Anchor (Season 11, Episode 10)
Premise: Fin tracks a man strangling the American-born children of undocumented immigrants, and a crusading lawyer puts an anti-immigrant TV host on trial in all but name.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 11, Episode 10
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Sgt. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)
- Guest stars
- John Larroquette as Randall Carver, Thomas Sadoski as Joe Thagard, Bruce McGill as Gordon Garrison, Megalyn Echikunwoke as Nicole Gleason, Christine Toy Johnson as Keiko Nishimura
- Director
- Jonathan Kaplan
- Writers
- Amanda Green & Daniel Truly
Summary
“Anchor” starts when Audrina, a young prostitute beaten by her pimp, T-Mac, calls Fin to the body of 12-year-old Ruby Brown, a Catholic school girl strangled with a heavy chain and not sexually assaulted. Her father is serving in Kabul. Cragen wants the case sent to Homicide, but Fin connects it to the chain strangling of 10-year-old Magda Ibanez in the Bronx and is assigned the pattern, with orders from headquarters to keep it out of the press. After a fruitless canvass, Fin gives the story to Ledger reporter Nicole Gleason, a contact of Benson’s. It runs on page 17, and he is dressed down for disobeying orders, but tips point to a delivery boy who hands out lollipops. While the boy is in custody, 12-year-old Scotty Wu is strangled.
Scotty’s parents send Fin to Keiko Nishimura of the Center for Immigrant Services, which was helping all three families with citizenship: each victim was a U.S.-born child of undocumented parents. Much of the center’s hate mail comes from fans of Gordon Garrison, the anti-immigrant host of the TV show Flashpoint. Lawyer Randall Carver argues with Garrison on the air and leads a protest outside SVU, where a scuffle with Fin is caught on camera. Sent to apologize, Fin stops Garrison fan Joe Thagard from attacking Carver’s office, but Carver declines to press charges and Fin lets Thagard go. With vendor records Benson collects, Fin spots Thagard on the center’s security tapes; he works for its shredding company.
Thagard’s apartment holds pieced-together files on the center’s children, the three victims crossed out and four more marked. Fin finds him in the home of the Al-Haziz family with their young son, the father knocked out and the mother tied up. Thagard taunts Fin with a racial slur, and CSU finds all three children’s DNA on his chain. Carver takes his case for free, arguing Garrison’s show brainwashed him, and the judge allows the defense. Cabot shows Thagard was dishonorably discharged from the Coast Guard after refusing orders from a naturalized officer. Garrison testifies he never met Thagard; when Cabot belittles him, spectators brawl in court.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury acquits Thagard on all three murder counts, and Cabot tells Fin she underestimated Carver. Fin is having a drink with Nicole when Carver calls him: after the verdict, Thagard whispered his thanks and said he could now kill more children. Fin says they have to stop him, and the episode ends there, with nothing further resolved on screen.
Why it stands out
- John Larroquette plays Randall Carver, Bruce McGill plays Gordon Garrison, and Thomas Sadoski plays Joe Thagard.
- Carver’s line grouping Garrison with Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly drew an on-air protest from O’Reilly, who called Dick Wolf a coward for using his name.
- The episode centers on Fin, who works the case largely on his own.