Written By Julie Martin and David Matthews
Directed By Jean De Segonzac
A young Romani child disappears on his way home from school and the distraught parents don't trust the police (a sentiment largely echoed by the rest of their close knit community). With the help of their TARU tech (Gilbert Gottfried) and a meddling reporter who hacked the child's cellphone, the detectives narrow the suspects list to a mentally challenged neighbor and two of the child's schoolmates.
Tropes
- Alpha Bitch: Courtney and her minion Emma. When Emma and her mom are led into a conference room for interrogation, Emma repeatedly asks "What did Courtney say?" as if she couldn't do anything without her.
- Accomplice by Inaction: Emma
- Amoral Attorney: Played with. The Rom-Baro, who was previously questioned as a suspect because he shunned the Greys for distancing themselves from the Romani community (in his eyes) and no longer paying their tithes to him, is also Marc Rajic's lawyer. He's quite patient and grandfatherly with him.
- Break Them by Talking: Amaro goes after the weaker link, Emma, and she fesses up to Courtney's murder of Nico and her inability to stop her.
- Contrived Coincidence: Nico disappears on the very first day his parents allow him to go to school by himself. Before he disappears, Nico reassures his parents and his teacher that he knows the way home - he and his dad practiced! On his way home, the J train is down and he's forced to find another way home.
- Chekhov's Gunman: At the beginning of the episode, Courtney and Emma can be seen in the background behind Nico as he leaves his dad's line of sight and enters the subway.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Rom-Baro's name is never spoken.
- Frame-Up: The police fall for the tricks of two 14 year old girls quite easily. The two girls continuously tip the police off to things that they conveniently see their neighbor Marc do. They claim to see Marc with Nico's rabbit foot after planting it and a used Metro card in his room. They then tell police they saw him sneak out his back door and that they've seen him smoking. Courtney also sexually assaults him to keep him quiet.
- Hope Spot: Early on, Nico's parents proclaim that he's still alive, since his cell phone, which was full of messages was suddenly able to record a message, meaning that he was checking his mailbox. Unfortunately, it's revealed that it was somebody who hacked into his cellphone in order to find Nico, who cleared his messages.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Ultimately, what leads the squad to the culprits. After Nico's mom attempts to burn Marc to death, she tells them it's because he burned Nico. SVU and the ME never revealed Nico's burn wounds to his parents or the media, so it must have been the girls who specifically told the detectives about seeing Marc smoking, along with other "tips" to frame him.
- It Runs in the Family: No one is surprised when the man walking his dog in front of the Rajic house who catches himself using a slur against his Romani neighbors is Courtney's father.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Courtney calmly confesses to murdering Nico and assaulting Marc after Emma is led out of the precinct in tears.
- Courtney's Dad: I'm calling a lawyer.Courtney: It's a little late for that, Dad.
- Lack of Empathy: The real killer Courtney, who shows no emotion except mild annoyance that Emma told the truth. When asked why she did it, she simply replied with an emotionless: "Why not?"
- Not What It Looks Like: After leaving home, a man is seen following Nico at a distance and acting suspicious. After being honked at by a passing car, Nico pulls out his flip phone and...calls his Dad out for following him.
- Police Are Useless: The families involved in the case do not trust the detectives (or the NYPD) at all due to the discrimination and lack of help they get from officers like Detective Robert "Doom" Dumas. It gets to the point where Nico's mother turns into a Vigilante Man because she feels the detectives haven't served justice after they take Marc into custody but let him go when they don't have enough evidence yet.
- Teens Are Monsters: Courtney Lane. When asked why she murdered Nico Grey, her only reply is a completely calm, "Why not?" Not only that, but she also planted evidence on Marc, a low-functioning autistic teenager and one of Nico’s neighbours, then sexually assaulted him to keep him quiet, resulting in him being scapegoated for the crime.
- Unwanted Assistance: A reporter remotely accesses the voicemail box of Nico's phone and deletes messages, ostensibly in order to create room if someone were trying to leave an important message. However, this initially creates the impression that Nico is still alive and operating his phone, giving false hope to his parents and misdirecting the investigators.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: The Rom-Baro says this word for word when Fin and Rollins suspect him of kidnapping Nico because the Greys stopped paying their tithes (to afford Nico's school) and became outsiders to the Romani community.
