Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Loss (2003)

Stephanie March: ADA Alexandra 'Alex' Cabot

Photos 

Quotes 

• Lionel Granger : [to Cabot]  Tell you what, you get your informant lined up, I promise we'll take the deal.

  Alex Cabot : Take it now or it's gone. And for future reference, if your client intimidates the informant in any way, I will have his bail revoked and his ass thrown in Rikers for the duration of the trial.

  Rafael Zapata : You can't threaten me, bitch.

  Alex Cabot : I just did.

  Lionel Granger : We're going.

  Rafael Zapata : [to Granger]  You allow this? A woman says these things and you do nothing?

  Alex Cabot : Yes, Mr. Zapata. You will also find that a woman can say whatever she wants to about your performance in the bedroom, and you aren't actually allowed to kill her.

• Elliot Stabler : Look, we had a good run. Conviction rates are up. We had to get screwed sometime.

  Olivia Benson : Cesar Velez can probably do more damage to Zapata now than the justice system ever could.

  Alex Cabot : It just... It never seems like enough, you know. The Feds'll get Zapata for killing Donovan, but what about Livia Sandoval? She dies without any justice, and we're supposed to be happy about it? We tell ourselves that we speak for the victims, but we don't. We can close cases, but the victims, even if they survive, their lives are ruined. I just get so sick of it.

  Elliot Stabler : Alex, we can't always win.

  Alex Cabot : But that's just it. Even when we win, we don't.

• Alex Cabot : Zapata still has you on retainer, I see. That explains the $3,000 suit. How'd you get the blood out?

  Lionel Granger : My wife bought me this suit. Everybody deserves a defense, Alex.

  Alex Cabot : I would believe your idealism if you weren't enjoying yourself so much.

  Lionel Granger : I'm just a naturally happy person.

• Alex Cabot : [about Zapata's boat]  Must be overcompensating for something with a yacht that big.

• Arthur Branch : Your SVU detectives got you in a real mess, Alexandra.

  Alex Cabot : They were trying to cooperate with a federal investigation. They didn't have much of a choice.

  Arthur Branch : I'm not asking you to defend them. I'm just trying to figure out how you'll get out of it.

  Alex Cabot : There's nothing to get out of. Petrovsky will subpoena the DEA agent, the warrant will stand and Zapata will go away for 25 to life.

  Arthur Branch : That easy, huh?

  Alex Cabot : Everyone understands the sensitive nature of the DEA investigation. Petrovsky has no reason to jeopardize that. All efforts will be made to maintain the witness's confidentiality.

  Arthur Branch : So you're operating under the theory that if we don't see the immediate threat, then it must not be real.

  Alex Cabot : I know it's real. An NYPD officer is dead because of it.

• Olivia Benson : [to Cabot]  What does Branch think since the deal's shut down?

  Alex Cabot : We move forward with the trial. We warn the DEA's office and they have a chance to pull their undercovers if it's necessary.

  Elliot Stabler : You're going to blow a two-year investigation.

  Alex Cabot : This is the best option of only bad options. We either prosecute Zapata ourselves or drop it, give him back his passport, he leaves the country, and the DEA's case is blown anyway.

  Olivia Benson : The fact of the matter is that Zapata blew the DEA's investigation wide open when he raped and murdered Livia Sandoval.

• Alex Cabot : We know who did it. It's Cesar Velez fixing things for Zapata. The more important question is, how did Velez know Donovan was the CI?

  John Munch : Same way he knows where you and your mother live. He's got the money and the power.

  Elliot Stabler : And he's not gonna stop until you back off or you're dead.

  Alex Cabot : I have a protective detail, my mom has a protective detail. I'm not backing off.

  Olivia Benson : Alex, there's no reason for you to die for this case.

  Alex Cabot : Men like Zapata and Velez live on other people's fear. It doesn't matter if I try this case or somebody else in my office does. The intimidation is always there. So I can either accept it as a part of my job or concede everything.

• Arthur Branch : [to Cabot]  You know, I had a buddy who did three years in Bogota at the embassy. There was a time when one police officer got murdered every single day. Over a two-month period, Pablo Escobar set off nine car bombs.

  Alex Cabot : Well, it's a good thing we live in the United States.

  Arthur Branch : Yes, it is. And there are plenty of judges and prosecutors and former law enforcement in this country walking around every day, the rest of their lives with bodyguards because they stood up against a Colombian cartel that will do anything to protect this business.

  Alex Cabot : That's all the more reason to continue to fight them.

  Arthur Branch : We've been fighting them since before you were born, Alexandra. Now, we're going to drop the Zapata case.

  Alex Cabot : Why? How bad does this have to get? How many more people have to die?

  Arthur Branch : From what I hear, the Feds have a much better case against him than we would ever have now. And to answer your question, too many people have died already.

• Alex Cabot : [to Donovan]  I freely admit I know very little about the dangers of your job. That doesn't change the fact that you gave information as a confidential informant and now that information has to be verified. You won't have to testify in open court.

  Tim Donovan : The answer's no.

  Alex Cabot : Let me tell you a little bit about my job, Agent Donovan. After I tell the judge that I cannot produce the informant, she is going to issue a John Doe material witness order. If I don't give her your name, I will be found in contempt.

  Tim Donovan : That's your call, your conscience.

  Alex Cabot : I can tell you right now, I'm not going to jail for you or for my conscience.

  Tim Donovan : Then drop the case.

  Alex Cabot : I can't.

  Tim Donovan : You do what you got to do, Ms. Cabot, but when things go down, the blood's gonna be on your hands.

  Alex Cabot : There has to be a way to work this out so that everyone is protected.

  Tim Donovan : You really don't know anything about this, do you?

• Alex Cabot : [to Stabler and Benson]  I put my own neck on the line for you two people, I'd like to have it back.