Spoiler Alert: She Wins.
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Staff Writer
Law and Order: SVU “Zero Tolerance”
Season 20, Episode 3
Airdate: 10/4/2018
Last year on SVU, in the late season episode “Sunk Cost Fallacy,” Lieutenant Olivia Benson bumped into to an old friend by the name of Alex Cabot. Aprominent Assistant District Attorney (ADA) in the show’s early years, Cabot was now helping mothers and their children “disappear,” faking their deaths and saving them from abusive home situations. She essentially became a vigilante, and Benson made sure to read her the riot act for breaking the laws she once defended in court.
The ironic thing about Benson’s speech in that episode is that she has failed to realize that she has become a vigilante of sorts herself. Benson frequently pushes the boundaries of the law herself as far as she possibly can in order to get justice for the victims she tries to help.
But there are times when she goes too far. In “Zero Tolerance” she orders the arrest of a government agent who comes to the squad room to retrieve a little girl, Gabriella, who is an illegal immigrant, for reasons that are not legal. It doesn’t fly, and Benson should’ve known better in trying to pull a stunt like that; even though she was trying to help Gabriella, all it did was delay the inevitable. With all of the stunts Benson pulled this week, which also included having an uncharacteristic outburst in the courtroom, it’s a miracle that Gabriella got the happy ending that she did.
One of the legitimate criticisms that fans of the show have against Benson is that she becomes too emotionally involved in SVU cases. We know why she does, but that’s not an excuse. She’s not a detective anymore, she’s a Lieutenant. She’s in charge. And there are many ways she could’ve tried to get justice for Gabriella that is within the boundaries of the law and respectful to the law, as broken as it may be right now.
On that note, and before I continue, I’d like to include a personal note: I think that as I’m writing these, it’s going to be hard to appropriately tackle these episodes that focus on these big, complicated issues. Obviously, I have my own thoughts and views on the subject of illegal immigration, but because of those views, it’s hard to remain unbiased on the topic. It’s much easier, and more fun, to write about the episodes that keep the stakes low and absurd (kind of like the episode from Season 10 about animal trafficking). I will simply say this: as a country, I think there are much better ways that we can address the issue, but I’m not sure there will ever be a perfect solution. The writers and producers of this show (and Mariska Hargitay, let’s be honest), definitely do have a distinct view on the issue, however, and it was fully on display here. I do think this episode did appropriately illustrate the flaws with how our country goes about enforcing those anti-immigration policies.
I mentioned last week that it might be time for Benson to take a step away from the front lines and after some of the events of this episode that might be for the best. Her antics did not help to free Gabriella; if anything, they worked against her. If it were not for ADA Ben Stone and his former boss from Chicago, State’s Attorney (SA) Mark Jefferies pulling some strings, Gabriella wouldn’t have been freed.
Benson always does everything in her power to get justice, and that is admirable. But there are many ways to fight for justice that are not as unprofessional. Benson has been a cop for over two decades, and she should know better than to pull these kinds of stunts.
CASE DETAILS:
A man hurriedly hails a cab, saying his daughter is sick and needs to get to a hospital. When they arrive, he dumps her at the drop-off zone and re-enters the cab telling him to drive away. After talking with the girl (who is only 14), the squad quickly deduces that the man, who the girl calls “Uncle Luke,” appears to have sexually assaulted her. After some quick detective work, they initially think that “Uncle Luke” is a man named Vince. It turns out he was just a client for him, but Vince leads them to a sex trafficking ring lead by the real Uncle Luke where the squad uncovers a bunch of young girls, one of whom is Gabriella, who is a nine-year-old and an illegal immigrant.
After running a search through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database, they find that Gabriella was in foster care, and head to New Jersey to find her foster parents. Once there, her foster parents inform them that Gabriella was separated from her mother at the Texas/Mexico border; she was brought to a detention facility while her mother, Maria, remained in a Texas detention facility. Being very distrustful of Americans, they theorized that she ran away to reunite with her mother, who is attempting to attain asylum.
A man from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) comes to take Gabriella, but she cowers in fear and informs Benson that that particular officer is the one who separated her from her mother at the border. The ORR officer admits that she’s telling the truth, but says he was just following policy. And he didn’t look particularly happy about doing it either. Despite that, Benson has him arrested on the spot for kidnapping, despite having to know full well that he technically didn’t break the law. All that ultimately does is delay Gabriella’s relocation; despite Benson’s successful plea to ADA Stone to try and stop it from happening, a judge does not rule in their favor but does acknowledge that the separation of Gabriella and Maria was disturbing and ill-advised. The arrest of the ORR officer is overturned and he is immediately released, and he immediately takes Gabriella to a facility nearby, Fort Sterling.
All hope is seemingly lost until Stone makes a trip back to his old stomping grounds of Chicago. Stone brings up the case while sitting down with SA Mark Jefferies, his former boss. After being assured that Maria’s grounds for asylum are solid, Jefferies pulls some strings. Using a personal relationship he has with a supervising judge in the 5th circuit courts (which covers the state of Texas), he has Stone draw up an asylum petition for Maria and has another judge push it through, allowing her to be released, and ultimately Gabriella released as well.
But while Gabriella and her mother get a happy ending, everyone else in the detention center doesn’t. Perhaps the one image that will stick with me from this episode is the look of complete and utter sadness on Benson’s face as she looks at the sad faces of all of the children in the facility’s various cages. She walks out of the detention center, unable to help any of them. It’s a pretty powerful shot, one that will stick in my memory for quite a while.
JACOB’S FINAL RULINGS:
I’m not sure how I feel about the victim in the opening scene and the sex-trafficking ring basically just being a McGuffin.
The little girl who portrayed Gabriella in this episode did an absolutely phenomenal job.
The military base where Gabriella was kept in this episode, Fort Sterling, is fictional, but there once was a real Fort Sterling in New York. It was located around the borough of what is now present-day Brooklyn and was used in the late 1700’s.
Rollins’ ex-boyfriend is still awful and I’m not buying his act for a second. I’m glad it appears that she’s not either. It also appears that her time working this case and being around Gabriella has convinced her to keep the baby.
Apollo Creed is in this episode and he gets to save the day! Seriously, Carl Weathers is a great actor and I wouldn’t object to seeing his Jefferies character pop up on SVU more often.
On a related note, while I won’t be reviewing them, all of the shows in the Chicago Franchise (Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, and Chicago Med) are well worth your time. Check them out, you will not be disappointed.
As someone who watches this show every single week, I appreciate the continuity being noted on screen. For example, Rollins impulsively suggested that she can adopt Gabriella like Benson adopted Noah, and she also mentioned Esther, a girl from a case she worked last season. Fun fact: she accidentally shot her.
I love Sergeant Fin Tutuola and his incredible wit and the fact that he will proudly babysit his grandson that has two gay dads.
“Give him his phone call and a… baloney sandwich” will go down in the Olivia Benson Quotes Hall of Fame.
