Brotherhood (Season 5, Episode 12)
Premise: A fraternity pledge master is found murdered at a sewage plant, and the case uncovers years of sadistic hazing inside his house.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 5, Episode 12
- 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 Casey Novak (Diane Neal), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)
- Guest stars
- Gary Cole as Xander Henry, Toby Moore as Rob Sweeney, Elden Henson as Will Caray, Noah Fleiss as Nathan Angeli, Serena Williams as Chloe Spiers
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Jose Molina
Summary
“Brotherhood” begins at a sewage treatment plant, where workers find a young man’s body in an aeration tank. Warner finds that a blow to the head killed him, leaving bits of Pyrex glass in his scalp, and that he was sexually assaulted with an object. A fraternity tattoo identifies him as Tyler Henry, the Tau Omega pledge master at Wallace University, reported missing by his housemate, Rob Sweeney. Tyler made about $40,000 from ads on a website showing wet T-shirt contests he staged at a local bar, and he secretly filmed himself having sex with a dozen women. Chloe Spiers, a basketball player who threatened to sue over her video, was at an away game that night, and her father, Vernon, an ex-convict who had taken a swing at Tyler, is questioned.
Horsehair and a rare Brazilian wood in the wounds show Tyler was violated with a violin bow, which leads to Nathan Angeli, a pledge recently voted out of the fraternity, and his girlfriend, Alicia Morley, whom Tyler had secretly taped. Their alibi holds, and the trail turns to Nathan’s roommate, Will Caray, who quit pledging, drives his car into a wall and confesses from a hospital bed. Through defense attorney Roger Kressler, Will claims Tyler had raped him with a pledge paddle; he tells Huang he hit Tyler with a blender when Tyler came to his apartment, then used the bow on him. Novak wants proof before any deal.
Alicia steals the fraternity’s initiation ledger and hands it to Stabler. It records years of abuse, including the night Will was assaulted, under brothers’ nicknames. Novak agrees to let Will plead to manslaughter and gives Nathan a suspended sentence for his testimony, and Nathan names Rob Sweeney as the ledger’s author. Rob is arrested and represented by Tyler’s father, Xander Henry, a lawyer and Tau Omega alumnus, and the judge throws out the ledger because Stabler had urged Alicia to help. At trial Will testifies that Rob, not Tyler, raped him, while Nathan, wearing his pledge pin again, plays down the hazing.
Spoiler, the ending: Phone records lead Stabler to the funeral home, where Xander had told staff to destroy the items left in Tyler’s casket; among them is the paddle, still carrying Will’s blood. Rob says he put it there to protect Tyler’s name. When Xander asks Rob on the stand whether he ever hurt a pledge, the denial lets the ledger back in, and under Novak’s questioning Rob reads his own entry aloud and admits he raped Will. Novak accuses Xander of doing it on purpose; he answers that he defended his client as well as he could. No verdict is shown.
Why it stands out
- Tennis champion Serena Williams guest-stars as Chloe Spiers, a college basketball player.
- Gary Cole plays Xander Henry, the murdered pledge master’s father, who goes on to defend the fraternity president in court.