Two white men rob a Muslim restaraunt, brutally assaulting the family who owns it, they rape the owner's daughters and murder one of them (which, I'm warning you, is shown kinda graphically), and then they spray paint "Muslims must die" on the crime scene. Olivia Benson somehow discerns this could possibly be a hate crime.
A witness is discovered, but he is hesitant to testify, because he's in the US illegally, plus he's gay, and Muslim, so he knows he'll be killed if he's sent back to Syria. Benson and Friends ask him to testify and promise he won't get deported, so of course he gets deported. We never find out what happens to him after that.
An accomplice is discovered, but he won't testify either, so Benson reaches out to his "illegal" wife and threatens to call ICE and get her deported (losing her kids in the process) if she doesn't convince her husband to testify. The wife agrees to Benson's blackmail. A win for justice.
The husband testifies, and is then shot and killed in a dramatic shoot-out at the steps of the courthouse.
The rapists are racist creeps who utter slurs every two seconds and sound like they read InfoWars and watch Sean Hannity. It is very aggravating to watch. Trump is mentioned and shaded multiple times.
Another witness pops up (this episode was not contrived at all) and lies on the stand, to incriminate the suspects. Barba basically asks Benson to lie on the stand too, to corroborate the false witness statement. Benson does not go along with it.
Through yet another contrivance, one more witness pops up. In a twist, it's the racist wife of one of the racist rapists. Benson gets her to tell the truth, the rapists are convicted, and racism is defeated.
Benson rejects Barba's offer to buy her drinks, as always, and then Daddy Dodds (Peter Gallagher, who's been there the whole time) informs Benson and the viewers that a mosque was fire-bombed and there are five dead. Racism is not defeated, after all.
DICK WOLF
Also, Mariska Hargitay and her foundation The Joyful Heart (advocating against sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse) held
The Joyful Revolution Gala on May 22:omg it's Alexandra Cabot!awwww, it's a shaggy Carisi and his irl wife!can Peter Gallagher become a series regular?can we pretend they never broke up?It's Olivia Benson and Grace Adler! they're bffs, apparently.Mariska Hargitay and Cynthia Erivo, who performed at the eventCynthia and Dr. Green! I love that they're still friendsLastly, Mariska Hargitay and her hot husbandboomSources:twitter,
getty imagesONTD, what did you think about the ~political~ season finale? Did you think it was an hour too long? Or two hours too long? Are you glad this terrible season is finally over? And are you looking forward to a hopefully better Season 19?