Written By Amanda Green
Directed By Peter Leto
The murder of a young woman leads the SVU investigators to a narcissistic cheating husband and his long-suffering wife; Elliot goes too far when the case takes a tragic turn.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Geography: The Verrazano Bridge does not have a toll booth going eastbound (out of Staten Island). So the E-Z Pass records would not have shown the Royces' car going into Brooklyn. It would, however, pick up the car as it went through the tunnel into Manhattan.
- Blatant Lies: Pretty much everything Elliot said to Malcolm while talking him out of killing himself, like calling him a "good man", considering that at that point he hated his guts and only prevented his suicide attempt so Malcolm would face the charges for murdering his family.
- Hollywood Science: The autopsy should have shown that Malcolm slipped his children sleeping pills because even with the official cause of death being a gunshot wound, there would still have been an autopsy.
- It's All About Me: It's all later revealed that Malcolm Royce killed all the victims of this episode because of a warped sense of narcissism.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Stabler uses one to get a confession out of Malcolm, threatening to break his neck unless he confesses. The reason this didn't get the entire case thrown out is because the evidence was iron-clad even without the confession.
- Neck Snap: How the first victim is killed. Elliot later threatens Malcolm with this in the interrogation room.
- Pater Familicide: Malcolm Royce shoots his wife and children before attempting to make it look like his wife did it.
- Police Brutality: As usual, from Stabler. This time he gets Malcolm in a headlock and threatens him with a Neck Snap to make him confess.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Elliot gets a confession from Malcolm, but considering how he got it, the evidence will more than likely be thrown out. That said, Malcolm will probably still be convicted based on the other evidence against him.
- Sex for Solace: Stabler goes home to his wife to have this as he deals with the emotional burden of this week's crime. His daughter chews him out for it later when she points out that Stabler needs to also care for his family and shouldn't treat them like some booty call.
