Written By Rick Eid and Julie Martin
Directed By Alik Sakharov
Lt. Benson finds a boy alone in Central Park that proceeds to draw a gun on her. The boy's parents are then locate just as they execute a planned terrorist attack at the park. When the father is killed by police in the shootout in Central Park, the boy's mother proceeds to claim that she was forced to carry out the attack, as she was raped and beaten for five years by the father and his brother. Benson and Barba are at odds over the mother's claims, with Benson pushing for leniency. Meanwhile, a distraught Deputy Chief Dodds accuses Benson of getting his son killed.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Response: Benson is stunned into silence when Dodds tells her that "you doing your job cost my son his life." (Later in the season, he apologizes and tells her he didn't mean it.)
- Diabolus ex Machina: The episode depicts both Barba and Dodds in the worst light possible due to them preferring scoring political points by using a Muslim woman as a scapegoat while casting Olivia as a saint for standing against them.
- Enfant Terrible: Ali aims a gun at Benson in the park, endangering Benson, Noah, and everyone else in the park. Subverted in that the kid didn't know what he was doing.
- Idiot Ball / Jerkass Ball: Dodds and strangely enough even Barba acting as though there aren't plenty of other crimes Rahima's brother-in-law couldn't be arrested for, not least among them is collaboration with a terrorist.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: A missing child in central park whose guardian got hit by a bike managed to turn into a terrorist mass shooting by the time the investigation is underway.
- You Know I'm Black, Right?: A neighbor of Rahima Babic comments with disdain about how there's always something about "those immigrants". Fin points out to this neighbor that his ancestors are also immigrants, mockingly asking him if his ancestors came to America aboard the Mayflower.
