Donny Ketchum

Oh, here's something I'm surprised they didn't touch on. What's gonna happen to Jiya, Neil's wife? She clearly knew what he was doing and covered it all up. Because . . . he's annoying? He comes off like a total Brooklyn stereotype? Sorry. I get everyone seems to be in love with Carisi, but I'm not. He's not terrible, but when he first came on, I didn't get much time to form an opinion of him. But all the love thrown at him before I got a chance to decide kinda turned me off to him. So . . . it's basically everyone's fault I don't have too high an opinion of him, not really his own fault.

They stayed on the sex crime the entire time and didn't turn into Something Else. Good. I also figured the uncle wasn't on the up-and-up early on, and when I saw how little time was left when he was finally caught, I knew he wouldn't be getting off in some last-minute twist. I felt for Marcy and Jenna, as well as Jerome's family. All of these lives were basically upended by one horrible person. One person who, thankfully, will pay for it. I especially loved Marcy going after Neil. Had to hurt knowing her own brother was that terrible. I watched her running for him so many times on my DVR. The ending reminded me of an old SVU episode. As much as I somewhat felt for Luke, since he was set up almost as much as Jerome was, he still did need to do time for what he did to Jerome. So I hope Jerome's family just lets him do time for the manslaughter charge. I thought it was a pretty good episode. The whole cast was in it, for once, and it felt like a nice return to the old-school SVU episodes.

Sonny's got absolutely no right to be mad at Paul. Okay, perhaps a smidge, but definitely not a lot. Paul did sleep with his husband, but it's pretty clear he didn't know, and Sonny must know that Paul had no idea as to whom his husband is because Sonny didn't tell him, nor did Will. As far as Paul knew, Will was single. So I'd hope for Sonny to direct the bulk of his rage at Will for knowingly cheating on him. That said . . . I'm throwing a little bit of shade on Sonny, too. Just a little bit. He should've just told Will about Paul from the start. If he had, perhaps Will might've avoided being around him, or at least been more cautious. This whole mess resulted from both of them keeping secrets from one another.

Even then, the guy died, anyway, so Elliot basically killed one and saved no one. I'm actually surprised to read that people still loved him. Any good feelings I had for him went away with how he treated Lena Olin's character in "Confidential." Only got worse from there.

When did he dance in "Jones?"

They still could've found something more organic or befitting of his character than that.

To be fair, as "typical" as Logan and Barek were, they still zeroed in on the motives of the perps just as much as Goren and Eames did, to fit in with the theme of the show. Granted, in different ways (as Barek used the profiles and psyches of past perps she'd dealt with, while Goren focused on the one perp), but both pairs still did that.

I saw "Smoked" again this weekend and I'm still scratching my head as to how shooting Jenna really could've traumatized him enough to retire. He's had to shoot other perps before, so how or why was she any different?

Sophie clearly has no clue about how to deal with relationships. Like Caroline told her, it's about compromise. The fact that she wouldn't even allow one of Oleg's belongings into her apartment tells me she's not as ready for marriage as she thinks she is. Also, "Can this just be about ME?!" If a host or hostess said that to me at a dinner party, I'd have been out the door. So yeah. I generally like Sophie, but I didn't much care for her in this episode.

So now that season five is back on ION, I wanted to pose a question, maybe get you all thinking. Since this was the season in which the two-pair format started, I've often wondered something that perhaps you all might wonder, too. How might each pair have handled the other pair's cases? Would they have taken the same roads to solve them? Gone the same way the writers had the original pairs take? How do you think the interactions with the witnesses or suspects might've changed? And how do you think the final busting scenes might've differed? Uh, let's leave "Grow" with Goren and Eames (since anything Nicole-related should stay with them), and leave "Diamond Dogs" with Logan and Barek since that was their first case together and was heavy on references to Logan's past. And of course, the two-parter, in which both pairs took part. But take every other episode and picture the other pair investigating the case rather than the one who actually did. How do you think things might've been different?

A lot of the reason Kim was thrown out was because of fan reaction to her, I think. Personally, I liked Kim okay. She was competent and did her job. And she didn't take much of Elliot or Olivia's shit. I just wonder if the fan hatred of her was because of the character or Michaela's acting. Because the latter I could sorta get behind. But not at all the former.

I don't know why everyone here is pitying Nicole. She's been obsessively trying to take down a woman who's done nothing to her (their past confrontations notwithstanding) since the moment she hit town for no other reason than she's been in Eric's orbit. Yes, we know Serena's up to something, but Nicole doesn't. She just wants her to be. And hell, if she'd come to town in the orbit of anyone who wasn't Eric, she wouldn't even be paying her much mind at all. I'm not saying Serena's innocent, as she is doing something. But Nicole's not after her for that. Daniel, as much as I can't stand him, is right that she's after her because she's around Eric. Plain. And. Simple.

That's the technical reason. But the deeper reason I've always seen is this. Sami got back with E.J. because he was now kissing her ass again, and Rafe wasn't anymore. Before that, it'd been the other way around, so it was easier for her to be with Rafe, not E.J.

I saw "Tru Love," Wheeler's first episode, sometime back. And I recognized Danielle McCaskin's attorney from somewhere, but couldn't put my finger on it. But then, I realized that she also played (the late) Jane Whitmore's boss at the beginning of the SVU episode "Bedtime." I didn't know if this was just for the actors who played main characters or even for minor or bit characters, but I wanted to throw it out just in case.

I saw "Tru Love," Wheeler's first episode, sometime back. And I recognized Danielle McCaskin's attorney from somewhere, but couldn't put my finger on it. But then, I realized that she also played (the late) Jane Whitmore's boss at the beginning of the SVU episode "Bedtime." I didn't know if this was just for the actors who played main characters or even for minor or bit characters, but I wanted to throw it out just in case.

Amy & Maya visited their local news station a few weeks ago! And I love how they wore the Sweet Scientist jackets in this interview and were introduced in the style of the race! Here it is, and Amy seems to be doing much better in terms of her stance and form while running.

Season five's "Poison" had a shitload of frustrations for me. At least the first half. The second half was way more satisfying. Still, the obviously-biased, so-clearly-not-impartial Judge Tate purposely doing what he could to confuse that poor little girl to exclude her testimony, trying her mother without a jury just so he could purposely acquit her without of her getting convicted by a jury all because he thought she was part of a good family who'd made a mistake, the reveal that he'd deliberately sent an innocent woman to prison for ten years because he disapproved of her background, and then the other reveal of his ex parte communication with the murderous mother that was also full of bias? I'd have wanted his head, too, had I been Casey! At least the mother did finally go down, but it took her initial acquittal leading to that poor adopted daughter's death for that to happen. I just wish the judge had gotten some kind of comeuppance, too. Still, I think it's one of the episodes to watch if you want a good Casey-centric episode (if you were a fan of her). Diane Neal was amazing in it.

So ION is back to season five. And now that it is, I have to ask something. I've always wondered why they ended "Unchained" after Renata turns on Virgini. Weren't Logan, Barek, and Deakins all trying to get him or Kerkoff to roll on that mob boss, Tagliotti? Would've liked to have seen how that shook out.

Deakins went out on the field a few times, too, didn't he? I could've sworn I saw him out there with Goren and Eames and Logan and Barek a few times. Not more than Ross, but he was still out there.

No. I saw it. But she thought she had, and she still used what smarts she did have to figure out her situation. Seems like that's not even enough.

And here I thought everyone would be happy seeing a woman actually save herself. Silly me. There's even whining over that.

No, not at all. At one point in the episode, it was said that only men could be "in blood." Women really were off the hook. Actually, the would-have-been massacre at the ice cream truck Skater had lived in was only avoided because Wheeler, a woman, was present, as well as a little boy. Women and children stop "in blood" killings from happening.

You should've seen her face, too, when she said that last part. It was like she was in shock that neither one of them seemed to know what to do. And they're supposed to be cops. I don't get why Ross got called that, though. He was a captain, not a detective.

"Funny Valentines" was absolutely a huge frustration. Poor Brass lost his life trying to keep Micha's dumb ass safe, and she repays him in kind by letting Caleb, his killer, go free? Like you, I had zero sympathy or even pity for her when she lost her own life. Actually, she deserved it. I know this is a kind of thing where they supposedly don't blame the victim, but as much as I hate to say it, if a victim can be that idiotic to keep going back for more . . . then that's just kind of a situation where they have to be blamed. As for Lauren Ambrose's character and the jurywoman, I remember Leight saying somewhere that she just wasn't available to film any of her reaction to what had happened. And he did say that the jurywoman herself was already being tried in a separate case for what she'd done, but all mentions of that were cut.

This reran tonight. Still hate that judge.