Gimme Shelter – Part Two (Season 24, Episode 1)
Premise: SVU, Organized Crime and Law & Order detectives hunt Mark Sirenko, a trafficker linked to a girl’s murder who has built a large bomb and vanished with it.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 24, Episode 1
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni)
- Guest stars
- Beau Knapp as Mark Sirenko, Jeffrey Donovan as Det. Frank Cosgrove, Mehcad Brooks as Det. Jalen Shaw, Camryn Manheim as Lt. Kate Dixon, Jaci Calderon as Nicole Merrick
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Story: Kathy Dobie; Written by: Rick Eid & Gwen Sigan
Summary
“Gimme Shelter – Part Two” continues a crossover that began on Law & Order: Organized Crime, where a trafficked teenager named Ava was killed after fleeing a yacht and a raid turned up a 14-year-old girl living with a woman named Sam Ellis. Benson and Fin question the girl, who stays loyal until she is shown video of Detectives Frank Cosgrove and Jalen Shaw interrogating Sam, who denies knowing her. The girl, Nicole Merrick, a runaway from foster care, says she and Ava spent the night aboard with an older client, possibly Russian. When he caught Ava filming him, he slammed her into a counter; she hit him with a champagne bottle and fled, and at his urging Mark Sirenko chased her. Nicole picks out Sirenko.
A raid finds Sirenko gone, but a hidden room at his house holds the makings of a large bomb built from ammonium nitrate and diesel, and the device has been hauled away. Stabler, who has tracked Sirenko for months, knows of no terrorist ties, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force and a deputy mayor balk at evacuating anything before the mayor weighs in. Stabler sends his wired informant, Vince, to draw Sirenko out while Jet Slootmaekers monitors, but Sirenko leads Vince into a concrete basement where the signal fails, then follows him into an elevator and shoots him dead. Sirenko escapes; his bodyguard asks for a lawyer and taunts Stabler about the bomb, and Stabler later squares off with the deputy mayor over the informant’s death.
GPS records from Sirenko’s van lead Jet to a rented house in Queens, where hotel worker John Kent admits Sirenko blackmailed him over a 15-year-old girl he met online and made him hand over badges and security details. The hotel is hosting a NATO event that day. The police clear the building, and Shaw finds the bomb in a van in the basement garage, its timer running; Lt. Kate Dixon orders him out instead of letting him try to disarm it. The bomb goes off, and Sirenko gets away from Cosgrove. Rollins spots him near Wall Street, and he takes hostages in a clothing store.
Spoiler, the ending: Sirenko demands a bulletproof SUV within ten minutes and threatens to shoot a young girl first, and Benson keeps him talking by phone while Stabler moves to get a view inside. Sirenko then drags the hostages toward the back, where he is cornered and drops his gun. Stabler invites him to pick it up, a better chance than Vince was given, until he is told to ease off, and Sirenko is taken into custody. The case moves to the DA’s office in the Law & Order premiere, the crossover’s final hour.
Why it stands out
- The Season 24 premiere is the middle hour of the “Gimme Shelter” crossover, which began on Law & Order: Organized Crime (its Season 3 opener) and finished on Law & Order (its Season 22 opener); all three aired on September 22, 2022.
- In the crossover’s final hour, Rollins is shot while protecting the young witness, which sets up her recovery in the next SVU episode.
- Season 24 was the first with David Graziano as showrunner, replacing Warren Leight.