In Law & Order: SVU season 25 episode 4, "Duty to Report," Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) and SVU are called to investigate the sexual assault of a beloved member of Chief McGrath's (Terry Serpico) family. As the team investigates the case, it puts them at direct odds with their boss as he goes beyond the realms of good policing to get justice, which ultimately compromises his job.
Here's what happened.
Olivia gets a new case
The episode opens with a teenager named Sagaar (Krishna Doodnauth) riding a bike down a residential street until he comes to a house party. Upon going in, he announces he's looking for Shea (Grace Culwell) and is directed upstairs. Sagaar spots her on her bed.
In the next scene, Olivia meets with her therapist Dr. Heather Lentz (Tricia Paoluccio) about the unsolved kidnapping of Maddie (Allison Elaine). While the SVU captain acknowledges she's dealt with other kidnapping cases before, Maddie is different because she doesn't know what happened to the teenager. Dr. Lentz suggests this unknown is extra bothersome to Olivia because the cop is also dealing with a major unknown in her personal life. The doctor makes note of the compass necklace Olivia is wearing that Elliot (Christopher Meloni) gave her, asking Olivia, "What are you trying to navigate?"
Walking Olivia out, Dr. Lentz asks for a favor. One of her teenage patients shared she was probably the victim of a sexual assault, and the doctor would like for Olivia to speak with her. The teenager turns out to be 15-year-old Shea, Chief McGrath's daughter.
IAB to the rescue
When Olivia arrives at the McGrath home, the chief and his wife Katie (Amy Carlson) are naturally concerned to see her. She sways them into allowing her to talk to their daughter alone. It's during this one-on-one conversation Shea accuses Sagaar of forcing himself on her. Olivia takes her to the hospital to kick off an investigation.
At the hospital, Mrs. McGrath shares with Olivia that she and the chief knew Shea threw a party at their home while they were gone and that they had cameras in the house. Hoping the camera footage leads to a suspect, Olivia asks to see it but is disappointed to learn Shea put stickers on the cameras, making the footage useless.
Fin (Ice T) and Bruno (Kevin Kane) then share that since the incident occurred at McGrath's home in Brooklyn, Brooklyn SVU wants to take over the investigation. Given the case hits so close to home with their boss, Fin especially wants to let Brooklyn take it, but Olivia is opposed and sends Fin to pick up Sagaar.
In the interrogation room, Fin and Bruno speak with Sagaar, who shares he's Shea's tutor and meets with her three times a week. He claims he was at the party because Shea must have forgotten to cancel their tutoring session. When he went upstairs to see her that night, she seemed upset and her skirt was pulled up. But when Shea told him to leave he did.
Chief McGrath then shows up to see Fin and Bruno interrogating Sagaar. The chief barges in and threatens to kill Sagaar. The words are out of line, so Olivia kicks him out of the room.
Olivia's next move is to report her boss' actions to Captain Curry (Aime Donna Kelly) at IAB. Curry previously investigated Olivia and cleared her, so the SVU leader trusts her. Curry decides the best course of action is for her to assist with this investigation going forward.
Tensions rise
When Bruno meets with Sagaar again, this time with Carisi (Peter Scanavino) and Sagaar's attorney, Sagaar has an alibi for the timing of the assault, saying he went to meet with another classmate named Claire to study. Confident Claire will corroborate the claim, Sagaar and his attorney exit, threatening to pursue legal action against the NYPD for McGrath's previous threats.
Once Sagaar's story proves true, Olivia meets with Shea and her mother again, with Curry present. Shea confesses she lied before, hinting that her real attacker lives across the street from the McGrath home, which allows Mrs. McGrath to put the pieces together.
Olivia and Fin go to the Dowling home and ask to speak with Liam (Cameron Mann), but his parents object to the conversation. The father wants to call Chief McGrath to get to the bottom of things. But in the end, the entire Dowling family voluntarily goes to the SVU station to talk, where Liam only admits to having consensual sex.
With accusations made, things get tense between the McGrath and Dowling families. The patriarchs clash, with Liam's dad calling Shea a "slut," causing an angry McGrath to pull a gun on him. Olivia manages to calm the chief down from this heated moment.
Since the case doesn't have enough to go to trial, Olivia and her team seek the help of other people who attended the party and camera phone footage. This eventually leads them back to Sagaar, who happened to have a camera in the bike helmet he was wearing the night of the attack. Bruno is perplexed as to why Sagaar didn't share the video with police earlier, and Sagaar provides a weak excuse.
Thanks to the bike camera video, SVU sees Shea tell another girl she was raped. Once SVU has her testimony, Liam is ultimately arrested and he takes a plea deal.
SVU gets a new teammate
With the case solved, Olivia is relaxing at an upscale bar when she's approached by Curry. The IAB captain shares that McGrath is on modified duty and One Police Plaza were already vetting candidates to fill his position. Curry then mentions her desire to want to do more to make a difference and she'd like to do so with SVU. Olivia gladly welcomes her to the squad.
New episodes of Law & Order: SVU debut on Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT on NBC. Episodes become available the next day on Peacock.
