Written By Penelope Koechl and Jill Lorie Hurst
Directed By Martha Mitchell
An aspiring model claims that she was raped by famous photographer Alvin Gilbert and that his assistant did nothing to stop it. Former SVU Sergeant John Munch (Richard Belzer) helps the SVU squad question previous clients of the photographer over the past 12 years, many of whom refuse to come forward out of fear of jeopardizing their new, lucrative careers. However, the photographer later ends up dead himself, and there is no shortage of suspects in the cutthroat world of fashion.
Note: This is Richard Belzer's final appearance on SVU to date.
- Asshole Victim:
- Several of the rape victims have whole-heartedly adopted rape apologist ideology and have even begun procuring victims to be raped in the aftermath of their assaults.
- The rapist himself is eventually murdered, because even his own family can't take him any more. He is a particularly vile rapist, bragging to the detectives that when he "simulated violence" as he raped his victim she was sexually aroused by it.
- Casting Couch: the famous rapist photographer has a long history of raping inexperienced models and buying their silence with career assistance.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Tutuola and Carisi respectively.
- Idiot Ball: the victim's boyfriend marches into the squad to announce loudly that he will kill the rapist if the latter is not convicted, setting himself up to be the episode's Red Herring later on.
- Groin Attack: the gunshot to the rapist's crotch came before the shot to his heart, so that (as Barba says) he would have a couple of seconds "to think about what life would be like without his pecker".
- The Ingenue: the victims generally start this way before their experience renders them cynical and self-blaming.
- Ironic Juxtaposition: the episode opens with an innocent photo shoot of the svu squad and their babies on a carousel. That scene is interleaved with scenes of the victim (a naive, innocent teenaged ingenue) being photographed at a tawdry, sexualized photo shoot (as a prelude to being raped).
- Irony: ordinarily photos of a sexual assault are taken as evidence of its veracity. In this case the fact that the rapist's assistant took photos is taken as a reason to disbelieve the allegation.
- It's All About Me: the rapist's sister-in-law thinks the detectives' search warrant should be put on hold because her company is about to put on an IPO.
- It's Personal: Dodds tells the rapist's brother he knows what it's like to always be covering up your screwup brother's messes because his own brother is constantly in and out of rehab, and that he knows his life would be easier if his brother were gone.
- Naytheist: in his final appearance Munch tells Benson she should thank him for making Noah into a "fully-functioning, anti-dogmatic atheist".
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: A beautiful, innocent young blonde pushed into a sexual modeling by an abusive boyfriend, who views her as his meal ticket after discovering her working at an ice cream chain. Sally and Matt bear more than a few similarities to Dorothy Stratten and Paul Snider.
- Refuge in Audacity: the boyfriend's alibi for the rapist's murder is that he couldn't have shot the guy because he was going home in order to come back with his gun.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Alvin Gilbert is based on Terry Richardson, who has faced allegations of inappropriate behavior toward models.
