Debatable (Season 24, Episode 20)
Premise: A teenage debater who torched her team’s bus says she was raped, and the trail leads from her teammates to the married coaches who took her under their wing.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 24, Episode 20
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Det. Joe Velasco (Octavio Pisano), Det. Grace Muncy (Molly Burnett), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), Det. Tonie Churlish (Jasmine Batchelor)
- Guest stars
- Olivia Daponde as Naomi Hayes, Erin Neufer as Helene Young, Dan Bittner as Parker Young, Josh Caras as Colin Sharpe, Virginia Newcomb as Amber Hayes
- Director
- Jean de Segonzac
- Writers
- Story: Julie Martin & Kathy Dobie & Nolan Dunbar; Teleplay: Brianna Yellen & Kelly Minster
Summary
“Debatable” follows the Birchfield Prep debate team from Albany to Manhattan for the East Coast finals. Naomi Hayes, 17, the team’s only girl, rides with coaches Helene and Parker Young instead of on the bus with boys who mock her, and she and Todd Edmondson win the first round. After a drink at the boys’ party she leaves, and later that night she slashes the bus seats and sets it on fire. Benson and Muncy see signs of an assault and find that Naomi cuts herself. She admits to sex she did not want after the party but will not name anyone and does not want her mother, Amber, to know.
Her rape kit shows semen and injuries, with no match in the database. The boys from the party deny assaulting her, and Booker Green’s father refuses to let the police take his son’s DNA, but Booker says he knows who did it and shows a video. Naomi then tells Benson the Youngs drew her in with rides, dinners and wine, and later kissing with Helene while Parker watched. That night, she says, Helene held her down and Parker raped her. The couple call it a consensual relationship and paint Naomi as a troubled liar from a hard home. Carisi charges both with first-degree rape. Their joint lawyer, Elaine Samuels, scoffs at his offer of a ten-year plea and unveils a surprise witness: former debate star Colin Sharpe, who says his own affair with the coaches was consensual.
At trial, Samuels attacks Naomi for first blaming the boys, and Naomi fears the jury did not believe her. The squad learns Colin dropped out of Harvard in his first year and has since piled up DUIs and assault cases; Velasco hears from his old resident adviser about heavy drinking and drugs, and Fin, chatting with Colin in a restroom, hears him say he was only interested in Helene. On the stand, Colin describes sex with the Youngs from the age of 17. Under Carisi’s cross-examination, he admits he consented only to Helene, that Parker’s part was the price of being with her, and that he fell apart after the couple dropped him for a new protégé, then breaks down shouting at Helene.
Spoiler, the ending: The Youngs plead guilty to attempted first-degree rape, and Parker reads an apology at sentencing. Naomi thanks Carisi and says she might become a lawyer herself. Fin finds Colin, apologizes for deceiving him and tells him his story is not over, since he is still only on academic probation.
Why it stands out
- Olivia Daponde plays Naomi Hayes, with Erin Neufer and Dan Bittner as her coaches, Helene and Parker Young, and Josh Caras as former debater Colin Sharpe.
- Rollins, who left the squad earlier in the season, is mentioned but not seen: Carisi heads home to her and her daughters for takeout.