Ned's Got a Dirty Little Secret

Before eschewing his life in Niagara Falls for one seemingly set in a storybook, the atheist-comparative-religions-PhD-student-cum-pie-baker Ned had a dark, dark secret.

You see, in 2002--nearly two years before we picked up his life again in "Wonderfalls"--Ned, the pie maker with an ability to resurrect the dead with a touch of the finger, was serving a stint in Sing Sing. Shocking; trust me, I know.
In the third season episode Guilt, the team at SVU find themselves scrambling to piece together what should have been a slam dunk case after a sting at Grand Central Station goes awry and the victim that was going to testify attempts suicide after his grand jury testimony. As they look into past alleged victims of their perp, Roy Barnett, they visit Ned* in Ossining.

*He has clearly changed his name, seemingly and understandably, multiple times to try to leave his past behind him. At this point in his life, Ned is operating under the alias Benjamin Tucker. One assumes that this, in fact is the alias, as his name to his real family is Aaron Tyler. If one were exercising a rational train of thought here, it would be entirely reasonable to extrapolate that he explained away his time in the slammer (and accordingly time away from his family) by using an excuse like studying abroad.

Before delving too far into what Ned said while meeting with Detectives Stabler, Benson, and ADA Cabot, it should be noted that in this session it is established that he has a history of saying just about anything to reduce his sentence, so his statements herein should be held with a grain of salt:

"I started offending when I was 18. I had a lot of anger, and also I had a lot of self-hatred. You know, because of what Roy did to me, and because my parents were, um, distant.

[...]I read about that kid that overdosed. If you want, I can testify against Roy for molesting me.

[...]I want to a transfer to a psych facility for sex offenders. I don't belong in prison.

[...]I did some very terrible things, but I know they were wrong now. When I'm released, I know I'm not gonna put myself in those situations again. I'm just gonna stay away from temptation. No driving by schools. No going to malls. None of that.

[...]Roy knew never to keep records, but he had one weakness: videotapes. [Benson: Of what?] Him. With his victims. He used to send them to us.

It's a little jarring to find out that someone we thought we know had a dark past. Being in prison for being a serial child molester certainly qualifies as a dark past.

Now given that his victims were boys, it is important to note that Roy Barnett typically perpetrated against straight boys in their early teens. Many of them were members of youth sports teams that he coached who were lacking in father figures. He paved the way to getting in their pants by showing them tons of straight porn, breaking down their defenses by persuading them that he would show them how to become a man.

So, if we are to assume that Cabot granted "Benjamin" his wish, it may be possible that he was successfully reformed. His behavior after his release would seem to point towards that. Once he returns to his family in Niagara Falls (still within the State of New York, indicating that we're not just dealing with a convenient look-alike), he does find himself falling for Jaye's best friend, Mahandra. As the series comes to a close, they are still together.


When we encounter him again, we get a more complete picture of his background. Having left Niagara Falls*, Aaron Tyler is now Ned, and he is the proprietor of the Pie Hole and head baker of pies. It is here that we first discover his peculiar gift.

*Did Majandra and his family find out about his sex offender status despite the use of aliases?

You see, Benjamin/Aaron/Ned has had the ability to bring dead things back to life with the touch of his hand. There are some catches to this gift, though. Bringing a being back to life for more than 60 seconds means that the unexplained forces of the universe will balance that resurrection out with a death of someone nearby. He also is unable to ever touch the being that he brought back to life without taking that life back.

Given this gift/curse, his fragile psychological state at that volatile developmental stage would feasibly point towards a susceptibility to Roy's advances. There would also seem to be a karmic balance that is struck between his past indiscretions and his inability to come into contact with his true love, 'Chuck,' who he brought back to life after she was killed on a cruise ship.

All too often, we come across people from our past whose lives were much better before we pick back up with their life story when the Special Victims Unit comes across them. In this instance, we are at Ned's rock bottom. From here, his life takes a turn for the better. He seems to have righted his life. He has stayed away from those temptations as claimed (at least as best as we can tell). He is a glowing beacon in the thinning group of sexual offenders who do not recidivate.

In that, we can hold out a shred of hope for other perps. The odds are not in their favor, as recidivism rates are astronomically high, but perhaps there are exceptions.

So three cheers for Ned, the reformed pederast and accomplished pie man. Hip hop hooray! Hip hop hooray! Hip hop hooray!