Dr. Sophie Gerard is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Shattered". She is the unstable mother of Nicholas Olsen who plots to kidnap him from his father Paul Olsen, driving Paul to kidnap him and frame Sophie; when this results in Nicholas' accidental death, Sophie suffers a psychotic break and tries to kill everybody she blames for what happened to him.
She was portrayed by Isabelle Huppert, who also portrayed Greta Hideg in Greta.
Biography[]
Sophie, a French anthropologist specializing in matriarchal cultures, was in a relationship with Paul Olsen which produced a son named Nicholas. Sophie, whose obsession with matriarchy caused her to believe she was Nicholas' only true parent, often had to travel to other countries for long periods of time for her research, which led Paul to accuse her of "abandoning" Nicholas; Sophie then started trying to bring Nicholas with her on her trips thinking it would be good for him, not considering the damage this would potentially cause to his education. This resulted in more arguments with Paul about what was best for Nicholas, to the detriment of their relationship.
The final straw came when Sophie made plans to visit a small Chinese village for her research and wanted to bring Nicholas with her, thinking he would like it there. Paul objected because the trip coincided with the start of the school year, leading to another argument during which Sophie allegedly tried to cut off his foot with a Ugandan ceremonial axe, although she claimed that Paul had started smashing her artefacts in a fury and she had snatched up the axe to stop him breaking it (which account is true is not revealed). Sophie eventually left for China without Nicholas, at which point Paul filed for sole custody, which he eventually won. Sophie declared that she would never abide by the court's ruling, leading Paul to get a restraining order barring her from any contact with Nicholas. Sophie immediately violated the order and began stalking Nicholas at school, once assaulting the headteacher for trying to make her leave; she eventually stopped coming onto school grounds, but would hang around outside so she could see Nicholas at the beginning and end of the school day.
Sophie eventually made plans to kidnap Nicholas from Paul's custody, viewing Paul as having "stolen" him from her. She hired a child recovery agent named Jason Culross to retrieve Nicholas, falsely telling him that she was Nicholas' custodial parent and Paul had kidnapped him from her, and obtained a French passport for Nicholas so that she could take him out of the country without alerting the authorities. Her plan was to take Nicholas to China, where they would be out of reach of American authorities. However, the plan fell through when Culross discovered that Paul was Nicholas' legal guardian and backed out, refusing to refund Sophie's money.
"Shattered"[]
Sophie once again violates the restraining order to see Nicholas just before school, giving him a South American amulet that she believes will keep him safe from harm. Minutes after Sophie leaves, Nicholas is kidnapped by Keith Bradman, a petty criminal who Paul has hired to kidnap him as part of a plan to frame Sophie so she will leave Nicholas alone. The NYPD's Special Victims Unit, investigating Nicholas' kidnapping, immediately suspect Sophie after finding out about her violation of the restraining order and she is arrested at her apartment by Detectives Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson.
Sophie protests her innocence, telling Stabler that Paul must be responsible, but Stabler and Assistant District Attorney Jo Marlowe do not believe her and confront her with the French passport she got for Nicholas and the one-way ticket to China she had arranged for herself and him. They accuse Sophie of plotting to kidnap Nicholas, which leads her to remember Culross and assume he must be responsible for the abduction. She admits to hiring Culross to retrieve Nicholas; however, when Benson and Stabler go to arrest him, they discover that he is a legitimate child recovery agent, and that he had refused to help Sophie after finding out she was lying to him.
Soon after, the SVU team is alerted that the kidnapper has used one of Sophie's credit cards (actually faked by Paul in order to frame Sophie) and, tracking him and Nicholas to a motel, attempt to pursue him; this causes Bradman to crash the car, killing both himself and Nicholas. When told of her son's death, Sophie suffers a mental break and becomes convinced that Nicholas is waiting for her to pick him up from the school. Still believing her to be responsible, Marlowe and Benson take her to the morgue to view Nicholas' corpse, hoping that seeing it up close will jolt her back to reality and spur her to confess. However, this in fact has the opposite effect and shatters Sophie's psyche even further, as she now alternates between believing Nicholas is asleep and accusing everyone else of killing him. The situation is compounded when Paul arrives at the morgue, causing Sophie to fly into a rage and snatch a gun from a police officer before taking Paul, Benson, Marlowe, and Medical Examiner Melinda Warner hostage, demanding that they "give her [Nicholas] back".
The hostage situation persists, and is made worse when Paul antagonizes Sophie until she tries to shoot him, hitting Warner by mistake; she then refuses Benson's pleas to let her take Warner to the hospital, declaring that she wants her to die like Nicholas did. Marlowe, meanwhile, tries to empathize with Sophie by playing into her delusions that Nicholas is only sleeping and will be back with her soon, eventually persuading her to release Benson and Warner by telling her that Nicholas doesn't want his mother to be arrested for murder.
However, Sophie eventually realizes that Marlowe is lying and that Nicholas is dead; Marlowe tries to talk her down by sharing her experiences with cancer to show her that she can still rebuild her life, but Sophie doesn't listen and prepares to kill her and Paul. Before she can do so, however, Stabler enters the room through the air vents and reveals that he knows Sophie is innocent: Paul's phone records have revealed that he was the one who hired Bradman to kidnap Nicholas. Infuriated, Sophie turns her gun on Paul, who tearfully confesses to orchestrating the kidnapping and framing her to stop her from taking Nicholas. Marlowe manages to talk her out of killing Paul, who is arrested by Stabler, and the episode ends with Marlowe watching in dismay as Sophie collapses to her knees and begins brokenly singing a lullaby to Nicholas' corpse, having completely disconnected from reality. She is then presumably institutionalized.
External links[]
- Sophie Gerard on the Law & Order Wiki
