CATCH-UP EDITION: 'Lights,' Camera, Murder!

Please forgive me while I play a little game of catch-up. All of the college Bowl games had me TiVo-ing like crazy last week and Monday and now I'm busting at the seams with things to say about 3 exciting episodes of 3 excellent shows. First up, Friday Night Lights...

Friday Night Lights
Poor Tim Riggins. The boy just can't catch a break. He's trying to get his alcohol-filled, brother-hating, school work cheating, loser-ish life on track. He moved in (temporarily) with Coach Taylor and his family and started to rebuild the shattered relationship with his coach and then something like Julie getting drunk- at- a- party- and- him- putting- her- to- bed- while- her- father- walks- in happens, and he's right back where he started from: sleeping in his car. Coach Taylor got the wrong impression and jumped to conclusions based on Tim's history and Tami's worries. Too bad he didn't see what happened at the party when Tim saved Julie from being taken advantage of by a classmate. I'm so bummed for Tim. Despite everything, I really believe that he's a good kid. A little messed up and misguided, but a good kid all the same. Elsewhere, Landry made a gutsy move with Tyra and it paid off - well, sorta. He got her to admit that she has feelings for him (in fact, she's never felt this way about anyone), but she isn't ready to embrace those feelings yet. Landry did the right thing - he told her that he wasn't going to wait around for her anymore. Maybe this will kick things into high gear for these two. They're so the new Amy & Ephram (sniffle, sniffle Everwood).

Medium
At a time when all of my favorite shows are running out of new episodes (The Strike Effect), it's good to see some old favorites return. Even if when those old favorites return they're merely a shell of the show I used to know. Yes, I was mourning the old Medium this week and keeping my fingers crossed that it will come back and kidnap this evil twin that has Allison blacklisted, Devalos on a plane contemplating starting his own practice and my main man Scanlon preaching safety to elementary school kids. The end of the episode gave me hope for a return to normalcy, but I don't think the writers are in any hurry since they're introducing us to this Allison-for-hire plot next week. Moving on because if- I- have- to- be- truthful- I- sorta- enjoyed- the- fact- that- Allison- had- to- prove- herself- to- Anjelica- Huston (who is always fabulous and I LOVED that she paid Allison out of her own pocket - well, not Anjelica herself but her character, but you get the point). Anyway, the case was pretty straightforward as were Allison's visions and all of it definitely took a backseat to the upheaval taking place. BUT, I can't get that image of the little boy in the doll box in the storage warehouse out of my mind. It was so disturbing and they sorta just threw it out there and now I'm stuck seeing it when I close my eyes. I'm glad they caught the b*stard responsible, but I have to wonder if this wasn't his first murder considering the thought he put into it. Yuck!

Law & Order: SVU
You guys know that I think these so-called "tandem episodes" are the red-headed stepchild of SVU's otherwise impressive run, but this week's Olivia-centered outing actually worked without Elliot (I mustn't be feeling well this week because I also thought that a barely-there-Lilly episode of Cold Case was good -- maybe it's another strike effect). Curse NBC, though, for their over-hyped previews. I spent the entire episode waiting for the other shoe to drop because of that damn ubiquitous ad ("You know the SVU episodes..."). Consequently, nothing really shocked me in this one (not that it was predictable - I was just extra aware). When this thing first started, I thought that Erika Christensen was horribly miscast, and she was as an FBI agent. BUT then, she turned it on when Olivia hauled her into the interrogation room and she never turned it off all the way up into the character's disturbing suicide. She really brought the crazy, sympathy, depression, and compassion. I'm not sure if Olivia is going to be the same after witnessing that tragedy. Forget her, between the boy-in-the-doll-box on Medium and the suicide in this episode, I think my quota of disturbing images has been reached for the year already.

All photos courtesy nbc.com.

SVU Features "Avatars" in Second Episode

Publish Post
Cuteosy of NBC.com

By Trublu
PTR Staff Writer

NBC.com Recap

SVU didn’t disappoint with its second outing, and if I daresay the writers have jumped right off the “creepy” bandwagon where they left of in seasons five and six. Ah. The good ole days.

This is the first time in recent memory that the viewer has gotten the pleasure (?) of watching the attack take place, instead of starting with someone walking in on the body, as so common in the Law & Order franchise.

But, I can say with absolute certainty that this is the first time a perp has claimed that they “did it in their sleep”. And I must admit, my initial reaction was “yeah, and I was born yesterday and am the Queen of England.” Alas, it appears that I am one day old and the heir to a very large throne, since it turns out that Danny boy did indeed do it in his sleep, and isn’t even actually the main focus of the story! The writers did an exceptional job of introducing us to this storyline, but then sneakily introducing us to the next one, because honestly, I forgot all about it. Personally, though, I feel as it was almost wasted on this episode, since it was abandoned so quickly.

I was forced to chuckle at the very beginning, in the debacle with the father and Olivia. The father goes off on a tangent, raging about how the detectives are doing nothing to catch his daughter’s rapist (though I thought the explanation that he was not legally responsible sufficed enough) and storms out of the precinct. However, notice that Mr. Critical, when he holds his pow-wow/press conference, gives out the SVU tip line number. How nice of him. Of course, the detectives are the ones who get to handle the tips.

Fin: There’s a woman who claims to have just seen Rachel eating a chili dog.

That’s the kind of results I’m talking about. Remind me to send this guy an angry letter.

One good tip is produced, though, and that is from Rachel’s friend. The tips were an ingenious way to introduce the new lead, actually. The friend would have been interviewed eventually, but how much more interesting is it to hear that Rachel is in “another universe”? (If you answered, “much more interesting,” then you are correct! Cookie for you.)

Another Youniverse. How clever. I say that with obvious sarcasm (the name is horrible, about as horrible as “MySpace”; you get the picture) but the idea is actually very intriguing and mesmerizing. Pay to become someone else, anyone else… no laws, no real rules, how fantastic! I personally didn’t even care about the network, but about the guy running the show! His primary function was to provide information to the detectives, of course, but his secondary function? Look at how much it took to be able to access the people’s information at the drop of a hat! Now, think of Tom peeking at all your information. Yeah, it’s creepy.

Out of that, though, it still seemed too easy. I know that I, for one, never put my real name into any site that asks for it. So, why use the name of say… somebody connected to you? Just as stupid, really. Mr. Cooper wasn’t quite caught up with the times.

While I loved the introduction of the stereotypical geeky boy who probably “lives” online, I loved the delicious Mr. Cooper even more (in that way that you’re supposed to love the creepy guys on these types of shows). Being an old felon who’s escaped the system, the stakes are that much higher to make an arrest. The picture in his apartment of the girl in the “school girl” outfit looks both like Rachel’s avatar and Lauren, the girl he kidnapped. It turns out to be Lauren, but it’s the link to Rachel.

The scenes that followed were especially fascinating to watch; I loved the sequence of events, and the overall way that the scenes were shot. I had to *squee* when the “AY” exec was actually helping Olivia out. Not only was it a nice thing to do, but… it was a nice thing to do! When was the last time any crime drama had a computer company exec that did what he did to help out with the case? And with his sense of urgency, too! Great sympathetic character.

Olivia: Turn the sun on!

Not a request that you hear too often, but one that is abided by none the less- and it leads the detectives straight to Cooper’s cabin and the missing girl, Lauren. Who is still very much alive (aka, no body to pin on Cooper to get him jail time).

Elliot: I have teenage daughters that fall in love all the time.

I was slightly offended, but I was more amused. In some cases, it is true; and it really served to drive home the fact that Lauren was only 15 when she “fell in love” with Cooper, and that her not seeing him for 25 years probably changed some things.

And change it did. Fabulous acting by Kevin Tighe here. I was convinced that this man was a true pedophile, how about you? I felt like my skin was crawling at the end of this episode, but for a good reason.

I have to mention two technical aspects about this episode. First, almost everyone was featured again! No Warner or Munch, but the other characters had a fair spread of time. I didn’t feel like it was the Olivia and Elliot show. And Casey got to do stuff! Yay!

Secondly is that I must profess my love for the camera in this episode. The camera movements were flawless and genius, and the way that light was played with? Take a look!:



Amazing cinematography.

Kevin Tighe, of course, nailed Cooper to a “t”.

Stay tuned next week, when Melissa Joan Hart guest stars as a teacher and Kyle Gallner as a student… yeah, they’re going there. Pass the remote!

No "Alternate" For SVU Season Premier

Photos curteous of BuddyTV.com

By Trublu
PTR Staff Writer

Fin: Nice haircut.

Some things never change, such as the amount of humor that you’ll find in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. While it’s been a rough ride these last couple of seasons, I was delighted to see that SVU seems to have gotten back on track with their season nine premier. And what better way to start off than with resolving that cliffhanger that we had at the end of last season? (And of course, viewing Benson’s renewed “butch” cut, a favorite among viewers everywhere.)

It was no surprise to learn that Olivia was suspended, Elliot and Fin were on the edge of being suspended, Cragen is being “temporarily reassigned”, Chester is as annoying as ever, and Munch is… a sergeant?

*Double take*

Did this happen at the same time Liz Donnelly was being made a judge? “Bar bet,” he says. Sure. I’d go for what would be probably the most important promotion that I’m going to have in my career on a bet in a bar. Wouldn’t you?

Chester: It was an honor to serve under you, sir.
Cragen: I’m not dead yet!

That was a gem, though, and part of such a dynamic opening! The whole squad was thrown upside down at the end of last season, and it seems as if someone just pressed the “blend” button. Great decision to start after all the suspensions have (mostly) occurred, but where everything is actually starting to fall apart. Cragen is being removed for “failure to supervise,” but the brass have now removed all the supervision there was ever going to be. Party time!

And Miss Cynthia Nixon makes her dynamic entrance! She looks so calm, cool, and collected, that you hardly want to believe that she is lying about her identity. The first clue that not many may pick up, though, is the different accounts people give of her. One describes her as a witch with paranoia, one as a perfect mom and employee. I’m convinced that this part was tailor made for Nixon; her tone and her facial expressions were just perfect in each aspect of her acting.

There was a nice Benson/Stabler character moment during the scene in the interrogation room. We get to see that Elliot still doesn’t possess that sympathy card that he needs so badly, but Olivia still has it. Of course, we find out later that it doesn’t matter what cards Elliot played here, only that they were being played.

The disorder of the week is “Dissociative Identity Disorder” AKA Multiple Personality Disorder.(SVU is actually very educational, since Huang is so amazingly amazing at teaching the detectives all about these disorders in the five seconds he gets on film).

Olivia: So far we’ve seen a therapist, a 6 year old child, and a tough Russian.
Elliot: And I bet she does a mean Christopher Walken too.

See what I mean? Humor.

Now, to the creepy Elliot-flirts-with-the-suspect-and-there’s-lightening-outside scene. If you were confused out of your mind at the presence of lightening in this scene… don’t worry, I was too. Hopefully you, like I did, didn’t spend too much time on it, and instead focused on Elliot being creepy and flirting with Dory in order to get a confession or a location for April. Now that’s SVU twisted for you.

Fin: I think you need to adjust your TV. The baby we’re looking for is Caucasian.

…

That’s what you get when you send Munch out in uniform to do a press conference. Chaos. I must admit, though, that Munch looked awfully handsome in uniform. I think Richard Belzer just asked the writers to make it so he could wear the uniform and look snazzy. Wonderful as he looked, though, that didn’t stop him from looking awfully silly when April’s mother came waltzing into the squad room, reporting that April was just fine.

Oopsie.

It was very creepy watching the hypnotism scene, yet it was oddly fascinating at the same time. Watching Nixon bounce back and forth from personality to personality was especially gratifying, and the climax at the end where the therapist has to snap her out of the trance… phenomenal. I really enjoyed how the writers chose to portray the effect of Janice’s ever changing personalities; if you were keeping count, Olivia had to introduce herself to Janice at least four different times. The last time, it seems like she’s back to actually being Janice, and they let her go home.

Oopsie number two.

While Kathleen has a cutsie scene where she gets to complain about her community service, and Kathy gets to show off her baby bump, Janice is busy murdering her parents. She even gets to hold Kathy hostage, which was just a fun scene to watch. Nixon dressing like an awkward teenager, wielding a knife and professing her love for Elliot totally made my day. And the awful yet totally satisfying comment about the “electricity” that passed between her and Elliot in the interrogation room? Priceless! (You see now why there was lightening.)

Chester: I’m not saying that we didn’t have crazies in Brooklyn, but you guys are cuckoo magnets.
Fin: You should have been here for the case where the white supremacist shot Munch in his ass. He still needs to sit on a special pillow.

Defense lawyer: She has five documented personalities.
Judge Bradley: Should we swear them in separately?

Casey: I didn’t do it, my imaginary friend did.

All obviously poking fun at a woman with a supposed disorder… and Munch, but funny none-the-less. Munch getting shot where the sun don’t shine will always and forever be funny.

Now, here comes the part where we go to trial and debate mental illness. Yes! It’s like it has to be in every episode, somewhere. Only, Casey get her neck wrung in this one. Writers! What do you have against Casey? She keeps getting attacked all the time…

Casey: DA walks, killer flops. That’s one for my scrapbook.

But, eureka! Casey makes the discovery.

It was all a lie.

Yes, you saw correctly. Your jaw dropping to the floor was justified. The whole thing was a hoax. There never were any multiple personalities, but you sure were convinced, don’t try to say that you weren’t! I was totally flabbergasted; between Nixon’s flawless acting and the amazing writing that was part of tonight’s episode. That two women thought they could get away with murder... and almost did, by faking a personality disorder? Fantastic television.

Overall, this was an example of one of the finest bounce back television premiers. Each character had a more equal spread of the screen time, and every character was featured. Cynthia Nixon gave so much to these characters, it was fascinating! It was also about time that SVU featured an out actress, so congratulations to them.

Stayed tuned next week for “Avatar,” when the virtual reality world of the internet comes into play. Pass that remote!

'SVU' Gets Screwed in Season Finale

NBC Recap

By Trublu
PTR Staff Writer

This episode was a fantastic season finale. Unfortunately, it came after a rather rocky season, with some episodes that we loved but a lot more that we hated. Elliot hooked up with Dani for a while, Olivia found out she had a brother, Fin’s nephew was arrested for a major crime, and Munch… well that’s just it, Munch didn’t have much to do at all. Cragen, Casey, Huang, and Doc Warner didn’t even get much airtime at all. On the other hand, Elliot has gotten back together with his wife, (sorta), Olivia’s brother isn’t a rapist and she now knows who her father is, (sorta), and Fin has gotten to see his son a little bit more.

I’ll admit, I got excited right away when they announced that they were revisiting the Fin/Darius storyline. Ludacris was amazing in his first episode, last season’s “Venom.” While it was a bit of a long time to air a second episode, it was still a great follow-up. The only problem was that some of the issues (why Darius was even jailed in the first place, the baby, evidence, etc.) wasn’t easy to remember after all this time, and it took away from the episode. Ice-T was cool and in control, and the rest of the cast wasn’t overbearing. Star Jones was definitely not my favorite guest star of the season. To me, the point of a guest star is to play the role in such a way that it would have been impossible for anyone else to have that role. But, I think anyone could have played that role, and it would have done something more for me.

The press did play an extremely important role in this episode, what with Elliot’s less than happy encounter and Nancy Grace’s less than flattering take on Casey Novak. *Yeah, I gave her an evil look when she started criticizing Casey.* I think they could have even played the press angle a little more, and exploited the detectives’ personal connections to the case.

Equally surprised, however, that no one took advantage of Elliot having to change his shirt in this episode! I was sure that the writers would have been all over that.

Attorney: I had no Idea this was so personal, Ms. Novak.
Casey: Once you get to know me you’ll find I feel this way about all my cases.

Oh, what a statement! If Nancy Grace had been in the room with Casey before she made her comments, this would have been the icing on the guilt cake.

Unfortunately for the characters, that was the smooth part of the episode. From here on in, EVERYTHING hits the fan. While Darius’s sick act doesn’t work, Terri refuses to testify and tries to run away. When Warner is testifying on the stand, she mentions that the victim was pregnant at the time; something that apparently wasn’t supposed to be said.

The character’s personal transgressions and career mistakes begin to catch up with them here, all at once. Darius calls Fin out for not following protocol and leaving drugs and guns from a bust in his car. FBI man appears and he and Olivia are on the chopping block for helping Simon when he was a wanted fugitive. There is some comedic relief though, as FBI man tries to score a place to stay with Olivia. Nice try, but de-nied.

Olivia: If I was there I would have taken his confession without a lawyer, too. What are we going to fight about next?

While they are busy arguing about who’s fault it is that the case is falling apart, Kathy walks in. For those of us who knew ahead of time (though not all of us had wanted to know!) this part of the episode was especially exciting. Time for Elliot’s bombshell: Kathy is pregnant!

Over the course of the past two seasons, E/O shippers have gained some hope with the separation, even more with the divorce, lost some with the Elliot/Dani thing, gained it when Dani left, lost some when Elliot visited Kathy, lost some two weeks ago with their little get together. And the big event last night has pretty much closed the door on anything Elliot/Olivia forever. Why? One, another child with Kathy is a major player. I don’t think Elliot will leave now. Two, Olivia questioned what Elliot was going to do about the situation, and this made Elliot pretty steamed. No matter how many more fake kissing scenes they shoot (let’s never have a recirculation of THAT picture, shall we?) there will never be any E/O, and that’s been made pretty final.

Another obvious nod to the audience was the scene in which Adam Beach joins the squad as Chester Lake. After creating some tension, Munch asks:

Munch: Should Fin be concerned?
Fin: There’s more than enough work for everyone, John, why don’t you do some?

While extremely funny when he says it, it was also recognizing the rumor that Ice-T was being booted off the show to make room for Beach. Not the case, as shown here.

As their first order of official business, Lake and Fin scope out a potential dirty cop. Nothing like some bonding on his first day. Things further fall apart when Simon approaches Olivia and reveals that he lied to try and save her from trouble, and Darius brings up Kathleen’s DUI. Donnelly, the biggest ally the unit had going in, suddenly recuses herself from the case and resurrects the charges against Kathleen. Well, I can say I didn’t expect that. Still, it makes more sense coming from Donnelly now than it did Elliot a year later, since it’s a legal matter.

Olivia pulls the “product of rape” card to get Terri to testify, and it turns out that her father raped her, producing Darius. This ends up helping Darius more than it does Casey. Darius is cleared on all the charges. I wasn’t surprised.

Olivia: I have to re-evaluate my commitment to the job.

The end montage was the best part of the episode. Kathleen got arrested (and was trailed by Elliot, comforting his daughter all the way). Olivia was testifying in front of the IAB, and Cragen was getting ready to as well. Casey was summoned to Branch’s office after the not guilty verdict was read. Except for in Casey’s case, it’s about time everyone’s actions caught up with them! It was sort of interesting, seeing it all happen at once. (And seeing it snow. Why was it snowing?!)

And so, we end the season with one major cliffhanger! I wasn’t overwhelmingly pleased with the season overall, but this episode is at least making me want to come back in the fall! Bye bye, SVU!

Playing Pretend Takes 'SVU' A Long Way

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!

'SVU' Annihilates a Chance at a Good Episode

NBC Recap

By Trublu
PTR Staff Writer

Unfortunately, what seemed like a very well trained perp who was cleaning up after himself turned out to be the maid who accidentally cleaned up after a very messy perp. More interesting, however, is the fact that the fiancé of the victim is a CIA operative!


…


Did you catch it? Fiancé Stephen really isn’t in the CIA; too many people knew! An operative going on assignment in countries that are experiencing a lot of turmoil like Indonesia is would have never revealed their assignment, not even to their fiancée. This was good for the story, though, because what was blatantly obvious to us makes us think about what the people around him were thinking.

And of course, that means that Conspiracy!Munch was on the case! Munch takes the opportunity, yet again, to remind us that big brother is watching… in those exact same words. Couldn’t the writers find another phrase to use here? He is handy with the satellites, though, and ends up pinpointing Stephen’s location.

Before that though, there is a rather funny scene with Elliot talking to a CIA contact.

Elliot: You owe me… remember McFaddens, the blonde?

The comic relief continued in the next scene, with the unfortunate teen in the store:

Elliot: Do you know where this guy lives?
Clerk: No… wait, I know where Muffin (his dog) lives, does that help?

The kids running out of the door of “Muffin’s” house is a dead giveaway to the double life scenario that is about to unfold, if you are someone that maybe didn’t catch on to the CIA thing right away.

Elliot: Most exotic place he’s been is… Cater, Illinois?

Obviously, Stephen (whose real name is Malcolm) isn’t the most exciting guy in the world, made plain through that statement. The CIA operative story, the trip to Jakarta, the honeymoon in Hawaii, that was all carefully constructed by him to make himself look more interesting. Something to file away for later.

Elliot: (Asking Malcolm what he tells his wife) Can’t spend the night, honey, got to go make the world safe for democracy?

(Just a bit of historical context: the phrase played a major role on U.S. entry into WWI and WWII, when the country felt it needed to protect against newly Communist Russia during WWI, and then protect Great Britain, the last democratic stronghold in Europe during WWII. Doesn’t really have anything to do with the comment, I don’t think, but just so everyone knows that it isn’t a random statement. There is a chance that I just missed any meaning that the writers meant to convey. [/tangent])

Something that everyone could relate to, though:

Elliot: Have you ever tried to put three kids to bed hopped up on pizza and soda?
Cragen: Maybe Malcolm has the magic touch?
Elliot: Cannot be done, trust me.

Turns out it either can be done, or Malcolm just left his wife with the task. Sound like he leaves his wife to do everything all the time, but the way that she explodes after Olivia and Elliot interrogate her.

Lindsay: I bet you’re married. Did it ever occur to you that your wife might want to do more than make beds and cook dinner?
Elliot:…

Nailed it! This definitely is the first of the final jabs at Elliot’s confidence during this case. He’s so thrown that he has to leave the room and go outside for some fresh air. While he’s talking to one of the kids, he mentions that his mom was talking to their neighbor, telling her that Malcolm was sick because he had a “dirty little”… well, the rest is obvious. But, coming from a six year old! Censor please!

Upon returning to the house later that night, Elliot and Olivia find all the children and Lindsay dead, and Malcolm with a wound to the head. He claims that Lindsay went on a rampage to punish him, supported by the fact that the gun is on the floor by Lindsay. But, an inconsistency which I noticed (and one that never was resolved) was the open door. Olivia clearly stated at the beginning of the scene that the door was open when they got the house, but why?

Here we see the obvious Elliot portion of the episode. He’s been thinking about Dani ever since they found out that Malcolm was living a double life, and explained that he loved both his wife and Cynthia. While he didn’t love Dani, the fact that he was frolicking with her while he wasn’t technically divorced is bothering him. The scene where he “breaks” the news to Malcolm that his family his dead also makes Elliot go nuts, and he eventually has to go home to check on his kids.

Now, if the writers had just stopped at Kathy asking Elliot to spend the night, then all would have been well in the SVU world. But, of course, they couldn’t stop there, they had to do an almost sex scene, something I do not want to see on SVU. Ever. (Unless its Olivia and Casey, and then we can talk. I am a C/O shipper, after all…)

I did manage to find the pause button before I began to claw my eyes out at that scene. The following scene really wasn’t any better, with Kathleen telling her father that he shouldn’t be using them as a “booty call.” Uhm… remember who filed for divorce in the first place, yes?

The CSU tech finally finds evidence to support the obvious; Malcolm killed his family and shot himself where he knew it wouldn’t kill. Elliot is in interrogation with him when he’s called out by Cragen. They’ve found only his prints on the lockbox for the gun (disproving the Lindsay theory), they found that the trajectory angles don’t match, and to top it all off, have him for Cynthia’s murder too because he was stupid enough to leave a “murder via snapping necks, for dummies” book around.

But of course, Elliot has to do things his way, and gets Malcolm into a chokehold to make him confess. Another tactic (like in last week’s Olivia episode) that should never stand up in court, but is never addressed anyway. And, to add to things, why is Elliot the only one that’s called to work this case? How about calling in Fin or Munch, since they hardly get used during regular investigations?

To top it all off, the ending was just plain horrible. We got our obligatory scene with Malcolm going down for all the murders, but the shot of him ignoring everyone else and walking out of the squad room was cheesy.

SVU seems like it’s slipping again. Hopefully, they can regain their footing for the last two weeks of May sweeps.

"Florida" Holds Some Surprises for SVU

NBC Recap

By Trublu
PTR Staff Writer

The long anticipated episode where Olivia finally confronts her past has finally arrived! There was something for every viewer in this episode (as long as you’re a fan of Olivia, of course). Before the real fun begins, we are shown the inside of the interrogation room, where Elliot and Olivia are trying to get a perp to confess, without much success. They are doing their beloved “good cop, bad cop” routine, with Olivia being the bad cop this go around (as if we expected anything else for this episode).

Things are going well, or so it seems, until Cragen pulls Olivia from the room. FBI agent man is back on scene, and he wants to know why Olivia sent money to Simon! *Collective gasp.* Here starts the great moral dilemma of the episode: why would Olivia send Simon money? On one hand, he is her brother, and family always changes things. However, on the other hand, Olivia has never been a real family person (the fact that she didn’t have a lot of family could have been an influencing factor) and there is strong evidence against Simon for the rape. Normally, Olivia won’t put up with rapists, never mind fund their potential escape.
Threatened by a photo that doesn’t exist (she’s been “Copped!” *think “Punked!”*) Olivia admits to FBI guy that Simon is her brother, and he seems to understand why Olivia is acting the way she is. Captain Julia, however, doesn’t see through Olivia’s act, and accuses her of being in love with Simon. *Ugh.* It was almost painful, listening to Julia describe how Benson must be so desperate that she picked a rapist, but the scene clearly illustrates her hatred for Simon, and so it was actually very well done.

Now we’re back to the original perp from the beginning of the episode that no one remembered or was paying attention to anyway. Good cop, bad cop is gone; now it’s just bad cop. Olivia gets in some good (cheap?) shots before Elliot and Cragen come in to break up the party. Ironically enough, the perp accuses Benson of having a thing for rapists. Him and Julia must share a brain!
The next scene was something I never thought I’d see on SVU: Cragen actually touched somebody. *Second collective gasp.* I know, I know, everyone was in shock over this one. Especially since he was grabbing Olivia by the arm! Did anyone else see the mixture of fear and disbelief in Olivia’s eyes? That’s by far something I wasn’t expecting, even more so than the bodily contact of two main characters on the show.

Elliot: What were you doing?
Olivia: Oh, the poster boy for rage is going to tell me how to handle my anger?

To that I say: ouch. Just plain ouch. This is a classic case of “Olivia is really angry right now” syndrome, where Olivia chronically hits below the belt when she’s annoyed or feeling trapped.

Simon: You’re so screwed up you can’t believe there is good in anyone.

This is where the episode stops being about just Simon and starts involving Olivia’s dad. Even though she knows he is dead, her disgust with what he did to her mother is something that she carries with her every day, and it influences the decisions that she makes. Her decision to become part of the SVU is an obvious one that is a byproduct of her origins. The fact that she’s never had a relationship last longer than half an episode is another such situation. Olivia looks with such distain at her brother when she thinks about what he’s done to his victims, just as her dad did to his victims. She tells FBI guy after he flees from the bookstore that he tried to run over her with his car.

Making matters worse for Olivia but better for us is the conversation that Olivia and FBI guy have at Simon’s mother’s home. Even though she has Alzheimers, she remembers the past clear as a bell, and can remember Olivia’s father talking about her daughter, and even attempting to contact her once. This naturally leads Olivia to more questions. (The episode should have been called “Questions” instead of “Florida”.) She begins to believe that her mother lied about being raped in the first place. However, Olivia declines to a rendezvous in Florida, where Simon’s mother indicated he owned a home.

The writers ruin all the wonderfulness with an absolutely horrid cut scene and voice over my Mariska/Olivia. It shows her going through each case that was similar to her mother’s, after learning from an employer that her father’s company supplied college dining halls (where her mother worked). She finds other cases with the same pattern, and even visits one of the victims, who tells her to go away. She is explaining all this to Huang, who is presumably sitting patiently in the background while Olivia spills all. Presumably is all we’ll ever know, though, since while Olivia was talking we were watching her in some sort of horrible flashback sequence!

At least we know that Olivia’s senses are at work, since when she gets home she senses Captain Julia lurking mysteriously. While at the station making a statement, Olivia pulls off an awesome feat: using the famed “fake call on your cell phone” trick, she manages to steal some evidentiary photos and confirms that they aren’t real.

Finally everything falls into place, as Olivia learns that Julia’s sister OD’d on drugs (remember waaaaay back to “Philadelphia?”), and that Julia had probably figured out where Simon lived. Thanks to a miraculous memorization of upstate New York by Elliot, everyone finally realizes that “route 94 in Florida” is actually “route 94 and Florida” an intersection address. The arrive to gunshots, and the most pivotal part of the episode begins.

If family always changes the situation, then having your brother being the one holding a gun to a shot and bleeding captain is an awkward situation indeed. Olivia’s ability to trust (or lack thereof) comes into major play here, since she essentially has to pick Julia’s story over Simon’s, or vice versa.

I was actually watching my TV non-stop through this segment; no notes, lots of flies were allowed to fly into my slack jawed mouth, and the scene alone could earn Mariska another Emmy nomination, very easily. And, this supplies multitudes of directions for the writers to go with Olivia. Her “trust floodgates” have been opened, and Simon is definitely on her radar, now that she knows he’s innocent. She also thanked Elliot for trusting her, another major step.

My guess is that even with the staggered filming (next week does look like an Elliot week) we’ll be seeing a lot of Benson. More specifically, Benson and family related issues, because that storyline is definitely not over yet.

Overall, I give “Florida” one of the higher ratings of the season, though it was no “Responsible”.

SVU is Responsible for Taking a Stance on Underage Drinking

By Trublu
PTR Staff Writer

NBC Recap

The opening scenes of “Responsible” have us all asking: what would it be like to find a random child dead in your home? We learn that if you never want to know the answer to this question, you should never hire a dog walker that you meet on the street that out sources her business.

How ridiculous do those two sentences sound? The first thing we get is an assumed murder scene of a teenager, only the people who own the place don’t know who she is. After a bit of chatting and a long game of “degrees of separation,” we find out that the dog walker the owners hired while they were on vacation out sourced the job to a random “trusted” teen dog walker, who in turn loaned the keys to her friends so that they could throw a party. They were all under age and drinking, so after another long list of chats, Benson and Stabler narrow down what happened: the girl was drinking and passed out, but no one thought to call 911. The things people will do to avoid getting in trouble.

It wasn’t like there was a ton of evidence on them anyway. Casey tells Elliot and Olivia to pick up the three teens, but there was really no way she could charge them with anything. They all claimed to have left before the girl passed out, and nobody can pinpoint where they got the alcohol. Whoever supplied it is the real culprit.

The kids might actually deserve to be in jail, though, because after Donnelly lets them out with a court order to abstain from alcohol, they post on their web pages where the next party is and who is bringing the booze. Now, this is the extremely fuzzy, “what in the world was Donnelly thinking” part of the episode, because she lets them go again! Its only when they post a video online (how stupid can these kids be?) making fun of Elliot and Donnelly, while drunk, that Donnelly finally puts them in jail.

Munch: You could start a bonfire with all the alcohol this one drank. What’s your poison, honey?
Reagan: Shut up you dirty old man.
Munch: Who you calling old?

If you didn’t fall out of your chair at that comment, shame on you! Not only did we get to see Munch for more than five seconds, but he says something classy like that!

Boy: You can’t do this, I want my parents!
Munch: Yeah and I want the troops home, the Kyoto protocol signed and an oil job from Miss February.

*Falls out of chair again.* Can you say that on national TV? I guess so! Of course, references like that have been made before, but I’ll let you bask in this one.

The truly sobering (pun intended, sorta) part of this episode was the car crash that kills Jordan and Reagan. It highlights on of the most tragic drinking and driving incidents; Reagan was totally sober, but she got into a car with Jordan, who was too drunk to see straight, let alone drive. It was so extremely important that the writers created the scene this way because it will help people understand that getting into a car with someone who is drunk is just as dangerous as driving when you’re drunk.

Casey: So your daughter is not an alcoholic?
Lillian: No. I live with her, I would know!
Casey: What planet are you on? She’s in rehab.
Lillian: Those places say everyone’s an addict. I love chocolate, maybe I should check in.
Casey: That’s a great idea. (Lillian starts walking out the door). Maybe you’ll gain insight into your problems, like why you have sex with teenage boys or why you’re so desperate to be liked that you buy kids’ friendships with alcohol. It’s pathetic!

Some comic relief, definitely. I was on my floor laughing at Casey during this scene. And yet, its also part of the most serious and devastating section of the episode, Becca’s ordeal.

The entire time she had been drinking, right under Benson and Stabler’s noses. Even when I was watching her at the beginning, I didn’t suspect a thing. But she was good at hiding it, so nobody noticed. Even more appalling was the fact that Lillian, Becca’s mother, had been supplying everyone with alcohol the entire episode. The only thing that got her to admit what she had done was the photographic evidence of Becca’s brain and liver that showed them slowly being eaten away.

Elliot burning Kathleen’s license? Priceless. Extremely belated, and it seems like it would be an incredibly stupid thing to do, but the best thing none the less. While Daddy bailed her out of a record and charges, she has no license, is probably forbidden to get a new license, and will probably have to pay for a new one once she is allowed to get one.

I’m willing to bet that one common reaction to this episode was the question: why was this a SVU episode? It was truly a SVU episode because in essence, Lillian was endangering the children around her. It’s true that they probably could have gotten alcohol without her (as exhibited by Kathleen easily ordering a drink in the restaurant, without being carded), but Lillian provided them with alcohol and mistakenly made the assumption that as long as she could control their drinking, then it was okay that they were under age. Common, and deadly, mistake.

I’m really glad that the writers came up with this episode. Hopefully it shows one teen or one parent how dangerous drinking really is. This was taken from the end of the episode:

2,449 youths under 21 were killed in alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 2005. That's an average of 7 deaths every day.

SVU Commits a “Sin”

By Trublu
PTR Staff Writer

NBC Recap

A million apologies for being so late with this. School rules my life. :D

Melinda Warner: No clothes, no ID, no eyes.

What an interesting way to start off an episode, don’t you agree? And just about the most interesting thing that happened too, seeing as this story line is getting tired. Not only has SVU covered a killing of a homosexual man to cover up a relationship before, but the original Law & Order series recently aired an episode dealing with a preacher who kills his lover (“Church” 17.14), and so did Law & Order: Criminal Intent (“Brother’s Keeper” 06.15) I’m totally all for episodes that portray gay characters, believe me there aren’t enough shows on television that do that. But why not mix up the storyline a little, or hey, random thought, toss a lesbian character in there?

Captain Cragen: That’s why you’ll all be playing doctor at St. Marks.
And he really does send them to play doctor! They have costumes and everything! (I bet many people had flashbacks to the days when Mariska was on ER.)

This was the beginning in a long line of questionable actions taken during the episode, more so than usual. I’m pretty sure that impersonating a doctor is not the way to catch a perp, and as it turns out the only person they caught was the victim’s mother. While it helped them put a name to the face, it was so awful to watch the mother walk into the hospital room expecting to see her son in a coma (how they released it to the press) and instead finding a dummy and a gun pointed at her.

Defense Attorney: My client signed that before he was coerced into confessing.
Judge Arthur Cohen: With what, a rubber hose?
Casey: Oh please, what did he do, hurt your feelings?

Later, of course, Elliot takes Jeb Curtis to his church in hopes that he will confess to murdering Richard. He does, but is a church the right place to obtain a confession? No witness to the interrogation and Elliot is basically threatening Curtis with his religion if he doesn’t confess which would be a form of coercion, big time. The judge agrees too, and throws out the confession.

The detectives’ other major screw up was in the form of their DNA testing. Again. For some reason over the past few weeks, everyone has forgotten how DNA tests work. Six alleles are definitely not enough to connect two samples of DNA; alleles are a tiny part of just one chromosome, and there are 26 chromosomes that make up a person’s DNA. They caught the wrong perp according to evidence that was very wobbly. They should have realized that his kids could also be suspects the moment those DNA samples didn’t match, instead of waiting until Curtis’s wife shot him to take a guess.

Casey and Elliot’s fight in this episode was so unexpected! They were actually trying to shout over each other at one point, which was totally cool, minus the sexual undertones that came screaming through. At least we were given some solace at the beginning of the episode.

Elliot: (on his cellphone): I know, I'm sorry. I gotta go.
Olivia: Everything okay?
Elliot: I'm supposed to be meeting Kathy for drinks tonight. I'm moving home.
Olivia: When?
Elliot: I'm not sure, that's why we were having drinks.

But, here’s the same old, same old. Kathy left Elliot in the first place because of the job, and here it is again, still in the way. Kathy, from the way Elliot was answering her on the phone, didn’t seem too happy with the turn of events. We can only hope that all Kathy really wants is more time than they were spending together.

Overall, I was in no way invested in this story after seeing two ones like it already. Ripped from the headlines loses meaning after it’s been ripped so many times. Perhaps if you don’t watch the original series or Criminal Intent it wasn’t such a bore for you, but even without those episodes it was too easy to figure out what happened. It was definitely one of my least favorite episodes of the season.

Why Didn't SVU Go To Philadelphia?

By Trublu
PTR Staff Writer

NBC Recap

Elliot: She does her job, and when it’s done, she goes home.

Right there is the indication that it’s going to be one heck of an episode. Have you met your partner? Elliot is being questioned, by whom or for what we don’t know. It’s probably safe to assume, though, that he and/or Olivia have gotten into some kind of trouble. That’s a constant in the SVU world. Trouble = evaluation. The writers did a good job with this one, injecting different parts of the conversation throughout the episode, enough that we get the general idea that something has definitely happened between Elliot and Olivia, but not too much so that we know what is happening before the very end of the episode. Of course when Cragen drops the big bombshell at the end, the conversation seems entirely too obvious. But more on that later.

Olivia is in New Jersey at her brother’s house. New Jersey… I’m guessing that isn’t Philadelphia, huh? In fact, we don’t see, hear, or get an inkling that the detectives might be thinking about Philly. So, what was the connection? Every episode title of every show ever written has something to do with the content of the episode in some way, shape, or form. So why get us all excited about Philly if we’re not going?

The fact that Olivia is at her brother’s house pretty much makes up for that, though. Elliot is somehow there too, for “backup”. Now, why would Olivia need backup to visit her brother? Because, of course, Jersey PD is there too. What a coincidence.

Off to the actual SVU storyline, we’ve got a case of a male being raped, apparently the third in a string of attacks. We don’t see this storyline often enough. Actually, not since “Ridicule” (the episode where Diane Neal played the perp and not the ADA) have we seen a case like this, and while it’s extremely important to the storyline that the case be one of those rare male rape cases that happens to come in, I wish the writers would have utilized the idea in at least one other episode, since this one was primarily focused on Benson. That tiny grievance aside, however, I was stunned at the pure genius that is actually in this storyline.

It’s no mistake that the writers chose to work with male victims instead of female ones in this episode. Everything that Olivia knows is going to be challenged this episode, her family ties, her competence as a detective, and so no decent writer could possibly resist the urge to throw just one more wrench in the gears. Further more, it’s important that this episode’s perp chose male victims. Since he was abused by males in prison, (the theory is) that is why he turned around and abused the very same people he was abused by. It all ties back in to the theory that the tendency to be a rapist is something that can be passed on genetically, or it can be learned. The perp seems to reinforce the school of thought that being violent is something that can be learned, which is what Benson would rather believe. As Dr. Huang said, “identification with the suppressor.” Simon, however, seems to support the theory that genetics may have something to do with the tendencies.

Olivia has a great scene in the car with Elliot when she pretty much breaks down; alas for E/O fans, not in his lap, sorry. At this point she is definitely thinking that the phrase “like father like son” may be true, and she’s also afraid that the science of the matter may easily accommodate “like father like daughter.” It’s a popular idea in fan fiction that Olivia would have a problem with passing on her DNA for this reason: what if she is predispositioned toward violence? Olivia reveals, however, that she’s lonesome, and is tired of being alone. She thought she had a shot of being part of a family with Simon, but with the possibility of him being a rapist, that chance has been pretty much disappeared.

A quick lesson for new drivers like myself: Don’t ever do what Olivia did. Talking on your cell phone while driving is not safe to do, but being on the radio at the same time? That has to be in the detective’s manual somewhere… and look what happened! The perps got away. Negative effects, readers, negative effects. The scene did serve its purpose though: we definitely got the point that Olivia was distracted. Cragen knew that Olivia and Elliot were lying through their teeth when they claimed the directions weren’t transmitted/received clearly, so he has Techy Morales bring up the tapes! I didn’t know they recorded that stuff, but in any case: busted.

They end up catching the perps anyway, and Fin of course says the perfect thing:

Fin: Maybe these bozos don’t have good gaydar.

Best. Line. Ever. Or so I thought, until we got this one:

Olivia: What’s your name?
Perp: I hate you bitch.
Olivia: That has a nice ring to it.

And back to Olivia TV, and the most disappointing revelation of the entire episode: Olivia’s father is dead. Oh, man, I was so hoping for confrontation. I needed that to happen. Unless Simon is lying, which is possible, considering he’s lied about everything else. He and Olivia were having a good night of strawberry ice cream, Captain Crunch and Dukes of Hazard when he had to go and ruin it all by raping one of the women that he stalked. And didn’t he try and use Olivia as an alibi. Olivia, even though she knows with her head that he’s guilty, still tries to believe that he’s innocent. Even tries to pin it on Captain Millfield of Jersey PD (played by the lovely Kim Delany, by the way) but to no avail. Simon is guilty… and proves it by skipping bail. Smart man.

Back to the actual case again. (I know this is confusing, bear with me. This is actually how the episode ran, all back and forth like.)

Casey: (to perp) We want to use your case to build support for President Bush’s Prison Rape Prevention Act.
Huang: We’re giving these tapes to Dateline so America can learn all about the time that you suffered in prison.

I admit that for a second I thought they were serious, but almost instantly I burst into a kind of mechanical laughter. Brilliance in a bottle is what that was. Unethical, sure, but brilliant. The guy fell for it too, which made it even better. At least he is actually benefiting from the deal.

And fittingly, they end with the evaluation. Which we learn from Cragen, at the very end, is because he believes that Benson and Stabler simply may not be worth the risks of keeping together anymore. Why he send them to Dr. Hendrix, I’m not sure, since of Olivia’s personal history with her. But evaluate them she does. (A yay for Mary Stuart Masterson anyway, she always rocks as Dr. Hendrix.) And the ruling? Of course they’re too emotionally attached to each other. We knew that. But she warns Cragen that if he separates them, he’ll be losing the best team of detectives he will ever have. Decisions, decisions. We know that Benson and Stabler have at least two more years to work it out!

Over all, almost everything I wanted the episode to be. Olivia’s journey with this is definitely just starting, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing where it goes. While I’m disappointed that Olivia’s father is apparently dead, there’s definitely a lot more about family that Olivia has to explore. We’ll have to wait a little while to find out exactly what happens, though. No new episodes for a couple weeks due to March Madness.

SVU Finds Several Needles in Several Haystacks

By Trublu

PTR Staff Writer

NBC Recap

Haystack, as in, needle in a. That is what this episode certainly was characterized by, a search for a perp in a haystack. Charades in this episode went horribly wrong, with a mother discovering that her baby is missing. What is different about this episode, though, is that she immediately fingered somebody for the crime, her ex-husband (predictably). At least he has priors so that the interrogation will be interesting. When we get an interrogation. When the police finally catch up with him, we get a high speed chase.

I really liked this scene, actually, when Elliot jumped into the river after the bag because he thought the baby was in it. I had a tingly moment. The kid, however, is not in the bag; instead Elliot finds cocaine. (Not as heroic, saving a bag of cocaine, but oh well.)

Probably complimented by the previews pitting Laura against the world, I was starting to think at this point that Laura was involved in the disappearance of her son. The movie attendant saw a stroller with a plastic cover (not the baby) and the babysitter doesn’t see the baby the entire time he was there, doesn’t it sound odd? Cragen agrees with me about two seconds later, and Elliot is starting to think so too.

Cragen: Well, if it isn’t Cindy Marino, the poor man’s Heraldo.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate SVU-land journalists? They’re always sleazebags. Journalist dude that tried to get Olivia to play “The Gross Fantasy Game” with him and then stole her case file, and that other journalist dude that almost got Olivia arrested. Marino is no different. When Elliot disclosed that they found Kendall’s sonogram in the garbage among the toys (stupid move, by the way) Marino took an exclusive interview with Laura and ultimately caused her to lose it and commit suicide.

Warner: It’s not blood. Strained peaches.
Elliot: You have a gizmo to test for baby food?

It’s time for another “The More You Know” session with M.E. Warner, and I’m positive that every viewer shouted “WHAT?” at their television screens by the end of the explanation. Brief recap though: Warner wants to use Kendall’s DNA and run only a few of his genes through the database rather than trying to get a match on all 46 chromosomes. So, there could be tons of matches (since she’d be running things like combinations of brown hair, brown eyes, and right handedness, things that millions of people have in common genetically). Let the perp in the haystack search begin.

I do love how Techy Morales argued against this, though. Dude is arguing that this violates people’s civil liberties… and yet just last week he was illegally hacking into a company’s computer system. Roll them eyes, Casey, roll them eyes.

Kendall being found at a fire station momentarily takes the heat off the search, but the fact that Patty delivered himself right to their doorstep afterwards is priceless. He drops Kendall off at the fire station after Laura dies because he knows he’ll get parental rights anyway. Either the smartest or the dumbest criminal, ever. It would have taken Elliot and Casey probably weeks to whittle down the seven siblings to just one suspect.

Loved Elliot’s attempt to keep Patty and Kendall at the 1-6 (Elliot: Do you have a car seat? Can’t let you leave without one.). Even better was Casey’s removal of Kendall through ACS on totally un-provable charges. (While Garret saw Laura’s bruises and Laura claimed that Patty beat her, there was no way to prove it with Laura dead.)

Runner: Elliot?
Elliot: Yeah, can I help you?
Runner: You’ve been served.
Elliot: Can you believe this Casey?
Runner: Casey Novak?
Casey: Yeah?
Runner: Cool! You just saved me a trip downtown!
*Casey purses her lips and makes the coolest face ever as she gets served. I fall out of my chair.*

So Elliot and Casey are both being sued. For $10 million. On a cop’s and ADA’s salaries, I doubt they can even afford to think about that amount of money. Of course, to the rescue… Judge Elizabeth Donnelly! (The viewer still not knowing how she became a judge in the first place.)

Donnelly: According to the suit, you conspired with Detective Stabler to deprive Patty of his civil and constitutional rights.
Casey: No! *Best answer ever!*
Donnelly: Pity, this guy sounds like a douche bag.

I never thought I would get to write that phrase in a review. Ever. *Bows down to Donnelly.*

Also something I thought I would never see, Elliot and Casey and Donnelly all sitting at the defense’s table.

Besides Donnelly kicking some major butt, I was extremely overwhelmed to hear the numbers, as fictional as they may be. Stabler apparently has a 97% closure rate: incredible for his line of work. And Novak, a 71% conviction rate? It’s insane! Forty one percent national conviction rate… somehow I fear that it may be the real number. Imagine, only 41%.

I guess they are helped in part, though, by idiots like Patty who flash evidence on the stand. Like the sonogram that was in the trash. I wonder how he got that…Even so, Casey still had to lie to get him to take a deal and give up his custody rights. But hey, she lied in the sake of justice, right? *My turn to roll my eyes.*

And perhaps the most crucial moment of the episode: Olivia gave Warner a sample to test with the sibling identification process she used with the Kendall’s earlier. And guess what? She has a brother! I literally whooped at this development. Got some angry phone calls from the neighbors, hearing all the racket I made during this episode. But finally! I have a feeling we will know exactly who Olivia’s father is by the end of this plotline, and about time too. They almost spilled it in season two, but I guess the head honcho decided we weren’t ready. Good choice, too. This confrontation will be so much sweeter now, six seasons and a lot of angst later.

The place names of the two episodes definitely signal toward a road trip. I have a feeling that Olivia is heading to Philly next week! The city of brotherly love… the writers so did that on purpose. I cannot wait to see this episode because not only is it personal, but it’ll challenge every single thing that Olivia stands for. Does she stand by her rapist brother? He has to be (violent) the chance for the writers to address the “inheritance” of violent behaviors is too good here for the writers to pass up. They did address it in a previous episode (suitably called “Inheritance,” 3.08), but the chance to connect it to Olivia and her fear of inheriting her past is gold. Or, does she stand by the victims, as she always has? She is a victim in every sense of the word. Pass the remote for this one, and set your VCRs as well!

Are We Dependent On Elliot's Rage To Make A Good Episode?

NBC Recap

It’s the episode that changed everything.

At least, if you’re Elliot. There’s no doubting that we’ve finally gotten back to the SVU type cases that we all know and love. Opening sequence shows us that we’re dealing with the attack of a defense attorney’s wife, suspicious in itself, of course. There’s almost an unlimited pool of suspects containing every person this guy ever failed to get acquitted. But we (as viewers) can quickly reason it down to a very small selection, based on the facts that we meet the boy that Stabler ends up “killing” very quickly, and the little boy who witnessed the entire ordeal flees when his sister enters the room. I’d say that’s pretty telling! Plus, Sidney confesses that he had seen his daughter in the house that night, though she claims to have been at her boyfriend Ryan’s house. Wasted, of course.

I love the irony in this episode. Olivia mentions right away that Sidney’s wife is a pharmaceutical sales person for, what other company is there, Tauscher Leto! (If you’re now looking at me like I have ten heads, Tauscher Leto was the pharmaceutical company featured in the episode “Manic” where a boy shot two classmates and himself, then claimed his anti-depressants made him do it. Turns out, he was actually right, and Alex kicked some serious butt in her third-to-last episode. You’ll remember this exchange:

Tauscher Leto Exec: Stop it, you’re hurting me.
Elliot: Take some Aptrol, that should make you feel better.
*Alex smirks.*

Even more ironic? The directors name is Peter Leto. But I digress.)

Which brings us to the pharm party. No, my spelling has not gone down the tubes. A pharm party is a party where each of the guests brings pharmaceuticals and they all get dumped in a bowl. Each guest can then take a handful of pills from the mixture… and I assume that’s where the fun is supposed to start. Ironic, of course, because of Charlotte’s mom’s job. We find out that Charlotte was so high and drunk the night of her mother’s murder that she could have raided her mom’s samples for more pills for the party. Elliot and Olivia (and probably most viewers) see this as an extensive lead pointing to Charlotte as her mother’s killer. Charlotte can’t remember anything, which leads to her suicide attempt. This scene was extremely well done, with exceptional acting by Emily VanCamp (formerly of Everwood).

I wasn’t convinced though, because of those previews that showed that Ryan was clearly more involved. In addition, in the very beginning of the episode, we see someone (who looks very much like a man, not a woman) dressed entirely in black, which is not what Charlotte was wearing.

The SVU detectives get their proof when Casey gets a call from M.E. Warner saying that their main evidence, the contents of the downstairs toilet, came from a man and not a woman.

Casey: That changes everything!

I felt like tracking down this newbie writer, Ken Storer, and giving him a piece of my mind. Three times! Three times this line was used, twice by Casey. Not only was it totally out of character, it was completely out of place in the SVU world, period. Everything changes so rapidly that if that line was used to describe the twists every time… well, several people would probably go crazy.

On to the major part of the episode: Elliot killing a guy! *Pauses while the audience collectively gasps.* However, it’s not as bad as you think. It’s actually made very obvious that Elliot could not have killed the man in the way that the whole encounter is shown. Elliot punches him then puts his knee on his back to keep him down while he restrains him. Not usually enough to kill a guy, at least with Elliot. He’s done worse.

I don’t understand how ten witnesses saw Elliot “beat” Ryan. I don’t know if this was a mistake on the writers’ part or if this was just an exaggerated account of the incident made to IAB agents who can’t count how many statements they received. When we see the encounter, there are clearly only five or so people watching. And I’m not sure how they define a beating, but in my book, a beating consists of several blows, not one mild punch. Later, when we see the cell phone video (which provokes another “This changes everything!” exclamation from Novak) it makes it look like there are a lot more people there, and somehow the encounter seems worse. Go figure.

Olivia climbing over that ten foot fence was definitely the best part of the scene, though.

Next, we see a random interlude of Elliot drinking something that looks very much like scotch. That’s great. It doesn’t have anything to do with the episode, though, and Olivia’s disposition is definitely more interesting. She tells IAB guy that Elliot is not a murderer (seen in the previews) and that he has always done only what is necessary to get the collar. At this point, it seems like Elliot might actually be a goner.

M.E. Warner: Well, that changes everything!

NO!!! WHY?!!!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that things were changed in this instance, but did we need the announcement? Not really.

Warner discovers that Elliot’s CPR efforts, not Elliot’s fist, caused Ryan’s ruptured spleen. She then pours over his medical records and discovers that Ryan had a heart condition but wasn’t taking his medicine. He died because of a heart arrhythmia… irony, again. The guy was taking every drug he could get his hands on except the ones that he actually needed to take to keep him alive. Yay for Melinda Warner, Elliot’s job is safe for another day.

Though, the scene at the courthouse where Warner, Casey, and Olivia all turn around to stare at Elliot after he’s cleared was so corny.

But, finally! The writers give me a chance to do my happy dance! My happy Elliot/Kathy dance, at that. Elliot goes to Kathy’s house wanting to reconcile, and “come home.” Finally! We all know that it won’t be easy, but if any OTP can endure, it’s Kathy and Elliot!

Next week: Ripped! A baby goes missing, and its mother is accused. It’s going to be tense, it’s going to be dramatic, so pass the remote!

SVU Writers Have Found A Loophole

By: Trublu
PTR Staff Writer

NBC Recap

How many officers does it take to bring down a huge guy high on PCP? Apparently three detectives, a captain, a cop, and Munch yelling in the background. Elliot gets thrown like a Frisbee through a window after hitting the man with a fire extinguisher in the back of the head. (How he isn’t knocked unconscious after that, I don’t know.) Olivia tasers him, and he still gets back up and goes after her. Fin finally hits him over the head with a chair, and he collapses. A chair?! After a fire extinguisher and a taser gun, he goes down with a hit from a chair? Why, writers, why? Still better, why did this scene even exist? It has nothing to do with the rest of the episode, and Elliot could have been written off as being in court. That poor kid could have dropped off the package and ran. An exciting but rather wasted beginning of an episode.

After that entire debacle, we finally actually get to see what was in the package that the kid brought into the squad. And boy oh boy, it’s kiddie fun. Maybe the writers should bring back the guy on the PCP…

Or show more Elliot with his shirt off. Please! Elliot had to get a shot in the lower arm, below his elbow! Wear a fashionable hospital gown like the rest of us. I’ve seen enough of Elliot without his clothes on. At least we don’t see him for most of the rest of the episode.

At least Olivia’s time (and by time I really mean five seconds) in computer crimes paid off. Sort of. The bit about the memory card time and date… Sorry computer techy, but one seems to have forgotten that anyone can set the date and time on that memory card to anything they want. Show me ten people who actually have the date and time set correctly on their memory card and I’ll buy you dinner. (And no, I’m not Lake. But I do wish that I could buy Casey dinner.)

The good stuff just keeps coming; the clichéd cop with a la donut. Why does Fin give that random kid a donut, anyway? If it was Diego, then I would understand. However, one good quote does come out of it:

Kid: How come you don’t know that already?
Fin: We’re too busy eating.

However, the best quote of the night comes a bit later, after Munch walks in following his off camera canvas of Diego’s school.

Fin: Oh, you’re late because you were doing something useful!

Laced, and I mean literally drenched, in sarcasm. The writers know that they are skimping on the Munch TV time. They’re writing it into the scripts! *Points to above quote.* And yet, they refuse to do something simple about it… say, write Munch into the script instead of writing about how he’s not in the script! I need some Munch time, stat!

Fin: We don’t speak your dialect of crazy.

Leave it to Munch to know about excessive production of earwax (also known as cerumen). I’d say that’s another dialect of crazy all together.

So, how does this relate to the case again? Olivia goes to talk to Diego. He passes out, then Jennifer passes out. No one notices the smoking radiator in the background. Go figure. Olivia at least does a good job of getting the tenants out of their apartments before she blacks out. One point for Olivia!

Cragen: Take her, restrain her if you have to.

Good, at least someone is following the rules. Jeez, Olivia. You were just exposed to an unknown toxin, and you’re refusing medical care. Smartness at its prime.

Fin: Leave it to the prince of paranoia to take it up a notch that’s a reach, even for you.

Yeah, only he’s right! After he found that check for Millstead, all evidence seems to indicate that he was intentionally poisoning Diego and documenting his reaction to the toxin. For once, we actually have a conspiracy on our hands! I can’t remember a good one since “Manic”. But, now that Millstead is dead, do the detectives regret how he died? Perhaps not that he’s dead, but the manner in which he was murdered. (With a sharpened toothbrush, in case you’ve forgotten.) Excellent example of our penitentiary system.

And Olivia is back to thinking like a victim and not a cop. Notice that only when Elliot returns to the scene does Olivia even remotely consider doing something illegal to get information. But once Elliot plants the idea… whoosh! We’re off to the races.

Computer Tech Morales: I never figured you for somebody who would break the law.

*Falls out of chair and laughs hysterically for hours.*

Really, hm? I guess you haven’t watched the last three seasons. Casey told Olivia that it would be virtually impossible. It’s not giving up if your continuing on to the billions of other open cases that you have on your desk, more kids waiting for your help. If you lose your job, Olivia, then what?

Wow. I barely have the words to describe this. Olivia and Morales are hacking into the company’s computers via the men’s room. Olivia in hospital drag: humorous. Olivia asking Morales for help: annoying. But Olivia crouching over a men’s room toilet and then making the “I thought it was the ladies room” excuse: priceless. How high schoolish is that? Wait, even we don’t pull that kind of junk.

Munch: And until he does get here you can enjoy the hospitality of our prisoner lounge.

Lawyer: I want to see your ADA now.
Casey: (coming in the door) You rang?

Casey: Don’t marinade on it too long gentlemen, this offer has a half life of ten seconds.

Major squeeing right now. Casey just used the words “marinade” and “half life” in the same sentence. She is so my hero.

If you were able to follow me this far, congratulations to you. You get a cookie! Even I don’t really know what happened this week. From PCP to packages to pedophiles to Homeland Security to poisonous research companies to… well, who knows what else they slipped in there that I missed. I heard a rumor that Arnold Schwarzenegger made a guest appearance and Stephanie March returned from witness protection as Alex Cabot (again) but everything was too confusing to catch it.

Preview for next week: Wow. This just keeps getting better and better. (Sarcasm.) “Elliot Stabler could never commit murder.” I’m hoping that this is a gross misadvertisement, as NBC is subject to do every once and a while. Elliot has already fallen off the edge; I don’t think many of us are inclined to see it happen again. Somebody give this guy a parachute or something.

There must be nowhere to go from here but up, right? So, pass the remote.

One of SVU's Outsiders Finally Reappears

Picture curteosy of NBC.com

NBC Recap

If I were to analyze the episode based on the amount of sleaze the characters oozed or the number of times that Lake’s gut was mentioned, it would seem like “Outsider” was a dud. Not so, however; in SVU’s most SVU like episode this season, I finally saw something that I’ve wanted to see all season. Fin! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the “Cop Killer”/Lover, Ice-T, finally appeared in an episode for more than five seconds. It’s a miracle cast down upon us by the SVU gods. Or the writers, who it seems have finally utilized their most versatile character.

The episode prominently featured Fin and his son, Ken, which proved to be a little strange and ultimately quite annoying. While I loved seeing him in a normal role (you all remember last season’s disaster, “Strain” which was basically Ken’s national coming out party) he was the anti-SVU cop. He was obsessed with the detectives’ “lack of effort,” which was really them not doing anything illegal to obtain a tainted conviction. Finally, the illegal-ness stops, and someone, Fin’s son of all people, comes in and wonders why they don’t resume.

Introduce the random Brooklyn SVU dude, who listens to his scanner at night, operates on gut, and was as sleazy as… well, Trevor Langan. (Peter Hermann had some tough luck here.) He introduces the far fetched, but eventually true theory that his homicides are connected to Fin’s rape cases. A strange idea, since as Fin mentions later, murderers don’t usually progress backwards to just rape. However since Lake’s gut says he’s the same guy, we now have an extra detective on the case. (Where in the SVU world was Munch? Why can they not utilize them in an episode with Fin? Why?)

Lake: Benson and Stabler get gold stars in Cragen’s class, where does that leave you?

*Shakes man’s hand.* I wouldn’t go as far as hugging the man, because of his little encounter with Casey later, but right now he is my best SVU buddy. Did the writers even realize that they were writing this as they penciled it in? They’re basically sticking it to themselves now, unless they actually think that we only want to see Benson and Stabler.

Suspect: Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go handle more money in ten minutes than you’ll handle in a lifetime.

Haves vs. have nots anybody? It ultimately didn’t have anything to do with the episode, but it was still a very funny, and accurate, line.

Lake: My gut says he’s lying.
Fin: Your gut is a genius.

One of Lake’s (or his gut’s) many moments, he actually turns out to be right. Unfortunately, this lead doesn’t exactly turn out to help the case any, but the newest victim does. Third of three actually attacked in the course of the episode, the last victim is who finally cracks the case wide open. Handprints from where the perp tried to choke her are the link between the Manhattan rapes and the Brooklyn rape/homicides.

Casey: Yeah, I’ll run the subpoenas through the Medicaid fraud unit; he’ll think we’re investigating his billing practices.
Fin: Well if you pull that off Casey I’ll give you my badge.
Lake: And I’ll buy you dinner.
Casey: I’m not a cheap date.
Lake: I’ll remember that.

*Twitches and falls out of chair.* No! No! She can’t have just acknowledged that! Limers everywhere fell out of their chairs during that scene. I can’t tell what Casey is doing; the sleaze factor has now exceeded Trevor Langan’s amount by tenfold. The only non heart attack worthy thing that came of this encounter was:

1. We got to see Casey, which is always of the good. And,

2. Her hair definitely seems much redder, which is a squee worthy moment in itself.

Lake: My gut tells me that’s not our guy.
Fin: That’s not your gut, that’s indigestion.

Once again Lake’s gut makes an appearance, and once again he’s right. This time it was more pertinent; when the detectives discover the scrap book (yeah, the play along perp likes to see his own name in the paper and make comments on his crimes) it leads Dr. Chanoor to give up his son, who the detectives recognize to be the janitor at the doctor’s clinic, and the perfect mold to the desperate to be known signature.

All the ego stroking that the perp insisted on makes sense when the detectives meet Henry, Dr. Chanoor’s son. The good doctor led his son to believe that he was a waste of space and air, leading Henry to seek attention by raping women and making them praise him. (We don’t even need Huang to figure this one out; this man was desperate for any type of attention.) The psychology thankfully worked in the reverse as well; as soon as the detectives realized this was why Henry committed the crimes, they gave him exactly what he wanted. Praise for a clean and nearly undetectable job. After that, Henry opened up like a clam.

I don’t believe we’ve ever seen a sibling, or any relative for that matter, be someone’s defense lawyer, but this goes to show why that should never happen. Petrovsky chose to ignore the strangeness of the request that Henry be required to wear an ankle bracelet. And, how did the tech people lose the signal? Once the signal begins to move, aren’t they supposed to follow it?

The reverse psychology works again, and lake reels Henry in by offering to make him famous. Unable to resist, Henry yields to the power that is Fin’s excellent marksmanship.

There was a strange motif within this episode which only really made sense at the very end, which was the family life of two of the victims and the Chanoors. Ming’s father became overprotective of her when he found out that she was raped, threatening to sue Fin and the police department if he didn’t drop the investigation. When Kara’s (the second rape victim) father arrived, he instantly whisked her away to Italy. Dr. Chanoor, however, was exactly the opposite with his son. Cold, critical, and static. He had no qualms about yelling at his son in the hallway, and asserted many times that he thought his son was a good for nothing boy who had never earned his love.

This episode has been long overdue, but where was Munch? The writers don’t seem to understand that they have four detectives. This means that since Benson and Stabler are partnered together, Fin and Munch are partnered together. Further exploration would logically yield that when Fin appears in an episode, Munch should too. Alas, perhaps Munch is dating again and doesn’t spend so much time at work?

The serial rapist plot always makes for a good episode of SVU, and this one was no exception. In easily one of the best episodes of the season so far, the detective dynamic was good, the plot wasn’t obvious, and while Chester Lake was annoying, he did work well with Fin in the end.