Law & Order: SVU – American Tragedy Recap

Episode 3 of Season 15 of L&O: SVU poured the Trayvon Martin case into the pot, then mixed in the Paula Deen scandal and threw in a dash of NYPD stop and frisk. Add in several rapes so it can be an SVU case and liberally sprinkle “You know you want it” around, as the rapist’s opening line to his vics (to capitalize on the “Blurred Lines” summer “rapey” controversy).

The episode begins with Olivia Benson and Amanda Rollins separately interviewing two rape victims at SVU. They describe the attacker as a tall black man wearing a hoodie, so they never really saw his face. When Benson leaves a man stops her with “hello, gorgeous.” He attempts to touch her and asks her what the matter is: “Don’t you have a smile for me?” Benson knocks him on his ass instead and is ready to work him over when she realizes she is out of control. She leaves the stunned man on the ground, muttering to herself as she takes off.

A session with Dr. Lindstrom put her actions in perspective. She would tell rape victims to expect to experience the conflicting emotions she herself is now going through. He says she will learn to recognize what triggers these flashbacks over time and heal. The fact that she wasn’t actually raped and holds herself to a higher standard than a vic who has to learn self-defense doesn’t come up.

Fin tells Rollins the police artist man in a hoody sketch is worth nada. They have nothing from forensics because the rapist used a condom with a lubricant that can be bought at every bodega in the city. They go off to talk to a new victim who is in the hospital. She went through the same as the first two and the perp put a gun against her back.

The detectives go out on the streets near where the rapes occurred and start stopping and frisking black guys left and right. We see a well-dressed woman walking down the street alone when a man in a hoodie begins to follow her. She turns and asks what he wants but he says nothing. He follows her right to her brownstone steps and the scene shifts to the still frisking detectives when a shot rings out. Off they rush and there is the woman holding a gun and the man in the hoodie has been shot. They find a pulse and call for a bus while the woman relates what occurred: she believed he was going to rape her so she shot him.

The suspect is 16-year-old Mehcad Carter. His parents rush to the hospital where he is being operated on for the gunshot wound in his chest. Mehcad did not have a gun on him. He had a cell phone. The victim turns out to be Jolene Castille, a Southern celebrity chef. The parents tell the detectives that their boy was no criminal and they don’t understand why he was shot.

They question Jolene further and this time she embellishes her story to say the man lunged at her. She is surprised to find out the person she shot is a 16-year-old boy. While the parents continue to insist that their boy was never involved in anything shady, it slowly dawns on them that the detectives think Mehcad was the serial rapist. Worse, two of the vics identify Mehcad as the rapist.

Jolene and her attorney then have to meet with ADA Barba where she adds in new details that Mehcad was only a foot or two from her when she fired. At the hospital, the Carters’ pastor is telling Fin and Rollins that he knows Mehcad is innocent, when Mehcad dies. As his mother breaks down with grief, Rollins is notified of a rape in progress.

Benson and Amaro get the collar and the suspect, Willie gaily claims he didn’t rape a soul because they wanted it. “You want it, too, bitch” he tells Benson. This gets him Benson’s knee in his groin as an added bonus to the ride in the squad car. At the station, Willie knows that Mehcad has been blamed for his handiwork. But through Willie’s occupation, cycling cooking oil, they are able to get proper IDs from the first 3 victims.

M.E. Warner punches a huge hole in Jolene’s story when she reveals that her autopsy shows Mehcad was nowhere as near Jolene as she claimed. They then go off to question Jolene, working in some details about how Fin might not be able to use the Chez Jolene men’s room so he better go potty first.

Does it get any better? No, it gets worse, with the writers working in as much as they can to convict Jolene for being a racist to the point where Fin sees it as a hate crime, and is made to look stupid on the witness stand since he was only frisking black guys himself when the shooting occurred. Fin claims that it was different and Jolene had choices, but ultimately, the jury doesn’t seem to be able to get past the fact that Mehcad did appear to be following Jolene, which is explained thusly: he was a cooking show fan and probably just wanted Jolene’s autograph. Why he didn’t just say so is not explained. So, ultimately, Jolene is acquitted and everyone who was on her side looks happy and everyone who thinks she was a guilty racist is either sad, mad or disgusted.

Main Cast In this Episode:
Mariska Hargitay – Detective Olivia Benson
Ice-T – Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola
Richard Belzer – Sergeant John Munch
Kelli Giddish – Detective Amanda Rollins
Danny Pino – Detective Nick Amaro
Raúl Esparza – ADA Rafael Barba

Guest stars
Tamara Tunie – Dr. Melinda Warner
Bill Irwin – Dr. Lindstrom
Jeffrey Tambor – Counselor Lester X. Cohen
Cybill Shepherd – Jolene Castille
Leslie Odom, Jr – Reverend Curtis Scott
Kevin Carroll – Cory Carter
Sonja Sohn – Lisa Carter
Cindy Katz – Chloe
Allison Mackie – Bethenny
Alice Barrett Mitchell – Aubrey Trisler
Joshua Boone – Willie
Moise Morancy – Mehcad Carter