If Shakespeare wrote about sex crimes in New York … the result probably wouldn’t look like tonight’s SVU episode. This thug was no Romeo. Nevertheless, “Betrayal’s Climax” was a powerful episode, illuminating the tragic consequences of modern gang violence, misogyny, and misguided codes of honor.
Recap:
Olivia is promoted! During a beautiful ceremony, tears well up in the characters’ collective eyes (mine too). Congratulations, Sgt. Benson. After fifteen years of compassionate and dedicated service, you deserve this.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Avery lives in a posh brownstone on the Upper West Side and paints happy portraits of lovers holding hands. She’s madly in love with her Hispanic boyfriend, Manny, who lives in the projects and is trying to save money to buy his dead brother a tombstone. Avery’s patrician parents, of course, disapprove. This disapproval grows just a tad when a study-date at Avery’s house turns into a gang-rape, where three members of the notorious BX-9 gang hold a gun to Manny’s head while brutalizing Avery on her parents’ 600-threadcount Egyptian cotton sheets.
Turns out, Manny was a recent BX-9 recruit. Immediately before the assault, his friends called to say they were coming over to Avery’s house to “party,” and he knew what that meant. Raping Avery was the gang’s way of punishing Manny for botching the robbery of a pharmacy a few weeks back.
But guess who feels worse than Manny? Poor bruised Avery, who experienced orgasms during the rape, while Manny watched. She never came with Manny – [Read more…]