Why the Devious Ellis Brothers on Law & Order: SVU Season 27 Look So Familiar
SVU's latest guest stars created quite a courtroom conundrum with Benson's elite squad.
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This story contains spoilers for Law & Order: SVU Season 27, Episode 6 ("Under the Influence").
For 27 seasons and counting, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fans have relished in the ripped-from-headlines cases that keep our blood pumping — and Season 27, Episode 6 ("Under the Influence") delivered the goosebumps with a pair of manipulative brothers.
After an influencer was sexually assaulted at an exclusive open house event, a witness to the incident instantly called the cops, leading Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and her elite squad to catch wind of a troubling case that had the entire jury shocked by the trial's conclusion.
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Chris Webster and Drew Garrett guest star as SVU's latest pair of assailants, leading the squad on a winding investigation and explosive courtroom showdown.
Why you recognize SVU guest stars Drew Garrett and Chris Webster
Before joining the gripping procedural universe of SVU, Webster and Garrett both built impressive television careers.
Garrett boasts an impressive television portfolio of hits. Many might recognize him as Michael Corinthos in the long-running soap opera General Hospital, wherein Garrett starred in over 150 episodes. Some of Garrett's other notable projects include The Mentalist, BlackBoxTV, and Never Fade Away. Garrett also starred in the drama series Youthful Daze as Jimmy Lowe.
Webster has been acting since the early 2000s, when he first broke into primetime in a series of guest roles, appearing in shows like Clone, Missing, Hidden, and DCI Banks. Other notable projects include Reacher, Magnum P.I., and TURN: Washington's Spies. Some may recognize Webster for his 12-episode run as Nixon in the action series Most Dangerous Game.
Drew Garrett and Chris Webster played a pair of villainous brothers on SVU
After Benson arrived at the scene of an influencer-heavy open house, she found the victim, Skylar, who had been tossed in the shower to clean off evidence. But Benson found hair in the shower's new plumbing system, giving the squad valuable DNA evidence.
Skylar had been drugged, so her memory was fuzzy once she woke up and told her story, confused by the memory of seeing her assailant in two different places at one time. DNA tests soon revealed two half-brothers at the scene, leading the detectives directly to Nathan and Paul Ellis, the owners of Ellis National Realty, a massive real estate empire, and the company that planned the event.
The squad discovered the brothers were in a fatal car accident with a victim named Alicia Williams, but there were never legal repercussions. After a coroner discovered Alicia was dead before the crash, the Ellis' father made the case disappear.
While speaking to influencers close to National Reality, the cops discover that Paul was known as a sweet guy, while Nathan was awkward and cold. They then discovered another influencer who was assaulted by Nathan at a party after Paul lured her into a bedroom, and watched as his brother assaulted the influencer. This was enough to arrest the Ellis brothers, who instantly created an interrogation rodeo with their conflicting testimony.
Nathan had prepared a careful cover story: he'd left the party before the attack and had taken a shower before the event, explaining away their DNA at the scene. And the influencer he assaulted? Their exchange was entirely consensual, and she wanted Paul to watch.
Nathan poked holes in every piece of evidence against him and his brother. Meanwhile, Paul panicked in a neighboring room, desperately begging the cops to allow him to speak with his brother while denying anything had happened.
The cops soon revealed Nathan had Paul under his thumb — their father covered stuff up and paid off victims, while Nathan "protected" Paul from their aggressive patriarch. Their father brought in a bulldog lawyer, who soon deemed Paui as a detriment to their case after he struggled to testify without looking over to Nathan for cues. Meanwhile, Nathan implicated Paul as more involved.
The Ellis family lawyer then offered A.D.A. Carisi (Peter Scanavino) a plea deal — Nathan would walk, while they'd allow Paul to take on the charges. Carisi brought Paul into the precinct to let them know what offer his lawyer pitched, which he struggled to believe.
His brother had thrown him under a bus. Paul confessed that he would often drug women and lure them in for his brother, but never wanted to watch his brother assault anyone. Paul then revealed that Nathan had killed the woman from the fatal car crash, cementing the squad's evidence against Nathan.
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Just ahead of the trial in which Paul would testify to this fact, he was attacked in prison, obviously arranged by the Ellis brothers' father. The entire Ellis family was riddled with criminals. Paul survived and testified at trial, leading Nathan to be deemed guilty. Benson then arrested the brothers' father for the car accident, serving justice to a trail of victims once and for all.
Watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC and the next day on Peacock.
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