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Dr. Archibald Newlands is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Serendipity".
He was portrayed by Martin Donovan, who also portrayed Logan Carter in a later SVU episode, as well as Tom Buchanan in the 2000 TV movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby, Zaman Druce in DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Mitchell Carson in Ant-Man, and Isaac Frost in Beyond.
Biography[]
Past[]
He is a dermatologist who runs a successful skin care clinic, with his wife (a fellow dermatologist) serving as his partner. Despite having a loving wife and two daughters, he had an affair with Brianna Morris, and she became pregnant with his child. Soon she barged into his office after he called off the affair, requiring security to drag her off and him covering it up as mistaken identity. Eventually, Morris filed a paternity suit against him, unable to bear losing his fortune, his family, and having his reputation tarnished; he decided to get rid of her and the baby.
He subsequently broke into Brianna's home and forced her to give birth with drugs from the clinic. He murdered Brianna by suffocating her and let their daughter Emily bleed to death from the umbilical card and cleaned up the scene. He later discarded the dead baby in the storm drain.
"Serendipity"[]
Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit discovered the remains of the baby and the paternity suit against Newlands. Upon visiting him, Newlands denied knowledge of the murders but stated he was willing to give blood for a DNA test, with the results showing he was not the father.
Unknown to SVU, he implanted a tube of someone else's blood that he obtained from his wife's practice to beat the test. What he didn't know was the blood belonged to a serial child molester called the Honey Rapist and he unintentionally implicated himself in the latter's crimes and was arrested after it was discovered. He was not identified by any of the victims but was kept because of DNA evidence. In the meantime, his wife and kids moved out upon learning of "his" DNA being a match from Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak.
Unable to admit his innocence in the child rapes without compromising himself in the Morris murders, he did not show up to trial. Eventually, he called his lawyer Trevor Langan to tell him the truth then flee the country but the real Honey Rapist, Peter Nestler learned of this and tracked Newlands down before shooting him execution style to close the case.
An autopsy revealed the tube of blood and SVU discovered his role in the Morris murders and how he used a patient's blood to avoid detection. His wife was distraught to hear of his affair and murders but helped the detectives identify Nestler, who was arrested and executed for the murder.
Trivia[]
- Dr. Newlands takes inspiration from numerous references in recent and older criminal history.
- Dr. Newlands is partly inspired by John Schneeberger, a physician and drug-rapist of one of his patients, who couldn't get a case presented because Schneeberger sabotaged a blood draw with a Pembrose drain with someone else's blood sewn under his arm. Schneeberger was caught after he was arrested for repeatedly raping his stepdaughter.
- Newlands' murders are inspired by Dr. Kevin Paul Anderson, who was imprisoned for strangling his pregnant mistress and throwing her and their unborn child over a cliff after they both died.
- There are also references to the Baby Jessica case, which involved a pregnant woman who arranged an adoption of her child, but then changed her mind and wanted to keep her baby.
- Finally, the means Newlands killed his mistress and their child, and the discovery of their corpses, evoke the Burke and Hare murders, which were alluded to in the episode because the same M.O was used.
External links[]
- Archibald Newlands on the Law & Order Wiki
