| "Unholiest Alliance" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 17.18 | → |
| Production number: 17018 First aired (US): 23 March 2016 First aired (UK): 24 April 2016 First aired (CAN): 23 March 2016 First aired (AUS): 23 June 2016 | ||
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| Teleplay By Warren Leight & Julie Martin Story By Kevin Fox & Brendan Feeney Directed By Jean de Segonzac | ||
Summary[]
When one of their own is implicated in a cover-up, the SVU struggles to unravel a sex trafficking operation deeply rooted in government offices, the police department, and the Catholic Church.
Plot[]
Continuing their investigation, the SVU puts the vice squad and the Catholic church in its crosshairs, convinced that they're involved in running the teen sex ring. Sgt. Dodds leads the charge, since Benson has been reassigned during the investigation into Tucker. When SVU questions the priests from St. Fabiola's and the Vice detectives, they all point to Tucker as an accomplice, but when Internal Affairs questions Tucker, he maintains his innocence.
Sister Nina Kelly scrambles to leave town with teenager Natalia Diaz, convinced that someone from the church is after her. As she leaves the city, a van runs her off the road. When SVU tracks her phone down, they find her empty vehicle and two sets of luggage -- Nina's and Natalia's. After the SVU finds Natalia in the hospital, she reveals that she witnessed a priest, Father Victor Akintola, rape and kill Nina -- a story that's confirmed when the SVU finds Nina's body in the woods. After Natalia identifies Father Akintola in the photo array, high-ranking church officials prove to be nearly impossible to get ahold of for questioning.
After getting warrants for church officials' financial statements, they find that Tucker's cousin, Father Eugene O'Hanigan, has been renting an expensive loft filled with bondage gear, and they discover that Eugene has been taking scandalous photos of himself as a bondage servant. The SVU sets him up, catching him in the act, and brings the evidence to Monsignor Patrick Mulregan. But Bishop Frank Catalano and Mosignor Mulregan claim that no church funds were used in Eugene's sexual activities, and they disown him in a press conference, claiming that the NYPD used their knowledge of Eugene's sins to blackmail him into helping the vice squad procure girls from St. Fabiola's for the sex ring.
It turns out that the ring was started by Frank Catalano when he ran St. Fabiola's Academy, with Patrick Mulregan as his protege. The two of them raped female high school students who were from St. Fabiola's Academy, and then held sex parties for influential people to do the same thing. To keep the girls quiet, they took photos of the acts, and threatened to show the photos to their parents if they ever told anyone. When Catalona was promoted to Bishop, he appointed Mulregan as the Monsignor in charge of the school and the sex parties. Mulregan blackmailed Father Eugene O'Hanigan to bring girls to the parties by using his sexual relationship with another man as leverage, and brought in Father Victor Akintola to kill anyone who got out of line.
When vice squad Detectives Tom Russo and Anton Jefferson discovered the operation, they decided to join the ring as enforcers, covering the parties up from their fellow cops. They also participated in the parties, raping girls as well. Sister Nina Kelly discovered the ring, and she started working the parties to help get girls out of them.
Now, in a last ditch effort to stop the ring, Carisi talks to Eugene, urging him to come clean so God may forgive him. Eugene tells the SVU where to find buried records on the property of St. Fabiola's Church -- damning records, including photos, receipts, and guest lists. It's enough to bring down Russo, Jefferson, and the church officials, and clear Tucker's name. SVU detain Akintola before he could flee the country. However, the Vatican recalls Catalano, and he's en route to a treatment center on an island off the cost of Chile. It ends with the SVU learning that Benson is returning, and Tucker has his job back.
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[]
- Andy Karl as Sergeant Mike Dodds
- Robert John Burke as I.A.B. Captain Ed Tucker
- Jonathan Cake as Monsignor Patrick Mulregan
- Abigail Savage as Sister Nina Kelly
- John Ales as Detective Tom Russo
- J.D. Williams as Detective Anton Jefferson
- Sahr Ngaujah as Father Victor Akintola
- Jason Cerbone as Defense Attorney Lorenzo Desappio
- David Cale as Judge George Wheeler
- Michael O'Keefe as Father Eugene O'Hanigan
- Peter Gallagher as Deputy Chief William Dodds
- Yainis Ynoa as Natalia Diaz
- Karen Christie-Ward as Sister Ida
- Rebecca Gruss as Danielle Backerly
- Maggie Borlando as Margaret Kenswick
Guest Cast[]
- Frank Vincent as Bishop Frank Catalano
- Brock Yurich as Lance Woodstone
- Amanda Bishop as Heidi Aronson
- Melinda Tanner as Sister Antonia
- Dru Johnston as Father Joseph Leahy
- Emily Cramer as Deanna Walsh
- Derek Kelly as Trooper
- Rick Zahn as Inquisitor #1
- Victor La Mantia as Billy the Gravedigger
References[]
Episode references
Quotes[]
- Tutuola: Either Tucker's dirty or someone's setting him up good.
- Dodds: Tucker says there's no point. His cousin doesn't have a soul to save.
- Tutuola: Why keep all this?
- Carisi: Cause they're Catholics. They don't get rid of anything. They just bury it.
- Benson: I almost feel sorry for Eugene.
- Tucker: I don't.
Background information and notes[]
- This episode is a continuation of the previous episode, Manhattan Transfer.
- This episode is based in part on the sex scandal of Reverend Peter Miqueli, who used money from church collection to pay for a home with an S&M dungeon, where he was submissive to a cowboy sex master, Keith Crist. They were eventually outed by Crist's girlfriend.
- Other episodes with a priest/reverend who has a secret relationship with a man in the Law & Order franchise are the Law & Order episode "Church" and the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Brother's Keeper".
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Internal Affairs Bureau |
Saint Swithens |
St. Fabiola's Academy |
Apartment of |
John F. Kennedy Airport |
| Previous episode: "Manhattan Transfer" |
"Unholiest Alliance" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 17 |
Next episode: "Sheltered Outcasts" |