“Trick-Rolled At The Moulin” was the first half of the 2-hour crossover event, and most of it set the stage for Law & Order Organized Crime, “An Inferior Product”.
It provided some closure for Benson about her brother’s death, and a perfect segue to the Organized Crime story.
Too much time was spent on the set up of the crime. In fact, I would have preferred they omitted it altogether and just had Fin and Kat be called to the scene where the body was found. I felt it was about 3+ minutes wasted. In addition, I’m not clear as to why SVU was called to investigate this. I would have thought homicide would investigate first as a suspicious overdose. What sex crime was SVU investigating? Does being tied to a bed constitute a sex crime even though it could have been consensual? WE know the victim was incapacitated, but the police first on the scene wouldn’t know this.
This case eventually leads Benson to finding out how her brother Simon really died. While she digs deeper into Simon’s death, she challenges ME Warner on her conclusion about Simon’s accidental death, and she challenges a detective about how he handled the case. She seems upset with everyone for not questioning things at the time of Simon’s death, but Benson herself could have kept the pressure on at that time as well. Did she accept Warner’s conclusions at the time as it was the easiest explanation? Despite the bad drugs, is it still considered an accidental death, so did nothing really change relative to the cause of death? Is it only Benson’s conscience that is clear because Simon apparently never listened to her voice mail cutting ties with him?
Benson and Stabler finally meet up and talk face to face. Stabler is clearly upset and feels Kathy was the target of the car bomb. Benson encourages him to have Intel to handle it. Of course we know Stabler will never let go until he solves Kathy’s death.
At the crime scene, as Fin says “You can’t find this at Home Depot”, he picks up one of the restraints – with what looks like his bare hands. (Note: it was pointed out in the comments below that Fin lifted the item with a pen. I watched the scene a few times more and he does, in fact, lift it with a dark-colored pen, likely because his hands WERE bare.)
Amanda Rollins was nowhere to be found, we are left to assume she is still dealing with her father's illness. It was great to have ME Warner back for this episode!
Update May 18, 2021 – In case you’re wondering about the diner scene that was in the promo for this episode but never appeared IN the episode:
Via "Give Me My Remote" - Warren Leight explains cut diner scene:
Here is the recap:
Benson listens to Stabler’s voice mail message saying that his wife Kathy was the intended target of the car bomb. She calls him back but as he doesn’t answer, she leaves him a message to call her back.
In a parking garage, Benson and Stabler meet. He explains that Sacha Lenski saw Kathy get into the car. Benson thinks that doesn’t prove she was the target but he is convinced otherwise. She tells him it is not his case and he should give it to intel. He says he did, but he thinks they are shining him and he doesn’t know where they are with the case. He asks her to reach out to then as she has connections but she can’t. She says many people are telling her to stay away from the case and from him. He wants to know who is telling her that, and she asks if she heard anything she said to him the other night. She tells him slow this all down, to go home, eat something, get some rest. He needs to do this for himself and his kids. As he walks off he says he hears her, and Benson says good. He asks if they are good, and she says she hopes so.
When another man dies, ME Melinda Warner helps to identify the cause, which takes the detectives on a search for who is supplying a deadly drug that appears to be a knock-off of Richard Wheatley’s “Purple Magic.” When one of the dead men is found at the Hotel Moulin, Benson realizes this is the same hotel where her brother Simon died. This makes her question his death. The problem for Benson is that Simon’s death doesn’t quite match the pattern of the others – he wasn’t a “high roller” like the other victims. Benson also gets testy with Warner about Warner’s original cause of death as being accidental.
Benson and Carisi speak to the officer responding to Simon’s death – Detective Fernandez - thinking he missed something. It’s clear not much was investigated at the time, saying Simon had not been rolled.
Benson gets Simon’s phone out of evidence and realizes that Simon never heard her last voice mail message to him which basically cut ties with him.
The investigation points them to Edward Buddusky, who initially presented himself as a Simon’s sponsor.
When a doctor OD’s but doesn’t die, Benson and Carisi question him. He quickly folds and points them in the direction of one of the three women involved – Piper Thomas. They find a file on Piper’s tablet marked “insurance” showing selfies with the current victims and others. Also on her tablet is a picture from October 2019 with Edward Buddusky – with Simon.
This brings Benson, Fin, and Carisi back to confront Buddusky who says he knew Simon from high school. Simon was in a bad way and had no money but with his record he couldn’t hire him. He just made bad choices. He got him high and Simon went on about his father killing himself and his wife left him. Simon said he was supposed to meet his sister for lunch but he was too embarrassed to show. He couldn’t help Simon so he thought he could change his mood and show him a good time. He knew Piper and things progressed from there. They ended up at the hotel and they had access to “party favors” and Simon’s eyes lit up. Buddusky said it was like something he’d never done before. He passed out and they were gone, and Simon was ice cold on the bed. He put his clothes back on and cleaned up the room. He called 911 but he was dead. He could only tell himself that Simon died happy and he had one last good time.
The 3 girls – Piper, Despina, and Jade - get picked out of line-ups. Carisi wants to know who supplied the drugs to charge them with manslaughter. They question all three girls but they don’t get the dealer/pimp. ME Warner says the drug used is like Purple Magic but it included MDMA and a higher concentration of Fentanyl. As Organized Crime is working Purple Magic, Warner tells them to check there.
Benson and Fin meet with Stabler at the Hotel Moulin and bring him up to speed. Off the record Stabler says they are investigating Wheatley. Fin gets a video from Kat which shows the circumstances of Simon’s death. Fin recognized a man in the video as someone posing as Piper’s driver – Felix- but realized he’s the dealer. Stabler has never seen him before and says they should find him before Wheatley does.
They continue to question Jade, trying to find Felix. They find Felix is her daughter’s father. They explain the situation with Wheatley and the fact that she’s in prison now. Felix is not looking out for her or her daughter, which gets Jade to cooperate.
Later, they have Felix in interrogation and when they explain the bad drugs he was giving out, he says he just delivers it. When Fin explains he’s a marked man once he out of there OR in prison, he cooperates.
