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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 4 Episode 2

Deception

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8.7

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 10/4/02

A family portrait painted by a kindergartner leads the detectives to investigate her mother for child sexual abuse of her teenage stepson. When the boy's father is found murdered, the focus of the investigation shifts to the boy -- and his stepmother goes to great lengths to protect him and prevent the detectives from learning the truth.moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (5)

Some stuff who I didn't like about this episode

3.0

By Chipsaren, Apr 24, 2013

For example. Can people in authority really attack a journalist to get them to say what they know about something?! They certainly could in in this episode. If I was that journalist, I wouldn't have said anything, when these people trying to force me to talk. They where abusing their power.
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There's nothing worse than a mediocre episode...

7.0

By svufanatic28, Mar 13, 2011

Okay perhaps a downright bad episode is worse but mediocre ones always get to me because they have so much potential. This episode certainly had a couple of clever twists (particularly the brilliant move to abuse spousal privilage) and couple of good lines, but overall it was just well boring and predicatable. I also didn't particularly care for the guest star whose name I can't remember at the moment. She didn't have the sex appeal to pull off the role. This is another episode that shows just how sleazy Trevor Langdon can be and the fact that Alex went on a date with him AFTER this episode just makes me wonder what exactly the writer's were smoking when they decided to do that. But, anyway, as much as I think this was a mediocre episode of this show, it only goes to prove that even the mediocre episodes of this show are better than the "best" episodes of most other shows.moreless
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An interesting episode...

4.0

By Vanture, Mar 13, 2011

When a family portrait painted by a kindergartner leads the detectives to investigate her mother for child sexual abuse of her teenage stepson. This episode was extremely interesting in that the mother was an actor. And this pointed towards a sexual relation. Stabler and Benson are at the scene. Normally I would right a long review, but this interview hardly entertained me. Aside from the entertaining story between Kyle and his mother. To tell you the truth, the fact that the son was abused, it seemed that it was most likely. This episode was sick, and wrong. I didn't like this episode at all..moreless
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Not the best episode of SVU ever made, but fair. I believe that even the fairly average episodes, such as this, are better than most of the junk on TV, even as a rerun.moreless

6.9

By Vessa289, Mar 09, 2011

This was actually one of the first episodes of SVU I ever watched, but I don’t think it dazzled me or anything. Not many twists and turns except for the whole marriage thing, which I think was very well executed and packed enough of a punch to make the episode interesting. Other than that, the themes it explored seem fairly ordinary when you’ve watched as many episodes of SVU as the average loyal fan has, and there are other episodes which have dealt with the material better. I think the idea of investigating the family based on a picture which the little girl drew is an interesting approach, and it’s a pity that she gave up the whole story so easily because I would’ve liked to have seen the detectives trying to find out what’s going on in the Fuller household for a little longer. It seemed a bit easy, but I suppose there wasn’t time if they were going to tell the rest of the story. The performances were good; Sherilyn Fenn did a good job as Gloria, she didn’t ham it up too much, and had some generally creepy predator moments. It’s always a pleasure to see Peter Hermann reprising his role as Trevor Langan, even if he didn’t have terribly much to do here.moreless
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Law and Order Special Victims Unit!

8.5

By ourkissgoodbye, Mar 09, 2011

Detectives Benson and Stabler are called in to investigate a possible case of child abuse after five year old Chloe draws a picture of her family, in which she is crying. Benson is able to find out from Chloe that she is sad because her mother loves her step brother more than she loves her, because she noticed them spending time alone together. They find that Chloe's mother, Gloria Stanfield is having a sexual relationship with Kyle, her step son. When Mr. Fuller, Kyle's father and Gloria's husband is found murdered, the Detectives point the finger at Kyle. After a little investigation they find that Gloria may have had a hand in her husbands murder after all.

This was a good episode. It was a little twisted that Gloria was sleeping with her step son, who she later married in order to keep him from testifying against her. She is a really twisted woman, she would do whatever she could as long as she knew that she was going to come out on top. I was glad that the Detectives were able to gather enough evidence to arrest her by the end of the episode, because I really didn't want to see her get away with it.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Dann Florek	Capt. Donald Cragen
Richard Belzer	Det. John Munch
Mariska Hargitay	Det. Olivia Benson
Christopher Meloni	Det. Elliot Stabler
Ice-T	Det. Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola
Stephanie March	ADA Alexandra Cabot

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Sherilyn Fenn	Gloria Stanfield	Guest Star
Frank Grillo	Frank Barbarosa	Guest Star
Jonathan Bennett	Kyle Fuller	Guest Star
Peter Hermann	Trevor Langan	Recurring Role
Jill Marie Lawrence	Cleo Conrad	Recurring Role
Harvey Atkin	Judge Alan Ridenour	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (8)
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- Olivia Benson: (after Kyle issues divorce papers to Gloria) You're a free woman.
  Elliot Stabler: Not for long, you're under arrest for murder.
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- Olivia Benson: (to Gloria) Planned Parenthood? You're getting rid of the baby too, I guess nobody's safe around you.
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- Elliot Stabler: You're in love with a boy you've raised since he was ten years old? That's not love. That's pedophilia.
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- Elliot Stabler: Hey, we got your message, there's something wrong with our DNA sample?
  CSU Tech Burt Trevor: What did you do to my sperm?
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- Judge Alan Ridenour: (learning of Kyle and Gloria's marriage) Whether or not the defendant intended to avoid prosecution, he violated his bail agreement, bail is revoked, defendant is remanded. (to Kyle Fuller) Congratulations on your nuptials young man.
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- John Munch: (to Kyle Fuller) You have the right to an attorney. You want my advice? Don't take one that's on your mother's payroll.
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- Reporter: (to Alex) Use your brains honey, why else would she marry the kid?
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- Gloria Stanfield: (after receiving divorce papers from her stepson) You have no idea what you're doing.
  Kyle Fuller: No! You're wrong. For the first time I know exactly what i'm doing, Mom.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- John Munch: Or step-mother pulled the Woody Allen back then.
  
  Film-maker Woody Allen became infamous when he was discovered to be having an affair with Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of Allen's longtime love Mia Farrow.
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