Padre Sandungeuro Recap – Law and Order: SVU

In the last episode, we looked at dysfunctional Amanda Rollins’ backstory and in “Padre Sandunguero”, we get into the drama that is behind our seething, explosive detective Nick Amaro (Danny Pino). Nick Amaro, Jr., that is. It’s his abusive father but the word “sandunguero”, according to the Spanish dictionary, actually means “witty, charming.”

Armand Assante turned in an amazing performance as Nick Amaro, Sr., the charming macho man of the worst order. So because the characters have the same name, we’re going to have to call Amaro Sr. Papi, and Amaro Jr. what we always call him– Amaro! Katty Velasquez was Gabriella, the bride-to-be; Nancy Ticotin played Amaro’s mom, Cesaria; and April Hernandez-Castillo was Sonya, Amaro’s sister. Little Zara is played by Alison Fernandez.

Papi shows up at the precinct house to invite Amaro out to lunch. They have not seen each other in over a decade but that has no meaning to Papi. He’s here now, he’s getting married and he wants to take his son out to lunch to invite him to the wedding.

Amaro informs Papi in advance that he’s not going. During the short lunch, he learns that his father’s future bride is practically a child and that his mother and sister talk to Papi on the regular. Amaro isn’t taking Papi’s word for that. He checks with his mother, who confirms it’s true. While expressing his disbelief, his sister Sonya shows up with Amaro’s little daughter, Zara, who is thrilled that she is going to be a flower girl. Amaro tries to refuse to let Zara go, but he can’t, see? His little girl’s dreams will be crushed.

Everything is going swell at the party until Papi notices a guy dancing suggestively with his Gabriella. She becomes aware of his angry stare and breaks away. Then we see little Zara hiding under a table calling Amaro to come help while a brawl is in full swing. When Amaro arrives he finds Zara and his mom and gets them sent home. Then he comes across Gabriella, bloodied and dazed on a gurney. She tells him that Papi hit her. They speak to each other in Spanish and the EMT worker takes her away.

When Gabriella changes her story completely at the hospital, the EMT worker is quick to point the finger at Amaro because of the exchange in Spanish. Papi is arrested and the problem becomes how to make an assault charge stick when no one saw the assault and there is no complainant.

Of course, Olivia wants to hang Papi because she knows he’s guilty. Barba wants to hang Papi because he is the type of guy who gives hard-working Cubans a bad name. Amaro wants Papi to finally pay for all his sins but his family is used to giving Papi a pass. At dinner, little Zara pipes up that her aunt said Amaro wants “Grandpa” to go to jail.

They try to get Papi to take a plea but it goes to trial because no one saw what happened, Gabriella wouldn’t tell the truth and what everyone else thought didn’t count. Even though Amaro testified about the abuse of his mother and himself to establish a pattern, that had no relevance to the jurors who just had no proof that witty, charming Papi did it. Moreover, the testimony of Amaro and Gabriella’s father both served to help Papi because those two had an axe to grind.

Later, Papi came to the precinct and just about admitted he did it, at least as much as a person like him can own up to transgressions, and to prevail upon Amaro to put the past behind them. He can’t change the past but he will always be there if Amaro wants to talk and get that rage out of his system. Amaro, he says, is the only one who can do something about what he is holding on to. But Amaro is not ready to step on the “that’s just how Papi is” train and probably never will be, especially after Papi suggests that if he doesn’t let the anger go somehow, he may one day end up hitting his own wife or kid. Papi leaves and tears run down Amaro’s face.

Random Notes:

Mariska Hargitay (Olivia Benson) directed the episode.

There was one scene in the first half where Amaro and Olivia talked after the lunch and she went into her spiel about letting the anger go, and forgiving Papi. She didn’t get very far with it because Amaro challenged her, asking if she has forgiven her father and William Lewis. She couldn’t say yes.

What else can we say about Armand Assante that would adequately describe the awesome job he did in this role? Bravissimo, Armand!

Danny Pino also was awesome, showing the anguish justifiable anger can cause when a transgressor refuses to make true amends. Let’s still hope that they have Amaro call someone about his issues so that Padre Sandunguero’s prediction doesn’t come true somewhere down the line. We didn’t need Papi to tell us that Amaro’s control is totes shaky but we don’t want his storyline to wind up with him hurting any relatives. Well, maybe Papi, if he pushes Amaro too far.