Written By Amanda Green
Directed By David Platt
Twenty years after convicted sex offender Ray Schenkel (Robert Patrick) is released from prison, he is considered a suspect in the rape of a teenage girl. Stabler decides to go undercover as a recently paroled sex offender in order to get close to Schenkel, but Cragen becomes concerned that Stabler may be getting in over his head in the case.
Tropes
- Ambiguous Situation: If Schenkel actually committed the rape he was being investigated for is unclear, although the fact that he ends up kidnapping and trying to rape another girl certainly counts against him.
- Call-Back: Elliot's cover story about working at his sister's husband's body shop is taken from the season 3 episode "Justice".
- Creepy Stalker Van: Schenkel has Stabler buy the epitome of a creepy stalker van — black and filthy with a sliding door on the side.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Elliot pretending to be a convicted sex offender in order to get close to a rapist who had just been released from prison. Not only does this challenge Elliot with his own issues, but at one point said sex offender orders Elliot to rape a teenage girl while he watches.
- Groin Attack: When Elliot appears apprehensive when Schenkel offers a girl for him to rape, Schenkel grabs him in the groin to check for an erection. When he doesn't find one, he chocks it up to performance anxiety.
- Hidden Purpose Test: Elliot must pretend to be a pedophile to help root out another, and Huang is coaching him on how to fake a psychological test where they will show them various images and ask them to rate them. Elliot starts saying that it's obvious, then realizes that, no, an actual pedophile wouldn't rate the kids higher, then pauses. Then Huang tells him that the scores they give are irrelevant, the test measures how long you spend watching each image.
- Incredibly Obvious Bug: The GPS tracker TARU attached to Stabler's van has blinking lights for some reason. It's no surprise that Schenkel finds it and destroys it later.
- Institutional Allegiance Concealment: Stabler goes undercover as a paroled sex offender in order to track another parolee whom he suspects of having already reoffended. Part of his undercover work involves letting his fellow detectives hassle him so that he can report to them without the parolee getting suspicious.
