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| “ | Cynthia does the guys that I tell her to. I don't force her. I don't have to. All the really pretty girls, they don't put out. She does. She does what I tell her to do, to whoever I say, whatever I want. | „ |
| ~ Tommy bragging about pimping out his girlfriend |
Tommy Kessler is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Popular". He is a high school student who forces his girlfriend Cynthia Wilmont to have sex with other boys in return for drugs and alcohol, and "gives" her to his best friend Nick Radsen to rape.
He was portrayed by Billy Kay.
Early life[]
Tommy comes from a dysfunctional home; his mother is an alcoholic, his father is a workaholic who is never home, and his older sister Mia is following in their mother's footsteps by abusing drugs and alcohol.
He is nevertheless one of the most popular kids in his high school, and uses his charm, good looks, and social clout to get girls to do anything he wants, particularly his girlfriend, Cynthia Wilmont. He does not actually care about her, but he dates her because she is so desperate to belong to the popular crowd as "Tommy's girl" that she does anything he says, including having sex with him and letting him pimp her out other boys at parties in return for beer and drugs that are supplied by Mia. She eventually contracts gonorrhea from one of them, but she still refuses to dump him.
Tommy throws a birthday party for his best friend Nick Radsen, with Cynthia in attendance. Ross McKenzie, a substitute teacher who "chaperones" the parties so he can prey on the girls there, offers to give Tommy and Nick ecstasy in return for letting him have sex with Cynthia, but Cynthia refuses. After McKenzie leaves, Tommy tells Cynthia to have sex with Nick, who has never been with a girl before, as a "birthday present". Cynthia reluctantly goes into a bedroom with Nick but changes her mind and turns him down. Angered, Nick overpowers and rapes her.
"Popular"[]
Cynthia reports the rape to a hospital nurse, who later mentions treating a 14-year-old rape victim (without revealing Cynthia's name) to her friend Kathy Stabler. Kathy's husband, Elliot, is a detective with the NYPD's Special Victims Unit, and finds out Cynthia's identity with help from his partner, Detective Olivia Benson, and tries unsuccessfully to persuade her to disclose the rape to him.
When Nick finds out that he has contracted gonorrhea from Cynthia, he pushes her down a flight of subway stairs to get back at her, breaking her arm and reigniting the investigation into her rape. Detectives John Munch and Fin Tutuola question Tommy and Nick, who reluctantly tell them about the sex parties when the detectives threaten to go to their parents and say that Cynthia offered to get beer from an older man who was hanging out at the party. They then talk to Mia, who tells them about McKenzie. To protect Tommy, Cynthia claims that McKenzie raped her.
Benson and Stabler arrest McKenzie in the middle of his classes and compel a DNA sample from him. The DNA does not match Cynthia's rape kit, however, and he tells the detectives that he had last seen Cynthia with Tommy and Nick, meaning that one of them is the rapist.
Benson and Stabler arrest Tommy and Nick, and SVU Captain Donald Cragen allows Cynthia and her parents to watch Munch and Tutuola interrogate Tommy through a two-way mirror. Tommy's father is with him, getting him to admit the truth and Tommy smugly says that Cynthia "puts out" for him and any other boy he tells her to because she is not pretty enough to be popular without him. Upon hearing what her boyfriend truly thinks of her, a heartbroken Cynthia tells Cragen what Nick did to her and how Tommy made it happen, an account confirmed by Nick's confession to Benson and Stabler. Tommy along with Nick are promptly charged being escorted out, spotting Cynthia who both give a neutral glance as Cynthia asks her parents to go home. Tommy is then imprisoned in a juvenile facility for pimping and sexual abuse, while Nick is imprisoned in the same facility for rape and assault.
External links[]
- Tommy Kessler on the Law & Order Wiki
