Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Sunk Cost Fallacy (2018)

Stephanie March: Alexandra 'Alex' Cabot

Photos 

Quotes 

• Olivia Benson : You can't break the law, Alex.

  Alexandra Cabot : Why the hell not?

  Olivia Benson : Because it makes you a criminal, that's why.

• Alexandra Cabot : Betty Bluestone. It was a case I had about five years ago. Her husband, Mitch, used her face like a leg of lamb in a "Rocky" movie. I filed charges, and Betty fell apart on the stand.

  Olivia Benson : Case dismissed?

  Alexandra Cabot : So the happy couple goes home, and he blows her brains out on the bathroom tile. I did my job, and in the end, all I did for Betty was delay the inevitable.

  Olivia Benson : So you decided to take matters into your own hands.

  Alexandra Cabot : So I started volunteering at a women's shelter, and it grew from there.

  Dominick Carisi Jr. : How many women have you disappeared?

  Alexandra Cabot : Hundreds. It's not just me. You wouldn't believe how deep and far this network goes.

  Olivia Benson : Alex, this is cruel. These women, their... their families, their friends think that they've been murdered.

  Alexandra Cabot : No, no, every case is different. In Jules' case, death was the only way Nick Hunter was ever gonna let her leave.

• Alexandra Cabot : You could have lied, Liv!

  Olivia Benson : No, I couldn't have. I was under oath.

  Alexandra Cabot : And what? You thought God would smite you? It is a fiction, Olivia. This entire "tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth" is a load of crap that we tell people so that they think the criminal justice system gives a damn about them. Who did what, who did what to whom...

  Olivia Benson : What happened to you?

  Alexandra Cabot : I opened my eyes. I opened them wide, and I saw that for 12 years, I was a cog in a holier-than-thou wheel, and the wheel just keeps spinning and tossing off bodies as it goes. Some remain standing, some fall. Nobody cares. Nobody gives a damn, as long as the wheel keeps turning.

• Olivia Benson : I thought you moved to Florida, like the rest of the retired ADAs.

  Alexandra Cabot : Florida makes my hair frizzy.

  Olivia Benson : Yeah, well, who wants a kidnapper with frizzy hair?

  Alexandra Cabot : No one's being kidnapped. I only help people who want to be helped.

  Olivia Benson : Yeah, like Jules and Ruby Hunter? Ruby is four years old, Alex. At the very minimum, you're an accomplice to kidnapping.

  Alexandra Cabot : I'm helping them start an extended vacation.

  Olivia Benson : You faked their deaths. You planted evidence.

  Alexandra Cabot : Technically, the cops misread the facts.

  Olivia Benson : Don't play games with me, Alex, please.

  Alexandra Cabot : They were abused. I do what I have to do.

  Olivia Benson : Jesus. Alex, Nick Hunter is sitting at Rikers, charged with murdering his wife and his daughter.

  Alexandra Cabot : It's not like he doesn't deserve it.

  Olivia Benson : How many husbands are are sitting in prison because you decided to take the law into your own hands?

• Olivia Benson : [to Cabot]  You know, today, on the I was on the subway platform, and I saw these two cockroaches, and they were pulling at different ends of a crust of bread. And then the bread tore, and it fell onto the tracks, and and neither bug got their dinner.

  Alexandra Cabot : Are you proposing we work together?

  Olivia Benson : I could never do what you do, Alex.

• Jules Hunter : I just needed him to believe I was dead. I don't want him to go to jail.

  Olivia Benson : But he hurt you.

  Jules Hunter : Yes, but then he'd apologize.

  Olivia Benson : And swear that he'd never do it again.

  Alexandra Cabot : Tell her about dinner at the Four Seasons.

  Jules Hunter : Um, it was my birthday. We had the Chateaubriand for two and a fancy bottle of Margaux. He was so sweet.

  Alexandra Cabot : Until...

  Jules Hunter : While we were waiting for dessert, I went to the ladies' room. Uh, when I got back to the table, I realized I forgot my purse, so I went back to get it. Nicholas thought I went back to flirt with the waiter. We skipped dessert. When we were outside, he... slammed me against the hood of the car.

  Alexandra Cabot : She got a concussion.

  Olivia Benson : Okay, did you go to the hospital?

  Ruby Hunter : [entering]  Mommy, I wanna go home.

  Jules Hunter : Mommy's talking. Go watch TV.

  [Ruby leaves] 

  Jules Hunter : I went to St. Vincent's.

  Alexandra Cabot : She told them that she hit her head while she was cleaning her kitchen cabinets.

  Jules Hunter : Once, I brought up divorce, but Nick threw a glass at me.

• Alexandra Cabot : [about Jules Hunter]  We never should've brought her back!

  Olivia Benson : For God's sake, Alex, I followed the law.

  Alexandra Cabot : And it got her killed!

  Olivia Benson : You cannot be serious.

  Alexandra Cabot : That man belonged in prison.

  Olivia Benson : This is America, Alex. You can't lock someone up without proof.