Line #7 Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS23E18EighteenWheelsAPredator


1	Written By: Creator/BriannaYellen, Creator/MonetHurstMendoza
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3	Directed By: Creator/MarthaMitchell
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6	A central park rape seems to be an OpenAndShutCase, until the real perp calls the squad from Kentucky to let them know he's still in action, confirming his identity with a detail only the real rapist would know. Tutuola and Rollins head to Kentucky to track down what turns out to be a serial rapist, while Benson has her hands full with the brass and with figuring out how the first suspect was framed (since otherwise a conviction of the real serial rapist will be impossible).
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9	!!Tropes
10	* AnAesop: This week's message is that AttemptedRape should be taken just as seriously as completed rape.
11	* BrotherSisterIncest: The RedHerring suspect, Dustin, has been raping his sister since she was twelve - because, he says, they "raised each other". At the end of the episode he rapes his sister again and this time beats her so badly she winds up in the hospital, enabling the squad to put all the pieces together and convict both rapists.
12	* BullyingADragon: the serial rapist calls the NYPD to let them know he's still out raping when he learns they have arrested the wrong guy.
13	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Dustin's lawyer's role is to wander into the interrogation room and wail "what's going on here?" and fail to get her client to stop talking.
14	* FramingTheGuiltyParty: The RedHerring suspect's sister, Demmy, frames him for the first victim's rape because [[BrotherSisterIncest he has been raping her since she was twelve]].
15	* GunManWithThreeNames: Chief [=McGrath=] makes a point of referring to the serial rapist by his first, middle, and last name, Aaron Wesley Parker.
16	* PetTheDog: During the ending press conference Benson takes time out of her RousingSpeech to congratulate Rollins and Tutuola on live TV.
17	* PoliceAreUseless: Except for Manhattan SVU, of course, every other police force over the past two decades has failed to meaningfully investigate the dozens of assaults committed by this perp across the country, failing to even recognize the pattern of a serial rapist even though he leaves his DNA and thus his crimes are connected by physical evidence. The first victim that Benson and Tutuola interview knows the perp's name, because he took a cell phone call from his wife while he was assaulting her, but the local cop who interviewed her told her she wasn't worth his time, because (not having been completed) her assault was not a "real rape". Had that cop followed up with her the perp might have been caught more quickly.
18	* SerialRapist: The perp turns out to have at least 26 completed rapes over 21 years, as established by DNA, but far more victims than that where he didn't leave DNA because he didn't complete the attack. As Rollins [[AnAesop makes a point of noting]] those attacks are just as significant as completed rapes, even though most of the cops investigating over the years have dismissed them as not "real rapes". The trope is used in this case not so much to establish the [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil superlative vileness of the perp]] as to throw shade on the nation's cops for not having caught him sooner.
19	* ShoutOut: The serial rapist called the NYPD because he wanted credit for his rapes, and hopes that maybe someday Dateline or Netflix will do a special on him.

Context Recap / LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS23E18EighteenWheelsAPredator