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"Smoked" is Episode 24 of Season 12 and happens to be the twelfth season finale of "Law & Order: SVU." It features guest-stars Michael Raymond James, Francie Swift, Andrew Howard, Pedro Pascal, Joe Grifasi and Hayley McFarland.SPOILERS!
A mother and daughter are walking together when they're suddenly mugged, and the mother, Annette, is shot and killed. The daughter, Jenna, calls in SVU, as her mother was supposed to testify as a witness in her own rape trial the following week. From a street camera, detectives judge that the killing was purposely an execution and not just a mugging-gone-wrong.
Jenna said her mother had recently been receiving phone threats. Detectives go to question the suspect, Luke (Annette's supposed rapist), and he denies their claims with an alibi. Learning that Luke had been doing acts of good will at a homeless shelter, detectives talk to the last man at the shelter who interacted with Luke, named Edward (Michael Raymond James). He tells them Luke left the shelter suddenly- and he thought he saw a handgun in Luke's bag. More evidence found in Luke's bag allows police to take him into custody. Detectives borderline-harass Luke into a confession, but despite his look of guilt, specific details regarding shell casings and clothing brands reveal that Luke's gun wasn't the one used to shoot the victim. They release him, to the disdain of Jenna. Still, detectives follow Luke back to the homeless shelter, where Finn finds him arguing with the previous homeless man, Edward. When Edward sees the cops he runs, until Stabler finds the cell phone in his pocket which made the phone threats; both men are taken into custody.
Luke reveals that he paid Edward to threaten Annette into dropping charges so the rape trial wouldn't occur, yet he never asked Edward to kill her. Recently Edward insisted on more money from Luke, insisting also that he should just kill Annette, resulting in Luke leaving the homeless shelter abruptly. Edward admits nothing, while detectives try to find the gun Edward used to kill the victim. Somehow in the midst of this, Stabler learns that someone released Edward from his cell while he was away.
Detectives discover that the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives) took him into their custody; Edward is working undercover with them to bust cigarette smugglers. In order to retrieve Edward fully back into custody, ATF and the cops agree to work together. Stabler goes undercover with Edward as a smuggler. In a dumb move by the same ATF agent who released Edward from jail, the cops bust in on the deal unexpectedly, resulting in Edward running away.
Police track him down with a gun to Luke's head, demanding more money to fund his getaway. Olivia takes his gun, which matches the ballistics of the gun used to kill the victim. In order to reduce his sentence, the DA asks Edward if he can provide evidence that will help convict Luke- even though the victim is dead, her testimony from a preliminary hearing can still be used to make a conviction against Luke in the trial. Edward reveals that Luke described to him in detail the night of the rape when Luke first hired him to harass Annette. To reduce his sentence even lower, Edward tells police that he got the gun to shoot the victim from the same ATF agent that released him previously.
When the agent is taken in, it's revealed that he kept the gun from a previous ATF operation gone wrong. He supplied the gun to Edward as Edward insisted he needed a form of protection. After detectives lecture the agent on the country's gun problem and how he is just as responsible as Edward for killing Annette, they lock him up with the others.
Jenna comes in to make eye contact with her mother's confirmed killers. When Olivia has her back turned, Jenna fires at all three men, as well as an innocent bystander. When she misses killing Edward and he makes a crude remark, she shoots him again, resulting in Stabler shooting her in order to for the shooting to stop overall. As she lays dying, Jenna "coincidentally" mentions how easily she bought the gun off the street.
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Oddly, "Smoked" opens up with a crime happening right away to the first people we see (Annette and Jenna.) Typically episodes introduce random people in the beginning who somehow find a dead body by accident, but are in no way involved in the crime. This tiny change-of-pace was refreshing, allowing us to jump right into the main case.
"Smoked" ends with chaos in the precinct, resulting from a literal smoking gun, yet it's unfortunate that writers tried to introduce the issue of America's gun problem within the last ten minutes of the episode. Sadly, the conclusion of "Law & Order: SVU" Season 12 was predictable and more dramatized than needed.
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