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| “ | I took his head and I just started bashing and bashing. I bashed it as hard as I could. It was finally quiet. But when I looked down, it wasn't Ray, it was Seth.... Ray was standing in the doorway, and he said, 'Welcome to the family.' | „ |
| ~ Seth describing how his brother Ray set him up to commit murder |
Jesse Hansen is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Bad Blood". He is a family man who is tricked into murdering a gay man by his abusive brother.
He was portrayed by the late James McCaffrey.
Early life[]
Born Jesse Gunther, he grew up in a severely dysfunctional family; his parents were both abusive alcoholics, and his father repeatedly raped him and his older brother Ray. While the abuse molded Ray into a violent sociopath, Jesse was a kind, gentle person who only wanted a normal life.
When Jesse was in high school, Ray was arrested for a series of brutal rapes. A reporter went to Jesse's school and asked him if he thought his brother was innocent. In a moment of anger, Jesse replied that Ray deserved to die. He also testified at Ray's trial that his brother was lying about their father's abuse. Ray was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison, for which he blamed Jesse.
As soon as he turned 18, Jesse changed his last name to Hansen and got as far away from his family as he could. He eventually married a woman named Lorraine. His brother remained a thorn in his side, however; whenever Jesse reluctantly visited him in prison, Ray would berate him for speaking out against him in the press and insinuate that he enjoyed what their father did to him. Upon returning home, Jesse would go into severe depressions, drinking heavily and disappearing for days.
One month before the events of the episode, Ray was granted early parole and began terrorizing Jesse, showing up unannounced at his and Lorraine's apartment, blaming him for all of his problems, and telling him that he had thew same violence in him that their father had and that it was only a matter of time before he hurt someone.
"Bad Blood"[]
One night, Ray once again barges into Jesse's apartment, pretending to want to put their differences aside. He takes him along to a party thrown by Jesse's neighbor Seth Langdon, an acquaintance of Ray's and the gay son of an anti-LGBT rights politician.
Unbeknownst to Jesse, however, Ray is planning a cruel prank on him. He gets Jesse drunk and tells Seth that his brother wants to have sex with him. He sends Seth out to the rooftop, where Jesse is having a cigarette, and Seth begins performing oral sex on him. When Jesse sobers up enough to realize what Seth is doing, he tries to get him to stop, only to see Ray standing across the way, laughing at him. Enraged, Seth beats Seth's head against a nearby wall until he is dead, believing in his drunken stupor that he is hitting Ray. When he realizes what he has done, he flees the apartment, as Ray calls after him, "Welcome to the family!"
The following day, Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit question Seth and Lorraine about what went on at the party, and they both say that Jesse only went there briefly to ask Seth to turn down the music.
Forensic DNA analysis of the semen in Seth's mouth appears to match Ray, who told his parole officer he would be living in Jesse's apartment. Benson and Stabler question Jesse, while Lorraine tells Detectives John Munch and Brian Cassidy that Ray was in their apartment on the night of the murder. The detectives suspect Ray until further DNA analysis proves that the semen is from one of Ray's relatives, not from Ray himself. Benson and Stabler ask Jesse for a blood sample, but he refuses.
Captain Donald Cragen persuades Joe Bandolini, a closeted NYPD patrol officer who was at the party, to turn over a video recording he made of the night - which reveals that both Jesse and Ray was there. They question Lorraine, who admits that Jesse was gone until 2 am the night of the murder. They also question Ray, who brags about setting Jesse up for Seth to unknowingly take advantage of him.
Benson and Stabler arrest Jesse, who admits that Ray was telling the truth about their father's abuse. Sobbing, he confesses to killing Seth, but he says that he believed that he was hitting Ray, and that Ray had watched the whole thing. Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael promises Cragen that she will charge Ray with depraved indifference homicide and that, with his criminal record, he will get a harsher prison sentence than Jesse will. Both brothers are then imprisoned; Ray for murder, Jesse for manslaughter.
External links[]
- Jesse Hansen on the Law & Order Wiki
