Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 27 episode 2 recap: Benson and her team discovers dark secrets hidden within an elite social club

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 27, episode 2, titled "A Waiver of Consent," brought up a very sensitive case that discussed the grounds of what "consent" means for women.

The episode begins with Velasco apologizing for lying about Finn’s gun. In the last episode, we saw him getting into a car, which left questions as to who Velasco is meeting after working hours.

He opens up to Benson, revealing that the DEA wants him to join their operation as an undercover agent, a secret he isn’t supposed to share with anyone.

Next up, Benson gets a new member on her team, assigned by Chief Tynan, Jake Griffin. She has asked Olivia to keep him under her wing and teach him how to be a good detective.

He is in his learning phase; however, he brought in a major lead in the very first case he worked on. 

Initially, she was not in favour of letting him into the team. She said, 

‘’We’re very victim-centric, and victims are very vulnerable. We work as a team here and I don’t have any room for detectives who, you know, have a different agenda.’’

But Griffin convinces her that he needs to learn through her and is all set to work as a team and follow the order of his Captain.

However, he fails to understand the meaning of ‘’teamwork’’ emphasized by Benson.

She takes him along to meet the first victim tied to the case in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 27 episode 2.

The NYPD learns about Sensate, an exclusive club with sinister secrets

Olivia gets an update that a girl named Maya Moretti is admitted to the hospital, as she was found unconscious in the middle of New York streets.

As Benson and Griffin went there, she was not in a state to communicate; however, Griffin found a tattoo on her wrist, which turned out to be a scanner of the club. 

He clicks a picture of it without letting Olivia know about it. As they head back to their office, he opens up about the scanner (the tattoo on the victim’s wrist).

Olivia tells him that teamwork is important and that he should have told her this at the hospital. But he explains that he first needed to confirm whether it actually meant something or not.

Well, it actually did mean something as the QR code led the NYPD detectives to a website for a members-only club on 41st Street.

Curry says that the club is very well-connected, and the last time IAB opened up the investigation, it was shut down by the 1PP. 

Meanwhile, Maya gets into her consciousness, but she tells that she doesn’t want to file any sort of complaint, to which Benson agrees and finds another way to dig into the club’s history. 

When the detectives headed to the club to talk about the se*ual assault that had happened to a girl last night, the club’s owner brushed off the topic by saying that if something like that had happened, he should have been aware of it. 

The detectives get into the club as an undercover in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 27 episode 2

Griff informs the team that he has a connection who could let them into the club and introduce them to meet Derek Simpson, the owner of the elite club.

As Bruno and Griff enter the club to get the membership, they learns that Simpsons gives a consent form to sign before getting the membership.

The context in the form reads: 

‘’The undersigned waives all rights regarding consent and understands that the actions of any member are free from all potential litigation.’’

Griff again visits Sensate to get clues that they can use to take action against Derek.

He gets the number of Isabella Cruz, another victim, who is forced to work in the club after making her sign the consent form.

Benson lashed out at him for not working as a team. However, Benson and Griffin went to meet her, where Isabella said that she had signed a contract that later forced her into prostitution.

Derek Simpson offered her to hook up with modelling agencies, and gave her a job at a club as a shot girl. He got them hooked on drugs and then had something to manipulate them.

They signed a contract, and he threatened them that if they left, he would ruin their lives. 

After getting a statement from one victim, the NYDP raided the club, where they even found Maya, but every member there had the same lawyer: Daniel Olin. 

With that, the NYPD still couldn’t take action against the club’s owner. However, the team found a video on Sensate’s social media showing Maya being forced to get into a private room.

Benson convinces her to give a statement against Derek and get out of the mess for once and for all. She agreed. 

In the courtroom, Simpson’s lawyer was just sticking to the point that the women had signed a contract, a consent form, objectifying women for getting membership. However, Maya gave a bold reply, 

“I didn’t sign up to be r*ped.” 

It was proved in front of the jury that everything that happens under the club is not consensual, and someone cannot just sign away their consent on a piece of paper. 

Derek was found guilty of running a s*x club. Towards the end of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 27 episode 2, Griffin goes to meet Chief Tynan, leaving doubts about whether he really came to learn from Olivia or if he’s just keeping an eye on them, following Tynan’s order.