The investigation into a peeping tom who uses spy equipment to watch women urinate takes a sharp turn when the voyeur caught a sexual assault on camera.
Tropes
- Abusive Parents: Shane's mother, of the "neglectful" variety. His babysitter cites numerous times that she would come home late, completely wasted, with a boy toy in tow. Her behavior is alarming enough that for a while, the detectives consider her a suspect in Shane's molestation. Apparently averted by Meredith, ironically, as despite her own deviant behavior, the detectives find no evidence that she's molested her stepson.
- The Alcoholic: Shane's mother
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Meredith's episode-ending monologue, after it's revealed that she's been impregnated by her 12-year-old victim:
My husband's leaving me, my stepson won't even talk to me, I lost my home, my job, and the irony is all I've ever wanted is a baby of my own. Be careful what you wish for.
- Call-Back: After Stabler has (accidentally) put Meredith in the hospital, IAD Captain Tucker points out that four years ago, Stabler told a department shrink that he wanted to kill pedophiles, and suggests he's getting "closer and closer".
- Child by Rape: Meredith's molestation of Shane leads to her becoming pregnant with his baby.
- Double Entendre: When Stabler sees the perp approaching her victim he notes that she is "awfully close to the student body."
- Downer Ending: Shane is depressed because Meredith no longer communicates with him (due to a restraining order against her put in place), and Meredith is pregnant with his child.
- Dropped in the Toilet: The episode opens with an attorney accidentally dropping her phone into a toilet. While trying to get it out, she finds a spy camera inside the bowl, which sets the plot in motion.
- Enhance Button: Tutuola has to lampshade the effectiveness of the enhancement technology, given to the NYPD by NASA, which the squad applies to low-quality footage from the toilet cam to produce a perfect image of the victim's face. The suspect's face is conveniently omitted.
- Extreme Libido: Meredith Rice suffers from this due to a brain tumor. She even sexually assaults Stabler in the interrogation room.
- Failed a Spot Check: The detectives are interrogating a Red Herring soccer mom about her "Soccer Mom" sweater. She has to point out to them that literally every other soccer mom watching the game is wearing an identical sweater, sold by the booster club. It becomes a Chekhov's Gun when the perp's stepson notes she has a sweater she's not wearing.
- Foreshadowing: Meredith's deteriorating handwriting hints that something is physically wrong with her.
- Freudian Excuse: Meredith's tumor interferes with her impulse control and Casey is compelled to lampshade how wrong she thinks it would be to let Meredith off the hook because of it. Huang then points out that it wasn't just the tumor as Meredith was molested by her grandfather, and was thus prone to becoming a pedophile.
- Good Stepmother: Meredith was one before the tumor. Afterward her stepson wants nothing to do with her.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: The pervert at the beginning leads to the main plot about a school principal who sexually assaults her students due to a tumor.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The toilet cam perv from the beginning of the episode helps the detectives discover a child sexual assault in the hopes of getting lenient treatment, but instead is attacked by Stabler for having failed to intervene.
- "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: Meredith excuses herself because her victim enjoyed it - after the first time, anyway.
- Oedipus Complex: Huang speculates that Shane's poor relationship with his mother is the very reason he was so susceptible to the advances of an older woman.
- Rape as Backstory: Meredith was sexually abused by her grandfather for several years.
- Rape Leads to Insanity:
- Huang tells the squad that it wasn't just the tumor, Meredith was more prone to becoming a pedophile because she was molested.
- They agree that Shane is an ideal candidate for becoming a sexual predator because his first sexual experience was nonconsensual, he developed feelings for his abuser, and given his troubled relationship with his mother he's unlikely to receive support.
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: Or rather, that thing is not my grandchild. Shane's mother, after learning Meredith is carrying Shane's baby, demands the pregnancy be terminated.
- Wham Line: While watching the video of Shane's assault, the detectives notice that the assailant has manicured fingernails and are stunned to realize:"Our molester's a woman." note
