melon

I watched it, but didn’t particularly enjoy it. Wheatley’s role has run it’s course, same with his ex wife. A fugitive giving away millions of dollars to strangers is unrealistic. Still hoping for an old fashioned LE vs La Cosa Nostra battle, although I’ve accepted that it’ll never come. Until then, the Ellen Burnstyn storyline has the most potential for me.

Being an MMA fan, I had high hopes for this episode. However, I simply didn’t enjoy it as much as some other well respected contributors here. I didn’t find the plot very believable. On a side note, I liked it better when there was tension between Benson and her boss.

Put me on the side of the posters that dislike having Noah in the story line, even if it's minor. But that is the advantage of using the DVR to record the show, which allows me to fast forward through scenes I dislike.

As I was watching the episode, I was thinking that it was the best episode of the season....until the ending. I'm still wishing to have more female villains because the series is simply too predictable. Even at the end, I was hoping the prostitute would somehow be punished for blowing off her meetings with her probation officer. I'm hoping to have more intense story lines. We could have had a prostitute actually pull the trigger, then have her say that she was forced into it by her pimp. Or have a prostitute call and set up the multiple homicides but let one of the victims be close to an SVU detective, and let SVU fight among themselves over whether the prostitute should get off with probation.

You basically took the words out of my mouth. Except I also like Finn. I need more time to get used to Kat. I'd like to see plots where Benson automatically believes everything the "victim" claims, only to find out that she is lying out of spite, or for a payday. Something, anything to keep us guessing. Years ago there was an episode with Estella Warren and Lynda Carter where the two of them were con artists that fooled everyone, and I thought it was one of the best episodes of the series.

Agreed. But she should have left voluntarily or involuntarily. Even she was surprised she could stay in the end. This lady didn’t even properly apply as her application was simply being pretty. She received the coveted home through corruption. This type of corruption is what upsets other low income applicants that follow proper procedures. I read the NY Post on a daily basis and this story would have been front page news in NYC. The single mother would have been referred to as “the prostitute” and the public (and other applicants) would be outraged that she was allowed to stay. The idea that she didn’t enjoy being a prostitute wouldn’t change things. But I get it. Being pretty has its perks in both TV land and IRL.

This was by far the best episode of the season. Meloni was especially good as he was forced to help protect the people that destroyed his family. Good or bad, I continue to tune into this series. However, I still don't see the connection to real world organized crime. I can't tell if Wheatley is mob connected or a made man. Because, in the mob, there's the rule of omerta, which has been rarely seen here. Bekhar flips. Angela flips. Now, Richard tries to flip. Only a matter of time before crybaby Richie flips. Usually, when you become a rat, you have to tell everything. Does that mean Richard will have to throw his kids under the bus? In the mob, there's also the rule of never going against your family, but....Wheatley whacks his dad. Angela tips off the cops that Richard has stolen vaccines. Richie tries to get his dad killed. Wheatley has his step son whacked. Zero family loyalty here, there's just a bunch of Fredo's. MCC is notorious for corrupt guards. Sneaking in a cell phone is small potatoes. I think there was a serious editing mistake with Morales being in two places at once. I can't tell if the police are behind Bell, since they showed up to support her. Or if they're against her because her partner is suing NYPD. Looking forward to season 2, episode 1.

1. I am consistent about law enforcement staying in their lane when it comes to family matters and victims wishing to be left alone. I had the same response last week when Garland and the team strong armed the husband to end his marriage and press charges, when he didn't want to (at least, initially). 2. I am against the police (Finn) conducting an interview with a small child without the mother being present. Especially when the questions are geared towards if the mom is a prostitute. Last week, I also didn't like it when Garland had the victim's young son over dinner and obtained information that he used against the mother. 3. The "ignore and move along" concept has a lot to do with an understaffed and overworked squad. With that combination, cases without evidence of a crime and without an obvious victim are put on the back burner behind more pressing cases. In this case, the johns clearly had no interest in the boy. 4. I think Dick Wolf wanted us to debate this case and set up the characters where good points can be argued on both sides. He did the same thing last episode with the large man and small wife.

They should have had Rollins and Carisi argue that the victims weren't complaining and that there were more important cases to work on. Because that is what real life detectives would say, IMO. After the tennants found out what they had to do to keep the apartment, did they have the choice to leave? If the answer was yes, and they chose to stay, then how is this trafficking? I can't imagine Machado forcing the women to stay, especially since there are plenty of hard luck women in shelters that would jump at a chance to live in a luxury building that's harder to get accepted into than Harvard. Speaking of Machado, in theory, how do you think she was compensated for recruiting the tennants? Was she paid cash, or given favors on the political level that would assist her mission to help the needy?

My thoughts: 1. idk why SVU took such an interest in prostitutes in a nice building, especially when they wanted to be left alone. I said this about the previous episode, are there so few cases of real victims (rape, pedophiles, etc ) that they have time to go fishing for crimes? Apparently, if there was evidence of luxury items and fancy food, then SVU would have dropped it? 2. Machado was a good villain, it was a good episode title. I found it realistic that she thought she was helping the women by having them improperly cut the line over the hundreds of honest applicants (I think it's 650-1 acceptance rate). If Machado let the "victims of trafficking" look at the apartment, tell them what is involved- I wonder what their reaction would have been? 3. I like that Machado received a slap on the wrist. But I don't think that the "victims" should be allowed to stay in their apartments based on them obtaining them illegally. Or at the least, have a cut away to the story hitting the media with interviews of many legal applicants complaining that have been waiting for something to open up, while working 2-3 jobs. IRL this would be a huge story because sex sells. 4. I like that Garland is being put through the ringer. He wasn't my first choice- that was Benson. But I wanted someone to go through hell in the department for the Trayvon arrest and for criticizing their department/officers. I also see Garland retiring with full benefits and Benson being elevated. I hope he doesn't die from natural causes, though. 5. Overall an excellent episode but not enough push back from the perps. Only the unhappy prostitutes fought back while being investigated. The johns and perps rolled over immediately. But kudos for having 2 episodes where the villain was a woman.

I completely agree with that. OTOH, the trend on L&O these days seems to be that white cast members don't have white partners. Stabler + Angela, Benson + Garland, Carisi + Garland's estranged wife?

Or how about when in the interrogation room, close talker Stabler would put his face 3 inches away from a dude's face and whispers, "Come on, you killed her, right?" Or, "If you admit what happened, then we can help you." Or Olivia whispers, "You weren't man enough to satisfy the victim and that's why you killed her, right?" And then the perp starts spilling his guts.

The texting aspect didn't fit into the plot because it's not real life. She had the acquittal in the bag, IMO, before sending the texts at the worst possible moment. It's similar to when perps spill their guts and confess to crimes when the squad has nothing to convict them on. But it allows the episode to wrapped up into a neat 1 hour package. I'm hard to please because I don't like the season long storyline with the OC series, but I also don't like unrealistic convictions quickly obtained without evidence either.

That sloppy open mouth kiss right afterward was very strange. It was probably written by Wolf to show that Wheatley is a narcissistic egomaniac who takes loving himself to another level. And in a way, that way of thinking led to his downfall.

Richie seems so out of place to be an associate for a mafia family. He doesn't seem to have street smarts- he didn't even have suspicions about Gina. He doesn't have what it takes to be in the muscle part of the family, even though he just whacked Gina. Remember that Gina took the gun away from Richie, in what about to become a very embarrassing situation. And I don't think he could stand up to tough interrogation by LE. Bell just mentioned Gina's name and Richie was about to cry like a baby. He needed a pep talk from his sister to stay quiet. Imagine if and when LE tells Richie that he's actually under arrest for the murder of Gina? With the hit man and Gina gone, it will be hard to pin this murder on Richie. Angela will try to convince Richie to flip on dad because Richie is too soft to serve time. I agree that he's too soft. OTOH, Angela flipped when she could have beaten her charges. That would have been a tough case to prove, unless Richard really has those incriminating tapes of Angela.

I think it just takes one in the jury to think that he is less of a victim because he is a large man. I would be that one juror if I was selected for jury duty, and I bought into the defense of why didn't he just leave the room. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to see how the jury would decide the case and wasn't happy with the plea.

I feel like I'm the contrarian here, but these are my honest thoughts of the episode: Pros: There finally was a male protagonist and a female antagonist. Benson was finally sympathetic to a male. These are two items that should occur more often to make the series less predictable. Cons: 1. When a husband and wife want to be left alone and not file charges against each other, the cops should respect their wishes. It's a slippery slope when the law wants to force themselves in between married BDSD couples in the bedroom. Get a safe word and call it a day. I don't like it when Benson strong arms a female victim to press charges and get a rape kit; I don't like it when the male gets his arm twisted to basically end his marriage and turn his kid's life upside down. Especially on such a flimsy case. 2. Speaking of a flimsy case, I didn't like that the jury didn't get to render a decision. I'm convinced that there would have been an acquittal or hung jury. FWIW, if I was on the jury, it would have been an easy decision to acquit, especially after looking at the size difference and his train wreck of a testimony. At the end of the day, who actually won here- not the wife, kid, or hubby, IMO. 3. Aren't there any other cases for the squad to work on? They spent so much time looking for a crime, especially when husband/wife refused to press charges. It was as if there's wasn't any other SVU related crimes in Manhattan to investigate. I recall in the past when the captains would complain that there aren't more SVU detectives to handle the workload.

I like the episode title. It's from a line in Goodfellas. Henry skipped school for months, and when his father received the truancy notice from school, Henry took a beating and said that line. Then the poor postman took the blame.

I watched the murder again on youtube (I hope it's ok that I post this). The gun didn't have blanks. And Gina couldn't have been wearing a protective vest. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

If this has such a big impact on a cast member's career, then I would like to see IAB investigate the corrupt cop that seemingly purposely damaged the teen's hand. And let the plot play out that unless the teen dropped the lawsuit, then Bell's career was toast. I'm not aware of cases of legitimate police brutality, where there is payback towards officers that are loosely connected to the victim. Not unless it only keeps Bell from another promotion in the near future, which is more understandable, but a far cry from her losing her job/pension. There was a gathering of the Al Sharpton type characters in the room with Bell. And IRL I don't think they would accept a high ranking female black law enforcement official being rail roaded like this.

That was my thought, exactly, in a good way. From the beginning, I was hoping that the show would have been SVU meets the Sopranos. But the OC side of the seris has been missing a great number of details. One accurate depiction of OC is that when you're verified to be a rat, then that's the end of you. It reminded me very much of when Silvio had to bring Adrianna to the hospital to see a grief stricken Chris. And stone cold killer Chris couldn't kill his fiance. But Gina was way too cool staring down the barrel of a gun, compared to a frantic Adrianna, which makes a case of her death being faked. I know that many posters want Gina to be alive, but if it turns out that they used blanks/ketchup to fake her death, I'll be disappointed because it will deviate from real life. It's a struggle to believe Bekhar hasn't had his secret leaked out.

Bekhar provided the gun and bullets, right? That means, in theory, the bullets could have been doctored. Gina couldn't have been wearing a protective vest, you would have seen it through her outfit. I did notice that Gina wasn't in pain, the way I believed a person shot in the stomach would have been.

As usual, the plot leaves me with questions in terms of how real life works- at least in my mind: 1. How did Angela get arrested for the murder of Kathy? If it was soley on the word on an UC, then that UC would have to be openly identified, or her civil rights would be violated. And if the rat hitman was identified, then what is he doing out and about in public and participating on a hit? Why does Angela want to rot in a cell instead of being free? Even if she couldn't afford the bail, Wheatley would take care of her. 2. There's no case against Angela that a jury would convict her on. She didn't order the hit. Why is she spilling her guts to Elliott, saying how she wanted him to suffer, like she suffered? She's supposed to be highly intelligent but she never even consulted with an attorney. 3. Richie is not mob material. He doesn't have the brains, street smarts, nor ability to be the muscle (due to his aversion to murder). The daughter- has she been involved in murders before because Wheatley mentioned something about her potentially cleaning up Richie's mess again? The mob is sexist (and racist) and women cannot be inducted as made members, unless something changed recently. 4. The crime family is the Guardo crime family. I'm assuming that Chazz P was the boss. Still don't know what Wheatley's role is. He doesn't meet with capos or underlings. He spends more time with his blood family over his crime family. He barely spoke to his father and was disrespectful when he did. But he works together with other mobsters with his data center. So, if he's in the mob, I'm still curious about his role and title. 5. Stabler was emotionally distraught to learn it was Angela who wanted Kathy to suffer. When Stabler goes through hell, it makes the show worth it for me- I consider it karma. These mobsters are tougher than the pedophiles, pimps, and college kids that Stabler used to bully and smack around without repurcussions. So far, he's been beaten up, shot at (twice), watched his wife die over his job, had an intervention, and was betrayed by his potential new girlfriend. Not bad for a season.

Thanks, your explanation makes sense.

1. I enjoyed the above also, because it showed a limit to her perceived authority. 2. They bashed in the door of the perp's girlfriend and searched her home without her permission and without a warrant. I am confused to how the 4th amendment rights don't apply, but we discussed this during a previous episode when cops went door to door looking for the white supremecists. IRL, a NJ judge recently decided that friends with benefits would also have their homes protected by the 4th amendment, which is confusing because I thought those homes were always protected. https://nypost.com/2021/05/20/nj-judge-legally-recognizes-friends-with-benefits/ 3. I have been an apologist for Rollins, but that's over. After the perp was remanded and drugged up, she had to threaten to kill him in the unlikely event he would be set free one day. So not only does Rollins like to assault perps after they're in cuffs, now she likes to threaten them while their locked up. Cops get a bad enough rap these days without these scenes, but I'm here talking about it, which is what Wolf probably wanted. Anyway, I'm hoping that karma deals her a tough blow in the upcoming episodes- where's Kim these days? She seems to be her kryptonite.