Swimming with the Sharks (Season 21, Episode 15)
Premise: A wellness CEO reports that her finance chief raped her, then is accused of fraud and sexual assault herself as her executives work to push her out.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 21, Episode 15
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Katriona “Kat” Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Bureau Chief Vanessa Hadid (Zuleikha Robinson)
- Guest stars
- Radha Mitchell as Luna Prasada, Samantha Mathis as Melanie Franks, Stark Sands as Bobby Frost, Eshan Bay as Vinay Gupta, Kim Wuan as Tisa Chee
- Director
- Martha Mitchell
- Writers
- Story: Warren Leight & Julie Martin; Story & teleplay: Lisa Takeuchi Cullen
Summary
“Swimming with the Sharks” opens with Benson as a panelist at an event for We-B-Well, a wellness company run by Luna Prasada, who calls herself its “She-E-O.” That evening Luna’s assistant, Sequoia Rees, summons Benson, and Luna says her chief financial officer, Bobby Frost, raped her in her hotel suite when he came to discuss the books before the company goes public. The rape kit finds semen and injuries, along with alcohol, marijuana and Adderall. Luna lets the squad investigate but will not press charges, fearing for the stock offering.
Bobby calls the sex consensual and says Sequoia, Luna’s lover, walked in on them; Sequoia says she found him on top of Luna as Luna screamed for help. Picked up, Bobby says Luna, born Lori Wisznewski in Hackensack, has been embezzling, and that she seduced him when he confronted her. The DA holds off on an arrest. Chief technology officer Vinay Gupta says Luna had him sign off on $800,000 to a vendor that turns out to be a shell company, and chief operating officer Melanie Franks says Luna had her approve eleven $9,000 checks to Tisa Chee, a former employee. Tisa says the money bought her silence after Luna bound her with tape and assaulted her with a sex toy at a company retreat on Lake George. An apology email and a nondisclosure agreement back her. Luna denies all of it but is arrested for embezzlement, money laundering and sexual assault and is held without bail.
Melanie becomes acting CEO. In jail, other inmates sexually assault Luna, and against the advice of her lawyer, Dara Miglani, she offers to plead guilty to crimes she cannot remember, then breaks down and is sent for psychiatric care. Benson suspects she is being gaslit. Sequoia says Luna spent the retreat in a lodge suite, not a cabin, Tisa’s phone shows late-night calls with Vinay, and Rollins finds Bobby’s pet phrases in the emails sent as Luna. Hadid will not drop the charges but has the accusers prepared for the grand jury, and Carisi confronts Tisa with the gaps until she admits that Vinay, her married lover, put her up to it. Luna realizes her passwords used a childhood phone number known to Melanie, her friend from summer camp.
Spoiler, the ending: Melanie says she never knew of a rape and cooperates, explaining that We-B-Well was her idea and that Luna had always taken what was hers. Bobby is arrested on charges of rape, conspiracy and making a false report and takes a plea of at least seven years; Vinay gets five, and Melanie walks. Luna tells Benson she has burned a lot of bridges.
Why it stands out
- Radha Mitchell guest stars as Luna Prasada.
- Samantha Mathis plays Melanie Franks, Luna’s chief operating officer and childhood friend.