Written By Kevin Fox
Directed By Martha Mitchell
Recaps are Spoilers Off per policy and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned
A series of young girls are assaulted, and although Rollins manages to connect the cases to a pattern she recognizes from back in Atlanta, she realizes that none of the rape kits were tested due to the backlog of evidence in said labs. When she returns to Atlanta to interview a victim believed to have been assaulted by the New York suspect, she has an awkward reunion with her former boss, Atlanta Deputy Chief Charles Patton (Harry Hamlin), who claims that the rape kits were never tested because the department deemed the cases associated with them not worth pursuing. While the squad connects the pattern to other cities with untested rape kits, Benson faces scrutiny at CompStat from Deputy Chief Dodds and the NYPD brass due to media scrutiny, and a family judge debates on whether or not to remove Noah from Benson's care.
Tropes
- Heroic Dog: The episode had a twelve-year-old girl narrowly escape being raped, because her dog bit the perp and wouldn't let go. The dog was making so much noise that the perp quickly realized it wasn't worth it.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: While tracking this serial rapist, Benson also has her hands full in fighting off a prickly case worker from Child Services who apparently thinks Benson is not being a good parent.
- Villain Cred: The protagonists goad Serial Rapist Beck into confessions to all of his rapes over the past several years (the evidence of which has been lost) in the hopes that this might get him some respect in prison for outwitting the cops for so long when the alternative is being branded as a simple pedophile (the only two victims they have evidence against him for being underage) who got beaten by a twelve-year-old girl and her puppy.
