An evangelical preacher confesses to killing a male prostitute, but it turns out there may be more to the story.
Tropes
- Armoured Closet Gay: Reverend Curtis is thought to be this, as he supposedly carried on an affair with the victim, a young man, while having a wife and ten children, but it turns out that it's actually Curtis' son Paul who is gay and was the victim's lover; Curtis was only pretending it was him because he erroneously believed Paul was the killer and didn't want the police turning their attention to him.
- Cure Your Gays: Deconstructed. Paul Curtis was sent away for "treatment" after his parents found out he was gay, but it turned out that it hadn't actually worked; Paul just lied and told his parents it did, presumably so he could get out of there.
- Delayed Family Acceptance: The Curtises initially did not react well to learning their son Paul was gay (see Cure Your Gays), but as time went on, Reverend Curtis began to realize that being gay was just who Paul was and wasn't something that needed to or even could be cured, and his preaching on the topic apparently began to change to reflect that. At the end of the episode, he tells Paul that he accepts him.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Reverend Curtis forgives his wife for trying to kill him and has learned to accept his son's sexuality. Moreover, both he and his son have been cleared of all charges after the real killer is caught.
- Easily Forgiven: Reverend Curtis forgives his wife almost immediately for trying to kill him, saying that it was his own deception that pushed her to the brink.
- Exact Words: Stabler eventually notices that Curtis keeps saying he's responsible for the murder but has never outright said he actually committed it, which leads him to wonder if there's more to it.
- Heteronormative Crusader: Reverend Curtis used to be one, but started to come around after learning that his son was gay. The real killer is an even more adamant one; he killed the victim to "punish" him for being gay, and set up Curtis to take the fall because he felt that Curtis' softening opinions on the matter were a betrayal of the cause and he needed to be "punished" too.
- It's All My Fault:
- It turns out that Reverend Curtis believed his wariness to accept Paul being gay had driven him to kill his boyfriend Richard, thus leading him to take the blame for the crime.
- Ironically, Paul had a similar attitude, but to a more self-loathing degree: he believed his father had killed Richard and that it was his fault for continuing to see him, despite his father's attempts to break them up.
- Never the Obvious Suspect: Either Reverend Curtis or Paul is the prime suspect for 90% of the episode. Neither did it.
- Papa Wolf: Reverend Curtis was willing to go to prison for murder and let the world believe that he was gay (with the latter being at least as bad as the former in the eyes of their religion) in order to protect his son Paul, who he believed was the real killer. He only reveals the deception when he finds out that Paul didn't do it either.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Very loosely based on the Ted Haggard scandal and other evangelical sex scandals around 2006-07.
- Taking the Heat: Reverend Curtis' confession is an attempt to do this for his son. However, he eventually learns his son didn't do it, and they both are cleared at the end.
