A young college student named Jeanne Gallagher is found dead at the bottom of a stairwell. There are several suspects on campus, noticeable among them basketball players with a few dark secrets and a professor named Henri Rousseau who was obsessed with the young woman.
Tropes present in this episode
- Accident, Not Murder: What the professor claims the death is. He says she stumbled down the stairs in a drunken haze, even laughing as it happened, and slammed against the brick wall so hard when she hit it that she died instantly. With no one else around as a witness, the detectives can't be certain if he's lying or telling the truth.
- The Alibi: The two players, Riley and Chuck, say that they were arrested by campus police for being disorderly and drunk and watching late-night television with their mother respectively. The former falls apart when campus police is revealed to have lied about him being there while the latter holds up when it's clear his mother wouldn't hesitate to tell the detectives if he wasn't living up to her (very high) standards.
- Almighty Mom: Chuck's mother is a formidable woman with incredibly high academic expectations for him. One meeting with her is enough to convince the detectives that he's innocent (in addition to his alibi checking out and his DNA not matching the sperm sample), as it's clear she wouldn't cover for him if he was guilty, and he's so afraid of her that he wouldn't dare commit a crime.Munch: (to Cragen) Nothing we could do to Mosley can compare to the wrath of this woman.
- ...And That Little Boy Was Me: Cragen tells the story of a college athlete when he was in school who drove the dean's car drunk and smashed into another car so hard the driver broke their leg. The college decided to let him have another chance despite the severity of the charges, chalking it up to "youthful indiscretion." Stabler assumes he was the drunk athlete but Cragen reveals he was the one in the other car who ended up with the broken leg.
- Bad Liar: The professor falls under suspicion almost immediately since he can't tell a convincing lie.
- Caught Coming Home Late: Stabler is heading out to work on the case at 2:30 when his daughter Maureen comes home, not realizing he's up. She refuses to tell him where she's been, so he grounds her and sends her to her room.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: The professor might be one, as the detectives can't be certain if the student fell accidentally like he claimed or if he pushed her in a jealous rage after seeing her sleeping with another student.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Cragen explains how when he was in college, sexual harassment and rape by athletes was covered up with the blithe explanation of "Boys will be boys."
- Death by Falling Over: Jeanne fell down the stairs and hit her head on the brick corner of a building so hard it killed her immediately.
- Double Standard: At the end of the episode, Chuck is red-shirted for a year and has to transfer to a different college because his reputation is in tatters despite the fact he didn't do anything, while he complains that his teammate Riley who actually raped a girl gets a slap on the wrist. He states this is because he's black and the other student is white.
- Education Mama: Chuck's mother is this. She sees basketball as little more than an extracurricular activity despite the fact he's one of the best players in the country and could be making millions if he went pro. In her mind, academics come first.
- French Jerk: The professor tries to act like the cool college professor all the kids love but in the end he's revealed to be a skeezy stalker who was obsessed with a girl half his age.
- Heartfelt Apology: Munch gives one to Chuck, saying he's sorry he went so hard on him during the investigation, and that he conducted himself like a real man during it. Chuck accepts it and shakes his hand as Munch says he'll be rooting for him once he's able to play again.
- I Love the Dead: The professor makes love to the victim of the week once he realizes she's dead.
- Meaningful Name: The professor's last name is Rousseau, exactly like Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau theorized believed that people are not born with a concept of good and evil. The professor seems to believe he didn't do anything wrong, much as someone would if they believed in that philosophy.
- Not Me This Time: The murder victim had been raped previously by one of the basketball players but it turns out his DNA isn't a match.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: The girl dies when she falls down a set of stairs so hard that slamming into the brick wall at the bottom headfirst kills her instantly. Whether she was pushed or fell accidentally is not made clear, even after the confession by her stalker.
- Noodle Incident: Jeffries is in a brief court case that Cragen calls "the guy with the severed head" case and it's noted before the case was dismissed that the suspect died the same way his victim had while he was in custody.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The DA makes it extremely clear that just because he's not going down for murder doesn't mean the French professor isn't getting off easily. She throws every charge at him that she thinks will stick until they add up to three years, the maximum she can give him, and tells him he's going to be serving them consecutively.
- The dean of the university, a priest who up until this point has been staunchly defending his professor and trying to stonewall the investigation, turns on the man once he hears his confession. He tells him he's losing his job and that he'll be responsible for his own legal fees.
- Shout-Out: Munch and Cassidy get called The Blues Brothers and Mutt and Jeff at various points in the episode.
- Staircase Tumble: What causes Jeanne's death.
- Stalker with a Crush: The French professor, who creepily writes down all the classes and activities of his female student in his planner, so that her schedule becomes his schedule. He even watched her have sex the night she died.
- Teacher/Student Romance: The professor certainly wanted this with his student but she wasn't having it.
- Unreliable Narrator: The detectives can't be sure if Professor Rousseau's confession is authentic or not, but since they have no evidence or witnesses to prove otherwise, they have to accept it as the technical truth as it stands in a court of law.
