Summary: A young man walks into his girlfriend’s apartment and finds the pretty blonde in a bra and panties, tied to a chair, unconscious. Suddenly, a fat man wearing only a mask and tighty-whities jumps out and clubs the young man with a tripod. Turns out, the young woman had been exploited many years ago, when an old man who looked like a Leprechaun made child porn movies of her. Mr. Tighty-Whitey was a crazy “fan” who hunted her down in hopes of re-enacting his favorite scenes. He gets killed in jail. But the porn-making Leprechaun is still alive – no longer making movies, but writing how-to books on pedophilia. The detectives try to prosecute him, without luck. The young woman follows the SVU convention for getting justice by shooting Leprechaun in the face.
Verdict: B-
What they got right: There is an appalling real-life book called “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Code of Conduct for Child-Lovers,” which gives step-by-step advice on how to molest children. The book was recently on sale on Amazon, which initially said that pulling it would amount to censorship. After a massive public outcry, Amazon no longer sells the book. The author, Philip Greaves, was arrested two week ago on Florida state obscenity charges, after he mailed a copy to an undercover officer. We’ll see how that prosecution prevails against the inevitable First Amendment defense.
This episode also raised an important issue about the prosecution of child pornography. After the victim awoke, she spoke about how upsetting it was when men recognized her on the street. Some people think that distributing child porn is a victimless crime – no one gets hurt, they say. That’s just wrong. These movies are made with real children, little girls and boys who are forced to have sex with adults or animals or each other, sometimes in brutal or humiliating ways. If that trauma isn’t enough, these kids grow up knowing that images of themselves in their most horrifying personal moments continue to be passed around. And so they continue to be victimized.
What they got wrong: Child porn doesn’t usually end with the now-adult victim being stalked, drugged, full-body shaved, tied up, and assaulted by a jiggling, Jabba-like madman with a creepy voice-synthesizer and hockey mask. This opening scene was pretty gross without much redeeming realism.
And the DA in the last two episodes made me yell at the TV a few times. She set free the child molester whose semen was all over child porn videos (saying that wasn’t enough evidence to prove he possessed the videos), but prosecuted the 13-year-old victim from the last episode who shot the man beating his mother (saying the kid couldn’t prove he was defending Mom). I think both were really bad calls. If it were up to me, I’d vote her off the island.
All views expressed on this blog are mine alone and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Liz says
9 January, 2011 at 6:01 am“She set free the child molester whose semen was all over child porn videos (saying that wasn’t enough evidence to prove he possessed the videos), but prosecuted the 13-year-old victim from the last episode who shot the man beating his mother (saying the kid couldn’t prove he was defending Mom). I think both were really bad calls.”
Oh, thank God I’m not the only one who watched these episodes back to back and went, “WTF?” I don’t get how the kid who allegedly shot the man who was abusing him and his mother (but not in the act) was worthy of prosecution while the woman who shot the guy who had abused her and was abusing another little girl (but not in the act) got off.
That said, I thought these were two of the strongest episodes of the season.
Allison Leotta says
13 January, 2011 at 2:57 pmThanks, Liz. It’s so good to know I’m not the only one shaking my fist at the TV. 🙂 And I agree — these were two strong episodes. I also thought last night’s episode, “Mask” with Jeremy Irons, was also a high point.
David DeLee says
12 January, 2011 at 1:28 pmThanks for doing these reviews, Allison. I find the insider’s information fascinating.
I’ve always wondered about these new-tech gadgets like the smart boards and such showing up on cop shows lately. Especially the video enhancement magic they can perform. Seems a bit over the top to me.
I read somewhere Kathy Reichs has said all the forensic/lab stuff shown on the TV show Bones (which she co-produces) is all real and available but would never be found all in one place in real life. Too highly specialized.
I don’t know, give me Beckett’s white board over on Castle. Now that seems real to me.
Allison Leotta says
13 January, 2011 at 2:59 pmThanks, David. Great to hear from you. Yeah, the technology does exist — but you don’t often see it in police stations, and never all together like in SVU. Sometimes it feels like watching the Jetsons to me. The white board on Castle is much more realistic.