Soldier Up (Season 24, Episode 11)
Premise: Benson and a Gang Unit captain discover that BX9 uses rape to force boys into the gang, and race to tie the gang’s leader to the attack on her.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 24, Episode 11
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Joe Velasco (Octavio Pisano), Det. Grace Muncy (Molly Burnett), Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), Chief Tommy McGrath (Terry Serpico), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Det. Tonie Churlish (Jasmine Batchelor)
- Guest stars
- Maurice Compte as Mike Duarte, Marc Rivera as Fugazi, Goya Robles as Oscar Papa, Adam Lindo as Benny Barros, Chloe Castro-Santos as Maria Garcia
- Director
- Jonathan Herron
- Writers
- Story: Kathy Dobie & Nolan Dunbar; Written by: David Graziano & Julie Martin
Summary
“Soldier Up” opens with Benson questioning the 15-year-old who attacked her, Albert “Fugazi” Diaz, as he recovers from her bullet. He tells her he walked from El Salvador and rode the roof of a freight train through Mexico to find his mother in New York, and that BX9 raped her and threatened to do it again unless he proved himself, or “soldiered up.” Capt. Mike Duarte wants to squeeze the boy, but Benson has Muncy look for his mother. Duarte then leads Benson into the woods to a tree hung with women’s underwear, trophies from the rapes of recruits’ mothers and sisters that BX9 uses to frighten teenagers into joining. Muncy, who once worked Gangs with Duarte, is furious that he kept it secret for more than a year.
Benson persuades McGrath that the roughly 100 rapes the tree represents could clear Bronx SVU’s open cases and satisfy the Justice Department, while Fin, Bruno and Tonie Churlish start vetting new detectives. Muncy’s contact Maria Garcia says two Tremont clique recruiters raped her the night her brother, Rodrigo, joined BX9; Rodrigo has since been killed by 19th Street. She names Lindsay “Bug Bear” Del Toro and Hector “Sacrilege” Suarez. In a raid, Duarte shoots Sacrilege, whose vest saves him, and Bug Bear gives up. Fin and Bruno tell Bug Bear his partner is dead, and he admits Sacrilege used the tree to recruit. At the hospital, Albert sees Sacrilege and shouts that he raped his mother, though Carisi doubts a wounded gang member makes a reliable witness.
Muncy and Churlish find Albert’s mother, Monica, and in their reunion he blurts out that someone he calls the Maestro ordered him to kill Benson. Maria then lures Benson and Duarte to her family’s restaurant, where Oscar Papa is waiting. He denies any part in the tree, calls BX9 a brotherhood rather than a gang and says the problem is being dealt with. Soon after, Bug Bear is stabbed to death in jail, and Sacrilege stays silent.
Spoiler, the ending: Benson and Duarte remind Albert of the stranger who shared the train roof with him and taught him the stars, and Albert names the Maestro: Benny Barros, Papa’s driver, who promised the boys full membership for killing Benson. When he is arrested at home, Benny asks Duarte to punch him so the gang will think he resisted, then offers recordings of Papa’s calls from his car and agrees to testify. When Papa climbs into what he thinks is Benny’s car, Benson and Duarte arrest him, and Benson lets Duarte put on the cuffs.
Why it stands out
- Goya Robles appears for the first time as BX9 leader Oscar Papa, behind the attack on Benson in the previous episode, “Jumped In.”
- Fin, Bruno and Churlish begin hiring a new Bronx SVU squad under the Justice Department’s mandate, a thread that leads to Bruno joining Manhattan SVU later in the season.