Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Exile (2018)

Sandrine Holt: Lisa Abernathy

Quotes 

• Lisa Abernathy : We tend to experience identity as a thing, but it's less stable. It has less unity than we'd like to believe. Sophie didn't like the identity she had, so she gave it the boot. Enter Grace, stage left.

  Olivia Benson : So it's almost like she committed suicide without actually having to kill herself.

• Lisa Abernathy : You're right, Liv. It looks like Dissociative Fugue Disorder.

  Peter Stone : Translation?

  Lisa Abernathy : It's a very rare condition where the patient loses autobiographical memory, their personal identity, so they adopt a new one.

  Olivia Benson : And it's usually triggered by child abuse or sexual assault.

  Peter Stone : Sophie did spend the last three years getting assaulted on the street.

  Lisa Abernathy : Grace did. Not Sophie. That identity had already been exiled from her conscious mind.

  Peter Stone : Well, that's a little dramatic.

• Peter Stone : So the trauma happened her freshman year at Spence?

  Lisa Abernathy : Or there was something there that triggered the memory.

  Peter Stone : You think her father abused her?

  Lisa Abernathy : I think it's possible. I wouldn't put her back together with her parents until we find the source of the trauma.

  Peter Stone : She doesn't have years to spend on the couch.

  Olivia Benson : Somebody sexually abused this girl, and the trauma was so severe that she actually abandoned who she was.

  Peter Stone : You catch him, I'll cook him. But I'm gonna need a lot more than the testimony of a girl who can't remember what happened.

  Olivia Benson : Okay, so how do we help her remember?

  Lisa Abernathy : Every patient is different. But starting with the man who assaulted her might be a good place to start.

  Peter Stone : Yeah, piece of cake. If we knew who he was.

  Olivia Benson : [getting an idea]  Hold on. What if... what if we took Sophie back to the place where she became Grace?