This one gets all up in the confessional, culminating in a no-holds-barred Catholic-off between Stabler and Father Michael Sweeney (Eric Stoltz--or is it Stolitz?). Red herrings and misdirects abound, and since we're watching an SVU dealing with the Catholic Church, you can assume that some priest were taking some liberties with parishioners of an underage variety. While this one might kick off with some jarring early-season transphobia, it also has a lot of wild fun stuff, and if you weren't paying attention to the priest's name, don't worry, Josh caught it.

As we race towards the thrilling conclusion of this two-parter, we ponder important questions such as: did SVU throw the Catholic church under the bus in order to curry favor with the location-rich Episcopalians; and, would we watch a Mike Dodds-i-series? We also get to the (power?) bottom of the spicy, ripped-from-the-headlines drama that underpins our favorite interlude from this episode.

The power brokers in New York Law Enforcement and the Catholic Church seem to be in cahoots as they end up in SVU's crosshairs. Why might these powerful men be under investigation? Oh, they just appear to be trafficking teen girls from St. Fabiola's to their closed-door sex parties featuring a slew of city employees who will gladly abuse their power to turn the tables and go after Tucker and the SVUs hot on their trail. By the end of the first part of this compelling two-parter, bodies have dropped, careers are in jeopardy, and acting and accent choices put an otherwise high-quality episode in dire straits.

Sure, the bulk of this episode is a fairly by-the-numbers which-priest-was-the-pedo-and-which-was-merely-libidinous tale, but for a few delicious moments, we get to pull back the curtains and see what the Medical Examiner's office in the SVUniverse does on the rare night they let their hair down. This is a holiday party for the ages folks. It is the party that launched a thousand fan fiction stories. We also speculate on what Amaro and Rollins have, or have not, going on on Christmas Eve, among many other fun digressions.