Initial Crime

Sportscaster Avery Jordan (Lauren Cohan) approaches Benson (Mariska Hargitay) through a colleague about a sexual assault she suffered six weeks earlier. She later returns home to find an envelope of surveillance photos, including shots of her meeting with Benson, and one of her having (consensual) sex with a colleague, and figures out that her assailant, her camera operator Rick Purcell (David Marciano), has also been stalking her. Later still, she finds out that even though she had thought she was infertile, she is pregnant, and because Jason Hollis (Robert Bogue), another colleague with whom she'd been having an affair, has had a vasectomy, the father must be Rick.

Headlines This Was Ripped From

During the trial, Rick calls Obstetrician/Congressman Fritz Showalter (Reathel Bean) as an expert witness, to testify as to the rarity of pregnancy by rape. To wit: "This case raises issues I feel strongly about: legitimate rape, and women who make false accusations....Many of my medical colleagues won't admit it, but in my experience, it's nearly impossible for a victim of legitimate rape to become pregnant." Rick's surveillance of Avery via hidden cameras in her hotel rooms and elsewhere also recalls the case of sportscaster Erin Andrews.

How Was the Real Story Fictionalized?

Unlike Fritz Showalter, Todd Akin is not an obstetrician (not even a disgraced one); Erin Andrews wasn't raped.

It's Late, Y'All!

"And then you told me not to use a condom because you wanted to try one more time to get pregnant. You said that you wanted to feel me inside you."

Who on the SVU Team Is Taking It Personally?

Olivia "Child Conceived In Rape" Benson, duh-doy.

Verdict

Rick is acquitted of rape (because one juror bought the "legitimate rape" argument, surmising that the sexual contact between Avery and Rick must have been consensual if pregnancy occurred), but convicted of stalking, though he gets off on that charge with time served. He goes on to sue Avery for shared custody of the baby, and when he wins a weekly two-hour supervised visit, Avery flees the jurisdiction with Theo, heading someplace "beyond extradition," according to Benson.

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

Benson lets Amaro (Danny Pino) into the cone of silence regarding the truth about her parentage.