Old Friends (Season 27, Episode 20)
Premise: A woman is raped during a reunion sleepover with her oldest college friends, and every man in the house becomes a suspect.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 27, Episode 20
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Sgt. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Joe Velasco (Octavio Pisano), Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly)
- Guest stars
- Izzie Steele as Nora Pontius, Mishka Thébaud as Ryan, John Skelley as Preston Winthrop, Benny Elledge as Josh Ortega, Julia Yorks as Sophie
- Director
- Juan José Campanella
- Writers
- Story: Nicholas Evangelista; Written by: Justine Ferrara
Summary
“Old Friends” opens as Angela comes back from a bagel run to find her college friend Nora Pontius bleeding on the kitchen floor of the town house where their Columbia crowd stayed after a 20-year reunion. Suspended, Benson visits Velasco as he recovers from his gunshot wound; he urges her to fight, and she admits she no longer knows if SVU is where she does the most good. Tynan has made Fin acting supervisor, and Rollins and Curry are both newly back at SVU. Nora has injuries consistent with rape but remembers only passing out drunk, and her grandmother’s ring is missing. Door sensors show no one came in overnight, a bleached patch and a partial bloody shoe print show the scene was tampered with, and Fin takes every shoe in the house. The suspects are host Preston Winthrop, Ryan, Adam, whose wife Sophie is there, and Josh Ortega, who slipped out at 5 a.m.
Benson returns, her suspension stayed until a hearing, and leaves Fin in charge. Josh, who argued with Nora at dinner, points to the others: Adam ignores refusals, Ryan is in love with Nora, and Preston is a drug user. No shoe matches. Preston, whose hidden room holds BDSM gear and pills, admits he stepped in the blood after the attack. Angela recounts that Adam pressured her into sex in their first year, which Adam calls regret. Sophie reveals that Adam left their bed ten minutes after getting in, and as he is about to be swabbed, Adam says he and Nora had consensual sex. A mortified Nora confirms it; he left around 3 a.m., and she remembers heading for water before everything goes blank.
Preston tries to leave by helicopter and is stopped. Detectives raise a woman’s death on his family’s boat 15 years earlier, after which his parents sent him away; he says Josh asked what Nora’s ring was worth. Josh admits taking it from a sink to pawn, saying Nora owed him $2,000, but insists a bloodied shirt found in his bag is not his. A dry-cleaning tag on it leads to Long Island, where Ryan lives.
Spoiler, the ending: Ryan is arrested, and Benson questions him alone. He says he found Nora after she fell and held her, then rails that she used him for years and slept with Adam. Benson lays out her theory that he made a move, was rejected, raped Nora, hid his shirt in Josh’s bag and got rid of the condom. The episode ends on her accusation, with no confession or charge shown.
Why it stands out
- Octavio Pisano makes his second special-guest appearance of the season as Velasco, still recovering from being shot in “Deep Under.”
- With Benson suspended, Tynan names Fin acting supervisor of SVU, and he keeps the lead on the case after Benson’s suspension is stayed.