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| “ | Sexual assault? Are you kidding me? These chicks were begging for it. If anything, they assaulted me. | „ |
| ~ Metcalf rationalizing his crimes |
Tom Metcalf is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Imposter". He is a con artist who tricks women into sleeping with him by pretending to be the admissions director at Hudson University and promising to get their children into the school.
He was portrayed by Wallace Langham, who also portrayed Clayface II in the animated series The Batman, Ocean Master in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and Anarky in Beware the Batman.
Overview[]
Metcalf is a security guard at Hudson University who poses as the university's admissions director, Alden Kessler, to seduce women, manipulating them into believing that he can get their children into the university so they will sleep with him. Prior to that, he was a guard at a hospital and learned enough medical jargon to seduce women by pretending to be a neurosurgeon. He considers himself a "pickup artist" and plans to write a book teaching men how to trick women into sleeping with them.
"Imposter"[]
Metcalf meets suburban housewife Laura Collett while she is taking her son Justin on a tour of Hudson and introduces himself as Alden Kessler. They go out for coffee, and he promises to get Justin into the university; she then has sex with him to "seal the deal" and sends him a text message afterwards saying their encounter was the "best sex ever". When he responds citing incorrect statistics about Hudson, however, she gets suspicious and looks him up online, eventually discovering his real identity on Instagram. Furious and humiliated, she sends him another text message accusing him of raping her and attempts suicide by overdosing on anti-anxiety medication.
Paramedics revive Laura and call the NYPD's Special Victims Unit after reading her text message to Metcalf. Laura tells Lieutenant Olivia Benson what Metcalf did to her, so Benson sends Detectives Amanda Rollins and Dominick Carisi, Jr. to Hudson to question him. Rollins and Carisi meet that the real Kessler, who looks nothing like the picture Laura supplied them of the man he slept with. They show the picture to the head of campus security, who identifies him as Metcalf, and they trace him to a hotel where he is trying to seduce his next target and bring him to the SVU station house for questioning.
While interrogating Metcalf, Carisi plays to his inflated ego by pretending to be impressed by his "seduction techniques". Metcalf brags about his prowess, even revealing a few of his favorite tricks, but he ultimately leaves after Carisi admits that he is not under arrest. Benson talks to Assistant District Attorney Rafael Barba, who says that he might be able to prosecute Metcalf for "rape by deception". She then sends Rollins and Carisi to arrest him after he victimizes another woman.
Barba charges Metcalf with several counts of sexual assault, but Judge Al Bertuccio is skeptical because there is no law specifically forbidding lying in order to have sex. Laura agrees to testify against Metcalf, whom she blames for destroying her family; Justin refuses to speak to her, while her husband has filed for divorce.
During the trial, Metcalf's attorney, Nikki Staines, calls Gary Bell, the doorman at the hotel where Laura and Metcalf had sex, who testifies that he had seen them together several times and overheard her calling him by his real name. The SVU team investigates this claim and discovers that Metcalf and Bell went to high school together, and that Metcalf allowed Bell to secretly record his trysts. After Barba threatens him with perjury charges, Bell recants his testimony.
During her closing arguments, Staines argues that Metcalf's behavior, while morally reprehensible, is not illegal. Bertuccio agrees and advises Barba to let Metcalf plead guilty to second-degree criminal impersonation, a misdemeanor charge; he then implicitly threatens to overturn the verdict if the jury finds Metcalf guilty. Barba reluctantly agrees, and Metcalf is spared prison. Shortly afterward, Justin commits suicide, unable to bear the shame and embarrassment brought on by the trial.
External links[]
- Tom Metcalf on the Law & Order Wiki
