Silent Night, Hateful Night (Season 23, Episode 10)
Premise: SVU joins the Hate Crimes unit to hunt the extremists behind a series of Christmas Eve attacks before their remaining bombs go off.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 23, Episode 10
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Chief Tommy McGrath (Terry Serpico), Capt. Declan Murphy (Donal Logue), Sgt. Hasim Khaldun (Ari’el Stachel), Det. Mia Ruz (Cyndee Rivera), Det. Andy Parlato-Goldstein (Jason Biggs)
- Guest stars
- Keith Nobbs as Darko Pavic, Matthew Giovanni Laureano as Antonio “A.J.” Juarez, John Patrick Jordan as Tom Nolan, Brontë England-Nelson as Susan Nolan, Michael Laurence as Robert Paul Byers
- Director
- Norberto Barba
- Writers
- Story: Denis Hamill & Monet Hurst-Mendoza & Micharne Cloughley; Teleplay: Julie Martin; Story & teleplay: Warren Leight & Kathy Dobie
Summary
“Silent Night, Hateful Night” opens as a masked extremist tells his online followers that the first wave has begun, and attacks spread across three boroughs on Christmas Eve: rocks through a Brooklyn synagogue window, a Sikh driver stabbed by a motorcyclist with Ohio plates, antisemitic graffiti, a firebombed halal restaurant and an Orthodox Jewish man, Aaron Getz, shoved into traffic. With the Hate Crimes commander out, Chief McGrath has SVU back up the unit’s new head, Capt. Declan Murphy, just back from years undercover, and his team: Sgt. Hasim Khaldun and Dets. Mia Ruz and Andy Parlato-Goldstein.
A priest names an altar boy, Dalen, from the synagogue video, and Dalen leads the squad to Jahrique Galloway and Julius Lee, who are tied to the rock-throwing and the attack on Getz. McGrath wants the case closed, but Benson and Murphy argue the arson and graffiti, which carefully avoided cameras, are the work of an ideological group. A pressure-cooker bomb then damages a Williamsburg mosque, and a second fails at a Jewish nursing home. Murphy tells Rollins he spent six years undercover until his death was faked, and apologizes for missing their daughter Jesse’s life; Rollins says she is happy.
A dog walker who chatted up the detectives, Darko Pavic, turns out to have switched off his phone before the attacks. The boys’ video leaks to television, and Fin blames McGrath. Darko is then shot by a motorcyclist while Khaldun tails him. From his hospital bed he gives Rollins his key so she can walk his dog, and in his closet she and Fin find bomb-making supplies. The bomb squad removes six devices, but four are unaccounted for. The FBI takes over and gets nowhere; given a turn, SVU and Hate Crimes learn from Darko the code names AJ and North Star. A cell tower dump points to Antonio “AJ” Juarez of Defiance, Ohio, who is arrested at his ex’s Brooklyn apartment and reveals bombs in a backpack under a Christmas tree.
A call from AJ draws out Tom Nolan of Arizona, who admits his wife, Susan, has been using her sister’s credit card. The hotel says Susan and her companion, Robert Paul Byers, left with a backpack for Washington Square Park, near an Islamic center, a Jewish student center and a temple.
Spoiler, the ending: Benson approaches Susan pretending to be an old friend while officers close in. Robert announces he has a bomb and is shot, and Susan tells the police they have given the movement a martyr. With a police shooting to document, the squad faces hours of paperwork, and the episode closes on wishes of a merry Christmas.
Why it stands out
- Donal Logue returns as Declan Murphy, now a captain heading the Hate Crimes unit, in his first appearance since Season 17.
- Murphy and Rollins discuss Jesse, the daughter they share, whose life he has missed while undercover.
- Jason Biggs appears as Det. Andy Parlato-Goldstein of Hate Crimes.