Written By Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters
Directed By Jean De Segonzac
An ex-convict who sexually assaulted prostitutes in the past seemingly met his match in a would-be victim, but then a second homicide leads detectives to believe that the woman (Sharon Lawrence) may be a serial killer in disguise.
Tropes
- Ambiguous Situation: Most of the police suspect that Maggie killed herself so that she could avoid the death penalty and still give her "son" something. Benson, however, suspects that Maggie killed herself so she could stay in control and pull off one last "performance".
- Baby Be Mine: Maggie wanted a child, so she strangled a random woman she saw with a baby.
- Con Artist: Maggie is an especially vicious one.
- Consummate Liar: Through The Power of Acting, Maggie will attempt to convince anyone of anything if she thinks it'll give her an advantage, switching completely between personalities and backstories.
- Disposable Sex Worker: A prostitute in the beginning loves to accuse the squad of having this opinion. Not only do they not have it, but they quickly get sick of her attitude.
- Double Standard: Discussed. Cabot complains about the backlash she's facing for seeking the death penalty for Maggie, more than she'd face if the perpetrator was a man. DA Lewin is also accused of being more opposed to it than she would be with a man (although to be fair, it was established on the original show that she's personally opposed to the death penalty being used at all).
- Driven to Suicide: Maggie strangles herself with her nylons.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Maggie genuinely seemed to care for her son. Even though he wasn't her son and she'd actually killed another woman and stolen him from her.
- Expy: Maggie closely resembles Sharon Stone's Catherine in Basic Instinct, being an icy-cold blonde female serial killer who is The Chessmaster, or will at least try to be, is seductive to just about everyone, and has an expert's hand in finding out what people want and faking it. In a homage to Catherine's commando appearance, Maggie strips down to her bra to seduce Stabler in the interrogation room.
- High-Class Call Girl: Maggie is an expensive call girl who has millions to leave her son after her death, although other prostitutes killed in this episode weren't.
- The Killer Becomes the Killed: The episode begins with the team going after a sexually motivated spree killer, who ends up being killed by serial killing prostitute Maggie.
- Manipulative Bastard: Maggie is a serial killer who also likes to present herself as a victim; so, while working as a prostitute, she deliberately chooses men who are known to have violent tendencies in order to kill them in "self-defense".
- Mugging the Monster: A spree killer picks up Maggie with the intention of raping and killing her, only for her to kill him.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Cabot takes a moment to call attention to the fact that the biological father of Maggie's son, who has already lost his wife, believed for over a year that he lost his entire family to random violence.
- Self-Defense Ruse: Maggie specifically targets men who she knows to be violent and abusive, allowing her to argue she was killing them in self-defense. Rather astonishingly she almost manages to pull this off despite being a serial killer. Ironically, she actually does end up killing a man who was planning on killing her in the process, and isn't charged for this homicide (though it helps with her defense).
- Smug Snake: Maggie is very confident in her abilities to manipulate anyone, and she brags how she "knows men", but her actual understanding of people is only skin deep and she only appeals to the most obvious facet of personality. When interrogated one on one by Huang, Stabler and then Benson, she failed to manipulate any of the three.
- The Sociopath: Maggie is explicitly referred to as one. Dr. Huang refers to her having a cocktail personality; she can effortlessly alter her personality into what she thinks the other person wants to see. When she is cornered and unable to do so, she snaps and attempts to strangle Benson.
- Villainous Parental Instinct: Maggie genuinely seems to care about her son - as much as she cares about anybody. Even though he wasn't actually her son and she stole him from another woman. She actually commits suicide and leaves him all her money rather than spend any more money on a defense. Although Benson gives another, less sympathetic interpretation of that scene.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Maggie, a prostitute perp (based on serial killer Aileen Wuornos), tries making herself out to be some kind of Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, and it appears to be working with the court, since her victims included guys like a known wife beater and a fellow serial killer. In the end, it's discovered she had lied about her horribly abusive past, and the baby son she claimed to love so much isn't hers; she stole him from the real mother, a random woman she strangled to death.
