The investigation into a woman's rape inside an office is complicated when the victim is immediately arrested by the FBI, disappears shortly after, and the chief suspect is in the federal witness protection program.
Tropes
- Asshole Victim: While the murder of Serial Rapist Nikolai Rossovitch at the end of the episode is technically a bad thing, since without his testimony the SVU can't put Pearlman in prison, it's unlikely any audience members were particularly torn up about his death.
- The Bad Guy Wins: While the Serial Rapist the team was chasing gets killed in the end, the episode's true villain, Russian mob boss Sergei Pearlman, gets off scot-free, as the dead rapist was the last person who could have testified against him.
- Contrived Coincidence: Someone who used to know the chief suspect before he went into witness protection just happens to be under arrest in the precinct when detectives bring the suspect in for questioning.
- Downer Ending: The Russian mobster manages to get the witness against him murdered, despite being in custody, and the charges will have to be dropped as a result.
- Internal Affairs: The FBI sics them on Benson and Stabler after a federal agent and the perp's father end up dead.
- Jurisdiction Friction: A lot of the episode involves conflict between SVU and the FBI.
- Karma Houdini: Pearlman, who successfully orders a hit on the only witness against him before he can testify.
- The Mafiya: What the victim and the first suspect were involved with.
- Odd Name Out: It's the only episode in seasons 3 to 12 that doesn't have a one-word title.
- Serial Rapist: Nikolai Rossovitch, who rapes and brutalizes women linked to the Russian crime syndicate that forced him to go into witness protection.
- Witness Protection: Much of the episode revolves around suspects who are in it.
