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in: SVU episodes, Crossover episodes

Zero Tolerance

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"Zero Tolerance"
← SVU, Episode 20.03 →
Production number: 20003
First aired: 4 October 2018
  th of 502 produced in SVU  
← th of 502 released in SVU →
  th of 1271 released in all  
SVU2003
Written By
Céline C. Robinson & Richard Sweren

Directed By
Michael Pressman

Summary[]

After a young girl is rescued from a sex trafficker, Benson and Stone find themselves using drastic measures in order to reunite her with her mother. Meanwhile, Rollins decides to give her rocky relationship with Pollack another chance.

Plot[]

plot

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring cast[]

Guest cast[]

References[]

Quotes[]

Rollins: [seeing Al with a boquet of flowers] No, thanks.
Dr. Al Pollack: I just need to explain.
Rollins: Yeah, you always just need to explain.
Dr. Pollack: This is not like last time.
Rollins: No? So instead of an escort's number, you got a waitress' phone number.
Dr. Pollack: No, a waitress' mother's number.
Rollins: [moving to shut the door] Please, Al.
Dr. Pollack: They know that I'm a cardiologist there. She said her mom is having a stent put in in a few days and asked if I would call her to tell her that it was routine. Just for peace of mind. That's it. Scout's honor.
Rollins: So what's with the apology flowers?
Dr. Pollack: Well, you didn't call me back about going to the Van Gogh exhibit, so I thought I'd bring Van Gogh to you.
Dr. Darby Wilder: Teenage girl dumped from a car at the drop-off zone. Groggy and naked, wrapped in a bedsheet.
Carisi: There's a security camera, though, right?
Dr. Wilder: I'll have the footage sent to you.
Benson: Had you run a rape kit?
Dr. Wilder: She wouldn't let me. But there were obvious signs of sexual trauma, bruising, and tearing. She had a rough night. At least she was here. Even if she was tossed away like a piece of trash.
Rollins: So, the hospital sent their camera footage over. This is the entrance to the hospital.
Carisi: Car pulls up. And the door opens. Yeah, we got a driver, guy in the back seat. No clear shot of the faces.
Tutuola: I can't make out the numbers, but that's a T-plate. That could be an Uber.
Rollins: Or a car service.
Tutuola: Okay, get it to TARU to enhance the image. We find the driver, we find the perp.
Chinua Iwobi: I didn't know that man was crazy when I picked him up.
Rollins: You didn't think it was weird he had a naked girl wrapped up in a sheet?
Chinua Iwobi: He said it was his daughter. He was taking her to the hospital.
Tutuola: Why didn't you call the police?
Chinua Iwobi: I wanted to, man. I really did. But...
Tutuola: You're illegal.
Chinua Iwobi: I'm here for ten years now. I have a wife and kids. Please don't send me back.
Tutuola: Oh, we don't deal with any of that.
Chinua Iwobi: Last week, I got robbed with a gun to my head. $600. And I was too scared to report it.
Tutuola: [handing him a business card] Listen, man. If that happens to you again, call me. Right now, we're only concerned with your fare in that car last night.
Rollins: Who you calling?
Tutuola: Carisi. He can help me pick up this lead.
Rollins: Are you kidding?
Tutuola: This guy's violent. You know that, right?
Rollins: Yeah, and I can run and gun same as you, Fin. Pregnant or not.
Tutuola: And what if something happens?
Rollins: Then it's not your problem. Stop treating me like a ride-along.
Tutuola: So I can pick one and do whatever?
Luke Francis: Within reason. But you mess up my investment, that would not be cool. You look like a guy with impeccable taste. Have you made a decision?
Tutuola: I have. [showing his badge] You're under arrest.
Stone: They're so young.
Benson: Yeah. And two of them escaped violent homes. Uh, another one was living with her demented grandmother and ran out of food. We're trying to get the details on the rest of the kids. You know, we're just trying to keep them comfortable until we can place them somewhere.
Stone: Where'd your perp find them?
Benson: Uh, on the street. In a park. One was actually plucked from a playground. He has a talent for spotting, uh, vulnerability.
Stone: Why do they stay with him?
Benson: They think they're contributing to the household. He has utterly manipulated them. Except for one.
Rollins: [talking to Gabriela] Are you thirsty?
Benson: She's afraid of the guy that we collared. And even more afraid of us. You need to meet Uncle Luke.
Stone: Mr. Francis, I'm ADA Stone.
Luke Francis: Ah, brought in the big guns with some big guns. Is he gonna smack me around?
Carisi: No, but I might, after what you did to those girls.
Benson: Let's put Gabriela through NCMEC.
Rollins: Uh, it's Gabriela Sosa.
Carisi: [running the search] All right, I got a name match. It's a, uh, missing persons alert from Elizabeth, New Jersey. That's a bus ride away.
Rollins: Her parents reported her missing?
Carisi: No, it's the New Jersey Department of Children and Families.
Benson: She was in foster care.
Tutuola: Gabriela, why'd you run away?
Rollins: [seeing her reluctance to say] Were the Wellbecks nice people?
Gabriella Sosa: Yes. Very nice. But I miss my mommy. It make me sad.
Tutuola: Well, you know your mother's very far away, right?
Gabriella Sosa: Yes. Why la migra take her, Miss Amanda?
Rollins: Because when your mother crossed the border, she broke the laws of our country.
Gabriella Sosa: But what did I do?
Rollins: You didn't do anything wrong, sweetie.
[about Gabriela]
Benson: Look, guys, we have an obligation to notify the Office of Refugee Resettlement and let them know that we have her here.
Benson: They'll send her to one of their tender age centers.
Rollins: I'll take her.
Benson: Rollins, you can't take her.
Rollins: You took Noah.
Benson: I did. And this is very different.
Rollins: Not much. Could you remember you remember Esther, the last girl we let walk out of here?
Benson: Rollins, you can't take her.
Tutuola: How'd the babysitting go?
Carisi: Eh, played nineteen games of checkers and I, uh... I learned to read "Green Eggs and Ham" in Spanish.
Tutuola: No me gusto los hueuvos verde.
Carisi: Ni el jamón, my friend.
Benson: [to Officer Phelps] You're being charged with kidnapping in the second degree.
Jeff Phelps: For doing my job?
Benson: You abducted a minor and transported her against her will to New York City. That's a class-B felony in this state.
Jeff Phelps: You're gonna be sorry about this, Lieutenant. Very sorry.
Benson: Give him his phone call and a bologna sandwich.
Stone: You arrested a federal agent?
Benson: That's right.
Stone: Who was just doing his job.
Benson: And I was just doing my job.
Stone: And what's your next move now, Olivia? Do you actually think this is gonna stick?
Benson: Come on, Peter. I'm not that naive.
Stone: Well, then what are you doing? I have every media outlet in the city putting this story out there.
Benson: I was doing it to make a point.
Stone: I don't prosecute cases to make points.
Benson: Well, then I will find someone who will. Weren't you the one that told me that the only wars worth fighting for are the ones you can't win?
Gabriela Sosa: [to Rollins] Do you have a baby?
Rollins: Yeah, her name is Jesse. She's three years old.
Gabriela Sosa: [referring to Rollins' pregnant stomach] A baby in there?
Rollins: Yeah, I do.
Gabriela Sosa: Can I feel?
Rollins: Well, um, yeah, okay. [Gabriela feels Rollins' stomach]
Gabriela Sosa: Do you want the baby to be a girl or a boy?
Rollins: I'm not sure.
Gabriela Sosa: When I see my mother, I tell her that I want to have a little brother.
Stone: [to SA Jefferies] You know, when I was a kid, my grandfather had a cottage in the Dunes in Rhode Island. We would get up early and we'd walk the beaches together. One morning, there was thousands of sea turtle hatchlings crawling towards the surf. And we could see that the tide was going out, and most of them weren't going to make it. And I said, "Grandpa, these baby turtles are going to die." And he picked up a hatchling and he walked it to the water. "This one won't, and this one won't, and this one won't."
Carisi: That's why anybody wants to come to this country to work for the American Dream, they should be allowed to do that.
Tutuola: Really? I mean, political asylum, that's okay, but just because Maria's neighbor got shot by a gang? That doesn't qualify.
Rollins: I don't know, Fin. What that woman had to go through to get to the border, she must have been terrorized.
Tutuola: And who takes care of them once they get here? I mean, separating kids from their parents, that's barbaric, but there's still a problem.
Carisi: I think immigrants can take care of themselves. My great grandfather came to this country from Torino when he was 12 years old.
Tutuola: And I bet you he didn't have public housing, food stamps and Medicaid.
Rollins: Most of these people, they get jobs and they're jobs that Americans don't want.
Carisi: Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.
Tutuola: Yeah, and that's a great poem, but it's all garbage. My people came here 300 years ago in chains and I still can't breathe free.

Background Information and Notes[]

  • The title "Zero Tolerance" refers to the use of that term by the Department of Justice to describe their family separation policies during the administration of President Donald Trump. Stone mentions that in this episode.
  • The book Jesse is reading is If the S in Moose Comes Loose by recurring SVU actor and Mariska Hargitay's husband, Peter Hermann.
  • Actor Carl Weathers appears as his Chicago Justice character, Illinois State's Attorney Mark Jefferies.
  • Rollins mentions she tried to tell Carisi she was pregnant, which happened in "Man Down". She also tells Dr. Al Pollack that she is pregnant with his baby.
  • Rollins mentions a girl named Esther who they let leave the precinct, referring back to Esther Labott from the episode "The Book of Esther".

Episode scene cards[]

1 2 3

West 25th Street
Thursday, September 27

Rumarque Car & Limo
2165 3rd Avenue
Friday, September 28

509 West 25th Street
Friday, September 28

4 5 6

108 Troutman Street
Brooklyn, New York
Friday, September 28

Home of
Kelly & Alan Wellbeck
199 Palisade Road
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Sunday, September 30

Craft
43 East 19th Street
Sunday, September 30

7 8 9

Federal Court
Judge Millbanks' Courtroom
Monday, October 1

Federal Court
Judge Millbanks' Courtroom
Monday, October 1

Fort Sterling
Brooklyn, New York
Wednesday, October 3

Previous episode:
"Man Down" 		"Zero Tolerance"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
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"Revenge"
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