Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – Aperture

By starrymag | May 15, 2025

By: Kaylyn Bell

 

 

Avery (Jenny Ashman) and Jeremy (Jason Pintar) Smith tour an apartment. The realtor (Christian Schulte) takes Avery to see another room when Jeremy notices a telescope set up at the window. He looks through it and sees a man holding a gun on a woman who is putting her shirt on in the apartment across the street.

The squad arrives at the scene, where an officer explains the situation and that the woman never reported it. As Captain Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Fin (Ice-T) enter the apartment, they see a camera in the elevator, and Benson hopes it captured something.

Meanwhile, Velasco (Octavio Pisano) and Curry (Aimé Donna Kelly) speak to their witness, Jeremy. He says it seems like she was assaulted and provides a description of the man as black and 6ft tall.

Inside the apartment, Benson directs officers to take items into evidence. Fin finds an opened box of condoms, and Benson asks a CSU tech (Whitney McIntosh-Joseph) to get into the plumbing to check for a used condom since there aren’t any in the room. The other CSU tech (Matt Tang) notices impressions in the carpet, which Benson thinks could be from a tripod. Fin points out that it could’ve been filmed and hopes the victim reports it so they can find her. He adds that they should investigate the owner of the apartment.

ADA Carisi (Peter Scanavino) meets the squad at the precinct to review the case. Silva (Juliana Aidén Martinez) shares the elevator footage that shows the girl, gunman, and an unknown second man. Benson asks her to get it sent through facial recognition. Curry adds that they have footage of the gunman carrying a camera bag, so it was premeditated. Benson directs them to confirm with the witness that this was the girl he saw. Carisi asks about the owner of the apartment, and Fin says he lives in Florida and sublets it. Curry says he just landed, and officers are picking him up from the airport.

The apartment owner, Mark (Glenn Rosenblum), gets to the precinct complaining to Velasco and Curry about his wrecked plumbing. They tell him they could arrest him for tampering with evidence since he wasn’t allowed to enter his apartment. They ask who he rented to, and he says he found a woman, Virginia from Texas, online and shows the paperwork.

Velasco and Curry report back to Benson and explain that Virginia reported her credit card missing in Texas and hasn’t used it for a few weeks. Benson asks if the witness identified the girl, and they confirm he did. Curry says they found a few hairs in the apartment that have been sent to the lab, and CSU did find condoms in the pipes, but they found 25. Silva and Fin enter to share that from facial recognition, they’ve identified the girl and boy as Josephine (Ava Jean) and Atlas (Tristan Spohn) DeWinn. Silva explains that Josephine is 18 and an honors student accepted into Stanford. Fin says her father, Gordon (Christian Campbell), is a big CEO of an insurance company, and her mother, Natalie (Kate MacCluggage), is a lawyer. Silva continues that Atlas is Natalie’s son and Josephine’s stepbrother.

Curry and Silva meet Josephine at the park. Josephine admits she was raped and didn’t call the cops because he threatened her family. She says she’s leaving for college soon and wants to leave this behind, not open an investigation, and asks them to go.

Curry and Silva update Benson that Josephine doesn’t want to cooperate, and she seems to be in denial. Benson points out that if they threatened her very wealthy family, then they might have been targeted for their money. 

Carisi and Benson arrive at the DeWinn’s home and share a capture from the security footage. They had no idea this happened to their children and say they don’t recognize the gunman and they haven’t received a ransom. Gordon asks Natalie where Josephine is, and she says she went for a walk and hasn’t come back. They ask the present family to come into the station.

Curry asks Douglas to write down anyone who might want to hurt his family, and he says with his insurance company, there are too many to count. Benson speaks to Natalie separately, who confirms that Josephine is Douglas’ biological daughter and Atlas is her son, but the kids have been siblings since they were toddlers. Natalie says she and Douglas both had to get divorced to be together, and Benson asks about the ex-spouses. She says Douglas gets along well with his, and hers lives in the Bahamas, so they don’t talk much. She explains that she had just decided that since Atlas is going off to college soon, she’d stop paying his alimony. Benson suggests he could be involved.

Fin and Velasco question Atlas. He says the gunman pushed Josephine into the elevator, and he followed them to try and help. He continues that once they got to the apartment, the man put him in the bathroom and said he’d kill Josephine if he came out. Velasco asks why they didn’t call the police after, and he says he suggested it, but Josephine didn’t want to.

Benson asks Natalie if Josephine or Atlas has anyone in their life with a criminal record. Natalie confesses that Atlas is a little troubled, and they had to give a donation to get him in the school. She gets a text message with a video from an unknown number. Benson plays it, and it shows the gunman making Josephine and Atlas have sex. 

Benson updates Carisi, and he asks if there’s a ransom demand. Benson says no, but sending the video is an obvious threat of exposure. The squad recognizes that this is why Josephine was so unwilling to cooperate and why Atlas lied. Carisi doesn’t think this is the work of an insurance customer, and Benson agrees that it’s too personal. Benson directs them to look into Atlas’ dad further and re-interview the siblings.

The squad returns to the DeWinn’s home, where Silva and Curry question Josephine, and Fin and Velasco question Atlas.

Josephine tells them that their life is over if that video gets released. They ask how things are, and she says her parents can barely look at her. Curry assures her that it’s not her fault. Josephine says she offered to have sex with the man if he left her brother alone but he didn’t want that. Silva tells her that they were raped and they will catch the guy.

Atlas tells the same version of events to Fin and Velasco, and they also assure him it wasn’t his fault.

The detectives head downstairs when a security officer informs them they’ve received a ransom demand for $5 million. Fin announces that Derek Rhodes (Robert Beitzel) just arrived at the airport, and Douglas asks Natalie why her ex-husband is here. Velasco says they asked him to come because he had an arrest in the Bahamas for exploitation of a minor.

Fin and Velasco inform Derek what happened, and he’s appalled that they think he was involved. They question him about his arrest for having underage photos of Josephine in a bikini on his phone. He explains that Atlas and Josephine visited him in the Bahamas, and Atlas dropped his phone off a balcony, so he bought a new one. He continues that after the kids left, he took Atlas’ broken phone to get fixed, and someone at the electronics store saw the folder of photos.

Carisi asks if Benson buys Derek’s story that Atlas took the pictures, not him. Benson says it’s a pretty convoluted excuse and tells Silva to talk to Josephine and ask if Derek was inappropriate with her that summer.

Silva and Curry meet with Josephine, and she has nothing negative to say about Derek. She says she had one-on-one time with Derek because Atlas always stayed up late gaming, so he slept in late. She asks why they’re asking, and they explain the arrest and that he said Atlas took the photos. Josephine asks why Atlas would have to hide the fact he was taking pictures of her. Curry tells Silva they just received footage from the gas station in Houston where Virginia’s card was last used, and they excuse themselves.

At the station, the squad reviews the footage. They see the cashier, Jaden Thomas (Mickey Nixon), stealing her credit card details. Fin says they have to extradite him from Houston. Carisi says he’ll call the DA.

Silva gets a panicked call from Josephine explaining that after she told Atlas they were asking about his dad, he grabbed a baseball bat and threatened to go kill him. Benson tells the detectives to get to Derek’s hotel immediately.

Fin and Velasco intervene at the hotel where Atlas is hitting his father, and Velasco arrests him for assault.

Benson asks Josephine what happened, and she says Atlas threatened to kill his father. Benson questions why he’d do that just because he took photos of her. Josephine says Atlas has always been protective. Before leaving, Benson asks if she remembers Atlas dropping his phone from the balcony, and Josephine confirms that he had to buy a new one.

Carisi and Benson arrive at the DeWinn’s and ask to see Atlas’ room. Benson finds an old print camera and starts looking for photos. She finds a bunch of candid photos of Josephine and asks Carisi to get a warrant for his electronics.

Benson and Fin question Atlas at the station with his mother. Benson tells him that they’ve found the gunman just as he is brought in. They make sure Atlas can see him through the window, and Fin suggests he recognizes him. Atlas says he doesn’t know him. Fin replies, ‘That’s funny because he knows you.” Natalie asks what’s happening and then for a lawyer. Benson tells an officer to take them to the interrogation room.

Carisi questions Jaden with his lawyer (Kyle Merker). Jaden says Atlas set the whole thing up, and he has chats to prove it. He explains that they gamed together for years and Atlas wanted to get with his sister before she left for college. He says it was Atlas’ idea to film it but confesses he was in it for the ransom money.

Benson and Fin inform Atlas’ lawyer (Paige Jennifer Barr) that they have a fully cooperating witness and hundreds of photos that her client took of his sister. Atlas tells his mom that this is her fault because she’s always said how perfect Josephine is. Benson asks if that’s why he did it, to ruin her. Atlas says it was because she was going to leave him by going to college, and she’s his. Natalie starts crying and tells him he’s ruined their family, and Atlas just asks why Josephine gets to leave him. His lawyer asks Natalie and Benson to leave. Atlas asks if he’ll be able to hear her voice again, and Benson replies, “In court.”

Natalie asks Benson what’s going to happen to her son, and she says he’ll be arrested and arraigned. Natalie says her husband has made it clear he wants nothing to do with Atlas, but he’s still her son, so she’s going to pay for the best lawyers. Carisi tells her to spend as much as she wants, but he’s still going to prison. Benson asks who’s going to tell her stepdaughter about what happened to her, and Natalie says she needs to focus on her son.

Benson tells Josephine the truth, and Josephine is shocked her whole relationship with her brother was a lie. Benson tells her she didn’t see it, but now she does, and it’ll just take time to heal. Benson says what Atlas had towards her wasn’t love; it was obsession. Natalie judges herself for not knowing, but Benson assures her she couldn’t have known when all she did was love her little brother.