Law & Order SVU “Tommy Baker’s Hardest Fight” Recap, Review, Discussion

Full disclosure – I fell asleep while watching this episode. After dozing for a half hour, I woke up at the end, just as Benson and McGrath are having a candid talk.  Then, as I watched Tommy speak on camera,  I asked myself how corny and syrupy can you get?  When Benson put her hand to her heart,  I rolled my eyes and thought  "What a ridiculous ending".  I figured maybe I’d feel different about that scene after a good night’s sleep and after watching the parts of the episode I missed. I also assumed I was going to hate the episode because of it.

But to my surprise, I thought this episode was good.   It was an interesting story, and it was refreshing to see the detectives work the evidence and the suspects with the feel of the early Law & Order SVU episodes.  It gave viewers a chance to see Rollins and Velasco bonding over the fight, and even seeing Rollins using her knowledge of the sport, the fighter, and gambling while working the case.  And finally Fin gets  to be more than window-dressing and/or say the occasional quip.  Generally, I am impressed with the overall production of this season with its realistic look and feel.  

The side story involving Chief McGrath and his family problems and what appear to be serious anger issues could leave a lot of room for  further exploration this season.  While I don’t see Benson ever using what she knows about McGrath  as a way to get one rung up the ladder, it’s highly likely that unless McGrath gets his act together, someone else will.   My gut tells me McGrath won’t be able to change – a leopard can’t change its spots -  and something bad will happen because of his anger issues somewhere down the road. I know that it is Benson’s  nature to reach out and offer help, but part of me wishes that she WOULD trigger an official look into that incident at his home.  If she does nothing and something bad happens to his family because of it, she would be partly to blame for giving him a pass. 

Oh, and that last scene?  After watching the whole episode, I still didn’t like it. Tommy Baker wants to “speak [his] truth” – but let’s not forget he wants to  make money off it too.  I’m sure his speech, while it looks heartwarming to Benson, could have simply been Tommy and Jax’s springboard for their marketing campaign.

Here is the recap:

Its FWO Fight night – a match between Tommy Baker and the current champion. Kiki “Killer” Alves. The usual trash talking between fighters goes on  and Tommy seems agitated. 

Back at SVU, Fin works on DD5s and Benson finds Rollins and Velasco in another room watching the lead up to the fight,   Rollins says Tommy is going to win back his title, Rollins is a fan.  But Velasco thinks Alves will win.  Rollins states there was a time she would wager on this. Fin announces he’s finished the DD5s – he is not watching the fight. Rollins says it is not about the fight – it is the human spectacle.  Fin comments he works in sex crimes every day  and he gets enough human spectacle.

Later, outside the precinct, Velasco tells Rollins the other person he was meeting just canceled and he offers her a ride on his motorcycle to the bar. She calls the sitter and makes the arrangements. Later, they watch the fight coverage at the bar,  but Tommy doesn’t show up on stage when announced.  Something is wrong. 

Somewhere outside the venue, police arrive on the scene and find Tommy Baker in the back of a truck, unconscious, bloodied and his pants down,  A female  office attempts to raise his shorts. 

Later, Benson arrives at the hospital and Rollins is already there.  She explains how Tommy was found, and that his phone was opened up to Grindr.  The nurse explains Tommy’s injuries and that Tommy also has anal trauma.  Rollins explains his wife Chrissy Baker and his dad Duke are waiting.  

Fin speaks to the officers on scene, one explains Tommy’s phone was ringing and he used Tommy’s fingertip to unlock it.  The female officer explains she tried to pull up  his pants to protect his reputation.  Velasco calls Fin and says the pickup is registered to Tommy and the keyless remote was in his pocket and there were no signs of forced entry. Prints are everyone but the steering wheel and door were wiped clean. No prints on the phone. The location is deserted. 

Chief McGrath arrives at the hospital and tries to skirt the reporters.  Inside, Benson and Rollins speak with McGrath who complains about the reporters. They haven’t spoken with the wife yet.  Fin adds there was nothing from the crime scene – no witnesses or cameras and the truck was wiped clean.  McGrath looks frustrated and says he is worried about the advocacy groups and how they will think they are handling this. He tells them to make a quick arrest and shut this down.  He tells them to tell the wife before she finds out about the sexual assault on line. 

Benson and Rollins speak with Chrissy but she already knows about Grindr and says Tommy would never do that.  She knows Tommy is gay but she fully supports him and he is her best friend.  He would never do a random hookup and  has been in a relationship for a year with Phil Diaz, his physical therapist, and he is in the chapel 

Later, in the chapel at Mercy Hospital on Friday January 14,  Benson and Rollins speak with Phil. He talks about Tommy’s injury when they met, and they fell in love. Not many people know but after tonight, the whole world will know. Tommy was going to come out as a gay man after the fight right there in the ring. Only him, Chrissy and Jax Bell, the former champ and commissioner and co-owner of FWO. Phil thinks no  one ever knows what Jax is really thinking.  Rollins gets a message and tells Benson Fin has something, so Benson leaves the chapel. 

Fin explains that TARU says the Grindr account was just activated yesterday and it looks like someone is trying to make it look like a hookup gone wrong. Benson thinks whoever it is didn’t want Tommy to get into that ring or come out afterwards. 

In his office, McGrath is arguing on the phone with "Katie" and Katie hangs up.  Benson walks in on the call and tells McGrath the Grindr date  was staged and McGrath testily gives her a smart-assed comment that he could have told her that.  He quickly apologizes. When Benson asks what is going on, he says raising teenage daughters is tougher than this job, pointing out the middle one.  Benson  mentions Noah is still in grade school.  McGrath worries because he and his wife waited up for her until t 2:30 in the morning and with the animals out there…he was scared to death.  She was drunk and she started mouthing off to him.  Benson says she is so sorry while McGrath continued to complain about it and that his wife got pissed off at him.  He adds after 32 years of marriage they are entitled to a bad night or two.  Benson offers  her help, but he says just close the case and get it off his desk. 

Benson returns to the squad room as the newspaper headline says “Prayers For Tommy” and says she guesses they’ve all seen the headlines and that McGrath is stressed.  They talk about Tommy’s condition and his financials, but that he didn’t need to throw the fight to pay debt, the fight would have been a big payday.  No last minute swings in betting on the betting sites.  Velasco thinks the fights are done for honor. There were only traces of blood so the injuries didn’t happen in the truck. Benson concludes they don’t have a crime scene and asks to piece together a timeline of Tommy’s day. Rollins suggests starting with the training center, 

At FWO Training Center on Saturday, January 15,  Rollins and Velasco enter and they see others watching Jax Bell make a statement about Tommy on TV.  Rollins suggests starting with Ricky Nowak as he and Tommy trained together.  They speak with Ricky who says he is sick about it and everybody loves him.  That morning he wanted to talk to Jax and Jax was pissed, Tommy coming out of the office shaken up.  Tommy was in a bad mood. Jax is at the network with his lawyers.

Later Benson and Fin are at the penthouse of Tommy and Chrissy Baker on January 15,  Chrissy is surprised to hear about the issue with Jax. Jax is the boss and they try to keep it cordial but they can turn on a dime. She never talked to Tommy on Friday. No one was with Tommy in the apartment, he gets in his zone.  He does his cardio in the gym in the basement. 

Benson and Fin speak with the concierge and hear there are no cameras there, only at the entrance. There is a back door in the basement.  They head there as the concierge talks about how much Tommy is loved by everyone there. They can only get in the door if they have a key. Benson notices droplets on the floor and Benson wants CSU in there. She also hears Jax is on his way in. 

Back at SVU, Benson and Fin speak with Jax and he sounds cooperative.  They tell him what they know and he says they did speak and he wished him well. They explain they heard about the argument and Jax says if this is going to turn adversarial he can walk out and they can talk to his lawyers. He just lost millions of dollars and that’s the last think he wanted was for Tommy to miss the fight. Benson mentions him coming out, and Jax says was okay with it, they were going to build a whole campaign about it. She shows them an image of  t-shirt with a “Rainbow Warriors” emblem on it – their first openly gay male fighter, and all the sponsors they’d talk to. Tens of millions of dollars were tied to the announcement. They argued  because Tommy said he couldn’t go through with it – it was his dad. He was afraid to in front of his father. Tommy said his dad would kill him. Jax says Duke Baker is one nasty son-of-a-bitch. 

Later, Benson, Fin and Velasco discuss that the blood found by the gym  was Tommy’s blood type.  Tommy’s truck was seen pulling out after 5PM but the windows were tinted so they can’t see who was at the wheel.  Rollins enters and says Duke Baker is on his way in.  He is a legendary ass-kicker in tough man competitions all over Georgia including every bar in Rollins’ home town.  No convictions but his brother is on the force. Velasco questions if they actually think he’s good for it, and Benson explains one thing he’ll learn on the job is you’ll never know what anyone is capable of. When Velasco leaves the room. Fin asks him to close the door. Fin asks Benson if she’s heard the rumors about McGrath and says there was a domestic incident outside his house in Syosset late Thursday  night and the cops were called.  Benson mentions McGrath told her one of his daughters was acting out and they got into it a bit but he never mentioned police response.  Fin adds that when the Nassau County cops got there, he told them to report it as unfounded.  Fin states that is abuse of the badge.  Benson asks if he’s never told a cop he’s on the job when he gets pulled over, and Fin says it is not the same thing. Benson counters she knows he doesn’t like the guy but asks that he’s not expecting her to go over his head and use this to take him out. Fin replies no, this may be mentioned to him the she heard the rumors and she has  his back, it can’t be bad to have a little leverage on that guy.  Benson says, “Alright, Fin.”

 

Meanwhile, Rollins speaks with Duke Baker who says his visit to New York was a surprise to Tommy and Chrissy as he didn’t want them to fuss over him. He adds he and Chrissy stayed at a fancy hotel.  Rollins brings up his “announcement” but he says Tommy has people to get involved in his business dealings.  Rollins mentions watching Tommy fight at Champs when he was a kid and when Duke was training him, but Duke says he was only a barroom brawler and he could only take him so far.  But when Rollins says people says that Tommy boxed him out and starts to question him about that, he gets  testy, but says he may not have been the best  father but all  he ever wanted to do was protect him and that’s why he taught him to fight in the first place. He knew he’d need it. He mentions the headlines and figured if he was tough on Tommy, it would make  him follow in the traditions of the Baker men, maybe. After his mother died he might have been too hard on him after that and he got away from him as fast he could and is running out of time to make it right. He states he has pancreatic cancer and he has two months.  Tommy doesn’t know. He tried to tell him when he came by the hotel Thursday and Tommy got a phone call. It may have been one of his money people as he was on the phone for a long time and he was late for the weigh in and said they would talk after the fight. Tommy is all  he has left and will use these last breaths to show how proud he is of him. 

Afterward, Benson asks Rollins how it went and she explains he didn’t do it, and that he is dying of cancer.  She thinks he came up to make amends.  She mentions the phone call Duke told her about and how the call changed Tommy’s mood.  Benson asks if they checked his phone records and Fin says Tommy took a 12 minute call with his business manager on Thursday night and the manager said he is not willing to talk unless Tommy gives permission or there is a subpoena.  Benson says she’ll call Carisi. She adds they knew about his overspending and asks if anything jumped out. Velasco mentions high end watches and big tabs on nightclubs, $5,000 in collector’s edition sneakers – then adds he just started leasing a Porsche  for $1,000  month, But Tommy drives a pickup truck. Benson tells him to  track the license and find out who’s driving the Porsche. 

Later, at the penthouse, Benson, with Rollins,  speak with Chrissy and tells her Ricky Nowak got a speeding ticket driving the Porsche.  Chrissy thinks Tommy let him borrow it, and Benson mentions that was very generous. Ricky as part of his crew and they partied, and he and Tommy sparred from time to time. Chrissy thinks Ricky saw Tommy as a mentor. Rollins asks if they sparred that day and Chrissy explains Tommy never sparred the day of a fight.  She admits Ricky has been there but that they were not in a relationship, Tommy is in love with Phil. Rollins suggests a triangle but Chrissy says Tommy is not like that and that Ricky is not gay. She then states she and Ricky are involved – very involved.   Rollins asks if she knew Ricky was taking money using Tommy’s  credit cards, and Chrissy says she gave them to him, he just kept asking for more.  Benson asks if Tommy knew she was keeping him and when did he find that out, and Chrissy replies the night before the fight.

At the apartment of Ricky Nowak on Sunday, January 16,  Fin and Velasco are at Ricky’s door and when he doesn’t answer, the super opens the door and find his apartment in disarray and everything of Ricky’s is gone.  They also hear he’s three months behind on rent. 

Later, Chrissy is in SVU interrogation and Benson is hearing the news from Velasco via phone.  She tells him to put an alert on bus or train tickets and get a BOLO on the Porsche. Benson explains to Chrissy that Ricky has left town and Chrissy denies knowing this and had no plans to meet up with him.  Benson pressures her and she swears she last saw him Thursday night when he “kind of” came up to the hotel room. Benson continues to pressure Chrissy and all the lies she’s telling,  and she says she would never hurt Tommy, he is her everything, and Ricky is her everything else.  She mentions being lonely and one night drinking too much and Ricky made a move on her and she liked it.  This was six months ago.  She says she grew up a good Georgia girl and was ashamed and didn’t think it mattered. Rollins states it does matter and says she needs to tell them everything now. Benson brings up blackmail but Chrissy says no, Tommy thought she could do better than a last fighter like Ricky, referring to Ricky as a loser.  Tommy didn’t tell her to stop seeing him in so many words but the last time she saw Ricky she kept it to herself.  It was her only secret. Ricky could have any girl he wanted so she bought him things and gave him the Porsche to keep him around.  She just didn’t want to feel lonely. She asks if Ricky did this.

In the squad room, Benson comments to the group that Tommy is about to go into surgery and she let Chrissy go to the hospital but with a uni escort.  Rollins says no answer on his parent’s phone in Tampa. Fin says the Tampa PD is trying to track them down.  Benson says Chrissy claims she has no idea where he’s gone.  Velasco asks if they think Chrissy and Ricky did this together, and Benson explains she has lied so many times she wouldn’t put it past her.  Rollins says she can see it going either way, but Velasco says someone just used Chrissy’s Visa to buy a first class Amtrak ticket on the next train to Tampa.  Benson tells them to go now. 

At the Oculus Train Hub on Monday, January 17,  Rollins and Velasco spot Tommy and he runs. Ricky hides and manages to get Rollins to pass him up but he then runs into Velasco.  They fight and Rollins finally catches up with them and tasers Ricky.  As Velasco cuffs him, he asks what this is about, and Rollins informs him it’s the attempted murder of Tommy Baker. Ricky claims he is being set up.  He asks for his lawyer. 

Later, in SVU interrogation with his lawyer, Ricky denies everything. All he heard about him and Phil  is that Tommy wasn’t even the man, Phil was.  When asked if he was having a rough time with Tommy being gay, he states all the people who pretended they didn’t should hear what is said when the cameras aren’t on.   Rollins brings up the Porsche and all the other expensive stuff he bought using the corporate card, suggesting  Tommy found out they were being scammed the day before the fight.  Ricky claims he doesn’t know anything about it, didn’t see Tommy at the gym as he hasn’t been there in months. Benson brings up the blood and hairs found at the scene mixed with Tommy’s blood and ask if it will match his DNA. Ricky says none of this is on him. He says it was a crime of passion, asking who do they think?

At the hospital, Benson and Fin watch from the hallway as Chrissy is stroking Tommy’s head. Benson asks how is he doing and the nurse explains the surgery went well and the doctors think he will make a full recovery.  Benson asks if he knows where Phil is, and the nurse points them to the chapel. 

In the chapel, Phil is praying and Fin asks if he is praying for himself or Tommy. Benson mentions thy picked up Ricky trying to skip town.  When Phil starts to explain, Benson tells him don’t, the doctor’s think Tommy will make a full recovery, and Fin adds that  Ricky put it all on him and Chrissy.  Phil says Chrissy had nothing to do with any of this, and Benson says Phil did.  She asks that he tell them what happened and get ahead of it, they’ll find out from Tommy pretty soon. Phil says just so they know, he was in love with Tommy and still is.  When he told him he was going to make his announcement he assumed that meant he would leave Chrissy and they would be together openly, but Tommy said he would not leave Chrissy, she was family. He was devastated and felt used.  Ricky was hustling Chrissy for money all along and that Phil should too, before he got booted - clothes, nice watch. It seemed harmless and helped ease the pain at first. Them Ricky got greedier, started making cash withdrawals and credit card transfers. When Fin mentions the business manager alerting him, Phil nods and said Tommy called and said he needed to speak to him and Ricky. He told Ricky to stay out of it, he’d  handle Tommy.  They met in the gym and said he’d pay everything back and begged Tommy to forgive him. Ricky ambushed them and threw a 10 pound weight at the back of Tommy’s skull. So much  blood. Ricky checked for a  pulse but said he was gone. Fin asked how Tommy ended up on the side of the road with his pants down, and Phil explains Ricky said he had a plan, all he had to do was clean up the gym and show up at the fight as if nothing happened.  He had no idea he was going to…Fin finishes, saying violate him, assault him, drag his reputation through the mud?  Benson says Tommy was trying to make it easier for people to come out, and Phil  made it harder.  Phil cries and says he loved him – he still loves him. He sobs. 

Later,  McGrath enters Benson’s office and congratulates her on wrapping it up. She explains Phil  took a deal and has agreed to testify against Ricky and since Tommy is on the road to recovery and his memory is back, Carisi doesn’t think that this should go to trial.  She adds he and Chrissy are moving back to Georgia where he can be with his father for the few months he has left.  McGrath says so he can be with his wife, adding you never know what’s going on in a marriage.  Benson adds, “Especially your own.”  McGrath sits down and asks if she told anybody anything, and she says no, she would never betray his confidence, even though she doesn’t always agree with him.  He comments "always",  and says she should be honest – it’s most of the time.  She replies fair enough.  He adds there are still rumors – one cop with a grudge and he is canceled. Benson states you can’t control that, but you can control…McGrath says his temper. Benson says she doesn’t want to turn this into some sort of intervention but asks if he’s ever thought about counseling or anger management? He says that would make his wife happy, maybe she’d let him back in the house.  Benson adds she is sure that night was scary for all of them, and maybe finding out how and why it happened isn’t such  a bad idea and that he’s been a little rough around the edges at work too.  There is no shame in asking for help.  He gets up and says okay, he will look into it but the last thing he needs is someone at One PP thinking he is seeing a shrink.  Benson says they won’t hear it from her.  He appreciates that but comments she knows how this place is – if someone can get up a rung by pulling him down, then they will.  He turns and leaves. 

At SVU, Benson and the detectives watch Tommy Baker speak about his attack and his fight to come back and to “speak my truth”. He says he wasn’t attacked because of who he is or how he identifies, but cowards often hide behind violence.  He had learned that fear is  the greatest bully. As Chrissy and Duke also watch, he adds it takes facing your fears to find out who you really are, He adds he is posting the video because he hopes one day we won’t have to announce who we are – we can just be who we are.  As Jax watches and smiles, Tommy says until that day, he is introducing himself – his name is Thomas Baker,  he is married to his best friend Chrissy, he is a gay man, he is a sexual assault survivor.  He adds he is a warrior.  Benson looks emotional and she puts her hand to her heart and nods as we fade to black.