NBC Recap
By Trublu
PTR Staff Writer
What starts off as a normal SVU episode quickly spirals to anything but, in this week before the season finale. A man walks into an empty house where he was working construction, only to find one masked man running out, and another lying in a pool of blood inside. Cut to the perfect scene to show opposite this, Elliot playing poker with his kids. Yeah, so the impending call of doom to Elliot’s cell sort of ruined the warm and fuzzies at seeing Elliot with his family, but that has been the premise of his personal subplot since the beginning.
Now, the first part of this story confused the living daylights out of me. Obviously the sex offender in the neighborhood angle was going to be a bust; if that was the way they were going to play it, they would have advertised it as such. But what I don’t understand was the “Joey” storyline. Had the mother just been part of the really close sex offender plotline, it would have been okay. But she identified the body the detectives had as the body of her son! First off, the ID was funny anyway because five years from the point in his life when that boy went missing to then would have seen a drastic change in his features, changes even a mother may not recognize. Second, it was a little awkward that they just dropped the storyline all together when they found out the boy wasn’t Joey! There was no closure for that storyline at all, and it sticks out as filler for writers that apparently couldn’t write 45 minutes worth of solid story.
I don’t think we’ve seen this for a while: Scott, who taped the murder, comes forward with the tape! And, as we later find out, the punk is the one that killed Riley! (The boy’s real name.) It takes a special kind of idiot to do that. There were no leads in the case, they were about to haul in a convicted sex offender who would stand a paper thin chance in court, and the kid turns himself in! Now, if the kid had a guilty conscience and was trying to make amends, that’s one story. But this kid had motive, opportunity, and means. He wanted Riley dead, and he would have gotten away with it. Mystifies me. Might have been a little more interesting if the writers had given him a reason for coming forward, but this was a good twist just the same.
Something I noticed in that scene was the fact that Cragen was watching the interrogation on the screen in the squad room, and not through the glass. I don’t think he’s ever done that before. Maybe it’s a new tactic to tackle the insane rise in police brutality these past few weeks? Who knows…it’s a mystery with this squad.
Scott’s trial was slightly rushed from the reality point of view. They didn’t have as much evidence as they could have gathered. Casey states when she meets Riley’s girlfriend, Cassandra, after the trial that she had heard about her. Apparently nobody questioned her, since she had character evidence that gave Scott motive and means to kill Riley. They learned about the femeral artery in a science class in school! They didn’t bother to check to see if Scott had learned about his murder method in some way before actually killing Riley? After the verdict has been read, and Scott acquitted for everything, save criminally negligent homicide? Just a tad to late to hand over that info. Play again next time, detectives.
Elliot: How did my desk become the food distribution center?
Oh Elliot. The Chinese is just attracted to his desk, is all. Twas a bit of comic relief, though!
Best twist of the entire story: After the initial scene with Cassandra in her bedroom, I was left thinking that Scott, being the creep that he was this episode, had taken advantage of Cassandra in her time of need. Definitely was feeling the loathing of Scott at this particular moment in time. I didn’t know what to think, though, when we got our Cassandra revelation!
Tiny side note though: Definitely didn’t think Scott was capable of putting out a hit on Cassandra! Man, plowing her over with a car? He just reached a new low when I just thought there was no lower.
Elliot: If a chill just ran up your spine, it’s because a defense attorney just walked in.
So he did, and he’s pleading Scott’s case in the mess that is the Cassandra fiasco. Don’t ya know that Cassandra isn’t 16, she’s actually 28. Which would make any relationship she had with Riley or Scott statutory rape. And doesn’t Scott milk this to its fullest potential, using the opportunity to gain leverage against Cassandra in his trial for attempted murder for her hit. Ugh. The lies!
The ending was definitely disturbing, with Cassandra insisting that she was still 16 at first. The visit from the old foster parent at least got her to drop the act, but even more creepy was her calm and adamant statement that she loved all the boys she’d slept with after she turned 18. If that didn’t send shivers down your spine, I don’t know what will.
Kudos to Misti Traya, who played Cassandra and did an amazing job with the character! She had me believing her every step of the way.
Overall, great effort by the writers, but I want to see a real, gut wrenching episode next week for the finale. There’s a whole slew of people coming in to guest star; Ludacris, Adam Beach, and Judith Light will all be making appearances. Season finale 8, here we go!
No comments:
Post a Comment