Padre Sandunguero (Season 16, Episode 12)
Premise: When Amaro’s estranged father is accused of fracturing his young fiancée’s skull the night before their wedding, Nick becomes the key witness to what she first said.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 16, Episode 12
- Starring
- Sgt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Nick Amaro (Danny Pino), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza), Judge Felicia Catano (Aida Turturro)
- Guest stars
- Armand Assante as Nicolas Amaro, Katty Velasquez as Gabriella Nuñez, Daniel Zacapa as Luis Nuñez, Ivan Hernandez as Javier Arenas, Joseph Lyle Taylor as Mickey D’Angelo
- Director
- Mariska Hargitay
- Writers
- Story: Warren Leight; Story & teleplay: Peter Blauner
Summary
“Padre Sandunguero” brings Nicolas Amaro, a father Nick has barely seen since he was 15, to the squad room with news: he is marrying Gabriella Nuñez, 28, whose family came from the Dominican Republic, and wants his son at the rehearsal dinner. Nick refuses and snaps at Benson when she urges him to let go of his anger. His mother and his sister, Sonya, in from Los Angeles, go anyway and bring Nick’s daughter, Zara, as a surprise. During the party Zara phones Nick in a panic. He arrives to a brawl and finds Gabriella bleeding from a head wound; she tells him Nicolas hit her for disrespecting him, and Nicolas is arrested.
At the hospital the detectives on the case tell Benson that Gabriella, who has a fractured skull, now blames a guest, Javier Arenas, for groping her in a downstairs bathroom, and that an EMT believes she changed her account after Nick spoke to her in Spanish. Benson puts Nick on desk duty, and IAB Lt. Ed Tucker questions him; Nick denies pressuring her, and Tucker believes him. Javier, once on the sex offender registry for statutory rape, says he never left the dance floor. Gabriella’s father, Luis, says only Nicolas followed her downstairs and came back rubbing ice on his knuckles. When Nick visits him in jail and urges a plea, Nicolas refuses and jeers that Nick is no different from him.
Benson has told Barba about the beatings in the Amaro home, and Barba wants Nick as the outcry witness, which splits the family. At trial, defense attorney Mickey D’Angelo casts Luis as a father who wanted the wedding stopped. Barba offers Nick a way out, but Nick testifies that Gabriella blamed Nicolas and that his father beat his mother and him whenever he felt jealous or slighted. D’Angelo suggests Nick’s old anger colors what he heard. Nicolas testifies that he hurt his hand defending Gabriella from Javier, who, he says, ducked.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury takes 20 minutes to acquit Nicolas of second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. Afterward Nicolas finds Nick, says he had to testify as he did because he is too old for prison, and asks to start fresh. Nick says his father is still lying and that he will never be like him. Nicolas tells him the anger is his to resolve and that he will listen when Nick is ready.
Why it stands out
- Directed by series star Mariska Hargitay.
- Armand Assante guest stars as Amaro’s father, Nicolas.
- Nikki M. James makes her second appearance on the show, this time as a detective; she had played a 911 operator in the 2012 episode “Father Dearest.”