Recap / Law & Order: Special Victims Unit S5 E14 "Ritual"

Written By Christos N Gage and Ruth Fletcher Gage

Directed By Ed Bianchi

When the dismembered body of a young black boy is found in Central Park, the detectives' investigation leads to a child slave ring.

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Tropes:

• Cassandra Truth: The Santeria center leader tells Benson and Stabler that the killing couldn't have been a ritual murder since it was done near a lake, but they ignore him.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Fin invokes the possibility of this by noting to Bosa that executioners in Nigeria fire at the ankles first, before slowing moving their aim upwards towards the more vital organs.
• Deadpan Snarker: Stabler says the slave-owner is at a charity event
  Mabuda: I suppose she does not know: charity begins at home.
• Friend to All Children: The detectives are sent Mabuda's way because she is passionate about children's rights.
• Gory Discretion Shot: First the boy's headless and limbless torso is found, and then later the missing pieces. None of this is shown, only horrified reactions.
• Hollywood Voodoo: Subverted. The murder is set up to look like a Santeria ritual killing, but it actually turns out to be a pedophile disguising it as that. Casey is also hesitant to investigate the church too harshly, clearly aware of the implications.
• Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Okay, so a boy being raped, murdered, and dismembered is not a "small" crime, but it does lead to a human trafficking and slavery ring.
• More Deadly Than the Male: Invoked by the detectives to get Bosa to talk. Fin only beat him up. Mabuda can have him deported back to Nigeria, where he is certain to face execution.
  Bosa: What can a woman do? Claw my eyes out?
  Mabuda: Deport you.
• Oh, Crap!: Bosa's reaction when he learns who Kema Mabuda is and what she is capable of doing to him.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Under-consul Kema Mabuda is nothing but helpful to the detectives and needs only their word that the information she gives them won't be used outside of the investigation. Indeed, the detectives lampshade how unusually reasonable she is being.
• Series Continuity Error: Shaye states that no one has been executed in New York in forty years. Although this is true in Real Life, the Law & Order universe had already had several executions take place during the course of the series, meaning they were in 1990 or later — much more recent than forty years.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The detectives are all disgusted when they realize they've stumbled into a slavery ring. Unsurprisingly, Fin is the most outraged.
• Smug Snake: Martin Bosa and Allan Shaye. The former even speaks snidely about Kema Mabuda without realizing who she was...and what she can do.
• Tranquil Fury: When confronting human trafficker Martin Bosa, Under-consul Kema Mabuda is seething with anger but takes some delight in telling him that he is about to be deported back to Nigeria where he will be executed. When he ask what he will get in return for cooperating, she hisses through her teeth that she will ask for leniency.
• Unstoppable Rage: Stabler had to restrain Fin as the latter was pummeling Bosa.