Dirty (Season 12, Episode 14)
Premise: A Brooklyn narcotics prosecutor’s fatal fall draws Benson into a unit under federal investigation for stolen drug money, where a fellow investigator is first to the scene.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 12, Episode 14
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), CSU Capt. Judith Siper (Caren Browning)
- Guest stars
- Shohreh Aghdashloo as Det. Sunny Qadri, Gloria Reuben as Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Danielson, Kenny Johnson as Det. Sean Riggs, Danny Henriquez as Damon Merced, Doug Drucker as Angel Rivera
- Director
- Helen Shaver
- Writers
- Judith McCreary
Summary
“Dirty” opens late at night in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, where detective investigator Saliyah “Sunny” Qadri notices that narcotics unit chief Page Ferguson has left without her bag, phone or gun. Qadri tracks Page’s car to upper Manhattan and arrives as Page falls to her death from a rooftop. Benson, working without Stabler, who is out sick, finds that Page was sliced dozens of times with a small blade and penetrated, and that Qadri removed her ID, plates and registration to keep the press away. Qadri blames Angel Rivera, a Latin King who threatened Page in court before a trial where his former corner boy Damon Merced will testify. A call from a disposable phone drew Page out, and her car’s navigation shows hours of driving into New Jersey and back.
Warner finds the fall killed Page instantly, but she had no defensive wounds and had old self-inflicted scars, so she could have cut herself and jumped. Deputy DA Ian Wofford reveals a federal inquiry into $500,000 missing from a drug bust by Page, Qadri and detectives Sean Riggs and Michael Walden; Page showed deception on a polygraph and Qadri refused one. Fin learns that Page paid off debts with money orders and that Qadri took video of the phone’s buyer. Benson arrests Qadri for tampering over federal prosecutor Christine Danielson’s objection; Qadri then passes a polygraph. The buyer, Lakeisha Watkins, is Damon’s girlfriend; Riggs, Damon’s handler, draws on the detectives when they find the couple. Damon says Lakeisha called Page because Riggs, Page’s secret lover, was unreachable, and that Page never showed.
Siper’s team finds Page’s blood under the car’s floor mat and a toll receipt with someone else’s blood, and booth video shows Damon driving Page’s car. Before he can be picked up, Damon and Lakeisha are found shot dead in their safe house. A boy who saw the gunman, a Latin King, leads Fin to the weapon. Page’s knife turns up in Lakeisha’s purse and the receipt’s blood is hers: she cut Page in the back seat while Damon drove. Riggs admits a yearlong affair with Page, says she harmed herself for years, and denies leaking the safe house.
Spoiler, the ending: A visitor log shows Rivera’s pregnant girlfriend, Gina, saw him the day of the safe-house killings. Offered Gina’s freedom, Rivera says the woman who gave him the address promised to clean up his mess if he cleaned up hers. Qadri is confronted: Damon was her longtime informant, she took the drug money, and when Page found out and planned to quit, Qadri told Damon that Page had stolen it. Saying Page owed her and that she should have made captain, Qadri is arrested.
Why it stands out
- Shohreh Aghdashloo guest-stars as Sunny Qadri, an investigator for the Brooklyn DA’s office.
- Gloria Reuben appears again as Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Danielson, after the season’s fourth episode, “Merchandise.”
- Stabler does not appear; Benson works the case with Fin while he is said to be home with the flu.