Conversion

Recap

A girl named Anne is visiting New York with what appears to be a church group for young adults. Anne introduces a guy named Lucas to her friend Lydia, who lives in New York. Later, the group goes to some kind of bar where two dudes bother Anne and Lydia. Lydia tells them they are not interested and they go away. Father Gary approaches and seems disappointed that Lydia was the one to run the guys off.

At the hotel room, a woman knocks on the door and tells Anne that it's time for lights out and no visitors in the room. Lydia leaves. There is another knock on the door and Anne assumes it is the chaperone and hurries to turn out all the lights. She looks shocked when she opens the door.

Later, Lydia sneaks back into the room and finds Anne on the floor with her stockings down. Anne is crying.

SVU arrives on the scene and Lydia tells Olivia that Anne would never have sex with a man because she is a lesbian. Anne denies this while alone with Olivia and says she was saving herself for marriage but now is no longer a virgin.

The two guys from last night are quickly ruled out and when interviewed, Lucas quickly says it wasn't rape. He had sex with Anne to cure her of the sin of homosexuality.

Anne also claims she wasn't raped, that she was forced to have sex to save her soul. Olivia tells her that if a man had sex with her against her will, it's rape under the law. Anne says God's law supersedes man's law.

Later, Anne meets Olivia and asks her how she knows which set of laws to follow. Olivia encourages her to tell the truth and tells her she believes in God too but also knows that rape is rape and what was done to Anne was wrong.

Lucas is arrested and his defense attorney plans to argue that he has a 1st Amendment right to follow his religion, including raping people in the name of God. The defense also tries to dismiss based on 1st Amendment grounds but the judge turns them down.

Anne's parents want to take her home and are angry that she is testifying in court. Lydia shows up and is also angry because she is not being invited to testify, as the defense will claim her being a lesbian who tempted Anne was the problem. Olivia has to get into the courtroom and can't comfort her.

During Anne's testimony, the defense attorney tries to insist that she never claimed rape because she only said "he made me" and that Lydia was the one who falsely claimed rape. The defense wants to introduce a tape that Barba has never seen before. The judge wants to view the tape in chambers.

The tape shows Father Gary telling Anne that she was pressured into falsely claiming rape by the police and Anne agreeing. Olivia is angry but Barba has not given up yet.

During Father Gary's testimony, Barba points out that if Anne forgave Lucas, there must have been something to forgive. Father Gary responds by rambling about his religious beliefs not being understood properly.

Lucas makes himself look sympathetic to the jury during his testimony, claiming he loves Anne and would never hurt her.

Olivia and Barba want to go after Father Gary for being the mastermind behind this rape. Olivia learns that Lucas dropped out of 12th grade and lived with Father Gary for a year.

They approach Lucas and he reveals that Father Gary convinced him to rape Anne because they both have homosexual feelings. Father Gary once caught him with a boy.

Lucas agrees to testify against Father Gary. Father Gary takes a deal so that his church won't lose all its money and won't be stopped from being charitable. Lucas also takes a deal and gets 3 years.

Anne visits Lucas and tells him that they need to decide for themselves what God's word is, and that Lucas took away her choice. She tells him she forgives him but he can't change people this way and they must accept who they are. In the hall, she tells Olivia that she's going to Colorado. Her parents are not ready to accept that she is a lesbian but she hopes that in time they will. She plans to have faith as she moves forward.

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Lucas: She was assaulted. Is that what she said happened?Carisi: No. That is what happened. She was raped.Lucas: No it wasn't. I would never rape anyone. It was curative intercourse. I was saving her soul.