A travel writer named Richard Schiller is found dead, naked, and gagged with a pair of women's underpants in his mouth. At first, his landlady's boyfriend is suspected as he's a convicted pedophile, but then their eyes turn to the landlord Annabel Hayes (Patricia Richardson) and her teenage daughter Virginia (Lynn Collins).
Tropes present in this episode
- Accidental Murder: Virginia honestly didn't mean to kill Schiller. She got angry when he said he wasn't going to take her with him on his next trip around the world, put her knee on his throat, and just started pressing down without realizing what she was doing. By the time she came to her senses, he was dead.
- Amicable Exes: Schiller and his ex-wife remained good friends after their divorce. He just couldn't get the travel bug out of him and she knew he'd never stay home with her like she wanted, so they got divorced.
- Bungled Suicide: Virginia tries to kill herself after the detectives grill her and start thinking she killed Schiller. The doctor who treats her says she likely didn't intend to go through with it, given teenagers who are serious about suicide will just kill themselves, while the ones who want attention make it into the ER to be treated.
- Crocodile Tears: Virginia turns them on when she claims her mother's boyfriend was raping her. Benson doesn't buy it and says any girls watching a Tori Spelling movie of the week could have learned how to do that.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Thomas took on the name and used the Social Security card of his dead brother to get a fresh start after he got out of prison.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: Schiller cruelly tells Virginia that did she really believe he was going to whisk a sixteen year old girl off her feet and away from her boring life to glamorously trot the globe with him, a grown man who was a travel writer? It's implied he said all that purely to get her into bed. The problem was that she did believe him, hook, line, and sinker, and she ends up killing him for his lies after he breaks her heart.
- Ephebophile: Schiller was one, sleeping with the teenage Virginia, though the detectives keep calling him a pedophile.
- False Rape Accusation: Virginia claims her mom's boyfriend was sexually harassing and that Schiller got him to stop. The truth is that the boyfriend never touched her and she was interested in Schiller.
- Fille Fatale: As it turns out, this is what Virginia is, given how she did just as much seducing Schiller as he did to her.
- Hates Small Talk: One of Annabel's former tenants, a neurotic introvert, mentions that he hated making small talk with her and how she'd always try to be in his buisness.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Annabel Hayes is angry when the detectives start talking about her with her right there in the room and snaps at them that she's right there, though it's partially due to the grief and shock of finding her tenant's dead body. She calms down when Benson asks her to make them some coffee to give her something to do.
- Love Makes You Crazy: When Schiller cruelly refuses to take Virginia with him, she snaps, and ends up killing him by placing her knee on his throat when he's in a reclined position, which leads to him suffocating him to death. She immediately regrets it and tells the detectives how much she misses him.
- Omniglot: In a variation on this trope, it turns out almost the entire squad can speak second languages, shown when they call police stations around the world to see if Schiller had any enemies. Cassidy speaks German, Munch speaks Russian, and Benson speaks Spanish.
- Mrs. Robinson: Virginia's mother is dead-set on trying to sleep with Schiller, a much younger man, but he's not having it. As it turns out, he's already sleeping with her teenage daughter. She's also tried this on previous tenants.
- Plot Threads: The first episode not to feature anything about a court case, instead focusing on Stabler's home life and how it relates to the current case.
- She Is All Grown Up: Part of the plot is Elliot having to deal with the fact his oldest daughter Maureen is now a teenager with a boyfriend and how he can no longer protect her from the world of men who will want to have sex with her.
- Shout-Out: Quite a number in this episode. The Bridges of Madison County, both the book and film versions, are mentioned during discussions about Robert's life as a travel writer. Munch mentions he likes The Story of O as far as kinky writing goes. And Munch announces "Yes, Santa Claus, there is a Virginia" once they find the missing teen, referencing the famous editorial 'Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus'
. - Sinister Suffocation: How Virginia kills Schiller, though in a variation on the trope she does it by shoving her knee against his throat until he can't breathe anymore.
- Skewed Priorities: After Virginia attempts suicide, her mother complains to the detectives that she lost the most important thing in her life. Olivia tells her that Virginia will be OK, but Mrs. Hayes was talking about her boyfriend, who dumped her after being revealed as a sex offender.
