Pop (Season 12, Episode 11)
Premise: A boy’s death on a carousel exposes a ring of fathers betting on fights between their sons, and Stabler tries to free a teenage fighter from his abusive stepfather.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 12, Episode 11
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Gillian Hardwicke (Melissa Sagemiller), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)
- Guest stars
- Drea de Matteo as Sandra Roberts, Adam Senn as Hank Roberts, Al Calderon as Nicky Roberts, Olympia Dukakis as Debby Marsh, James Carpinello as Joe Gilbert
- Director
- Norberto Barba
- Writers
- Jonathan Greene
Summary
“Pop” opens when a ten-year-old boy is found dead on a carousel in Chelsea. Warner finds a broken rib that punctured a lung, plus week-old crush injuries, and rules the death inconclusive for now. A surveillance camera shows him arriving by cab, and the driver, Joe Gilbert, identifies him as his nephew Ethan; Joe has been helping Ethan’s mother since his brother, Ethan’s father, died of Ground Zero dust. A school bully, Blake Murphy, says Ethan hit him first and bragged that Uncle Joe was teaching him to fight. The cab company’s GPS leads Stabler and Fin to Inwood Hill Park, where cabbies bet on bare-knuckle fights between their sons. Thirteen-year-old Nicky Roberts says the fights are arranged by his stepfather, Hank, who adopted him and makes him call him “Pop.”
Hardwicke says the betting is only promoting gambling unless the boys were forced. Stabler baits Hank until Cragen steps in, and Joe admits that Hank held him back while the older, bigger Nicky beat Ethan. Joe is charged with criminally negligent homicide, but Hardwicke will not charge Hank on a co-conspirator’s word. Hank and his wife, Sandra, then accuse Stabler of beating Hank outside their home, until Nicky reveals that Hank hit him and had Sandra hit Hank to frame the detective. Hank is arrested for assaulting Nicky, who describes a year of forced fights, beatings after losses, and Hank urging him on until Ethan stayed down. Sandra, pregnant with Hank’s baby, will not press charges. Hank makes bail under an order of protection, and soon after a patrol car is pulled from the house, Stabler and Cragen hear a shot and find Hank dead, Sandra beaten and Nicky holding a gun.
Nicky tells Stabler he is glad Hank is dead and that he put the gun to Hank’s head. The bullet’s path shows Hank was kneeling when he was shot in the back of the neck, and Hardwicke has Nicky charged with second-degree murder after Stabler refuses to make the arrest. Stabler sends lawyer Debby Marsh, who argues self-defense. On the stand, Stabler describes a terrified boy, but Hardwicke makes him repeat Nicky’s words outside the house. Persuaded to testify for her son, Sandra instead confesses in court that she shot Hank, and Nicky shouts that he did it.
Spoiler, the ending: Warner finds gunshot residue and blood spatter on both mother and son, so either could have fired. Promised that neither will be prosecuted, each is asked who pulled the trigger, and each answers “I did.” They go free, and the squad accepts it will never know which one killed Hank.
Why it stands out
- Drea de Matteo guest-stars as Sandra Roberts; she later said she accepted the part before reading the script.
- Olympia Dukakis plays Debby Marsh, the lawyer Stabler finds for Nicky.
- “Pop” aired back to back with the next episode, “Possessed,” on January 5, 2011.