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| “ | You think I'm supposed to feel sad? Scared? I don't. You can't kill me. I'm already dead. | „ |
| ~ Missy Kurtz after being told she is getting the death penalty. |
Missy Kurtz is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Damaged". She is a psychopathic teenager who sexually abuses her younger adoptive sister and manipulates her boyfriend into killing her.
She was portrayed by Ari Graynor.
Biography[]
Background[]
Missy was repeatedly raped as a child by her father, who also pimped her out to his friends. Her father was eventually arrested, and she was taken away by social services. It was too late to help her, however - the abuse had molded her into a psychopath, devoid of conscience and incapable of forming emotional attachments.
She went through three foster homes before she was adopted by Peter and Raquel Kurtz at age 12. By then, she had learned how to mimic emotions she couldn't actually feel, so she manipulated the Kurtzes into believing she loved them. When they had their own child, Rebecca, Missy became jealous of the attention they gave her, and she took her rage out on her adoptive sister by sexually abusing her.
As a teenager, she dated a boy named Joey Field, but cheated on him repeatedly until she contracted gonorrhea, which she later gave to Rebecca.
"Damaged"[]
One night, Missy manipulates Joey into raping Rebecca while she watches. Unbeknownst to her, the assault is recorded by a nanny camera in Rebecca's room. Rebecca threatens to tell their parents, so Missy bribes her and Joey's mutual friend (and, it is implied, Missy's lover) Eric Campbell to shoot Rebecca in the video store where Joey works and make it look like a robbery. She then tells Joey to shoot Eric to cover their tracks. The plan is a success, and both Rebecca and Eric are killed.
While investigating the case, Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit find out that, years earlier, Missy had accused Peter of abusing her. Social workers inform them that, because of her abuse history, Missy had mistaken Peter's innocent physical affection for "bad touching". Benson and Stabler then find out that both Rebecca and Missy had gonorrhea, and confront Missy, who lies that Joey raped both her and Rebecca and threatened to kill them both if they told anyone. Benson and Stabler arrest Joey, and Missy's lawyer successfully applies to get Missy immunity from prosecution if she testifies against her boyfriend.
During a search of Joey's family home, however, the SVU team discovers the tape of Missy abusing Rebecca, and to their horror realize that they have made a deal with the mastermind of the rape and murders. They try to persuade Joey to testify against Missy, but he refuses, believing that they are in love. When they confront him with proof of her infidelity, however, he tells them that the whole thing had been her idea.
To deal with the problem of Missy's immunity, Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Cabot persuades Joey's lawyer (and father) Malcolm Field to argue before a judge that refusing to allow Joey to testify against Missy violates his Constitutional right to confront his accuser as the judge agrees and cancels Missy's immunity, and Missy is arrested. Over the pleas of her adoptive parents, who do not want to lose both of their daughters, Missy is sentenced to death for arranging the murders. When Cabot informs Missy that she will receive the death penalty, Missy coldly replies that she is not afraid to die, as she is "already dead".
External links[]
- Missy Kurtz on the Law & Order Wiki
