Gimme Shelter – Part Three (Season 22, Episode 1)
Premise: A gangster’s bombing of a Manhattan hotel points the prosecutors to a Russian official close to Putin, and when their key witness slips out of reach they must bargain with the bomber to convict the man they believe gave the orders.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 22, Episode 1
- Detectives
- Det. Frank Cosgrove (Jeffrey Donovan), Det. Jalen Shaw (Mehcad Brooks), Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Jet Slootmaekers (Ainsley Seiger)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy), ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi), DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston)
- Guest stars
- Beau Knapp as Mark Sirenko, Pasha D. Lychnikoff as Daniel Rublev, Jaci Calderon as Nicole Merrick, Gene Farber as Andre Lenkov, Michael Kostroff as defense attorney Evan Braun
- Director
- Alex Hall
- Writers
- Rick Eid & Gwen Sigan
Summary
The Investigation
“Gimme Shelter – Part Three” concludes a case that began on Law & Order: Organized Crime and continued on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Mark Sirenko, a Chechen trafficker and drug dealer, is charged with two murders and with bombing the Dunlap Hotel during a gathering of NATO delegates, and the prosecutors learn that the remains of three hotel workers have been found inside, bringing the dead to five. Price suspects that someone else gave the order.
Nicole Merrick, a 15-year-old who was on a rented yacht with Ava Marchenko the morning Sirenko shot Ava, remembers an older man with a Russian accent who showed off a star-shaped medal. A State Department lead to a Russian Embassy reception identifies him as Daniel Rublev, a senior aide to the Russian president with ties to Putin, and the man Ava had been secretly recording. Stabler’s team pressures Sirenko’s lieutenant, Andre Lenkov, who admits being on the yacht and turns over Ava’s phone. Its video shows Rublev bragging to the girls about a coming explosion, and Cosgrove and Shaw arrest him.
The Trial
Price tries the two men together, but defense lawyer Evan Braun gets the phone video excluded because no one can vouch for it without naming the informant who found it. With Lenkov refusing to testify, Nicole is the only witness left to Rublev’s words. Benson, who is sheltering her in a safe house, reluctantly agrees, but gunmen ambush Nicole and Rollins, who is shot shielding the girl and survives surgery. Nicole admits she kept a phone and answered a message that morning.
Benson then tells Price that Nicole is with a relative in Toronto and will not testify. Extradition looks unlikely, and McCoy says convicting Rublev is the priority. The office drops the first-degree murder and terrorism counts against Sirenko, and with them life without parole, in exchange for his testimony; Stabler accuses Price of trading the life of his murdered undercover officer, Vincent, for a headline. On the stand, Sirenko says Rublev took a 10 percent cut of his business and ordered both Ava’s killing and the bombing, though he killed Vincent on his own, and Braun attacks his credibility.
Spoiler, the ending: Rublev offers to reveal Russian state secrets in exchange for immunity, and although McCoy insists the State Department hear the offer, Price refuses any deal. Soon afterward, Rublev is shot dead. Sirenko, who pleaded guilty to five counts of second-degree murder and informed on his organization, keeps his deal. Cosgrove tells his daughter, Lily, that the world is not perfect but is still beautiful, and Benson is later seen meeting Nicole in Central Park, revealing that the story about Canada was not true.
Why it stands out
- The episode concludes the “Gimme Shelter” crossover, which began on the Season 3 premiere of Law & Order: Organized Crime and continued on the Season 24 premiere of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
- This is the Season 22 premiere, in which Mehcad Brooks joins the main cast as Det. Jalen Shaw, following Anthony Anderson’s exit after Season 21.