Unholiest Alliance (Season 17, Episode 18)
Premise: With Benson removed from SVU and Tucker accused of running a trafficking ring, the squad pursues the clergy behind it after the nun who exposed the ring is murdered.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 17, Episode 18
- Starring
- Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Deputy Chief William Dodds (Peter Gallagher), Sgt. Mike Dodds (Andy Karl), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza)
- Guest stars
- Robert John Burke as IAB Captain Ed Tucker, Jonathan Cake as Monsignor Mulregan, Michael O'Keefe as Father Eugene O'Hannigan, Sahr Ngaujah as Father Akintola, Frank Vincent as Bishop Cattalano
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Story: Kevin Fox & Brendan Feeney & Brianna Yellen; Teleplay: Warren Leight & Julie Martin
Summary
“Unholiest Alliance” opens with Benson moved out of SVU and Deputy Chief William Dodds leaving his son, Sgt. Mike Dodds, in charge as Barba presses the case against Tucker. Russo and Jefferson now say Tucker forced them to cut him in, and the priests produce a photocopy of a letter they say was sent to Tucker about the Vice detectives a year earlier. Benson confronts Barba for telling One Police Plaza about her and Tucker. Then a frightened Nina calls her to say she is leaving town. The minivan she borrowed from Father Joseph Leahy, an Episcopal priest who once asked her to marry him, is found run off the road.
Natalia Diaz, a girl from the party who was with Nina, survives an overdose and says a priest with an African accent forced them into his van, raped and shot Nina in the woods, then drove Natalia to the Bronx and put a loaded syringe in her hand. Nina’s body is found, and Natalia picks out Father Akintola from photos. The church closes ranks: Mulregan says Akintola has gone home to Cameroon, but immigration records show no departure, and the Archdiocese cannot confirm he was ever ordained. Barba uses the party surveillance photos to pressure Judge Wheeler into getting warrants for the priests’ finances.
Eugene turns out to pay for a Fort Greene loft for his lover, Lance Woodstone, whose other girlfriend, Heidi Aronson, says she warned Mulregan two years earlier that Eugene was stealing church money for the affair. Fin and Carisi catch Eugene with Lance at the loft. Mulregan admits getting the warning but denies the rest, then holds a press conference with Bishop Cattalano blaming Vice and IAB officers for blackmailing Eugene into trafficking the girls. Chief Dodds orders his son to drop it, leaving Tucker facing early retirement. Carisi, a lifelong Catholic, visits Eugene alone and urges him to confess.
Spoiler, the ending: Eugene cooperates, and the squad obtains 20 years of party records, photographs and his profiles of the girls. A former student, Deanna Walsh, tells the grand jury that Cattalano and Mulregan abused her and that Mulregan or Eugene took her to parties; Eugene testifies that Mulregan blackmailed him into procuring girls; and the Vice detectives admit joining the ring and lying about Tucker. Mulregan, it emerges, had Akintola’s plane ticket bought under another name, and Akintola is arrested on his return, insisting he is a Nigerian priest named Boluwaji. The grand jury indicts three assemblymen, a councilman and two judges, but the Vatican has already sent Cattalano to a treatment center off the coast of Chile. Benson gets her command back, Tucker keeps his job, and the two spend a quiet night together.
Why it stands out
- Concludes the two-part story begun in “Manhattan Transfer,” with Sgt. Mike Dodds commanding SVU while Benson is sidelined.
- Carisi, who says he was raised in the Church and once thought of becoming a priest, is the one who persuades Father Eugene to turn on his superiors.