Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)
We Dream of Machine Elves (2019)
Kelli Giddish: Detective Amanda Rollins
Photos
Quotes
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Meghan Gale : Help me!
Amanda Rollins : Can you tell me your name?
Meghan Gale : Get the elves way from me, please.
Amanda Rollins : The elves? Elves?
Meghan Gale : The machine elves. They wanna take me back there.
Amanda Rollins : To where, honey?
Meghan Gale : To their world. They told me, if I stay here, I'm digging my own grave.
Amanda Rollins : [indicating the EMTs] Okay, you know what? These folks right here, they're good elves, and they're gonna help take care of you, I promise. You're gonna be okay, honey.
[to one of the EMTs as she leaves]
Amanda Rollins : I need a tox screen and a psych eval.
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Odafin Tutuola : She give you anything?
Amanda Rollins : She kept going on about machine elves.
Odafin Tutuola : She's tripping out.
Amanda Rollins : Yeah. Drugs or a psychotic break or both.
Katriona Tamin : [calling on the radio] Sergeant, I may have something.
Odafin Tutuola : On the way.
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Meghan Gale : Yeah, that's her. Anais.
Olivia Benson : Good, and... and she's the one who hailed the pedicab?
Meghan Gale : Yeah, she told him to take us to her place. There was an older man there. White beard, he was like a wizard. He was teaching.
Amanda Rollins : Teaching?
Meghan Gale : He said... "depression is the child of repression."
Olivia Benson : Okay, Meghan, are you getting tired?
Meghan Gale : No. No, no, no. I don't want to fall back asleep. What if I go back there? I don't want to go back to sleep.
Amanda Rollins : It's okay. It's okay. I'll... I'll stay with you.
Meghan Gale : Thank you.
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Freja Bergdahl : The trolls kept me in the dark. They held me down. They were inside me.
Amanda Rollins : Was anyone with the trolls?
Freja Bergdahl : A king. W-With a white beard. Like a John Bauer fairy tale. He ruled the house.
Olivia Benson : Tell me about the house. H-How did you get there?
Freja Bergdahl : It was bumpy.
Amanda Rollins : You were in a car?
Freja Bergdahl : Nej. A bicycle.
Olivia Benson : Okay. Good, Freja. Do you remember... you remember seeing anything else?
Freja Bergdahl : We went past a... a giant stone woman. And later, up a high stoop. Many stairs.
Amanda Rollins : Freja, you're an art student. All right, you think you can draw the... the woman and the trolls?
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Deputy Chief Christian Garland : Machine elves, Swedish trolls? So this girl was also drugged with DMT?
Olivia Benson : A huge dose, and ketamine.
Amanda Rollins : Both rape kits came back with semen from multiple donors. No hits.
Deputy Chief Christian Garland : No criminal records, not DNA savvy. Led by a wizard? A king?
Amanda Rollins : Yeah, who has unlimited access to DMT, tougher to get than cocaine and meth.
Olivia Benson : You know, shamans in South America use it to access a higher dimension.
Deputy Chief Christian Garland : So our wizard gets DMT through a religious group or medical research?
Olivia Benson : We're checking clinical trials to see if they've had any of the drugs stolen.
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Katriona Tamin : They tried to bury her alive.
Amanda Rollins : Or got her to do it. She mentioned digging her own grave.
Odafin Tutuola : What the hell did they do to this girl?
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Amanda Rollins : Freja remembered passing a huge stone woman. Maybe a hallucination.
Deputy Chief Christian Garland : Or not. What about the Bust of Sylvette? The Picasso statue.
Olivia Benson : By the I.M. Pei Towers. Okay, we'll start a canvass.
Deputy Chief Christian Garland : Why don't you put Freja in a car, drive her around, see what comes back?
Olivia Benson : Um, uh, she's... she's actually quite traumatized.
Deputy Chief Christian Garland : I won't tell you how to do your job, Captain.
Olivia Benson : Thank you.
Deputy Chief Christian Garland : But I know you'll be sensitive to her experience, and to our needs. We need a break.
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Meghan Gale : I saw a hawk above me. I tried to jump on its back and fly away... but my hands melted into the headboard.
Olivia Benson : So you were on a bed.
Meghan Gale : A woman brought me there. I thought she was helping me.
Amanda Rollins : How was she helping you?
Meghan Gale : She got us a chariot, without a horse.
Olivia Benson : What about the driver?
Meghan Gale : He sat on a leopard. He was nice. He gave me water.
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Olivia Benson : Machine elves?
Amanda Rollins : Yeah, I'm having 'em check for DMT. It's a common hallucinogen among users.
Olivia Benson : And a very powerful psychedelic. I... I haven't seen this in years.
Amanda Rollins : Well, she must have taken a massive dose for her to still be feeling symptoms.
Olivia Benson : So, do we know if she was assaulted?
Amanda Rollins : She's got ligature marks, she may be concussed. She's not lucid enough to consent to a rape kit.
Olivia Benson : Okay, well, the chief just called twice. So I need to figure out what we're looking at.
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Olivia Benson : [finding Adler's allegedly-deceased wife in a hospital psych ward] Adler did this to her.
Amanda Rollins : We don't know that.
Olivia Benson : I do. Hey, Rollins, I know that you have a blind spot for men that you think are smarter than you...
Amanda Rollins : No, I just want to ask him about his wife.
Olivia Benson : Can I... can I actually trust you with him?
Amanda Rollins : Who else is gonna get through? I mean, you, Fin, Carisi? Okay, he thinks... he thinks you're all so covered in armor that you'll never open up. No offense.
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Olivia Benson : Rollins, are you okay?
Amanda Rollins : Yeah, I didn't inhale.
Olivia Benson : Are you sure?
Anais Adler : Wait, you're a cop?
Katriona Tamin : Captain, everyone goes?
Olivia Benson : Everyone goes until we find out who's a vic and who's a perp.
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Olivia Benson : So, the brownstone here with the red door was bought 30 years ago by a foundation for radical therapy, and gifted to Julius Adler for his institute.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : He's the white-bearded wizard?
Amanda Rollins : Dr. Julius Adler, an esteemed professor of radical psychiatry at Tompkins Square, a prolific author, and...
Odafin Tutuola : And a freak. He uses psychedelics as a cure-all.
Amanda Rollins : In controlled, clinical studies.
Katriona Tamin : I ran the building. It's got nonprofit status. Seven complaints over the last year. Noise, kids partying, a cello being thrown out a third-story window.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : And both victims remember going into that brownstone? Can they ID him?
Olivia Benson : No, but Freja was clearly triggered. Now, she thinks she remembers the red door and the high stoop.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : She thinks. She also remembered trolls.
Katriona Tamin : There's reason to believe he has DMT and other psychedelics inside.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : But if he's running clinical trials, that may not be illegal.
Odafin Tutuola : Come on, Carisi, you can trust us.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : I do, Fin, but every time I go out on a limb for you guys, somebody saws it off. Look, it's an academic institute. I need some patina of probable cause.
Odafin Tutuola : Patina?
Katriona Tamin : That guy was really a cop?
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Dr. Julius Adler : So, where, uh did you go, Amanda?
Amanda Rollins : Excuse me?
Dr. Julius Adler : Well, I saw the light come on in your eyes, your soul leave its cage. You were on your journey. So I'm curious, where did you go?
Dominick Carisi Jr. : [watching with Benson] What the hell is he doing?
Olivia Benson : She's just letting him establish rapport.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Uh-huh. Who else did we pick up?
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Dr. Julius Adler : [led into an interrogation room] Oh. So by, uh, altering my external reality, you think I'll alter my responses. Is that it?
Amanda Rollins : I want to ask you about your wife.
Dr. Julius Adler : My wife? She's gone.
Amanda Rollins : Gone, but not dead.
Dr. Julius Adler : I'd ask you to, uh, leave my wife alone.
Amanda Rollins : Like you have?
Dr. Julius Adler : Okay, time... in this world, in this plane, has stopped for her. She's well taken care of, but the, uh, the kind of break that she suffered, there's... there's no return.
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Dr. Julius Adler : Kathleen battled demons her whole life. Her parents treated their dogs better than they treated her.
Amanda Rollins : How? 'Cause she was a-a well-regarded doctor...
Dr. Julius Adler : No, no. Not my fault. Her father raped her when she was a child. She completely dissociated from herself to survive. By the time she came to see me, she had already seen, and been failed by, a dozen therapists.
Amanda Rollins : So you were her doctor.
Dr. Julius Adler : Initially, yes, for a psych evaluation. After a suicide attempt.
Amanda Rollins : And you slept with her?
Dr. Julius Adler : Later. Yes, after I'd begun treating her.
Amanda Rollins : With the hallucinogens?
Dr. Julius Adler : And love. And positive sexual energy. She was so depersonalized, so de-realized, the only way to heal her wounds was to go back to their cause and reprogram her response.
Amanda Rollins : Re-enacting?
Dr. Julius Adler : Yes. And I can tell you, it did work for a time. We were happy. We conceived a child. But as Anais grew, Kathleen flooded with memories. The abuse had started earlier than she'd let herself remember. I did everything I could.
Amanda Rollins : But you lost her.
Dr. Julius Adler : Yes. And since then, I have... dedicated my life to saving other victims.
Amanda Rollins : That's... that's what I want to hear about.
Dr. Julius Adler : Oh, so many of them. It's more common than you realize. Freud knew it early on in his work. He-he... he saw how pervasive child sex assault was, but academia wouldn't even discuss incest. So he categorized their memories as childhood fantasy.
Amanda Rollins : The Oedipus complex.
Dr. Julius Adler : Yes. The original sin of psychotherapy.
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Amanda Rollins : There you are.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Hey, what's up?
Amanda Rollins : Um, I went and checked on Adler. He's been at Bellevue for the last three days and hasn't eaten, spoken, slept. He's completely unresponsive. And it's not a ruse.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Well, even so, I still plan on arraigning him and his disciples, including Anais. What they did to those women...
Amanda Rollins : I hear you. Just, can you give me 24 hours before you arraign Anais?
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah. Yeah, sure.
Amanda Rollins : Thanks.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Hey, Rollins, if you don't mind me asking. What's your deal with this guy?
Amanda Rollins : I wanted to hear his side of the story. I had no idea how far gone he was. There was a time that... I was lost and... thought he had the answers, I wanted to learn from him. I wanted to follow him.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, but you didn't. You were smart, Rollins.
Amanda Rollins : Hmm.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Hey. You dodged a bullet.
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Amanda Rollins : How is she? Can we talk to her?
Rudy Syndergaard : Uh, still having a lot of terror and anxiety. We gave her diazepam to calm her down, and we had to restrain her. We were afraid that she would hurt herself.
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Meghan Gale : It was dark. They held me down.
Olivia Benson : [taking her restraints off] Let's get these off her. Okay. Meghan, tell me about "they."
Meghan Gale : The machine elves. Before they came in, the room spun, and then flowers bursting. And all the eyes...
Amanda Rollins : The elves had eyes?
Meghan Gale : A hundred. Purple and yellow faces. Oh, and they crawled all over me, inside me.
Olivia Benson : Inside you how?
Meghan Gale : Like they were having sex with me. I tried to get away, to get to my friends.
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Deputy Chief Christian Garland : So, Adler's a false prophet. To paraphrase Joseph Campbell, the mystic swims in the same water in which the psychotic drowns.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Even so, his students still believe everything he feeds them.
Olivia Benson : And the daughter thinks he's a saint. The mother died when she was three, so he raised her.
Amanda Rollins : Something happened to Adler. Twenty years ago, he was one of the foremost authorities in liberation psychiatry.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Okay, well, whatever alternate reality he's in, this reality, he's guilty of either conspiracy to rape or sex trafficking.
Deputy Chief Christian Garland : I agree. Charge him with both.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : How? Who am I gonna put on the stand? Caleb? Meghan and her elves?
Deputy Chief Christian Garland : Charge Anais. Flip her.
Amanda Rollins : She won't turn on him. They're sutured.
Katriona Tamin : [on her phone] Or maybe that's just another alternate reality he's created. I found a marriage certificate. Adler married Kathleen Bell in '94, but no obituary, no death certificate.
Olivia Benson : Well, if she's not deceased... then where is she?
Deputy Chief Christian Garland : Find out.
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Amanda Rollins : Adler swears there were no assaults.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Yeah, no surprise there. What do the victims say?
Olivia Benson : Uh, victim. Freja went back to Stockholm. So, Meghan IDed Anais and Caleb, and she remembers Adler giving a lecture.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : But after that, machine elves. We got any DNA hits from the men?
Olivia Benson : Not yet, but they're in front of it.
Amanda Rollins : And they claim it was a mutual psychonautic sexual exploration.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Wh... translation, consensual?
Amanda Rollins : Yeah.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Okay, so this guy claims academic freedom, but the truth is, he's a puppet master who gets his acolytes to rape and torture girls.
Amanda Rollins : I don't think that's what this is.
Dominick Carisi Jr. : Oh, yeah? So Meghan wanted to dig her own grave, run around half-naked in a bed sheet?
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Amanda Rollins : We could take a run at Adler, see if he gives us anything.
Olivia Benson : That's a good idea. Kat, Fin, you're off to see the wizard.
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Amanda Rollins : Dr. Adler, come back. Stay with me.
Dr. Julius Adler : No, no, no, no. That... that is the last thing I will do. I will not sit there with you and eat green eggs and ham. I will not give a false confession. I will not be complicit in our society's bloodlust for scapegoats!
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Amanda Rollins : I heard Adler wasn't helpful.
Olivia Benson : Nope. But he did claim that so many students passed through the doors of his institute that he can't keep track of 'em.
Amanda Rollins : I, um, didn't want to get into it before, but back in Atlanta, when I was going through some stuff, I took some psych courses at Georgia State, and Adler was a guest professor. I'm telling you, this man... he's brilliant, empathically, a real healer. Whatever happened to those girls, I can't imagine how he'd be involved.
Olivia Benson : Rollins, I hear you. But you and I both know that that was a long time ago, and people change.
Amanda Rollins : They do. But it sounds like he still keeps an open door for his students. It couldn't hurt to make an approach.
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Doctor : Kathleen Bell Adler. Admitted in '97. She was a brilliant clinician until she was found naked in the middle of Harvard Square.
Olivia Benson : What was her diagnosis?
Doctor : Hallucinogenic-induced psychosis with underlying paranoid schizophrenia.
Amanda Rollins : Can she communicate?
Doctor : Intermittently. This week, she's been having agitated conversations with someone who's not there, about her daughter.
Olivia Benson : Her daughter doesn't know that her mother is even alive.
Doctor : Anais? Kathleen's worried about her.
Amanda Rollins : Does her husband, Dr. Adler, visit?
Doctor : No one's ever visited her.
Amanda Rollins : Ever?
Doctor : At least not since I've been on staff. That's going on 15 years now.
Amanda Rollins : What's her prognosis?
Doctor : After all this time here? No one re-integrates from that.
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Amanda Rollins : I'm a big admirer of yours.
Dr. Julius Adler : Oh.
Amanda Rollins : Amanda. I actually took a lecture class of yours years ago.
Dr. Julius Adler : Yeah, yes, in, uh... Atlanta, right?
Amanda Rollins : That's right.
Dr. Julius Adler : Yeah. Well, aren't you a fish out of water.
Amanda Rollins : I-I am. Guess you could say I was searching for a bigger pond.
Dr. Julius Adler : Hmm.
Amanda Rollins : Um, I'm finishing up my master's in liberation psychiatry, and all roads still lead to you.
Dr. Julius Adler : Oh, call me Rome.
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Dr. Julius Adler : These kids come from, uh, abusive homes, repressive schools. They arrive, uh, totally disconnected, unable to feel.
Amanda Rollins : I get all that, but how do you go from there to gang rape?
Dr. Julius Adler : Rape? This is... no, no. This is about cutting through their armor, freeing their libido. Look, I-I-I'm not angry at you, Amanda, for pretending to be interested in my work. That ruse was... that was your job. But did you actually read anything I wrote?
Amanda Rollins : Yeah, I read every single one of your books.
Dr. Julius Adler : Then why are you asking the wrong questions? What fear is blocking you from feeling what I know is inside you?
Amanda Rollins : Don't do that, Doctor, 'cause I am the only friend you have in here.
Dr. Julius Adler : Friend? I am offering you the chance to journey to dimensions you can't imagine, and your reaction is to play the "good cop" card? I am so disappointed.
Amanda Rollins : Hmm.
Dr. Julius Adler : Really. I would like to leave unless I'm being charged with a crime.
Amanda Rollins : Yes, actually. Possession, for now.
Dr. Julius Adler : Well, that won't stand. I have a government-approved grant for research into DMT. My institute is a de facto extension of the university. But if the great purge must proceed, then proceed it must.
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Anais Adler : Will she know who I am?
Doctor : She's been here 20 years. You can't expect too much.
Anais Adler : I didn't even know she was alive.
Amanda Rollins : The doctor understands.
Olivia Benson : And if-if... if you're not up for this, we can turn around right now.
Anais Adler : She's my mother.
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Amanda Rollins : So, these students aren't drugging and assaulting these women, it's... therapy.
Dr. Julius Adler : These young people are drawn to us. They-they have deep wounds. Now, by... by altering their perception of reality, while re-enacting their abuse, I am able to re-connect them with their true selves.
Amanda Rollins : True selves? Did that help the woman in-in Bellevue? Because she may never come back.
Dr. Julius Adler : Not my...
Amanda Rollins : Just like your wife, who may never...
Dr. Julius Adler : No, no! Not my fault! Not my fault! They are... they are broken. I-I try to save them. You know this, Kathleen.
Amanda Rollins : [taken aback] I...
Dr. Julius Adler : Okay, all right, they have sent you to silence me.
Amanda Rollins : That's not what's going on here, Doctor. You... you were brilliant. And look what's happened to your mind.
Dr. Julius Adler : My mind has evolved. That is why people are threatened by me.
[pointing to the one-way mirror]
Dr. Julius Adler : Who is out there? The AMA? American Psychiatric? How many forces conspire against me? Big Pharma? You said yourself. They're only interested in drugs in order to numb the soul. Who is out there?
Amanda Rollins : No one's behind that glass but my captain.
Dr. Julius Adler : "Oh, captain, my captain. Our fearful trip is done. The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won."