'Law & Order: SVU' Season 14, Episode 13: 'Monster's Legacy' Recap

"Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit", season 14, episode 13, "Monster's Legacy".

A young boy is practicing his gymnastics routine as his coach watches on. He gets a cramp in his leg, and his coach tries to help him relax and stretch it away. While this is happening, the janitor watches on from behind a glass door, concerned by the number of video cameras pointed at the boy.

The coach leaves the gym, heading to his car in a mostly-abandoned parking garage. He goes to drop off stuff in his truck when a masked man takes him by surprise and repeatedly stabs him in his nether regions with an ice pick.

The detectives arrive at the scene; Det. Benson dressed up for a Valentine’s Day dinner. They take the coach, Alexai, to the hospital, saying he bled out a lot, but Benson is confused why they were called.

The detectives pay Alexai a visit in the hospital, he says it was a man who attacked him. Det. Amaro asks if it could have been a revenge stabbing, but the man reveals he’s on good terms with all of his ex-wives, all 3 of them, and that he learned his lesson before by getting involved with other women.

The detectives interview a boy and his father about Alexai, and hear he was very “hands on” with some boys, giving an awful lot of private lessons. The father says he heard about it from one of the janitors.

Det. Rollins brings the janitor, John, in for questioning, listing off his varied and extensive criminal history. He denies doing anything to Alexai. The detectives delve further and bring up John’s mother, whom he takes care of, saying if John wants to be there for her, he has to help with the case. John accuses Alexai of filming his sessions with the boys.

Alexai says John is just a dumb janitor and knows nothing. He films the boys for his own benefit, in case he is ever accused of molestation.

The detectives review the videos, and there’s nothing incriminating on it. They try and give John the benefit of the doubt, but the Capitan reveals he’s been arraigned (for the stabbing) and is on his way to prison.

On his way there, he strangles another prisoner, rendering him unconscious. The guards restrain him more. The detectives show up and they learn the other prison was a convicted pedophile, and John warned them before leaving not to leave him with the guy.

In arraignment court, he’s sent back to Rikers, and the detectives question his mom, stating that John, in his mind, attacked two pedophiles, so there must be some underlying cause that his mom can help answer. The mom reveals his father died when he was young, and a coach of his own took interest in him years later, spending lots of time with him. After their lessons, John was never the same again.

Benson suggests to the Capitan that he thought Alexai was a pedophile, so he was triggered when he saw him touching the boy. And then being chained to a convicted pedophile would set him off even more. The Capitan doesn’t offer to do much, but the detectives insist on talking to John’s old coach.

They visit the coach, Martin Schultz (Ed Asner). They ask about John’s past, but Martin shuts down their train of thought. He says he’s the kids’ friend and even surrogate father, and he’d never let anything happen to them. Benson doesn’t buy it, sensing something more.

Benson tells the Capitan that he’s a sociopath. But there’s nothing they can do because he didn’t confess, and there’s never been any complaints. Det. Rollins shows them a line-up of kids the coach had taught that have all turned towards a life of crime. Something Martin did really messed them up. The Capitan gives them the go-ahead to try and find someone willing to come forward as a victim. But they can’t use the convicted felons, as they are unreliable.

Det. Tutuola says none of the felons would come forward anyway, because claiming to have been a victim will mark them as targets for other inmates. Rollins says there’s one that can’t be a target, because he’s on death row. Reggie Rhodes (Mike Tyson).

Benson and Tutuola visit Reggie, who confirms to have known John from before, from Martin’s camp, but Reggie doesn’t want to talk about Martin. He doesn’t know why they care, since no one cared before. He doesn’t want to think about Martin. Tutuola suggests there was something more to the man that Reggie killed, but Reggie doesn’t want to talk about that either, and yells at them to leave.

Benson visits Bayard Ellis, an old friend, and asks for his help. She tells him about Martin and Reggie’s history, hoping Ellis can get Reggie’s execution held off. Especially if he had an traumatic experience as a kid.

They visit Reggie again, and tell him they can keep him alive as long as he tells them about what Martin did. He does. They ask more about Reggie’s victim, and he doesn’t want to talk. But they know the victim had a history of hiring men for “odd jobs”, which would have likely triggered Reggie.

He recounts his past to Benson, saying the first time he remembers being abused, he was 5 or 6, and it’s happened several times since then, including more than 3 times with Martin. And his victim paid him for ‘favors’, but ended up bringing multiple men in to have their way with him. He killed him the next night.

The detectives visit Martin again and ask about Reggie. He says Reggie was a problem child until he got there. They tell Martin that Reggie told them what happened at the camp, and he got angrily defensive and kicks them out.

Reggie’s original prosecutor offers no help to the detectives, telling them that Reggie deserves to die. But she also indicated that his original lawyer knew about Reggie’s victim, but never brought it up, which indicates negligence.

They get Reggie’s sister to testify at his appeal hearing. They get news that his appeal was denied, 5-4. Benson tries to figure out why, and learns that the 5th vote was a biased vote, by the wife of the lead prosecutor at Reggie’s original trial. It was rigged.

The detectives go over evidence from his case, hoping to prove it was rigged. Benson finds evidence that was concealed and not told to the jury. Reggie confirms there were pictures of what they did that went missing. He says he didn’t want people to see those, or any other of the pictures or videos of him. Benson asked who else had pictures of him. Martin.

They visit John, who confirms that Martin filmed him as well. He blackmailed John into not telling anyone. The detectives go to Martin’s and look for the videos, but the coach burned them, but didn’t get to all of them. They are able to arrest him.

In court, the detectives have Reggie’s original prosecutor on the seat. They ask her about the missing picture evidence, and the lawyer feigns ignorance. He confronts her with her notes from the case, which include all the missing pictures from the scene. They overturn the death penalty immediately due to prosecutorial misconduct.

The detectives tell Reggie the good news, and inform him he will be transferred to another prison, and even have his case reviewed.

At Rikers, coach Martin is brought into jail as John watches.