Volition (Season 28, Episode 1)
Premise: A young woman says two friends and a man she had just met raped her after a night of drinking, and SVU runs up against a law that offers little protection to victims who drank by choice.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 28, Episode 1
- Starring
- Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Sgt. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Sgt. Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish), Det. Terry Bruno (Kevin Kane), Det. Jake Griffin (Corey Cott), Capt. Renee Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly), ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. (Peter Scanavino), ADA Aidan Hawkins (Jelani Alladin)
- Guest stars
- Lizzy DeClement as Emily Dawson, J. Smith-Cameron as Gwen Sharpe, Lindsay Mendez as Andrea Vargas, Matthew Nikitow as Josh Berger, Lisa Bostnar as Stephanie Berger
- Director
- Brenna Malloy
- Writers
- Michele Fazekas
Summary
“Volition,” the Season 28 premiere, follows Emily Dawson, who tells Benson at a hospital that she thinks she was raped after a night of heavy drinking. When a nurse keeps answering for her, Benson asks to hear only what Emily herself recalls: ending up in a bed at her friend Josh Berger’s house with Josh on top of her, Daniel Sutcliff and Scott Paletta there too, and asking for her phone. She cannot say whether she ever said no. Her blood alcohol is 0.17, and the squad notes that under New York law intoxication makes it rape only if the victim was physically helpless or drugged without consent.
Scott insists Emily was eager and fully awake; Daniel blames her flirting and reveals Josh’s old crush; Josh says only that she asked him to lie down with her. Josh’s mother, Stephanie, has washed the bedding and stays silent until Benson warns her that excusing a son harms him. She then gives up webcam footage in which Josh wants to send Emily home and is told she will remember nothing of whatever they do. Carisi charges all three with first-degree rape, and they are held without bail despite a plea from their shared lawyer, Andrea Vargas.
Carisi is mentoring Aidan Hawkins, a Harvard Law graduate fresh from criminal court. A jury consultant, Gwen Sharpe, flags two jurors to strike and later tells Benson she would not have gone to trial. Vargas presses Emily on her drinking and on having told Benson she does not remember saying no. Vargas offers a plea to forcible touching with time served; Carisi means to take it over Benson’s and Hawkins’s objections, but the jury deadlocks and the judge declares a mistrial, keeping the men in custody.
Emily says she cannot face another trial. Sharpe seeks Benson out; Benson voices anger that juries still blame women for drinking, and Sharpe, hinting at her own history with such crimes, urges her to fight differently. Benson asks Hawkins, rather than Carisi, for a warrant to arrest Stephanie Berger for obstruction. He calls it pressure on an innocent woman but backs it and suggests adding a conspiracy charge. With his mother in custody and a court-appointed lawyer, Steve Kaplan, Josh agrees to plead to second-degree rape and testify if she is freed. Carisi accuses Benson of going behind his back; she calls it a win.
The ending
Spoiler: At the retrial, Josh testifies that Scott took Emily’s phone when she tried to get a ride home, undressed her after she passed out and directed the order in which the three men raped her while she drifted in and out of consciousness. The jury finds Daniel Sutcliff and Scott Paletta guilty of first-degree rape.
Case outcome: Daniel Sutcliff, guilty verdict; Scott Paletta, guilty verdict; Stephanie Berger, no verdict or plea. Prosecuted by Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr. Conviction rates
Why it stands out
- The episode introduces Jelani Alladin as ADA Aidan Hawkins, a new recurring prosecutor whom Carisi is training.
- J. Smith-Cameron joins the season’s recurring cast as Gwen Sharpe, a jury consultant who tells Benson she has a personal history with the kinds of crimes SVU handles.