Written By Julie Martin and Warren Leight
Directed By Michael Pressman
Amaro's by-the-book handling of the car crash of Hollywood starlet Tensley Evans in which Evans tries to flirt her way out of trouble, allows for him to be transferred back to the SVU team just in time to investigate Evans for the statutory rape of her roommate's 15-year-old son. As Barba pushes forward with her trial for rape, Benson begins to suspect underlying issues that led to Evans' actions, which leads the squad to Adam Brubeck, Evans' former producer (Brian d'Arcy James) who has a troubling history of toeing the age of consent (16) with his child actors, most of whom end up in porn or rehab after working with him.
Tropes
- Amoral Attorney: Brubeck's lawyer is on call at his sex parties with underage girls just in case the cops happen to show up.
- Asshole Victim: Tensley starts out as a very unsympathetic victim, as much for her attitude problem as for her false sex crime accusations (including one against Amaro). She becomes more sympathetic as she is forced to regress into her past trauma.
- Break the Haughty: Tensley starts as a stereotypical Hollywood starlet, arrogant even after the cops bust her for a serious crime, but is reduced to an emotional wreck by the investigation into her child sexual abuse.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Brubeck initially doesn't remember who underage rape victim Maude was, despite having arranged an entire trip to Canada and fake movie production there for the sole purpose of raping her.
- Crazy-Prepared: Brubeck arranges his entire movie production business around his sexual predation, choosing his shooting locations for their age of consent laws and making up fake movie productions complete with filing fake scripts in order to avoid the legal maneuver that ultimately does bust him, one that is such a case of envelope-pushing law that his lawyer can't imagine it's being tried.
- Cruel Twist Ending: The peaceful ending scene of the detectives watching Tensley's interview publicly speaking about her recovery and actively inspiring other girls like herself is cut off by Benson stumbling through panicking, and when questioned she reveals that Noah is in the emergency room and runs off.
- Dirty Kid: Tensley's victim said he enjoyed their inappropriate encounter. His father on the other hand wants her to be prosecuted.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Tensley, who is in her early 20s, committed statutory rape with a 15 year-old boy at the rehab center, yet only gets community service. If the genders were reversed, one couldn't help but feel the assailant would get jail time.
- Driven to Suicide: When Benson makes her delve into her history of sexual trauma, Tensley flees the interview to cut her wrists in the bathroom.
- Fan Disservice:
- When the detectives show up at Brubeck's place, the poolside is swarming with beautiful young women in bikinis. Fanservice ... until the camera happens to settle on a girl in the pool who looks to be about 13 years old. Rollins remarks that there look to be two dozen underage girls at this adult party.
- Brubeck's "audition tapes" montage starts with mature women ... and then moves on to a very underage girl being told to "act like a pussycat". She claws at the camera as a small child might do, crawling around on all fours as Brubeck tells her to "arch her back" and gets more inappropriate from there.
- Hollywood Law: When Barba hits upon the idea of charging Brubeck with Sex Tourism, he seeks clarification on whether the movie Winnipeg Nights was actually made or if he auditioned anyone else, later confronting Brubeck with evidence proving he had no intention of making the movie, therefore he traveled to Canada with the primary goal of sleeping with a sixteen-year-old. This appears to be based on an outdated version of the federal statute in question, which was changed in 2003 so that any sex with a person under 18 while outside the US is a federal crime regardless if this was their intent on traveling there or not. That being said, evidence of intent can only further bolster the case, so while it's not strictly necessary the way the episode implies it is, having it is still to the prosecution's benefit, especially against a man like Brubeck who has a history of manipulating the legal system to avoid responsibility.
- Marvin Exley is still working as a defense attorney, despite his involvement with Delia Wilson's operation.
- Justice by Other Legal Means: Brubeck has been consciously abusing the Casting Couch to sleep with 16 and 17 year old girls, lying to them about their chances (in more ways than one, since he filed "scripts" that he knew would never get off the ground) and then cutting them loose, leading to at least one accidental death-that-was-probably-a-murder. The detectives are stuck, since he only does this in states where he wasn't violating Age of Consent laws, meaning he hadn't done anything legally wrong. Except the detectives realize he'd once pulled this stunt with a 16-year-old in Canada; he thought he was legally in the clear because she was above the Canadian age of consent, but it turns out there's also a federal statute against leaving the country for the purpose of having sex with a minor, which is defined for purposes of that statute as anyone under 18. It even gets a dramatic Lampshade Hanging:Defense Lawyer: You can't be serious. That law's intention is to stop pedophiles from flying to Thailand to have sex with twelve-year-olds!
Benson: Your client is a pedophile, and a rapist, and a murderer, [to Brubeck] and if this is the only way that we can get you, then this is the way that you're going down! - Karma Houdini: Tensley's crimes include drunk driving, fleeing the scene of an accident, falsely accusing two men of sexual assault, statutory rape, and whatever crimes forced her into court ordered rehab in the first place. Her only punishment is community service.
- Mood Whiplash: The final scene of the detectives watching Tensley's post-recovery interview is interrupted by Benson running through frantically stating that Noah is in the emergency room, and then the episode ends.
- "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization: Tensley arrogantly dismisses the statutory rape accusation against her this way.
- Promiscuity After Rape: The reason Tensley saw nothing wrong with fellating a teenage boy or trying to give a police officer oral to get out of trouble is because she was a rape victim herself.
