Line #5 Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS9E1Alternate

Context Recap / LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS9E1Alternate

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1	!Recap pages are Administrivia/SpoilersOff per policy and all spoilers are '''''unmarked'''''. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned
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3	Written By Creator/NealBaer and Creator/DawnDeNoon
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5	Directed By Creator/DavidPlatt
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7	A woman (Creator/CynthiaNixon) with multiple personalities may have abused and killed her daughter. The real issue, though, is whether said personalities are genuine or if it's all just an act to avoid prison.
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9	----
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11	!!Tropes
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13	* AbusiveParents: Janis and Cass claim their father raped Cass while their mother was in the room and did nothing, which is stated to be the reason for Janis' Dissociative Identity Disorder. It's never made clear if that really happened, and the DID diagnosis being fake muddies the water even further. But we are not given any other motive for the sisters to murder them either.
14	* BitchInSheepsClothing: The multiple personality act on Janis's part turns out to be just that.
15	* EvilGloating: After getting her "not guilty by reason of insanity" verdict Janis gloats to detectives how she was able to fool everyone. It backfires when they immediately arrest Cass to whom the Double Jeopardy rule doesn't apply, since she hasn't been tried as co-conspirator before.
16	* FamilyThemeNaming: Janis and her sister Cass are named after Janis Joplin and "Mama Cass" Elliot, both female inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
17	* HoneyTrap: Downplayed example. Elliot flirts a little with one of Janis' personalities to get her to cooperate.
18	* InsanityDefense: Janis manages to get off by reason of insanity despite being perfectly sane.
19	* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Parodied when Lake says "It was an honor serving under you, sir" to Cragen, who's been temporally reassigned. Cragen replies: [[DeadpanSnarker "I'm not dead yet, Detective Lake."]]
20	* ManipulativeBitch: Janis ''doesn't'' have multiple personalities, having learned how to fake it from a prison library book. Stabler even admits that she did a good job fooling him.
21	* PatchedTogetherFromTheHeadlines: The episode begins as a GenderFlip of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Milligan the Billy Milligan rapes]] before it's revealed that it's also ripped from the headlines of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyle_and_Erik_Menendez the Menendez brother murders]], in which two brothers killed their allegedly violent and sexually abusive parents.
22	* PyrrhicVictory: Janis manages to obtain a "not guilty" verdict and is committed to a mental institution thanks to faking her multiple personalities, but the detectives arrest Cass as a co-conspirator, to their mutual shock, which will presumably lead to Cass's daughter April being put into foster care.

Context Recap / LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS9E1Alternate