of people get murdered. A gun was forced into my hand by my superior, and I shot and killed the offending individual. The shock was written all over his face, and Velasco looks to Churlish. Velasco claims he made up the entire incident while joking around with a criminal. Every minute of the recording is like one more for Velasco, making his grave that much deeper. While Fin waits for Velasco to finish his urine sample, he reminds him that if he has anything to say, now is the moment.
Pence and Benson are together, and Pence asks Benson what happened. He claims that smothering his wife was part of a premeditated exit strategy; he and his wife had wished to go their own ways with honor. He took her life but decided not to take his own. Benson informs Carisi that Pence is the epitome of an unreliable witness since Pence is more interested in a statue of a chipmunk that is in the room. Fin is interrogating Velasco, and he reveals that he wants to know how Velasco learned so much about a father and son who were murdered in Fort Worth. Because, as Velasco puts it, he was present. Carisi has a warrant and is currently searching Pence’s apartment with Benson. Pence used a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device. Homicide reported the murder occurred at 11 p.m., although the machine indicated Pence was awake for only 1 minute and 23 seconds at 10:00 p.m. This is not enough time for him to rape, suffocate, and kill his wife. Returning to the boardroom with Pence, Benson expresses his regret that it wasn’t he who murdered his wife out of fear for her safety. Pence becomes so enraged that he slashes his wrist and breaks a glass dome in the boardroom, telling Benson he doesn’t want to be there and that he misses Winnie.
While Virginia stays with Pence in the hospital, she eventually leaves him to return home to her own family. The two of them, Benson and Carisi, are present; he says he would welcome them to meal if he didn’t think it would spoil the surprise for Winnie. In a fit of rage, Velasco informs Fin that he was only a youngster when the dad and his son were murdered. Deliveries were his first job out of college. They offered him $180 a week to become a security officer and send him to school. In reality, the place he was transported to was training grounds for assassins. He was prepared for the hit by receiving weaponry instruction and being dispatched to Fort Worth, but he ultimately decided to back out at the last minute.
After his companion carried out the hit, he fled to New York. Benson examines the surveillance footage of Pence’s office to track visitors. They received a confession from Pence, so the food delivery guy who took half an hour to deliver the meal and walked in the elevator was never questioned. Pence is having a wonderful day since he knows the delivery man in the video as Kevin, Virginia’s nephew. Benson is informed by Carisi that Kevin’s DNA was not found on the rape kit. And Benson knows Pence is lying because Pence can’t identify him. He committed the crime because he craves incarceration and cannot bear the thought of a small child being housed behind bars. Benson wonders if that’s something Winnie would want and if it’s fair to her. He claims to be lenient, and if anyone knows, it’s Winnie. Benson and Carisi have joined Kevin and his attorney in a room. Winnie’s jewelry was discovered in the apartment of one of his lovers. Kevin claims that killing her was not his intention. He broke into his aunt’s purse in search of cash. As soon as he entered the flat, Winnie awoke, and he placed a pillow over her face, she passed away. Someone covered Winnie up so she wouldn’t be embarrassed. Kevin says he used a condom when he raped her before she died. Benson is ready to hear the truth, Fin assures her, just as he heard it from Velasco. Benson runs into Velasco the following day; the latter’s drug test came back high for icing sugar. Even if they were drug traffickers, she says, he owes the two victims’ families. He must take responsibility for those killings and arrest his pal. That’s what it’ll take for him and Benson to feel safe again.
The episode concludes on a sweet note, as Pence pays a visit to Benson at his house and reads him “King of the Moon” before bed. Pence revisits his childhood fantasy in which he is once again the single king of the moon and is gazing up at the sky. Soon enough, he returns to Earth in search of love and meets his queen, Winnie, in the same classroom they shared as kids. After finishing the touching story, Pence is brought back to reality as he remembers the two of them holding hands on the last page.
