I Thought You Were on My Side (Season 23, Episode 3)
Premise: A club singer accuses a mob-connected nightclub owner of rape and attempted murder, but federal agents and Stabler’s unit want him as an informant.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 23, Episode 3
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ME Dr. Abel Truman (Frank Wood)
- Guest stars
- Rhys Coiro as Gabe Navarro, Herizen F. Guardiola as Tara Riley, Danielle Moné Truitt as Sgt. Ayanna Bell, Josh Cooke as Agent Harrison Clay, Hisham Tawfiq as Jules
- Director
- John Behring
- Writers
- Story: Bryan Goluboff & Denis Hamill & Monet Hurst-Mendoza & Kathy Dobie & Micharne Cloughley; Teleplay: Julie Martin & Warren Leight
Summary
“I Thought You Were on My Side” begins at the Third Rail, a club owned by Gabe Navarro, where singer Tara Riley performs at his private birthday party. Navarro sexually assaults her while she sings to him, follows her to her dressing room and, after she fights him off and slaps him, shoves her down a flight of stairs in front of his guests. Found the next morning by a dumpster behind the club, she may be paralyzed. She tells Benson and Rollins what happened, but Navarro has friends at the local precinct and a long record of dropped charges, and his manager, Jules, and the staff say they saw nothing.
On a recorded call, Tara asks Navarro to cover her medical bills; he says twenty guests will swear she slipped and hints that she could end up dead. Benson arrests him at the club. He claims rough, consensual sex and offers to make the case go away, and his DNA matches Tara’s kit and two older ones: a Miami woman left brain-damaged and an unidentified dancer found beaten and drowned under a pier in Brighton Beach. Before Carisi can take the case to a grand jury, Navarro is handed over to Organized Crime and the FBI. Stabler, undercover for months, explains that Navarro advises Anton Popkov, a fugitive Russian crime boss, and Navarro asks to talk with him. Benson refuses to leave the room, and when Stabler threatens to tell the press that Navarro is cooperating, Navarro reveals that Popkov is holding a meeting at his house in Queens.
Tara picks Popkov out of a photo as a guest at the party, and SVU joins the raid. Popkov and Navarro slip out through a tunnel, and when officers stop them, Stabler shoots Navarro, saying Navarro tried to shoot him. Popkov’s capture is announced as a joint win for the FBI and Organized Crime.
Spoiler, the ending: An hour after surgery, Navarro is taken from the hospital by U.S. Marshals before Carisi can arraign him, and Sgt. Ayanna Bell and FBI Agent Harrison Clay will not say where he has gone. Stabler swears to Benson by phone that he knew nothing about the deal; she tells Rollins she knows him better than anyone, and Rollins answers that she used to. Benson promises Tara the case is not over, but Tara, facing a long recovery, says SVU cannot help her.
Why it stands out
- Begins a three-part crossover with Law & Order: Organized Crime that continues in the second and third episodes of that show’s second season.
- Rhys Coiro guest-stars as Gabe Navarro and Herizen F. Guardiola as Tara Riley; Danielle Moné Truitt appears as Organized Crime’s Sgt. Ayanna Bell.