History Recap / LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS12E6Branded

-> Not another word, Miss Walters, or you're going to add contempt to your charges.

-> '''Benson:''' So he was drugged from behind.
-> '''Doctor:''' And violated. I found several unusual objects inserted into his rectum.
-> '''Benson:''' As opposed to the usual ones?
-> '''Doctor:''' Well, you'd be surprised what people say they slipped and fell on, soda bottles, flashlights, assorted fruits and vegetables - but never this. Three dice and a little timer.
-> '''Benson:''' From a board game? So our perp's a sore loser.
* {{Bookends}}: the episode begins with a man (who is eventually revealed to be a rapist) found with game pieces [[AssShove inserted into his rectum]]. At the end of the episode Stabler gloats to the leader of the gang rape that the squad has found a bunch of his vicims who will be able to press charges against him (since the statute of limitations on their cases has not expired, unlike Camille's rape).
-> '''Rapist:''' What happens now?
-> '''Stabler:''' Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

* HollywoodLaw: Properly speaking rhe results of a paternity test should be introduced into evidence by an expert witness, not by the child whose paternity is in question.

* ThatCameOutWrong: when the squad meets their new ADA, Hardwick, she explains to Stabler
-> '''Hardwick:''' I was in the Brooklyn blue zone when your DA poached me, and I have to say I'm glad he did, I'm a big fan of your unit.
-> '''Stabler:''' [[ReactionShot raises eyebrows]]
-> '''Hardwick:''' That came out wrong.

-> '''Hardwick:''' My job is to win the case.
-> '''Benson:''' No, your job is to make sure that justice is done.
* By the end of the episode Hardwick has given defense counsel the information they needed to get their client off on mere tresspassing and prepared to prosecute her own witnesses, Camille's rapists, for perjury.

* RapeAsBackstory: Camille's gang rape, 13 years prior, moulds her personality and sets the stage for the events of the main plot.

* ToBeLawfulOrGood: Benson gives Hardwick a lot of guff for aggressively prosecuting Camille for the sexual assault of her rapists, going out of her way to slut-shame Camille and withhold evidence regarding the original rape, while not prosecuting the men in question because the statute of limitations on the original rape has expired. Hardwick insists she is compelled to act in this way because her job is to follow the law.

-> '''Stabler:''' [[ReferencedBy/Monopoly Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.]]

-> '''Stabler:''' Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

By the end of the episode Hardwick has given defense counsel the information they needed to get their client off on mere tresspassing and prepared to prosecute her own witnesses, Camille's rapists, for perjury.

-> I was in the Brooklyn blue zone when your DA poached me, and I have to say I'm glad he did, I'm a big fan of your unit. That came out wrong.

* AssShove: the vigilante shoves pieces from a board game up the first rapist's ass. [[BlackComedyRape Played for laughs.]]

* AssShove: the vigilante shoves pieces from a board game up the first rapist's ass. [[BlackComedyRape played for laughs.]]
-> '''Benson:''' So he was druggsd from behind.

A businessman is kidnapped, tied up, stripped, and branded with the word ''ruiner'' on his chest. After being stalled, the case finally catches a break when the autopsy reveals a game timer and two dice inserted into the victim. A second attack on a different man leads detectives to discover both victims had worked at a summer camp decades prior and might be guilty of their own crimes.

[This description was copied in violation of our Administrivia/{{Plagiarism}} policy. Please replace it with original writing.]

When Benson and Stabler investigate a brutal attack on an unassuming, upstanding father (Creator/MichaelGladis), they find him branded on his chest with a wire coat hanger. Before long, another victim turns up (Creator/KevinAlejandro), who has suffered the same injuries. A connection is found when the SVU learns that both men work for the same employer (Creator/JasonWiles). When their assailant (Creator/BessRous) is captured, her story convinces Benson and new Assistant DA Gillian Hardwicke (Creator/MelissaSagemiller) that she endured far greater suffering.

* WholePlotReference: "Branded" is a version of ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'', with a [[TheCracker vigilante hacker]] Lisbeth Salander {{Expy}}, who was gang-raped at a summer camp a la ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' Season 5 and, like Lisbeth, carved "rapist" into her perpetrators' chests.

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Two men are sodomized and mutilated in separate incidents. The detectives immediately treat them as perps rather than victims; when the detectives' assumptions are proven right, and it turns out the victims had raped their rapist years prior, the DA sets them up to be convicted of perjury (when they testify against their rapist in court but initially fail to admit their past crimes) while getting their rapist off on a trespassing charge. Huang gets off a single line early on about how easily the detectives are jumping to blame the victim, but otherwise the trope is played entirely straight; the serial rapist even gets a happy ending when the DA arranges for her to reunite with her daughter who she'd given up for adoption. Give the case a male serial rapist and it's hard to imagine SVU not only arranging for him to go free, but handing over a tween girl to him, just because the people he'd been caught raping had previously raped him. In a fully gender-flipped case one might expect the story-opening victims to be treated sympathetically at first, as apparent victims of a sexual predator; for the twist to come as a shock to everyone; and for the avenging rapist to get his revenge in court but only after accepting a deal for hard time, as punishment for his own crimes.

Stabler and Benson are called to an apartment where a businessman has been kidnapped, tied up, stripped, and branded with the word ruiner on his chest. The duo struggle to identify the perpetrator, but a clue arises when a doctor reveals she found a game timer and two dice inserted into the victim.