| “ | I love the ocean. You know why? The ocean doesn't give a crap about you or about anybody. It does whatever it wants and you just have to go along with it. | „ |
| ~ Henry Mesner revealing the depth of his psychopathy |
Henry Mesner is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: SVU episodes "Born Psychopath" and "Post Graduate Psychopath". He is a boy with antisocial personality disorder who abuses, and eventually tries to kill, his own sister. In 2021, he is released from a juvenile facility and goes on a killing spree.
He was portrayed by Ethan Cutkosky.
Contents
Biography
The Manhattan SVU squad gets involved with the Mesner family after their five-year-old daughter Ruby ends up in the emergency room after her school nurse reported bruises on her stomach and a bump on her head. When Ruby is asked who hurt her, she said that "a monster" did it.
When Henry is questioned by the detectives about what happened to Ruby, he says that he saw the family nanny, Irina, push Ruby down the stairs. When Irina is interrogated, she tells the detectives that it was Henry who pushed Ruby and that he is "the monster".
When Henry is questioned again, he says that he pushed Ruby down the stairs as an "experiment" and thinks that Ruby wasn't hurt that badly because she didn't cry as much. Henry's mother, Viola, admits that Henry has some resentment towards Ruby, while his father, Tom thinks that his behavior is normal and he will outgrow it.
ADA Pippa Cox tells the SVU squad that Henry won't be charged with hurting Ruby if the Mesners agree to get Henry psychiatric help, but they refuse because they're afraid of their son getting labeled. When Viola tries to get Henry to go to bed, Henry refuses to do so and ends up slashing her hand with a knife.
When psychiatrist Dr. George Huang evaluates Henry, he diagnoses him as a psychopath because he has no emotions and lacks any sympathy or empathy for others. He recommends that Henry should be sent to a facility in Vermont for treatment. At first, Viola and Tom refuse to institutionalize their son, but eventually agree to do so.
When Viola tells Henry about the facility, Henry throws a tantrum and after Tom leaves for work, he traps Viola in the laundry room, ties Ruby to her bed and sets their apartment on fire. After that, he goes over to his friend Toby's apartment where he steals a gun owned by Toby's father, locks Toby in a closet and drowns his family's dog in a bathtub.
When Detective Amaro finds Henry in the play area of the apartment building, Henry is shown holding a five-year-old boy named Sam hostage at gunpoint. Amaro is able to convince Henry to let the boy go, but Henry points the gun at Amaro. He ends up shooting Amaro in the stomach, but because Amaro was wearing a protective vest, he only sustains minor injuries.
In the end, ADA Cox tells the Mesners that Henry will be charged with juvenile delinquency and incarcerated until the age of eighteen. When his parents tell Henry the news, Henry cries to his parents and hugs his dad, hiding the cold, predatory look on his face.
Return
In 2021, Henry was released from the juvenile facility after his eighteenth birthday. After he was released, he raped and tortured Libby Blandon, whom he also attempted to strangle to death (she survived).
From there, he went on a killing spree. After killing his father Tom, stepmother Holly and half-brother Arlo, Henry held his 13-year-old sister, Ruby, hostage at an amusement park but was saved by Detective Rollins.
Mesner blamed Rollins for his mother's death, and took her hostage after setting Ruby free. Rollins told Mesner that she was worried about him when he was ten years old and that she didn't want him to die.
Rollins soon realized that Henry had been stalking her family, particularly Jesse, as he had several images of Jesse on his phone. Rollins, Dr. Peter Lindstrom, A.D.A. Dominick Carisi and several others recommended that Henry be institutionalized for the rest of his life, stating that he would continue to kill, stalk and rape people as long as he was free.
Judge Wright agreed that Henry should be institutionalized and Henry was sent to an institution. However, Henry blew into a rage and stabbed Carisi in his ear with a pencil before being dragged away by the court officers, shouting he wanted his "daddy". It was later revealed that his outburst was a calculated attempt to appear insane.
Rollins visited Henry in the institution where he was drugged out and angrily told him that she lied about not wanting him to die and that she did indeed want him to die and threatened him saying that if he went near her and her children as well as Carisi ever again, it would be his last day on Earth and she would kill him herself. Henry however, doesn't seem concerned by this as he is seen smiling maliciously as Rollins departs from the room.
Victims
Unknown dates:
- Several unnamed classmates (all assaulted)
2012-March of 2013
- Ruby Mesner (his sister; abused repeatedly; later attempted to suffocate)
March 15–16, 2013
- Viola Mesner (his mother; cut her hand with a knife)
March 16, 2013
- Toby Burke (threatened to shoot him & then tied up and left alive in a closet)
- Snowball (drowned her in a tub)
- Sam (held at gunpoint)
- Detective Olivia Benson (held at gunpoint)
- Detective Nick Amaro (shot in the abdomen with Adam Burke's antique handgun, but was protected by a bulletproof vest and survived)
April 2, 2021
- Tom Mesner (his father; stabbed repeatedly; murdered)
- Holly Mesner (his stepmother; stabbed repeatedly; murdered)
- Arlo Mesner (his stepbrother; stabbed repeatedly; murdered)
- Libby Blandon (raped, tortured and attempted to murder)
April 4, 2021
- Unnamed police officer (assaulted; tied up and left in the trunk of a car)
- Megan Davis (assaulted)
- Charlotte Davis (assaulted)
- Ruby Mesner (abducted; threatened to kill; survived)
- Detective Amanda Rollins (held hostage)
April 6, 2021
- A.D.A. Dominick Carisi, Jr. (assaulted; stabbed in the ear with a pencil)
External Links
- Henry Mesner at the Law & Order Wiki
