Wolves in Sheep's Clothing (Season 22, Episode 16)
Premise: A single mother in a luxury building’s subsidized apartment is pressured into sex with powerful men, and the trail leads to a celebrated housing advocate.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 22, Episode 16
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Katriona “Kat” Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Deputy Chief Christian Garland (Demore Barnes), Chief Tommy McGrath (Terry Serpico), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino)
- Guest stars
- Zabryna Guevara as Dr. Catalina Machado, Angelic Zambrana as Rosa Estrada, Brenda Raquel as Lulu Davis, Ryan Garbayo as Ruben Ortiz, Jennifer Esposito as Phoebe Baker
- Director
- Norberto Barba
- Writers
- Story: Denis Hamill & Julie Martin & Warren Leight & Brendan Feeney & Monet Hurst-Mendoza & Melody Cooper; Teleplay: Kathy Dobie & Christian Tyler
Summary
“Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing” follows Rosa Estrada and her nine-year-old son, Felipe, who leave a shelter for a subsidized apartment in Holt Tower, a luxury building whose lower-income tenants use a separate entrance known as the poor door. Maintenance chief Paulie Banducci helps them settle in, and men soon start visiting Rosa at night. Betty Swanson, head of the subsidized tenants’ council, reports her to SVU. Rosa tells Fin and Kat nothing is wrong, but Felipe says he puts on headphones when men go into his mother’s bedroom, and Benson suspects Rosa is being trafficked. Approached at Felipe’s school, Rosa begs them to leave her alone rather than risk the shelter again. Meanwhile Fin announces that he and Phoebe Baker will marry on May 28 and asks Carisi, who holds a minister’s license, to officiate.
Elevator video shows five regular visitors, including Banducci. Denise Campbell, the apartment’s previous tenant, refuses to help. Garland steers Benson to Dr. Catalina Machado, a formerly homeless founder of the housing nonprofit Proud Life; at her groundbreaking, Benson and Rollins see her greet Ruben Ortiz, chief of staff to Congressman Howard, whom the squad then spots on the poor-door video. Chief Tommy McGrath berates Garland for admitting systemic racism under oath in his Jayvon Brown deposition. A mother in the building’s laundry room points the squad to Lulu Davis, whose ex-husband, Mickey, Fin knows; Lulu calls Ortiz her boyfriend and says she signed a nondisclosure agreement.
Offered a proffer deal, Ortiz implicates his boss, Banducci’s boss, a homeless-services budget director, an HPD deputy commissioner and a city councilman, all tied to Proud Life. Garland doubts Machado could be involved, but Lulu, sent in as an informant, gets Machado to discuss the men she was made to see and to offer her a no-show job. At COMPSTAT, McGrath ridicules Garland over rising rape reports and past failures. Charged with sex trafficking, racketeering, extortion and fraud, Machado insists she rescued the women, and her lawyer offers to give up a deputy mayor, an ex-HUD secretary, three congressmen and two senators as federal prosecutors move in. Rosa learns she can keep her apartment and will not see the men again.
Spoiler, the ending: At the party, Fin and Phoebe announce they will not marry but are staying together, and the celebration goes on. Garland tells Benson he is taking a few days off for medical tests and has been warned that the old guard wants him out, vowing not to go quietly. Carisi, whose girlfriend Nicole stayed away, recites the ceremony he wrote to a fellow guest, and a late arrival who has been looking at apartments in the city joins the party, which closes on a toast to partners.
Why it stands out
- The Season 22 finale.
- Terry Serpico makes his first appearance as Chief Tommy McGrath, a role he plays into Season 25.
- Fin and Sgt. Phoebe Baker (Jennifer Esposito), whose engagement plans began in the season’s fourth episode, call off their wedding but stay together.