In the nation's largest city,
the vicious and violent members of the underworld
are hunted by the detectives
of the Organized Crime Control Bureau.
These are their stories.
Together with the FBI and Interpol,
Manhattan SVU, and Organized Crime,
we have formed an elite task force
to apprehend the criminals
behind the revenge crime website Shadowerk.
You can't take down the site until you know who built it.
We have a name. Hyakunin Giri.
Server's located in Dublin, Ohio.
We're waiting on a warrant for physical surveillance.
[dramatic music]
This could be our perp.
We gotta move. Move in!
FBI. Set it down.
We got a problem.
The site's back up,
and there's something you should probably see.
A $50,000 bounty on each of our heads.
Who the hell is this guy?
[cheery festive music playing]
♪
♪ Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree ♪
♪ Your leaves are so unchanging ♪
♪ Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree ♪
♪ Your leaves are so unchanging ♪
[knock at door] [heavy metal music blaring]
- Kyle? - What?
♪
[volume lowers]
You sure you don't wanna go to Grandma's?
Gotta finish this.
Are you just gonna code by yourself all day, honey?
Maybe I'll get something to eat.
You don't have a car.
I'll figure it out.
[door shuts]
♪
You Kyle?
Yeah.
♪ Silent night
♪ Holy night
Why you all alone on Christmas?
[soft festive music playing]
I just got back from overseas.
I work for the government.
Yeah?
Doing what?
Can't really talk about that.
What are you doing alone on Christmas?
Oh.
My boyfriend's family, they live up in North Dakota.
I went there last year,
but they were kinda racist.
And I just didn't feel like dealing with that again.
If I was him, I'd be with you, not them.
You wanna celebrate Christmas with me?
You have any friends, Kyle?
You've met the people in this town.
They're so normal.
[chuckles] You make it sound like that's a bad thing.
They're all liars.
The worst part is,
no one's gonna give a crap when they all die.
Okay.
Can I get you two anything else?
No.
Oh, no, you don't have to do that.
I want to.
You've been nice.
Well, thanks for lunch.
What are you gonna do with the rest of your Christmas?
Go home.
I'm working on something.
It's gonna change the world.
Really?
How's it gonna do that?
By showing people the truth.
About who they really are.
[soft suspenseful music]
Wow.
Okay.
♪
Mom.
I'm sorry that I left a surprise
waiting for you on Christmas.
But I don't want you to be sad, okay?
Because there's nothing you could have done.
I know you think I have a lot of problems.
But those problems don't really belong to me.
The real problem is with other people.
I read somewhere that all pain is one malady with many names.
And I think I know what those names are.
♪
They're the names of everyone in the world.
[ominous music]
♪
[choking]
[computer beeps]
[gasping]
[choking]
[gasping]
[coughing]
♪
[chuckling]
[tense music]
♪
Talk to us. How come the site's back up?
I thought we'd confiscated the server.
The one in Ohio, but from what I can tell,
it looks like he's mirroring it.
Well then where the hell is it?
We'll get a warrant.
For the entire globe?
He's using proxies, now, and encryption.
So we just forced this guy to burrow deeper underground?
Pretty much, yeah.
How do we stop more people from dying?
We don't. Not until we find this guy.
In the meantime, somebody in the Escrow office
has to know who's behind all this.
What about that IT guy you arrested?
Jacob Bettencourt. We're talking to him now.
You recognize the number, right?
I... [mutters indistinctly]
Yeah, the last call I got.
From whoever set up the IT appointment?
Yeah.
What'd they want you to do with the server?
Replace it.
Then toss it in the trash.
So he could put the site back up on a clean one.
Uh--
Describe the voice. Man? Woman?
Uh, it was--it was a guy.
Okay. Did he say his name?
Larry.
Larry, from the Escrow office.
We already know he didn't make the call.
And whoever made the call was lying.
Any luck tracing the number?
Nah. Perp probably used a burner.
We need to get more from those Escrow employees
before someone goes for the bounty on your heads.
Well, I'm not worried.
This place is crawling with Feds.
All the same, you two are barred from fieldwork
until further notice.
Well, we've lost the element of surprise.
Not to mention our anonymity.
Next move?
Start with the suspects we do have.
A murder-for-hire website?
Is that even a thing?
Well, it is now.
And it's not just for murders.
We already have five rape victims in New York alone,
and a few dozen more in other countries.
- This is horrifying. - It is.
That's why we need your help, Mrs. Wilkie.
I don't know anything about that site.
But Dublin Escrow is your company, right?
So who has access to the computers?
[suspenseful music]
If it's anyone in our office, it's Larry Wilcox.
And what can you tell us about him?
He likes scratch-off tickets.
Got a problem.
He's in a financial hole.
It's the Russians.
You know about the troll farms and the bots?
They're the ones that got Biden elected.
This guy would be very smart, tech savvy.
Whoever this person is is likely male,
mid-20s, antisocial.
Do you know anyone who fits that description?
No, not really.
Well, maybe somebody you don't suspect?
I don't know anyone like that.
[knock at door]
Got a sec?
Turns out Linda Wilkie has a son, Kyle.
He's 26. No record.
That's why we didn't flag him before.
Does he fit the profile?
He's unemployed, single, no social media presence.
Taught coding at a summer camp for the last five years.
What does that tell you, other than he has no friends?
He's good at being anonymous.
His last-known is his mother's address in Dublin.
And no wonder Linda was being so defensive.
A mother being protective of her son.
I'll get a warrant.
It's not Kyle. You're wrong.
Right now, the FBI is headed to your house,
so if you do know anything,
it would be in your best interest to tell us
before they knock down your door.
It's not him, it's not!
Mrs. Wilkie, is your son home right now?
No, we don't live together anymore.
Someone put a hit out on Captain Benson and myself.
There's a bounty on our heads,
and we think that Kyle is the one that posted it.
We think that this is his website.
That doesn't sound like my Kyle.
Well, sometimes people aren't what they seem to be.
Where is he?
I don't know. I haven't spoken to him.
I want a lawyer.
[tense music]
♪
NYPD!
We'll take second floor.
[officers shouting]
That's creepy.
Hey guys, got something in the attic.
It definitely seems like our guy.
Take everything.
Huh.
What the hell is this?
They found a suicide note.
Dated Christmas, this past year, yeah.
Kid was living in her attic.
Does Linda know where he is now?
Well if she does, she loves him enough to lie to us.
And she lawyered up.
Called a family friend from some local firm.
All right, well, what are we doing?
We just gonna sit here and wait?
Detective, you, uh, feeling hangry?
- I'll order some takeout. - I'm getting out of here.
Uh, not without an escort.
- How about you come with us? - Me?
I'm just a humble U.S. attorney, Captain.
Yeah, but you hold Uncle Sam's credit card.
Funny.
Mmm, wow.
This mac and cheese is so good.
Isn't that something?
What?
It's just good to see Captain Benson
embrace normalcy for a change.
[chuckles]
[all coughing, choking]
♪
[cooks coughing, choking] [dishes clattering]
[diners coughing]
Towel!
[people coughing, screaming]
Gun!
[gunshot] [yells]
[cocking shotgun]
Where is he? Can't see, can't see!
I can. [gunshot]
♪
- Are you all right? - Yeah.
- You get hit? - I'm hit.
Where?
My left hip.
Can you walk?
- Not really. - Come on. Up, up.
[grunts, groans]
To the left.
To the right.
[siren chirps]
[tense music]
Where is she?
Stabler took Benson to an urgent care nearby.
Where's the shooter?
He's taking a selfie, and not the kind he hoped.
Do we know who he is?
Tracy Horner, 36.
Trucker for a local produce outfit.
No record.
Was it connected to that website?
Pulled security cams.
He went straight for Benson and Stabler.
And we're searching his place?
Confiscating his computers.
Everything by the book. - Good.
We need to prove a connection between that website
and the shooter.
We really appreciate your client being
willing to talk to the NYPD.
She's willing to listen.
Yeah, that's nice. Well, we need her to talk.
What do you want me to say?
I feel horrible. I really do.
Your son put out a hit on two of my closest friends.
That's all you've gotta say?
And he's directly linked to murders and rapes
happening in New York.
Hundreds of cases worldwide.
This is all completely taking me off guard.
I didn't know anything about it.
Kyle kept it all to himself.
People are still dying.
Women are still being raped.
And it's gonna keep happening unless we shut down this site.
What do you want?
We wanna know where Kyle is now.
I'm not giving up my son.
This woman's exhausting.
A mother who knows she's failed her child.
She's mitigating her own guilt by protecting him now.
So what do we do, Professor?
[suspenseful music]
[knock at door]
- Who is she? - This is Amanda Rollins.
She's an adjunct professor of Criminal Behavior.
She's consulting on the case.
I've been asked to look at your son's
suicide note, Mrs. Wilkie.
Suicide note?
Yeah, that's his handwriting, isn't it?
♪
[sighs]
This is why he stayed home on Christmas?
To kill himself?
Your son wanted to create
the greatest amount of harm for the smallest effort.
He wanted to unleash destruction into the world
before he took himself out of it.
Why?
Well, for some reason, he felt that his death
had more value than his life.
But he changed his mind.
Right.
Well, the website-- his website--
and all the chaos it created,
that gave him something to live for.
It's not a pleasant thought,
but that's really the way it is.
And poor Kyle.
He--he was always just a little off, you know?
I took him to a child psychologist, but--
There's no cure for sociopathy, Mrs. Wilkie.
There's certainly no pills, no vaccines.
And the worst part of it is--
- [sobbing] I tried. I tried. - Yeah.
And no amount of love from his mother would help.
Help us find him, Linda.
♪
Just got the results from that second scan,
and it looks like all the pellets are finally out.
Even the one by my hip?
You're up to date on your tetanus.
I'll get you antibiotics, you can get out of here.
Oh, great. Thank you. Thank you, Doctor.
And no physical activity for at least two weeks.
How's your ass feeling?
Well, I won't be sitting any time soon.
Get me out of here?
[groans]
You okay?
Couldn't see anything.
Heard that shot...
[apprehensive music]
Thought I'd lost you.
I can't imagine what that brings up for you.
Yeah, Sarge.
Send the pin.
Kyle Wilkie's mom just gave him up.
- You need to go? - Yeah.
I'm glad.
♪
[tense music]
♪
McCrary, what are we walking into?
Wilkie taught computers here for the last five summers.
So he knows the terrain.
Cabins off that way, cafeteria's on the other end.
Ten or so miles of hiking trails.
Bright side is, the place is closed for the season.
Safe to assume he knows we're coming.
We know Wilkie's suicidal,
so expect self-destructive tendencies.
Meaning what?
Meaning he'd rather die than have that website taken down.
Whelan, Reyes-- you guys take the cafeteria.
I'll take the hiking trails.
Rollins and I'll hang back while they clear the cabin,
then we'll go in and search for the kid's computer.
All right. Let's go!
[engine revs]
♪
I don't know about you, but I can't wait
to get the hell out of Ohio.
You're telling me.
Postponed my vacation for this.
Where you going?
I'm gonna take the train across Canada.
Dude, they got this observation car--
the further you get west, you get lucky,
you see the Northern Lights--
while having a beer.
Sounds like paradise right about now.
Mm-hmm.
♪
This is it.
Must have surprised him.
Fin.
Look at this.
♪
[distant gunshot]
Bell, shot fired. Northeast.
Yeah, we just heard it out here on the trail.
We'll pursue.
Copy.
Reyes, Jamie.
We're gonna need you. - Yup, I heard the shot.
- Yeah, out by the lake. - Copy. Headed there now.
[officers shouting]
See anything?
No, but he sees us.
He's got trail cams out here.
[distant gunshot]
Hey! He's up there.
Let's go!
All right, we're in pursuit.
- Where are you? - Headed to the lake.
Copy, cutting through the woods now.
All right, keep us posted. Be careful.
♪
Reyes, Whelan.
I see him here. He's not far from you.
[gunshots]
Officer down! Officer down, I repeat!
Can you move him?
No.
No, we need a medic now!
♪
Okay, he's wounded.
He dropped the rifle, and he's headed towards the lake.
Kyle?
Kyle!
♪
Go ahead, shoot.
Put the sword down.
Take me out.
I don't care!
Where's that goddamn medic?
[gasping] How's it--how's it look?
You're gonna be okay.
We're gonna get you taken care of.
Can't feel my legs.
I can't feel my legs!
Did my mother tell you where to find me?
That doesn't matter.
We wanna help you.
You've heard the term Hyakunin Giri?
It's a contest to see how many men you can kill with a sword.
Put down the sword.
♪
Shadowerk is my sword.
It'll live on after I die.
Sword down!
I've already been on this planet
six months longer than I expected.
♪
No!
[grunts]
We need this guy alive.
Where's the medic?
I can't feel my legs, man.
Hurry up!
Come here!
Hurry!
[choking]
Just breathe, just breathe.
Hey!
Hurry! - Keep applying pressure.
Hey, hey, hey, hey. Relax, relax. Relax.
I just need you to breathe. We're not bad.
I promise you, we're not bad.
Calm down.
- [groans] - Calm down, Jamie.
- I'm coming in. - Ready?
Yeah. Okay.
No, no, no, no!
[groans]
Medic's here with Jamie.
They're working on him, but he's gonna need an airlift.
Stabler, what's going on?
Kid just skewered himself!
Oh, God, I'm freezing. I'm freezing.
Freezing. I'm freezing.
Hey, man, you're-- you're gonna be okay.
We need immediate medical assistance
for Wilkie, now!
Hey.
Don't worry about any of that, okay?
Just think about the Northern Lights.
Remember that? - Go help the kid.
Go help the kid.
Go help the kid!
Bro, what are you talking about?
We need Wilkie alive. Go help the kid.
♪
Go save the kid.
- Damn it! - Go help the kid.
Take over.
We're gonna need another medic now!
Hey!
♪
Never thought I'd be rooting for this guy to live.
[groaning]
He can die after the site is down.
♪
[helicopter blades whirring]
Where are you taking me?
Prison hospital, New York.
I've never been there before.
Yeah? Well, you're ours now.
And let me tell you, it looks nothing like the brochure.
The second we're done with you, FBI and Interpol,
they're gonna take turns.
For what?
The same thing we all want, you to shut down that site.
What if I say no?
[tense music]
Hey. Hey, hey!
We saved your life.
You shouldn't have done that.
♪
Hey, Reyes, how's he doing?
Yeah, no.
I heard you, yeah.
Tell him we got the kid.
Tell him we couldn't have done that without him.
Whelan's out of surgery.
The bullet went through his spine.
♪
So you're saying we finally got this guy in cuffs,
and there have been three more rapes in New York?
After we arrested him,
there was a serious spike in traffic to the site.
It's more popular than ever.
My guess is, this guy's going for an insanity plea.
- You got him on suicide watch? - Yes, 24/7.
And where is he now?
Just landed in the prison ward at Brookside.
I want him arraigned in his hospital bed--
today.
It's pretty clear Mr. Wilkie is suffering
from significant mental health issues.
I'm not crazy.
I'm not.
Be that as it may, right now, you're one of the most prolific
mass murderers in American history.
Is that what you wanted?
You don't have to answer that.
I wanted people to know the truth.
The truth? Okay, about what?
Themselves.
People try to show you who they are with smiles and words.
But faces lie.
You can't really know someone until they're anonymous.
I'll tell you, being cops, we understand that
better than you might think.
You're just agreeing with me to get a confession.
Oh, we don't need a confession.
We have evidence.
From your computer, the selfies.
I am not shutting down my website.
People are still being hurt.
By other people, not me.
I need a moment to talk to my client.
Shut up!
♪
What are you willing to trade?
How about your mother's freedom?
My mom had nothing to do with this.
Oh, the server was in her office.
That's not gonna go over well with a jury.
Oh, and she lied to the police.
She didn't even know about Shadowerk.
Well, you can talk to the ADA about that,
but they're extraditing her from Ohio as we speak.
And the Feds are going for the death penalty.
See, people were raped and murdered,
all while she protected you.
You're lying.
She's the one that gave me up.
No, if it weren't for your mother,
we would have found you sooner.
All she would tell us is that her son
would never be involved in anything like this.
Then we showed her your suicide note.
That devastated her.
But still, she stood by you.
See for her, love isn't a lie.
She feels it in her heart.
You wouldn't know what that's like.
I love my mother.
Do you?
Prove it.
♪
I miss you.
I miss you too, Jet.
But I know I'll never walk again.
Oh, so you're a doctor now?
It might not be permanent.
Can't even move my hands.
It's too soon to tell.
Jet.
Got this device that sends shocks to my nerves,
just so I can breathe.
- Jamie? - What?
I love you.
Hey, we'll call you soon, okay?
- Yeah. Bye. - Bye.
Bro, you gotta let people care about you.
I can't live like this.
I won't. I mean it.
Oh man, you're just tired.
You've been through a lot.
I need you to do something for me.
Anything.
You need to let me go.
What?
No one else is around.
[somber music]
♪
Come on, I'm serious.
Hey.
You heard Jet.
You're gonna be fine.
You hear me? You're gonna be fine.
You're gonna have a long life ahead of you.
It's not a life, Bobby.
That's not my life.
It's not.
I'm serious.
Disconnect the box.
Please.
I can't do that, bro.
I can't. I'm sorry. I--
Detective Whelan?
Your father's here.
Bring him in.
Why don't I take Dad downstairs
for something to eat and let you get some rest.
No.
I wanna see him.
- You gonna be okay? - Mm-hmm.
See you in a bit.
♪
[gasps]
[sobbing]
♪
[contemplative music]
♪
Against my better judgment,
my client is willing to cooperate.
He'll plead guilty?
So long as you leave my mom alone.
That's the offer on the table,
but he's gonna do life-- no negotiation.
In case you haven't noticed,
I don't care very much about life anyway.
And here's the final piece.
You are gonna shut that site down, or no deal.
♪
[monitor flatlining]
[alarms beeping]
[mournful music]
♪
[phone buzzing]
Hey.
♪
[sniffles]
- Hey. - Got you working already?
Yeah.
Well, unfortunately, sexual assault
doesn't stop because some doctor in Ohio
tells me to take two weeks off.
Aw.
I'm so sorry.
About your guy, Whelan.
Me too.
Got me thinking again.
About?
How precious life is.
What is this?
A reminder.
I wanted to give it to you before I left.
Before you left?
You going somewhere?
New case. I'll be gone for a while.
Well, thank you for telling me this time.
I like small boxes.
I know.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Not so fast.
I wanna know what's in that box first.
You do, do you?
Okay.
I'll make you a deal.
You open it, you keep it.
Even took the price tag off.
Having a little regret there, aren't you?
Nah.
You can always fix things.
[soft pensive music]
♪
I'll treasure it.
Your turn.
♪
A compass.
Elliot, this is-- this is beautiful.
Thank you.
Is this supposed to, uh,
to lead me somewhere, or--
to something?
Lead you to happiness, Liv.
Well, I, um...
I sure as hell am gonna try.
Me too--
Partner.
♪
[tense music]
♪
[wolf howls]