Divide & Conquer (Season 26, Episode 3)
Premise: When an Albanian robbery crew shoots a wealthy gym owner and rapes his wife during a home invasion, SVU and Rollins’s Intelligence Division team up to catch them before they leave the country.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 26, Episode 3
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Judge D. Serani (Michael Mastro)
- Guest stars
- John Clarence Stewart as Det. Vince Corgan, Emily Jackson as Nora Fletcher, Adam Aalderks as James Fletcher, David Garelik as Aldrit Neziri, John Hemphill as Dennis Maynard
- Director
- Martha Mitchell
- Writers
- Story: Gabriel Vallejo & Nicholas Evangelista; Written by: David Graziano & Julie Martin
Summary
“Divide & Conquer” opens as Rollins, newly promoted to sergeant in the Intelligence Division, gives her first citywide briefing, alongside her new partner, Det. Vince Corgan, about a four-man robbery crew of Albanian “crime tourists” who fly into a city, hit wealthy targets and leave within 48 hours. That night four masked, armed men push into the home of gym-chain owner James Fletcher and his wife, Nora, as they clean up after an anniversary party with friends Valerie and Graham Martin. One shoots James in the knee when he refuses to give up the combination to a basement safe, then rapes Nora while the others are made to watch, and the crew empties the safe.
Valerie reports the rape against Nora’s wishes, and SVU and Intelligence split the case. Benson and Rollins persuade Nora to have a rape kit; she asks that James never learn how he reacted. Interpol matches the DNA to Aldrit Neziri, 25, from Tirana, who skipped bail on a sexual assault charge in Antwerp. At his girlfriend’s apartment in Queens, the squad finds her shot dead and Aldrit gone, wounded, and suspects his own crew. A trail camera hidden outside the Fletchers’ house has caught their business manager, Dennis Maynard, and the squad learns that James turned half his portfolio into $10 million in gold, which Maynard insured without his knowledge a week before the robbery. The appraiser on that policy turns up dead in the East River, riddled with shotgun pellets.
Maynard, deep in debt, admits he set up the job for a share of the gold and the insurance payout, and agrees to lure the crew with a fake buyer. James tells Nora he bought the gold to protect her if society collapsed. Aldrit forces a downtown doctor to treat his wounds at gunpoint, and after a chase through a crowded street and a bar, Benson and Rollins corner him on a rooftop. Benson then finds Nora drinking alone and tells her that hiding the rape to spare James is avoidance, not strength.
Spoiler, the ending: The rest of the crew, Zef Sokoli, Sandro Nikolla and Alex Neziri, are arrested in Maynard’s sting, and the gold turns up at their South Bronx rental. Carisi arraigns Aldrit in his hospital bed, where he is remanded, and Rollins teases her husband for playing hardball. Once Aldrit agrees to cooperate, the others plead to 15 years each; Aldrit gets 20 years for robbery and assault plus five more for the rape, then faces extradition to Antwerp. Maynard pleads guilty and loses his clients and his marriage. Nora tells Benson she will never go back to the house.
Why it stands out
- Kelli Giddish returns as Rollins, now a sergeant in the Intelligence Division; it is the first of her five guest appearances this season.
- John Clarence Stewart guest-stars as Rollins’s new partner, Det. Vince Corgan.
- Aired third but produced fourth, after “Constricted,” which aired the following week.