Angels (Season 4, Episode 6)
Premise: A boy found dead on an airport shuttle bus leads detectives to a ring that smuggles children to pedophiles, and to the brutal murder of the man who held him captive.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 6
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie), Defense Attorney Trevor Langan (Peter Hermann)
- Guest stars
- Michael Hayden as Walt Massey, Pablo Santos as Ernesto Diaz, Will Arnett as Anthony Damon, Patrick Cassidy as Dr. Stewart Lynch, Kate Skinner as Mrs. Massey
- Director
- Arthur W. Forney
- Writers
- Robert F. Campbell & Jonathan Greene
Summary
“Angels” opens at JFK Airport, where a boy of nine or ten is found dead in the luggage hold of a shuttle bus. Queens detective Katie Moore hands the case to Benson and Stabler because the bus left from a Manhattan yard. The medical examiner finds carbon monoxide poisoning, semen, a cut on his arm and healed surgical scars from long-term sexual abuse, plus roughly $10,000 of recent dental work. Yard security video shows him walking hand in hand with an older boy, and a teddy bear found where the bus was parked carries his blood and bits of tempered glass.
The older boy hides on another bus and is caught on the airport tarmac. He is Ernesto Diaz, 14, who says he was brought from Guatemala by boat two years ago and that a charity handed him and the dead boy, José, to Wall Street lawyer Bret Jansen, who locked them up and raped them. In Jansen’s soundproofed apartment the squad finds a broken window, Jansen dead in bed with his throat cut and his genitals removed, a video of Jansen and a tattooed man abusing a young boy, fake adoption papers and NAMBLA literature. Ernesto adds that Jansen lent him out to other men.
The ME says the killer cut with a scalpel and real surgical skill. Ernesto names plastic surgeon Stewart Lynch as the doctor who treated the boys, and phone records tie Lynch to travel agent Anthony Damon, Jansen’s squash partner. Posing as a customer, Munch buys a child sex tour from Damon and arrests him, and Damon says Lynch chose José for Jansen. Lynch is caught watching a tape of his own trip, and his three adopted sons prove to have forged papers. Facing a plea offer, he names Damon as the smuggler and gives up other men, leading to 17 arrests and 14 children placed in foster care. But Lynch was in surgery in Rochester the night Jansen died.
Lynch’s sons have flawless teeth, which turns attention to Walt Massey, the dentist who did José’s work. Massey’s wife says he answered her personal ad and adopted her two sons, and the older boy, Shawn, says Massey climbs into his bed at night. Stabler gets Massey talking by pretending to share his views.
Spoiler, the ending: Shown that his tattoo matches the man in the video and that glass from Jansen’s apartment was in his sneaker, Massey admits the killing, saying Jansen spoiled things for everyone. He is arrested for the murder and for abusing Shawn, and he insists the boy seduced him.
Why it stands out
- Will Arnett appears as travel agent Anthony Damon, and Patrick Cassidy plays plastic surgeon Stewart Lynch.
- Peter Hermann appears as defense attorney Trevor Langan; Mariska Hargitay met Hermann on the set of the series, and the two married in 2004.