Clickbait (Season 27, Episode 4)
Premise: A 13-year-old’s near-fatal pregnancy and a wave of fake nude images lead the squad to a jealous classmate and then to the AI company whose app made the pictures.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 27, Episode 4
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), Det. Jake Griffin (Corey Cott), Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly), Chief Kathryn Tynan (Noma Dumezweni), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn), ADA Cindy “CJ” Jones (Norma Kuhling)
- Guest stars
- Vaughan Reilly as Penny Wilson, Matías De La Flor as David Huxley, Matt Jones as Lucas Boone, Owais Ahmed as Samit Junger, Saidah Arrika Ekulona as Cherise Hamlin
- Director
- Norberto Barba
- Writers
- Story: Nicholas Evangelista; Written by: Kevin Deiboldt
Summary
“Clickbait” begins when 13-year-old Penny Wilson collapses after her school bus crashes on a field trip. She is rushed into surgery with a ruptured fallopian tube, and her parents, Bridget and Jason, learn from Bruno and Griffin that she was pregnant. At a monthly check-in, Tynan again pitches Benson the deputy chief job, which Benson turns down, and suggests she take back Rollins, who Tynan hears is looking for a move.
At Penny’s private school, Lansdowne Academy, a classmate says boys have been passing around nude images of Penny, some showing her with an adult: music teacher David Huxley, who once left a Westchester school after a student’s complaint was found unfounded. In the interview Griffin loses his temper, while Huxley seems horrified by the images and offers his DNA; Benson agrees with Bruno that something is off and sends Griffin out to cool down. TARU finds the images were generated on an AI site, NU/DAI, from a school computer. Penny tells Benson the father is a 10th grader she broke up with, Bryce Cole. Bryce’s mother lets the squad search his phone, and Bryce says his new girlfriend, Haley, made the pictures out of jealousy and put Huxley in them because he gave her a C. Haley is arrested.
NU/DAI’s founder, Lucas Boone, tells Bruno and Griffin the site deletes user records. Pointing to a rise in extortion, stalking and suicides tied to fake nudes, the squad and Carisi want to charge the company itself; DA Nicholas Baxter would rather sue civilly but lets Carisi try. Boone is charged with creating and spreading child sexual material, and a skeptical judge lets the case proceed. Huxley testifies that the images cost him his job, and Carisi confronts Boone with an ad urging men to see women naked. CJ Jones finds that Boone bought out a co-founder, Samit Junger, who testifies that Boone pivoted to nude images over his warning that a model trained on photos of real children would produce child sexual abuse images, and produces emails Boone wanted destroyed.
Spoiler, the ending: The jury convicts Boone on both counts, but the judge sets the verdict aside, ruling that current law does not cover his conduct and that changes must come from Albany. Carisi notes that Junger’s testimony opens Boone to civil suits. Rollins tells Benson that Tynan has remade the Intelligence Division and she has been weighing her options; Benson says there is always a spot for her, and Rollins says she will keep an eye on Griffin and see Benson in the morning.
Why it stands out
- Tony Goldwyn appears as DA Nicholas Baxter, his role on the flagship Law & Order, the first of his several appearances this season.
- Sets up Rollins’s return to the squad: from the next episode Kelli Giddish is credited as Sgt. Amanda Rollins.