Revenge (Season 20, Episode 4)
Premise: A string of home-invasion rapes by a fake pizza deliveryman leads the squad into an online community of men who blame women for their loneliness.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 20, Episode 4
- Starring
- Lt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ADA Peter Stone (Philip Winchester)
- Guest stars
- Kennedy McMann as Carol Solomon, Steven Maier as Tony Kelly, Ethan Slater as Riley Porter, Will Dagger as Chris Carnasis, Callie Thorne as Nikki Staines
- Director
- Martha Mitchell
- Writers
- Michael Chernuchin & Lawrence Kaplow
Summary
“Revenge” opens as a man in a motorcycle helmet posing as a pizza deliveryman forces his way into an apartment, knocks out Rick Karsch with a pistol and rapes his girlfriend, Anne Whitman, calling the pair Chad and Stacey. Assuming he hit the wrong door, the squad finds a dentist, Chad Moore, two floors down. His wife, Brianna, privately tells Benson about an affair with spin instructor Jake Sanders, who owns a gun and would not let her go, but video shows Jake teaching a class at the time of the attack. Then a second couple, Beth Palmer and Paolo Ricci, are attacked the same way, under the same names.
Online research shows the names are incel slang: a Stacey is any woman such a man wants and cannot have, and a Chad is the kind of man who gets her. Beth recalls a red-haired man named Riley who was turned away from a vetted singles party and then followed her, and organizer Tate Brightman’s files identify Riley Porter, who tells Fin that rape does not exist but has an alibi for Beth’s attack. A third attack follows: Carol Solomon is raped and her fiancé, John Quinn, is shot in the head and dies. This attacker uses their real names and mentions a friend called O’Reilley. Benson suspects the men are trading rapes. Riley’s messages lead to Chris Carnasis, who raped Beth for Riley while Riley raped Anne for him. Threatened with state racketeering charges that could cost his mother her Riverdale house, Chris names the third man, Tony Kelly.
The only hard evidence against Tony is cell-phone GPS placing him at Carol’s apartment, but the records came from the phone company without a warrant. Defense attorney Nikki Staines cites the Supreme Court’s new ruling in Carpenter v. United States, the judge suppresses the data, and with only accomplice testimony left the case is dismissed. Riley takes ten years and Chris twelve. Fin tells Carisi, who requested the records, that anyone would have done the same. Tony’s mother says Carol was all her son talked about in his senior year of high school, though his prom photo shows him alone.
The detectives bring Carol face to face with Tony. She says she has never seen him before.
Spoiler, the ending: As they mention the prom, Tony erupts, reciting her old address, her favorite foods and the cell number where he says he left a message asking her to the prom. He says he killed John because John had a life he did not, and that he took what was his, and he is arrested again. Carol tells him that was never her number.
Why it stands out
- Callie Thorne returns as defense attorney Nikki Staines, a role she first played in Season 5.
- The squad’s case runs into Carpenter v. United States, the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that police generally need a warrant to obtain cell-phone location records, and the dialogue also cites the van attack in Toronto carried out by a self-described incel.