The Special Victims Unit is called in to help investigate a wave of hate crimes on Christmas Eve. Rollins catches up with an old flame.
Tropes
- The Bus Came Back: Donal Logue returns as Capt. Declan Murphy after his last appearance in season seventeen's "Community Policing".
- Faking the Dead: Declan had to fake his death when he was pulled out of his undercover assignment.
- False Flag Operation: After all the small hate crime attacks, North Star's plan is to set off bombs in the Islamic Center of NYU, a Jewish student center and the Village temple (being all within range of Washington Square Park), turning everyone against one another.
- Hate Plague: The episode starts with an attack on Jews and Muslims on Christmas Eve. Later on, a mosque gets bombed.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Rollins offering to walk Darko's dog, Danika, works in her favor since he gives her his keys and phone number, allowing her, Fin and Khaldun to enter his apartment.
- Inspirational Martyr: Susan Nolan considers Benson killing Robert Martell a favor, since now the cause has a martyr.
- Lazy Alias: When he introduces himself to Declan and Rollins, Darko Povic's alias is Don Johnson.
- Oh, Crap!: While opening up the closet in Darko's apartment looking for Danika's leash, Rollins, Fin and Khaldun find enough explosives to level the block.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Dalen, one of the kids IDed throwing rocks at the synagogue, is the only one to drop his rock and run away when he sees the other two kids are serious about vandalizing it.
