Written By Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas
Directed By Constantine Makris
An undercover DEA agent is raped and murdered, putting SVU detectives at odds against the murdered agents fellow DEA officers and the Colombian cartel members she was investigating.
Tropes
- A Day in the Limelight: As this is her final episode as a regular, Alex gets the focus of the episode.
- Determinator: Alex refuses to drop the case against Zapata even after her and her mother receive death threats from the cartel; the only reason she lets it go in the end is because Branch forces her to, and because the FBI has a better case against him anyway.
- Downer Ending: The case against Zapata in the murder of Officer Sandoval is dropped, a DEA agent is dead, Alex is shot and placed in witness protection, and just before he can get the chance to testify against Cesar Velez, Zapata has died in his cell.
- End of an Age: Stephanie March's departure is the first case for this series of a main (opening credits) character leaving the show.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Zapata loses his temper and tries to outright attack Alex for daring to talk back to him, Lionel Granger immediately jumps to Alex's defense by pushing Zapata against the wall with a table.
- Faking the Dead: Alex's death is faked in order to allow her to go into witness protection safely.
- Fan Disservice: Livia Sandoval's corpse is discovered Naked in Mink.
- Foreshadowing: Alex is shot in the shoulder, which could be fatal (especially if not immediately treated), but is also reasonably survivable compared to where she could have been hit (such as in the chest).
- Greater-Scope Villain: Cesar Velez does not appear in the episode, but the Villain of the Week is his lieutenant and his influence is sure felt.
- He Knows Too Much: It's all but confirmed that Velez had Zapata killed so the latter won't rat out their cartel's entire operations.
- Honor Before Reason: Alex Cabot pursues the case long beyond the point of reason, even after the cartel makes death threats against both her and her mother; in the end she has to be literally forced to drop it.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Only the FBI, Olivia, and Elliot are the only people who know about Alex's true status. Later episodes reveal that Cragen, Casey Novak, and even Alex's family were also left in the dark.
- Made of Explodium: Tim Donovan's car.
- Mood Whiplash: After a touching scene in which Tim Donovan comforts Alex about the threat on her life, his car explodes as soon as he starts it.
- One-Steve Limit: The killed DEA Agent is named Livia Sandoval, one letter away from Olivia.
- Present Absence: Livia Sandoval and Cesar Velez. The former is the episode's Plot-Triggering Death, the latter being the unseen Greater-Scope Villain.
- Put on a Bus: Alex is put into Witness Protection at the end of the episode.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Zapata is captured for Agent Donovan's death, but gets away for his murder of Agent Sandoval's. Alex even mentions the Trope verbatim. In the end, Velez had Zapata killed so the latter won't rat out their cartel's entire operations.
- Renamed the Same: Livia Sandoval's undercover name is Livia Tellez.
- Secret-Keeper: Olivia and Elliot are the only people outside of the FBI to know about Alex's true status.
- They Died Because of You: After Agent Donovan is killed in a car bomb while trying to protect Cabot, his angry and grief-stricken partner immediately blames her, even bringing up how his three young children are now fatherless.
- Tonight, Someone Dies: Subverted. This episode is marketed over the fact that a main character will die. A main character is indeed gunned down, but is later revealed to be just Faking the Dead.
- Never Trust a Trailer: It says that Tonight, Someone Dies and it will be in a car bombing. The car that was bombed belonged to a guest character, and the supposed major Character Death is only a ruse to send said character to Witness Protection.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: A posthumous example. Elliot and Olivia discovers that the Victim of the Week is an undercover DEA Agent.
- Undignified Death: Livia Sandoval's corpse is found Naked in Mink among garbage bags and her tongue ripped out.
- Wham Episode: Alex is forced to fake her death and go to Witness Protection due to getting in the cross-hairs of a very powerful drug lord.
- Wham Line:Donovan: Ms. Cabot, we received a credible threat.Alex: It did not come from us, we have kept your identity confidential.Donovan: The threat was made against you.
- Wham Shot: Thrice. First is when Agent Donovan's car explodes, then a literal one with Alex getting shot in an alley, and finally The Reveal that Alex is only Faking the Dead.
- Witness Protection: Alex at the end of the episode.
