Written By Rick Eid and Gavin Harris
Directed By Jean De Segonzac
An accidental overdose (Paula Marshall) at a fancy hotel reveals a scam purported by a man (Wallace Langham) posing as the admissions director for Hudson University. As the investigation unravels, SVU learns that the case is just the latest in a long line of mothers desperate to send their children to the university. When the man is charged with rape by impersonation, ADA Barba is forced to make a deal with the judge for justice to be served, but things go terribly wrong.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Law: Barba tries a guy who seduces women by pretending to be a college admissions director who can help the women's kids get into college. Barba acknowledges that rape by fraud is not a crime in New York, but then talks about getting the case to a jury. The problem: if someone has not broken a specific law, the case will never see a jury — because the judge will kick it out, and may put sanctions on the prosecutor. (Not to mention that the defendant may turn around and sue for malicious prosecution and wrongful arrest.) Later, the judge in the case hand waves his failure to dismiss the case by saying that no judge would kick out a rape case without hearing all the evidence. Except that's the judge's job when the prosecution has failed to articulate a crime in his indictment. The judge's failure to do this could subject him to "getting his pants pulled down and his reputation sullied in public" as he so put it. After all, his decision is subject to review by the appeals court and even the federal courts, given that the defendant's Fourteenth Amendment rights have been violated. Contrary to what the judge says, using the word "rape" doesn't get around that.
- Bait-and-Switch Comparison: Carisi is faking sympathy with the perp to get him to open up, and the squad's female detectives give their take on the Smug Snake perp (and, implicitly, his interrogator):Benson, referring to the perp: This guy thinks he's pretty clever, huh?Rollins, also referring to the perp: And so does this guy.
- Bed Trick: The perp, a security guard, impersonates his college's director of admissions in order to get women to have sex with him. He also impersonates other prestigious people, like neurologists.
- Breaking Speech:Defense Attorney: Ladies and gentlemen, my client isn't perfect. The truth is, he's not even decent. If he tried to date me I would laugh at him, or I'd punch him in the face. What I'm saying is, he's disgusting, not a rapist.
- Foreshadowing: Laura's son does not recognize the man who accompanied Laura up to her hotel room - who is supposedly the man he just interviewed with as part of the college admissions process. An early sign there's an impersonation going on.
- Deadpan Snarker:Carisi: Do any of these rich parents ever, um, try to influence your decision?Admissions Director: No, never, that would be unethical!
- Dirty Cop: Benson arrested Metcalf because she just didn't like him, even after Barba explicitly told her that what he did wasn't illegal. Barba also qualifies for charging him for a non-existent crime.
- Genre Blindness: The perp explains he should be safe from prosecution because he made a point of checking to make sure his scheme is not illegal, but he hasn't considered how likely his behavior is to invoke There Should Be a Law. He didn't consider the fact there were laws against impersonating other people.
- Insane Troll Logic: After telling Benson that a Bed Trick is not legally rape, Barba says if they can demonstrate a pattern it might persuade a jury. In other words, Barba believes that if you do something that isn't illegal enough times, it can become illegal.
- Karma Houdini: Everyone.
- Gary Bell was secretly recording Metcalf and his victims having sex. No punishment.
- Benson and Barba abused their authority in arresting and prosecuting a man for breaking a law that they knew didn't exist, Barba even quoted the legal precedent. As usual, no consequences.
- Metcalf's victims were trying to steal a university admission slot. No punishment. Downplayed since their attempts were All for Nothing, living with the fact that they fell for Metcalf's trick could be considered punishment enough.
- Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: Metcalf’s victims all felt entitled to steal a university admissions slot. The two that were shown kept whining about how hard the admissions process is for rich white people.
- Plea Bargain: The perp pleaded down to criminal impersonation.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: The real Alden Kessler doesn't take bribes.
- Skewed Priorities: Bell secretly recorded Metcalf and his victims without their knowledge, making Metcalf and his victims, Bell’s victims. Since the cops didn’t really have any evidence against Bell, they bluffed to get him to not lie for Metcalf. They probably would have had enough evidence to prosecute Bell if they had made a deal with Metcalf. So they made a deal with a sex offender to prosecute one of his victims for an imaginary crime, instead of making a deal with a person who broke an imaginary law to prosecute a real sex offender, even though the women they said they wanted justice for were Bell’s victims as well.
- Smug Snake: The perp pretends to be taken in by Carisi's interrogation technique so, at the last minute, he can lawyer up and make Carisi look like a fool. He's writing a book on his techniques and smirks at Carisi that "I'm gonna send you a copy of my book - if you're nice, I might even autograph it for you."
- Space Whale Aesop: Don't try to bribe your kids' college admissions officers, or else your kids will kill themselves out of shame.
- Sudden Downer Ending: Looks to be a Bittersweet Ending, as the judge manipulates Barba and the defense attorney into agreeing to a plea deal for a lesser charge, but then Laura's son unexpectedly kills himself at the end of the episode from the shame of the situation.
- There Should Be a Law:Barba: This sounds like rape by fraud, problem is that doesn't exist in New York criminal code.
Benson: I know ...so maybe it's time we update New York law into the 21st century.
Barba: Well, there have been rumblings about a new bill in the legislature, so this could kickstart things. - Viewers Are Goldfish: Throughout the episode, the characters argue over whether assuming a false identity to get sex constitutes rape, with Benson vehemently insisting that it does. The only way this argument, and Benson's opinion, makes any sense is if everyone in-universe, and the audience, completely forget about Nick Amaro and the fact that he got a woman pregnant while undercover. There was also the Romanian twin from "Parasites" who, under Benson's definition, raped her brother-in-law. But this happened long ago enough that everyone forgetting it is perfectly plausible.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Barba gets one from the judge, who was not impressed by his creative interpretation of rape.
