Logan and Cerreta investigate a case of arson at a social club called El Cielo, where 53 people have been killed in the blaze. This was clearly a deliberate mass homicide; the doors had been padlocked to keep people from escaping. Since it was a club frequented by undocumented Central American immigrants, the detectives have a hard time getting people to talk to the police. They get lucky when a hospital reports tending to a patient with second-degree burns and a piece of plastic lodged in his thigh - from an incendiary device he used to light the fire.
The man, Cesar Pescador, was using a stolen green card. He refuses to have the plastic surgically removed from his leg. So the DAs apply for a court order, which the judge grants (since the plastic might otherwise kill him anyway.) Sure enough, it's a match to the crime scene. Pescador says that Domingo Guerra hired him to start the fire. Guerra, a wealthy businessman, sells forged papers to undocumented immigrants; but some of them wanted to settle legally, and planned to report him to the authorities. Pescador swears he didn't know the doors would be locked, and thought the fire was intended to scare people into keeping quiet.
Guerra denies having anything to do with the fire or El Cielo. Stone leans on Robert Diaz, a friend who works in Immigration; but is too heavy-handed and offends Diaz. However, Diaz provides valuable evidence that leads the DAs to implicate Guerra and his business partner James Collins. They can be linked to the incendiary device, and even paid a serial arsonist for advice on starting the fire. The case goes to trial and the victims' families sob as the names of the dead are read out. An endline notes that Guerra and Collins each received a minimum 25 year sentence for murder, while Pescador accepted a plea for manslaughter.
Tropes present in this episode
- Culture Justifies Anything: Pescador believed the fire was supposed to be just a "warning" to people to keep quiet. He accepted some people would die, but thought nothing of it, since he's used to such crimes in his home country. Robinette is horrified.
- Fake Identity Baggage: The detectives go to the real Daniel Esperanza's place because his green card (proof of permanent residency status in the US) was stolen by Cheuy Bodillo and used at an emergency room by Cesar Pescador.
- The Illegal: Cesar Pescador is not in the country legally, but he still needs to give his consent before somebody cuts into his leg to see if the piece of plastic in it matches the evidence at the scene. He refuses, so a judge's order is required.
- Mood Whiplash: Logan and Cerreta are casually talking about the fact Logan wanted to be a fireman when he was a kid...and then they see all of the bodies taken out of the club, at which point they become shocked, and Cerreta even says, "Oh, my God."
- Ripped from the Headlines: The crime itself was based on the 1990 Happy Land club fire
. - Tranquil Fury: Cerreta is like this when questioning someone who may know something about who set the fire.
- Yiddish as a Second Language: After a potential lead dries up, Cragen, in frustration, says, "What is less than square one? Minus zippo? Negative bupkis?"
