Poisoned Motive (Season 14, Episode 22)
Premise: A sniper shoots Rollins and others tied to Fin’s old Narcotics unit, and the case leads to the family of the partner who was disabled saving Fin’s life.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 14, Episode 22
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), Lt. Alexandra Eames (Kathryn Erbe)
- Guest stars
- Yul Vazquez as Luis Montero, Jessica Camacho as Gloria Montero, Cathy Moriarty as Lt. Toni Howard, Emilio Rivera as Benito Escobar, 2 Chainz as Calvin Jones
- Director
- Arthur W. Forney
- Writers
- Story: Warren Leight & John P. Roche; Teleplay: Julie Martin & Ed Zuckerman
Summary
“Poisoned Motive” begins as Rollins leads a perp walk for Mrs. Chang, who forced young Chinese women into prostitution, and a sniper’s bullet hits Rollins in the shoulder outside the precinct. The single .45-caliber shot from a rooftop looks like a targeted hit, but Mrs. Chang says her people would not have missed. Rollins admits she ignored threatening texts, some from bookies she owes. Then a second sniper shot seriously wounds Mark, the son of Lt. Toni Howard, Fin’s boss when he worked Brooklyn Narcotics fifteen years earlier. The bullets came from a Les Baer Prowler, a costly pistol.
Fin and Amaro visit Luis Montero, Fin’s former partner, who was shot shielding Fin during a buy from drug lord Benito Escobar. Fin learns that Luis’s wife, Rita, died eight months ago and that their daughter, Gloria, has gone from the army to the police academy. In prison, Escobar taunts Fin about Rollins. His girlfriend, Anna Tejada, a former prison nurse with whom he has a young son, denies carrying messages, but her phone records point to his old associate Calvin “Pearlie” Jones. As Fin presses Pearlie, word comes that Anna has been shot dead.
Lt. Alexandra Eames of a counterterrorism task force offers surveillance video of the third shooting. The gun is traced to a 1997 Brighton Beach gang shooting from Luis’s old cases, and Luis tells Fin he kept it. He then confesses to all three shootings, blaming Escobar, the department that stopped his disability pay before Rita died, and Fin, who missed her funeral. Rollins, out of the hospital early, notes that the victims are always partners or relatives of the people Luis resents, and the squad learns Gloria was dismissed from the academy on psychological grounds. Gloria’s burned-out car turns up with the body of a traffic agent who ticketed it, and video shows Gloria leaving the third shooting. Luis still claims the crimes and asks for a lawyer. Gloria kills a guard at the hospital where her mother died and leaves a recorded statement blaming the NYPD, the army and Lt. Howard.
Spoiler, the ending: Gloria takes a pregnant woman and her young son hostage in the house her family lost and demands that Fin come inside. Fin goes in alone, admits he stayed away because Luis’s fate could have been his, and apologizes. When she says no one will leave alive, officers storm the house; no one is hurt, and Gloria is taken alive. Fin tells Luis he is sorry, and Rollins, who came to the scene, reminds him that partners look out for each other.
Why it stands out
- Kathryn Erbe appears as Lt. Alexandra Eames, her character from Law & Order: Criminal Intent; this season is the first in which SVU crosses over with that series, and this is the second of her two appearances.
- Rapper 2 Chainz plays Calvin “Pearlie” Jones, La La Anthony plays Anna Tejada, and Yul Vazquez plays Fin’s former partner, Luis Montero.