| "Poisoned Motive" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 14.22 | → |
| Production number: 14022 First aired (US): 8 May 2013 First aired (UK): 28 May 2013 First aired (CAN): 8 May 2013 First aired (AUS): 13 June 2013 | ||
 | ||
| Teleplay By Julie Martin & Ed Zuckerman Story By Warren Leight Directed By Arthur W. Forney | ||
Lieutenant Alexandra Eames returns to help the Special Victims Unit when a string of shootings is linked to Fin's past as a narcotics officer.
Plot[]
Two surprise sniper attacks on the NYPD leave the SVU squad scrambling for answers. When the link between the shootings appears to be Detective Tutuola, he reconnects with his former Narcotics partner in order to uncover a possible motive tied to their old cases. As the violence continues, Lieutenant Eames joins the investigation and the Special Victims Unit races to hunt down a killer no one saw coming.
Summary[]
Episode summary
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Danny Pino as Detective Nick Amaro
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Richard Belzer as Sergeant John Munch (credit only)
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring Cast[]
- Cathy Moriarty-Gentile as Lieutenant Toni Howard
- Kathryn Erbe as Lieutenant Alexandra Eames
- Coy DeLuca as Earl Talley
Guest Cast[]
- Yul Vazquez as Luis Montero
- Jessica Camacho as Gloria Montero
- Jennifer Lim as Mrs. Chang
- 2 Chainz as Calvin "Pearly" Jones
- La La Anthony as Ana Tejada
- Emilio Rivera as Benito Escobar
- Fredric Lehne as Attica Warden Jones
- Karl Kenzler as Sam Hamill
- Noelle P. Wilson as Giselle Hamill
- Harry Chambarry as Doctor
- Colin Crest as Tom Hamill
References[]
- Mark Howard (victim)
- Automatic number-plate recognition
- Duck Dynasty
Quotes[]
- Mrs. Chang: Twenty people in my cell. The toilet is disgusting.
- Tutuola: Hope you enjoyed it. That's five stars compared to where you're going.
- Earl Talley: I don't feel well.
- Amaro: Well, next time, try aspirin, not hillbilly crack.
- Tutuola: Where were you at ten in the morning?
- Earl Talley: Come on, man! Who knows stuff like that?
- Tutuola: You were right about Earl. Couldn't shoot himself in the foot if he had a shotgun taped to his ankle.
- Cragen: Lieutenant, we are very sorry about your son.
- Howard: I said that line so any times, I'd never imaged I'd hear it.
- Tutuola: We were making our last buy from Escobar. Somebody must've ratted me out. Next thing I know, I got a .38 to the back of my head. Luis jumped in, the gun went off. He got hit twice in the hip and the knee. I left Narcotics that day.
- Amaro: That wasn't your fault.
- Tutuola: Yeah, just like it wasn't my fault with Rollins. Do yourself a favor, Nick. Walk behind me.
- Amaro: [to Escobar] You think bragging to cops about shooting cops is a good idea?
- Benson: [to Ana about Escobar] When you go visit him, does he ask you to relay messages?
- Anna Tejada: When I visit him, he plays with Benito, Jr. We talk about feeding his son on a part-time job and food stamps.
- Benson: And that's it?
- Anna Tejada: Keeping us alive, avoiding being homeless. Yeah, that's kind of a full-time conversation.
- Cragen: That's the trouble with hospitals: the longer you stay, the sicker you get.
- [about Escobar]
- Calvin Jones: Listen, this man will peel my face off, sew it onto a soccer ball and kick it into my mother's yard.
- Cragen: Rollins, what are you doing here?
- Rollins: Well, I'm all caught up on Duck Dynasty. I had to get out of there.
- Rollins: [about Luis] Are you sure he's our guy?
- Cragen: Don't go Amaro on me.
- Cragen: [about Gloria] Her mother just died. She was having problems with the insurance.
- Tutuola: Come on, everybody has problems with the insurance. I'm sick that it's him, but we got our man.
- Rollins: There's something else. The motives, it just...
- Benson: Well, he's angry. You heard him.
- Amaro: Yeah, at Fin, at Escobar, the lieutenant...
- Rollins: Then how come none of them are the ones that got hit? The targets are always next of kin, partners. You know, maybe she is trying to make the people she's angry at hurt the way she got hurt when her father got shot.
- Tutuola: Not Gloria. She's a sweet kid.
- Cragen: Oh, boy. Did you know she was kicked out of the academy on psychological two months ago?
- Cragen: Gloria Montero is 25. She was recently expelled from the police academy. She's Army trained, took a general discharge two years ago.
- Benson: The body inside the car has been identified as Yolanda Brooks, a traffic enforcement agent who ticketed Montero's vehicle.
- Eames: Montero's a highly efficient marksman. Daughter of a retired detective. She knows how we think, how we work.
- Benson: She's known to have purchased several automatic weapons in Philly at a gun show after her dismissal from the academy.
- Amaro: We have a report of a white delivery van, stolen in the area. We have the plate number out on the license recognition system.
- Cragen: She is to be considered armed and dangerous.
- Gloria Montero: My name is Gloria Christina Montero. I consider myself a good person, a loving daughter and a responsible citizen. The actions I have taken are a last resort to address the unconscionable mistreatment that my family has suffered at the hands of the NYPD and other bureaucracies. In October of 1998, my father, detective Luis Rafa Montero, was shot multiple times during an undercover operation. Drug lord Benito Escobar was about to assassinate Detective Odafin Tutuola when my father heroically threw himself on the weapon and saved his partner's life. My father was given a disability retirement, but he never recovered. He fell into a depression and began drinking. In the spring of 2007, my mother was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. When I asked the army for time off to deal with my mother's declining health, they told me that due to my "inability to perform my duties", I would be offered a general discharge. To help cover the cost of my mother's medical bills, my father took a security job. His former lieutenant, Toni Anne Howard, upon discovering this, informed on him to the department, who then terminated his disability benefits. As a result, we could not afford medical treatments that would have saved my mother's life. Eventually, we lost our home, as well. She passed away in this room in physical pain and emotional distress in August of 2012. A month later, I entered the police academy. I was however still depressed over my mother's death and my father's decline. The academy, rather than offer help, expelled me without due process. All of you who have destroyed my life will soon know what it is like to lose a loved one. I have police and military training. I know your tactics. Do not try to stop me.
- Tutuola: Your father's a good man, Gloria. If it wasn't for him, I would've never saw my son grow up.
- Gloria Montero: Because of you and the NYPD, my father lost everything: this house, my mother...
- Tutuola: What happened to your family, I didn't know. I should have. I should have stayed in touch.
- Gloria Montero: You didn't call, you didn't care. You didn't even know my mother was sick.
- Tutuola: I didn't wanna talk to your father, okay? You're right, I was guilty. I didn't wanna think that what happened to him could've been me. Gloria, I can't undo what happened. I can't make it better.
- Tutuola: Amanda, you shouldn't even be here.
- Rollins: Once I heard you went inside, I had to come. You were there for me when...
- Tutuola: When you took the bullet for me?
- Rollins: Yeah, you'd do the same. It's what partners do.
Background Information and Notes[]
- Fin had mentioned that a former partner of his took a bullet that was meant for him first in the Season 2 episode "Manhunt". That partner is introduced as Luis Montero in this episode.
- In the scene where Finn is rescuing Amanda after she is shot, the camera crew can be seen in the car door's reflection.
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Emergency Room |
Apartment of |
Attica State Prison |
Sukey Tawdry Lounge |
| Previous episode: "Traumatic Wound" |
"Poisoned Motive" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 14 |
Next episode: "Brief Interlude" |