Ritual (Season 8, Episode 10)
Premise: An Egyptian importer’s killing first looks like terrorism, then reveals a family plan to have his 11-year-old grandniece cut by a doctor flown in from Cairo, and her father is the killer.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 8, Episode 10
- Detectives
- Det. Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt), Lt. Anita Van Buren (S. Epatha Merkerson)
- ADAs/DA
- Exec. ADA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston), ADA Jamie Ross (Carey Lowell), DA Adam Schiff (Steven Hill)
- Guest stars
- Cotter Smith as Eric Martin, Ava Haddad as Nari Martin, Emmy Rossum as Alison Martin, Aharon Ipalé as Dr. Ismail Nasser, Maryann Urbano as Hamida Wazir
- Director
- Brian Mertes
- Writers
- Kathy McCormick & Richard Sweren
Summary
The Investigation
“Ritual” opens with tow-truck drivers finding Josef Moussad, an Egyptian-born importer, dead in a garage stairwell, his head smashed against a wall. A note in his pocket leads to Dr. Ismail Nasser, who flew in from Cairo, called Moussad from his hotel and then switched hotels. Moussad’s $600,000 account and wires to the Middle East, including $5,000 to Nasser, plus baking soda residue in Nasser’s room, raise fears of a bomb plot. Police grab Nasser in the Statue of Liberty ferry line, but his bag holds only surgical instruments. He claims he came to treat his friend’s heart, and immigration officials hold him on his visa.
Moussad had dined that night with his sister, Hamida Wazir, her daughter Nari, Nari’s American husband, Eric Martin, and their 11-year-old daughter, Alison. His girlfriend, Farrah Patel, accuses Martin of sponging off him, and Moussad’s car apparently left the garage on a monthly key card, which Martin has. Alison tells Van Buren her uncle fought with her mother and that her mother followed him out. Meanwhile, Van Buren has filed a discrimination suit after being passed over for captain. The autopsy finds no heart trouble, and Ross pressures the Egyptian consulate into producing Nasser’s résumé, which shows he is an OB/GYN. A doctor who visited his clinic says much of his practice is female circumcision. A neighbor saw Martin return that night, and Alison admits her father was the one who went out.
The Trial
Martin is charged and claims justification. Moussad’s will leaves most of his money in trust for Alison, and before the grand jury Martin testifies that Moussad and Hamida had arranged for Nasser to operate on Alison the next day. He says he caught Moussad by the garage, heard him insist on the procedure and threw him against the wall, and that his wife had been cut as a child. The grand jury indicts him for first-degree manslaughter.
Ross works without pay on a family court petition to place Alison with Martin’s parents in Pennsylvania. Under questioning, Nari recounts being held down at eight while a man in her village cut her, then turns on her mother outside the courtroom.
Spoiler, the ending: McCoy offers a combined deal: Martin pleads guilty to manslaughter for six to 12 years, and Nari gives temporary custody of Alison to his parents, with supervised visits and a review every six months. Both accept, and Schiff tells his prosecutors they pushed back an ancient abuse.
Why it stands out
- The episode was prompted by heightened concern over female genital mutilation.
- Van Buren reveals she is suing the department under Title VII after a white woman with the same exam score was promoted to captain ahead of her.
- The investigation swings from a suspected terror plot to a family’s plan to have a doctor perform a banned procedure on a child.