Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – Play with Fire Part 2

By starrymag | April 24, 2025

By: Kaylyn Bell

 

 

Captain Benson (Mariska Hargitay) gets off the phone with the police chief as Carisi (Peter Scanavino) enters her office. They recognize that the murder of three women from shelters, including a young cop undercover, is turning out to be a big press case. Benson tells him she never should have put in a word for Maria (Dani Montalvo) to start working undercover. Fin (Ice-T) enters to inform them that their suspect, Miguel’s (J. Anthony Pena), alibi checked out.

The squad updates Benson that Miguel’s DNA was found on their victim despite him not being present during the time of the murder. Carisi chimes in that homicide suspects someone framed him. Carisi leaves to update ADA Price (Hugh Dancy).

Homicide detectives Brady (Maura Tierney) and Gomez (Reinaldo Faberlle) arrive at the precinct to review the case. They summarize that they’re looking for a killer targeting marginalized women until Maria broke the pattern, so they probably didn’t know that she was a cop. Benson says that they do know their last victim Ana Machado (Marisela Zumbado) told Maria that she was raped, and Maria went into the warehouse looking for the man when she was murdered. Benson asks Gomez why Maria didn’t tell him where she was going since they were partners. He explains they only checked in every few days while she was undercover. Gomez suggests they look more into the Catholic shelter the women were staying at.

Benson and Gomez arrive at the church. Gomez tells Benson that Maria told him the story of how they met with the 911 call and that she was her lifeline. Benson replies, “Well, I was until I wasn’t.” As they get to the back of the church, they see furniture and papers scattered everywhere. Gomez says ICE did a good job ripping the place apart, but Benson doesn’t think it looks like an ICE raid. Gomez finds Father Alberto (Al Vicente), who immediately starts running out a side door. When Benson catches up with them, she sees them struggling for Gomez’s gun. Benson tells Alberto to drop the gun, and he replies, “I can’t.” The gun fires, shooting Gomez in the shoulder, and he falls to the ground. Gomez pulls out another gun and kills the priest.

Benson arrives at the hospital, where she is directed to wait for her union rep. Fin arrives, and she explains what happened and that she thinks Alberto could have been involved with the murders since he ran when they showed up. Fin says their previous suspect, Miguel, may know because somebody had to plant his semen. She instructs him to take Velasco (Octavio Pisano) and speak to Miguel while she goes to change her bloody clothes.

Bruno (Kevin Kane), Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez), and Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) enter Benson’s office. Curry informs them that the lab extracted DNA from Maria’s burnt body. Benson tells them that she has to go speak with IAB, so she needs them to go re-question the women at the shelter since they may be the only way to tie him to these crimes.

Silva speaks to Grace (Giovanna Drummond) from the shelter who says Father Alberto was always great to her so if he’s a bad guy she doesn’t know who to trust anymore.

Fin and Velasco speak to Miguel about his DNA on Ana. He says he never met her before. They ask if he knows Father Alberto and he says he doesn’t and asks why a priest would try and set him up. He says he doesn’t know any of the women from the shelter but his cousin did send a prostitute to him to celebrate him getting paroled. They ask what he did with the condom and he says he put it in the bathroom garbage, and adds that the girl used the bathroom before she left.

Benson recounts what happened to IAB. An inspector (Jaben Early) asks whose hand was on the trigger and if they said anything while fighting for the weapon. She says they both had their hands on the weapon, and Alberto said he couldn’t drop it.

Benson returns to the precinct and asks Fin if they found any dirt on Alberto because she can’t understand why he’d run from them and then shoot a cop. She continues that she thinks someone threatened him before they got there. Benson brings out a paper bag and calls it their Hail Mary.

Benson and Brady meet with the M.E. (Natalie Liconti), who explains that semen was found on Maria’s body, but she can’t say whether it was consensual or not. Benson hands her the paper bag and explains that it’s her jacket with Gomez’s blood. Brady objects and says she can’t put a cop’s blood into the system without consulting with 1PP. Benson tells her that she thinks Gomez shot himself. Brady reluctantly agrees to let the M.E. check but says if she’s wrong, she will have to explain why they compared the blood of a decorated lieutenant to DNA found on the corpse of his subordinate.

Benson and Brady meet Carisi and Price to tell them that the semen found on Maria’s body was a match to Gomez. They say they never submitted a warrant for this, and Benson confesses they took it from her jacket. Price says it’s admissible, and Carisi asks what this even proves. Benson says that they’re looking for a pattern killer that has a penchant for raping socially invisible women, and this demonstrates the pattern. Brady adds that she’s going to ask their first victim’s mother to exhume her body so they can confirm the pattern. Price asks how they can tie Gomez to framing Miguel for Ana’s rape and murder, and Benson says they can’t yet but she thinks he sent someone to threaten Alberto. Benson and Brady also explain that they’ve already contacted Miguel’s cousin to locate the sex worker who helped, but he swears he never hired one, so Gomez must have. She asks them for a warrant to search Gomez’s phone to prove it.

Benson and Brady bring flowers to Gomez at the hospital and inform him that they found new DNA evidence from Maria’s body. He looks slightly panicked and gets a nurse to come so they have to leave. From the hall, they see him making a call.

Benson picks Noah (Ryan Buggle) up from school and sees a man in a car talking to him. Noah says that the guy was trying to get him to go into his car. The man speeds off before Benson can do anything.

Benson immediately informs the ADAs that she thinks Gomez sent someone to hurt her son to get her to back off the case. She says Noah is at home with posted officers, and she needs permission from them to arrest Gomez. Carisi tells her that they’re still waiting for the warrant. Price tells her to think about recusing herself from the case. Carisi agrees that her involvement could affect it, and she starts to get frustrated. Benson asks Price what she has to do to have Gomez arrested by the end of the day. He tells her to find eyewitnesses or physical evidence. Before she leaves, Price lets her know that he’s on her side and is just as infuriated that Gomez swore to serve and protect and did the exact opposite. Carisi gets notice that the warrant just came through.

As they look through Miguel’s phone records, Benson sees that the call he made in the hospital was to a lawyer, Rita Calhoun (Elizabeth Marvel). They also find a call to a woman named Charisse Johnson (Britnie Narcisse) the night before Ana was murdered. After looking up the number, Brady announces they’ve found the sex worker.

Fin and Velasco locate Charisse and ask who hired her and what she did with the condom after she took it out of the trash. She is willing to cooperate.

Bruno and Curry video chat with a woman from Alberto’s shelter who was deported to see if she can identify someone that was close to their first victim, Rosa. She says the woman’s name is Cassie (Sara Gutierrez) and she disappeared. She provides them a photo and Bruno runs it through facial recognition.

Benson and Brady visit Cassie’s home, and she says she saw Rosa the day she disappeared and she assumed Gomez had killed her. She explains that he had been raping her and Rosa and threatening them if they said no, and the day Rosa disappeared she had decided to go report him. They tell her that Gomez likely killed Maria too and ask if she’d be willing to testify. She says no because people in her life now don’t know about her past and how she was a drug addict.

Benson updates the ADAs on the evidence gathered thus far, including that the M.E., Grace, and Charisse will testify. Brady informs them that Cassie is a key witness but she doesn’t want to testify. They say they’ll avoid using her if possible and direct the detectives to arrest Gomez.

Benson and Brady arrest Gomez as he leaves the hospital.

Benson testifies about finding Maria after Ana called her and explains that Ana fled the precinct after she stepped out because someone scared her off. She says she knows Gomez was at the precinct that day and lied about seeing Ana. The defense suggests her personal relationship with Maria made her biased against Gomez, but Benson counters that her emotions drive her work, not interfere with it.

Charisse testifies to Gomez hiring her and instructing her to deliver him Miguel’s condom.

Grace is on the stand next, testifying to seeing Maria enter a warehouse and Gomez following her in a few minutes later. As the defense questions her, a man enters the room and she gets scared and states that she’s not actually sure what she saw. Benson follows Grace’s line of sight to the man, who she recognizes as the person who tried to take Noah.

The ADAs meet their boss, with Benson and Brady, and explain that their witness was clearly intimidated. Brady suggests they ask Cassie to testify to save the case. Benson is told to convince Cassie to testify by the end of the day or they will subpoena her.

Benson and Brady speak to Cassie again, and she starts crying, worried about opening up about her past. Benson tells her that men like Gomez want her to stay invisible because it’s what protects them, so she needs to show him that she’s not as invisible as he thinks. Brady says they’re asking her to do this for Rosa and Maria, and Benson adds that they’d want her to choose justice, not fear.

The man who intimidated Grace is in the bathroom. Stabler (Christopher Meloni) enters and tells him he knows who he is, Mueller Hayes (Charles Edwin Powell), and gives a timeline of his life to prove it. Stabler grabs him and throws him against the wall. He tells him that bad decisions and a shot credit score are why Gomez owns him. Stabler threatens him if he ever goes near his friend or her son again. As he leaves, he tells Hayes to tell Gomez to watch his back.

Cassie testifies to Gomez raping her and Rosa, and says she chose to speak up now because he killed two of her friends. Calhoun tries to invalidate her testimony by highlighting she was an addict and the fact that she never actually saw him commit the murders. She also tries to paint the sex as consensual, but Cassie is adamant that Gomez threatened her and every other woman in the shelter.

The jury foreperson (Wayne Jay) delivers the verdict. Gomez is found guilty of the rape and murder of Rosa, Ana, and Maria.

The detectives attend the service for the women and Father Alberto. Benson spots Cassie and her husband (Benjamin Standford) enter the church. Cassie tells her she feels known for the first time. Benson sits down next to Brady, who tells her that she really fought for the women. Benson replies, “So did you.”