Written By Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas
Directed By Alex Zakrzewski
When a gay university student/poster child for a "sex re-education group" is found murdered, his lover (the son of a homophobic professor/ homosexual conversion therapist) is the main suspect.
Tropes
- The Beard:
- The couple who run the "sexual re-education group" are a gay man and a lesbian who are married to each other.
- Ian had a close female friend beard for him in high school. Although they never talked about it in so many words, she was aware he was gay and wanted to be there for him.
- Boomerang Bigot: Ian counts as this early in the investigation. His father too, but mostly for being bigoted towards his own son's sexuality rather than his own.
- Calling the Old Man Out: After learning that his father knew he was gay all those years, Ian realizes the real reason that his father killed James and confronts Roger for causing him so much self-hatred.
- Child Hater: Possibly not a full-blown example, but the Crossing Guard who was helping the children in the cold open mutters under her breath how she hopes the kids get run over.
- Cure Your Gays: There's a "sexual re-education group" whose literal poster boy was found murdered (and whose conversion therapy actually didn't work), as well as a professor who believes homosexuality to be a form of psychosis that can be treated.
- I Have No Son!: Reed's family have disowned him for his sexual orientation, leaving his ex-boyfriend to plan his funeral and look after his other affairs for him. (His boyfriend at the time of his death, deeply closeted and a witness to his murder, sneaks into the funeral.)
- I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: An attempt to find a deceased man's lover at his funeral backfires when a fight breaks out between mourners and protesters, and a number of people leave before they can be interviewed. This leads to the following exchange:Munch: (holding up a camera) Yeah, but we got their pictures.Cragen: Where the hell is that from?Munch: One of Reverend Shaw's church members, he must have left it behind.Casey: I didn't hear that.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Reverend Shaw is inspired by Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church.
- Papa Wolf: Heartbreakingly subverted; Roger Tate claims to have killed his son's male lover because he was unaware his son Ian was gay and thought he was being sexually assaulted by another man. In the end, it is revealed that the Ian's father knew he was gay all along and only killed his lover out of spite because Ian's homosexuality would destroy his career as a homosexual conversion therapist.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: Reverend Shaw appears at Reed's funeral, solely to condemn him for being gay. His tendency to do this actually clears him of murder, as when Reed was killed, Shaw was protesting at some other gay man's funeral.
- Title Drop: The episode title is part of a passage from the Book of Leviticus that a bigoted Reverend quotes to Benson & Stabler. Thankfully, Stabler shoots some Bible quotes of his own to counter the man's sanctimony.
- Unscientific Science: Dr. Tate and Cahill's entire study is certainly one about homosexuality as a psychosis. Their study can't even withstand peer review. They even present themselves as Persecuted Intellectuals because "mainstream psychology" won't accept their study (their study being chock-full of the usual accusations of homosexuals being deviants, pedophiles, and other such disproven claims didn't help).
- Wham Line: When Benson and Stabler interview Ian's high school girlfriend, she acknowledges that she knew he was gay and was happy to be there for him, but would never mention any of this to his father. Cue her mother, observing their discussion, who pipes up and says "I told him."
