| “ | But I loved her. She was my life! | „ |
| ~ Elizabeth rationalizing driving her daughter to suicide. |
Elizabeth Blaine is the main antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Aria". She is a failed actress who pressures and manipulates her daughter into performing in a pornographic film, which drives the girl to commit suicide.
She was portrayed by Marilyn Rockafellow.
Early life[]
Elizabeth was an aspiring actress in her youth, but never made it further than community theatre. She and her husband had two daughters, Patty and Priscilla, and she poured all of her frustrated ambition into them, making them go acting and dancing classes and having expensive headshots taken of them, all in the hopes that they would grow up to be famous actresses - something that neither girl really wanted.
Patty eventually realized that nothing she did would ever be enough for her mother and estranged herself from the family. Priscilla, however, was desperate to please her, especially after her father died, and so went to an exclusive dramatic arts academy and auditioned for so many plays and TV commercials that she had virtually no social life. Priscilla was so overwhelmed by her mother's constant controlling behavior that she began self-harming, at one point shaving off all her hair in a failed attempt to show her mother that she did not want to be an actress.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, was so blinded by her ambitions for her daughter that she eventually pressured her into "performing" in a pornographic film. Priscilla, who was already fragile as a result of her mother's emotional abuse, was driven over the edge with shame and killed herself by taking an overdose of the antidepressants she had gotten from another porn actress, Angel, after Elizabeth said that the pills would "relax" her enough to have sex on film.
"Aria"[]
NYPD Homicide Sergeant Phil Cerreta and his partner, Detective Mike Logan, investigate Priscilla's death as a possible homicide after the doctors who tried to save her relate that she had repeatedly said "I didn't want to do it" before she died. Elizabeth refuses to allow them to talk to Priscilla's psychiatrist, which makes them suspicious; their suspicions grow after Patty and Priscilla's friends tell them that Elizabeth bullied her daughter into pursuing a career she did not want.
Cerreta and Logan look through Priscilla's personal effects and find a tape of the pornographic film, which reveals the meaning of her last words. They talk to her roommate, Jasmine, who tells them that Priscilla had been working as a dancer in a strip club. The club's owner tells them she had quit months earlier to work in the porn film, while the film's director, Franklin Fromme, tells them that Elizabeth had arranged for her daughter to perform in it, as well as several other such films. Believing Elizabeth is responsible for her daughter's suicide, Cerreta and Logan go to Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette for an arrest warrant, and he agrees to charge her. Ceretta and Logan arrest her, and she is charged with second-degree murder.
In order to get Priscilla's psychiatric records admitted as evidence, Robinette and Executive Assistant District Attorney Ben Stone persuade Patty to testify that Elizabeth is not fit to manage Priscilla's estate, which would mean that Patty could authorize the records to be used in court. While being represented in court by defense attorney Danielle Melnick, Patti testifies about the intense pressure Elizabeth put on Priscilla, while Elizabeth herself testifies that she made sure Priscilla would not have to have sex in the films, that she would "only have to take off her clothes". The judge ultimately rules that Patti be put in charge of her sister's estate, and she releases Priscilla's medical records and gives her psychiatrist permission to testify.
During Elizabeth's trial, Fromme testifies that Elizabeth knew that Priscilla would be expected to have sex on camera for his new film, while her psychiatrist testifies that Elizabeth controlled Priscilla's entire life, to the point of cruelty. Stone then plays a videotape of a monologue Priscilla had performed in which she portrayed a suicidal woman saying goodbye to her abusive mother, which she had given Elizabeth a week before her death as a way of telling her mother what she was going to do, and why. Elizabeth completely misses the point of the performance, however; she beams with pride as she listens to her daughter tell her, in character, that she wants to die because of the way she treated her.
Doubtful that their case that Elizabeth caused Priscilla's suicide will survive an appeal, Stone and Robinette change their theory of the crime; they now claim that Elizabeth, in effect, murdered her daughter by telling her to get the pills that killed her from Angel. The judge allows this strategy, which leaves Elizabeth with no choice but to plead guilty to manslaughter in the second degree in the face of an-all-but-certain conviction. Elizabeth protests that Priscilla had been her whole life, but Stone replies that Priscilla had a life of her own.
External links[]
- Elizabeth Blaine on the Law & Order Wiki
