This recap contains unmarked SPOILERS per policy. You Have Been Warned
Written By Janet Tamaro
Directed By David Platt
When Judge Warren Varella is found shot to death in his car, the detectives discover that he delivered special verdicts for women in exchange for sexual favors. The investigation then leads to a battered wife, who was involved with the judge in order to keep her abusive husband in jail.
Unable to deal with being an SVU detective, Cassidy decides to leave the squad and transfers to Narcotics.
Tropes
- Addled Addict: The homeless woman addicted to drugs who possibly saw the shooting is this, barely able to function or string a few sentences together.
- Asshole Victim: Judge Warren. Gina's husband, Roger, is one as well.
- Bad Samaritan: Cassidy relates a case of a young woman who was gang-raped and then left on the beach. She lay there for hours before she was found by someone who offered to help her, only to be raped again. From the way Cassidy breaks down, this was the one that got to him the most.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The judge puts on a mask of respectability but he's as crooked as they come, extorting sexual favors from women in order to help their husbands and boyfriends who are in prison.
- Born Unlucky: The victim Cragen sends Cassidy to check up on. She was raped by her mother's boyfriend at age nine before the boyfriend killed her mother. Now at age sixteen, she happily went on what she thought was just going to be an innocent date, only for her date and his buddies to gang-rape her so badly she didn't even have any clothing left afterwards to dress in because they were all in tatters. When she asks for help from a passerby, she gets raped again by him. Poor girl just can't catch a break.
- Break the Cutie: Cragen deliberately sends Cassidy to check on a rape victim who went through a brutal assault to see if he can handle it, given he's still acting very immature over Benson not wanting a relationship with him. He can't and so transfers to Narcotics.
- Domestic Abuse: Gina's husband Roger was so brutal to her she's desperate to keep him in prison rather than see him get out on patrol.
- Exact Words: Judge Warren cruelly denies a woman's request for help in keeping her abusive husband Roger in prison, saying he'd make a phone call about his case. However, he never said it would be a phone call to help her.
- From Bad to Worse: The poor unnamed victim Cassidy interviews. It starts off with her being gang-raped and just gets worse from there.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Munch goes pretty hard on a junkie for information but Cassidy tells him to back off and gets more information out of her through calmly coaxing it out of her.
- Groin Attack: Gina inflicts a brutal one on Judge Warren by shooting a bullet into his penis and letting him suffer from it for a good two minutes before finishing him off with a bullet to the head.
- Hanging Judge: Judge Warren has a reputation for being a women's advocate. Turns out it's just a front, as he actually preys on women who have husbands in prison and uses his position to solicit either bribes or sexual favors from these women. That gets him killed.
- Manly Tears: Cassidy completely breaks down while relaying a case.
- The Mole: To keep Gina from going to prison, she becomes one to help bring down the judge's web of corruption.
- Never My Fault: Roger claimed that Gina gave herself the horrific domestic abuse injuries including beating her with a chair and a ballpeen hammer.
- Put on a Bus: Cassidy leaves the show. He won't be back for 12 years.
- Scarpia Ultimatum: Inverted. A woman sleeps with Judge Warren not to get her husband out of prison but to keep him in since the man was an abusive monster who put her in the hospital and also physically abused their daughter.
- Shoot the Hostage Taker: Gina's worries about her husband Roger are put to rest forever when he takes her hostage and Benson shoots him dead to save her.
- Shout-Out: Stabler quotes "Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do" when talking to Benson. Munch snarkily mentions he wanted his bat mitzvah at the brothel Mustang Ranch
. When discussing guns, it's mentioned how a certain one is popular with the Columbine crowd. Olivia tells Roger to cut out "The Dating Game" nonsense, possibly referencing Rodney Alcala aka "The Dating Game Killer." Cassidy quotes the song Under The Boardwalk by The Drifters, saying that the rape victim he visited wanted to go to Coney Island for a date for the "under the boardwalk, down by the sea" experience. - Skewed Priorities: Cassidy is still so hung-up on Benson ending things with him and acting out because of it like a whiny teenager that Cassidy decides to set him straight by going to visit a rape victim so he gets brought back to reality.
- Would Hit a Girl: Roger beat his wife Gina so severely even Cragen is horrified by the pictures of her bruises.
