Written By Martin Weiss
Directed By David Platt
The investigation into the death of a murdered woman takes a turn when her surviving twin (Mili Avital) claims that her sister escaped her abusive husband to start taking advantage of her wealthy clients as a mistress. However, said sister may have had a hidden motive for her new practices, and Ava might not actually be Ava...
This episode provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Innocence: The clerk at Valentina's business. He professes ignorance of what she was doing and cooperates with the police to identify Toscu (claiming that Valentina got secretive when he came over). While he may be lying to avoid arrest, it’s implied that he isn't.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: Ava regrets that Irina was killed due to being mistaken for her, as well as her own subsequent decision to take over her life.
- Becoming the Mask: Although Ava was forced to take over Irina's identity for survival, she clearly adapted well enough to the part to fool her brother-in-law completely, and was prepared to live the rest of her life as Irina before she was forced to face the truth. She also seems to have developed genuine feelings for George, if how she reacts to him in their confrontation is any indication.
- Bed Trick: Ava's Dead Person Impersonation of Irina means she also slept with her brother-in-law, who was rightfully furious upon The Reveal.
- Big Brother Instinct: Ava's Gold Digger shenanigans were all part of an attempt to build up the money needed to save her sister Oksana from a life of prostitution. She was so picky about what her boyfriends gave her because she needed things that she could sell.
- Big Little Brother: Oksana is visibly taller than Ava (and Irina by default). Her actress Lili Bordan is 5'5 to Mili Avital's 5'4.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ava manages to rescue her younger sister Oksana, Toscu loses his diplomatic immunity and is arrested for his crimes, and Valentina Bilescu's human trafficking ring is taken down by the feds. However, Irina is still dead, her husband is devastated by the revelation that the woman he's been living with for the past three years is actually her twin sister Ava, and it is strongly implied their young daughter has been traumatized for life.
- Blackmail: The Red Herring character threatened to accuse her husband of having sex with his patients if he didn't give her money to buy drugs. It just got her beat up by his new wife.
- Book Ends: The episode begins with Irina's corpse getting unearthed by a construction crew and ends with her family giving her a proper burial.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The cross found with Irinia's corpse is what finally convinces her widower about Ava's Dead Person Impersonation.
- Razvan Toscu mentions his love for orchids in his introduction. When reexamining Irina Burton's corpse, grains of it are found to be used against him as evidence.
- Dead All Along: Turns out the real Irina Burton is dead and is the body found in the courtyard.
- Dead Person Impersonation: After Irina was killed due to being mistaken as Ava, the real Ava decided to use this as an opportunity to escape from the people she crossed and impersonates her late twin.
- Diplomatic Impunity: Toscu thinks he can literally get away with murder because he's a diplomat. Unfortunately for him, his country revokes his immunity once they have enough proof of his guilt.
- Domestic Abuse: Ava's husband beat her and even hit Irina when she told her to leave him. His other wives filed restraining orders against him and there's considerable
Fridge Horror about what his current wife might be in for—or is already being subjected to, given her meek demeanor. - Double-Meaning Title: The title seems to be drawn from Toscu's first scene, where he mentions that orchids are actually parasites, but it also describes the crime syndicate that preys on vulnerable young women. Ava was also called as such verbatim by her brother-in-law due to her constantly asking money off of him and Irina in the past.
- Evil Old Folks: The elderly Razvan Toscu murders Irina Burton.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: The detectives tried arresting Ava after they discovered the Twin Switch, but she already fled. Fin remarks if they should tell the "husband" (George Burton), which Munch corrected as brother-in-law.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Ava and Irina respectively. The former is a Doom Magnet who couldn't get her life together while the latter is Happily Married with a daughter.
- Foreshadowing: When George Burton asks Benson and Stabler if they have found Ava and what happened to her, "Irina" enters the scene.
- Gold Digger: Ava is written off as one by pretty much everyone. One former paramour tells of an incident where she threw a thousand dollar bottle of perfume at him because it wasn't clothes or jewelry. It is later revealed that Ava was trying to save up enough money to free their younger sister, who was forced into prostitution after her husband rejected her; presumably, she was trying to get things she could sell.
- Grave-Marking Scene: The final scene of the episode is Irina's burial service, with the closing shot of the episode showing Ava tearfully apologizing for her indirect role in her death as well as the Dead Person Impersonation that followed.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The episode begins with the detectives investigating who killed Ava Parulis, leading them to her estranged twin sister Irina Burton. Then The Reveal that Irina is Dead All Along and the Angsty Surviving Twin turns out to be the Not Quite Dead Ava.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Toscu murders Irina thinking that she's Ava, she never reveals her identity to him to spare her sister.
- Hidden Depths: Ava, a supposedly selfish Gold Digger, was actually doing everything she could think of to get money to free her sister from prostitution and all things considered, took over the role of a doting wife and mother very easily, despite having had no interest before.
- Identical Stranger: Mili Avital also appeared in the Pilot. God knows if that character is related to the twins.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: The twins are natural blondes but Irina dyes her hair in a much darker shade.
- Identical Twin Mistake: The real Irina getting murdered by Toscu due to him thinking she's Ava is what drives the episode's plot.
- It's All My Fault: Ava is still suffering Survivor's Guilt over Irina's fatal Identical Twin Mistake.
- Kill and Replace: What SVU initially thinks Ava did to Irina after the Twin Switch reveal, believing she hijacked her twin's life to escape from people after her.
- Loophole Abuse: Razvan Toscu has immunity for arrest due to being a diplomat.
- Mail-Order Bride: The three Parulis sisters came to America this way. Irina's husband turned out to be a perfect match, Ava's was abusive, and Oksana was forced into prostitution when her husband changed his mind.
- Nephewism: Julia Burton is unknowingly raised by her maternal aunt, who is posing as her late mother for the last three years.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye:
- Upon learning of Ava's Dead Person Impersonation of Irina, the latter's widower becomes furious, with one reason being that he and his daughter weren't able to give his late wife a proper funeral.
- Ava herself has been suffering for Survivor's Guilt since she wasn't with Irina when she was killed.
- The twins also have another sister, Oksana, whom Irina never got to meet again.
- Not Quite Dead: Turns out Ava Parulis' twin sister Irina is the one who's killed via mistaken identity, which leads to the former regretfully pulling a Dead Person Impersonation.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Ava and Irina are respectively the Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling.George: "My wife is a loving woman! She's a good mother! Ava only cared about herself and her money!"
- Practically Different Generations: Oksana is much younger than Ava and Irina according to Ava. If their actresses' age gap is anything to go by, they are ten years apart. note
- Promotion to Parent: Ava's Dead Person Impersonation of Irina also means her taking over parental duties to her niece.
- Red Herring: The detectives spend the first ten minutes of the episode tracking down the ex-wife of the doctor who owned the brownstone where they found the remains, only for it to turn out that she's still alive, albeit near death in an AIDS hospice.
- Sarcasm Mode: The landlady from Ava's apartment, tells the cops that of course there are rental applications and that they have a stringent screening process for the high-class people desperate to move into her crummy apartment.
- Sleepy Depressive: George mentions that after "Ava" disappeared, "Irina" stayed in bed for two weeks, claiming to be sick.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Ava's husband's snarky response to Olivia's declaration that he expected her to "cook, clean, and be available for sex" is to declare, "That's called being a wife." When his current wife enters the room, she immediately and tellingly offers to bring them something to drink. There's a strong implication that he chose women of certain ethnic backgrounds because they're raised with this attitude—the woman running the marriage agency herself declares that "we cater to clients who want wives instead of partners" and "we pair men with girls with traditional values". It's worth noting that even the meek, benign George Burton clearly (if subtly) asserts himself as the dominant figure in his household, and that his wife is a homemaker who devotes herself to life as a wife and mother... or so it seems.
- Survivor's Guilt: Ava still blames herself for Irina's fatal Identical Twin Mistake.
- There Is Another: Turns out Ava and Irina have yet another (much younger) sister.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Although it's never a plot point, Irina/Ava is noticeably much better looking than George. It's never stated but George's schlubby appearance and milquetoast personality are almost certainly why he approached a mail-order bridal agency in the first place.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: When Benson and Stabler talk to Irina's daughter Julia, she first states that she shouldn't talk to strangers, then asks for their badges when they tell her they're police officers. Elliot and Olivia are amazed.Elliot: (after Julia asks to see his badge) Right answer again.
