| "Assaulting Reality" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 17.21 | → |
| Production number: 17021 First aired (US): 11 May 2016 First aired (UK): 12 June 2016 First aired (CAN): 11 May 2016 First aired (AUS): 4 May 2017 | ||
 | ||
| Teleplay By Julie Martin & Warren Leight and Brianna Yellen & Robert Brooks Cohen Story By Brianna Yellen & Robert Brooks Cohen Directed By Alex Chapple | ||
Summary[]
The producers of a reality dating series make Benson and the SVU part of the show when they investigate a contestant's claim that she was raped.
Plot[]
episode plot
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Lieutenant Olivia Benson
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Peter Scanavino as Detective Dominick Carisi, Jr.
- Raúl Esparza as A.D.A. Rafael Barba
Recurring Cast[]
Guest Cast[]
- Larisa Oleynik as Lizzie Bauer
- Mather Zickel as John Valentine
- Rachael Emrich as Gigi Danson
- Comfort Clinton as Melanie Connor
- Caprice Benedetti as Tammy Ledder
- Adam Gregory as Ryan Ledder
- Jordan Bondurant as Graham Turco
- Wendie Malick as Regina Prince
- Michael Gross as Jeffrey Prince
- Shannon Thornton as Ashley S.
- Ava Lange as Ashley B.
- Adam Perry as Emmett Weaver
- Jones Miller as Mrs. Connor
References[]
- Lucia Barba
- Heart's Desire
- Stockholm syndrome
Quotes[]
- Benson: [glancing at "Heart's Desire" on TV] I'm sorry, can you turn this off?
- Tucker: Or just throw the TV out.
- Benson: Who actually watches this show?
- [When Carisi and Rollins are watching "Heart's Desire"]
- Carisi: Did you see what I just saw?
- Rollins: She wasn't acting. Did they just air a rape?
- Tutuola: Maybe you guys were distracted, but, uh, reality shows are all fake. You know that, right?
- Rollins: Not last night. They want drama. They want fairy tales. They don't want rape, and you saw they cut away as soon as Melanie started to freak out.
- Benson: Did she report it?
- Rollins: Who knows if the producers let her make a call? They don't allow access to the outside world.
- Carisi: Yeah, it's like Stockholm syndrome. I mean, with all these headlines, plus the amount of calls we're getting from concerned viewers, including the Chief of D's wife...
- Rollins: We should at least just go and ask a few questions.
- Benson: Okay, so go talk to Melanie, but I'm interested in our reality, not theirs.
- Lizzie Bauer: [to Rollins and Carisi] Hi, there. Lizzie Bauer, co-producer. How can I help the NYPD?
- Carisi: Well, we're following up on the accusation Melanie made on the air last night.
- Lizzie Bauer: Of course. We've been getting calls about it too, but you know nothing happened, right? Our show is heavily scripted.
- Rollins: Okay, well, we still need to speak to Melanie.
- Lizzie Bauer: Um, our executive producers are talking to the network. Can I ask you to wait until they get here?
- Rollins: No.
- Lizzie Bauer: Melanie's close to the final round. I... I talked to her last night. If she'd wanted the police involved, we definitely would have made that happen.
- Carisi: We need to hear that from her.
- Melanie Connor: All I know is, I don't remember having sex. I would never have agreed to that.
- Rollins: But you think you did have sex?
- Melanie Connor: Well, after seeing the video, it kind of made sense. Morning after my date, I was sore down there. My panties were on the floor. I felt different.
- Rollins: Did you tell anybody?
- Melanie Connor: I didn't remember it, so I didn't say anything.
- Rollins: Okay, well, Melanie, um, if you were... if you were unable to consent, yeah, that could be rape.
- Melanie Connor: Well, they said that it wasn't.
- Carisi: Who's they?
- Melanie Connor: Lizzie. And the Princes, Jeffrey and Regina Prince, the executive producers. They said that since I told Ryan that I wanted to lose my virginity to him eventually, that I must have wanted it.
- Carisi: No. No. They were wrong, all right? It doesn't matter what you did or what you said before.
- Melanie Connor: Then I don't... I don't understand. I thought that Ryan and I were in love with each other. Why... why would he rape me?
- Carisi: We can investigate. We can talk to Ryan and collect evidence. Do you have any clothing from that night?
- Melanie Connor: They take care of our laundry here. They take care of everything. [to Rollins] Could I borrow your cell? We're not allowed phones and I want to call my mom.
- Rollins: Of course.
- Lizzie Bauer: So sorry you had to waste a trip.
- Carisi: No, not really. Detective Rollins is going to take Melanie to the hospital to get a rape kit done.
- Lizzie Bauer: No, wait, Melanie can't go. She has a shoot. The ladies dine and dish.
- Carisi: Does she? That mean that the guys aren't working then, right? That's good, because I need to talk to Ryan.
- Lizzie Bauer: Hang on. This is a closed set.
- Carisi: No, not anymore, it's not.
- John Valentine: [to Carisi] Let me give you lesson number one from the John Valentine school of reality hosting: you stand on your mark, you say the words, you get paid, that's it.
- Lizzie Bauer: Thank you, John. The detectives are here on official police business.
- John Valentine: Come on, Lizzie. About Melanie crying rape? Please, she signed a waiver. Lesson number two: if it's a reality show, there is no reality.
- Benson: So Melanie agreed to a rape kit, but she has no memory of consenting to or even having sex?
- Carisi: No, no, but Ryan does.
- Tutuola: He claims it was consensual.
- Carisi: And magical.
- Benson: Okay, are you sure that this isn't part of the show?
- Carisi: Yeah, look, something happened to this girl that she did not want to have happen.
- Regina Prince: Our show is about love, romance. This accusation is deeply disturbing.
- Jeffrey Prince: We tell the bachelors to treat every young lady as if she's our daughter.
- Tutuola: You have a daughter?
- Jeffrey Prince: No, we don't have children. The point is, these girls need to be respected and protected.
- Carisi: Okay, well, Melanie doesn't feel like she was.
- Barba: This girl didn't realize she was raped until she saw it on live TV?
- Benson: I know, I know.
- Barba: I get the "she said". What's the "he said"?
- Graham Turco: [about Melanie] She didn't say no. She didn't tell me to stop. Tell them, Lizzie. I told you about it the next day.
- Lizzie Bauer: Graham, it's over.
- Turco: You interviewed me the next morning.
- Bauer: You said that you went to Melanie as a friend and then it turned into something more.
- Turco: And you said everything would be fine.
- Bauer: Because I didn't know that you had raped her!
- Jeffrey Prince: Lizzie, let it go. You can take him out of here, officers.
- Benson: Hold on, are you filming this?
- Tutuola: [as he puts his hand up, covering up the camera lens] Get this camera out of here.
- Jeffrey Prince: Legally, we're within our rights to film the police.
- Benson: [nods] Okay, Detective Tutuola, not our concern.
- Barba: Hey. What'd I miss?
- Tutuola: Melanie's a liar and NYPD screwed up.
- Benson: [sarcastic] Yeah, I can't wait to see who the heroes are.
- Lizzie Bauer: [to Jeffrey and Regina] You lied to the police. You made Melanie think that she was crazy.
- Jeffrey Prince: You did the exact same thing. You want to be an exec? Get used to this. What, did you think we'd go on TV and say you came to us about a rape and we told you how to make it go away?
- Lizzie Bauer: That's what happened.
- [After Barba plays an incriminating video about the Princes]
- Regina Prince: [on video] Lizzie, how long have you been working on this show? It doesn't matter what happened, just what the audience thinks happened.
- Jeffrey Prince: She filmed this? Is that even legal?
- Barba: You put cameras in Melanie's hotel room without her knowledge and then aired it on national TV. That's a felony.
- Benson: Not to mention your little cover-up. That's another felony. Aiding and abetting a rape? That puts you on the registry.
- Regina Prince: Oh, come on. You... you can't be serious.
- Barba: We are. What's that other show? "Let's Make a Deal"?
- Carisi: The Princes will plead guilty to one count of tampering with physical evidence. It's a felony.
- Lizzie Bauer: They won't do time.
- Rollins: Probably not, they're rich.
- Carisi: But they'll never work in TV again.
- Lizzie Bauer: And yet, I can guarantee you, "Heart's Desire" will go on.
- Rollins: In a way, though, you're lucky that they threw you under the bus. Got you to cooperate. You hadn't done that, you'd still be on the hook.
- Lizzie Bauer: Great, so I avoid a felony charge. I can't wait to put it on my resume. Sorry. The show brought out the worst in me and I learned to bring out the worst in those girls. Just so you know, I really was asleep when she was raped. I swear.
- Rollins: We believe you.
- Lizzie Bauer: Melanie won't. How does she get over this?
- Melanie Connor: I don't know what I'm gonna do when I get home. I feel lost.
- Benson: That's normal. It takes time, Melanie, but you will get through this, I promise.
Background Information and Notes[]
- This is the second episode of the season that deals with a reality TV show after "Patrimonial Burden".
- The fictional reality TV series Heart's Desire shares similarities with the real reality TV shows The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Married at First Sight and Love Island.
- This episode aired in May 2017 in Australia while the eighteenth season was airing instead of when the seventeenth season was airing, which was most likely a move done by Channel Ten as the seventeenth season was airing right after new episodes of the fourth season of The Bachelor Australia, with the episode possibly causing uneasy or uncertain feelings from viewers as well as contestants families and friends as well as possibly turn away or cause uncertain feelings for any future participants due to the episodes subject matter.
- While not mentioned, the producers and network of "Heart's Desire" could have also faced penalties from the Federal Communications Commission for showing the sex scene in the Dream Suite, since it meant that they had aired what was, in-story, an actual sexual act which would fall under "Indecent Content" or even "Obscene Content."
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 |
|---|
|
Heart's Desire Triplex |
| Previous episode: "Fashionable Crimes" |
"Assaulting Reality" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 17 |
Next episode: "Intersecting Lives" |