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| “ | You were teasin' me... | „ |
| ~ Smith menacing Amanda Rollins. |
Brian Smith, also known as the "The Atlantic Coast Rapist", is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Double Strands". He is a serial rapist who assaults several women and tries to frame his twin brother Gabriel Thomas, who is unaware of his existence.
He was portrayed by T.R. Knight, who also portrayed his brother.
Biography[]
Past[]
Brian and his twin brother Gabriel were born to a teenage mother who gave them up for adoption, leading to the boys being separated. Gabriel was immediately adopted by the Thomas family, who gave him love and a comfortable life, while Brian spent years in the foster care system.
He had a traumatic childhood, during which his foster mother set his father on fire, leading to her being imprisoned for murder. Brian later tracked his biological mother who told him of his twin brother and he asked her to be in his life, she was not interested. Regardless, she did feel empathy towards his life and informed him of his twin brother, causing him to track the latter.
This rejection only pushed him further and he grew up to become a stalker and a serial rapist, targeting blonde women while telling them "Tell me you love me Mommy".
He later found his brother Gabriel, where he discovered his brother was a happy family man, while his own life was miserable, he decided to get even with the world. Brian stalked Gabriel for years, even getting the same Yin-Yang tattoo on his neck to frame him should as he continued his spree. Every time, Brian would move after Gabriel moved to keep up his spree. However, he stopped for three years after losing track of Gabriel when the latter moved to Switzerland.
"Double Strands"[]
Upon finding out that Gabriel is back in the U.S., Brian moves to New York City from his native Georgia in order to continue to spree. He stalks and rapes a ballerina dancer but in the process, she gets a glimpse of his tattoo and his crooked teeth. Detective Amanda Rollins of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit, who had investigated his rapes as a patrol officer in Georgia, recognizes Brian's description, M.O., and signature, and convinces Detective Olivia Benson and Captain Donald Cragen that the rapes were committed by the same man she had pursued earlier.
A police sketch artist releases a composite drawing of the suspect from the victim's description that appears to incriminate Gabriel. Benson, Rollins, and Rollins' partner Detective Nick Amaro arrest Gabriel and compel him to provide a DNA sample, which matches the DNA left at the latest crime scene.
When Gabriel triers to kill himself, however, a skeptical Rollins and Amaro investigate further, reasoning that a suicide attempt, committed either of out of guilt or fear of prison, would be out of character for the rapist, who fits the profile of a narcissistic sociopath. They eventually discover that, at the time that one of the victims was raped, Gabriel was 100 miles away in a hospital with his wife, who had suffered a miscarriage. They dig deeper and discover that Gabriel was adopted and find his birth mother, who tells them about Brian visiting her and that she had given birth to twins.
Rollins, who knows that slim, athletic women like her are Brian's "type", baits him by going jogging Central Park, where he likes to hunt his victims. When Brian attacks her, however, she easily incapacitates and arrests him. She then interrogates him, playing to his ego by pretending to impressed that he got away with his crimes for so long, and offering him sympathy for his traumatic childhood. Realizing that he is caught and moved by having someone listen to him for the first time in his life, Brian confesses to Rollins about every one of the rapes he committed. With that, he is arrested and Gabriel is exonerated, being shown his brother for the first time.
Brian is then imprisoned for the rapes.
Trivia[]
- Brian is inspired by multiple real-life and fictional criminals:
- Aaron Thomas, a.k.a. the "East Coast Rapist".
- Darrin Fernandez, a twin brother imprisoned for rape after his brother was nearly suspected of the crimes.
- Lia Abbott, the main antagonist of the book and subsequent TV movie Stranger with my Face, a twin jealous of being given up for adoption instead of her sister Liz, hoping to get revenge by using astral projection to target Liz's family and friends.
External links[]
- Brian Smith at the Law & Order Wiki
