Hell (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)

Hell is the seventeenth episode of the tenth season of the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. The episode first aired on March 31, 2009.

Plot

In Harlem, a homeless man goes into an alleyway and finds a prepubescent girl with her throat cut and heavily bleeding. The man alerts the authorities but flees the scene. In the hospital, the doctor explains to Stabler and Tutuola that the extreme cold slowed her heart down, suppressing the blood flow, ironically saving her. Also, the girl's body shows signs of a history of sexual and physical abuse. Unable to speak, the girl draws a picture of the devil to indicate her attacker; a ritual of devil worship is suspected.

Nobody recognizes the girl except for a convenience store clerk. The clerk explains to Stabler and Tutuola that since he suspected theft, the clerk had searched her panda bear backpack. The detectives return to the scene of the crime and come across the homeless man. They find the panda bear backpack in his shopping cart and find a wallet with a transit card. Using the transit card's data, they find that the girl lives in Stapleton, Staten Island. An online search of devil worship activity finds that a woman in Stapleton has logged many complaints of cult-like activity at a church across the street from her house. Stabler and Tutuola talk to the minister of the church, who explains that the demographics of the neighbourhood has changed from Italian/Irish to African, and thus he routinely performs services with an African style. The detectives show the picture of the mute girl to the minister and his wife, who tell them the girl, Miriam, is their adopted daughter.

At first, the priest suspects the girl's older friend, Elijah who, like her, is a refugee from Uganda and once served as a soldier in the Lord's Resistance Army. Elijah denies hurting her, saying that he was trying to trap and kill the LRA commander who had used her as a sex slave. With some research, Stabler and Benson discover that the LRA commander is a war criminal, responsible for hundreds of deaths, earning him the name "The Devil of Gulu". With information from Elijah and Miriam, Stabler locates and then confronts the LRA commander and mentions his real name and his old nickname. Although at first denying that he is that person, he attacks Stabler in an attempt to escape, but is arrested by Stabler. Because there is a warrant from the International Criminal Court for his arrest, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrive to deport him to face charges at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands. Although Elijah is declared innocent and given some credit for helping to bring the LRA commander to justice, he is still technically a war criminal as well because he remained in the LRA past his 18th birthday, so the Immigration and Customs Agents tell Stabler that they have a warrant to arrest and deport him.

When this became clear, Elijah had already left with Miriam and her family on their way to the church to attend choir practice and he is not aware. When the immigration agents arrive to arrest him, he is at first surprised that the police wish to arrest him, but then gets hold of one officer's gun and holds the congregation hostage with a gun in despair. The SWAT team is called to the scene and Stabler goes into the church along with the minister. They attempt to persuade Elijah to give up his weapon and free the hostages. After Elijah finally agrees, they make their way outside, where the media has gathered behind the SWAT team. Elijah purposely runs to the SWAT team in an intimidating manner in order to be shot. As Elijah lies on the ground dying, he tells Miriam that he chose to die in order to show the world the sad plight of child soldiers like himself.

External links

• Hell at the Internet Movie Database
• "Hell" at TV.com