The Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode that followed, “Lime Chaser,” was also a good one, though not at the level of the Law and Order show that had preceded it. It was about a red-headed woman named Abby Clark (Maren Lord) who’s gang-raped after she passes out during a bar party to celebrate her divorce from her husband Alec (Dave Quay) – I’m not making this up, you know! I remember ini the late 1970’s NBC News did a special on Marin County, I Want It All Now!, which featured a divorce party, but this is the first time I’ve heard of one since then and, quite frankly, Alec and Abby are depicted so sympathetically and so much still in love with each other one wonders why they’re breaking up. Someone on the show even asks Abby why they’re splitting,and she says, “I thought he4’d change, he thought I wouldn’t” – a non-answer which raises more questions than it answers.It turns out the gang rape was masterminded by a family of immigrants from India named Patel – father Ray (Shawan Audan), mother Asha (Sophia Alawi) and son Sunil (Reza Nader) – who cut a deal with the bartender to feed the unsuspecting victims date-rape drugs, then kidnap the victims and take them to a fancy hotel room where the bad guys can have their wicked ways with them. The bartender spikes the drink of Abby Clark after two obnoxious middle-aged tourists from Canada specifically place an order fr a redhead – though when she finally comes to and shows up at the SVU headquarters she explains that she wasn’t completely under because redheads react to drugs rather differently from others.
The SVU detectives decide that the only way to catch the perpetrators is to send one of their women detectives in undercover to attract the attention of the gang. The choice is Detective Tonie Churlish (Jasmine Batchelor), a strait-laced African-American woman who’s just transferred from the Bronx SVU because it’s chronically corrupt and its leaders are old-school male cops who don’t think rape is that big a deal. Detective Churlish doesn’t drink alcohol (like me), and she agrees to do it if she can toss out the drink she’s served while no one is looking. Oniy – as you might have guessed from the episode title if it were flashed on the screen at the start (as some cop shows do but this onn doesn’t) the residue of churlish’s glass tests negativer for drugs because the bartender is spiking the tequila drinks not on the actual liquid, but in the slices of lime juice he gives the patrons and tells them to suck on it before they drink the drink. Churlish ends up drugged and basically helpless in a car being driven by the bad guys, but fortunately the other cops are on her trail and get to her before any actual violation happens. Afterwards series star Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) gives Churlish a chewing-out because while there’s no doubt about her integrity an d professionalism, she needs to learn compassion for others before she can be a truly effective SVU detective. The last seemed a bit gratuitous because to me her dedication and actions had been beyond reproach, but as with the Law and Order that preceded it, even this lackluster ending couldn’t detract from the overall power of the show.
