Spoilers are unmarked per Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned
Written By Joshua Kotcheff
Directed By Jean De Segonzac
A murdered teenage girl is discovered to have been moonlighting as a prostitute and contracted HIV while working on a pornographic film, which leads detectives to her killer.
Tropes
- Ambiguously Bi: Lisa, the Victim of the Week, is said by one of her classmates as having at one point become "more into girls" after she'd grown tired of hooking up with their male peers, but stopped once she started sleeping with men she met online. She also had sex with her best friend Angela for a porn film made by her overage boyfriend Dr. Tanner, but was apparently only making the film in return for money.
- Asshole Victim: Dr. Derek Tanner, the episode's second murder victim, is a statutory rapist who went so far as to separate from his wife and child so he could continue his affair with the underage Lisa. He claims that he loved her and was unaware she was underage, but it's later revealed that he knew full well she was only 15 and was being blackmailed about it by the Villain of the Week. It's also revealed that he had Lisa pressure her best friend Angela (also underage) into having a threesome with them so he could make his own porn film, which gets him killed when he refuses to let Angela get rid of it and she shoots him on impulse.
- Bait-and-Switch: At the home of Allison Downey. As her mother is crying over the bad news, there's a sound at the door. She thinks it's Allison's father and begs the team to tell him for her (because she can't bear the thought of it). Turns out it's a still-alive Allison herself.
- Blatant Lies:
- Just about everything Lisa's best friend Angela Agnelli tells the police (due to her own porn involvement, and the fact that she killed Dr. Tanner).
- The porn producer, Max Long, pretending to be horrified and concerned for his actors after finding out that Lisa had HIV. Turns out he didn't notify a single one of them and has been trying to duck liability.
- Catholic Schoolgirls Rule: Lisa and Angela, both of whom attend a Catholic prep school in Bayside, are sexually promiscuous and regularly prostitute themselves to overage men in return for free stuff. Lisa in particular actually becomes a prostitute at the Barrington Hotel, and starts working as a porn star.
- Fille Fatale: Lisa and Angela, two teenage high school girls who have sex with older men in order to get free stuff.
- I Take Offense to That Last One:Novak: Once we get you for Lisa's murder, then we'll get you for Dr. Tanner's.
Max Long: I didn't kill Tanner! - It's Personal: Stabler has an Oh, Crap! moment when he discovers one of his daughter's ex-boyfriends has HIV. He interrogates his daughter, unable to explain his concern, and she says he dumped her when she wouldn't "do anything" with him.
- Mistaken Death Confirmation: The victim of the week had her face bashed in, so the detectives rely on her photo ID to identify her. In the middle of informing her parents of her death, the girl suddenly walks in, perfectly fine. It turns out the victim was actually her underage cousin, who borrowed her ID for the night to go clubbing.
- Mood Whiplash: The heartbreaking visit to Allison Downey's hysterical mother to break the news about the murder suddenly takes an uplifting turn when Allison turns out to be alive after all. Then things get sad again when it turns out that it's her much younger cousin, Lisa who has been murdered, and they go to her father.
- Naughty Birdwatching: The cold open involves some scouts stargazing on a roof, and a couple of them use the opportunity for "peeping at other heavenly bodies". Naturally, they quickly spot a corpse too.
- Not Me This Time: After forensic evidence identifies Max Long as Lisa's murderer, the detectives assume he killed Dr. Tanner as well, but he has an alibi for that night. Olivia says, "Fine," before arresting him for one murder instead.
- Papa Wolf: Lisa's inept father attacks Dr. Tanner and announces he doesn't care if he goes to jail because he has nothing left to live for, becoming the Red Herring once somebody else murders the good doctor.
- Parental Neglect: The central theme of the episode.
- Lisa's single father is a truck driver who is never around, doesn't know she has HIV, never looks in her closet to discover her impossibly expensive wardrobe, and thinks Lisa was a "good girl", becoming outraged at the idea she'd been having sex for money.
- Angela's parents are on a vacation in Europe when the cops call to tell them their underage daughter is doing porn. They say the detectives are free to question Angela, but they will not be cutting their vacation short.
- Parents as People: Lisa's father clearly loves her and works long hours to be able to support her, but his absence in her life clearly affected her.
- Platonic Prostitution: Discussed, but subverted,Elliott: Let me ask you — why do you do this?Hooker: (annoyed) God, you're not one of those, are you?Elliott: No, I'm one of these. (reveals his badge)Hooker: Crap!
- Really Gets Around: Lisa and Angela both have very active sex lives, particularly Lisa, who becomes a sex worker and porn star. Played for Drama as both of them are underage, Lisa (the more promiscuous of the two) has HIV, and Angela is deeply ashamed and traumatized by Lisa pressuring her into a threesome with Dr. Tanner, which eventually drives her to kill him in an desperate attempt to keep it a secret.
- STD Immunity: Averted; Lisa caught HIV and spread it to her fellow porn actors. Which was why the producer murdered her to try and keep the word from getting out.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Lisa's best friend Angela was pressured into having a threesome with Lisa and her overage boyfriend Dr. Tanner, then found out it was recorded without her knowledge and tried to get it back from Tanner so no-one would find out how she was made to do porn. Tanner refused because he might get found out for having a threesome with two underage girls, so Angela tried to threaten him with her father's gun and ended up shooting him in a moment of panic when he tried to grab it.
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You Look Familiar: Guest star Hayden Panettiere (Angela) had previously appeared in season 2's "Abuse", as Ashley Austin Black. - Would Hit a Girl: Max Long bludgeoned Lisa to death to cover up her having HIV, and before that, he had a habit of slapping her around when she complained during porn shoots (according to her fellow castmates).
