The Old College Try (To Cover Up A Frat Full Of Serial Rapists)

Initial Crime

Tompkins Square University freshwoman Lindsay (Colby Minifie) is ordered by the sorority she's pledging to approach Travis (Lenny Platt), a brother at Tau Omega, and get a photo of his genitals. He takes this as an indication that she's DTF and, along with his frat brothers Wesley (Jake Boyd) and Carter (Ben Hollandsworth), gang-rapes her.

Real Crime

Lore Lindsay's heard about Renee Clark (Skyler Day), who was raped and humiliated by Travis last year, leads SVU cops to uncover a conspiracy between the school's Dean of Students Meyerson (Carrie Coon) and head of campus security Leo Barth (Robert Clohessy) to cover up rapes by coaching both victims and perpetrators in the language to use to invalidate accusations, in order to maintain the school's good reputation.

Headlines This Was Ripped From

Depressingly, Greeks using their protected position to commit sex crimes with impunity is depressingly common on college campuses. How depressingly common? Tracie Egan Morrissey at Jezebel has listed a number of plot points from the episode and cited their possible real-life inspirations.

It's Late, Y'All!

"Our pledges have it even worse: they have to get video of poon speeding. ...You don't want to know"; ""I tried to say no, but Travis forced my mouth open, and the other two-- one in front, one in...in back"; "He shoved his hand down my jeans, put a finger inside me"; "No means yes, yes means anal"; "She couldn't say no with her mouth full"; "We raped her dead. We raped her gangbang Gangnam style!"; "The three of us at the same time -- that girl was airtight."

Who on the SVU Team Is Taking It Personally?

When Lindsay commits suicide by jumping off the student center, Rollins (Kelli Giddish) blames herself for not pushing Lindsay harder when they spoke, the previous day, to stop pretending she was "all better," as Lindsay herself put it; because the school had effectively expelled Renee by refusing to re-admit her, after her in-patient psychiatric treatment, without parental supervision (when Meyerson knew that Renee's parents aren't, as Renee puts it, "very involved"), Benson (Mariska Hargitay) agrees to act as Renee's guardian so that she can re-enroll.

Verdict

We don't get to the trial, but Travis, Carter, and Wesley are charged for multiple rapes, with Meyerson and Barth charged as accessories for covering them up.

Revelations about the Continuing Characters' Personal Lives That We Should Remember Going Forward

Rollins is still re-furnishing her house after her sister (Lindsay Pulsipher, mentioned but unseen) cleaned it out; Benson is getting serious enough with Cassidy (Dean Winters, mentioned but unseen) to have a dinner date with him and his mother.