This week’s episode of “Law & Order: SVU” picks up where last week’s episode left off. On a NYC-based reality TV show, four women were competing for a date with an eligible bachelor named Ryan. Benson watched the show at a bar while Rollins and Sonny watched it at Rollins’ place. Ryan and Melanie, one of the four women, went to Ryan’s bedroom, and Melanie slept with Ryan even though she didn’t remember doing so. Rollins and Sonny questioned whether Ryan had raped Melanie. When Melanie saw the footage of her and Ryan in bed together, she said that she was a virgin.
Sonny and Rollins went to the set of the reality TV show and said they needed to speak to Melanie. She told Rollins and Sonny she doesn’t remember having sex, but she was sore and felt different after her date with Ryan. Melanie said the Executive Producers insisted that Melanie wanted to sleep with Ryan.
Sonny told a production assistant that Melanie was being taken to the hospital for a rape kit, but the show’s staff said she couldn’t leave. They said Melanie signed a waiver so she couldn’t claim rape now. Finn and Sonny questioned Ryan and Ryan said Melanie gave him her virginity. Sonny told Ryan Melanie said she was unconscious while he had sex with her.
Benson met with the Executive Producers of the show, and they told her the accusation against Ryan was disturbing. They claimed Melanie said she was raped so Ryan wouldn’t pick one of the other women. In an interview Melanie did for the reality show, she said Ryan was a perfect gentleman the whole night.
Melanie said she had given that interview before she realized what actually happens. Ryan and his mother came to the station to talk to Benson and Finn. He brought his mother because she is a lawyer. Ryan told them he lied when he said he and Melanie had sex. He said he felt pressured because Melanie said she would give him her virginity if they got married. Benson told Ryan Melanie’s rape kit determined that there had been semen inside her.
The production assistant told Rollins and Benson that the man in bed with Melanie was not Ryan and that the show just made it seem like it was. They watched security video of Ryan and Melanie in which she told Ryan he was the one for her and that she would give him her virginity after marriage. Ryan then said he thought it was time to call it a night.
The other members of the reality show cast were questioned by the detectives. Production on the show was suspended until they solved the case. Sonny interviewed one of the other women, and she suggested the producers set Melanie up. Finn interviewed another of the men on the show, and the man said Ryan left the room after the cameras were done rolling for the night. Another of the women, Gigi, told Rollins that she went to bed that night with Ryan and that he wasn’t with Melanie.
Gigi told Benson that she was supposed to be the winner of the show, even though Melanie thought it was going to be her. Then Melanie showed up on the set of the show and asked where Ryan was because she had just been diagnosed with an STD as a result of being raped.
Benson and Rollins told Melanie they saw the footage. Benson told Melanie that Ryan may not have been the man that raped her. She demanded the cameras be turned off immediately and asked the producers if their contestants were checked for STDs before being cast.
Jeffrey and Regina, the head producers of the reality TV show, went to the station and told the detectives that they had more footage that the NYPD hadn’t seen yet. The footage made them believe that the producers were covering up what really happened and were guilty of tampering with evidence. It revealed that another of the contestants, Graham, was the one that got into bed with Melanie when she was unconscious. He told Benson that Melanie didn’t tell him to stop so he couldn’t be accused of rape. Benson then arrested Graham for Melanie’s rape.
Graham told Sonny the producers told him not to say anything about what happened between him and Melanie. Regina and Jeffrey did an interview in which they talked about the police investigating the show. The show aired footage of Graham being arrested for Melanie’s rape and footage of Melanie being told who her rapist really was. They talked about how their associate producer, Lizzie, knew the rape had happened and tried to hide the evidence that it had been. They then fired Lizzie live on the air.
Benson brought Lizzie in for questioning and asked her about the footage. She said Jeffrey and Regina told her to get rid of the footage where Melanie was sexually assaulted. Lizzie said she didn’t want to believe that Melanie had been raped. She confronted Jeffrey and Regina for setting her up to take the fall for the rape. Lizzie told them they lied to the police and made Melanie think she was crazy. Jeffrey and Regina covered up Melanie’s rape and secretly filmed the cast. Lizzie said the show brought out the worst in her.
Benson told Melanie Graham was going to plead guilty to rape. Melanie told Benson she thought that she and Ryan were in love, and he would ask her to marry him. Melanie was then reunited with her mother.