RafaelBarbas

Essentially he created a no-win paradox. If Barba is guilty, he is admitting guilt, ergo knowledge of wrongness in his actions. If he doesn't, he comes across as remorseless, a potential reoffender. The jury however managed to parse his answer.

Thinking about this episode, I just realized something AWFUL. The baby’s father isn’t at the hospital when Barba comes to see the mother and ultimately pulls the plug. This means that for the rest of his life, the father is going to have so, so much guilt. “If I was there, would that man have murdered my child?” Barba not only took away the father’s choice on his child’s life, he not only went against his wishes, he took away the father’s chance to say goodbye to his child and get closure. He took away the father’s chance to hold his son’s hand as he died. Just… holy shit, you guys. I love Barba. But in this case… he honestly deserve to go to jail for what he did. If not for murder, it should have at least been assault and battery. (Of course, them keeping Barba in character and having him do no such thing would have been better still, but…)

If we had to lose him, at least Barson was canon in the end. Other than that, fuck the episode.

I am furious at this episode so far. Barba would never. Ever! The only thing I'm genuinely excited for is seeing how this board will twist logic to say Olivia made Rafael do it.

Guys... come on. I'm really not a Benson fan, but this "Barba is a mindless puppet, and also a total bitch (cause what's less respectable than a man who listens to a woman, right?)" thing is getting a tad old. I swear it's getting to the point where he could mention brushing his teeth and all I'd see here is "Benson pressured him about the 'oral hygiene' angle!"

Whooooo boy who wants to talk about this promo?

This is one of the best season finales SVU has had in a very long time.

I looked through his facebook page and haven't seen anything of the sort. In fact his official page hasn't even posted in a week or so.

This episode helped me realize how much I do NOT miss WL. Definitely the weak link in this season.

For the ethical side of things, the heroin is the big issue- helping an addict get their fix. But from the legal perspective, giving money to her at all was a big no-no. As a prosecutor he gave money to a witness, a drug-addicted witness, which could easily be construed as bribery. Ergo all his cases become subject to scrutiny.

This was, in my opinion, the best Barba episode to date. It had everything I'd been wanting to see from Barba from the start- some angst but some growth as well. It was superb. I think Rick is really breathing new life into the show. Warren would never have done this.

There were parts of the episode I didn't like- like Olivia worrying Noah's perfectly normal behaviors would lead him to be a rapist- but overall it was a nice episode I think.

Know It All's airdate has been pushed back a week. Genes will be airing on the 22nd instead. 03/22/2017 (09:00PM - 10:00PM) (Wednesday) : An investigation hits a nerve with Benson (Mariska Hargitay) when a suspect claims his genetics causes him to commit rape. Also starring Kelli Giddish (Det. Amanda Rollins), Raúl Esparza (ADA Rafael Barba) and Peter Scanavino (Det. Sonny Carisi). Guest starring Greg Germann (Counselor Derek Strauss), Dalton Harrod (Will Stein), Emily Shaffer (Jessica Walcott), Michael Torpey (Nick Brown), Sean Patrick Reilly (Richard Witt), Jared Zirilli (Rodney Marsh) and Alex Hurt (Sam Dalton). With this, I think it's fair to say Barba won't be losing his job or anything drastic.

Yes, it definitely is the big Barba episode. Various spoilers have said that he will take an "ill-advised" course of action. Usually I'm the first one claiming too much Benson, but I actually don't see it here. She's the one to break the news to him, but otherwise the focus is on Barba a good bit.

Discuss?

Today I re-watched the ep Rape Interrupted. Barba talks to Liv about her old partner, and says "he lied to save your ass... in my world, that gets you disbarred." I can't help but think that might have been foreshadowing for whatever Barba's hacked secret is.

I am so tired of the writers trying to make Carisi a literally perfect human as a form of pandering to the audience. Like of course he was bullied! That just makes him more perfect and thus a better character, right? Having no flaws at all makes him good, right?????

Great episode! Upsetting, but fantastic. The actors knocked it out of the park. Fantastic 400th episode.

That, and one of the writers said the kid who plays Noah was absolutely convinced the guy's name was Tucker and wouldn't listen to anyone who tried to tell him otherwise.

Without going into too much detail, a family member of his is having health issues. However, considering he has only missed two episodes so far, I don't really think you can call them cameos. He certainly has appeared more than he did in season 15 or so.

Me!

Hooray for the end of Tuckson and the start of Rollisi! I know Rollins has been paired with everyone and their brother at this point, but this and Declan were the only two relationships from her that have chemistry. I hated almost all the adults in this episode. Were we really supposed to feel sorry for the nanny in some way? Gag. I felt most sorry for the doctor mom but even then, not completely. Party mom can fuck off.

A TVGuide article says that "in March the show tackles computer hacks when a suspect uses his tech skills to reveal secrets in the DA’s office, and ADA Rafael Barba is among the victims.” So what could this secret be? I don't think it's his sexuality- not for an NYC ADA. Maybe he's being accused of something shady?