"Girl Dishonored" | ||
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← | SVU, Episode 14.20 | → |
Production number: 14020 First aired (US): 24 April 2013 First aired (UK): 14 May 2013 First aired (CAN): 24 April 2013 First aired (AUS): 30 May 2013 | ||
Teleplay By Robert Brooks Cohen Story By Julie Martin & Warren Leight Directed By Holly Dale |
Summary[]
A young woman pledging a sorority is raped on a college campus, and the investigation is hindered by a campus community that turns a blind eye toward such incidents.
Plot[]
Olivia Benson and the detectives of the Special Victims Unit investigate the alleged gang rape of a sorority pledge on a college campus after the pledge tries to commit suicide as a result of the rape. Drunk students and conflicting accounts thwart their attempts to piece together the events of the crime. As the detectives pursue the case, they unearth a widespread university culture of school administrators and students that look the other way instead of protecting their own. The only reason they are even made aware of the case is because the victim's mother calls them while the campus security wants to handle it themselves. They find a girl named Renee, who was forced to check into a mental hospital after her rape drove her to depression. Initially, she is uncooperative, wanting electro-shock therapy to erase the memory of the rape from her mind, but they believe her she tells them everything.
The original complaining victim, Lindsay, withdraws her complaint, wanting to get on with her life. Still, the detectives find multiple victims from the fraternity that raped her and discover that the fraternity is known as "The Rape Factory" for all the rapes that have occurred there. SVU takes the school to the grand jury to charge them with their complicit actions, but before the case is resolved, Lindsay commits suicide. This causes one of the fraternity brothers, who had participated in a different rape and felt guilty about it, to reveal that Lindsay was telling the truth about the rape and turn over a cell phone video where the rapists brag that they gang-raped her. They are arrested while the school Dean and chief security officer are arrested for accessory to rape for their roles in the cover-up with the help of statements from the school counselor and a security officer. They both felt guilty as well with Lindsay's suicide. A memorial is held for Lindsay, with students holding up signs with the various statements people used to cover up the multiple rapes. Renee, who is finally getting justice as well, decides to leave the mental hospital and return to school and tells Benson that she intends to start a support group for all of the rape victims.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Danny Pino as Detective Nick Amaro
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Richard Belzer as Sergeant John Munch (credit only)
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring Cast[]
- Skyler Day as Renee Clark
- Linda Emond as Dr. Emily Sopher
- Raúl Esparza as A.D.A. Rafael Barba
- Laurine Towler as Defense Attorney Melissa Braxton
Guest Cast[]
- Colby Minifie as Lindsay Bennett
- Robert Clohessy as Leo Barth
- Carrie Coon as Talia Blaine
- Maryann Plunkett as Eileen Bennett
- Christina Haag as Dean A. Meyerson
- Lenny Platt as Travis Holmes
- Alice Ellis as Alyson
- Ryan McGinnis as Joe Dawson
- Julia Udine as Erica
- Jake Boyd as Wesley Grimes
- Ben Hollandsworth as Carter Pressman
- Hayley Griffith as Hannah
References[]
- Tompkins Square University
- Tau Omega Fraternity
- Brian Cassidy
- Clery Act
- "Pink cloud" syndrome
- "Gangnam Style"
Quotes[]
- Rollins: [as she reviews the case] Lindsay Bennett, freshman. She's home-schooled from upstate, a virgin. She's hazed by her sorority, she drinks too much and she's gang-raped by three Tau Omega brothers.
- Cragen: That frat again. Anybody at the party confirm her story?
- Benson: Yeah, her sorority sisters admit that she was assigned to get a photo of Travis' package and they're slut-shaming her for anything else that happened.
- Cragen: Great. Mean girls.
- Benson: So, boys will be boys and girls get raped?
- Benson: In my experience, a survivor can heal much more quickly if they're listened to.
- Renee Clark: I told the story a dozen times and no one believed me until I ended up here.
- Benson: I'm sorry that it took so long for us to find you, and I know how hard it is to talk about again, but if you give us a chance, I promise you, Renee, it'll be different this time.
- Renee Clark: No, the only thing that's gonna make it different is frying my brain until I can't remember any of it.
- Benson: The boy who assaulted you, Travis, we think he's the one who assaulted the student.
- Renee Clark: You know what I'd tell her? To shut up about Travis or they'll go after her.
- Rollins: The fraternity?
- Renee Clark: Them and the school. When I filed charges, Dean Meyerson tried to make it out to be my fault. And when I posted online about what a sham their investigation was, I got a letter saying that they'd charge me with a violation of the TSU honor code. That I was intimidating my rapist! That place... nothing's gonna change them.
- Benson: If anyone here has been sexually assaulted, or know anyone that has, it's never too late to come forward. Denying the pain doesn't make it go away.
- Leo Barth: These kids away from home for the first time, they're all out of control. I should turn in a guy every time a girl puts out and doesn't get flowers the next day?
- Rollins: Excuse me?
- Leo Barth: Listen, I'm just trying to keep these kids alive, all right? Make sure they don't drink and drive or OD or get knifed. I can't police their bedrooms.
- Barba: We need to go after the school.
- Tutuola: And charge 'em with what?
- Barba: That's the great part about being a D.A. I don't have to decide that right now.
- Renee Clark: [as she testifies for the grand jury] I was raped on their campus, not believed by security and advised to forget it by their counselor. And when I got depressed, they said I was crazy, and they had me committed. Please don't let them get away with what they've done to me.
- [After Lindsay Bennett commits suicide]
- Rollins: I just talked to her yesterday.
- Benson: This isn't your fault, Amanda. You did everything you could. Come on.
- Rollins: No, no. She was pink clouding and I knew it.
Background information and notes[]
- The episode title alludes to Girl, Interrupted, a memoir and a subsequent movie adaptation about a woman in a female patients' mental asylum.
- Rollins mentions she's still refurnishing her place after she was robbed by her sister, Kim Rollins, in the episode "Deadly Ambition".
- When Rollins mentions the Tau Omega Fraternity, Cragen says "that frat again", referencing the episodes "Brotherhood" and "Friending Emily".
Episode scene cards[]
1 | 2 | 3 |
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Nu Iota Pi Sorority House |
Tau Omega |
Laguardia |
4 | 5 | 6 |
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Office of |
TSU Student Center |
Grand Jury |
Previous episode: "Born Psychopath" |
"Girl Dishonored" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 14 |
Next episode: "Traumatic Wound" |