‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 16, episode 18 preview: See Mariska Hargitay, cast in ‘Devastating Story’ promo

“Law & Order: SVU” has allowed a variety of different themes play out this year, but next week’s new episode “Devastating Story” happens to be the second installment this season that really highlights college life. We’re not sure that this can be called a theme, but it could end up explaining the terrible philosophy that many universities have when it comes to sexual assault. Given that no institution wants bad publicity, we’ve seen at times so despicable means by schools to distance themselves from the drama.

This episode is not going to just be focused on the university itself, though; instead, we are also going to see what happens when a sensational media personality gets involved, and turns almost the entire case into a sideshow. As you would expect, this makes it so much harder for Benson (Mariska Hargitay) to do her job.

For some more news on what to expect, take a look at the attached synopsis right now:

“Popular television host Skip Peterson airs an interview with college student Heather Manning, who claims she was gang raped in a fraternity house. While the tragic account of Heather’s story brings national attention to the epidemic of rape on campus, the sensational details of the she-said, they-said case leaves Sgt. Benson and ADA Barba with several suspects and a rocky trial.”

Rob Morrow is going to be playing the Peterson character, and given his overall body of work, he should add a number of interesting layers to this story. We have obviously heard some terrible stories as of late when it comes to college fraternities, but this seems to us to just be a case of bad timing here more than ripping anything from the headlines. (Plus, most frat stories as of late have dealt more with racism.)

(Photo: NBC.)