On tonight's episode of Law & Order: SVU, guest star Michelle Gomez took the "overbearing mother" stereotype to an extreme, portraying Connie Parish, a developer tycoon who stops at nothing—not even murder—to keep her son, Martin, under her thumb.
"She is probably one of the most fascinating characters I have played,” Gomez tells Parade. “[But] she is clearly without a redeeming quality in her style of parenting. And she will certainly never win the Best Mother of the Year Award.”
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The episode opens with Connie and Martin (Joseph Cross) in a therapy session. "I wish I was enough," Connie tells Martin. "I want to matter to you as much as you matter to me. All I ask is for one night a week that’s just us."
"I need freedom…to be happy," Martin replies. "You control everything, even these sessions. I am asphyxiated by your support."
The average viewer assumes they're an unhappily married couple, which makes the eventual reveal that they're mother and son all the more disturbing.
"The reveal was just as shocking to me as I think it'll be for the audience," Gomez says. “I kept reading and re-reading [the script] because I couldn't wrap my head around it. It just didn't compute. I kept having to go back and then realize, 'No, that's not her husband, that's her son.'"
"[That sort of incestuous storyline] feels like one of the last taboos, especially for a show like SVU," she adds.
Joseph Cross as Martin Parish, and Frances Turner as Counselor Samuels are sitting at a table in a dimly lit room. There is a window behind them to provide the only light in the NBC series, Law & Order SVU.
Joseph Cross as Martin Parish and Frances Turner as Counselor Samuels.
(Photo by: Ralph Bavaro/NBC
The big reveal comes when Martin turns to his mother for help after brutally raping Parish Enterprises employee Mona Stewart (Alaina Surgener), a young interior designer with whom he does a lot of cocaine (a detail that later turns out to be critical).
Although Mona goes to the police—enter SVU Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay)—she ultimately walks back her accusation after receiving a bribe from Connie, who also got to Mona's corroborating witness.
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Benson, confident that she has the evidence she needs to pursue charges nonetheless, shows up at the Parish townhome to arrest Martin—and finds him in bed with his mother, nuzzled in her chest.
“I think [the scene] would have been much more challenging if it hadn't been with Joseph," Gomez says. "We were very respectful of one another and what we needed to do, which was to basically intonate something that was going on. But it wasn’t too graphic."
Yet another plot twist comes when Mona turns up dead and Benson learns that the young woman was poison by a powdered industrial abrasive used on construction sites. Turns out the coke Mona had been doing with Martin, possibly for months, had been laced with the substance. And guess who'd been supplying that coke? Connie, through her henchman Peter. She'd been intentionally poisoning both Mona and her son.
Michelle Gomez as Connie Parish in a brown jacket and dark turtleneck with a person standing to her right with his back turned, looking out a window in a city on the NBC Law & Order, SVU.
Michelle Gomez guest stars as developer tycoon Connie Parish on Law & Order: SVU.
Photo credit: Zach Dilgard/NBC
And there's more! Benson tracks down Martin's MIA father and learns that he left because Connie had been poisoning him with, you guessed it, the same powered industrial compound. The reason? He caught her breastfeeding Martin when he was 12 years old. Looks like Connie will be doing time in prison.
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“Clearly, Connie needs help, but her darkness didn't worry me," Gomez says of her willingness to take on such a twisted role. "As actors, we are telling stories, so we are trying to shine the light in places of darkness. It actually intrigued me and I wondered what I would bring to it on the day we filmed. I hope it somehow helps someone out there in some way, shape or form."
The episode, appropriately titled "Bubble Wrap," was shot for 10 days in March. "It was such an honor to be on the set of a show that I have watched from the moment that my family moved to the U.S. 20 years ago," Gomez says. “If you are a New York actor, you are not properly part of the New York circle unless you’ve been on SVU; it’s truly a rite of passage.”
Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson stands in front of a window in a city to the right of the frame, looking to her left on the NBC series, Law &Order SVU
Mariska Hargitay as Cpt. OliviaBenson in the Law & Order: SVU episode "Bubble Wrap"
Photo credit: Zach Dilgard/NBC
She was also thrilled to have worked alongside Hargitay. "Mariska is an icon. Just like everybody out there, I fell in love with [her] on day one,” Gomez says. “In five minutes, I felt like I had known her forever. She cut through all the b-----t by being so authentic. She has helped a lot of women out there who haven't had the courage to find their voice. Mariska is like the Statue of Liberty—a true beacon of hope!”
Law & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
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