In Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 12, "Calculated," Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) and Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) respond to a call about teens exchanging nude photos of each other. But as the detectives do more digging into the case, they realize it's way more than just two teens, and the culprit responsible for the criminal chaos is a college advisor. Matters become even more complicated when Olivia and Carisi (Peter Scanavino) disagree on how to prosecute the case.
Later, Silva finds herself reluctantly doing her job as she’s forced to arrest a suspect she believes is “innocent.” Luckily for her, she finds an ally in Olivia, but will Olivia be able to help? Here’s what happened in Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 12.
Adam Parker and 60 teens
Eli Sanders (Theodore Olson-Johnson) and his two friends walk into Harrington Prep when he receives a topless photo of a girl he barely knows. As the trio stares at the photo, the headmaster catches them in the act and confiscates the phone. The headmaster calls SVU.
Oliva and Silva meet with the headmaster, who says Eli received the unsolicited image from a 16-year-old girl he only met once. Talking with Eli, they learn her name is Leah (Victoria Russell), who attends Elsworth Academy. Furthermore, Eli received the picture on an app called Ghost Letter. Olivia leaves to see if TARU can verify Eli’s story by looking at his phone, while Silva goes to speak with Leah and her parents.
Leah tells Silva and Bruno (Kevin Kane) she didn’t send Eli the picture, but admits to taking it. She actually sent it to Oliver (Ryan Anthony Holcomb), a kid who attends her school. When Fin (Ice-T) and Velasco (Octavio Pisano) question Oliver, he shares he never received photos from Leah and doesn’t even have the Ghost Letter app on his phone, which the detectives verify.
Later, TARU is able to get into the account of the person who posed as Oliver. This person has 60 other accounts, all of which he’s pretending to be a teen to solicit nudes. Olivia wants her squad to find out who was impersonating these kids.
Talking one-on-one with Leah, Silva learns that in addition to Math League, Leah knows Eli because they have the same college advisor, Adam Parker (Jared Canfield). Eli confirms this and Oliver mentions that Adam is his advisor as well. SVU arrests Adam at his apartment.
Olivia and Carisi clash
After TARU was unable to find any child pornography on Adam’s computer, Olivia and Carisi speak with him and his attorney in the interrogation room. Adam admits to being an opportunist but not a pedophile. His attorney offers to give them a list of the buyers of these images, which is at least 50 people. He further notes that the encryption on his computer to access the list can only be accessed with a special key he owns.
Carisi is willing to hear him out, but Olivia is adamantly against making a deal; because Adam sold pics to people internationally, she says the matter is for the feds and maybe even INTERPOL. Olivia storms out to call the feds, but Carisi begs her to hear him out first. Carisi wants to take down 50 pedophiles and is willing to offer Adam a deal. Liv is still not on board to give Adam any leniency.
The following day, Carisi walks into the squad room and says the DA and Feds are making a deal with Adam for his list. To draw these guys out, Olivia wants to set up a sting at a hotel using Silva as bait while Adam handles the messaging.
Silva defends a suspect
Eight hours into messaging the men from Adam’s list, only five of them have agreed to meet 14-year-old Amy (which is Silva) at the hotel. Olivia isn’t happy with the number and assumes Adam is playing them.
Olivia and Carisi threaten to call the deal off since Adam isn’t really delivering. That’s when Adam tells them he’s willing to share where he met his clients online in the first place, noting the guys on the site like to hurt kids. He gives them a site called Wish Crafter. Once SVU gains access to it, they immediately get 30-plus people to agree to meet at the hotel. Silva messages with a guy she assumes is a teen or kid. Carisi tells her TARU puts his age at 32, so the attorney dismisses her concerns.
The next day at the hotel, the sting operation commences and they arrest several people. As Fin, Bruno and Silva walk out of the hotel room, they pass by an adult with an intellectual disability who turns out to be Matthew (Nik Sharp), the man Silva had previously expressed concerns about messaging. She doesn’t want to arrest him, but Fin says Carisi wants 50 arrests to appease the DA. In addition, Fin tells her if they don’t arrest Matthew, a good defense attorney will have all the other arrests thrown out for entrapment. Matthew is cuffed.
When Silva gets the opportunity to speak with Olivia, she begs her boss to help get Matthew’s case dropped. Olivia in turn goes to Carisi and shows him Matthew’s medical file. Matthew has the cognition of a fifth grader. Carisi pushes back that it’s up to Matthew’s defense attorney to get him out of this legal mess.
At Matthew’s arraignment, Carisi can see Matthew for himself and looks thoughtful about prosecuting him. However, Carisi still requests that the judge give Matthew the same bond amount as the other assailants. In the hallway, Silva assures Matthew and his mother that she’s going to fix this.
What happens to Matthew?
Olivia goes to Carisi and explains she’s planning to go to his boss, Baxter (Tony Goldwyn), to get Matthew’s case dismissed. She’d like them to be on the same page, but she is willing to go above her friend’s head.
The SVU captain and ADA spot Baxter in the parking garage before he leaves. Olivia pleads Matthew’s case, and Baxter tells her a lot of people in his office think she’s a pain because she gets personally invested in each case. Baxter wants Carisi’s opinion; Carisi wants to ask the judge to be merciful and not punitive. Baxter agrees to read over the case.
The next day, Olivia shares with Silva she got the DA to drop Matthew’s case. At the apartment of Matthew and his mom, Silva informs them that the case against Matthew has been dropped. Lastly, Olivia tells Leah they tracked down everyone who had her photo and they didn't send it to anyone else, making Leah very relieved.
New episodes of Law and Order: SVU air on Thursdays on NBC and become available the next day on Peacock.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
