Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Manic (2003)

Stephanie March: ADA Alexandra 'Alex' Cabot

Quotes 

• Barry Moredock : It's a fact that Aptril causes anxiety and insomnia...

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : I suffer from anxiety and insomnia. I don't go around shooting people.

• ADA Alexandra Cabot : I need your advice.

  Dr. George Huang : ...Lie down on the couch.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : Not that sort of advice.

• Dean Reynolds : What's this, a hostile takeover?

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Funny man! Are you Dean Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer of Tauscher-Leto?

  Dean Reynolds : I am, and you are?

  Detective Elliot Stabler : The police. This is Alexandra Cabot of the D.A.'s office.

  Dean Reynolds : What are you doing here?

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : Uh, this memo proves a direct marketing scheme wherein Aptril would be mailed directly to patients' homes. Do you recognize your signature Mr. Reynolds?

  Dean Reynolds : Where'd you get that?

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : This approves of giving doctors off-patent meds free of charge in exchange for their patient lists. Is that your signature?

  Dean Reynolds : I don't have to listen to this. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll resume later!

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : And this third memo threatens Tauscher-Leto employees with breach of contract lawsuits if they talk to either the press or law enforcement about the Aptril direct mailing scheme. Is that your signature?

• Arthur Branch : [to Cabot]  Alexandra, did you do a deal with Joseph Blaine?

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : He pled guilty to man two.

  Arthur Branch : Man two. For double murder. I think you let that oily-tongued Tennessee weasel Barry Moredock outmaneuver you.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : Mitigating circumstances came to light during the trial.

  Arthur Branch : What mitigating circumstances?

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : A particularly egregious instance of corporate greed.

  Arthur Branch : Corporate greed is the beating heart of America, Alex.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : I'm not accountable to corporate America.

  Arthur Branch : But you are accountable to me and I won't let two innocent boys die without punishing someone for their murder. Do you believe this bleeding-heart nonsense that Aptril made Joe Blaine kill?

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : Tauscher Leto put that medication into Joe Blaine's hands, substantially diminishing his responsibility for his actions.

  Arthur Branch : So who's guilty?

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : I don't know yet.

  Arthur Branch : Then find out. And I don't care how high you have to go.

• ADA Alexandra Cabot : What were you thinking, turning this case over to Barry Moredock?

  Dr. George Huang : I'm concerned about Joe Blaine. I knew Moredock would share my concerns.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : So it wasn't enough you had to call him in, you also handed him his defense?

  Dr. George Huang : I'm not against the use of psychiatric drugs to treat children, I just don't think they should be used as an instrument of school policy.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : Then publish an article. You had no business interfering in my case!

  Dr. George Huang : Thousands of children are being forced to take powerful drugs without psychiatric supervision. Before you crucify Joe Blaine, maybe you should hear what your detectives found out.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : What, now you're working on Joe Blaine's defense too?

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Alex... you weren't there, this kid is seriously troubled.

  Detective Olivia Benson : We spoke to his school counselor. She said that Joe was exceptionally creative, yet extremely disruptive. They suggested: counseling, medication - but, Joe's mother always resisted.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : She said he was special, needed special treatment - so in the end the school insisted that he go see their shrink.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : So that's who prescribed Joe the Aptril?

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Apparently not. Mom wanted a second opinion, so they went to go see a Dr. Engels.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : All right. Find out when Dr. Engels started Joe on the Aptril. Then I can decide whether I should take this defense as seriously as Dr. Huang seems to.

• John Munch : ER faxed it over, Joe Blaine's tox screen, negative for narcotics and alcohol - but not for phenyloxypropilamine.

  Detective Olivia Benson : Aptril.

  John Munch : That's the baby.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : How recently did he take it?

  John Munch : Well, based on the plasma concentration M.E. says he took a pill about 24 hours before the shooting.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : But if a doctor didn't prescribe Aptril, then how did Joe get it? I mean a 13-year-old kid can't just buy it over the counter.

  Odafin Tutuola : Might've got it from school.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : What do you mean?

  Detective Olivia Benson : Well, you got millions of kids taking psychiatric meds - school nurse stations have more drugs than some hospitals.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : They're not handed out like candy?

  Odafin Tutuola : Good as!

  Detective Elliot Stabler : And the drugs are being traded, I've heard of some college students snorting Ritalin - just to help 'em get through exams.

  Odafin Tutuola : Or to get a good buzz, and too stupid to know they're burnin' their own brain out.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : Well, I know one person I could ask.

• ADA Alexandra Cabot : Dr. Petrus, I thought you were here as a scientist, not a storyteller?

• ADA Alexandra Cabot : [to Huang]  I think that Tauscher Leto's direct marketing tactics were responsible for Joe's manic episode which led to his shooting Luke and Tyrell. The company disclaims all responsibility. All the sales reps are taking the Fifth. The trial restarts tomorrow and I think I'm going to win. And I'm I'm not sure I want to.

  Dr. George Huang : Then plead Joe out.

  ADA Alexandra Cabot : How does that get justice for Luke and Tyrell?

  Dr. George Huang : It doesn't. You can't help them, but you can help Joe. Plead him out and he'll get time in a psychiatric institution where his treatment will be decided by doctors. Not insurance and drug companies.