Written By Charley Davis
Directed By Helen Shaver
An investigative journalist is found murdered in her bed, reminding Cragen of a similar case he worked 30 years earlier in the Bronx. A misogynistic welfare administrator (William Atherton) then becomes the prime suspect. Meanwhile, a cold case gets reopened, and the cop (Jaclyn Smith) who handled said case leads SVU to three women (Susan Anton, Morgan Fairchild, and Ann-Margret) and a popular celebrity (Robert Newman) at that time.
Ann-Margret won the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her performance in the episode.
This episode provides examples of:
- Alliterative Name: Cal Cutler. Also the "Bedtime Butcher".
- Amateur Sleuth: Jane Whitmore works as a private investigator.
- And Starring: 'Special Guest Stars Jaclyn Smith and Ann-Margret", as well as "Special Guest Appearance By Susan Anton, with William Atherton and Morgan Fairchild".
- The Bad Guys Are Cops: The Villain of the Week is a former patrol cop accused of killing Cal Cutler who turns out to be Not Quite Dead.
- Bait-and-Switch: Cragen tells detectives that the original lead detective of the Bedtime Butcher case, his former partner and which the crime would be That One Case for him, died of a heart attack midway through the investigation. When Stabler asks if the case took a toll on the man's health, the Captain explains that it was genetics, not stress, that played a role; his father also died young of cardiovascular problems.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Susan Delzio appears to be a respected retired cop at first. Then The Reveal happens.
- Broken Pedestal: Susan Delzio claims Cal Cutler was this to her when she saw that he was a huge prick off camera. This was actually a lie.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The unseen "painters" in Susan Delzio's apartment turn out to be the Not Quite Dead Cal Cutler.
- Chick Magnet: Cal Cutler and he knows it.
- Decoy Protagonist: Jane Whitmore is presented as the Victim of the Week until her rapist and murderer is captured a quarter into the episode and the plot then shifts to a cold case.
- Dirty Old Man: Ned Bodgen was a Serial Rapist and killer in his prime. He uses his current job as a welfare administrator to prey on women.
- Dirty Old Woman: Rita Wills hits on Elliot at any given chance. She even thought he brought Olivia with him for a Three-Way Sex when they're gonna arrest her.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Ned Bodgen aka "the Bedtime Butcher" is the titular antagonist, but he gets dealt with a quarter into the episode.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title refers to both Ned Bodgen aka "the Bedtime Butcher" and Cal Cutler's "exploits" with his women.
- Embarrassing Damp Sheets: Averted; Rita Wills explains why her blood was on the bed where a murder took place: she and the victim's husband were going to have sex there, but then her period came. (And she kept the sheets to prove it, since she was a Stalker with a Crush.)
- Everyone Loves Blondes: The Fanservice Models in Cal Cutler's commercial were all blonde vixens.
- Facial Horror: The right side of Cal Cutler's face is badly burned.
- Faking the Dead: Susan Delzio swapped Cal Cutler with a dead body of an unclaimed inmate so she could have him for herself.
- Fanservice Model: Cal Cutler's commercials have them.
- Foreshadowing:
- The Cold Open features a man cheating on his wife.
- Susan Delzio greets Stabler and Benson at the front door of her apartment. Note that she does not seem to let them inside. Also when talking about Cal Cuttler, she mentions she was smitten by him.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Jane Whitmore's murder is solved a quarter into the episode before the cast shifts their focus on a cold case.
- Hidden Villain: Susan Delzio is introduced as the Guest-Star Party Member until The Reveal that she was the murderer of the very case the main characters are solving.
- I Hate Past Me: Jenny Coswold and Claire Lockton hate how they were Clingy Jealous Girls towards Cal Cutler in The '70s. The former is the only one who explicitly regrets the way she treated Emily, and the latter even asks Elliot and Olivia to not let her law firm know about her Fanservice Model past.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Cal Cutler's face is disfigured by his car accident and has aged terribly.
- Ignore the Fanservice: Elliot continually dismisses Rita Wills' blatant advances.
- I'll Kill You!: Spoken word for word by Ann Margaret when Elliot and Olivia first accuse her of killing Emily.
- Jerkass: Cal Cutler was a serial philanderer who did little to keep his girlfriends from harassing his wife, got one of them to have an abortion before casually dumping her when she became infertile as a result, and faked his own death so as to be with his wife's killer.
- Just One Little Mistake: Susan Delzio, it turns out that Cal Cutler, the man everybody thought was dead, was actually alive, having been hidden away by Susan.
- Kick the Dog: When Cal Cutler got Rita Wills pregnant, his only response was to tell her to abort it ("It?! IT!!"). And when the operation rendered her infertile, he just shrugged and dumped her.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Rita Wills' obsession with Cal Cutler creeps the fuck out of Elliot and Olivia.
- Love Makes You Evil: Susan Delzio was the one who killed Mrs. Cutler and she used her connections to fake Cal Cuttler's death so she could have him for herself.
- Meaningful Name: Emily Cutler, who ends up stabbed to death.
- Ms. Fanservice: Olivia is wearing a revealing top during her undercover to catch Ned Bodgen. Also the Fanservice Models on Cal Cutler's commercial.
- Mrs. Robinson: Rita Wills is old enough to be Elliot's mother but it doesn't stop her from hitting on him.
- Murder by Inaction: Rita Wills blames herself for Cal Cutler's (supposed) death because she didn't take his car keys from him when he was clearly too drunk to drive.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Although it was an Accidental Murder, Susan Delzio was the one who caused Mrs. Cutler's death.
- Not Quite Dead: Cal Cutler didn't die in the car accident, Susan Delzio took him after his accident and swapped his body with a dead perp who had no family.
- Older and Wiser: Zig-Zagged. While Jenny and Claire genuinely regret their past actions when they were actresses and admit that the murder of Emily forced them to grow up, Rita and Susan still are proud of their old lives, with the former clinging onto every memory she had during her time with Cal and Susan living with Cal for the 30-plus years since the murder.
- One-Word Title: "Bedtime" is a Double-Meaning Title referencing the "Bedtime Butcher" and Cal Cutler's philandering ways.
- The Ophelia: Rita Wills keeps practically anything from her time with Cal Cutler, including the bedsheet they made love upon.
- Posthumous Character: Subverted with Cal Cutler.
- Present Absence: Cal Cutler doesn't show up until the final scene after The Reveal that he's Not Quite Dead, but his presence practically influenced the episode.
- Really Gets Around: Cal Cutler was constantly surrounded by sexy women who show attraction to him, so he gives in to the temptation.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Elliot qualms that anyone who could help them solve Emily Cuttler's (cold) case is dead, Olivia points out that there's someone who could; Susan Delzio.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Probably inspired at least in part by the Stephanie Lazarus case
; a rookie cop turned decorated veteran who murders her lover's wife in a crime of passion and disguises it as part of a rash of similar crimes in the same time and place, and then the case goes cold and the suspect is discovered to have concealed key evidence. - Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Susan Delzio was able to use her connections as a police officer to get a dead inmate's corpse and swap it with Cal Cutler to fake his death and have him for herself.
- Silver Vixen: Susan Delzio and the Fanservice Models in The '70s commercial have all aged really well (they are played by actresses who were sex symbols of the era, after all). Rita Wills (Ann-Margret) in particular still has her sex appeal, and she only turns-off Elliot due to his professionalism, being Happily Married, and how overly sexual she is towards him.
- Stalker with a Crush: Cal Cutler's scorned paramours not being able to let him go is what drives the plot.
- Whispered Threat: Benson manages to rattle a suspect in a long-unsolved murder that was initially blamed on a Serial Killer. When confronting the killer, who fell for a married man and killed his wife to have him to herself, she said how much superior she was than "all those other bimbos" that the man was seeing and threw in her face that one of them was even going to have his baby.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Rita Wills still keeps memorabilia from her Fanservice Model days.
- Yoko Oh No: Cal Cutler's wife being harassed (and eventually murdered) by both his fangirls and flings is the plot of the episode.
