Written By Julie Martin and Brianna Yellen
Directed By Alex Chapple
A teenage musical prodigy disappears during a spring break trip, but as the case unfolds more shocking parts about the seemingly stable family's past come to light and the real culprit is the one SVU least suspects. Stone reveals to Benson that he moved to New York to take care of his sister who is mentally ill in a home upstate.
Tropes seen in this episode:
- Birthday Episode: The opening starts with Fin's birthday at the SVU squadroom.
- Cruel Twist Ending: In a few short minutes, a seemingly secure family bond is broken — likely irrecoverably — with Anna's shocking revelation that the student Turner had seduced and slept with was his biological daughter.
- Dark Secret: Haley, a student of Mr. Turner that he seduced and has been sleeping with for quite some time, is actually his daughter. Mr. Turner predictably does not take it very well.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Jimmy has no guilt at all about seducing, brainwashing and raping underage Haley, until he realizes she's his daughter. That puts him on suicide watch.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The episode has two, switching abruptly from creepy psycho killer clown schtick at the beginning to an inappropriate Teacher/Student Romance and then to a riff on genetic sexual attraction in the final five minutes.
- Meaningful Echo: Mr. Turner at one point describes the love between him and Haley as a "fugue for two voices". Then when he's being confronted by Anna, Haley's mother, we get this, which also doubles as Five-Second Foreshadowing.Anna Walker: I bet you fed her that nonsense about "the fugue" and "two voices". Works every time, doesn't it, Jimmy? That and a few glasses of Chardonnay?!
- Meaningful Name: The town the previously virginal Fille Fatale hails from is named "Beaver Falls".
- Monster Clown: Who the SVU team initially thinks is responsible for Haley's disappearance and death. Needless to say, what transpires later will have the team apologizing profusely to the suspect they do capture.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Turner had no guilt in serially seducing his underage students, but learning he's been sleeping with his own child disgusts him to the point of needing to be under suicide watch.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The red herring Monster Clown suspect is named "Drago".
- Parental Incest: It's revealed that Haley's mother and Turner had a one time fling… which had resulted in her becoming pregnant with Haley, meaning Turner unwittingly seduced his own daughter.
- Smash Cut: The Teaser starts with images of a creepy, leering clown interspersed with shots showing his view from behind the mask of the victim of the week who he's stalking on the dance floor as she dances like a Fille Fatale; he scares her, they start flirting, and then the scene cuts to a birthday cake Tutuola is receiving with a clown figurine on it.
- Ungrateful Bitch: Haley is initially shocked at who her father is ... but then in a Cruel Twist Ending, she reveals she is actually relieved and happy that her "real" father is Turner. Keep in mind this is a man who was supposed to be her music teacher and nothing more, but instead had lied to her, gave her alcohol and brainwashed her so he could seduce her. But Haley is still infatuated with this man who preyed on her for his own selfish, sexual pleasure ... after all, they had a "connection," a "deep connection" musically and fine-artsy wise ... something that a mere garbageman — her true father, Chris, the man that worked his ass off to put food on the table, put clothes on her back, put a roof over her head, nurtured her, taught her right from wrong, prayed for her ... and yes, even agreed to pay for music lessons — could never be on his best day, and that Turner was so much more on his worst day.
- Wham Line: The scene where Haley's mother Anna confronts Turner and reveals the horrifying truth to everyone.Anna Walker: (slaps Turner)
Haley Walker: (as Benson and Rollins hold her back) LEAVE HIM ALONE! WE LOVE EACH OTHER!
Anna Walker: Out of all the girls in the school! You stupid…!
James Turner: I love her!
Anna Walker: I bet you fed her that nonsense about "the fugue" and "two voices". Works every time, doesn't it, Jimmy? That and a few glasses of Chardonnay?!
James Turner: Anna, stop!
Anna Walker: HOW MANY SEDUCTIONS IS ENOUGH?! Huh?!
James Turner: This was different... this was real.
Anna Walker: (scoffs)
Chris Walker: Anna… what are you saying?
Anna Walker: …We slept together. James and me. It was one time… one time… seventeen years ago.
James Turner: Anna?
Anna Walker: SO YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT "REAL"?! Yeah, it's real. Do the math.
James Turner: (Slowly begins to realize what she's trying to say)
Anna Walker: (smiles bitterly) That's right, Jimmy… she's yours. YOU'VE BEEN SLEEPING WITH YOUR. OWN. DAUGHTER! - What Happened to the Mouse?: After the Halfway Plot Switch from Monster Clown horror to Teacher/Student Romance we never hear what happened to Drago, the creepy clown/butcher/domestic violence perp.
- You Wouldn't Hit a Guy with Glasses: Haley's mother does when she finally confronts the bespectacled Turner for his relationship with her daughter. Haley's father, Chris, is also in the room, and is already pissed off enough that Turner did this to the girl he thought was his biological daughter. But upon learning the truth about who fathered Haley (Turner), it's all he can take ... and he wants to do more than just hit Turner; he nearly gets to him before several officers pull him away, while Turner is rushed to safety.
- You Are Not My Father: Done heartbreakingly when Haley declares that Chris could never be her real father on a good day just because he was a garbageman, while continuing to lavish praise on her biological father, despite the fact that he had seduced her.
