Written By Julie Martin and Brianna Yellen
Directed By Michael Pressman
The son (Corey Cott) of Olivia's former partner (Anthony Edwards), is accused of rape by a woman who attended a party with him. Olivia is faced with having to choose between loyalty or duty as her former partner tries to get her to drop the charges against his son.
Tropes
- Greater-Scope Villain: Sgt. Patrick Griffin, a Corrupt Cop with toxic attitudes towards rape victims and women more generally, who has no qualms about using his connections and his position as a cop to advance his interests, willing to go to far as to suborn perjury from people unconnected to the case in order to get what he wants.
- Idiot Ball: Experienced detective Patrick chooses to suborn perjury from a conspirator so easily traced back to him that Benson tracks Patrick down to warn him off even before the perjurer has taken the witness stand. Patrick refuses to heed this warning, dooming his son's defense.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Mariska Hargatay and Anthony Edwards were lovers in season 4 of ER.
- Karma Houdini:
- Patrick , the C.I. whose perjury he suborned, and the cop buddy he conspired with get no punishment at all. Even Benson should probably have been punished for leaking to Patrick that the prosecution knows about his perjury scheme.
- Ultimately averted with Ellis, who winds up spending two years in prison for rape, unlike his Real Life counterpart Brock Turner.
- Like Father, Like Son: Patrick's motives are initially framed as simple nepotism, but as Benson gets him talking it becomes clear he has toxic attitudes which he has likely passed on to his son, and which likely prompted his son's intransigence (and thus his prison sentence). In particular Patrick is contemptuous of drunk women, of women in general note , of the idea that having sex with drunk women is rape, and of the idea that rape is a serious enough crime that it justifies derailing a young man's promising career, considering his son the victim of a vast conspiracy.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The rapist's father, Sgt. Patrick Griffin, talks his son out of accepting a plea deal that would have saved him from any jail time, and then scuttles his son's defense by getting the confidential informant of one of his buddies at his precinct to falsely testify that he saw the incident and that it was consensual. When the perjurer's ties to Patrick are exposed, his son's defense is so undermined (and his son is so disgusted by his behavior) that his son immediately pleads guilty (receiving 24 months in prison).
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Benson's submissive attitude toward Patrick, her first partner when she was a rookie, especially when he expresses rape apologist sentiments that would normally be a Berserk Button for her, shows what a deep hold he has over her.
- Papa Wolf: Patrick marches into the precinct to intimidate Benson and demand that his son be released, that all his son's voluntary, legally-obtained statements be thrown out, and that charges be dropped. When this fails he orchestrates a perjury scheme to get his son off the hook.
- "Rashomon"-Style: As in the Real Life Brock Turner case the rape is interrupted by a witness, but the detectives are also shown interviewing a series of witnesses with wildly incompatible versions of what went on. Subverted in that the narrative makes clear which version of events is correct, first via a viral video and photographic evidence and later by the defendant's confession.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The episode retells the story of Brock Turner, the Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious girl behind a dumpster and received a sentence so short as to produce a political firestorm. Turner's father expressed rape apologist sentiments echoed by Patrick Griffin here, namely that his son's promising future should not be derailed by a few minutes of action.
- Slut-Shaming: By the time the victim wakes up in her hospital bed a slut-shaming video of her has already gone viral.
- Unwanted Assistance:
- Sgt. Griffin's toxic assistance is so offensive to his son that the latter spontaneously confesses from the gallery and tells his father to stop helping.
- When Benson was a rookie, Sgt. Griffin lied to protect her from being unjustly punished by IAB, and he suggests throughout the episode that Benson is obligated to get his son off in return. By the end of the episode Benson tells him that instead of lying to protect her, he should have just told the truth.
- You Owe Me:
