Saul Picard

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“	I saved Francine. I made it right!	„
	~ Saul Picard having a delusional episode.

Saul Picard is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Blinded". He is a writer with paranoid schizophrenia who kidnaps and rapes two young girls and temporarily blinds Detective Elliot Stabler during a psychotic episode.

He was portrayed by Arye Gross, who also portrayed Donnie Mallick in Criminal Minds.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Picard was born and raised in Mandeville, Louisiana. At the age of 17, he witnessed two of his male classmates gang-raping his 11-year-old sister Francine, but he failed to save her because he panicked and froze. The trauma triggered his latent schizophrenia, and he descended into mental illness. By the time he reached adulthood, however, he managed his illness by taking the antipsychotic drug Haldol, and became a successful children's author, writing two books under the pen name William S. Falstaff.

His sanity deteriorated, however, after he suffered two tragedies; his home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, and Francine died. Picard quickly found that the Haldol had stopped working. He was prescribed Risperidone, but he hated the side effects, so he stopped taking it. His hallucinations returned, and he started hearing Francine's voice sending him "messages" that he had to save other little girls from being raped. Under the command of those hallucinations, he kidnapped a girl in Gulfport, Mississippi, and beat and raped her, believing that the rape was being committed by the boys who attacked Francine, and that he was beating them rather than her.

"Blinded"[]

Picard travels to New York City for a book signing event at a bookstore celebrating his latest children's novel. There, he has a hallucination of Francine telling him that one of the children there, Sabrina Farmer, is about to be raped and that he has to save her. He kidnaps her, rapes her, and beats her within an inch of her life, once again believing that Francine's rapists were committing the assault and that he was beating them up to save his victim. Detective Elliot Stabler of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit, who is investigating the rape, briefly questions Picard, who says he was at a local diner at the time of the attack.

Three days later, Picard has another hallucination in which Francine tells him to "save" nine-year-old Eve Holland. He steals a car from a rental agency and kidnaps Eve, driving her to a nearby park and drugging her to ease the pain he believes that Francine's rapists have inflicted upon her. He then falls asleep in the car. Fortunately, Stabler and his partner Olivia Benson, who have connected Picard to the kidnappings and rapes, find him and rescue Eve before he can assault her. Stabler wakes Picard, now completely detached from reality, and arrests him. Picard sees a passing truck with an ad on the side that says, "It's Time to Get Away," and thinks the ad is talking directly to him, so he tries to run away from Stabler. When Stabler goes after him, Picard headbutts him so hard that he falls backward headfirst into the car's side window, causing him to suffer temporary blindness.

Picard is arrested and held in a psychiatric facility, where forensic psychiatrist George Huang interviews him. He tells Huang about Francine's rape and what he believes are her "messages" to him, leading Huang to believe that Picard is not legally responsible for the rapes and should be institutionalized, not imprisoned. Picard is forcibly medicated with Risperidone, and gradually becomes lucid enough to remember what he did. Horrified and wracked with guilt, he begs Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak to extradite him back to Louisiana, where raping a child is a capital offense, so he can be executed, the fate he feels he deserves.

Novak, however, wants to keep him in New York, which has no death penalty, because he reminds her of her ex-fiancé Charlie, who also suffered from schizophrenia and who eventually died while living on the street. During a hearing to establish whether Picard is competent to stand trial, she intentionally provokes him into having a psychotic episode in which he yells at Francine to stop "testing" him and has to be dragged out of court. The judge declares him mentally incompetent, thus making it unconstitutional to execute him. District Attorney Jack McCoy reprimands Novak for intentionally losing the trial, but nevertheless decides not to extradite Picard.

Picard is institutionalized for life, but he is still tormented by remorse for what he did to his victims. Novak meets with him, and he tells her that as he gets better, he feels worse. Novak tries to comfort him by saying that his crime was not his fault, but he grimly replies, "Wasn't it?".

Trivia[]

Picard was based on three real-life criminals:
- Serial child killer Charles Ray Hatcher, who appealed for his execution and hanged himself in prison when his appeal was denied.
- Robert Comer, a convicted murderer, kidnapper, and rapist who volunteered to be executed.
- David Riggins, who committed murder after he stopped taking his antipsychotic medication.

External links[]

Saul Picard on the Law & Order Wiki

Navigation[]

Villains

Exiled: A Law & Order Movie
Gianni Uzielli