The Things We Have to Lose (Season 21, Episode 20)
Premise: As Sir Tobias Moore’s long-delayed trial nears, the squad struggles to keep his accusers on board while Tamin hunts a rapist who walked free, Rollins tries to rescue a troubled teen and Fin confronts an abusive father.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 21, Episode 20
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Katriona “Kat” Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Defense Attorney Elana Barth (Jenna Stern)
- Guest stars
- Vincent Curatola as Judge Al Bertuccio, Ben Davis as Paul Davies, Bea Cordelia as Lakira Baca, Grace Narducci as Ivy Bucci, James Udom as Leon Fuller
- Director
- Juan Campanella
- Writers
- Warren Leight & Julie Martin
Summary
“The Things We Have to Lose” finds the trial of media mogul Sir Tobias Moore finally approaching after nine months of delays won by his lawyer, former judge Elana Barth. Judge Al Bertuccio denies her latest motions, including one asking him to step aside, and sets jury selection. Carisi, leading the case, and Benson prepare the women. In a mock cross-examination, Venezuelan student Pilar Reyes admits she slept with her married agent, and a private photo of her soon reaches the press. Former babysitter Amelia James falls apart when the defense subpoenas her girlfriend, Ramona Diaz. Benson accuses Barth of letting Moore use her; Barth says the accused deserve protection too.
At the Piers, Dakota Knight, a transgender woman, is found beaten and raped, and her friend Lakira Baca insists the attacker is Paul Davies, the lawyer who assaulted Lakira earlier in the season and went free. Tamin confronts Davies on her own. Dakota dies. Video shows Davies entering a gym in a suit after midnight and leaving in workout clothes; a janitor who kept the suit hands it over, and it carries Dakota’s blood, while her post-mortem rape kit holds his DNA. Benson and Tamin arrest him for murder at his sons’ hockey practice.
Rollins hunts for runaway Ivy Bucci, 16, the trafficking victim whose abuser, Steve Getz, killed himself and whose father went to prison earlier in the season. Rollins pulls her from a bachelor party, then, after Ivy is caught using cocaine with an older man, leaves her in a holding cell overnight. In court Rollins speaks for her, and the judge adjourns the case on condition that Ivy enter rehab. Fin warns Leon Fuller, paroled after beating his wife, Joelle, to stay away. Joelle tells Fin to stay out of it, but he secretly gives their son, André, a phone. When Leon, armed with a knife, threatens Joelle and André, Fin shoots him dead in front of the boy.
Spoiler, the ending: Joelle sues Fin for wrongful death. On the morning the trial is to begin, Barth reports that Moore has had a heart episode on the way to court, and Bertuccio grants yet another delay over Carisi’s furious objections. Carisi turns down Rollins’s offer of a drink. Lakira learns that Davies has pleaded not guilty and been held without bail, and that she is believed.
Why it stands out
- With production halted by the COVID-19 pandemic on March 13, 2020, this became the Season 21 finale; 20 of the 24 planned episodes were completed.
- Returns to several cases from earlier in the season: Sir Tobias Moore from the premiere, “I’m Going to Make You a Star”; Paul Davies, Lakira Baca and the Fullers from “At Midnight in Manhattan”; and Ivy Bucci from “Can’t Be Held Accountable.”