| "Avatar" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 9.02 | → |
| Production number: 9004 First aired: 2 October 2007 | ||
 | ||
| Written By Paul Grellong Directed By Peter Leto | ||
Plot[]
SVU detectives Olivia Benson, Elliot Stabler, John Munch, Odafin Tutuola, and Chester Lake are called into investigate the rape of a young woman name Kristi McGarrett who was raped by her sister's boyfriend Dan Friedich (who suffers from sexsomnia and attacked her accidentally). During the conversation, they find out that Kristi's sister Rachel McGarrett was kidnapped. In an effort to locate Rachel, Detective Lake talks to Rachel's friend Ginger who then tells them about an avatar game called Another Youniverse (A.Y.). Come to find out, Rachel and her friend Ginger are two underage hookers in the game. At first, their investigation leads to two men who's had contact with Rachel through A.Y. and they find out that the book store owner Gregory Searle (alias Julian Cooper) also plays A.Y. and he kidnapped Rachel because she reminded him of another girl named Lauren Molby, a young girl who was taken by Searle when she was 15-years-old.
Detectives Lake and Benson find Rachel barely alive in a warehouse that he had under a false name. Just as they were looking around, Searle took off in his car. They take Rachel to the hospital and find out that she was drugged with animal tranquilizers and due to Searle's mixed cocktail of medicine, she ended up dying. When they investigate more on the Lauren Molby case, they find out that Lauren was hidden away in a cabin that belonged to Gregory Searle. To their shock, they find Lauren still alive after she was missing for 25 years. They took her to the precinct where she was able to get Searle to confess to kidnapping her because he wanted someone younger. Gregor was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life with no possibility of parole for the kidnapping of Lauren Molby and Rachel McGarrett and the murder of Rachel McGarrett.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler
- Mariska Hargitay as Detective Olivia Benson
- Richard Belzer as Sergeant John Munch (credit only)
- Diane Neal as A.D.A. Casey Novak
- Ice-T as Detective Odafin Tutuola
- Adam Beach as Detective Chester Lake
- B.D. Wong as Dr. George Huang
- Tamara Tunie as M.E. Melinda Warner (credit only)
- Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen
Recurring cast[]
- Kevin Tighe as Gregory Searle / Julian Cooper
- Liza Lapira as C.S.U. Detective Lu
- Anne James as Dr. Jane Larom
Guest cast[]
- Florencia Lozano as Lauren Molby
- Richard Short as Erik Winton
- Lisa Joyce as Kristi McGarrett
- Ryan Lynn as Dan Friedich
- John Hickok as Mr. McGarrett
- Christina Brucato as Rachel McGarrett
- Paul Klementowicz as Tobin Willis
- Teddy Bergman as Nestor Buchanan
- Jessica Almasy as Ginger
- Doan Ly as Attorney Anna Bentley
- Carmen Gill as Corinne
References[]
- Another Youniverse
- Berlin, Germany
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Cooper's Rare Books
- Canada
- Denver, Colorado
- Hudson University
- Long Beach, California
- Tel Aviv, Israel
- Wit Billions
- Vixy Platinum
- Ernest Hemingway
- Sexomnia
- Sleeping Beauty
Quotes[]
- Benson: You don't usually go for a walk after your sister's been raped.
- Dan Friedich: You don't understand. Okay, I have this condition.
- Stabler: And I have a headache.
- [about Dan Friedich]
- Novak: We can't charge him with the rape.
- Stabler: If it looks like a rape and acts like a rape...
- Novak: It is a rape, unless the accused isn't conscious of what his body's doing. It's like a sleeping mother who rolls over on her baby. Her body did it, but her mind wasn't aware of it.
- Tutuola: Who do you have now, psychic hotline?
- Lake: Better, one of Rachel's friends. [turns the phone on speaker] You still there, Ginger?
- Ginger: Yes.
- Lake: Alright, tell the detectives what you told me.
- Ginger: I think Rachel's in Another Youniverse.
- Lake: She's Vixy. You're Tawny. Sounds like a couple of strippers.
- Ginger: Actually you're close. We use A.Y. to explore some fantasies.
- Lake: What kind of fantasies?
- Ginger: We own a couple of virtual sex clubs.
- Lake: How do avatars have sex?
- Ginger: Same way as humans do only in A.Y., it's just animated.
- Benson: So you can do anything you want and you and Rachel chose to be prostitutes?
- Ginger: It's a fantasy, not a crime. Plus it's safe. Sex for money with no risk of STDs or getting pregnant. We're not hurting anybody.
- [Benson has just ordered Winton to reset the Youniverse's daylight in order to pinpoint Julian Cooper in cyberspace]
- Benson: Do it.
- Erik Winton: I'm about to seriously freak out five million people.
- (After unexpectedly finding Lauren alive)
- Lake: Cap, we've found the cabin.
- Cragen: Start the search.
- Lake: The search is over. Lauren Molby is alive.
- Stabler: Hey, you in a hurry there?
- Gregory Searle: Detective Stabler. Come to see me off?
- Stabler: Nah, I came to arrest you.
- Gregory Searle: For what?!
- Stabler: You crossed on the red. Didn't you see the light?
- Gregory Searle: You've gotta be kidding me!
- Stabler: Your safety's no laughing matter. Oh, we found your cabin. And that's not all.
- Lauren Molby: Please, you gotta let me see him. I've waited years for this. I've loved him since I was 15. What? You think a 15 year old can't fall in love?
- Stabler: I have teenage daughters who fall in love all the time.
Background information and notes[]
- Video games are also the subject of the episodes "Game" and "Intimidation Game", which deal with violence in video games and its players. The Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "F.P.S." deals with violence towards colleagues while the SVU episode "Burning With Rage Forever" deals with children on online games such as Fortnite and Roblox. This episode deals with the danger of online simulation games which have changed drastically since the time this episode aired.
- While not primarily centered around video games, part of the third season episode "Care" discussed gaining trust from adults who play video games as well as video games possibly influencing violent behavior in mentally disabled teenagers while a small portion of the twelfth season episode "Bullseye" discussed child neglect at the hands of parents addicted to video games.
- Another Youniverse is very similar to the real life video games The Sims and Second Life. In fact, the graphics of Another Youniverse look very similar to the first The Sims game as well as the discontinued online game The Sims Online.
- Kevin Tighe reprises his role of Gregory Searle in the seventeenth season episode "Sheltered Outcasts".
Episode scene cards[]
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
|
Crime Lab |
Ginger Maxon's Loft |
Another Youniverse Headquarters |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|
|
Cooper's Rare Books |
Mercy General Hospital |
Bus Terminal |
| Previous episode: "Alternate" |
"Avatar" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 9 |
Next episode: "Impulsive" |