Hunt, Trap, Rape & Release (Season 22, Episode 7)
Premise: A serial rapist case that crosses from the Bronx into Manhattan forces SVU to work with Bronx SVU’s new commander, Carolyn Barek, and her veteran sergeant.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 22, Episode 7
- 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), Lt. Carolyn Barek (Annabella Sciorra)
- Guest stars
- Rudy Mungaray as Sgt. Ari Moldovan, Cyndee Rivera as Mia Ruz, Shelby Flannery as Rosie Zaran, Jaime Zevallos as Danny Gonzalez, Amber Janea as Bella Gardner
- Director
- Batán Silva
- Writers
- Story: Julie Martin & Brendan Feeney & Denis Hamill & Melody Cooper; Story & teleplay: Kathy Dobie & Monet Hurst-Mendoza
Summary
“Hunt, Trap, Rape & Release” begins when a masked man climbs into the Inwood apartment of Rosie Zaran, 23, binds her hands with duct tape, rapes her and warns her not to go to the police. With no prints, DNA or video, the case matches a Bronx serial attacker who tells women to be “good girls.” Benson and Fin take the case to the new head of Bronx SVU, Lt. Carolyn Barek, a former Major Case detective. Told by Chief Garland to build trust in her squad, Barek is reluctant to share, and her lead investigator, Sgt. Ari Moldovan, resents Manhattan’s interest. When the rapist strikes again and reporters reach the scene first, Moldovan and Fin come to blows on camera, and Garland answers by creating a joint task force.
Moldovan’s junior partner, Mia Ruz, admits she took a phone report last April from Bella Gardner, attacked the same way, but nothing followed: Moldovan was sick with COVID and her captain told her to shelve it. Bella, like Rosie, recalls the whispered phrase and liquor on his breath. Then a dog bites an intruder during an attempted assault near Hunts Point. Moldovan corners the man inside a silo and fires at him, missing. Danny Gonzalez, a cab driver, claims he was only burglarizing the apartment, and five of seven Bronx victims pick out his voice. Rosie and two others cannot, and Gonzalez was in a Tallahassee jail when Bella was raped.
Rollins gives Force Investigation only what she witnessed. She and Fin then catch Moldovan at Rosie’s apartment, pressing her to try the voice lineup again. Kat, befriending Ruz, learns that Moldovan was drinking at a bar near Rosie’s building the night of her rape and had told Ruz not to meet Bella in person. Joey Nuccio, a rapist Moldovan once caught, says the sergeant talked him into confessing to two attacks with no DNA in return for a prison near his sick mother. The squad comes to suspect that Moldovan borrows the methods of the rapists he hunts.
Spoiler, the ending: Wearing a wire, Rollins meets Moldovan for drinks and tells him that Rosie recognized his eyes and that his phone records are being checked. He admits being at the bar but denies the rape. Outside, realizing he has been set up, he draws a gun; after a standoff he is taken into custody, scoffing that the wire caught nothing. He later awaits trial at Rikers, under watch as a suicide risk. Ruz accuses Kat and Rollins of betraying her. Barek is told she cannot stay at Bronx SVU and is offered a return to Homicide, and Benson tells her that Moldovan fooled many people before she arrived.
Why it stands out
- Annabella Sciorra reprises Carolyn Barek, the former Major Case Squad detective from Law & Order: Criminal Intent, now a lieutenant in command of Bronx SVU.
- Barek quotes Goren, her old Major Case colleague, in her first exchange with Moldovan and the Manhattan detectives.