| "Raw" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 7.06 | → |
| Production number: 07008 First aired: 1 November 2005 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Dawn DeNoon Directed By Jonathan Kaplan | ||
"Raw" is the sixth episode of the seventh season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. It was released on November 1, 2005.
Summary
Detectives Benson and Stabler investigate a school shooting where three children are shot. When one African-American child dies, the detectives follow critical clues and are led to believe the crime was racially motivated. As the case progresses, they find evidence that the rifle used in the killings is linked to a gun store, which also serves as the headquarters for a white supremacist group calling itself Revolution Aryan Warriors, or "RAW." They discover that Star Morrison and the store owner's 14-year-old son Kyle both keep Nazi paraphernalia in the basement of the shop. DNA from the rifle leads them to the person they believe is the killer. When the case goes to court, shots are fired inside the courthouse by group members and a major twist is revealed.
Plot
A six-year-old boy dies in a school shooting and two other children are severely injured. Despite multiple and unreliable descriptions by both kids and adults, one of the injured boys identifies a troubled student named Johnny Mayhew, who is found to be innocent, mainly because the gun is a pistol rather than the high-powered rifle used in the killing spree. As kids are returned to school, one terrified little girl is noticed by the detectives. Doctor Huang questions her, and she eventually reveals that she was being molested by a man named Mr. Buggesi, and he threatened to shoot her with a gun that was as tall as she was. As Cragen and Stabler go to his apartment in order to question him, they find the girl's uncle savagely beating him to a pulp. Both are arrested on the spot, but the only gun found is a realistic-looking toy rifle. Despite being found to have no connection with the shooting, Buggesi has warrants for sexual abuse in Florida, and will still be extradited as soon as he recovers from his injuries.
Meanwhile, Munch traces the gun used from South Dakota to a gun shop on Staten Island named Gun Ho. Stabler and Munch find that it is being managed by a young boy named Kyle Ackerman. A commotion in the basement during the investigation leads the detectives to find a woman named Star Morrison and that the gun shop is also a base of operations for "RAW," or "Revolution Aryan Warriors," a neo-Nazi white-supremacist group led by Kyle's father Brian Ackerman. Munch and Fin both face hatred and prejudice from the major suspects in the case during interrogations. However, their investigation soon takes them from former Rikers inmate Brannon Lee Redding, the man who pulled the trigger, back to the gun shop owner, who makes no bones about his hatred of anyone who is not white. By comparison, the sniper is even more of an obnoxious bigot.
Eventually, it is revealed that Ackerman's group are terrorists, not just white supremacists. As Brannon reveals his ties to Brian's organization, Kyle and another member of the group, Christopher Rawlings, end up opening fire on the courtroom, killing the sniper, the judge, and a court officer, and wounding Stabler, Munch, and another officer, but Stabler is able to kill Rawlings. Kyle goes to kill Stabler, but is killed from behind by Star, who reveals herself actually to be an undercover FBI agent, whose real name proves to be Dana Lewis. She later reveals to Munch that she infiltrated the group months before and worked her way to the top. She then apologizes to Munch and Fin for the racial slurs and behaviors she used against them, as that was part of her cover too and not her real personality, and both men forgive her. Later, Lewis visits Benson with the news that thanks to her undercover efforts, the FBI was able to bring down the group, doing so before they could bomb an unknown location. Lewis also reveals shocking evidence she uncovered during the bust: the adoptive parents of the murdered child hired the group to kill him for the money they would receive from life-insurance policies taken out on the child. Lewis and Benson confront the parents, who confess that they did it only for the money, not out of racist beliefs. They are then arrested for first-degree murder for hire.
Cast
Main cast
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Detective John Munch
- Diane Neal as A.D.A. Casey Novak
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
- Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner (credit only)
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast
- Marcia Gay Harden as Dana Lewis (Star Morrison)
- J.C. MacKenzie as Brian Ackerman
- Joe Grifasi as Defense Attorney Heshy Horowitz
- Paula Garcés as C.S.U. Technician Millie Vizcarrondo
- Mike Doyle as Forensics Technician Ryan O'Halloran
- John Cullum as Defense Attorney Barry Moredock
- Stephen Gregory as Dr. Kyle Beresford
- Joselin Reyes as Paramedic Martinez
- Natalie Carter as Nurse Cathy
Guest cast
- John Rubinstein as Judge T. Schuyler
- Joel Garland as Brannon Lee Redding
- Cody Kasch as Kyle Ackerman
- Myk Watford as Mark Whitlock
- Ana Reeder as Mrs. McCorkle
- Cassidy Hinkle as Maddy McCorkle
- Marin Hinkle as Janice Whitlock
- Andrea Bianchi as Vice Principal Yannen
- Suzanne Didonna as Lana Mayhew
- Antoinette LaVecchia as Mrs. Paoletti
- Mark Giordano as Mr. Paoletti
- Brian Letscher as Patrick McCorkle
- James Biberi as E.S.U. Captain Bauer
- Jerome Preston Bates as ESU Captain Negraneau
- Sima Bissette as Tawndra
- Alex Greenzeig as Bradley
- Lucian Maisel as Danny Kohler
- Sophia Barricelli as Annabelle Paoletti
- Alva Chinn as Courtroom Spectator
- Tim Miller as Court Clerk
- Jess le Protto as Johnny Mayhew
- Derrick 'Phoenix' Thomas as Officer Taylor
- Harry Madsen as Mr. Buggesi
- Keith Siglinger as Christopher Rawlings
References
Bellevue Hospital, Gun Ho, Revolutionary Aryan Warriors, Racial Holy War, Federal Bureau of Investigation; 16th Precinct; Jeffrey Whitlock; Rikers Island; Staten Island
Quotes
- Dr. Beresford: You'll be back to running marathons in no time.
- Koehler: But I never ran in a marathon.
- Dr. Beresford: Well, you will now. That's how good we're gonna fix you up.
| “ | Looks like he took out Tulsa. Probably unintentional. | ” |
–Captain Cragen | ||
- Star: I'm not going anywhere with you, kike! (slaps Munch)
- Stabler: Assaulting a police officer. Now you're guaranteed a ride with us.
- Fin: You tell her I'm employed here?
- Star: Affirmative Action hard at work, ladies and gentlemen!
- Stabler: You make a mistake on that one?
- Star: It must've been, 'cause she is too pretty to be Jewish.
| “ | RAW doesn't advocate violence. We leave that to the savages. | ” |
–Kyle | ||
- Novak: What does your client have to offer?
- Brannon: Just my undying love and affection. We'd make pretty white babies together, don't you think?
- Judge Schuyler: You may now allocute. [Brannon is silent]. Describe your crime for the court.
- Brannon: Uh, I shot the 2 Jew kids and the porch monkey.
- Gallery Member: May you burn in hell, you racist pig!
| “ | Your parole officers parents haven't even been born yet! | ” |
–Judge Schuyler, rejecting Brannon Redding's plea bargain | ||
| “ | [to Brannon] Mein Kampf. I see you're not a member of Oprah's book club. | ” |
–Munch | ||
- Fin: Where'd you get shot?
- Munch: That would be in the ass. Wanna kiss it and make it better?
- Fin: You be nice to me or you won't get the shake I snuck in.
- Munch: Thanks.
- Fin: Thanks for not makin' me break in a new partner.
| “ | We're not racists. We just needed the money. | ” |
–Janice Whitlock, about her and her husband arranging the shooting of their black adopted son. | ||
Background information and notes
- There is a total body count of 7.
- This is the only instance where we see Munch get shot.
- This is the third time that Detective Elliot Stabler was forced to shoot and kill a suspect. In this case it was Christopher Rawlings.
- This episode is one of two that Wolf Films submitted for consideration for a 2006 Emmy nomination.
- Universal City Studios, who produces Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, owns the two fictitious websites mentioned in the episode and created by the Ackermans: "blitzkriegwarriors.org" and "blitzkriegkids.com."
- Goof/Nitpick: When Heshy Horowitz (according to dialog) evidently bails on his client, Brannon Lee Redding, Barry Moredock takes over representation of Brian Ackerman. Yet, even though Moredock has a brief major scene arguing with Novak and the judge, while Novak was questioning Redding right before the court shooting incident Horowitz is the attorney shown seated next to Ackerman instead, and Moredock is nowhere to be seen. It is unclear whether or not this was intentional.
- Barry Moredock, however, did say that he took over the case as defense attorney.
Episode scene cards
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
P.S. 74 |
Bellevue Hospital |
Gun Ho! |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|
|
Trial Part 40 |
Bellevue Hospital |
Whitlock Residence |
| Previous episode: "Strain" |
"Raw" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 7 |
Next episode: "Name" |