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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Death is closer to life than people think. All that blood you have pumping right underneath the surface of your skin... I could bite your neck right now. By the time they got in here, it would be too late. | „ |
| ~ Henry menacing a psychiatrist |
Henry Mesner is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes "Born Psychopath" and "Post-Graduate Psychopath." He is a boy with antisocial personality disorder who abuses, and eventually tries to kill his own sister and is a personal nemesis of Detective Amanda Rollins and Assistant District Attorney Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr. In 2021, he is released from a juvenile facility and goes on a rape and murder spree.
He was portrayed by Ethan Cutkosky.
What makes him Pure Evil?[]
"Born Psychopath"[]
- He assaulted many kids while in school and had lots of temper tantrums.
- Over many years, Henry has been abusing his little sister in various ways, methods such as pushing her down the stairs (which fractured her ribs), slamming her fingers in a door, etc.
- He states multiple times that he hates his sister, and he wanted to 'experiment' to see if pushing her down the stairs would kill her. His brutal methods also result in his sister deeming him 'The Monster'.
- His parents fare no better with Henry as he constantly gets angry at them for telling him off.
- At one point he is confronted by his mother about his behavior and, when she tries to tuck him into bed, Henry refuses and callously slashes her hand with a kitchen knife.
- Later in the episode, after his parents told him about him going in a treatment facility, he snaps and proceeds to trap his mother in the laundry room, he then ties up his sister to a bed and sets some matches to light a fire, we see smoke filling up the room as Henry watches his sister choke nearly to death. The scene after has the fire team saying that Henry nearly set the entire apartment on fire, which could have potentially killed dozens of people.
- Henry then goes to his friend Toby's house and proceeds to tie Toby up and lock him in the closet with a bag over his head, threatening to shoot him before he abuses and drowns their pet dog named 'Snowball'.
- Steals the gun that belonged to Toby's father and takes a young boy as a hostage, holding a gun to the kid's head.
- Amaro says 'maybe later' when Henry releases the hostage, setting Henry to start bragging about what might happen if he shot him, he then eventually does, though it's a non-fatal shot, he expresses open intent to kill him when he's incapacitated.
- His psychotic and unhinged behavior manages to freak out several members of the squad, with even George Huang stating that "he's only ever felt chills twice in his life and the latter was with death row serial killers".
- He does not care for his parents' well-being since he is abusive to them, he is not only manipulative, but very intelligent, outright faking emotions multiple times throughout the episode, even to his father at the end of the episode.
"Post-Graduate Psychopath"[]
- After being institutionalized for 8 years, he pretends to be 'treated' and manipulates the institute staff into letting him go.
- Immediately after returning to society, he initiates his rampage by murdering his stepmum, his father, and his 5-year-old half-brother when his dad recommends, he get a job.
- Tracks down, ties up, burns, chokes, and brutally rapes Libby Blandon before stealing her debit card and code.
- He stalks and tracks down Amanda Rollins’ and gives a toy to her daughter, naming it 'Snowball' in an attempt to taunt her.
- He makes a homeless man buy a bunch of objects such as rope, zip-ties, duct tape, and a hand torch; clearly to use during his rampage.
- Assaults, ties up, gags, and puts a cop in the trunk of his car.
- When speaking with his sister Ruby who is now 13 years old, he expresses nothing but hate and contempt for her and the rest of his family.
- He raids the house of Ruby's adoptive parents, ties up her older adoptive sister (possibly raped her) and kidnapps his younger sister and takes her to an amusement park that's closed down.
- Rollins then finds the two in the 'mirror funhouse' where Henry holds a gun to Ruby's head, outright exclaiming that he's 'glad' his mother is dead and expressing intent to kill his sister, Rollins manages to stop this by claiming that she was the one who got Henry institutionalized which enrages him.
- Rollins manages to convince him to let Ruby go with Henry, now wanting to talk to Rollins, he explains about a disturbing experience he had when he was 6, when he watched his friend Oscar, and his mother drown to death.
- Henry exclaims that he just 'did what the ocean wanted him to do' and 'floated with the tide', leaving his friend to die. He claims this is the 'first time' he knew he was different and that he was bummed he didn't get to physically see the death of his friend and his mother.
- Although he does agree to surrender, but this simply happens as he's aware that he'll be institutionalized again, not incarcerated. Rollins even comments that his killing spree is 'all he's been thinking about for 8 years', outright hoping that whoever locks Henry up 'throws away the key'.
- When put on trial, he manages to elude jail-time via 'reason of insanity' and demonstrates a ploy to re-affirm it by going berserk and stabbing Carisi in the ear with a pencil in the courtroom.
- When Rollins visits him as he's being institutionalized and threatens to kill him if he ever comes near her family or Carisi again, he responds to it with an unsettling smile.
- While he does have a friendship with Connor and his sister, seeing as he is a master manipulator who managed to make his parents think he was normal, the probability of the friendship being real is highly unlikely. In addition, it's also mostly offscreen, therefore it relies on some speculation.
- Despite being called "two spectrums beyond normal social behavior", he still has clear moral agency as he is sadistic and manipulative, coupled with the fact that being beyond social behavior just shows he cannot make normal friendships.
- While his first appearance portrays him as a mentally ill kid, this sympathy utterly gets flushed down the drain when he goes on his crime spree in his second appearance, showing massive sadism and no remorse.
External Links[]
- Henry Mesner on the Villains Wiki
- Henry Mesner on the Law & Order Wiki
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 Universe Pure Evils
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