Underbelly (Season 8, Episode 7)
Premise: A paw-print tattoo on three murdered teenage girls leads Stabler and his new partner, Beck, into an underage prostitution ring and to the pimp who claims to love his girls.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 8, Episode 7
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Dani Beck (Connie Nielsen), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Casey Novak (Diane Neal), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)
- Guest stars
- Michael Kenneth Williams as Victor Bodine, Charlotte Ray Rosenberg as Belinda Holt, Charlayne Woodard as Sister Peg, Victor Slezak as Blake Peters, JoAnna Rhinehart as Venice Jones
- Director
- Jonathan Kaplan
- Writers
- Amanda Green
Summary
“Underbelly” begins with the body of a girl of about 14 recovered from the river. Warner says she spent at least two weeks in the water after being raped and beaten to death with bare fists. A paw-print tattoo links her to two earlier rape-homicide victims found in the Bronx and Brooklyn, one a 16-year-old runaway from Wichita, Sandra Garner. A tattoo artist points Stabler and his new partner, Dani Beck, to Lenny Culp, an unlicensed Brooklyn ex-con who admits inking all three. The new victim is Chantal Vanner, whose foster mother had wanted to adopt her before child services sent her home to her mother. When Chantal accused her mother’s boyfriend of touching her, the mother chose him, and Chantal ran from a group home. Girls there say a man named Victor lured her away.
Beck, impatient to act, joins a vice sweep of an East New York stroll. Belinda Holt, 14, has the same tattoo and calls the dead girls her sisters; she believes a rich man named Blake “adopted” them. Munch and Fin identify Blake Peters, a law-firm partner with a history of domestic violence complaints, and Stabler and Beck arrest him at a hotel with a young woman, Candy, who proves to be 19. Peters admits paying all three girls for sex but denies killing them, saying Victor threatened him with a baseball bat when he tried to take one away. Benson, back from her FBI assignment, stops by to see Cragen and meets Beck, then tells him she is not ready to return and asks him not to tell Stabler she came.
Beck persuades Stabler to focus on the pimp. Belinda tells her Victor broke Monique’s nose for keeping a tip, and Sister Peg, a nun who works with women on the street, takes Belinda in and helps her sign a statement against him. Victor Bodine, a former Golden Gloves boxer, is found hiding at the home of his girlfriend, Venice Jones, and charged with promoting prostitution while the murder case is built; Novak wins $500,000 bail over the objections of his lawyer, Hashi Horowitz. That night Sister Peg is beaten and Belinda taken. Victor has walked out of jail by having another inmate answer to his name.
Spoiler, the ending: Furious that Victor planned to take Belinda instead of her to the Dominican Republic, Venice gives up his Williamsburg loft. Cornered there, Victor flees with Belinda, threatens to throw her from a height, then leaves her hanging and runs. She is pulled to safety. Afterward Belinda asks to see him and is told it is not a good idea; she insists he loved her. The murders are not brought to trial on screen.
Why it stands out
- Michael Kenneth Williams guest-stars as the pimp Victor Bodine.
- Diane Neal shares a scene with her husband, Marcus Fitzgerald, who plays an ADA Novak stops to talk to at a bar.
- Benson makes a brief return to the squad room during her absence from the series, meeting Beck but deciding not to come back yet.