This episode is Part 1 of a crossover with Law & Order. Part 2 continues in the L&O episode "Entitled".
SVU detectives Stabler and Benson work with Briscoe and Green when a salesman named Dean Woodruff is found dead of a gunshot. The victim was found with his pants down in a make out spot. The suspect, Stephanie Mulroney, the member of a prominent family gives conflicting stories to the police. At first, a former spree shooter is thought to be the killer. When it comes out Stephanie lured the guy to his death, McCoy charges her with manslaughter two.
Tropes present in this episode
- Ambiguous Situation: The detectives never quite figure out what was the deal between Stephanie and Dean when they were in college. She went to the dean complaining of date rape but the female dean confidently tells the detectives that wasn't the case. Cragen speculates that maybe she was just upset he never got serious with her after they slept together, instead just moving onto the next girl. Stephanie never clears it up either.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Double subverted. The witness Helen claims she has been trying to make it as an actress but her acting is shown to be awful, especially her dramatic grandstanding in identifying the shooter. As it turns out, she was hired to act as a witness and is skillful enough to just play the part of a bad actress well-enough to fool the detectives.
- Blind Without 'Em: Arthur is implied to be as such, as he has to pull out his glasses to examine Benson's badge even when it's only about six inches away from his face.
- Byronic Hero: Dean invoked this in order to get women to sleep with him, projecting a brooding, sensitive soul who was a little broken and just needed a good woman's love to make him whole again.
- Call-Back: To L&O episode "Mayhem": Briscoe recalls working on a similar case with former partner Mike Logan and mentions they arrested the wrong guy.
- The Casanova: The dean of the college Dean attended explicitly refers to him as such.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: The cops take this in three stages as they try to get Arthur to confess:
- The Ingenue: Stephanie's family cultivates this image about her. The truth is much more complicated.
- Make-Out Point: Where the victim is found.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Mulroneys are pretty much the Kennedys in everything but name, from the Irish ancestry to the family tragedies.
- Power Hair: Regina has this haircut, fitting for the head of a powerful rich family involved in politics.
- Pretentious Pronounciation: The head matriarch of the Mulroney family, Regina, has her name pronounced unusually as Re-jay-na instead of the usual Re-gee-na, which is verbal shorthand to help establish her pompous nature.
- Really Gets Around: Dean had this reputation from the time he was in college.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The William Kennedy Smith case. Smith was tried in 1991 for sexual assault and acquitted.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!/Screw the Rules, I'm Famous!: The Mulroneys. To make sure Stephanie does not receive special treatment, McCoy asks for remand and gets it.
- Shout-Out: The shooter is said to have thick black glasses like Buddy Holly and indeed bears a striking resemblance to the singer when he's found. The detectives also compare his shooting spree to David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam.
Munch quotes the Nazi workcamp slogan "arbeit macht frei" when talking about Dean and one woman who turned him down compared him to Willy Loman in a derogatory manner. - Spotting the Thread: McCoy spots the lie in Stephanie's story when it is revealed she can't remember the name of the song she changed on the radio just before Dean was shot. He points out people change the song when it's one they dislike, a detail that would be remembered.
- Woman Scorned: It's implied Stephanie wanted Dean dead because he was an ex who rejected her and married someone else.
