| "Fast Times @ TheWheelHouse" | ||
|---|---|---|
| ← | SVU, Episode 23.05 | → |
| Production number: 23005 First aired (US): 14 October 2021 First aired (UK): 13 June 2022 First aired (CAN): 14 October 2021 First aired (AUS): 30 December 2021 | ||
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| Written By Brianna Yellen & Brendan Feeney Directed By Martha Mitchell | ||
Summary[]
The Special Victims Unit faces the fury of social media fans when they arrest two popular influencer brothers.
Plot[]
Willa Bartola is invited by Diggy Wheeler to meet brothers Liam and Tate Rivers at the Wheelhouse, a house for content influencers, alongside her best friend Kevan Wright. They toured around the Wheelhouse and she started making videos with Tate and Liam. However, at the Wheelhouse, Tate and Liam gang raped Willa in a room and Willa was found crying in the corner of the basement by Kevan. Willa announced her rape on TikTok which Noah Porter-Benson watched and showed to his mother, Captain Olivia Benson. However, after Olivia had watched the video, Willa took it down after receiving hate mail and people started antagonizing and bullying her for her accusation.
Benson and Detective Amanda Rollins went to talk with Willa about her accusation and she explained that she was assaulted by Tate and Liam and explained what happened that night. They talk to her friend, Kevan, and he claims that he is certain that Tate and Liam raped Willa and that he left the Wheelhouse two months ago. Kevan tells the detectives that he wants them arrested for rape.
However, to gain more evidence on the case, Assistant district attorney Dominick Carisi, Jr. wants Willa to meet with the boys to get them to confess with Jet Slootmaekers protecting her, after Benson asked Sergeant Ayanna Bell to borrow Jet for the case. At the Wheelhouse, Diggy is sorry that Willa is upset and he says that the boys told him that it was consensual. Tate and Liam show up and claim that she cried rape because she wasn't accepted into the Wheelhouse. Tate and Liam forced Willa to claim that she made up the accusation on video which is what Willa did. This made the case more complicated.
Eventually, Tate and Liam are arrested for rape and taken to trial. Willa is called to testify and Counselor Swope claims that Willa cried rape to get more followers but Willa tells him that she would never do that. After her testimony, Willa confronts Diggy and claims that Diggy invited the boys to rape her. Diggy denies the accusations and desperately tries to get on Willa's good side.
Later, Diggy posts a video telling Willa how sorry he is and hopes that she can forgive him. However, Carisi thought that the defense would call for a mistrial after the jury watched the video but the judge denied the defense's request. The two brothers are then let off on a not guilty verdict. Carisi talks to Diggy about this, and he tells the ADA that a juror may have been influenced by the brothers.
Carisi takes this evidence to the judge who finds besides the jury woman there was another follower in the jury. She also discovers that the brothers had bribed both of the jurors with offers of collaboration to find them not guilty. The brothers tried to deny any accusations but are scared when the judge threatens to charge them for witness tampering and bribery while counselor Swope stops them from saying any more incriminating news. Swope denies knowledge of this and wants to speak about getting a deal.
In the end, both brothers are charged with jury tampering and bribery and are sentenced to seven years while Willa is pleased she got justice after all and explains that she, Diggy and Kevan have created a survivor's group at the Wheelhouse and asks Rollins and Benson to thank Carisi for her. She also remarks that he is one of the good men and she can see how much he likes Rollins, surprising the detectives with her perceptiveness.
While helping Willa, Benson helps the Organized Crime Control Bureau try to locate Rita Lasku, a waitress at a Little Albanian diner that Elliot Stabler befriended while working undercover. She talks to Elvis Baktashi, a vigilante they encountered before, who tells her that she and other young women are being trafficked and that a plane of them will arrive that night. Benson then tells Sergeant Bell and Slootmaekers about this; Jet then tells Stabler what they know and Bell lets Benson know they may need SVU to help stop the trafficking operation.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson
- Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins
- Ice-T as Sergeant Odafin Tutuola (credit only)
- Peter Scanavino as A.D.A. Dominick Carisi, Jr.
Recurring cast[]
- Danielle Moné Truitt as Sergeant Ayanna Bell
- Ainsley Seiger as Detective Jet Slootmaekers
- Ryan Buggle as Noah Porter-Benson
- Aida Turturro as Judge Felicia Catano
- Michael Dempsey as Elvis Baktashi
- Julian Elijah Martinez as Counselor Jericho Swope
- Kaili Vernoff as Counselor Pamela Albert
- Marc Webster as Judge Charles Pervus
Guest cast[]
- Lena Torluemke as Willa Bartola
- Conor Sweeney as Liam Rivers
- Jake Ryan Lozano as Kevan Wright
- Taylor Trensch as Donald Wheeler
- Jakob Winter as Tate Rivers
- Rachel Schur as Chelsey Moore
- Keith Buxton as Kid
- Rickey Colbert as Officer
References[]
Quotes[]
quotes
Background Information and Notes[]
- The title of the episode is a play on the title of the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
- On streaming services and in reruns, this episode was renamed "Fast Times @DIGGYSPENTHOUSE".
- Although the characters in this episode use the social media app TikTok, it is obvious that the app overlay in this episode isn't the one of TikTok.
- The song that plays in the opening montage of dance videos at The Wheelhouse is "Kiss Me More" by Doja Cat featuring SZA. Several of Doja Cat's songs have been used in millions of TikTok videos, most notably "Say So".
- In addition to the main case, this episode has SVU investigate and confirm a sex trafficking operation found by an undercover Elliot Stabler in the Law & Order: Organized Crime episode "For A Few Leke More". SVU then helps stop the operation in the Organized Crime episode "The Good, The Bad And The Lovely".
- Judge Felicia Catano presides over another case with celebrities with large social media followings in the next season episode "Mirror Effect".
- Another episode in the Law & Order franchise that also features a social media content house is the Law & Order episode "Almost Famous".
- Coincidentally, both of the social media houses are owned by a man with the surname Wheeler.
| Previous episode: "One More Tale Of Two Victims" |
"Fast Times @ TheWheelHouse" Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 23 |
Next episode: "The Five Hundredth Episode" |