Scorched Earth (Season 13, Episode 1)
Premise: A hotel maid accuses a powerful Italian politician of sexual assault, and the case turns on her credibility as Rollins arrives and Stabler leaves the force.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 13, Episode 1
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), Bureau Chief Michael Cutter (Linus Roache), Defense Attorney Marvin Exley (Ron Rifkin), Judge Elana Barth (Jenna Stern)
- Guest stars
- Anika Noni Rose as Miriam Deng, Franco Nero as Roberto Distasio, Kathleen Garrett as Sofia Distasio, Alexander Blaise as Pietro Fedeli, John Earl Jelks as Mr. Achok
- Ripped from the headlines
- Inspired by the 2011 New York case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund, who was charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid; prosecutors later dropped the charges.
- Director
- Michael Slovis
- Writers
- David Matthews
Summary
“Scorched Earth” opens on Det. Amanda Rollins’s first day at SVU, newly transferred from Atlanta, as hotel maid Miriam Deng reports that a guest in the Park Milano’s presidential suite trapped her and forced her into oral sex. The guest is Roberto Distasio, head of the Global Economic Trust and the favorite to become Italy’s next prime minister. He is pulled off a plane at JFK. His claim of diplomatic immunity falls apart once the squad learns he paid for the suite himself; Miriam then picks him out of a lineup. Bureau Chief Michael Cutter and ADA Alexandra Cabot, just back from the Congo, take the case. Distasio hires defense attorney Marvin Exley, is remanded at arraignment and then wins release to a luxurious house arrest, after which DNA from the bathroom drain matches him and Miriam.
The squad is under scrutiny after the recent shooting in its own squad room. Internal Affairs has cleared Elliot Stabler, who shot a teenage girl there, but is now combing through his whole record because it was his sixth shooting, and Stabler has gone silent with Benson. Then a hotel coworker secretly records Miriam talking about suing Distasio for millions and sells the tape to a tabloid. Rollins learns that a Buenos Aires maid, Isabel Cortazar, told her boss Distasio attacked her two months earlier, but she moves to a gated community and stops returning calls. Exley produces a prostitution conviction from South Sudan; Miriam says soldiers gang-raped her and the police there branded her a whore. Cutter reports that the new DA wants the case dropped, but Cabot argues for going ahead and it goes to trial.
On the stand, Miriam admits she lied on her asylum application. Distasio testifies that she offered herself and then demanded $10,000, and under Cabot’s questioning about her bruises and the scratch on his neck, he insists he could read in her eyes that she wanted him. Exley then springs a late witness from Sudan, Mr. Achok, who says he coached Miriam to claim a gang rape by 12 soldiers when she had described one attacker. Cabot suggests he was paid, which he denies. Exley tells the jury she cries rape to get what she wants; Cabot asks jurors to give her justice.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury cannot agree on the rape count, acquits Distasio of assault and convicts him of unlawful imprisonment, and he is taken out after an outburst. The prosecutors expect an appeal and about a year at Rikers. Back at the squad, Cragen tells Benson that Stabler has put in his papers. She turns down time off and heads to a new call with Rollins.
Why it stands out
- This is the first episode without Christopher Meloni: Stabler’s retirement happens off screen, and the season is the first with Mariska Hargitay as the show’s lead.
- Kelli Giddish joins the cast as Rollins; she had earlier played rape victim Kara Bawson in Season 8’s “Outsider.” Danny Pino, the other new lead, is credited but first appears in the next episode.
- Linus Roache reprises Michael Cutter from the original Law & Order, now the bureau chief over SVU’s prosecutors, and Franco Nero plays Distasio.