| "Broken Rhymes" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 18.06 | → |
| Production number: 18007 First aired (US): 9 November 2016 First aired (UK): 20 November 2016 First aired (CAN): 9 November 2016 First aired (AUS): 24 November 2016 | ||
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| Written By Rick Eid & Jeffrey Baker Directed By Adam Bernstein | ||
Summary[]
The CEO of a record label and his protege are questioned by police due to their links to an assault of a transgender art student in a public restroom.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Lieutenant Olivia Benson
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Peter Scanavino as Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr.
- Raúl Esparza as A.D.A. Rafael Barba
Recurring cast[]
- Sonia Manzano as Judge Gloria Pepitone
- Ngozi Jane Anyanwu as Officer Perlina Edozi
- Dewey Wynn as CSU Tech
Guest cast[]
- Wyclef Jean as Vincent Love
- Mitchell Edwards as Randall "Hype" Leonard
- Rodney Richardson as Logan Blake
- Okieriete Onaodowan as Cash Lewis
- Will Swenson as Defense Attorney Mitch Hampton
- Sabel Gonzales as Eva Carson
- Jacqueline Torres as Nina Carson
- C. David Johnson as Mark Carson
- Alet Taylor as Liza Johnson
- Ruby Taylor as Sophia Johnson
- Jay Klaitz as Panda Club Owner
- Renata Hinrichs as Professor
- Molly Leland as SANE Nurse
- Rae Nelson as Kate
- Matthew Vitticore as Jury Foreperson
- Matthew Weschler as Employee
References[]
Quotes[]
- Rollins: Where were you today between 12:00 and 1:00 pm?
- Logan Blake: [sardonic laugh] Okay. I was here all day, since 8:00 am, in my office. I ran out for a quick lunch around noon.
- Rollins: Oh, great. Did you eat around here?
- Logan Blake: Yeah, a diner in Tribeca.
- Benson: Well, Eva's father said that... that you two were fighting last night.
- Blake: It wasn't serious. I love Eva.
- Rollins: Yeah. Let me count the ways. "I'm tired of your lies". "I'm starting to despise you". "I wish you'd disappear".
- Benson: I mean, I'd hate to see your serious arguments.
- Tutuola: Just got off the phone with the event planner. He says he doesn't know the name of the guy who got slapped, but he does know he was a guest of Vincent Love's.
- Rollins: Vincent Love, the rap guy?
- Tutuola: Yeah, the founder of 187 Music. He works with the biggest names out there.
- Benson: So I'm guessing that big-name rappers don't appreciate getting slapped by transgender models. All right. Let's find Vincent Love and find out exactly what happened.
- Tutuola: You Hype?
- Hype: Yeah. What can I do for you fellas?
- Carisi: NYPD. We're here about Eva Carson.
- Hype: Who?
- Tutuola: The friend you met in the club Thursday night.
- Hype: [Carisi shows him Eva's picture] Oh, that freak? Look, dude slapped me. You should be arresting his stupid ass.
- Tutuola: Maybe we will. Once she gets out of the coma.
- Hype: Coma?
- Tutuola: Yeah, somebody did her with a pipe.
- Benson: Do we have anything on Hype's past that suggests that he's good for this?
- Carisi: One prior. Armed robbery. Plead it down to a misdemeanor, didn't do any time, but I listened to some of his music. It's hardcore.
- Rollins: You mean hateful. It's full of homophobic rants, gay slurs.
- Benson: So he may not be the spokesperson for the LGBTQ crowd, but it doesn't mean that he's good for the assault.
- Rollins: This might. Look at this. [turning her laptop around] "Look who I just ran into at Cypress market! #HypeRules." Posted yesterday at 11:54 a.m. I mean, that's twenty minutes before Eva's attack.
- Tutuola: Yeah, so much for being in the studio all day working on his rhymes.
- Benson: Let's bring him in. I want to find out what he was doing at Cypress market and why he lied about it.
- Carisi: I listened to a few of your songs. You're obviously not a big fan of gay and transgender people.
- Hype: Man, it's just music, a'ight?
- Carisi: You know what? My favorite line is, uh, "when a tranny looks your way, got to make sure the dude pays. Cap to the head. Boot to the grill. All you bitches know I ain't 'fraid to kill."
- Hype: Keep at it, G. You could be the next Eminem.
- Tutuola: And you could be the next brotha from Harlem doing time if you don't tell us what your punk ass was really doing yesterday afternoon.
- Benson: [about Hype] Look, this guy's lying about something, so get his mug in a photo array and show it to the mother and the daughter.
- Rollins: They're in Boston until Wednesday. [checking her phone] Oh, and Hype's not the only one lying. Security video confirms Eva's boyfriend Logan left his law firm at 11:30 and didn't return until 1:45.
- Benson: That's not a quick lunch.
- Rollins: No, not unless you live in Italy.
- Carisi: $50,000, payable to Eric Carson, aka Eva. We found it in a wastebasket in her apartment.
- Tutuola: Written on a 187 checking account.
- Benson: Okay, so why did she rip it up?
- Carisi: I'm guessing out of principle.
- Tutuola: Cash the check first. Worry about principle later.
- Benson: All right. So Cash and Vincent Love try to bribe Eva. She says no. Then what?
- Tutuola: Well, Hype's worried about some transgender girl telling the world that she writes all his hardcore raps.
- Benson: Okay, that sounds like possible motive to me.
- Carisi: Yeah, but for who? Cash? Hype? Vincent Love?
- Rollins: My money's on Hype.
- Benson: What do you mean?
- Rollins: I just spoke with the lab. They found his DNA under Eva's fingernails.
- Benson: Sit on his studio. I'll send Anti-Crime to the apartment. [to Fin and Carisi as she leaves] You two, work on an arrest warrant. Now!
- Benson: Hype, we have your DNA under Eva's fingernails. We have you near the crime scene twenty minutes before the attack, and as for motive, there's too many to choose from.
- Tutuola: Hate. Greed.
- Benson: Not to mention that you were heading toward the hospital, to what? To kill her? To make sure that she never woke up so she couldn't ID you?
- Tutuola: Hype. You gotta come clean, man. We already have enough to charge you.
- Benson: He's right. We're just being polite. We're giving you a chance to tell us what really happened.
- Tutuola: Now, you can start by telling us how your DNA got under Eva's fingernails.
- Hype: Okay. But if I tell y'all, will you promise to keep it private?
- Benson: Absolutely. We won't say a word.
- Hype: Like, for real? You can't tell no one.
- Benson: For real.
- Hype: Okay. Cool. I appreciate that. So... the reason my skin is underneath her fingernails is because... we had sex. We... we're dating. We're in love.
- Carisi: So Hype's in love with Eva.
- Tutuola: That's what he says.
- Rollins: And you believe him?
- Benson: He seems credible, but he's told so many lies. It's really hard to tell where he's coming from.
- Tutuola: That's what makes me believe he's telling the truth.
- Carisi: How so?
- Tutuola: I mean, Hype's an up and coming rapper. Hardcore, at that.
- Rollins: So he's been lying to protect his image.
- Tutuola: His career. I mean, this style of rap is all about reputation. It's all about street cred. For him to tell his fans that he's in love with a transgender woman, they'd laugh at him. His whole brand would go up in smoke.
- Benson: It's 2016, for god's sake.
- Tutuola: Not for people selling gangster rap.
- Carisi: Yeah, or some of my relatives.
- Rollins: Or mine, too.
- Tutuola: Look, this whole gender fluidity thing is coming out more nowadays, and that's cool, but the truth is it's confusing, and a lot of people can't make sense of it all. Me included.
- Benson: And our friend Hype.
- Carisi: Okay, so let's... let's say we believe this guy, that he really does love Eva. That still doesn't make him innocent.
- Benson: Listen, I agree. All that denial and... and self hatred. Who knows? Maybe Hype did just crack and took out all his rage on Eva. Let's go back inside and see if we can learn anything.
- Benson: So, Hype, I just want to go over everything again and make sure that I... that I fully understand. So you and Eva were involved, and that's the reason that you went to the hospital? To check on her condition?
- Hype: Yeah. I mean, I just wanted to make sure she was okay. But like I said, I ain't gay. Not even close. I just... you know, I just like her, that's all.
- Benson: So when did you and Eva first meet?
- Hype: Three months ago. At some party for some photographer. We liked each other. Started hanging out.
- Tutuola: Why'd she slap you?
- Hype: 'Cause I pretended I ain't know her. Started making some stupid jokes. I just ain't want nobody to know, that's all.
- Benson: So this had nothing to do with the songs she wrote.
- Hype: What are you talking about?
- Tutuola: Your boy Cash told us she wrote some of your tracks, but you didn't want her name on the album. That's why he and Vincent Love had to give her 50k to remain anonymous.
- Hype: What the hell are you talking about? Eva didn't write no tracks. She don't even like rap. Look, I write my own rhymes, from day one, a'ight?
- Benson: Then why were you at Cypress market?
- Hype: Eva wanted to have lunch. In public. She was tired of our relationship being on the DL. It was a big deal to her.
- Benson: And?
- Hype: I freaked out. Changed my mind. I mean, I wanted to have lunch, but I just couldn't do it. So I left. Went to the bar down the street, drank some peach schnapps, and went back to the studio.
- Tutuola: The bartender at the Golden Goat says he remembers Hype. Says he's the first person in five years to order peach schnapps. Surveillance video show him there from 12:10 to 1:05.
- Benson: Okay, so if Hype didn't do it, then who did? The boyfriend, Logan, is in the clear, right?
- Rollins: Yeah. The office manager confirms he was at the doctor's office from 12:15 to 1:10.
- Benson: So if it wasn't Hype and it wasn't Logan...
- Carisi: It's gotta be Cash.
- Benson: Okay, so get the mother and the daughter down here right away and see if they can ID him.
- Benson: I understand that this is hard, but your daughter needs to start telling the truth.
- Liza Johnson: She's not going to testify. I'm not going to risk her safety over some...
- Benson: Some what? Some freak?
- Liza Johnson: She's just a kid. It's not her fault some man in a dress got attacked.
- Benson: Her name is Eva. She's an art student. She lives in Montclair with her family. With her parents, Nina and Mark; the mother is fifth grade teacher and the father is an electrician. And if you continue to interfere with our investigation, and encourage your daughter to lie, I will arrest you. Am I making myself clear? [Liza doesn't reply, but Benson can see the understanding in her face] Thank you.
- Barba: The girl IDed Cash Lewis. Is it credible?
- Benson: I think so. When she saw his face in the photo array, her eyes lit up, and she said she remembered the tattoo on his neck. It reminded her of SpongeBob.
- Barba: Huh. Motive?
- Benson: Look, Eva posed a threat to Hype's image. His career. So Cash tried to buy her off. When she refused, he beat and raped her with a pipe.
- Barba: I'm not sure we have enough for an arrest just yet, but I'll get you a search warrant.
- Benson: Okay. [as she turns to leave, her phone chimes] The sooner, the better. Our rape case just turned into a murder investigation. Eva passed away an hour ago.
- Barba: This whole self defense thing is a total mess. First and foremost, Cash didn't pull the gun. Hype did. The kid is lying about everything.
- Benson: To avoid admitting that he was in love with Eva.
- Barba: Even if he tells the truth, that he was seeking revenge because of Eva's death, he could still be staring down a murder charge.
- Benson: Look, the guy finds out that the love of his life has just died after being beaten and raped with a pipe. I mean, it sounds like heat of the moment to me.
- Barba: No. He had three hours to cool down. He stole Vincent Love's gun. Then he drove sixty blocks looking for his victim, and he shot him in cold blood. To me, that sounds like murder.
- Benson: Well, if the victim wasn't such a hate-filled, pipe wielding rapist, then I'd more inclined to agree with you.
- Barba: From a legal perspective, that's irrelevant.
- Benson: I know, but from a human one, it's not. Cash killed Eva because she was transgender. Is the world really gonna be a worse place because Hype does five years instead of twenty?
- Benson: That kid thinks because he's in love with a transgender woman, that he's gay. He's confused.
- Barba: Well, we tried. It was a good deal. It was almost too good. Either the guy has got a lot of confidence in this lawyer...
- Benson: Or he's being handled. That lawyer is in Vincent Love's back pocket. Any time one of his rappers gets jammed up, good old Hampton gets a call.
- Barba: So?
- Benson: "So"? So the real client is Vincent Love, not Hype.
- Barba: He's allowed to pay the legal fees as long as there's no conflict of interest.
- Benson: No conflict? He just talked Hype out of the best deal that he is ever going to see, because he's protecting Love's brand. They're transphobic, homophobic and if they have to sell Hype out in the meantime, you know, convince him to stay street, so be it.
- Barba: I don't disagree, but it's not my problem. I've got a trial to win.
- Benson: [Hype looks to his lawyer] Don't look at him. This is your decision, not his.
Background Information and Notes[]
- The episode was originally scheduled to air on November 2, 2016, but it was delayed by a week due to the competing World Series Game 7 event.
- This episode was originally titled "Bad Rap". The name change was to avoid issues with DVRs that had already recorded "Bad Rap."
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
Mercy General Hospital |
Law Offices of |
Panda Club |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Residence of |
Apartment of |
Rikers Island |
Supreme Court |
| Previous episode: "Rape Interrupted" |
"Broken Rhymes" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 18 |
Next episode: "Next Chapter" |