Detectives run into a brick wall when the father of a little boy who witnessed the rape and murder of his step-mother refuses to let the boy be questioned further.
Tropes
- Abusive Parents: Dan is psychologically abusive towards Tommy, and pretty much everyone who knows how abusive he is towards women agrees it's only a matter of time before the abuse turns physical.
- Bring Me My Brown Pants: Evidence at the crime scene shows that Tommy wet his pants from fear while watching Dan bludgeon Jill to death.
- Darkest Hour: It seems as if, despite everything, Hoffman is going to get away with the rape and murder of his second wife when his son utters in open court "You killed Jill."
- Domestic Abuse: Dan Hoffman is a serial abuser of women.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Tommy is reunited with his mom and finds the strength to testify against his father.
- Good Stepmother: Jill technically kidnapped her stepson because she couldn't in good conscience leave him with his abusive father.
- Irony: A dark variation. Dan, a serial domestic abuser, falsely paints his wife Jill as a mentally unstable woman who was prone to violent outbursts and who abducted his son out of revenge for him wanting a divorce.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Dan Hoffman's defense attorney Priscilla Cheney. While his neighbors and the police chief believing his loving father act is understandable, it's pretty incredulous how Cheney apparently continues viewing her client as "a kind and gentle man incapable of violence" after he threatens Detective Benson right in front of her.
- The Kindnapper: Jill technically kidnapped her stepson, but considering the alternative was to leave him with the man that was violently abusing her, it's understandable.
- Mommy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: The only reason Kim left her son behind is because she would have been killed if she stayed any longer. The group that saved her outright say there was not time to move mother and son, but they had to move her now.
- Only Sane Man: The Hoffmans' neighbor, Allen Wheaten, is the only person in Rye who sees Dan for the abuser he is and not believe the lies he spread about his first wife Kim.
- Police Are Useless: The police chief in Rye offers little assistance to the SVU team, a result of him buying into Dan's façade of being a devoted father and all-around stand-up guy. His second interaction with Benson and Stabler (which comes after Dan has been put on trial for Jill's murder) sees him being much more curt and dismissive.
- Underground Railroad: Kim is smuggled to safety one. Stabler even refers to it as an underground railroad. Each "stop" only knows the next step in the line, so we then get a montage of Stabler going through them trying to track her down.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: After seeing Jill working as a stripper, one of Dan's friends mentions to him that someone who looks exactly like Jill works in a strip club. Dan uses this to figure out where she lives and murder her.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Nobody believes Dan Hoffman is the monster he is because he's an upstanding member of the community who is friends with the local police department.
- Wham Line: "You killed Jill."
