Down Low in Hell's Kitchen (Season 21, Episode 3)
Premise: A closeted pop star says he was assaulted by a serial rapist who targets Black men living on the down low, but his account falls apart as the squad closes in on the real attacker.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 21, Episode 3
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Deputy Chief Christian Garland (Demore Barnes), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Bureau Chief Vanessa Hadid (Zuleikha Robinson), Judge Colin McNamara (Stephen C. Bradbury)
- Guest stars
- L. Steven Taylor as Mathis Brooks, Curtis Armstrong as Robert Fischer, William Popp as Jeffrey Moran, Rafael Jordan as Devonn Thompson, Joseph Lyle Taylor as Mickey D’Angelo
- Ripped from the headlines
- The character Mathis is loosely based on actor Jussie Smollett’s staged hate-crime hoax in Chicago in January 2019.
- Director
- Timothy Busfield
- Writers
- Story: Lisa Takeuchi Cullen & Julie Martin & Warren Leight; Teleplay: Monet Hurst-Mendoza & Brendan Feeney
Summary
“Down Low in Hell’s Kitchen” begins with a nurse at Mercy telling Benson about another Black man tased and assaulted in Hell’s Kitchen who refuses to report it. Fin asks his son, Ken, an advocate at an LGBTQ crisis center, for help, but Ken says the victims are married men on the down low and he will not betray them. That night pop star Mathis Brooks is found semi-conscious under scaffolding on Ninth Avenue, tased and sodomized with a bottle. Benson briefs SVU’s new deputy chief, Christian Garland, who wants a clearer pattern. Mathis, who says he is straight, describes a white attacker with long hair and a beard who shouted antigay and racist slurs, and claims he made no stops on his walk.
A selfie posted online shows Mathis in a gay bar that night, arguing with a man who calls the singer deeply closeted. Garland urges Benson to persuade Mathis to speak out, and over the objections of his manager, Robert Fischer, Mathis goes public about the attack and comes out as gay. More victims come forward, including Devonn Thompson, brought in by Ken. Three were attacked on Tuesday nights after a tense exchange in a bar with a red-haired white man who asked about their wives. Garland poses as bait at a bar himself, and the squad arrests parolee Jeffrey Moran as he follows the chief carrying a stun gun and a bottle.
Mathis wavers at a lineup after asking which number the suspect would be, and Moran’s ex-girlfriend gives him an alibi for the night Mathis was attacked: a selfie at a Mets game. Moran is charged with four counts, and Judge Colin McNamara jails him for violating parole. His lawyer, Mickey D’Angelo, tells Carisi his star witness is lying, and the news soon shows Mathis’s brother, Aygon, buying a stun gun the day of the attack. Fischer admits a gossip site was about to out Mathis, who heard about the assaults and planned his own. Garland wants Mathis arrested, Hadid blames the victims who will not testify, and D’Angelo gets the charges involving Mathis dropped. Thompson then tells Fin he had a consensual encounter with Moran in the bar’s bathroom a month before the assault, and photographed them together.
Spoiler, the ending: Carisi shows D’Angelo the photo and spells out what a public trial would reveal about Moran, who then pleads guilty to first-degree sexual abuse for seven years, so no victim has to testify. Benson argues against charging Mathis, since false reports are rare, and Mathis later learns the squad talked Garland out of jailing him. Garland promises SVU a new officer who is not yet a detective. Noah, bored with baseball, starts dance classes.
Why it stands out
- Demore Barnes debuts as Deputy Chief Christian Garland, the new chief overseeing SVU.
- Ernest Waddell returns as Fin’s son, Ken Randall, and Joseph Lyle Taylor as defense attorney Mickey D’Angelo.
- L. Steven Taylor guest-stars as pop singer Mathis Brooks, with Curtis Armstrong as his manager.