Written By Julie Martin and Warren Leight
Directed By Holly Dale
Photos from an underage sex party prove to be valuable evidence when a subsequent measles outbreak hits the students of Tribeca Academy and a group of anti-vaxxer mothers who lied about their children's vaccination statuses prove to threaten Noah's health.
Tropes
- Abusive Parents: Arlene Heller has a very low opinion of her son, which she doesn't hesitate to let him know in front of his classmates and complete strangers. Although she does protect him from being charged with distributing child pornography.
- Bait-and-Switch: The defendant, a mother who opposed vaccines and was responsible for the events of the episode, is declared not guilty by the jury for reckless endangerment in the first degree much to the delight of her and her supporters... only to then be found guilty for reckless endangerment in the second degree.
- By "No", I Mean "Yes": When Carisi notes that they can't charge anyone with statutory rape since everybody involved was a minor, Barba tells him that it's not his call to make, only to immediately tell him he's right that it doesn't apply.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Starts with the squad trying to find out who in Tribeca Academy uploaded pics of a "rainbow party" involving underage kids to the internet. As soon as they find the student, it switches to trying to arrest the leader of a anti-vaxxer mom group for enabling a measles outbreak by leading parents to a doctor who falsifies vaccination records.
- Hypochondria: Played for Laughs. After finding out that two of the kids from the party have measles, Carisi starts worrying about catching it:Carisi: I think I feel warm. Hey Rollins, feel my forehead.
Rollins: I am not feeling your forehead.
Carisi: C'mon.
Rollins: Oh wait, you got a little something here. And there.
Carisi: Seriously!?
Rollins: Another one here. (gasps)
Carisi: Okay, that's not funny! - It's Personal: Both Trudy Malko and her attorney accuse Benson's pursual of her arrest as a personal vendetta since it was her son that gave Noah the measles. Given that Benson defended the anti-vaxxer mom in "Selfish", they may have been right about that much.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Unlike the defendant, the doctor does plead to reckless endangerment in the second to avoid jail time since he was close to retirement. Barba agrees as long as his practitioner's license is revoked, among other things.
- Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: The anti-vaxxer mothers who, even before it's been revealed that they falsified their children's medical records to cover up that they hadn't been vaccinated, voice their complaints about the SVU invading their children's privacy when the alternative is letting explicit pictures of their kids fall into the hands of sexual predators.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: One of the defenses the anti-vaxxer moms give as to why they falsified their kids' vaccination records is the myth that vaccines cause autism.
- Take That!: The episode is one to anti-vaxxers as the main culprit who is one and was responsible for a huge measles infection acts like a Jerkass to everyone and especially Benson since her son was due to get a measles vaccine but got infected while waiting to do so. In the end, she was charged with child endangerment and sentenced to three months in prison and probation.
- Wild Teen Party: The episode opens on one and both plots explicitly deal with the fallout of it.
