Law and Order SVU Full Review: S20 E20 | The Good Girl (Spoilers)
Did you know that in some states it’s legal to marry a thirteen year old, with a parent’s consent?
The episode starts with a woman sitting pretzel style on her couch trying to meditate. But she’s disturbed by the fight between a father and her daughter.
The father won’t let his daughter have her phone (to text a boy?). The daughter goes ballistic, reminds him that he is her stepfather, and starts throwing knives and glasses. Hmm.
The meditating lady calls the police and the father and daughter try to play it cool, but daddy is bleeding and that teenager is looking a little crazy; they’re taken into the hospital.
When they’re at the hospital it is discovered that the 13 year old is *surprise* pregnant.
Of course the father is questioned about the paternity and he responds “Oh God! I know you have to ask but I would never”. In the interview he reveals that the mother passed a few years ago and that the biological father of the teen is a junkie in the wind.
Meanwhile, in the next room Rollins and Lieutenant Benson are questioning the teenager, Mackenzie. She reveals that she has been with an older man, an older man with a blue BMW. She clams up and won’t say anymore.
Carisi and Rollins visit St. Matthews school to investigate who the father is. They speak to two boys posed in a flirty Instagram picture with Mackenzie, the post referencing nudes.
The two boys reveal that Mackenzie is a flirt, constantly teasing by ‘grabbing their junks’.
The two detectives are led to the high-school drama teacher, Mr. Dryfus. He reveals he has a blue BMW and he is taken in for questioning.
Later on, Mackenzie’s father expresses that he has accepted the pregnancy, because it’s what his daughter wants. With all this Mackenzie still will not give details of her relationship.
Panning back to Rollins and Benson in the squad room, Rollins doesn’t like the idea of a court violating a child’s privacy by ordering a paternity test.
Rollins claims ” If one of the teen boys from that school is the father, why should the baby ruin his life too?”
Benson retorts “I didn’t know that babies ruined lives…”
“Did you let the father know before you…”
“Before I what?”
“Before you had the abortion?” Rollins said exasperated.
Benson sets the record straight and says she never said she had an abortion. “All I said was that regret can be a terrible thing to live with and you assumed…”
Anyways. Mackenzie finally confirms to her stepfather that her “boyfriend” was the drama teacher Mr. Drayfus. Once the unit catches wind of this they rush to Mr. Drayfus’s apartment.
There they find Mr. Drayfus laying on the floor, dead, with a bowling trophy next to him. On the couch, the stepfather, Garret is sitting in a daze.
Back in the interrogation room Garret confesses to the homicide, his defense being “he couldn’t stand the thought of anyone hurting his precious daughter”. Garret was offered 2 years, 1 year probation.
In the A.D.A.’s office, none other than Clinton Drayfus’s boyfriend walks in. He assures the A.D.A that Clinton was engaged to marry next summer. And that the bowling trophy was from an LGBTQ League. Meaning Mackenzie lied about her the relationship with Mr. Drayfus, because he was gay.
At this point Benson decides to coax the truth out of Mackenzie at the grocery store, where Mackenzie is shopping for veal chops to make dinner for her and Garret. Benson lets her know that Garret committed a crime because of Mackenzie’s lies. Mackenzie lets her know that Garret is not at fault as long as he was operating under the implications of the lie at the time he committed the homicide. (How would a thirteen year old know all that?)
Benson realizes Mackenzie is protecting Garret, and wants to bring her to trial.
The trial lasts all of two minutes when Garret’s defense attorney reveals that Mackenzie will not be able to testify of her conversations with her stepfather due to… SPOUSAL PRIVILEGE. It turns out Mackenzie and Garret are married.
A year after Mackenzie’s mother died, Garret got a marriage license for him and Mackenzie. Garret got parental consent from the biological father, in exchange for 10 grand.
In exchange for a deal for his charge on possession of drugs, the biological father agrees to testify that he was bribed by Garret to sign the marriage certificate, in the marriage annulment hearing. Unfortunately, Mackenzie tells the judge how good Garret was to her and her mother, how he loved her. With that, the judge ruled that the marriage was in good standing. This means the prosecution had a weak case against Garret, he would get off when the jury heard how much Garret cared for Mackenzie, he would be get off easy on the homicide.
Garret and Mackenzie are in the interview room. When the detectives realize they have a weak case against Garret, they decide to arrest Mackenzie, for telling a lie that got an innocent man killed. At the sight of Mackenzie in handcuffs Garret breaks down and says how it’s his fault.
Mackenzie claims “No it’s my fault. I was the one who told Mr. Dryfus about us after he asked who got me pregnant. He was my friend. He promised not to say anything.”
So Garret killed Mr. Drayfus because Drayfus knew about Garret’s intimate relationship with Mackenzie. Garret is offered manslaughter 1 and statutory rape. He’s hauled away in handcuffs, leaving Mackenzie in tears.
Benson later goes to visit Mackenzie. They go head to head for a while, Mackenzie maintains she’s practically a woman and Garret loves her.
Bensons gets her to see reason when she tells Mackenzie that Garret stole her childhood from her. She wasn’t out riding her bike or hanging out with friends, instead she was taking care of Garret.
Benson tells her “I didn’t know your mother but I bet she was a good mom. Just like you’re going to be a good mom to that baby”.
Mackenzie starts to cry, implying she had a miscarriage.