Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 11 recap — company sells more than just insurance

In Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 11, "Deductible," Kyra (Nicole Zyana), a young assistant at an insurance company is excited when her boss gives her a chance to jump to sales and close her first big client. Unfortunately, her meeting with Jim Hogan (Michael McGrady), the CEO of an aviation business, goes horribly wrong when he forces himself on her.

Did Kyra’s boss Frank Bailey (David Alan Basche) have a hand in her assault? That’s what Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) and her team set out to prove. Here’s what happened in Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 11.

What happened to Kyra?

Kyra walks her 9-year-old brother Jay (Leo Easton Kelly) to the subway station so he can head to school. She’s his sole caregiver as their parents died a year prior. After parting ways, she goes to work.

Once there, Kyra hands out coffee orders to associates when Frank requests to see her in his office. He introduces her to Jim and tells Kyra she’ll be joining them later that evening to hammer out a deal for the insurance company to represent Jim’s business. Kyra is shocked she’s being given the opportunity to present the sales pitch, but agrees to meet the two men that night.

Later in Jim’s hotel room, Kyra presents her pitch as Frank looks on. Frank gets a call he says is an emergency and says he has to go, but leaves Kyra to finish closing the deal. Left alone, Jim spills wine on his shirt and steps into the bathroom to clean up. When he emerges he starts caressing Kyra and making her uncomfortable.

The next day in the SVU squad room, Officer Moore (Kyle Kankonde) introduces Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) to Jay, who is worried that his sister didn’t come home. Olivia asks why this isn’t a missing person’s case. Moore says she found out Kyra is at the hospital and doctors believe she was sexually assaulted. Olivia goes to check on Kyra.

At the hospital, Kyra tells Olivia she wants to leave without getting a rape kit, hesitant about what it could mean for her job. Olivia gently nudges Kyra to at least tell her what happened. Kyra does, but says she’s nervous she's in trouble for blowing the deal. They’re interrupted by a flower delivery sent from Jim thanking her for a good evening. The flowers push Kyra to get a rape kit.

Is Frank the mastermind?

Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) and Velasco (Octavio Pisano) meet up with Frank, who gives his side of the story. Frank tells the detectives he left Kyra in the hotel because his son was sick. He felt she was ready to make the sales pitch because he mentored her for over a year. He also mentions that Jim said the pitch went well. Velasco informs Frank that Kyra was assaulted. Frank can’t believe it because when he called Kyra about her commission check, she sounded happy.

Fin (Ice-T) and Silva speak with Jim, who calls Kyra was a great saleswoman and initially says nothing physical happened. He eventually admits he “took his shot.” Fin and Silva press for more and when Silva mentions Kyra is accusing him of sexual assault, he completely denies it and lawyers up.

Olivia and Carisi (Peter Scanavino) are discussing the case in her office when Silva comes in and informs them that Jay called and Kyra won’t stop crying. Olivia and Silva immediately go over to Kyra’s apartment.

Kyra tells Oliva her company gave her a $50,000 commission check. She shares that Jim also called Frank to apologize and added a little extra to the check. Kyra starts questioning if she’s confused about what happened. Olivia gets a notification about Kyra’s rape kit results, which help confirm Kyra’s story. Fin and Velasco arrest Jim.

During an interrogation with his lawyer, Jim continues to deny the rape. He says he figured Kyra was his “closing gift.” When he met with Frank earlier in the day of the assault, Frank said he had a “deal sweetener” for him and brought Kyra into the office. Jim also mentions Frank lied about his son’s peanut allergy, and he purposefully left Kyra and Jim alone.

Kyra’s COO Grace (Lucy Owen) later drives Kyra to SVU to answer some follow-up questions. Alone with Kyra, Olivia shares what Jim told them, and Kyra is taken aback that her boss would “pimp” her out. Frank’s wife confirmed she never called her husband that night about a medical emergency.

Olivia asks if Frank had any leverage over Kyra to make him think he could force her to do more to close the deal with Jim. Kyra says she misplaced $2,000 of the company's money while running errands for the office Christmas party. Kyra thought she was going to be fired or arrested, which would have resulted in her brother being taken from her. Frank suggested they find a way to work things out by moving her up to sales and her earning commission. Frank said if she closed the deal with Jim, he would write off the money she lost. Olivia calls Frank’s actions coercion.

Is Frank guilty?

Olivia and Fin brief Carisi on what they know. Carisi wants them to see if there are other victims to help establish a pattern. Oliva meets with Grace one-on-one and asks her for a list of all the young and impressionable women she’s hired over the years. Grace is not initially receptive, but Olivia mentions she could get a subpoena to see who at the company called Frank that night Kyra was assaulted, as records show someone from the office did.

SVU interviews several women who give similar accounts of Frank hiring them and requesting they be “table candy” for potential clients. A few of these former employees even note Frank wanted them to have sex with clients, and one accused Frank of trying to blackmail her into playing ball with a client by threatening to expose nudes of her he found to her family. Hearing all the accounts, SVU arrests Frank.

During Frank’s trial, things look shaky for the prosecution. Carisi tells Olivia he needs another victim or someone who colluded with him. She gets the idea to confront Grace as she’s leaving work. Grace says she’s not testifying against her boss. Olivia notes she’s been with Frank for 20 years, has a big stake in the company and is COO. Olivia stresses things are different from when she was rising in the ranks of the company. The young girls now should be able to look to her for help.

The next day, Grace shows up in court and testifies that Frank assured her the day of the assault that Kyra was willing to provide sexual favors to Jim if that’s what Jim wanted. Grace also claims the money Kyra allegedly lost never actually went missing, rather Frank took the money out of her purse to gain leverage over her. Lastly, Grace admits Frank did something similar to her 20 years ago. Grace regrets sacrificing her conscious for the sake of her career and allowing young women to be hurt because of that decision.

The jury finds Frank guilty of two counts of coercion. He’s only looking at a couple of years in prison, so Carisi is going after Frank for perjury for lying under oath. If found guilty, he’ll face five to 15 years in prison.

New episodes of Law and Order: SVU air on Thursdays on NBC and become available the next day on Peacock.