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| “ | They're not going to believe us, Beth. We walk by faith, but not by sight. | „ |
| ~ Pearce as he is arrested for trying to marry Elizabeth. |
Nick Pearce is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Did You Believe In Miracles". He is an ephebophile who impregnates Elizabeth Lee, a teenage girl, after having sex with her mother and father in order to groom the family.
He was portrayed by Alexander Koch.
Biography[]
Past[]
Pearce came from a wealthy family in Rhode Island. An ephebophile, he began a relationship with a divorced woman named Nadine just to get access to her 14-year-old daughter, Eva.
He invited Nadine and Eva to his cabin for their summer vacation, but Eva's father insisted she stay with him for the whole summer. Once Nadine was no longer of use to him, Pearce broke up with her. Nadine was upset and started to suspect Pearce of grooming, a belief that got increased by her daughter always defending him.
He moved to New York under a new name, Luke Davis, and joined an Evangelical church, working as a youth pastor and guitarist. He found a target in Elizabeth "Beth" Lee and gave her guitar lessons, while slowly insinuating himself into her life as a family friend. He ensured leverage on her parents by seducing her lonely mother Claire into a yearlong affair, and she started to fall in love with him. On Pearce's birthday, he seduced Beth's father, Paul, and they began an on-again, off-again secret relationship.
Eventually, Pearce and Elizabeth slept together, and she got pregnant with his child. Peace also manipulated her into being dependent on him and adopting his warped religious views.
"Did You Believe in Miracles"[]
Pearce takes Beth to his cabin, under the guise of going on a retreat. Paul and Claire think nothing of it, but her school reports her missing after she has been gone caught the attention of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit after Elizabeth's brother declared he had not seen his sister in a week. The SVU squad's suspicions grow when it they discover Pearce used a burner phone and learn his real name from friends of the Lee family, who secretly did a background check on him. The SVU detectives locate Nadine, who tells them of her suspicions about Pearce and her daughter and directed them to his family's cabin. They find Pearce and Elizabeth there, together, and arrest Pearce for kidnapping.
At Pearce's arraignment, his lawyer, Richard Pace, claims that the Lee parents used Pearce, not the other way around, exposing sexually suggestive encounters between Paul and Pearce, as well as Claire. Pearce's defense claims that Paul and Claire were sexually experimenting with him and were now framing him because they are ashamed. Both the Lee parents reveal their infidelity and, though upset with each other, realize the bigger picture - that Pearce exploited them to get to Elizabeth.
Pearce and Pace contact Assistant District Attorney Dominick Carisi Jr. to ask for the charges to be dropped, but Carisi refuses, as Pearce is clearly guilty of kidnapping. Pace threatens to put Paul and Claire on the stand and make them explain all of their sexual indiscretions with his client in front of the jury. However, Pearce hypocritically says he does not want to ruin the Lee family and offers a "reasonable solution": Paul and Claire give him permission to marry Elizabeth. Carisi is disgusted, but fears that a jury may find Pearce simply delusional and find him not guilty.
Much later, he violates the restraining order by meeting with Beth, who contacted him. He attempts to marry her under a bridge, but SVU intervenes and arrest him, though Pearce assured the protesting girl that their faith would protect them. However, Elizabeth frantically yelled that they couldn't keep them apart and revealed she might be pregnant with Pearce's child. This left the detectives shocked.
Beth's parents were shown this footage from the police body cam and were distraught that SVU couldn't prove it, before realizing Pearce's hold on their child and how they let him in to manipulate them. However, Captain Olivia Benson soon came up with a strategy to incriminate Pearce by having Claire mislead her daughter into thinking they would drop the charges against Pearce and allow Elizabeth to marry him if she confirmed her pregnancy. Beth did so and the DNA of the fetus was a match to Pearce who was arrested for statutory rape. The detectives and Carisi inform Paul and Claire that Pearce's lawyer couldn't take this to trial with the incriminating odds now stacked against him, so they would not have to worry about testifying. The Lees were happy to get Pearce out of their lives and decided to repair their family by allowing Beth to keep the baby, which they would raise while repairing their marriage.
Pearce is then imprisoned for statutory rape and kidnapping.
External links[]
- Nick Pearce at the Law & Order Wiki
