Source: NBC
Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers Law and Order: SVU Season 24, Episode 12.
Serials like Law & Order: SVU often come with unexpected twists and turns, but none are crazier than Captain Mike Duarte’s (Maurice Compte) arc throughout its 24th season. First introduced in Episode 2 of Season 24, “The One You Feed,” Duarte’s story takes a surprising turn in Episode 12, “Blood Out.”
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Throughout Maurice’s four appearances as Duarte, his and Benson’s (Mariska Hargitay) relationship has been front and center. So who exactly is Duarte and should we expect to see more of him in Law & Order: SVU?
Photo: (lr) Molly Burnett as Det.Grace Muncy, Captain Maurice Compt Mike Duarte
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In “LAW & ORDER: SVU,” Duarte is the captain of the NYPD’s Bronx gang unit.
Duarte first appears when he is called to help Benson investigate Nora Whitman’s gang rape and attack on her family in “The One You Feed.” However, Benson and Duarte clash with their Alpha personalities from the start. Duarte quickly dismissed the rape charges and was interested in tracking down the BX9 gang, much to Benson’s displeasure.
Source: NBC
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However, this all comes to a head in episode 10, “The Plunge”, when Benson and her son are attacked and the attacker was part of the BX9 gang. In the present, Benson and Duarte are forced to work together to defeat BX9 and its leader Oscar his papa (Goya Robles). By episode 12, Oscar faces the “Order” part of “Law and Order” and is put on trial.
It’s a volatile trial, and with Duarte publicly at the helm, BX9 members aren’t too happy. He declined the ride and chose to walk, with several of his BX9 members surrounding him and attacking him with hatchets. If that sounds impossible to survive, it’s to survive.
After an arc of four episodes and a seeming resolution with Benson, Duarte died in surgery after the incident. I couldn’t let that happen,’ he blamed himself.
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Maurice Compte played Captain Mike Duarte in ‘Law & Order: SVU’.
Although he only appeared in four episodes, Maurice’s portrayal of Duarte will long be remembered in SVU history. In fact, Maurice had a similar upbringing to the officer, so he was very good at playing the officer. He told NBC News that he knew gang members and cops while growing up.
“At best, I could understand why they were doing it,” Maurice said of some of the gang members he knew in the neighborhood. Because we only had each other.It was just a natural formation.But there are a lot of dark elements.”
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Source: Instagram/@mauricecompte
While Maurice played a character closer to home on SVU, he’s been around Hollywood for quite some time as various other characters. He’s probably best known as Horacio Carrillo on Narcos and Gaff on Breaking Bad, most recently in Section 8 as U.S. Attorney General Martin He played Savoy. Several future projects are in the works, including Hellfire and Little Dixie.
The Jan. 26 episode of SVU may have been the end for Duarte, but there’s a lot of Maurice to look forward to.
Tune in to NBC at 9 PM ET for new episodes of Law & Order: SVU.
