This episode of Law and Order: SVU begins with a scene with a man in an airport who decides to video chat with his wife. While video chatting with his wife, the doorbell rings at his house where his wife is. She answers the door and is held at gunpoint by a man dressed in black who proceeds to rape his wife. After witnessing the rape and kidnap of his wife, Christine, he has to fly back to New York City from Hong Kong. His mother notifies the police that she is missing regardless of the ransom note for $250,000 that specifically states not to involve the police. The SVU team delivers a fake ransom where the kidnappers instructed to do so and they end up catching Christine herself. As the team investigates Christine makes up false stories of her kidnappers. At first she blames three African American males for her rape and kidnap. The first person the team arrests and interrogates is her African American drug dealer who works at a natural health food store. They find that he is innocent and has nothing to do with the rape and kidnap. As the team investigates they find out that Christine is having an affair with a deliveryman. This deliveryman is responsible for the rape and kidnap of Christine but claims that she planned the whole thing and that it was a consensual fantasy of hers. The court tries to find that she is guilty with evidence of her and the deliveryman in bed together but they jury cannot unanimously decide on a verdict so it becomes a mistrial.
This episode has little representation of African Americans except for the three black men that Christine accused of raping her. The three black men accused did not even exist; only one man with dreads was an actual person. He was working in a natural health food store when the team came to ask him questions. Even though he did not commit the crime, he immediately was afraid of being questioned by the police and ran when they tried to ask him questions. The main concept of this event in this episode is using an African American as a perpetrator. A wealthy white woman who planned her own rape and kidnap was quick to blame African American males who were not even real. This goes back to the Fannie Palazzo case, which was a white woman who blamed African Americans for raping her. These themes are common, especially in Law and Order. Once again the representation of African Americans were negative as they were blamed for raping her, even though they did not exist or they were completely innocent.
This episode has little representation of African Americans except for the three black men that Christine accused of raping her. The three black men accused did not even exist; only one man with dreads was an actual person. He was working in a natural health food store when the team came to ask him questions. Even though he did not commit the crime, he immediately was afraid of being questioned by the police and ran when they tried to ask him questions. The main concept of this event in this episode is using an African American as a perpetrator. A wealthy white woman who planned her own rape and kidnap was quick to blame African American males who were not even real. This goes back to the Fannie Palazzo case, which was a white woman who blamed African Americans for raping her. These themes are common, especially in Law and Order. Once again the representation of African Americans were negative as they were blamed for raping her, even though they did not exist or they were completely innocent.