Lost Traveler (Season 13, Episode 9)
Premise: When a Romani schoolboy disappears, prejudice inside and outside his community points the investigation at a disabled neighbor while the real killers hide in plain sight.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 13, Episode 9
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), Bureau Chief Michael Cutter (Linus Roache), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), Defense Attorney Marvin Exley (Ron Rifkin)
- Guest stars
- Lili Reinhart as Courtney Lane, Michael Barra as Mark Rajic, Alexandra Silber as Nadia Grey, Mark Margolis as Rom-Baro, Gilbert Gottfried as Leo Gerber
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Julie Martin & David Matthews
Summary
“Lost Traveler” follows Nico Grey, a ten-year-old Romani boy on a scholarship at Caswell Academy in Manhattan, who never comes home from his first trip to school on his own. His parents, Tomas and Nadia, distrust the police and say classmates bully him for being Romani; they stopped paying tithes to the community’s Rom Baro to afford his tuition, and the Rom Baro warned they would be punished. Fin and Rollins, guided by Brooklyn Detective Joe Dumas, lean on Tomas’s co-worker, and the Rom Baro calls the Greys outcasts but denies hurting a child.
Hope rises when someone keeps emptying Nico’s voice mail, but a TARU technician traces the calls to Dennis Griscomb, a reporter for The Ledger, and a raid on his home finds his own crying son. With Marvin Exley as his lawyer, Griscomb trades for a lighter charge with Cabot and Cutter by handing over an intercepted message in which an older woman begs the Rom Baro for help because people suspect her son, Mark. Mark Rajic, a man with a child’s mind whom his mother keeps locked in the basement, is found hidden in the New Jersey woods and runs from Rollins. Courtney Lane and Emma Butler, 14-year-olds from Nico’s block, call Mark creepy; one says she saw him holding Nico’s rabbit’s foot; a search turns up the charm and a Metro card in his room. The Rom Baro acts as his lawyer.
Nico’s body is found under a tarp at an abandoned construction site near the Manhattan Bridge. Warner finds he was burned dozens of times with cigarettes and strangled with his own scarf the night he disappeared, but Mark’s DNA is not on the cigarette butts. Nadia tries to set Mark on fire with gasoline, and in her fury she mentions the burns, which were never made public. The detectives trace the leak to Courtney and Emma, schoolmates of Nico’s who visit the Greys often, lied about when they last saw Nico and appear on video just behind him after school.
Spoiler, the ending: Persuaded by the Rom Baro to trust police, Mark says the two girls came through his window that night, that Courtney touched him sexually and that they gave him the rabbit’s foot to keep the secret. Confronted in front of her mother, Emma says they pulled down Nico’s pants as a joke and Courtney burned him, then choked him with his scarf when he said he would call his mother, saying no one would miss a Romani boy. Courtney admits she shut him up and then went to Mark’s room. Her father calls for a lawyer, and when asked why she did it, she answers, “Why not?”
Why it stands out
- Comedian Gilbert Gottfried makes his first appearance as TARU technician Leo Gerber, a character executive producer Warren Leight planned to bring back from time to time.
- Lili Reinhart, later a star of Riverdale, plays Courtney Lane, and Mark Margolis plays the Rom Baro.
- Ron Rifkin returns as defense lawyer Marvin Exley, whom he also played in the season premiere.