Everleigh

I liked the episode overall. And I loved that the episode paid homage to Mean Girls and aired on October 3rd (unofficial Mean Girls day).

Oh yeah, Declan Murphy! I remember now and I second your plea to hopefully never have to see him again. That character was just....ugh. And when you consider Amanda's history with her old boss from Atlanta assaulting her, the fact that she slept with and get knocked up by her superior Murphy always made me uncomfortable. MH's pregnancy was during the Neal Bear era where Olivia was not allowed to have a personal life so of course, they hid her pregnancy. The two subsequent showrunners really overcorrected and leaned too much into the personal side of things, but I never begrudged Olivia becoming a mother since we found out it was something she was interested in back in season 8 or 9 or whatever it was. Personally, I would have rather seen her foster or adopt an older child in the system because I think it would have made more sense for the character, but whatever. When we first learned Kelli's second pregnancy was being written into the show and not hidden I thought maybe Amanda was going to come to realize she wants more children and intentionally get pregnant but instead it was more of an Opps! I did it again! scenario and not to put all the responsibility on her, because it takes two people to make a baby, but I do seriously have to wonder what her birth control method is.

Right? A cardiologist who can afford high priced hookers must make bank. Put your personal feelings and pride aside and get that money for your child. I wonder if Donal Logue's character, whose name I forgot, pays child support even though he's not involved in Jessie's life. He could know he's a trainwreck and want to spare his child by staying out of her life but if he was even half-way decent he'd be sending some financial support her way. Anyway, Rollins really knows how to pick 'em.

I thought she was just stressing that she still loved him even though he did something wrong and got reprimanded for it. On another note, is Rollins not planning to tell the good doctor he's the father? Dude obviously makes a shitty partner but he might be a decent father and the kid deserves a shot at having a relationship with his or her dad.

Really don’t care about Stone’s sulky grieving. Let’s move on quickly, please. Rollins needs a refresher on birth control. We’ll probably see this new kid as much as we see her first one so I don’t really care either way, but I’m honestly surprised they didn’t choose to just hide her pregnancy as much as possible and then send her away for a few episodes considering we’ve already been here with her. Olivia having had an abortion when she was younger actually makes sense for the character. Have they always been allowed to say “pussy” or did they just get it through the censors? With the number of times it was dropped tonight it felt like a shiny new toy the writers were having fun with. Small children aren't exactly known for their consistency.

That clip is honestly infuriating. She didn’t get upset because the other idiot driver almost hurt her son…Jace was such a non-factor in her reaction it’s ridiculous. She does nothing to show that she was considering his well-being at all, it’s like he’s not even there. She's just using him to paint herself as a victim when she was the smirking idiot chasing some dude off the highway and brandishing a gun like it makes her tough. I know this is only a clip and doesn’t show the whole conversation but it looks like Dr. Drew is being much too gentle in calling out Jenelle for exposing Jace to that type of danger. I also hope he mentions the additional damage Jenelle is doing to Jace by calling him a liar to his face and telling him he didn’t see what he (and the cameras and everyone else in the world) saw when he tells Barb that his dumbass mother pulled a gun out.

She has PTSD?? Was she traumatized by her own stupidity?? What about her son? How's his mental state after his selfish idiot of a "mother" put him in danger?

I feel like this is pretty standard on TV shows—characters’ lives tend to exist inside of a vacuum solely involving the other main characters so outside family/friends don’t really factor in like you’d expect in real life. But in this scenario, as unwarranted as it seemed, I think it was done to show that Kerry had grown and softened and formed meaningful relationships with the people she worked with. She was no longer the mean dragon lady boss everybody hated, she was a friend (to some at least) and as a friend, she was reaching out and entrusting Abby with this major thing in her life, that was never actually going to happen but whatever. I actually kind of liked the idea of Kerry and Abby’s friendship but I felt we were told more about it than we were shown. They have this moment where Kerry asks Abby to take custody of her son in case of emergency, and then they have that teary goodbye scene when Kerry leaves so we know they’re meant to mean something to each other, but we don’t really see much of it. But Abby never dismissed Kerry as bitch simply for being the boss and Kerry trusted Abby’s abilities more than Abby did at times, so there seemed to be a mutual respect there for the most part.

Ugh I hate to admit it but a small part of me feels bad for Brianna too. I mean she’s an absolute mess but her tears to Dr Drew at least felt genuine to me. She strikes me as a very sad person who acts out and does incredibly stupid shit because she’s so emotionally stunted. Of course, she knows what it’s like to grow up without a father and how damaging that is, and she should want the opposite for her children, but she’s repeating the same harmful patterns she grew up with and is clearly drawn to a certain type of man because it’s all she knows. Breaking the cycle is easier said than done and Brianna just isn’t strong enough to do so. I also found her reaction to the Kail drama interesting… it’s like it took Brianna a while to process exactly what went down and she worked herself up into an explosive outburst, but it took her a while to get there. I don’t think she was necessarily saving her violent outburst for the cameras, I think she’s just a little dim and it took that long for her to process whatever went down behind closed doors with Kail. You can see Brianna quietly stewing backstage as she waits to go out, it seriously looks like she’s somewhere else mentally. Then the producer says something about having security on standby just in case and that seems to set her off… it’s like that statement about the security made it click in her brain that Kail threatened her, and so she came out like an absolute lunatic, making herself look terrible in the process, which is what her sister was trying to get through to her, she totally let herself be baited, but she couldn’t even comprehend what her sister was trying to say and just seemed lost and confused afterwards with Dr. Drew.

Except he doesn't really take his share of the blame, he puts it all on her, while bemoaning how hard he tried. He starts by imploring her to put her judgement and condemnation aside and understand him. He says more than once that she didn't need him, as if, had she been a little more damaged or a little more receptive to being saved things might have worked out. He stops short of out rightly accusing her of not being there for him, instead choosing to passive aggressively leave the accusation partially unsaid but fully implied, which just comes across as juvenile. He notes that her life is indeed very complicated but he doesn't sound particularly understanding or compassionate, but rather he seems put upon by it, because her complicated life interferes with his ideals and she didn't prioritize his needs over her family's issues and make room for him. And he shrouds the whole letter in his signature earnest do-gooder condescension, as though, once again, he's just doing what's best for her by ending things and she should not only understand that but be grateful he's doing it. He does however compliment her for being a good person and refrains from name-calling so that's nice, but the letter perfectly illustrates why they were bad for each other, so props to whichever writer took up the task, they did a good job capturing Carter's character. And I'm not saying the breakup was entirely Carter's fault, it was a mutual disaster. Abby was in no place to be in a relationship and needed to take some time to get her life in order before she could be a good partner. My point was that the letter really captured Carter's attitude towards Abby and that attitude was what made him a bad fit for her. Whereas we saw more of Abby's flaws play out on screen.

Yes, thank you for posting. I don't recall, was the letter read or shown in the actual episode at all? Because I just remember reading it online. The content of the letter really shows why Carter and Abby were a disaster though. He comes off so condescending and resentful of the fact that Abby wouldn't let him save her.

That was my issue with the Carter/Abby thing. It was toxic and they brought out the worst in each other. Carter basically treated Abby as some sort of prize to be collected after he completed his treatment for his addiction. But Abby was with Luka at the time so Carter waited around pouting and acting like a toddler. And when he finally “won” her from Luka and it was time to collect his prize, he wasn’t exactly happy with what he got so he tried to fix her because he felt entitled to do so and she pushed back because she didn't want that and that was that. I don’t remember if it actually aired or if I read it online somewhere but in Carter’s "Dear Abby” breakup letter he actually writes that she didn’t need him and that’s why he was breaking up with her. He needed to be her savior to feel validated and she wasn’t able to give him that so he went to Africa to save people, which was at least putting his serious white male savior complex to good use. Luka just let Abby be Abby. Unfortunately for Abby (and Luka), being herself was pretty self-destructive at times so they weren't without their share of problems, but at least she didn’t have a man treating her like she was some broken toy that needed to be put back together so he could play with her.

I hated Murphy too. One of my least favorite character to ever be featured on the show. Hated that he was the one who knocked Amanda up but glad they chose to not have him play a role in Jesse's life so we (so far) haven't had to see him again, but I'm sure he'll pop up somewhere down the line for drama's sake.

Yes, going on a date and running into an ex would be awkward. Going on a date and running into some sort of club of ex-lovers (plus Barba for some reason) would be ridiculous. A never married, middle-aged woman having had serious relationships with a handful of men over the span of 20 years… not particularly remarkable. And Stone and Benson is never going to happen, just like Benson and Barba was never going to happen. Unrelated but I love your user name!

If you mean the one where the father put his teenage daughter on some new seizure medicine that caused her remaining kidney to fail so he shot himself so she could have his other one, then I believe it's Season 11, episode 12 ("The Providers”). Just saw that one a couple weeks ago.

I liked Weaver, Corday and Neela too, although I wouldn't consider them my favorites. I think Eriq La Salle had some valid concerns with wanting positive representation for black couples on TV, but I think allowing actors to dictate storylines is problematic. Eriq and Noah Wyle were allowed to change the trajectory of not only their characters but other characters in their orbit because they complained, and I'm not sure the show was better for their choices. Let the writers write and the actors act.

A Fin-centric episode is always a nice change of pace but I was so distracted by Ice T's terrible acting in this one that I couldn't take the storyline seriously. He just sort of yells his lines..... but whatever, I don't think anyone's watching for Ice T's dramatic performance. Decent enough episode.

I liked Abby then, still like her upon re-watch but I do think we could have done without the bi-polar family member rehash with her brother. One crazy family member per character is enough. Found Carter likable and endearingly eager early on, but god did he become insufferable as the years wore on. After reading that recent look back on the big stabbing episode, I wonder if Noah’s ego started to bleed into the character a bit and maybe that’s what made Carter come across as so entitled. Also hearing that NW was a dick to Kellie Martin cost his character any goodwill I had held over from his early days. I was sad when Malucci got fired because I used to think the actor was hot. I remember hoping they’d bring him back and redeem his character but alas it was not meant to be. My super unpopular unpopular opinion… the early days were not my favorite. I preferred the middle-ish seasons (6-13). This might simply be due to the fact that I started watching around season 5 once I was old enough to be interested in a medical drama, and when I went back to watch the beginning of the series, I couldn’t muster up any strong connection to the original characters.

By "every ADA with a penis" do you mean two ADAs over the course of 20 years (York and Haden)? Or did I miss a few dozen episodes where Olivia apparently sleeps with all these men you're talking about.

So any man who won’t rape an attractive woman must be gay? The judge really allowed that question. Rollins was borderline abusive to a rape victim because her boyfriend cheated on her. Amanda's always been kind of a trainwreck but that's certainly a new low for her character.

Who are these attractive younger guys that Mariska has demanded Olivia hook up with? All of her romantic partners on the show have been age appropriate. And where are people getting this idea that something might happen with Stone and Benson? Because of that scene of her walking in on him changing? Pretty sure that was more for our benefit than hers--the show's clever way of showing off their newest eye candy. The writers often found excuses to get Christopher Meloni and Danny Pino shirtless too. Stone seems to respect Olivia and her experience and I can see him continuing to seek her guidance and acceptance because he feels out of his element with sex crimes, but there's nothing romantic there.

Rachel Shenton (Lily) won an Academy Award for her short film The Silent Child and signed her acceptance speech. Pretty cool.

I feel like the show is intentionally punishing Ariel Winter for how she dresses and presents herself in real life. It's like she tried to push against the image of the dowdy little sister by dressing sexy and posting more "grown up" things on social media, and the show just seems to have doubled down on the buttoned-up nerd trope, instead of having Alex come into her own in college which is what I thought they'd eventually do. Of course not, but personally, I think Alex and the professor just make more sense. Opposites attract and all but Haley couldn't even follow a conversation with the guy so what could they possibly have to talk about? It's hard to understand what exactly about Haley, other than her looks, caught the professor's interests, and I'm just over Haley's thing being that she's cute. They need to make her more than that. (I really wish I remembered the guy's name so I didn't have to keep writing the professor.) And of course Haley's even Joe's second choice for his incestuous crush, despite being completely self-involved and not the type that would show a child much attention. They couldn't throw Alex a bone there and have the kid pick her? Yeah seemed odd that they didn't even mention that.

Got around to this episode late because I knew it was going to be a mess. So Benson can muster up sympathy for a terrorist but not a conservative author? I mean I don't agree with her politics either but be more transparent, show. Even if you agree with the show’s political leanings, this was kind of ridiculous. I feel like Barba has a bit of a god-complex. He gives a junkie drug money so they can testify because he thinks it’s necessary, he intentionally caused a mistrial because he didn’t support the possible outcome, and now he’s dismissing a case mid-trial instead of letting the jury do their job. Benson was right when she said he just had to present the case and then let the jury decide, that’s literally why they exist. Let the American criminal justice system function as it’s meant to. As unlikeable as Martha was as a character, I found her attitude kind of refreshing, especially the way she chose to face her possible attacker at the cafe at the end. I also thought the outcome of the case was incredibly frustrating and disappointing but unfortunately, most rape victims don't ever get justice and most rapists don't face consequences so at least it rang true.

Not terrible but predictable. I know they had Barba explain away why Olivia didn't see it coming, and sure it makes sense that she'd want a family, if not for herself, for her son, but I still don't buy that Olivia wouldn't have suspected Sheila sooner. Isn't it a statistic that most missing kids are taken by a relative? Olivia would know this better than anyone. Plus Shelia entered their lives in a shady way to begin with. The scene at the end with everyone in Olivia's apartment together and Olivia realizing her squad is her family was cute and all but I never felt like this particular group of detectives acts like family. The original crew definitely seemed like family back in the day, and presently Benson and Barba seem to have a close relationship, as do Amanda and Carisi, and of course Fin is cool with everyone (which reminds me, I miss Fin and Amanda's friendship), but overall I actually feel the group lacks that family dynamic, but I guess referring to them all as Aunt and Uncles is all we need.