Recap pages are Spoilers Off per policy and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned
The detectives investigate when an HIV specialist is found raped and murdered in a park. The case escalates when a second victim is found.
Tropes
- Animal Lover: John Munch protests when Fin suggests leaving the victim's dog in their car as they conduct the investigation and can be seen doting on the dog in their scenes together.
- Depraved Bisexual: Mario Molinari is a sexually active bisexual who doesn't warn his partners that he has HIV. When confronted, he makes no secret of how little he cares if the people he's been with got infected. He also has a criminal record for assault and robbery and statutory rape is among the charges brought against him.
- Curse Cut Short: Benson interrupts just as a suspect is about to suggest that she needs to have sex.
- Even Evil Has Standards: For all his self-centeredness, Arthur Esterman expressed a modicum of sympathy for his second victim, a random woman he'd killed in an effort to throw the police off his trail. Downplayed in that he only says he's sorry she "had to die."
- Gilligan Cut: Warner tells Benson and Stabler she's not sure if the second victim was killed by a Copycat Killer and that she can't say it's the same guy. Immediately cut to a different expert telling Munch and Fin he's sure it's the same guy.
- He Knows Too Much: The victim is killed because she discovers her husband was stealing money from her to carry on an affair with an escort.
- Loophole Abuse: Downplayed. Detectives don't have enough evidence to compel a DNA test, so Cabot argues in court that they should be able to test the blood the suspect donated as part of the charity drive. The judge agrees; however, she limits the testing to the same tests used at a blood blank.
- Old Money: Greta Esterman was this, which is her husband's primary motive for murdering her. In a divorce, she would take him to the cleaners as they'd been living off her inheritance from her parents, and his extremely expensive tastes would have ruined him as a single man. As a widower, he got all of Greta's money.
- Really Gets Around: Mario's ex-coworker describes him this way, noting that he has sex in orgies and with other men.
- Serial Killings, Specific Target: The second victim is murdered to make the first look like the work of a Serial Killer.
- Smug Snake: Arthur Esterman is this throughout most of the episode's third act due to arrogantly believing the detectives won't be able to get any evidence against them.
- Til Murder Do Us Part: The husband did it.
- Too Much Information: Munch reacts this way when a High-Class Call Girl compares her client to the Energizer Bunny.
