Law & Order SVU started season 16 with a story line carried over from the
season 15 finale “Spring Awakening” which ended with Benson becoming foster mother to Ellie’s baby, Noah. “Girls Disappeared” begins with Benson making a promise to Noah that she will get his mother’s killer, and we see a brief flashback of events that happened 4 months earlier to refresh the viewers' memories.
Back in the present, Amaro is now working as a traffic cop, and he makes an arrest of a john and his under-age hooker. He soon learns from his former colleagues at SVU that the hooker is a material witness in Ellie Porter’s murder. It was a nice tie-in, bringing both the SVU squad and Amaro together to work the case to get Ellie’s killer plus and take down an operation of the trafficking underage girls. This was an extremely well written story, filled with the right balance of action, drama, and suspense. Also making the episode very satisfying was some nice staging of scenes and camera work, which brought a fresh perspective on some of the usual settings which had become a little stale over the years.
In the last season, Fin was too subdued and had become a dull character who seemed to be going through the motions. It was a pleasant change that he appeared edgier and quick on his feet in this episode. Thankfully, he was also quick on the trigger during the final moments of the episode.
I had two worries going in to this episode: the first being too much focus on a “baby Noah” story, the second being the addition of a new detective, Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino). While putting a lead character’s child in danger is an overused plot device, I thought that it was good to get it out of the way while there was a logical way to fit it into the story line. And the writers DID fit it in very well. Hopefully, though, they won’t go to this well again. The writers also included just the right amount of short scenes with Benson and Noah to emphasize Benson’s resolve to find his mother’s killer and to show the joy that Noah brings to her life. (Anyone else notice the tipped stroller added to the opening credits? Update - the stroller has been in the opening, I guess I mjust noticed it because I had the baby story line on my mind!)
My worry with Sonny Carisi, based on the short clips that I saw prior to the premiere, was that we were going to have another “Stuckey” on our hands. (Fans will know exactly who I am talking about.) Instead, my worries quickly disappeared when I found that I liked Sonny coming in and jumping right into the mix in a very forward way. He added a bit of a spark and possibly a new approach. I hope that I will continue to feel this way about Sonny in his future SVU appearances.
Season 16 is off to a great start!
Here is the recap:
Cast:
Mariska Hargitay – Sergeant Olivia Benson
Ice-T – Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola
Kelli Giddish - Detective Amanda Rollins
Danny Pino - Detective Nick Amaro
Raúl Esparza - ADA Rafael Barba
Guest stars:
Peter Scanavino – Detective Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr.
Lobo Sebastian - Joaquin Menendez
Manny Perez - Angel Perez
Emma Greenwell – Ellie Porter
Michael Kostroff – Attorney
Amina Robinson – Officer D'Bora Maresko
Jayne Houdyshell - Judge Linden
Alexa Mansour - Luna Garcia
Laura Gomez - Selena Cruz
Lenny Venito - John Gatto
Gavin-Keith Umeh - Little Tino
Bronwyn Reed – Lucy Huston
Sara Contreras – Alminia Aguilar
Chelsea LJ Lopez – Missy Brooks
Maria Rivera – Carmen
Ciara Renee – Sra Perez
Williams Watkins – Uni
Angel Romero - Miguel
Benson puts a sleepy Noah in the crib and she whispers to him about him missing his mommy and his mother's hard road. She wonders if she will even be able to tell his mother’s story. Benson whispers that his mother loved him very much and that her name was Ellie.
Four months earlier…
Flashback to Ellie, Benson and Fin at the halfway house. Benson tells her Little Tino is out but he is wearing a bracelet. Benson tells her she will be safe here. Fin explains she will have to testify at the grand jury tomorrow. Benson wants her to focus on being clean and working the program, Ellie tells Benson she does not want Noah to grow up in foster care and wants him to grow up being loved. Later, the detectives find Ellie’s dead, burned body. Little Tino is questioned at SVU, and Benson is asked to be Noah’s foster mother.
Back in the present...
Benson continues to whisper to Noah to reassure him they are trying to find the man who hurt his mom, saying he has a lot of friends. She promises she will not rest until she gets him.
Elsewhere, Amaro is now working as a cop and he and his partner stop at a car parked on the street next to a hydrant and the man, in the car with a woman, is exposing himself. Amaro and his partner get the couple out of the car and in the process of checking them out, the young girl kicks the officer and grabs her own purse and runs off. Amaro races after her and tells her she does not have to run. As he restrains her and cuffs her, she is worried her pimp will kill her. A car, presumably the pimp’s, drives by with another young girl watching in the back seat.
Rollins and Fin arrive at the 116th Precinct for Luna Garcia and the find Amaro is working there. He apologizes for not calling them, saying he has been busy doing as much OT as he can. He explains that Luna is underage and her prints came in form INS a half hour ago. Rollins explains she is also a material witness in the rape-homicide of Ellie Porter. Amaro recognizes Ellie’s name is being Noah’s mom and asks if Benson knows, and Fin explains that is why they are here. Amaro explains his partner did the paperwork and if he had seen the want card he would have called right away. Fin explains Benson wants them to bring Luna in and Amaro understands.
Outside the precinct as Rollins takes a cuffed Luna to the car, Luna doesn’t know what is going on and Rollins says she will be fine, they just want to talk to her. As they get to the car, a shot is fired and a nearby car window is shattered and they all duck for cover. Fin then moves to another spot for cover and tells the shooter he is police and to drop the gun. The shooter continues to fire ad Fin returns fire. The shooter runs into the street and is hit by a passing car. On the ground, he reaches for the gun, but Fin races up, his gun drawn, telling him if he moves he will cap his ass. Fin kicks the gun away.
Benson steps out of the elevator and asks Rollins where is the shooter, Rollins explains he is at the hospital with Fin. Luna is in interview and is shaken up. Benson wonders how the shooter knew they were picking up Luna, and Rollins explains Amaro thinks they were followed to the precinct. Benson is surprised it was Amaro who said that and Rollins explains he was the arresting officer. A detective walks up and interrupts, saying that they shot at a cop right outside the station so they want them to know they are crazy. Benson comments that he must be her new detective, and he holds his hand out to Rollins to shake it, introducing himself as Dominic Carisi Jr., and asks them to call him Sonny as he shaken Benson’s hand, saying he brought food. Benson half questions that she asked for an experienced, empathic detective and they sent him. He replies he is way experienced, sensitive and moody too and he can do that whole empathy thing. Benson and Rollins smile and as Benson walks off, Rollins asks where is Sonny from. He says he was at Staten Island SVU form 2 months and Brooklyn for almost a month – and Benson’s smile fades from her face – he adds also Queens last week. Benson quips that they love him wherever he goes, calling him Carisi. He reminds her to call him Sonny, adding he was supposed to start tomorrow but started a day early when he heard about the shooting on the police scanner. He asks what is our read. Benson says the 116 had a witness from one of their open cases and they took a shot at her. Sonny asks if it was the girl giving a smoothie to the mook in the minivan, asking what she was a witness to. As Benson takes out a folio from her briefcase, a pacifier falls onto the desk and she quickly picks it up before anyone can see it. Rollins explains that few months ago a trafficked girl was gang raped and set on fire. Sonny recalls hearing about it, saying it was horrible, saying a pimp green lit her. Benson explains it was Little Tino, who took the rap but they don’t think he ordered the hit. Sonny thinks they think Luna will give up Mr. Big, and asks Benson if she wants him to take a run at her. Benson says with sarcasm that she can certainly see why he is so popular, then tells Rollins to talk to the john and she tells Sonny to come with her, she needs him to follow her lead or he will be 0 for 4 in his all-borough tour of SVU will continue in t he Bronx. She walks out of her office.
Meanwhile, Rollins questions the guy about being in the car with a 16 year old and he inadvertently admits to statutory rape. Rollins shows him a photo of Ellie and he doesn’t know her. Separately, Benson, with Sonny, questions Luna about Ellie and Luna begs to be put in jail. Benson says they want her dead and they killed Ellie and if she works with them they will keep her safe. Sonny pipes up saying she will be as safe as she can be. Benson glares at him and he says if she is not going to talk to them and keep blowing smoke. Benson sits back and lets Sonny question her. He talks to her very frankly and Benson finally asks him to get Luna something to drink. Luna shouts that she told them she doesn’t know her, and Sonny gets up to leave and tells Benson it’s no problem but before he goes, he strongly tells Luna that wasn’t a warning shot, He adds her papi green lit her ass. Benson says that is not helping but he goes on to say she has one hope: teen non-immigrant status for traffic girls. She will get a new identity and move to a new city, adding “welcome to America.” He says he can pull those strings and make that happen but Luna has to make a statement...at least they can offer her a chance. Benson says it is either us or them, she wants them to live but they don’t. She then says that Sonny will get her something to drink
Afterwards, Benson walks into her office with Sonny in tow and says he got pretty lucky in there offering her T status and asks what is he, and immigration lawyer? He explains he is halfway there, he just did a term paper on the issue. Benson questions that he wrote a paper and now says he has pull, but he thinks because he got her to believe he does. Benson says that may work on Staten Island but that is not how they do things here. He apologizes but knows after what happened to Ellie Luna knows they can’t keep her safe. Benson said so he scared her, asking what happened to that empathy thing. He asks when was the last time she got empathy from a man? She is used to her pimp telling her what to do, a nice guy is just playing her. Benson says fine, just get her to talk.
