Tonight on NBC Law & Order SVU returns with an all-new Thursday, April 10, 2025 episode and we have your Law & Order SVU recap below.
In tonight’s Law & Order SVU season 26 episode 18 “The Accuser,” as per the NBC synopsis, “When a man is ruthlessly assaulted and burned, the SVU’s investigation uncovers a decades-old secret. Bruno helps a young witness find the courage to come forward.”
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A man was brutally assaulted at his workplace. The victim’s name is Eddie Upshaw. He was found by a teenager named Sam Carson. The boy worked as an apprentice at Eddie’s welding business, but he quit after getting into a fight with his boss about the mistake he made on the job. Sam was willing to move on. His father on the other hand wanted Sam to be a man. He told him apologize to Eddie and try to get his job back. He even marched his son to Eddie’s shop because Sam forgot to go on his own. Sam has a new girlfriend. It’s probably why he made the mistake to begin with. He only has her on his mind. And so his dad later made Sam go in Eddie’s shop alone because that’s what a man does.
Something he regrets now. Sam found Eddie barely alive. Eddie was bleeding from his back. Someone had carved numbers into him and he was also bleeding from down below. Eddie had been sodomized by a foreign object. It meant his assault was a case for the Special Victims Unit. Its rare that they get a case about an assault on an older man only they quickly found a suspect. They poked holes in Sam’s story. Sam wasn’t with his girlfriend all afternoon. He was in the park. He said he was thinking.
Eddie also called Sam. He called him ten times on the night of the assault. Sam never answered any of those calls and that alone was suspicious. The kid was ducking Sam. The question was why. Sam and his father were asked to come in. Nate Carson’s alibi for that night lined up. He really was at work until he got home and he dragged his son to Eddie’s shop. Nate was with Sam when the cops questioned the boy. They asked him why he really quit? They also asked why Eddie would call him ten times?
Sam was an apprentice. Mistakes were bound to happen. It’s how you learn and so Sam was keeping secrets, but he wasn’t ready to share them at the time. He also wouldn’t have a reason to carve a date on Eddie’s back The date was June 15, 2001. It was from before Sam was born. Sam didn’t know what it meant and neither did his dad. They were allowed to leave. The cops kept digging. They found nothing suspicious on Eddie’s phone or laptop. They didn’t know why Eddie was targeted and the one thing they were sure about was that this was personal.
Eddie later woke up at the hospital. He was thankfully unconscious during the assault. He has a skull fracture from where his attacker knocked him out. He has no memories of that night. He also claimed he had no idea what the date carved into his back meant. Eddie claimed he wasn’t feeling well. It ended his interview with the cops. They kept digging and they couldn’t find anything. Eddie was married for twenty-five years. His wife divorced him because she said they were never in love. They have three children and the kids don’t have a relationship with their father.
The ex told the cops that that it was just kids being kids. Only Sam went back to the park. He was by himself again. Detective Bruno found him and they spoke alone. Sam admitted that Eddie has been assaulting him since he was fifteen. He didn’t realize at first because he thought grooming only happened to girls. He quit because he wanted the abuse to end. He also didn’t tell his dad because he thought his dad would think it was his fault. Sam really opened up to Bruno and Bruno wanted to protect him. He reported what Sam told him to his captain.
Eddie didn’t start grooming kids overnight. He’d had to have been doing this for years and he was a welder. He probably had countless apprentices. The date carved into him does mean something, but the cops first have to protect Sam. Sam came in with his parents. It was explained that Sam was being sexually abused. His dad wanted to press charges. Sam just wanted to forget. He didn’t want there to be a trial or to testify. He wanted this all to go away. And so his parents took him home while they kept digging into Eddie.
There was a case against Eddie. It happened before it was the precinct moved to the digitalized their systems. It was written by hand and was in storage. Eddie was accused of raping an eight year old girl starting in 2001. The case went to trial and Eddie was acquitted because the jury didn’t believe the girl. It didn’t help that Eddie’s then wife stayed at his side through the whole trial. They went back to the ex to ask her about it. They needed the girl’s name. It was redacted from the file. She didn’t want to give it to them at first. She said the girl was messed up. Her father was a drunk and her mother was never home. She believes the girl came onto Eddie because she wanted attention.
She thought that of an eight year old. She still thinks that. She knew exactly why her children didn’t want a relationship with their pedophile father. Her daughter was friends with the girl. Only the ex-wife believes he never touched their kids. She said he wouldn’t crap where he ate. She also added that her family would have killed him if he did. She stayed with him to keep a paycheck until her kids were done with school and then she got out. The ex-wife eventually gave the cops the name. The girl was Angela Jones. She’s been in and out of prison for drugs.
Eddie’s daughter stayed in contact with her. Angela never recovered after the trial. She went to prison for five years. She was released a week before Eddie was attacked and so the cops went looking for her. They also had some cops asked Eddie about her – he wouldn’t talk. He claimed she was lying. He also said Sam was lying. Things were different over twenty years ago. People didn’t understand abuse or the PTSD that came from it back then. Times have since changed. Eddie couldn’t walk back what he did to Sam. And people were going to find out what he did to Angela.
Angela ran when the cops tried to question only they eventually got her. She was arrested. She didn’t want a lawyer. She turned one down when they offered. Anegla was proud of what she did and so she happily confessed to assaulting Eddie. She said he now has scars to match her own. Sam later heard about her arrest. He contacted Bruno because he wanted to know if that was going to happen to him. Was he going to hurt people because someone hurt him? And Bruno didn’t have answers for him.
Sam was going to therapy and Angela was offered a plea deal that will finally give her therapy, but Eddie’s days are numbered
THE END
