Carisi (Peter Scanavino) is extra motivated to see the victims get justice in Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 4, "Constricted," as he’s reminded of what it’s like to be the father of young girls.
When teenagers Hannah (Maya Drake) and Ryan (Landon Maas) decide they're ready to lose their virginity to one another, they both get some interesting advice and help from their parents. On the night in question, however, things go terribly wrong and Hannah winds up in the hospital. As Olivia (Mariska Hargitay) and the SVU squad work to get to the bottom of what happened, they learn some surprising information, while a subsequent incident tips the scales. But can Carisi keep his feelings in check as a father with daughters so he can make the case?
Here’s everything that happened in Law & Order: SVU season 26 episode 4.
Teen love loses its innocence
Allison (Rosie Benton) chastises her daughter Hannah for not eating all of her breakfast when she notices Hannah’s computer keeps making notification noises. When the mom takes a peek, she sees an explicit conversation her daughter has been having with her boyfriend Ryan. At Ryan’s home, Josh (Troy Garity) sees his son enamored with his phone and snatches it out of his hands to read the same explicit messages.
Hannah is upset her mom invaded her privacy, but Allison questions why Hannah just didn’t tell her she was thinking about having sex. Allison isn’t sure Hannah is ready, but her daughter says she loves Ryan. Then after learning Hannah and Ryan planned to have sex at their friend’s house, Allison shockingly offers Hannah the opportunity to have sex in their home. Allison agrees to step out for the night to give the young couple privacy but cautions her to be careful.
Back at the Blake home, Josh inquires what his son knows about sex. Not sure Ryan knows everything he needs to, Josh calls off work for the morning to have an in-depth conversation with him.
Later that night, the teens enjoy a date at a restaurant, where Ryan is able to sneak them a little alcohol. Once they wrap things up, they go to Hannah’s house to do the big deed. Unfortunately, in the next beat, Allison is accompanying her daughter being wheeled into the hospital with bruising on her neck and a concussion.
What happened to Hannah?
After getting into a confrontation when his 9-year-old daughter Jesse (Charlotte Cabell) was ogled on the street, Carisi asks Olivia for some advice. Olivia is sorry that happened but also warns he’ll soon be the father of two teenage girls, so he’s going to have to learn to keep his temper in check as a district attorney. The colleagues and friends are interrupted when Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) walks in and tells them a 16-year-old girl is in the hospital and there is suspicion of sexual assault.
At the hospital, Olivia and Curry speak to Hannah, who claims she doesn’t remember having sex with Ryan. She recalls them coming home from dinner and making out but vaguely remembers falling out of bed. Her memory is fuzzy from there, but she eventually asked Ryan to go home so she could go to sleep. When Olivia asks about marks on her neck, Hannah says they were buzzed and rolling around.
Speaking with Hannah’s doctor, Curry and Olivia learn Hannah has a grade three concussion and partial amnesia, which should clear in a day or two. The bruising on her neck was done by one hand, possibly two. Without a rape kit, the doctor can’t confirm if Hannah had sex. Hannah winds up getting one.
Later, Allison and Hannah come to the squad room. The mom asks what the rape kit says? It showed that Hannah had sex, which prompts the teen to reveal at first, sex was fun but it’s still a bit of a blur. She recalls they were kissing, then Ryan started taking their clothes off. They had sex face-to-face initially, but then Ryan wanted to try something. He turned her over on her stomach and was holding onto her by her neck. Hannah says she tried to tell him he was hurting her and wanted him to stop, but she doesn’t think he heard her as it was hard for her to speak with hands on her neck. She assumes she passed out and when she woke up, Ryan told her she hit her head on the nightstand.
Another tragedy leads to a shocking arrest
Carisi is furious when he learns this information and wants Ryan brought to the station for questioning immediately. Olivia doesn’t think he should be in the interrogation room given how triggered he is thinking about his own daughters, but he insists he can handle himself.
However, when Ryan, his attorney and his mom speak with Fin (Ice-T) and Carisi, the prosecutor holds no punches. He shows Ryan pictures of Hannah’s bruising and pressures him to reveal why he would do that to a girl he loves. Ryan alleges older boys on the fencing team showed him a video and said this is what girls like. By the end of the interrogation, there’s not enough to hold Ryan and he walks out of the precinct.
Detective Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) interrupts a subsequent conversation between Olivia and Carisi, revealing they received another call about a young girl being choked. Arriving at the scene, Silva and Velasco (Octavio Pisano) learn from a witness that 12-year-old Eliza Quinn was attacked by teens Toby (Jaden Waldman) and Andrew (Domenic Innarella). The boys lifted up her skirt and were choking her. In an effort to get away, Eliza ran into the street, only to be hit by a car. She would later die in the hospital.
During interrogation, Andrew reveals he learned about the choking from a video he saw. When Carisi and Fin ask who gave Andrew the video, the teen claims his cousin did, and his cousin got the video from his dad. His cousin turns out to be Ryan. Carisi immediately wants to charge Josh with endangering the welfare of a child.
Olivia gets a phone call from Fin about a domestic disturbance at the Blake home. Ryan called the police as his parents are in a heated argument, with his mom furious at Josh. She blames him for what’s happening with Ryan and the charges her nephew is now facing for Eliza Quinn’s death. After Fin escorts Josh out of the house and Olivia sends Ryan to his room, Ryan’s mom reveals her husband was frequently watching porn on a VR headset that he’s now thrown away. She goes on to say Ryan told her that Josh showed him the porn, that’s where he got the idea about the choking. SVU finds the headset in the nearby trash outside.
As the episode wraps, Olivia asks Carisi what charges Josh is looking at? Carisi says not many, likely just child endangerment. While Josh may not serve a lot of time, his wife is divorcing him and Eliza’s parents are suing him in civil court.
New episodes of Law and Order: SVU air on Thursdays on NBC and become available the next day on Peacock.
