Benson goes undercover in a speed dating service to catch a Serial Rapist who targets successful women.
Tropes
- The Alcoholic: Cora, to the point that she already has physical damage despite still being very young.
- The Alibi: Mike gets his girlfriend to provide an alibi, and this forces detectives to let him go at first.
- Hollywood Law: Judge Donnelley's original decision is apparently appealed to Judge Donnelly. It should go without saying that a trial judge wouldn't hear an appeal of her own ruling.
- Honey Trap: Olivia goes on a date with Mike to find out if he's the rapist.
- Mood Whiplash: The exchanges heard by the speed daters literally ten seconds before Olivia meets the serial rapist of the week are hilarious."...Republican."
"I'm a Democrat."
Woman: I LOVE cats!
Man: I'm a dog person.
Second Man: It was like, I was outside my body, watching, you know...?
Second Woman: Yeah! I felt the same way when I was abducted!
Organizer: Ten second warning, folks, wrap it up!
Olivia: (to her date) Collecting... Pez dispensers sounds like a very... interesting hobby... - Ripped from the Headlines: Very loosely based on the Terri Schiavo case.
- Serial Rapist: Mike Jergens, who stalks successful women he meets while speed dating until he knows their routine well enough to attack them when he knows they won't be disturbed.
- Speed Dating: Where Mike finds his victims.
- Taken Off Life Support: After Cora goes into cardiac arrest, a legal battle ensues between her mother and Mike, both of whom argue over the decision to keep her alive. The courts ultimately rule in his favor, and her treatment is withdrawn. Shortly after her death, the detectives uncover a newspaper article where the couple are interviewed after witnessing a fatal car accident, and it indeed has her mentioning that she would not want to be kept alive via artificial means.
- Villain Has a Point: While Mike's doing it for completely selfish reasons and is faking any emotional involvement, his argument for taking Cora off life support makes sense. She is braindead and will never recover, and at the end of the episode, it's revealed that Cora had also told a news reporter the same thing Mike said she told him, that she wouldn't want to live like that, meaning that really was the way she felt and it wasn't just something Mike made up to further his own interests. Olivia comments that "he's the wrong person making the right decision".
