Follow TV Tropes

Following

Recap / Law & Order: Special Victims Unit S18 E2 "Making a Rapist"

Go To

All spoilers are unmarked per policy for recap pages. You Have Been Warned

Written By Kevin Fox

Directed By Michael Pressman

A DNA rape kit tested 16 years after the fact exonerates the man originally convicted of the crime, Sean Roberts (Henry Thomas) and gets him released from prison. Upon release, he befriends the victim and her daughter (Alexis Collins), even being invited to the daughter's wedding. However, one month after Roberts' release, the daughter is found raped and murdered with all available evidence pointing to him. Meanwhile, Fin Tutuola is accused of framing Roberts as payback for tarnishing his arrest record, having been the original arresting officer. Joe Biden makes a cameo appearance in the cold open.

Tropes

  • Bittersweet Ending: Ashley is dead, Shawn gets a mild break on his sentence in compensation for the 16 years taken away from him, and Barba lampshades how everyone was put through the ringer on this one to get justice.
  • Black Gal on White Guy Drama: While not strongly explored, Charlie and his girlfriend Shyvon Stevens. However, Shvyon is actually Dominican not Black.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Despite being an embodiment of the All Men Are Perverts trope, Charlie isn't violent and didn't kill Ashley Harper.
  • Create Your Own Villain: Shawn Roberts was falsely accused of rape by Melanie 16 years prior and imprisoned, where he then ended up raped while in prison. He was exonerated but found himself ill-adjusted. While he got along with Melanie's daughter Ashley, he ended up raping and killing her in a drunken rage after trying to confess his love for her. Melanie even agonizes over testifying as if she were right this time, it would acknowledge that she held a bit of responsibility in setting off the chain of events that turned a once-falsely innocent man into a killer and the demise of her daughter.
  • Framing the Guilty Party: Charlie embellishes his testimony against Shawn (who is actually guilty) in order to curry favor with Detective Rollins.
  • Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: This is the message of the episode. A man wrongly convicted of rape is released after serving 16 years in prison. After making friends with the woman formerly believed to be his victim, he's accused of her daughter's rape and murder. It turns out he did do it, after 16 years of Prison Rape and No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by fellow prisoners. He became attracted to her daughter, and when she laughed him off after he'd told her, he then (while drunk) flew into a rage.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Ashley Harper was as being very sweet by Sean.
  • Likes Older Women: Charlie starts to become attracted to Rollins, who doesn't even mind it.
  • Never My Fault: Shawn's allocution turns into a roaring rampage of this, as we learn that Ashley's rape/murder was her own fault because she laughed at Shawn, and after she laughed at him "it just happened".
  • The Peeping Tom: Charlie has a habit of watching women undress at their windows at his rooftop hideout.

Top