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| “ | I told her a hundred times we had to end it. Neither of us could. | „ |
| ~ Drake making excuses for his incestuous relationship with his daughter |
Everett Drake is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Taboo". He is a politician who has a sexual relationship with his own daughter and covers for her when she tries to kill their infant son.
He was portrayed by Željko Ivanek, who also portrayed Phillip Swann in the original Law & Order, Cordell Doemling in the film Hannibal, Mark Jennings in Tex, Arthur Grable in The X-Files, James Devlin in Oz, and Andre Drazen in 24.
Early life[]
Drake was a wealthy, powerful member of Newark, New Jersey's city council, with designs on higher office. A few years prior to the events of the episode, he hired a young woman named Ella Christiansen to do secretarial work for his re-election campaign, only for her to reveal that she is his daughter by a woman who gave her up for adoption, and that she tracked him down while searching for her birth family. Eventually, he manipulated her into a sexual relationship, cheating on his wife with his own daughter.
Drake got Ella pregnant, and she gave birth to a son, but she killed the child while suffering from post-partum psychosis. Fearing for his reputation and career if Ella's pregnancy was exposed, Drake pulled strings to have the child's death declared a stillbirth, even as Newark authorities suspected, but could not prove, that she killed her baby.
"Taboo"[]
Drake eventually gets Ella pregnant again, but neither of them are aware of it. When she gives birth several months early, she panics and calls Drake, who helps her dispose of the child, a boy, in a garbage can. The child survives, however, and is found and rushed to a hospital by the NYPD's Special Victims Unit.
SVU Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler eventually discover that Ella is the child's mother and arrest her for child abuse and attempted murder. They also question Drake about her behavior in the weeks leading up to giving birth, but he lies and says that he hardly knows her. Drake's financial records reveal that he has been paying her college tuition, however, while genetic evidence proves that Ella is related to her baby's father, both of which give Benson and Stabler probable cause to search Drake's house. When they arrive there, they find Drake and Ella together, thus exposing the incest and, eventually, his role in the murder of their first child and attempted murder of their second. Drake's career is ruined, and his wife files for divorce.
Nevertheless, Drake posts Ella's bail and pays for her defense, getting her a high-priced lawyer who argues that she is not responsible for her actions because she is suffering from post-partum psychosis. He also testifies in her defense, telling Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak that he manipulated Ella into sleeping with him and that he is ultimately responsible for what she did to their children. Thanks mostly to his testimony, Ella is found not guilty by reason of insanity and admitted to a psychiatric hospital in lieu of prison.
After Ella is institutionalized, Drake sues for custody of their baby, who fortunately does not suffer from the kinds of genetic defects that are common among the products of incest. Realizing that Drake's declarations of remorse were just a ploy to get custody, and aghast at the idea of Drake raising a child who is both his son and his grandson, Novak gets a restraining order forbidding Drake from having any contact with the baby. Novak, Benson, and Stabler arrive to take the baby away from Drake, who reluctantly gives them the child while declaring that he will never stop fighting to get his son back.
External links[]
- Everett Drake on the Law & Order Wiki
