Among many things, “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” is known for getting top-tier guest stars to go toe to toe with Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson. In 2012, Sevigny fulfilled her actor’s rite of passage by guest-starring on “L&O:SVU”. She stars in Season 13 Episode 18 titled “Valentine’s Day.” And boy, she is quite the manipulative mastermind.
She plays Christine Hartwell, a woman who is sexually assaulted and kidnapped from her home while video chatting with her husband, Boyd (via All Things Law and Order). Helplessly witnessing this attack, Boyd calls his mother so she can call the police. Benson and Amaro meet up with a panicked Boyd at the airport, who is on the phone with Christine. She is telling him where to deliver the ransom money and begging him not to call the cops. The SVU squad, knowing how to handle a hostage situation, go to the ransom drop only to find Christine picking up the backpack full of cash. After a trip to the hospital and a story of multiple Black men being her kidnappers, Christine’s story starts to fall apart.
Benson and Amaro discover that Christine has been having several affairs, one of them being with her husband’s business partner, Justin. They occasionally sneak off to his little den of sin. And this just happens to be where her kidnapper took her. Oh, it gets better. There was a motion activated bed camera that Christine knew nothing about. Caught the whole thing. And she looked like a very willing participant in the activities taking place.
