Everleigh

I'm glad they didn't make Luke secretely a genius and just let him be a bad student with other skills. They've worked out ways to keep Haley, Alex, and now Luke nearby and present in the action of the show. I wonder if Manny will get the same consideration or if we'll actually be seeing less of him next year. One of my favorite lines was when Gloria said Manny was the second Delgado to go to college after her cousin who went to the best medical school in Colombia...that they don't just accept any cadaver. Re: Sarah Hyland's health. As mentioned she has kidney disease and previously got a kidney transplant from her dad. I don't like speculating over someone's appearance but it does look like she could be on some type of heavy steroid. My aunt battled kidney disease a couple years ago and the steroids the doctors gave her caused obvious swelling in her face that she was very self-conscious about.

Phil and Claire specifically said Luke won't be going to college this year and Luke said he'd rather wait a year than go somewhere he didn't get into on his own merit. I do remember Haley attending community college (does she still?) and it's of course possible that Luke will end up taking courses at a CC, but in these episodes where high school seniors are hearing back from schools, it's always presented as acceptance to the big universities of their dreams or nothing. No one ever seems to consider the very rational plan of enrolling in community college right out of high school to get your grades up, the characters were all acting like Luke has to take a year off when that's simply not the case but I guess for drama's sake they can't mention community college as a fall back. It's just a small pet peeve of mine that I've seen pop up in a handful of shows I watch.

I liked the episode, the family's always at it's best when it's scheming together. It felt reminiscent of an earlier episode where various family members try to pass the buck and get someone else to cover for them but I can't remember the episode name or the exact situation the episode dealt with. Why do TV shows act like community college doesn't exist? It seemed like Luke was applying to pretty competitive schools instead of looking at local junior colleges, which would make much more sense for a student of his caliber. I know keeping him out of college for a year is just a contrivance to keep him around next season but in reality, a kid in Luke's position would go to community college for a year in hopes of getting his grades up and then moving onto a 4 year University. ETA: Oh I remembered the old episode this one reminded me of, episode 4.16 “Bad Hair Day” where Mitchell cuts Joe’s hair after Cam gets a wig stuck on his head and Mitchell makes a deal with Cam to tell Gloria, who in turn makes a deal with Manny to take the fall, but Manny makes a deal with Luke, who then makes a deal with Jay who finally takes the blame.

That was my favorite line in the episode and actually made me laugh out loud. I like Ben too and usually find him pretty funny. I would love to see more of him and Alex together and eventually get Claire's reaction to their relationship. Would be totally fine with seeing less of Haley and Rainer. Agree with everyone who finds them gross.

Apparently all the stories this episode dealt with age and thus the title. I liked that both Bay and Daphne went to Toby for advice this episode. Wish we got more interaction between family members instead of all the characters being off in their own worlds. Surprised Bay didn’t face bigger consequences for tattooing the gang sign on that kid. Not that I necessarily think she should have, but it’s Bay so I’ve sort of come to expect the worst to happen to her at all times. Not sure what it is about Daphne that makes everyone so willing to give her a billion chances but of course Dr. Jackson is super understanding and has zero reservations about working with a volunteer who previously stole narcotics from his clinic. Was kind of hoping Regina would break up with Luca this episode just so we won’t have to waste anymore time on them, but at least she decided not to go into business with her newest boy toy and expand her brand on her own instead of repeating the same mistakes she’s made in the past. The John/Kathryn thing was a little cringey but I mean it is a real thing couples who have been together for a while go through so I guess there’s that.

I know Daphne’s pretty self-absorbed but I don’t believe she’d be dense enough to not realize that black students would find the cotton balls in front of the BSU to be threatening. I feel like they’re bending the characters to fit the controversy and it’s unfair to the characters. This isn’t the first time they’ve done something like this though. It seems that when they take on these hot topic issues, they assign random characters to different perspectives just so they could say they covered all sides of the issue, and sometimes it doesn’t work for the character. And even though I believe Mingo’s costume was a poor example of cultural appropriation to begin with, I think Daphne would have actually been more sensitive to the issue right off the bat because she’s experienced prejudice before and knows what it’s like to be part of a minority. Oh and did Daphne say Professor Marillo is now the dean of student well being? Is that a real thing? And would they really choose a professor for the job who is known for being so hard on her students that her class has led to a student’s mental breakdown in the past? I kind of liked Noelle and was hoping Bay would just continue to work her way up to eventually earning a chair of her own so she could actually have something to be proud of, but now there’s going to be a whole big thing about Noelle stealing her work which means it’ll no longer be about Bay earning her spot so that’s kind of disappointing. Emmett’s back in Bay’s life for 5 minutes and he’s already causing problems for her. I understand her not wanting to contribute to Travis’s stress while he was preparing for Regionals, but lying was obviously the wrong move and she only created more problems for herself.

This jumped out at me too but it's not the first time Daphne has called her mom Regina when talking to someone else. My sister was catching up on last season this weekend and I happened to catch some of the baby shower episode where Bay finds out Regina has been lying about Eric when Hope shows up and kidnaps Will back, and when Daphne is explaining the situation to Bay, she actually refers to her mom as Regina several times in that one conversation. So I don't think it was a mistake because I don't think they'd make the same mistake more than once, especially not more than once in the same conversation. Odd choice though. Maybe it's just easier to sign "Regina" than it is to sign "'my mom" and that's why Daphne does it.

I appreciated the Mighty Ducks reference because everything I know about hockey, which I admit is not a lot, has come from those movies. Tough case. I was shocked they killed the victim. It seemed abrupt and unnecessary. I feel like SVU has done this whole victim seems to be recovering fine, only to then suddenly die of an infection in the hospital in order bump the stakes up to manslaughter/murder thing a few times in recent memory. Even though the crime and outcome were awful, I think Kyle getting a couple of years in juvie was the right call. As soon as Rollins and Carisi had their heated discussion about wives of abusive men who allow their husbands to abuse their children and each took such a hard stance against each other, I knew we were getting a sob story from one of them. I guess I should be grateful it was something relatively minor like Carisi getting bullied as a kid and not anything crazy like the entire existence of Rollins' family. Speaking of the wife, there have been a few articles lately on mothers of children who are either terribly abused or murdered by the mother's boyfriend or husband and how sometimes the mothers face harsher legal punishment than the men who actually beat the child to death due to some states' failure to protect laws. Often the women are physically abused by the men themselves and too afraid to speak up and these articles sort of advocate for these women as victims themselves. I thought that might be where they were going with this story, but other than a throw away line about the husband likely not treating her too well, the episode didn't really suggest that the mother was afraid, but more that she was conflicted because her husband wasn't all bad all the time. Which is bullshit. You don't let someone beat your kids because he mows your mother's lawn occasionally.

Bay didn’t just demand Mary Beth break up with Tank out of the blue. MB asked what she could do to fix their friendship and Bay’s answer was to break up with Tank, which I get why she'd say that because obviously they can’t be friends if Mary Beth is dating someone who causes Bay such distress. Still Bay seemed to realize she was being a bit irrational in her reaction because when she got home she told Travis they can’t dictate who MB dates, so I think it just took a few minutes for her understandable shock and outrage to wear off and her self-awareness to return. I think Mary Beth's within her right to date Tank if that's what she wants to do, but Bay and Travis are within their right to feel how they feel about her doing so. I also thought MB's reaction to Travis calling her a terrible person was a bit over-dramatic. It seemed like she wanted everyone to be okay with her decision while knowing they wouldn't be, but I think all parties involved just need to step back and let the other feel what they feel without expectation and do their own thing. I googled it too and I still find it a bit confusing because on one hand it says typically the symptoms are relatively mild, but a 25% fatality rate seems pretty high for an illness that is thought of as otherwise mild. I also thought the show did a poor job of showing how dire the situation was but I think this show has always been more tell than show. I don't think Bay has ever actually called Tank a rapist, she's always been pretty vague when talking about it. Certain people around her, namely Regina, Travis, Daphne, have been a little more direct in the language they use, but Bay actually has been pretty consistent in saying that while she felt violated and that it was not okay for Tank to do what he did to her, she always maintained that Tank is a good guy. I have no idea if Tank is in any of the remaining episodes but I hope not because they've beaten the story to death now and nothing good can come from him popping back up in the handful of episodes we have left. Before the episode aired Lizzy Weiss tweeted that there'd be a huge secret revealed in the episode that many fans will hate her for and that there was a huge argument over it that divided the writers' room, so it seems like they knew there'd be a negative response but just enjoy stirring up controversy. After the episode aired, she added that she knew it would be controversial (duh) but that they love the actor, which seems like a stupid reason to do a storyline that could potentially ruin a character like Mary Beth for some of the audience.

Making Bay’s near death experience all about Daphne is so Switched at Birth that it actually made me laugh. Is Japanese Encephalitis really that serious? Because a small part of me was kind of rolling my eyes at Daphne having PTSD over her sister getting what I assumed was basically a bad case of the flu, but I admit I don’t know much about the illness. At least we learned that the parents didn’t know Bay was sick and didn’t just leave her to almost die in a foreign country. What’s the official girl code ruling on dating your friend’s rapist? Mary Beth was way out of line for comparing Bay dating Travis to her dating Tank. If only the show allowed Bay’s anger to last for more than a few minutes before she was forced to relinquish her crown of misfortune to Mary Beth. I always liked Mary Beth and it’s nice to see the girls interact with friends and not just their male love interests, but for Bay’s sake, I hope she and Mary Beth decide to keep their distance and just let the friendship fizzle out. People drift and friendships fall apart and that’s ok, sometimes it’s even healthier than the alternative. And in this case, I don’t think it would be healthy for Bay to remain friends with Mary Beth while she’s dating Tank, but knowing Bay, she’ll be planning double dates for her, Travis, Mary Beth, and Tank next week because she’s a dummy and feels guilty that her friend’s mom got sick while she was attempting to make a life for herself. And was Tank in Mary Beth’s dorm room? I would think a former student expelled for committing sexual assault in the dorms, would be banned from campus. Also pretty ballsy of him to waltz into the Kennish backyard in order to make Bay feel guilty for having the audacity to feel hurt by the hurtful thing her friend did. Of course Bay is now lying to Travis because Emmett “needs” her and she always has to stupidly sacrifice her own happiness and well-being for those around her, because in her mind, other people’s problems are always more important than her own. It’s ironic that this character who was so incredibly entitled and self-absorbed when we first met her, now has such a hard time recognizing and prioritizing her own needs. She really needs to stop trying to fix other people’s problems and focus on herself. Maybe she could ask Daphne for some pointers on how to be a little bit more selfish. Lily and Toby’s problems seemed way too serious to be resolved with a 2 minute conversation and a kiss, but whatever. Good luck to them. Luca comes across as kind of condescending to me, which makes his thing with Regina that much weirder because she's literally old enough to be his mom.

I missed this cheesy mess. The hiatus was too long. Bay gets seriously ill (because of course she does) with an illness that 1 in 4 people don’t recover from and her parents didn’t fly to China to be with her? Ok. Daphne being upset that the world didn't stop for her while she was playing doctor in rural China for a year is about as Daphne as can be. Emmett apologizing to Bay for making the film about her experience and saying he was selfish, while true, felt a bit too little, too late for me. Also it seems like the writers were responding directly to the criticism from fans who were appalled with Emmett’s behavior during the breakup in an attempt to redeem the character. And the cynical part of me feels like they came up with this depression plot just to make the character sympathetic again, which I have no interest in. I sincerely hope they don't try to make Bay and Emmett a thing again because, depressed or not, Emmett was a jerk and that relationship has been beaten into the ground. Let it die. I like the idea of Bay and Daphne living together even if we have to deal with angry Travis as a result. I really don’t care about John and Kathryn’s school funding plot and have zero interest in Regina’s 47th love interest. I have a feeling this Daphne/Mingo cultural appropriation thing is going to go on for a while. I agree with those who feel the last handful of episodes isn’t the best time to tackle another big controversial issue for a continues stretch of episodes, but I don’t think the writers realized that when the show was picked up for a 5th season that the season would be cut in half and instead of having 20 episodes split into 2 half seasons, they only had one stretch of 10 episodes. If I recall correctly they got the news that season 5 would only be 10 episodes around the time they were filming the 100th episode, so they had already written and filmed a good portion of the season and by that time you can’t really undo much. I’m sure they’ll use the last couple of episodes to tie things up but it’s not the same as having a full half season to do so, which was probably what they had in mind for 5B had they had the opportunity to write it.

I know, this is getting ridiculous. I like Benson and Tucker together but no couple is interesting enough to drag whatever this is out for multiple episodes. Either they're together or they're not. Just tell us. What's so complicated? And is each member of the team going to take a turn randomly asking Olivia how her and Tucker are doing just so Liv could look torn and say "it's complicated" without ever actually divulging any information? Last week it was Carisi and this week Fin. I guess it's Rollins' turn next. At this rate I expect to see Barba find a way to work it into his questioning the next time Olivia is on the stand testifying for the prosecution: "Lieutenant Benson, is it true the defendant admitted to his crime? And also how are things going between you and Tucker?" Anyway my guess is Tucker wants to get married and Olivia isn't sure and that's why things are so complicated.

I feel like most of Alex's bad traits can be traced directly to Claire so Claire should really chill out and stop being so mean to her daughter because Alex is probably the most like her of any of her kids.

This episode felt very disjointed to me. Like it was just jumping from one thing to the next and nothing flowed. At first I thought the girl playing Jenna was just over-acting but I guess that was intentional to foreshadow the character's bi-polar disorder. For some reason I thought we already knew Rollins' sister was bi-polar. I guess the reveal was just so predictable that it felt like old news before it even happened. I don't buy that Wheeler or his presumably high priced attorney would take a deal that would require him to serve time. There was likely to be one or two people on the jury (probably more) who have that backwards "you can't rape a hooker" mentality.

I can't believe they're suddenly trying to pass Hudson off as some elite college and not the cesspool of murder and rape we've known it as. And now all of a sudden Hudson's impossible to get into when 99% of SVU's college age victims and perps have attended Hudson. You would think all the rapes and murders would have hurt their admission rates. I thought the premise of the episode was interesting but New York does not have a rape by fraud law so it really did seem pointless for Barba to try to prosecute something that isn't a crime in his state.

Phil was the highlight of the episode for me. Him getting locked in the closet and planning out his meals of tic tacs and then using Alex as a therapy dog was pretty hilarious. Nice to see Claire is keeping up her tradition of being a horrible mother to Alex. Mono is actually pretty serious and her mother should really be letting her rest instead of waking her up so she'll be irritable and yell at everyone for her. And I guess the writers just decided to completely forgo coming up with half-assed reasons for Alex to be home every week and decided on one big reason to keep her around for a good chunk of episodes. Small thing I noticed but in the scene were Claire comes home and the whole family is in the messy kitchen/living room, Alex asks Haley why she's not cat sitting for her boss like she usually does on Tuesday nights and then a few seconds later Haley tries to rush Alex back off to school by saying it's Friday night and there might be a party she could listen to. For the most part I could do without Joe being on screen so much but I did laugh when Gloria caught him trying to sneak outside in his underwear and told him he couldn't live outside and Joe just yelled an angry "fine!" back while dragging the huge suitcase back up the stairs. At least Mitch and Cam kept the bickering to a minimum this episode. Also enjoyed them being called out by Jay of all people for being so self-congratulatory about their open-mindedness. I suspected Lily's "weirdo" comment was going to be about something unrelated to her friend's gender but I'm glad they went with the mural thing because it was creepy when she was a baby and it's even creepier now so thank God they finally got rid of it.

She might not have meant she had sex but rather that she had a boy over. She has had a few boyfriends and she doesn't seem exactly opposed to the idea based on some of the things we've seen her say or do, so it's not entirely out of the question. And it's possible she and Sanjay have done it considering they were together for a while. And that's the most I want to think about any character's sex life on this show.

I liked that too. It was nice to see him react to finding Luke with a girl the same way he reacted to learning Haley lost her virginity. He's not one of those macho "no man shall touch my daughters but my son should totally go out and get laid whenever he can" types. He just doesn't want his kids to grow up, which is actually kind of sweet.

Dodds Jr.'s death was surprisingly well done and emotional. I knew he was a goner as soon as Fin warned him about the dangers of the terrorism task force last episode, but I wasn't expecting to actually care. And just when I was starting to like the guy. Chief Dodds initial denial about the gravity of his son's condition and eventual breakdown was heartbreaking. Peter Gallagher really brought it. The scene of Olivia approaching the detectives in the empty hospital hallway was quite powerful too. Carisi seems to have a habit of unintentionally interrupting his co-worker's private moments. And of course Carisi is O-negative and can donate blood because he's perfect and I love him for it. Happy he passed the bar but even happier he'll be sticking with SVU. I love Benson and Tucker together but I'm sort of glad he didn't propose because I can't really see Olivia as someone's wife (Not that there's anything wrong with being someone's wife.. I recently got engaged to be someone's wife in fact, it's just hard to wrap my head around Olivia Benson being married after seeing her single for 17 years). The getting on bended knee and delivering a speech about how much Olivia has changed his life and then having him not propose was weird though. I do hope they stay together though and hopefully now that he transferred to hostage negotiations, their relationship will be less of an issue and we'll see more of him next season. Part of me was expecting them to pull the ol' switcheroo and have Dodds Jr. survive the shot and kill Barba at the last minute instead. Glad they didn't go for the shock factor because Barba is much more valuable to the show. I do wonder if the new showrunner is going to pick up on the Barba being threatened storyline next season or just drop it since he didn't start it. Would be kind of a shame not to see it through. I want to know who sent the BX9 guy.

He may have had her repeatedly kidnapped/taken hostage/assaulted... but at least he gave her a couple of boyfriends!

I thought it was odd they didn't refence Olivia's undercover prison assault too. It didn't need to be a huge point of focus or anything but considering the case I expected it to at least be mentioned. Like when Olivia and Fin first catch the case, I thought maybe Fin would bring it up and ask if she was okay, or when the victim was describing how the guard took her somewhere out of view to rape her that Olivia would have a reaction, but nothing. I wonder if it's because it happened while the show was under a different showrunner and maybe Warren and his writers aren't as in tune to what happened before their arrival, because Olivia's past experience certainly lends itself to some sort of response given the circumstance of the case. Maybe it'll come up next week.

That final Barba scene was weird. Giving his home address to some loser who’s threatening to kill him? Was that supposed to show us he isn’t afraid and won’t be backing down? Because he looked terrified. That wasn't tough, it was straight-up stupid. Maybe this will lead to him having to stay with Olivia and we’ll get to see Barba playing with Noah next episode, exasperated by Noah's inability to follow simple directions and lost in a sea of baby toys on the floor of the Benoah apartment? Or maybe that's just something I wouldn't mind seeing. Yay Carisi passed the bar! And the squad was all happy and supportive! Remember when no one liked him and everyone seemed annoyed by every little thing he did? Our boy has come a long way. Grandpa Fin! How cute. I'd love to see him comparing baby pictures with Benson and Rollins next season. I appreciate Fin foreshadowing Dodds Jr. impending death. “Terrorism Taskforce? That’s dangerous! You could totally get killed over there! Unlike here in SVU where it’s super safe and we just lockup bad guys with no problem whatsoever and then everyone goes home to their babies! Nothing will ever happen to you while you’re in SVU…or will it?!” I don't always think the show gets these things right but I thought they did a good job of showing the systematic abuse and exploitation of black women at the hands of people in power, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle the way our culture tends to protect and side with the people committing the crimes rather than the victims because the victims aren't society's ideal picture of what a victim should look like.

Considering Alex was never really gone for long while she was at school and visited home regularly, I don’t exactly blame her family for not making a fuss over her officially coming home. But then again, given her family’s tendency to ignore and overlook her, I also understand why she’d get upset that they didn’t seem to care much and take it so personally. I’m over the joke of Alex being ignored by her family though. They’ve done a couple of episodes where they acknowledge the problem and the harm it's done to Alex's mental well-being, but yet her family never bothers to change and the problem persists. I feel like the writers have no idea what to do with Manny. I can’t even think of an actual story-line he was involved in this season, he’s just sort of around making snotty observations. Glad Andy’s gone. Just hope he stays gone. What 8 year old wants a perm? That was a weird. I admit I couldn’t understand half of what Joe was saying in his movie speech but that kid’s voice is adorable. I didn’t think was episode was particularly funny but it had some nice family moments so it was enjoyable enough. I liked seeing the Dunphys all taking a seat at the table together after each having a bad day, and Mitchell and Lily realizing how much Cam does for them and then surprising him at the airport. I did get a laugh out of the way Alex backed out of the room when she accidentally revealed that she wasn’t as innocent as Phil thought. And Phil yelling random cliches at Luke in anger was kind of funny too. And the stranger stealing Phil’s phone in NYC.

He's also Sarah Hyland's boyfriend. Cute guy. I don't think it's all that normal in real life but I've seen it played for laughs on a few sitcoms, which I never understood because it's not funny. There's a Friends episode where Ross has a crush on his "hot cousin" played by Denise Richards, and there was a running gag on George Lopez where the son Max had a crush on the cousin they brought in to replace the sister. I think it was also done on The Big Bang Theory with Howard having lost his virginity to his cousin. One of those weird sitcom tropes that I'll never understand. Not because it doesn't happen ever, because it apparently does... I saw a very disturbing episode of MTV's TrueLife called "I'm Marrying My Cousin" that followed two pairs of first cousins who were dating/married... but there was nothing funny about it, it was actually kind of sad because none of the people involved seemed quite right. I didn't have a problem with this particular storyline because it was cute and funny at least, but I do wish they would stop acting like Alex is some social reject no normal boy would ever be interested in. I really thought we'd see her find her people at college and sort of have her moment, but instead they had her get treated badly by Sanjay and then weirdly date a nerdy high school boy.

The judges being so generous to Jodie and Keo really makes me think she's going home tonight, but I was so happy for her when she got that perfect score. And her calling down to her mom was sweet. She really does have a light about her and her dedication to the competition is refreshing. You can tell she really wants it and has such a good attitude towards everything. Those articles are right...Keo has held her back a bit but she didn't sell her partner out like Antonio did, instead she thanked him. Going to be sad to see her go if she goes tonight.