Must Be Held Accountable (Season 21, Episode 10)
Premise: Enraged that a billionaire who abused his daughter walked free, a retired detective takes Rollins hostage while the squad works to put Getz behind bars.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 21, Episode 10
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Katriona “Kat” Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder), Deputy Chief Christian Garland (Demore Barnes), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino)
- Guest stars
- Nicholas Turturro as Frank Bucci, Vincent Kartheiser as Steve Getz, Amy Hargreaves as Dr. Alexis Hanover, Rocco Sisto as Judge Joe Ellery, Paul Ben-Victor as Peter Abrams
- Director
- Laurie Collyer
- Writers
- Story: Warren Leight & Julie Martin; Teleplay: Brianna Yellen & Denis Hamill
Summary
“Must Be Held Accountable” picks up with Frank Bucci holding Rollins and Dr. Alexis Hanover at gunpoint in Hanover’s home office. He calls Benson: Getz has his girls, he has one of hers, and she will get Rollins back when Getz goes down. The squad finds Rollins’s daughters safe with their nanny, Sienna, and learns that Rollins’s claimed trips to a shooting range never happened. Hanover sends her son, Dylan, away when he arrives, but he raises the alarm, and the squad finds Hanover restrained on West 83rd Street. Bucci has taken Rollins and disappeared.
Fin and Kat meet Getz’s yacht at the pier. Donna Bucci says Granya invited her from rehab and Getz sent a limousine, and she refuses to believe Getz abused Ivy. Ivy mentions a girl on the boat who bragged about partying with “Judge Joe.” A camera seized from Getz’s townhouse shows Judge Ellery with Tessa Valenko, 17, and Ellery and Getz’s lawyer, Peter Abrams (called Paul Abrams at one point), turn out to be Yale fraternity brothers. Keeping the DA’s office out of it, Benson wakes Ellery at home and, with Rollins’s life at stake, gets him to wear a wire to a 4 a.m. meeting with Abrams. Abrams says the explicit material is in his office safe and that Granya is flying in three girls under 15 from Paris. A search of his office turns up child pornography, and Garland arrests him. Abrams refuses to give up Getz, but after he is told to call Getz, Getz and Granya are caught waiting to board a private jet.
Meanwhile Bucci moves Rollins in a stolen car with switched plates and lets her call home on a burner phone, which he later dumps in another car at a diner to throw off the search. Rollins talks about her mother’s choices, her own and her fear for her daughters. When the news reports Getz’s arrest, Bucci tells her to go. Instead she walks him into the precinct in handcuffs, saying she would have done the same for her girls, and later breaks down in tears.
Spoiler, the ending: Getz offers a box of photos and videos implicating a prominent ADA, a federal prosecutor, former cabinet members, governors and a foreign prince in exchange for a deal. Because Hanover will not press charges and Rollins does not want him punished, Bucci is set to plead guilty to unlawful imprisonment for a year after a psychiatric evaluation. Then news breaks that Getz has been found dead. The squad doubts he killed himself and regrets that his victims will never have their day in court.
Why it stands out
- Concludes the two-part Steve Getz story that began in “Can’t Be Held Accountable”; this episode aired January 9, 2020, seven weeks after the first part.
- Amy Hargreaves, recurring this season as NYPD psychologist Dr. Alexis Hanover, had earlier played other roles on the series, including Iris Petersen in Seasons 13 and 14.
- Rollins’s younger daughter, Jesse, is played by twins Charlotte and Vivian Cabell.