Written By Julie Martin and Warren Leight
Directed By Michael Slovis
Continuing from after William Lewis committed suicide so he would never face prison or the police ever again, Olivia is taken back to the precinct by Amaro, but the squad is deeply concerned about Olivia's well-being after what she just went through.
Worse, since Lewis committed suicide with his off hand, and Olivia's fingerprints are all over the revolver from playing Russian Roulette, Lewis' final card against Olivia was framing her for his death. Tucker tells Olivia the IAB officers are willing to go along with a claim of justifiable homicide, but Benson knows it won't be the truth.
As a result, a grand jury is convened to see if Benson will face charges of murdering Lewis and lying under oath. What's worse for Olivia, if she takes the stand, no matter what she tries to testify against, Lewis' death or her earlier beating of him, she'll face jail time no matter what.
Refusing to accept that, Olivia plans to retire from the NYPD first and save her pension, but temporary SVU commanding officer Lieutenant Declan Murphy is able to convince the grand jury that Olivia, on his orders, lied at the press conference to lure Lewis out, and also brings up Lewis' psychotic past to further convince them that Olivia is innocent. The grand jury are moved and refuse to indict Benson, thus resulting in Lewis' final play against Benson in framing her for his death to be in vain. He would burn in Hell for eternity while Olivia could move on with her life and be reinstated as commanding officer of her SVU squad, thanking Lt. Murphy for all his help.
However, Olivia had one last thing to do: Go to the morgue and see Lewis' corpse one last time, glad to see that the scumbag who caused her so much grief was gone for good, rotting in Hell where he belonged.
This episode contains examples of:
- Framing the Guilty Party: the Brooklyn DA, Strauss, tries to frame Benson (who is guilty of perjury and assaulting Lewis) of murdering him.
- Honor Before Reason: Despite the urging of basically everyone, Olivia refuses to go with the easy explanation that would get her off the hook, instead insisting on sticking to the much messier truth. Fortunately for her, Murphy has no such qualms.
- Idiot Ball: Strauss tries to push the idea that Benson murdered Lewis and, conspiring with the entire SVU squad, tried to cover up the murder as a suicide, based on ambiguous physical evidence which would fit either theory of the death equally well. He does this even though the twelve-year-old victim, Amelia, was present and can testify that Lewis specifically announced that he intended to commit suicide in such a way as to frame Benson for his murder. Conveniently for him she fails to mention this during her testimony even though she has the opportunity to do so.
- Metaphorically True: Murphy knowingly lies that Olivia's confession was part of the operation to draw Lewis out of hiding. However, as SVU helped film the confession out of worry that Lewis would kill a child, it technically was part of the operation.
- Moving the Goalposts: Strauss becomes quickly aware that nobody is interested in his little conspiracy theory, and instead pivots to try and nail Olivia for lying during Lewis's trial.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Tucker in essence tells Olivia to lie and claim she shot Lewis in self-defense, rather than stick to the convoluted truth which might come off as a cover-up. It's so out of character for him that the other characters initially think he may be up to something. He isn't, however.
- Trap Is the Only Option: Benson acknowledges to her therapist she deliberately walked into Lewis's posthumous legal trap in order to save the life of Amelia.
