Xeliou66

Yeah Serena is very wooden and dull. She’s the only thing that drags down seasons 13-14, which are excellent seasons with great cases, but Serena doesn’t add much and her whining can sometimes drag down the legal side. She had a few good moments here and there, mostly she didn’t add much.

They really should’ve kept Falacci, she was a really good addition and added life to the show, unlike the incredibly dull Wheeler. Offense and Senseless are both good episodes with Falacci that were on Charge tonight - Offense has an interesting case, ripped from the headlines of the Duke lacrosse case that turned out to be a false allegation with a rogue prosecutor running the case just like the case and ADA Hoyle in this episode. The reveal of the killer kind of came out of the blue though, the detectives didn’t really solve it, they suspected Hoyle’s wife and had they not confronted the Hoyle’s with the player and his family present they might not have solved the case it seems - the player’s mom just confessed when she found out the truth that the deceased wasn’t going to testify. I didn’t feel sympathy for the mom - yes her son was being falsely accused but killing a witness is horrible under any circumstances, she deserved to go away for life. I did feel very bad for the son and husband of the killer, their lives were wrecked by Hoyle - I hope Hoyle was disbarred at the very least after this, him and his wife should both be charged for obstruction to be honest. In real life the rogue DA behind the Duke case was disbarred and faced charges, I hope the same would happen to Hoyle. Senseless might be my favorite season 7 episode, a horrifying crime and a great investigation. Logan/Falacci were great, I liked Logan saying if he couldn’t solve the case it was time for him to quit. Logan’s interrogations of the perps were great. Ross was a complete dickwad as usual though - he insulted the detectives and yelled at Logan because he was frustrated - he treated the detectives like garbage much of the time - he was such an arrogant, condescending prick. I really can’t stand him.

In The Ring it kind of surprised me that the defense attorney was basically just questioning the scientific evidence and trying to pose the theory that the victim really did die in the 9/11 attack, instead of asking about other murder suspects - if he had done a better job he might’ve uncovered that his client was innocent and the fiancé was the killer - instead the DAs did. It was still a great twist regardless - the fiancé seemed very innocent and nice. Briscoe/Green are unmatched as an L&O detective pairing, there have been many great detective pairings on L&O but Briscoe/Green are the best. Serena is really the only thing that drags season 13 down, her whining got tiresome and she’s overall a dull character. I know Arthur is polarizing, I’m on the side that likes him because of his colorful personality and his commanding presence - that was needed after Nora, who while not irritating like Serena was usually pretty boring as well. Season 13 has a lot of really strong episodes/cases, it’s a great season overall.

Yeah Serena was usually whiny and annoying - she still had a few good moments, but usually she didn’t add much. I get that they wanted to go in a different direction than the hard nosed Abbie, but Serena just didn’t add much. Yeah I love the small details in True Crime and The Ring - True Crime had a really strong plot with the detectives getting to the bottom of the case, and Jack’s realization about the guitar at the end was great. Same with Serena’s realization about the purse in The Ring. It was quite memorable how the fiancé turned out to be such a cold blooded murderer, he put on the grieving fiancé act well. I was kind of surprised the defense attorney didn’t suspect him and try to make him look guilty when they thought his client did the murder - I guess he had no reason to. Season 13 is really great overall - lots of memorable cases. Briscoe/Green will forever be my favorite detective pairing.

It was interesting how Serena had good moments in both American Jihad and Shangri-La - while I was annoyed with her whining about Arthur in the premiere, she did do a good job crossing the defendant and getting him to explode and Jack realized from his rant he knew details about the victim’s life and from there they found the girl he was obsessed with. I guess it was easier for him to blame the professor for the girl not reciprocating his feelings than it was for him to blame her directly. It’s a good episode. Yeah I think Serena never gave Arthur a chance because she knew they saw things differently and that Arthur might call her out for going too soft, which is what wound up happening. But still she never gave Arthur any chance, she disliked him instantly. Yeah repeating high school many times sounds like one of my worst nightmares, the perp in Shangri-La was really strange in that that’s what she wanted. I definitely think Jack was angry about being fooled and Skoda noted that as well. I liked that Arthur called out Jack for going too easy at first on her, not sure why Jack was so quick to believe her. It’s a strong episode, really good investigative work. True Crime would be in my top 5 of season 13 - great episode all around. Lennie defending Foster is the only thing that annoys me, and it wasn’t like Lennie was close to Foster, they knew each other but weren’t really friends, so Lennie just went to bat for him because he was a cop. I thought Arthur forcing Foster’s hand by going to the press was a great idea. Foster was clearly crossing lines and screwing up their case. It was a great twist that Travis had pushed Shane off the roof, and he was ready to confess to that as well, and that that’s likely what caused him to kill Patty was Patty realized it. The only bad episode of all of season 13 was Tragedy on Rye, it felt like the plot was just designed to make Arthur look heartless while making Serena look good. The plot was really stupid, and if the real killer didn’t have the murder weapon in his living room months after the crime they never would’ve known who the true guilty party was. I would go as far as to say Tragedy on Rye is one of 10 worst L&O episodes ever, maybe even bottom 5. I love the twist in The Ring of how the guy who seemed like a grieving fiancé was actually a cold blooded killer and had everyone fooled and almost successfully avoided being caught. The stuff about the purse was interesting and I liked Lennie realizing the password was “boo boo”. It’s a great episode, season 13 is filled with great episodes to be honest, I watched a lot of season 13 this week on Sundance and almost every episode is really good.

Season 13 started today on Sundance, I haven’t seen it on in a good while - this is really a fantastic season and it got off to an awesome start with American Jihad, Shangri-La and True Crime. American Jihad is a good case, it was interesting how the perp represented himself and was using his fundamentalist beliefs to mask his anger at women. I liked how Olivet zeroed in on his misogyny. I think his nasty mother really messed him up, and getting rejected by the girl he was obsessed with was just the last straw, and he took his rage out on the professor. A bit puzzling that he didn’t target the girl he was in love with, but I guess he didn’t have the stomach to kill her and wanted to blame someone else for her rejection. Solid intro to Arthur as well - he had a commanding presence from the start and it was interesting how he had mutual respect with Jack but Serena never seemed to give him much of a chance, I think she had made up her mind to dislike Arthur before they even shared a scene. Typical of Serena to be whiny. Serena did have one of her better moments when she crossed the perp and got him to go on his rant. Shangri-La is a great episode, the perp pretending to be a teenager was a memorable plot. It was interesting how the perp initially had Jack fooled, while Serena saw through her. It was odd that Jack didn’t see how manipulative the perp was until later, and I was glad that Arthur called him out for going too soft at the start. Lennie figuring out that the security camera had been tampered with was good. Skoda was good as usual. Strong episode. True Crime is another of my favorites from the season - excellent plot and I loved the twist that Travis had killed his old bandmate as well as killing Patty. Really good investigation and legal case. Lennie kind of annoyed me though with his defense of Mike Foster, Lennie all too often rushed to the defense of any cop he knew, Foster was screwing up their case and I thought Arthur’s idea to force his hand by going to the press was very clever and I didn’t care for Lennie bitching at Jack about it. I liked when Jack bluntly told Foster the world was better since he quit the police force. It was funny how Travis was about to confess to Shane’s murder as well and his attorney basically had to drag him out of the room. Great episode. The only truly bad episode of season 13 is episode 4, Tragedy On Rye - really stupid episode that didn’t make any sense - how did no one notice the phone records and check it out? And the phone records proved nothing, it was beyond convenient that they found the murder weapon right there in the perp’s living room when they went to see him at the end. The whole side plot about Green being sued for profiling and brutality was stupid as well. The episode felt more designed as an anti death penalty statement and to make Arthur look heartless while making Serena look good - they dealt with the problems of the death penalty much better in several other episodes, this episode was just dreadful. In fact I would say it’s one of L&O’s worst ever episodes. The scene between Arthur and Anita was good and the only thing worth watching in the episode. Watching The Ring now, another very good episode with a memorable plot, fascinating how they incorporated 9/11 into the murder plot.

I happened to see that episode as well last night, it was Three Dawg Night from season 12, and I remembered Carver being mentioned by name - it was actually Nora Lewin who was DA and who asked if Carver should second chair, she was DA at the time, it was the season before Arthur came on. It was nice continuity to have Carver mentioned on the Mothership. I wish McCoy and Carver had interacted at some point.

With Season 25 over I thought it’s time for me to give some analysis of the season Overall SVU is pretty dismal right now - The Olivia worship reached an all time high this season and has made the show almost unwatchable. Really the only positives about this season I can think of are a few of the cases were interesting and had solid investigations (the episodes where Benson wasn’t hogging all of the screentime), the squad room was full, which while it was absurd to have 2 females take demotions to work for St Olivia it was still better than having an empty squad room like they did for a while, and finally Bruno is awesome, best new character since Carisi and pretty much the only character breathing life into the show. The negatives outweigh the positives unfortunately - starting with the Benson worship that dominated the season, and the Maddie storyline, which was so awful it almost felt like a parody of modern day SVU. Fin is still the anchor of SVU but he didn’t get any focus until the last episode and he was acting way OOC in that one. He is usually the only one who can make Benson scenes tolerable though. Velasco is just kind of there, he’s decent but he didn’t get much to do this season. They don’t seem to know how to utilize the characters properly, for example they put every character in the episode about Maddie’s kidnapper’s trial, but one or more people are missing in episodes where all hands on deck are needed. They especially don’t know how to utilize Carisi, and at the end they seemed to be slipping back into the old cliche of having Carisi act as more cop than lawyer and be caught between SVU and a political hack boss. Ugh. They don’t seem to have any interest in writing legal scenes so they just go with tired cliches for Carisi - very disappointing. I’m honestly not sure at this point if I’ll even watch it next season - I may just stick with the Mothership and abandon SVU. I don’t know what the cast lineup will look like next season but like I said Bruno is about the only one adding life to this stale show, if Bruno isn’t back then I’m not either, I like Fin and Carisi a lot also but they don’t really know how to use either of them. SVU has clearly run out of steam at the moment and MH’s gigantic ego is preventing the show from improving.

Watch was on tonight - this is a strong episode - Duane and Art the killer cousins were memorable perps, I liked how Logan and Barek turned them against each other. Art’s father was a piece of shit bully - I hope he had to step down as a school principal after Art’s arrest - he didn’t belong around kids. Good investigation and I liked how Logan/Barek zeroed in on Duane and then Art, and I liked Logan’s knowledge of aeronautics. Proud Flesh was up next, and what a confusing jumbled mess this episode is. I’m still not exactly sure what happened and what didn’t, there were so many confusing things in the episode. I guess Jonas Slaughter paid the consultant to kill Trip because Trip was leaving the family business and he wanted to keep his other son Chance involved in the business and he was an egomaniac sociopath who couldn’t handle his sons leaving, but it was all so confusing with the way he hired people to cast suspicion on his wife, I wasn’t sure why he did that, and then his bizarre racist rant at the end came out of nowhere, why did he marry and have a kid with her if he was such a bigot? And it was ridiculously convenient that Chance had time to make a dying declaration after Eames shot him, wouldn’t it have been easier for him to just confess to the cops if his intent was to get his dad off the hook, instead of trying to shoot his stepmother? What if Eames’ shot had killed him instantly, then dear old dad would still be charged with murder? And what about the guy who actually did the murder, what would happen to him after Chance confessed? And why did he dress Trip up in latex? What a jumbled mess of an episode.

Season 11 was on Monday on BBC America - been a while since I’ve seen this season Dissonance is a good case and the ending was interesting - I’m not sure whether the maestro or his wife killed the victim - either one could’ve done it, but with the wife confessing and no other evidence they had to put the wife in prison and close the case like Nora said. Judge Wright was arrogant as usual and it was interesting seeing him and Nora clash, even if it didn’t really affect the outcome of the case. Standoff is interesting with the murder being at Rikers and the plot about the guard orchestrating the murder was interesting - the jury clearly got the wrong verdict - it was obvious that the guard set up the murder, they just didn’t care because the victim was evil and they sympathized with the defendant. It was disappointing that the jury chose to ignore the evidence and acquit, they basically condoned vigilantism and as Jack said made a badge a license to kill. The DAs did a good job prosecuting and Jack’s closing was good but there was nothing they could’ve done to get the jury to convict. The undercover operation that Briscoe/Green stumbled on at the start was an interesting red herring, the gang unit should’ve informed them about their operation. Return is a solid episode, with the stuff about the suspect fleeing to Israel and trying to avoid prosecution there. The councilman Nora dealt with was an ass IMO, it seemed like he wanted the perp to get special treatment just because of his ethnicity or he was just pandering to certain constituents - it pissed me off how he acted like because of historical anti Semitism the murderer shouldn’t be tried in NYC but in Israel - I liked Jack asking about whether he should send a Korean defendant back to Korea and I liked that Nora stood firm with him. Jack was right at the end that they handled the situation differently because of political interests disguised as religious beliefs but that the killer didn’t get away with it. It’s a pretty good episode.

Yes they linked it to the company - the ex military criminal dude who killed the reporter turned on the woman - Remy told her that when he confronted her on the plane.

Really strong finale - this is my favorite of the FBI shows, it has the best cases and a strong cast of characters. Very interesting case with how the crash turned out to be caused by negligence and the company wanted to cover it up and the bomber wanted to expose it. Good complex plot. The bomber started out wanting to do the right thing but he lost all sympathy from me by killing the investigator who was an innocent witness and endangering civilians with his bombs. I liked Remy’s confrontation with the evil boss lady - while she was something of a cartoon villain, it was satisfying to see Remy take her down and the disgust Remy has for some of the perps is great. Ray’s wedding was a nice way to end the season and I’m also glad it went off without any tragedy occurring and that the season didn’t end on a cliffhanger. I figured the lawyer Remy hooked up with in Missouri would be back, and like others I’m still suspicious of Hana’s friend Ethan, something about that dude seems a bit odd but who knows. Interesting how Remy and Barnes relationship has evolved - they got off to a rocky start but they confided in each other a couple of times this season. The wedding was a nice upbeat ending to the season for a show that can get very dark at times. This show really has hit its stride the last couple of seasons and has excellent cases and the team really gels together nicely. Like I said it’s my favorite of the 3 FBIs and I look forward to season 6

Good, intense episode but an extremely underwhelming exit for Scott - I just don’t buy that he wouldn’t say goodbye to his team or reach out to them. Really odd how he was just written out as going into the unknown without a goodbye scene or anything. One of the strangest exits of any character that I’ve seen. I like Brian a lot and I think he would be a strong new lead - it would be odd for him to get a main role in the last 2 episodes and then not join, but who knows how it will go down, I haven’t heard one way or the other whether the actor is joining full time. I liked Smitty’s scene where she used the intel to get the team out of trouble. Nice to see Tank the dog in the final scene. This show has grown on me a lot, I’m curious as to where it goes from here. I came to like Scott but his exit was a big disappointment. I like the current team, glad Kellett and especially Powell are gone to be honest. Would like to see Brian be the new Fly Team leader, he had nice chemistry with everyone.

Great season finale overall IMO - fitting conclusion to the season’s ongoing storyline. I figured all along that Tiffany would kill Hakim, it was the only natural way to end the story, but it was still very intense and satisfying to watch play out. I guess Hakim was going for his gun like Tiffany said, but I wasn’t sure at first and I liked how the scene played out, with Maggie being unsure just like the viewers were of what exactly happened. It was satisfying to see Tiffany blow him away, and I liked how they kept the storyline going through the season but have it wrapped up nicely now. Everyone got a nice role, all of the field agents plus Jubal/Isobel/the analysts, it was a nice team investigation of getting to the bottom of what was going on. I liked Jubal’s scene with Tiffany after the shooting at the house. OA twice made nice moves to lure out the bad guys allowing others to take them out - first with Maggie at the warehouse and then with Scola in the woods. Overall this was a stellar ending to the season - suspenseful, intense case with good teamwork and a fitting ending to the storyline of Hakim. Probably my favorite episode of this season actually. This is a consistently entertaining show - look forward to season 7 in the fall.

Here is the thread for tonight’s season finale episode.

I have no idea how a crossover would work with OC on Peacock and SVU on NBC, given that not everyone has Peacock. The truth is, OC has run out of stories pretty much - I feel like OC was just created to bring Stabler back so he could inevitably hook up with St Olivia. To be honest I don’t care at all about the whole Stabler/Benson will they/won’t they drama that’s been dragged out for years, I don’t like either character and I’m at the point where I don’t care whether they end up together or not, I usually dislike having romances between main characters on crime procedurals but I just do not care about Stabler or Benson anymore. I won’t be watching OC, I’ve only watched it half the time anyway, and I’m honestly not sure if I’ll continue with SVU - some of the episodes this year were just painful to get through the St O worship was so heavy. I really only watch for Fin and Bruno, they really need to bump Bruno up to opening credits, makes no sense that’s he not in them given that he’s in as many episodes as everyone else and seems to be universally popular with the fans - from what I’ve seen online liking Bruno is one of the few things most SVU fans agree on. Fin is of course the anchor of the show and pretty much the only character who can connect with Benson as an equal now. I like Carisi as well of course but they don’t know how to use him at all most of the time - they rarely go into court, probably because it means less focus on St Olivia, and the legal stuff is frequently poorly written, and they seemed to slip back into the bad habit of writing Carisi as more cop than lawyer towards the end of the season. Velasco is fine but isn’t really used much it seems, and the revolving door of female investigators in the squad don’t make much of an impact for me, it’s nice to see a bigger squad again but it’s weird having an IAB captain and an FBI agent working there and sometimes the squad dynamics are screwy. So I’m not sure if I’ll watch SVU when it returns or not.

Here are some of my thoughts on this season The detective stuff was stellar for the most part - Shaw is very good and Riley was a strong addition - he fit in well from the start and has good chemistry with Shaw and I liked his friendship with Dixon - their prior connection helped make Riley’s intro smooth. I do wish they had given a satisfactory explanation for Cosgrove’s departure instead of one line that left me with more questions than answers - I had come to like Frank, after a very rocky start he became a lot more well rounded and likable in season 22, but I enjoy Riley even more - I like how both Riley and Shaw have mostly laid back, relaxed personalities but can bring the intensity when needed. Dixon was a good squad leader and I’ll miss her next season. The detective part of the show was mostly well done and had good investigations. The legal stuff was shakier - there were frequently illogical and very predictable rulings to suppress evidence/toss out testimony by the judge used as a plot device to create drama and set the DAs back. Also a new witness emerging at trial or new info being discovered in the middle of trial happened too often - those are my biggest complaints with the show, how they’ll throw in something for shock value on the legal side that not only isn’t shocking but doesn’t make logical sense. I hope they can work these issues out in future episodes. As for the characters, Maroun is my least favorite of the current L&O main characters also, she doesn’t add much, very bland and at times she’s whiny sort of like Serena was. It was notable how Maroun didn’t do much in the last 2 episodes and I enjoyed the legal stuff more in those episodes. I wish Maroun was leaving instead of Dixon. I have mixed feelings about Nolan Price, sometimes I like him, sometimes he comes off as soft/low energy. I thought Price had more passion in the last 2 episodes which was good to see. Jack was awesome, L&O’s most iconic character, but it was probably time for him to retire given his age and the reduced role he had in most episodes. Still I miss him and am adjusting to L&O without him in the new episodes. Baxter is interesting and has a commanding presence which is needed for a DA and adds some intrigue, and while I was nervous after his first 2 episodes that he would just cause a lot of conflict, he’s settled in since then and I like what he’s brought to the show and I’m interested to see how they use him next season and how his relationship with the others continues to evolve. Some brief thoughts on each episode Episode 1 - Total garbage. Ridiculous plot, clunky and preachy dialogue, cartoonish characters and controversial just for the sake of being controversial. Definitely my least favorite episode of the season. Episode 2 - Strong case with an interesting plot about the murder of the tech executive and the AI program. Good episode overall. Episode 3 - Average episode, felt like the case took a backseat to Riley’s backstory, I would’ve liked more exploration of the perp, not bad though. Episode 4 - Good case, interesting twists in the plot and it flowed well from start to finish. Good episode. Episode 5 - Awesome exit for Jack. Really great to see him go into court again and he went out in a very fitting manner, beating the odds to get justice one final time and outmaneuvering the mayor. My favorite episode of the season. Episode 6 - Interesting scenario but very predictable, the great performance by Mehcad Brooks elevated the episode and I liked the callback to when Shaw was profiled and detained last season. The search for the perp was intense and that helped the episode as well. Weird that there was no DA in the episode. Episode 7 - Baxter’s intro, I liked how they immediately distinguished him from McCoy and made him interesting but I was wary of the conflict he was causing. Decent case overall. Episode 8 - I was already annoyed at all of the tension Baxter was causing here, seemed like they were trying to put him at odds with everyone in every scene. The two things I liked about this one were the detectives visiting the ME and hearing both sides give closing arguments. Episode 9 - Strong case, good investigation, and Baxter settled in as DA in this one and his scenes were normal and not tension filled. Maroun was annoying me though. Episode 10 - Very interesting premise but the plot really stretched credulity - I couldn’t believe the DAs would go to trial with such flimsy evidence and the killer being mistaken for a man was kind of ridiculous. I liked Baxter’s role again and the scene between him and Price near the end was good. Episode 11 - Nice to see Dixon get a large role and to meet her son. Average case other than that, not a lot to say about it. Episode 12 - Solid episode, I liked seeing Baxter in court, the legal side had more life to it, and Price was more passionate, I think this kind of marked a turning point in the Baxter/Price relationship. Episode 13 - Pretty good season finale - good investigation and I liked getting more insight into Baxter, interesting way to end the season with everyone at campaign headquarters. The only episode I flat out disliked was the season premiere. My favorite episode was Jack’s exit in episode 5, such a great send off for a legend. I liked most of the episodes but some were better than others. I seem to enjoy the revival more than most, it’s not as good as the original 20 years but it’s still good. I hope they work out the flaws on the legal side and that it flows better next year, and I hope they do a good job with Dixon’s replacement. I do wish they would add in more recurring characters such as MEs/forensics people and especially a new psych expert. The foot chases are annoying and I wish they would go back to the classic openings instead of the openings used in later seasons. It’s a good show overall, I look forward to season 24 in the fall.

Season 4 is on rotation on Charge tonight Collective is a really strange episode, but Goren playing with the “7 weapons in one” toy gun in the Philly vintage toy shop makes the episode worth watching - one of the very best Goren scenes, downright hilarious. Other than that it was a weird episode that was kind of hard to get into - the first half about the search for the woman who set up the toy collector to be killed was interesting, but once they found her dead the episode fizzled and the whole vampire group plot just wasn’t that interesting to me. Stress Position is a strong episode, with the return of Logan, it was interesting to see him work with Goren/Eames and the case about the secret prisoners was unique and pretty chilling. Loved Logan’s line about reading the Patriot Act under its original title - 1984. I liked that Deakins spoke with Van Buren on the phone and mentioned that Van Buren had been trying to get Logan back to her squad - it corrected the crap from the awful movie where it seemed like Van Buren disliked Logan. It was odd though that they didn’t state who exactly killed the victim at the start, we know that the lead guard had him killed but did he get a criminal affiliate to do it or did he do it himself? That was unclear and very weird how it wasn’t stated.

Yeah I guess the victim of the accident could’ve sued Baxter’s daughter - who knows, they might have - I figure the Baxter family probably reached a settlement with the injured party.

I don’t follow your post. There was no manslaughter - no one died in the drunk driving crash caused by Baxter’s daughter - a pedestrian was injured but survived. I had mixed feelings about the situation with Baxter’s daughter - it’s hard to fault Baxter for doing everything he could to help his daughter, any parent would, but it is a valid point that if the daughter hadn’t come from privilege she might’ve faced a more severe punishment. Regardless the daughter did the right thing by testifying and Baxter did the right thing by encouraging her to take the stand, and it showed that Baxter cared more about his duties as DA than about his image as an incident like that would hurt his campaign. The most interesting thing about the situation was Price’s reaction IMO - I was surprised when Price told Baxter he could keep her off the stand and tried convincing him he could win without her, I expected Price to get pissed at Baxter for not telling him sooner and have a heated confrontation with him, so it was interesting that Price went the opposite way - I guess Price has come to respect Baxter more than he did at the start. I look forward to seeing how Baxter’s relationship with everyone else continues to evolve, but Price, Maroun, Shaw and Riley all being at his campaign headquarters on election night showed that they’ve come to respect him.

Pretty terrible episode all around to be honest - while I thought we were going to have an interesting serial rapist case, it instead was solved pretty easily and took a backseat to a bunch of cliches, characters acting stupid and St Olivia worship. SVU is garbage now and everyone aside from Mariska and her diehard fans can see that it’s garbage. While normally I would enjoy seeing Fin get focus, he was acting way more like Benson than himself here - I just didn’t buy that Fin would cover for a kid who shot him and wouldn’t do anything about it. That felt ridiculous and way OOC. The case was solved pretty easily and it seemed like they could’ve figured out the explanation of why the original suspect’s fingerprint was at the scene. The whole thing just felt sloppy and cliched from start to finish. The worst cliche was the portrayal of the DAs office returning to how it was portrayed before the Mothership returned, with Carisi as the only ethical one and being caught between the SVU squad and a one note political hack boss. I hope we never see this boss again. And it feels like the Mothership and SVU are taking places in different universes once again - the Mothership finale had Baxter’s election coming up and ended on election night, it wouldn’t have taken much for SVU to mention Baxter by name and say he was keeping a close eye on the case or something instead of bringing in a cartoonish boss to piss everyone off and crap on the office. And if the rest of the episode wasn’t lousy enough, we have to get one more scene of fucking Maddie and her annoying family, with the sole purpose of them kissing Olivia’s ass and telling her she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Seriously, Mariska’s ego must be gigantic for them to continue to put these scenes in of characters falling all over themselves worshipping St Olivia. And then they couldn’t even get Meloni/Stabler to pop in in person for a chat - that was just pandering to the shippers and felt very shoddy and forced. Really the only thing I liked about this episode was Bruno, he’s awesome, and him and Fin’s scene at the hardware store was by far the highlight of the episode. Velasco and Fin had a nice scene as well. Other than that it was crap. I am very tempted to quit SVU now - the Benson worship reached an all time high this season and is just nauseating. It’s mainly just a hate watch for me now. It’s clear the show doesn’t care about having interesting cases or doing anything other than giving Mariska an ego boost. It’s downright comical what they’ve turned Benson into to be honest. I’ll see how I feel when season 26 rolls around, but SVU is pretty much crap now.

That was a different gun than the murder weapon - they recovered the murder weapon and sent it to the forensics lab and that’s what led Shaw/Riley to the shooter. The shooter had gotten another gun when he went to the piers, so the gun that he threw in the river wasn’t the one used in the murder.

Pretty good episode - compelling story, albeit a bit different from the norm, but it worked well for the most part. Baxter got a lot of focus these last two episodes, and it’s made the legal side better actually - he has a strong presence that works well and lifts up the sometimes shaky legal writing. We’ve gotten a good feel for Baxter over the last couple of episodes and I like how he’s settled in as DA - it’s clear Price/Maroun have warmed up to him now - it was interesting that Price seemed willing to keep Baxter’s daughter off the stand so as not to drag them through the mud, given that up until tonight Baxter and Price have had several disagreements - I guess Price has come to respect Baxter more, maybe after seeing him in action in court last episode. It’s interesting that the episode ended on sort of a cliffhanger with the election results, but I’m sure Goldwyn/Baxter will be back next season, I haven’t heard anything about him leaving and I doubt they would bring him on and give him such focus if he wasn’t staying for a while, so I’m confident Baxter will prevail in the election. The detective stuff was great as usual, Shaw/Riley are awesome and I loved seeing them go to the forensics lab and get a lead on the murder weapon that led them to the shooter, that was classic L&O detective work and it was nice to see the lab and a forensics person again. I’ll really miss Dixon and I guess they didn’t know she was leaving when they did the episode because nothing was said about it. I really liked seeing Dixon/Riley/Shaw interact with Baxter, the more interactions between prosecutors/detectives the better, and it was interesting that Shaw/Riley were at campaign headquarters at the end along with Price/Maroun. The flaws in the episode were some of the legal writing, particularly with the witness getting killed, why wasn’t the witness being watched by patrol at least even if he rejected protective custody? It was hard to believe someone could kill him and leave no trace, it would’ve been more realistic if they had caught the killer of the witness immediately but he refused to turn on the gang. And yeah the judge’s rulings were questionable as well about not admitting the testimony about the gang stuff, I did buy that the defense would question Baxter’s daughter about her past to impeach her and her dad’s credibility. I think Baxter’s marriage may be over, it appeared there was some trouble there even before this case happened. It was interesting that the prick of a mayor that Jack clashed with in his last episode showed up for a cameo at the start, and I was fully expecting him to show up later and cause problems again. I also found it interesting that he endorsed Baxter, given that he wanted a puppet he could use as DA and Baxter is certainly not his puppet, I guess the mayor gave up on trying to control the DA’s office after Jack outmaneuvered him. Maroun was barely in the episode once again and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I’ve enjoyed the legal parts of the last 2 episodes more than I usually do and she hasn’t been in the last 2 episodes much - she just doesn’t add anything - I wish it was her leaving instead of Dixon. The ending definitely reminded me of the season 19 finally when Jack was up for election and it was unclear what the results of the election would be when the episode ended. But like I said I’m pretty sure Baxter isn’t going anywhere. Enjoyable season finale overall and I look forward to season 24 coming in September.

Here’s the thread for tonight’s episode, the season finale.

Another stellar episode - really good case about the woman killing for the mob in exchange for information allowing her to get to the scummy casino owner who killed her dad - a lot of players in the case but it flowed well from start to finish. Good work from each agent, and good twists and turns in the case. This show has the best cases of the 3 FBI shows. I figured the guy Hana met on the plane would pop back up, but I’m not sure where they’re going with him.