Written By Daniel Truly
Directed by Peter Leto and Constantine Makris
After being called out by Stabler on her lack of initiative in finding Vivian Arliss, Benson continues the search for Calvin's drug-addict mother. However, Vivian's name comes up in connection with a rape investigation, and Benson is caught in a conflict of interests when Much and Fin are assigned to the case instead of her.
Tropes
- Halfway Plot Switch: Starts with the team figuring out who raped an unpopular girl at the party, then, once they deal with the rapist, switches to them finding and dealing with Vivian once they find evidence she was at the party.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Stabler calls out Benson for not wanting to find Calvin's mother, a rape victim in the case, for fear of losing custody of Calvin. Benson finds Vivian, the mother, high on drugs and arrests her anyway after Cragen told Benson and Stabler to not get involved. They also get a confession before Cragen calls them both out for their disobeying him. Vivian admits to trying to protect her best friend, Sarah, after Sarah comes in and confesses she is really the killer. Sarah and Vivian indeed make bail, only for Sarah to get shot in the head in the garage. Finally the ex-boyfriend of Vivian gets arrested for the murder and Vivian court orders Benson to give up legal guardianship to her ex-husband's grandparents in Vermont while she goes into rehab, the whole time Benson trying to defy the court order and proclaim that Vivian's an unfit mother and basically shouldn't get her son back. So a quick recap: Vivian is high on drugs. She sees her best friend get murdered, her ex-boyfriend get arrested for the murder, Olivia accuse her of being an unfit mother after she put Calvin in Olivia's care because Vivian knew she couldn't raise Calvin, and finally is going to rehab while poor Calvin gets shuttled off to Vermont, an innocent victim whom Olivia has now lost custody of. Nice job, Olivia.
