| “ | My husband is a passionate man. His passions expressed themselves in many ways, not all of them nice. He had endless needs... There was never enough, enough power, money, attention, women, enough control. He would have to sit very quietly for a very, very long time, and know that now I had it all. I wanted him to know that, for him, there wasn't going to be any more. | „ |
| ~ Valerie bragging about framing her husband. |
Valerie Grace is the secondary antagonist of the Law & Order episode "Mega". She is the wife and partner-in-crime of con artist Elias Grace.
She was portrayed by Annette O'Toole.
Early life[]
Valerie is the wife and accomplice of con artist Elias Grace, with whom she created KVG Corporation, a Fortune 500 company that hosts retreats and seminars for wealthy people seeking financial counseling and "self-actualization". In reality, however, the company is a cross between a scam and a cult, in which the Graces brainwash their "friends" into giving them all their money.
In 1994, Elias, who is jealous and possessive of Valerie, hit her in the face when she refused to get out of their car during an argument. Valerie pretended to forgive him, while secretly concocting an intricate, "long-game" plan to get back at him by taking away his money, his freedom, and. worst of all for Elias, his sense of power and control.
To that end, she lied to Elias that she had an affair with one of their followers, helicopter pilot Joe Callister, years earlier, but she had ended it. Elias did not believe the supposed affair was over, as Valerie knew he wouldn't, and got revenge by manipulating Callister's wife Maggie - another of the Graces' followers, and Elias' lover - into smuggling a bomb onto Joe's helicopter, on which he was chartering a group of businessmen. The bomb went off, killing Callister and all five of his passengers.
"Mega"[]
NYPD Homicide Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green question Valerie and Elias while investigating the bombing and learn that Callister had been skimming money from them. After they find a stick of dynamite from a quarry that Elias owns among the wreckage of the helicopter, they arrest both Elias and Valerie for orchestrating the bombing, believing that they intended to kill Callister and make it look like an accident so they could collect on the $1 million life insurance policy they had put on him. Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy and Assistant District Attorney Abbie Carmichael charge Valerie, Elias, and Maggie with first-degree murder.
The Graces' followers refuse to turn on them, however, so McCoy charges all of them with conspiracy to commit murder, frightening one follower into saying that Valerie was cheating on Elias with Callister. McCoy and Carmichael confront Valerie in front of Elias, and she says that he killed Callister upon learning of the affair, and that she had kept quiet about it because she feared that Elias would kill her if she talked. She then pleads with McCoy and Carmichael to spare her husband the death penalty, leaving a bewildered Elias no choice but to accept six sentences of life in prison without parole, one life sentence for each victim; Maggie accepts the same deal.
During Elias' allocution in court, however, McCoy and Carmichael both notice details of his story that are inconsistent with the evidence. They meet with Valerie, who triumphantly reveals that she had never had an affair with Callister, but that she had made Elias believe she did so he would commit murder, get caught, and go to prison for life, leaving her all his money. She then says that the best part of her plan was that Elias would spend the rest of his life knowing that she had taken everything from him, and that there was nothing he - or the District Attorney's office - could do about it. While horrified by Valerie, McCoy and Carmichael both acknowledge that Valerie had gotten the best of them as well as Elias, as she had technically not committed a crime.
Trivia[]
- Annette O'Toole and Michael McKean, who portrays Elias, are married in real life.
External links[]
- Valerie Grace on the Law & Order Wiki
