WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Law & Order: SVU Season 23, Episode 3, "I Thought You Were On My Side," which premiered Thursday, September 30th, on NBC. This article also contains descriptions of sexual assault.
The latest episode of Law & Order: SVU begins in a club bathroom, where a man and a woman are hooking up while a singer shows up to perform. The singer is worried, as she sees the woman leave the bathroom with the man and notes the woman looks upset. The singer performs goes on to perform, and the club owner, who happens to be celebrating his birthday, makes a grab for her. After her performance, he barges into her dressing room and attempts to rape her. She runs away, but he knocks her down the stairs in front of the whole club. As she lies motionless at the bottom of the stairs he orders his associates to get her out.
Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola asks Captain Olivia "Liv" Benson if she's heard from Detective Elliot Stabler lately and she says he's been out of contact for months, deep undercover. Fin mentions his girlfriend, Phoebe, wants to set Stabler up with her sister and Liv looks annoyed. He asks her if she's doing OK with his sudden radio silence again, and Liv jokes that no, she's not really. They get a call to meet Tara Reilly, the singer, at the hospital. The doctor says she was in horrible shape -- she was found left by a dumpster behind the club. They mention the owner, Gabe Navarro, has ties to the police, and a great deal of cop friends. Tara confirms he attacked her and shares the details of her assault. Fin confirms that Gabe is tight with the precinct and will be hard to convict, despite his long arrest record. The charges always get dropped.
Fin talks to Jules, the club manager, while Detective Amanda Rollins interviews the bartenders. Jules tells Fin the cameras were off, but that Gabe would never hurt anyone. Meanwhile, ADA Sonny Carisi has Tara give Gabe a call. Surrounded by SVU members, she apologizes on the phone and says she should have given him what he wanted, as part of Carisi's ruse. Gabe is livid she talked to the cops, but Tara swears the cops aren't there right now, a smart lie. She tries to get Gabe to confess by saying she likely won't walk again and she needs money to pay her hospital bills. Gabe is clever enough to avoid it, but he does threaten to kill her. That's enough for Benson and Rollins, who arrive to arrest him at his club.
They play the recording of the call for Gabe and his lawyer, but they seem confident in their defense. Gabe claims they had a drunk consensual encounter and it got a little rough. Carisi asks how she ended up in the alley and Gabe feigns ignorance. His lawyer assures them there is precedent for charges not sticking, then Gabe attempts to bribe Benson and Carisi to make it go away. He's sure he can walk away from this. Benson, of course, doesn't intimidate easily and orders a DNA collection, complete with a snarky dig at Gabe's expense. His DNA is run and found to match two other rape kits from the past few years, including one unidentified Jane Doe who was found strangled and drowned.
Rollins and Carisi meet with the coroner who autopsied the Jane Doe from last year. He says she was so badly beaten cause of death was hard to determine. Back at the precinct, Tara learns that every witness has been too scared to testify against Gabe. Benson assures her that they are on her side, though she does warn her that Gabe will claim a consensual affair. Tara is livid at the thought, as she's been put in a wheelchair by Navarro. Benson assures her that her testimony will help, while Carisi wants to track down other possible informants. Liv gets a call from Sgt. Ayanna Bell over at the Organized Crime joint task force and Liv and Carisi go over to meet with her -- and come face to face with Stabler.
They debrief on Gabe Navarro, explaining his lengthy ties to international crime organizations. However, Olivia is frustrated and annoyed with Elliot for ghosting her yet again. She also says she'll do anything to collar Gabe, as he is a violent rapist. Agent Clay, however, wants to milk him for more, as the Organized Crime force has been tracking him for years for extensive crimes. This means Organized Crime takes over. Carisi is frustrated and Benson is still angry at Stabler for his three months of radio silence. He asks if anything ever came of the driver who forced her off the road and Benson says no arrests have been made. She, in turn, asks if he's been able to see his kids and he says a little, but that it's been nice to not be himself for a while.
Stabler goes to talk to Navarro but insists on bringing Benson with him, who interrogates him about the other two women found with his DNA in their rape kits. He jokes that it doesn't look like either of those women will be talking. Navarro attempts to make a deal with Stabler while Benson plays hardball. Stabler then mentions he will leak to the press that Navarro is cooperating -- so Navarro offers him information on mob higher-ups, including a boss who hasn't been in the United States in the past decade, Anton Papkov. Navarro sets up Benson and Stabler with the right information and codes to stake out a meeting and make an arrest. That night, Stabler and Benson start the stakeout together. Elliot asks Liv to trust him, and she says she guesses she'll have to.
Navarro informs Stabler, Carisi and Benson about who's who on their hidden cameras. Before Elliot heads off to grab him, Navarro begs Stabler not to let Papkov know it was him who turned. Carisi and Benson muse about the enormity of the case and how they need to trust Stabler fully. Fin is worried that they're walking into an ambush, but Rollins confirms they've got a tracker on Navarro. ESU squads, Collins and the FBI surround the house and bust open the door, interrupting a large gathering - but Papkov has already disappeared. Rollins is frustrated as the squad searches the house. They find a secret crawlspace and follow Papkov's likely escape route.
After some time in the tunnel they find a locked gate and then hear the sounds of motorcycles peeling away. They alert the squad and armored trucks. Benson and Stabler block Papkov's escape - and Navarro's. Navarro pulls a gun, but Stabler is quicker, shooting him in the shoulder. Benson, however, seems skeptical, believing the whole thing might have been an act put on by Navarro and Stabler to look above board.
During a press conference, Sgt. Bell confirms Papkov's arrest and says he's been on the FBI's Most Wanted list for a decade. At the precinct, they discuss how SVU has to stay quiet on its involvement. Carisi is at the hospital to arraign Navarro, but calls Liv and says U.S. Marshalls took Navarro away instead, so he will not be tried for his crimes. Benson asks what that means and Carisi says the last thing she wants to hear: it means that Stabler lied to them after all.
At Organized Crime, Benson is not only annoyed at Bell but annoyed that Stabler's cell goes straight to voicemail. Fin is frustrated that the FBI won't confirm Navarro's location, while Benson gets angrier about sacrificing the justice of a rape victim for "the greater good." She asks if Stabler knew that SVU was being actively screwed but the FBI refuses to confirm or deny that. Later, Benson and Rollins are furious, and Benson says she finally spoke to Stabler on his burner cell and that he swears he didn't know about the setup. Rollins doesn't trust him at all, forcing Benson to defend her old friend and say that she does believe he still cares about rape victims. He told her to trust, Liv says, and she knows him better than anyone. Rollins counters that she used to know him.
Rollins and Carisi commiserate over the Feds swooping in on their case and she hints he should come back to SVU, while also confirming she's not breaking up with him. He assures her he won't go anywhere. Benson meets with Tara in physical rehab and has to break the news to her that the Feds are protecting Navarro thanks to his connections and information. Tara is upset and Liv assures her she won't give up on prosecuting Gabe Navarro. But Tara doesn't believe she can help her after all, and Liv, sadly, knows she's probably right.
Law & Order: SVU stars Mariska Hargitay, Ice T, Kelli Giddish and Peter Scanavino. New episodes air Thursdays at 8 p.m. on NBC.
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