Spoilers are unmarked per Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned
Written By Jose Molina
Directed By Constantine Makris
When the body of a seven-year-old child, Jeffrey Ronson, is found, the squad again begins to investigate convicted serial killer Lucas Biggs (John Savage), believing that he molested and murdered the boy. While Biggs can detail every child he ever molested, he swears that he has no memory of Jeffrey. Further investigations show that there is another suspect, Deacon Brinn - a past victim of Biggs', who actually molested the victim - but before he can be picked up, someone kills him, and Avery Shaw (Michael Shannon) confesses.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Sports: It is said that Lucas Biggs played in the Independent League in his youth. The Independent League had not yet been created in the 1980s.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A rather unsettling aversion. Biggs remembers the name and date of each of the children he molested, and is able to identity which baseball cap is theirs.
- The Chain of Harm: Lucas Biggs molested Deacon, which led to him molesting multiple young boys as a child himself, including Jeffrey, Avery, and his own son.
- Biggs ultimately reveals that the chain didn't even start there, as he himself was abused.
- Avery's fear of perpetuating this leads him to isolate himself from his child. Benson ultimately helps him see that while these chains do exist, the perpetuation of them isn't inevitable — he can break the chain if he sets his mind to making different choices.
- Creepy Gym Coach: Biggs was a baseball coach (both formally and informally) to each of the children he molested.
- Creepy Souvenir: Biggs kept a baseball cap from each of the children he molested. The below mentioned masturbation part just makes it creepier.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of the episode, Avery - who had refused to be a part of his son's life outside of financial support until then due to his own fear of becoming an abuser - is reunited with Kimber and his son, with the understanding that he is neither an abuser or killer and is ready to be a father to his little boy.
- Knight Templar Parent:
- Avery is one and is greatly traumatized by the possibility of a child being abused and is terrified of being an abuser himself.
- So is Deacon's wife, who kills her husband when she finds out he's been molesting their son.
- Noodle Incident: Olivia first appears mentioning she finally got an unseen criminal to confess after a nine hour interrogation. Years later, this matter would drive the plot of season 13 episode "Justice Denied" (complete with a flashback clip of Olivia from the opening teaser of this episode).
- Not Me This Time: Biggs actually didn't molest or kill Jeffrey. He is, however, a serial child rapist and a killer.
- What If the Baby Is Like Me: Played with. Avery is actually terrified that the birth of his son will awaken pedophilic urges in him like they did in Deacon, but Avery is actually not a pedophile and poses no risk to his son - though he's still lived purposefully isolated from him and his ex-girlfriend for a year or more.
- You Just Told Me: Subverted. This appears to happen when Benson asks Deacon why he sent her the letter, but Deacon is actually not the one who sent it and was intentionally invoking this to throw Benson off the trail.
