Written By Warren Leight and Julie Martin
Directed By Arthur W. Forney
Soon after announcing his partnership with a high-profile clothing line owned by billionaire Orion Bauer (Stacy Keach) and his daughter (Teri Polo), a basketball superstar endures a rash of rape allegations brought on by representatives of said clothing line, all of whom had received suspicious pay bonuses around the time the allegations were made...
Tropes
- Bittersweet Ending: Sweet because Shakir was exonerated, bitter because his reputation is ruined (he'll always be a serial philanderer at best and an accused rapist at worst), his sponsors have abandoned him, being accused of rape — even falsely — is not going to help him in his custody battle, and Cordelia just revealed that she aborted his baby because she believed the rape allegations by Tiana. The one bright spot in this, as Cordelia mentions, is that he now has grounds for a massive lawsuit against Orion and his company for all the pain and destruction the frame job has done to his good name and life.
- Chekhov's Gun: When Orion first brings up Tiana to SVU's attention, he mentions her as a Gold Digger. Later on, she blatantly exposes the plot to frame Shakir to Amanda and out of anger that she wasn't paid as much as the other (white) girls and demanding the rest of it for her compliance.
- Fantastic Racism: Orion framed Shakir of rape because he's a black man who knocked up his white daughter and even refers to african-americans as animals during his motive rant.
- Porn Stache: Carisi sports his magnificent porn stache here.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Carla's elevator attack on Shakir is based on Solange Knowles' infamous attack on Jay-Z, complete with it being shown from the perspective of the security camera. Orion Bauer is based on Donald Sterling, who was stripped of his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers after he was secretly recorded making racist remarks about African Americans.
- The Unfair Sex: Barba mentions how they don’t like to go after women who make false rape claims because it would make it harder for actual rape victims to come out. Keep in mind that it is repeatedly shown that rape allegations completely ruin the victim’s lives, even when they are proven to be false. Not only did these women make a false claim, they went out of their way to frame Shakir, they lied to the police, lied in court, and even went so far as to secretly tape him when he started getting desperate. Yet they got off with a slap on the wrist.
