The following contains spoilers for Law & Order: SVU, Season 24, Episode 6, "Controlled Burn" which debuted Thursday, Nov. 3 on NBC. This article also contains descriptions of sexual assault.

The soon to be departed Detective Amanda Rollins is giving a lecture to future criminologists as ADA Sonny Carisi looks up at her proudly and lovingly. But as she speaks about predators, the scene changes and Law & Order: SVU shows a businessman named Spencer, who is clearly a sleaze. He pursues an obviously uncomfortable employee who turns him down because he's married. He moves on to another woman, Maggie, and says he needs to bring her to a party that night. She gets cornered into agreeing. Rollins describes a "controlled burn" -- a term for preventing criminal sexual activity from getting out of hand.

Back to Maggie, who's annoyed that the party is clearly not a work party and more of a bar scene. She sets up to work on her laptop when an unknown man in a crow mask sends her a drink. Of course, the drink is drugged and she wakes up the next morning on the plastic-covered floor of his residence. Maggie attempts to walk home but gets sick on the street and coughs up a thong before collapsing.

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Speaking with Detective Odafin "Fin" Tutuola, Rollins tells him Carisi was asked to give the lecture but that he volunteered her instead and she shone. Is a career as Professor Amanda Rollins in her future as she leaves the series? They meet Maggie at the hospital -- it's definitely a rape case. Maggie downplays the assault, saying she had cervical cancer a few years ago and can no longer have sex. She's more worried about angering Spencer, who is about to sell their company for $2 billion. As her boss arrives, Maggie pushes Rollins out. But the SVU detectives have a knack for getting through to people.

Spencer is less than helpful but does give Rollins the party's address. Meanwhile, Fin talks to the unhoused man who brought Maggie to the hospital; he says she was chased by a giant crow. Fin and Rollins head out to the address. It turns out to be a house for sale -- unoccupied, no renters, no extra keys. No one is sure how the party would have gotten access. They catch Captain Olivia "Liv" Benson up and new Detective Grace Muncy comes in with security footage from the street confirming there was a guy in a crow mask. Maggie's helping hand was right.

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Later, Benson and Rollins visit Maggie at home to ask more questions about the party. She tells them it wasn't a work party, but it had a sexual undertone. They show her the still of the man in the crow mask and Maggie confirms he sent her a drink. She remembers his gentle voice, too, as he complimented her neck. Rollins asks her if she remembers the underwear being shoved in her throat, but she has no memory. The lab did find semen on them, she says, and Maggie agrees to a rape kit as Benson asks more about Spencer. But the DNA is not his and doesn't match anything currently in the database. They break the news to Maggie that she was indeed raped.

Fin and Muncy have the distinct pleasure of interrogating Spencer. He didn't see Maggie and the crow because he was "otherwise occupied." He also denies knowing who the crow is. Fin threatens to ruin his $2 billion deal with some IRS interference unless he plays ball, so Spencer is forced to give the squad the details of another party that night. Lena Hess, the CEO of the company that's acquiring Spencer's company, is eager to speak with the detectives while they're there. Her company has a morality clause, after all. She offers to be of help whenever they need.

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Fin, Rollins and Muncy show up at the party and immediately clock drugs and young girls. Fin gets a special thrill out of pulling the plug on the party and bringing in the rest of the cops. In the basement, they find a security system that has cameras even in the bathrooms. Time to check the hard drives! Meanwhile, Muncy interviews some of the party attendees. Some of them recognize the man in the crow mask but don't know who he is.

Yet the cameras definitely recorded some of Manhattan's wealthiest and most important people's perversions on camera. Is this a blackmail scheme? Then another plot twist: Lena's company owns both of the party properties. Is this a very specific blackmail scheme to get a good deal on a business acquisition? Benson and Fin speak to Lena later that day. She's aware of the search warrant and plays down knowing anything more about the parties. She requests a copy of the footage but Benson's been doing this a long time and turns down her request, threatening her with handcuffs if she's involved at all.

Carisi cautions Benson to tread lightly because the wealthy operate under a different system of justice. Maggie shows up at the precinct and Benson tells her she can't give out any information at this point, though she understands her need to feel included while recovering from trauma. As Maggie leaves, though, the SVU team finds the footage of her rape, with the crow choking her to unconsciousness. And one more thing: he's on camera interacting with Spencer. A certain entitled businessman is a liar.

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Rollisi team up to show Spencer the incriminating video. He's shocked and angry that he's been recorded. They ask him to identify the crow and he remains reticent -- until he realizes his business may be in jeopardy. The suspect is a timpanist in the orchestra named Ethan, married with a wife and kids. They bring him in and Benson is confident that Maggie will identify his voice. They play her seven recorded voices repeating the same phrase complimenting her neck and she identifies the correct one.

Rollins and Carisi take the evidence and identification to Ethan and his lawyer. Ethan confesses out of relief; he doesn't know what's wrong with him and he's been struggling against the compulsion his whole life. He offers to tell them who throws the parties in exchange for them getting him help. The mastermind is a donor to the orchestra -- a powerful woman in the city who bonded with him over music. To the surprise of absolutely no one, it's Lena Hess. She created a space for him to do what he wanted and, of course, she reaped the blackmail benefits. Rollins asks him what's so pleasurable about choking a woman to death and he says it's the vibration. Creep factor at an all-time high.

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It's go time at the Hess office and home. Lena is smugly confident they won't find anything but Benson tells her they know she throws those parties. Why? Lena answers with a smirk that men are the root of all evil in the world so she films them to have collateral on them. Benson counters that her own son is kind and thoughtful. To which Lena replies that she doesn't see a ring on Liv's finger. She just lights the match and men watch it burn. Benson knows all she cares about is her portfolio. However, her hard drive has enough incriminating evidence to take down half of the most powerful men in the city.

In the squad room, Benson muses on Lena's words. Is she wrong? Most of SVU's suspects are men, after all. At arraignment, Lena is released but must wear an ankle monitor pending trial. She doesn't look too worried and Carisi wonders what she may have on the judge. Elsewhere, Benson tells Maggie that even though Ethan got a deal, he's still doing serious prison time. Maggie also won't have to testify and can go forward with her life. She asks for one thing: to see the footage of her attack and to process it in her own way.

Carisi's fears are proven true, however. Lena slipped her ankle monitor off and ran off to the airport. She left behind a matchbook with a phone number in it, too. Benson calls and Lena answers while on a private jet to somewhere international. She tells Benson to use her footage to bring those men down. They taunt each other with fire metaphors, leaving the episode somewhat open-ended.

Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. on NBC and streams on Peacock.