Written By Dawn De Noon
Directed By David Platt
The SVU team are hot on the trail of a wanted rapist (Raphael Sbarge). As they try to locate him in Central Park, they momentarily lose sight of him, before an officer radios in that he has spotted the suspect and is in pursuit. As Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Christopher Meloni) try to locate them, the officer is able to wrestle the suspect to the ground, but is disarmed of his pistol by the suspect and puts in a "10-13: Officer needs assistance" call. By the time Benson and Stabler find him, he has caught the suspect and restrained him.
However, some time later, it is discovered that the officer, Brad Fletcher (Graham Davie), was a teenager impersonating an NYPD officer, meaning that the suspect will walk, despite being positively identified by the victims (Antonella Lentini, Danika Yarosh, Madison Cerniglia), much to ADA Marlowe's (Sharon Stone) chagrin, and to defense attorney Pond's (Alex Kingston) satisfaction. It turns out that Fletcher was a member of the NYPD Explorers, but had gotten so carried away with his love of becoming an officer that he took things too far with dressing up as one, attending a briefing, how to apprehend the suspect, and more. Fletcher agrees to a plea bargain that will knock the case down to a high-level misdemeanor instead of a low-level felony, which will allow him to remain eligible to join the police department for real when he's old enough.
However, later on, he enters the adult court to learn that Pond was able to get the case against the rapist dismissed, meaning he walks, and Marlowe simply says that if they can find new evidence against him, the case can be reinstated. Unfortunately, in a bid to help, Fletcher raids the rapist's father's (Raymond J. Barry) house for new evidence, and is shot and wounded by the father. As a result, Marlowe reveals that Fletcher screwed up big time and blew his last chance to get into the police academy, until Fletcher reveals that the rapist's father was watching video of the rapes, and was enjoying it. Hearing that, Marlowe tells him that he may have earned another shot at the police academy, but doesn't want to see him again until he's 21, which he agrees to.
Later on, Benson and Stabler raid the house, and confront the father about the videos, while Munch and Fin find the rapist and discover a hidden camera in his hat, thus allowing Marlowe to reinstate the case thanks to the new evidence that proves he did it. When Benson interrogates the rapist about his father, the rapist confesses that his father abused him after his mother passed away from cancer, and brought prostitutes home to have sex with in a bid to get the rapist to man up, but when the rapist refused to have sex with a second one his father brought home one night, the father was livid. Meanwhile, Stabler confronts the father, who tells a similar story, voicing his disgust of his son not manning up like he wanted. As they are taken away, the rapist screams that he loves his father, but the father angrily shouts back that his son is dead to him as they are taken away separately as Marlowe looks on with disgust and shock.
This episode contains examples of:
- Abusive Dad: Travis Hankett turned his son, Wayne, into a pedophile and rapist through years of emotional abuse.
- Basement-Dweller: Wayne Hankett is thirty-eight and still lives with his father. Elliot, Olivia, and Jo even mention the trope by name in making fun of him. Also deconstructed by showing it as the result of years of emotional abuse leaving Wayne incapable of functioning on his own.
- Didn't Think This Through: Fletcher impersonates a police officer out of enthusiasm, not malice. He apparently didn't realize that impersonating an officer is a felony, which means that if he got caught he would be blacklisted from the police force.
- When the case gets thrown out because of his actions, Fletcher decides to try and make it right... by breaking into the suspect's house to get more evidence. He gets shot by the home owner, and Marlowe tells him that committing a crime while on probation would undo the deal that will expunge his record when he turns 21, meaning he almost lost his second chance at getting into the academy.
- Dirty Old Man: Wayne Hankett's father gets off to a video of Wayne raping his second (teenage) victim.
- Dope Slap: Jo repeatedly doing this to Fletcher is the episode's Running Gag.
- Foreshadowing: Many of the mistakes Fletcher makes as an officer in the beginning, including blatantly violating fourth amendment rights, turn out to be this when it's revealed he's just a sixteen-year-old fanboy.
- Harmful to Minors: Wayne Hankett frequently masturbates in front of young girls. In his introduction scene, he is flashing an entire mall. Wayne himself became a victim of this when he was younger, as his father brought in hookers and bang them in front of him to make Wayne "a man."
- Hello, Attorney!: The episode features Jo Marlowe (Sharon Stone) vs. Miranda Pond (Alex Kingston).
- I Have No Son!: The father's final lines to his son as they are taken away by Benson and Stabler, saying his son is dead to him.
- Impersonating an Officer: Deconstructed. Fletcher does this out of enthusiasm because he wants to be a cop after he graduates high school, and has nothing but good intentions in trying to apprehend criminals. However, the act of impersonating an officer itself is a felony that nearly gets Fletcher blacklisted from joining the actual police force. In addition, because Fletcher doesn't know the proper protocol for what he's doing, the only thing his efforts against the episode's suspect initially achieve is getting that suspect Off on a Technicality.
- Naïve Newcomer: A rookie officer makes mistakes while apprehending a rapist that get the case thrown out. The "officer" turns out to be a teenager with a uniform he bought at a police supply store.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Fletcher had the best of intentions and was hellbent on stopping Hankett from hurting anyone else, but his violations of protocol in the process of doing so came very close to getting Hankett exonerated.
- Pædo Hunt: The Villain of the Week is a pedophile.
- Secondary Character Title: The title refers to Brad Fletcher who is introduced Impersonating an Officer.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: When the possibility of sending Brad Fletcher's photo to the media to flush him out is brought up, Marlowe notes that she only has twenty-four hours from the arrest to formally file the complaint, of which eight hours is left, and the media wouldn't be able to run the photo until the next day.
- Sympathy for the Devil: When Wayne reveals his backstory to Benson, she actually begins to feel sorry for him, even admitting that it was wrong that nobody helped him. She does, however, ask why he didn't just leave his father's house once he turned 18, with his implied answer being that his father made him completely dependent on him.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Wayne Hankett is deeply devoted to his father, despite knowing that what his father made him do was wrong.
- We Need to Get Proof: Nobody doubted that Wayne Hankett was guilty, but all of the evidence and testimony had to be thrown out because it was obtained on an illegal premise. The only way to convict him was to somehow find evidence that couldn't even remotely be linked to Fletcher's actions while in-uniform.
- Would Hurt a Child: Aside from Wayne raping young girls, his father shoots Fletcher.
