Law & Order: SVU (3/06/2007) It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp (repeat)

Two men drunkenly get off a party boat and one wanders off to relieve himself off the dock. As he looks down he spots a young dead girl. Detective Elliot Stabler, Detective Dani Beck and Doctor Melinda Warner arrive on the scene to inspect the body. All three of them notice that the girl is incredibly young and the Doctor points out that she was most likely killed two weeks ago and that the cold water kept the body from decomposing. She offhandedly remarks, “another one raped, beaten, and thrown out like garbage."

Another one?

Back at the county morgue, Doctor Warner shows Detective Stabler and Detective Beck her dead, underage-hooker collection. It turns out that this is the third young female victim sporting a paw print tattoo on her lower back to be dumped in the river. The detectives decide that the tattoo must somehow be a link between the victims, but by this theory there must be a link to all the sorority type girls sporting lower-back tribal tattoos that I see at parties. Oh wait, there is. They're hookers too.

At the police station, all of the detectives try to guess the connection between the girls and the tattoo. Detective Fin dismisses the idea that it could be a gang tattoo and Dani suggests that they go speak to her tattoo artist, Miguel Alavarez. The detectives are surprised that Dani has a tattoo and Stabler flirtingly asks to see it. When she refuses he offers to show her his. Yep, it's getting a little junior high-ish at the police station.

Detective Stabler and Detective Beck go to interview Miguel Alvarez, who acts more like a diva hairdresser than a tattoo artist. He tips them off to the only guy in town that tattoos underage kids. When the detectives question him, he shows them a picture of all three girls showing off their tattoos. Detective Stabler notices that one of them is wearing a high school cheerleading shirt and this helps identify her as Shauntel of St. Andrews High School.

The Detectives talk to her Foster mom who tells them that she was given back to her crack-addict mom. When they go to talk to her crack-addict mom, she tells them that she let the state take her daughter away because she was “lying" about her mother's boyfriend touching her. Finally, the detectives wind up at the group home where Shauntel was placed. It is here that they learn that Shauntel was hanging out with a man named Victor, who drove an SUV and treated her to such exotic treats as chips and candy. Victor was a pimp, and I don't mean in the cool, hip-hop playa way but rather the kind that forces young girls into prostitution and then takes their money kind of way.

Dani is unable to sleep and convinces Stabler to go with her to cruise the known prostitute hang-outs (MySpace, anyone?) that same night to question young hookers. He had already planned the stake-out for the following night but Dani just bats her friggin' eyelashes and this guy jumps to rearrange his schedule. You wouldn't see Detective Fin pulling that shit but then again he is a pimp in that cool, hip-hop playa way and not in the force young girls into prostitution and then take their money kind of way.

At the ho-stroll, Elliot and Dani line up all of the hookers and finally spot one with a paw-print tattoo. She identifies herself as Passion but finally admits her name is Belinda Holt. Close enough. The interrogation of Passsion, er, I mean Belinda, reveals that she did know the three victims but that she thinks they were adopted by a rich, professional man and were now living fancy, uptown lives. She frequently asks for Victor but the detectives are more interested in who this rich Richard Gere impersonator is. (I mean that as a strictly “Pretty Woman" reference and neither I nor popculturejunkies.com are implying in any way that Richard Gere is straight). Belinda also says that one of the girls once sneaked a peek into Daddy Whorebucks' wallet and found out his real name is Blake.

Detective Fin and Detective Munch run this through their magical computer and find one Blake Peters who matches the description and who also had a history of domestic violence. Detectives Stabler and Beck eventually track him down to a seedy hotel and arrest him for statutory rape, when they find him with an underage hooker. It turns out it wasn't an underage hooker at all but just a skanky waitress (more secure, but shittier tips). Blake Peters admits to sleeping with the young victims, but denies having anything to do with their deaths. Detective Stabler begins to believe him when he shows him the crime scene photos and Detective Peters throws up his lunch of caviar and Viagra. Hardly the reaction expected from a sadist.

During all the action, the much-missed Olivia turns up at the station looking for her Elliot. Dani Beck introduces herself as his partner and Olivia gets a good look at the new female crusader in town. She retreats to Captain Donald Cragen's office and, after seeing Stabler interact with Dani, tells the Captain that she is not ready to come back yet. She probably wants to drop the “going undercover" weight and fix her make-up before seeing Stabler again.

Dani successfully gets Belinda to give her Victor's address. Stabler also introduces her to Sister Peg, a big-haired African-American nun who runs an outreach program for girls on the street. I wonder if her outreach consists of turning 70's era soul songs into religious hymns a la Sister Act? Stabler and Beck find Victor hiding in his fold-out couch at the residence of Venice. James. Stabler interrogates him but he manages to “Hustle and Flow' his way out of any incriminating information. Luckily for us viewers, he doesn't rap once during the entire scene. Sister Peg and Dani try to convince Belinda to report Victor as a pimp. Sister Peg invites Belinda to live with her and Belinda finally agrees. Victor is arrested and held on five hundred thousand dollar bail.

After the bail hearing, Dani Beck suggests that they all go out for drinks. Casey Novak elimidates herself from the threesome to mack on some young lawyer. Stabler walks Dani to her jeep and they make out for a while in that weird, awkward, making out with a co-worker way. Now who's the pimp? Their kissing is interrupted by Captain “Cockblock" Cragen, who gives them the news that Sister Peg has been beaten and is in the hospital.

Sister Peg awakens and tells them that she was beaten by a man matching Victor Bodean's description and that he also took Belinda with him. Victor is supposed to be in jail, so the detectives go to check up on him and find that he has switched places with the young, dumb Jason Young. Jason Young tells them that Victor promised that his lawyer would post bail the following morning and that he promised him an iPod if they could switch identities so that Victor was released on Jason's bail. Jason essentially participated in a jail break for an iPod, but if it was a Video iPod then I don't think we should judge him too harshly. I mean, have you seen those things?

Detectives Stabler and Beck go back to the residence of Venice Jones to try to find Victor. Venice hasn't seen him but with a little coaxing by the detectives, she tells them that he has a loft near the Williamsburg Bridge. The detectives get there and find Victor yelling at Belinda and smacking her around. True to her daddy issues, Belinda keeps repeating how much she loves Victor. The Detectives pull their guns but Victor takes Belinda as a hostage. The chase travels from the loft towards the bridge and at one point Victor holds Belinda over the railing like when Michael Jackson was babysitting his pretend kid. Stabler hangs back to help Belinda up from over the railing and Dani pursues Victor to the street. Victor hops in his SUV and tries to run over Dani, but she shoots through the windshield and sends Victor to the great “Pimp and Ho" party`` in the sky.

The crime scene looks quite romantic with the early morning New York sun shining over the ocean. Elliot gently asks Dani to come with him so that he can give her a ride home and she rebuffs him and tells him that she needs to be alone. Poor Stabler, he didn't get to shoot the bad guy and now he has to go home with blue balls.