Sanctuary (Season 18, Episode 21)
Premise: With their key witness deported, SVU pressures a suspect’s undocumented wife to break his alibi, and Benson must decide whether to back a grieving mother’s changed account at trial.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 18, Episode 21
- 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), ADA Rafael Barba (Raúl Esparza)
- Guest stars
- Poorna Jagannathan as Maya Samra, Massiel Mordan as Soledad Ramirez, Gil Perez-Abraham as Hector Ramirez, Tyler Elliot Burke as Mitch Jenkins, Emma Myles as Carleen Jenkins
- Director
- Michael Pressman
- Writers
- Story: Brianna Yellen & Robert Cohen & Celine Robinson; Written by: Rick Eid & Julie Martin
Summary
“Sanctuary” picks up after the bar standoff from “American Dream.” Hector Ramirez says his captors demanded the names of the men who attacked the Samras, but his lawyer, Naomi Zeigler, ends the questioning and points out that Yusef, the one witness who placed him at the restaurant, is now in a refugee camp in Turkey. Dodds learns that the dead hostage taker, Aakif Ahmadi, and his partner, Daleel Hamdan, had no records and acted out of anger. Hector’s wife, Soledad, sticks to his alibi and blames SVU for making him a target.
Over Carisi’s objection that the NYPD does not help immigration agents, Benson brings in Soledad, who is undocumented, and her two children, who are citizens. When Soledad still refuses, Benson phones an ICE agent, and Soledad breaks: Hector came home at 2 a.m. with blood on his shoes. Benson calls the agent off. Facing life, Hector takes a deal and names two men from another job, Mitch Jenkins and Stevie Cole, saying they only meant to wreck the restaurant. Both are arrested, and Jenkins spews racist abuse in the interrogation room before demanding a lawyer. Hector, pleading guilty to murder and kidnapping, tells the grand jury that Jenkins stabbed Kanann, raped Shala and smashed her head against the floor while Cole raped Lela. Minutes after Barba announces the indictments, a gunman shoots Hector outside the courthouse. He dies in surgery; the shooter, Keith Skinner, went to high school with Cole.
Hector’s grand jury testimony cannot be used at trial, and Jenkins’s wife, Carleen, backs his alibi despite having called police on him four times in two years. Deli video places both men near the restaurant shortly after police arrived. Maya Samra then says the attackers lifted their masks to threaten her, and Barba calls her account plausible enough to use. On the stand she claims she told Benson about the faces weeks before Hector died. Barba hints that Benson might allow that Maya mixed up the timing, and Dodds visits Benson at home to promise cover whichever way she testifies; she asks what he would have told his late son, Mike, and he says the same.
Spoiler, the ending: Benson testifies that Maya changed her account only after Hector was shot, and Maya accuses her of abandoning the family. Benson then urges Carleen to tell the truth for herself and her son, and Carleen testifies that Jenkins came home in the early morning with blood on his pants and shoes; he threatens her from the defense table. Barba wins a conviction. Benson declines his offer of a celebratory drink, and Dodds arrives with news that a mosque in East Harlem has been firebombed, killing five.
Why it stands out
- The Season 18 finale, aired back to back with “American Dream” on May 24, 2017; it was Rick Eid’s last episode as showrunner before Michael Chernuchin took over.
- Benson asks Dodds what he would have told his son, Sgt. Mike Dodds, who was killed in the Season 17 finale.