Law and Order

A man is found in garage with a stab wound in his groin. Jerry Bullard is his name, and no one can figure out a reason as to why he got stabbed. Jerry is happily married man with no hidden secrets. At first the polic suspect the "neighborhood weirdo" Aldo, but he turns out to be innocent. He points them in the direction of a swingers club, where a couple can enter only if they have been invited by a friend. Benson and Stabler pose as a new couple at the Swinger's club. They meet Cassandra who is involved with Jerry but swings with many men. Stabler talks to Cassandra and finds out that Cassandra's boyfriend, Doug, was causing trouble and threatening Jerry. Benson and Stabler arrest Doug, but Jerry wakes up from his coma and declares that it was in fact Cassandra who stabbed him.

This turns out to be true as she was very drunk and upset that Jerry was using up his entire family's savings. It becomes clear at this point that she was using Jerry for his money. Doug is let go due to a lack of evidence, but police find out that he is still seeing Cassandra. Meanwhile DNA results from the murder scene reveal that Doug and Cassandra are actually twins, committing "twincest." The audience also learns that Doug and Cassandra are involved in an unrelated, out-of-state murder. The story ends with Jerry stabbing Doug, killing him. Jerry is convinced that Cassandra and he are destined to be together forever.

Aside from the fact that the odds of something like this happening in the real world is infinitesimal, it seems very unlikely that a Special's Victim's unit would be involved in such a case as this. In real life SVU would have turned the investigation over at mutliple points in the case, namely when they found out that Jerry was not a special victim and was a victim of his wife's anger and jealousy. The "detective work" seems to be quite a little off as well.

Some aspects of the show were more realistic, such as the court scene at Cassandra's and Doug's arraignment. Seaver seems to be prepared, but Doug's attorney, Mitch Shankman seems disorganized. This could very well be the case if Doug and Cassandra do not have enough money to afford a lawyer. A court appointed lawyer is more likely to be unorganized than a practiced attorney. Both plead not guilty which is typical of a court case. Hardwicke wants them held pending the information from the out-of-state murder. Andrews sets bail at $250K for both, and orders them to surrender their passports. This is also seen as a rational decision as this would not allow the two to leave the country. The price of the bail is also realistic.

Overall the episode really needs to be considered for what it is:  fictional entertainment. However the episode is still peppered with real life police work and court proceedings which may be mostly common knowledge, but still enlighten and reassure the viewer.