Immediately connecting us with the previous episode, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 25 Episode 2, “Truth Embargo,” starts with Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) out for a run wearing Maddie’s bracelet. As she goes down the street, she comes across a van that looks just like the one that took the teenage girl. Fearing the girl may be inside, Benson stops the van and opens the door, looking for Maddie. This moment is combined with flashbacks from the last time we saw Maddie. However, to Benson’s disappointment, the girl isn’t inside.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Fin (Ice-T), Velasco (Octavio Pisano) and Bruno (Kevin Kane) are in the squad room discussing a gun that was used in a recent case. When Olivia shows up, she asks if the gun could be connected to Maddie’s case. Before they can go too deep into that, Benson notices an FBI agent is waiting for her to discuss Maddie’s case since she was transported across state lines.
As Benson begins to talk to the agent, she finds out Maddie’s abduction is being treated as federal child porn charges. The agent confirms that the BAU is working on the case, and Olivia asks to see the behavioral analysis they came up with to profile the abductor.
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Fear of Sharks and a Mall Attack
Two women are in their kitchen talking about their honeymoon. One of them teases the other about choosing an island as their destination when she is afraid of water, but her partner denies this by saying she is actually afraid of sharks.
Shortly after, Natalie (Romina D’Ugo) goes shopping to find outfits for the honeymoon. While she is in the dressing room trying on a bathing suit, she hears a commotion going on outside. By the time she walks out of the dressing room, she sees several people wearing ski masks, destroying the shop, and stealing products. It is at that moment that a man locks eyes with her before following her into the dressing room.
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The police are called to the scene and SVU shows up because a saleswoman was groped. She is the one talking to Bruno and Velasco about what happened to her and what she saw. In the meantime, Benson goes inside the shop to see the crime scene. It is then that she finds Natalie hiding in a back room.
She is showing clear signs of having been assaulted. Olivia asks Fin to call a bus while she gives her coat to Natalie and makes sure to walk her outside.
Doubting NYPD
Bruno and Benson are the ones to interview Natalie at the hospital. At first, she says she can’t remember what happened. However, she ends up telling them about the commotion and the man who followed her into the dressing room. When the detective and captain ask if she saw the man’s face, Natalie shuts down and asks for her partner.
At the same time, her partner, Brooke (Keeley Miller), is talking to Fin and Velasco, who are sharing details of the crime with her. The partner seems extremely frustrated, and her anger is directed towards the NYPD. She believes they aren’t doing enough and that they never handle cases properly.
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After interviewing the victim, Benson steps out of the hospital and is seen on the phone asking for backup because of the press present outside. She doesn’t want them harassing her victim. It is then that Bruno joins her and tells her he has a friend in a different task force who has the video of what happened at the store.
A Collaborative Squad
The entire squad gets together to watch the video of what happened, and they find out the man followed Natalie into the dressing room and then removed his mask. This means that Natalie did see his face but refused to tell the detectives about it.
Aside from the video, Velasco shows the team the social media account of one of the men present in the robbery. When they watch the video he posted, they discover he was posing next to the man who attacked Natalie, so he is their best lead.
They are able to locate the guy who posted the video, and they show up at his house. Olivia and Fin arrest him, and then Bruno and Carisi (Peter Scanavino) interrogate him. At first, he takes his shirt off, saying he will give back everything he stole. But they don’t care about that.
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Carisi shows him photos of Natalie and asks him what he knows. He says that no one was supposed to get hurt, and he will only give up the name of the guy in the video with him if they offer him a deal. That doesn’t seem to get the team anywhere until Bruno shows up, saying his friend’s task force came across a discord chat about the assault.
He also mentions multiple men were arrested in connection to the robbery. Benson’s first instinct is to say she will run all of them until she finds the man who attacked Natalie. While Carisi says she is doing this because she still feels guilty about Maddie, Fin promises to pull an all-nighter with her if necessary.
Mugshots and IDs
The solution they come up with instead of running everyone who was arrested is to show the saleswoman and Natalie the mugshots to see if they recognize the men who attacked them. The saleswoman recognizes her assailant immediately. When they go after this guy, Fin ends up telling Benson that the boy is looking for a deal, so he gives up the name of the man who is reselling all the products that were stolen.
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As for Natalie, she becomes reluctant to ID someone when Benson tells her the photos are mugshots of all the men who were arrested. It is then that Benson confirms there was no DNA found in her rape kit. Bruno also tells her they saw the video of the man following her into the dressing room and taking his mask off. Natalie continues to say she didn’t see who he was.
Squad Room Under Attack
The only lead they have at the moment is the man who is reselling the products. When they ask him about the rape, he says he doesn’t know anything about the rape. As they are questioning him, there is a commotion outside, and several masked men walk into the squad room and begin destroying everything around them.
When Benson walks out of her office, she finds a young policewoman holding one of the men at gunpoint. She tells the officer to stand down and orders everyone not to shoot. She is asking for backup again, but no one seems to be coming.
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After the attack in the squad room, Carisi shows up, and they discover that Travis (Tommy Nelson), the guy who first tried to get a deal, was involved in the attack. In the meantime, the squad room is being cleaned, and things are slowly going back to normal.
Giving a Name to the Attacker
Because Travis was involved in the attack on SVU, he is brought back to the interrogation room, and Carisi tells him the charges against him are now much higher. It is then that he begins talking and confesses he has known Natalie’s attacker since he was in the fifth grade. His name is Jay.
They bring Jay into the interrogation room, but Carisi says they have a problem because there was no DNA in the rape kit, and Natalie was shaky on who she saw attack her.
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Olivia brings Natalie in to update her on the case. She tells her that they have arrested someone but need her to make an ID on the lineup. Natale is still standing by the fact that she didn’t see the man who raped her. However, Olivia convinces her to do the lineup and walks her through what it will look like.
During the lineup, Natalie immediately recognizes the man who attacked. But the defense lawyer says they have nothing, no DNA, and a victim who couldn’t recognize her attacker at first.
When it seems as if Jay is going to get away with what he did to Natalie, Benson realizes the liner inside the bathing suit was missing. That is the only piece of evidence that might help them nail the guy.
A Shaky Trial
The trial begins with Benson taking the stand and testifying about how she came to realize they could find DNA evidence in the bathing suit’s liner. The defense lawyer isn’t all too happy with this and says it could be manufactured evidence.
After Olivia’s testimony, she talks to Brooke about how Natalie is feeling. But Brooke’s main concern is on the inequities of the justice system and the fact that Jay may not get a fair trial. She also fights Benson on how she is possible to do this job every day.
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Benson is now concerned about Natalie, so she and Carisi talk to her. But by the end of the conversation, Olivia is feeling worried about the fact that she may have pushed too hard. Once again, Maddie’s case is brought up and Carisi reassures her by telling her she is the only one who will be able to catch this perp.
When Natalie takes the stand, she seems to be doing well until Carisi asks her to identify her rapist in the room. She freezes, doesn’t answer the question from either him or the judge, and Carisi ends up asking for a recess.
White Guilt
Natalie opens up to Benson and Carisi as to why she is so afraid to testify against Jay. Growing up, her parents fostered many kids and one time because she dared one of her brothers to steal gum, he ended up in juvie. Because this affected his life for the worst, Natalie is afraid the same will happen to Jay.
Benson is the one who manages to convince her to testify. She reminds her that she is doing the wrong thing for the right reason and that when Jay saw the chance to hurt her, he took it. This is what pushes Natalie to take the stand once more and point to Jay when Carisi asks her who raped her.
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However, the defense lawyer calls this white guilt, questioning why she is now finally accusing Jay and wondering if she was pushed to do it.
After hearing Natalie’s testimony, the defense lawyer and Jay show up at Carisi’s office asking for a plea. The teenager talks about his life and how he had felt invisible for a long time. He then confesses to the rape saying he took something from Natalie that he cannot give back.
Truth Embargo
While Carisi tells Benson to enjoy the fact that they were able to give Natalie the justice she deserves, she is unable to do so. Her mind is only with Maddie and the fact that she couldn’t stop her from being abducted.
The episode ends with the two going out for drinks and Benson asking Carisi to go over the report from the BAU with her.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs Thursdays at 9 PM on your NBC affiliate.
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