S21.E02: The Darkest Journey Home

[dttruman]

Episode description from Googling "Law and Order SVU season 21 episode 2, The Darkest journey Home"

"Benson works with a young woman to help her remember the details and suspects in her rape; in order to learn a new witness interview technique, Rollins and Fin have to experience it for themselves."

This description is from "All Things Law and Order, The Darkest Journey Home"

Benson works with a young woman to help her remember the details and suspects in her rape. In order to learn a new witness interview technique, Rollins and Fin have to experience it for themselves. Ariel Winter and Amy Hargreaves guest star.

[Gigi43]

Liv talking about her trauma from the jump. This may be the fastest it's taken me to hate an episode. 

Quite an accomplishment. 

Edited October 4, 2019 by Gigi43

[dttruman]

6 minutes ago, Gigi43 said:

Liv talking about her trauma from the jump. This may be the fastest it's taken me to hate an episode. 

Quite an accomplishment. 

Aren't they being a little redundant here. Didn't she already spill her guts already to a standard trauma shrink a while back?

[Gigglepuff]

I know I said I was out last week, but thought I'd give it another chance since I'm home with nothing else to do. 

So far, all I can say is wow. This is god awful already. We're dredging up William Lewis again? Really Warren, you couldn't go two episodes with bringing up the Lewis saga? 

Again with another rich, young, attractive, white victim, quelle surprise! The scene with her and her pals in the bar was cringe inducing. The writing was corny as hell, and the actress delivered her lines like someone in an infomercial. I had second hand embarrassment for her and for whoever wrote that scene.  

[dttruman]

21 minutes ago, Gigglepuff said:

Again with another rich, young, attractive, white victim, quelle surprise! The scene with her and her pals in the bar was cringe inducing. The writing was corny as hell, and the actress delivered her lines like someone in an infomercial. I had second hand embarrassment for her and for whoever wrote that scene.  

I am starting to become a little ambivalent here concerning this rape victim and Benson says it's not her fault? Considering Raegan mostly put herself in this position, I can't be all that sympathetic for her.

Edited October 4, 2019 by dttruman

[dttruman]

The way the squad is spilling their guts using this new technique, makes me wonder if it is some form of self hypnosis. Why not just bring in a hypnotherapist and be done with it.

[Gigi43]

The only thing I liked about the episode was the preview for next week now because I got to think "oh they're taking on Very French, Very Famous Juicy Smooyay"... so Dave  Chappelle  gets credit for a slight save. I'll tune in just to make sure they don't try to really make him a victim or -cringe- confess after outrage from Liv.

This episode was a waste. No way was a 20something female going to be lying. We'll never see it happen any more. I started looking at makeup online half way through and don't even care if I missed anything.

If this was Ariel Winters trying to break into drama... bad choice of show and she didn't bring it acting wise.

Edited October 4, 2019 by Gigi43

[dttruman]

They are off to a good start with the investigation, it looks like good police work there. Did they go way over the top portraying Ariel Winters as a out of control, drinking too much, drug taking, and a nympho to boot? I thought those therapy sessions were a waste of valuable time to the episode. They could have spent more time on Carisi trying to get a more accurate account of what really happen, since he is now an ADA. They could have explored how much Raegan was culpable. It seems like a good defense attorney could show those guys didn't put her in the condition she was in and her sex history would definitely be fair game.

Bottom line, not bad for the structure, but those therapy sessions were just oh so useless.

1 hour ago, Gigglepuff said:

The writing was corny as hell, and the actress delivered her lines like someone in an infomercial. I had second hand embarrassment for her and for whoever wrote that scene.  

The credits said Leight and Martin wrote this together. It is definitely "not" some of their best work. I am surprised they put their names on it.

[dttruman]

31 minutes ago, Gigi43 said:

This episode was a waste. No way was a 20something female going to be lying. We'll never see it happen any more

Considering Raegan's antics, I thought it was very hypocritical, that she didn't want to take responsibility for her actions or let it get out what kind of a person she really is. IMO, she would make a perfect Chelsea Handler.

Edited October 4, 2019 by dttruman

[Gigglepuff]

I haven't been keeping tabs, but is there any outrage from the fandom about another white, cis, male being the ADA or is it all cool cause it's Carisi? 

[dttruman]

On 10/4/2019 at 12:30 AM, Gigglepuff said:

I haven't been keeping tabs, but is there any outrage from the fandom about another white, cis, male being the ADA or is it all cool cause it's Carisi? 

I don't know, but I am wondering who will be Benson's new boss? I think they let it slip that it will be some guy. Since Carisi's boss is a woman, they had to make it a man for Benson. I wonder if he will fall head over heels for Benson?

Edited October 5, 2019 by dttruman

[Xeliou66]

I went back and forth on this episode, I hated it then I liked it and then back and forth again. 

I really disliked the opening with the Lewis flashbacks, the Lewis storyline dragged on way too long and Benson has already talked to her personal therapist Lindstrom about this, so it was redundant. I disliked all of the scenes of the detectives talking to the shrink, they added nothing to the show. I wish the shrink had been involved in the case, this was another episode where I kept thinking how sorely missed Huang is, it would’ve been nice to have a psych expert talk to Reagan. 

The actual investigation parts were good, although I thought the fact that the driver and the passenger conspired to rape Reagan was weird since apparently they had no prior relationship so the fact that 2 strangers out of nowhere decided to rape a drunk girl with 2 other sleazebags that one of them knew was really odd. And neither of them had a record, making it weirder. I just found the plot overly complicated. I wish they had cut the therapy subplots and focused more on piecing together the case. And of course I knew the victim wouldn’t be lying because they never show that anymore because it goes against MH’s agenda. 

I liked Carisi’s scenes a lot and his role tonight gave me more confidence that him as an ADA will work, and I loved him and Fin in the interrogation room at the end, I’ll take any Carisi/Fin scenes I can get. I also liked Carisi calling Benson “Liv”, he rarely did that in the past, a nice touch to show that he’s not her subordinate anymore.

Of course the episode has to end with a Benson/victim scene. Blah. And this victim was really unlikable, what was with her tricking Benson into believing her boyfriend hit her and then revealing it as a joke? I did laugh when she pointed out Benson’s overdramatic facial expression, we’ve all noticed those. 

Fin is right, the sqaud desperately needs more detectives, I have a feeling the vice cop from last week will join the squad, really 2 more detectives would be nice.

It was another rich white victim, at least it wasn’t a rich famous white guy perp and it was something a bit different from the usual he said/she said. 

Overall an average outing, not great, not terrible. 

[futurechemist]

It would have spoiled the mood, but when the detectives mentioned the perps were picked up by the 99th precinct in Brooklyn, I was hoping for a cameo by Jake Peralta.

[SarahPrtr]

1 hour ago, Xeliou66 said:

I liked Carisi’s scenes a lot and his role tonight gave me more confidence that him as an ADA will work, and I loved him and Fin in the interrogation room at the end, I’ll take any Carisi/Fin scenes I can get. I also liked Carisi calling Benson “Liv”, he rarely did that in the past, a nice touch to show that he’s not her subordinate anymore.

Thank you for the 20 seconds of Carisi they gave us.  Every time I saw Fin questioning someone, I kept missing Carisi.  Felt like he definitely should have been there.  I hope they'll show him questioning perps in the courtroom soon.  That'll be something new.

[Fellaway]

It's going to become an ongoing game for me this season, counting up the ways making Carisi the ADA was a bad move.  In this week's episode?  It took far too long for him to make an appearance, and, when he did, it was all business.  No quips, no off-the-cuff remarks, no friendly banter with the squad, no real Carisi.  I'm sorely gonna miss that, if it continues, and as he's one of the few bright spots on this show...  Really bad move.

Also?  If he was still a detective, we would've gotten to see him in that training and, perhaps, learned something new about him.  But, nope.  He continues to be the only character on this show who is not allowed to have any kind of a life of his own.

Maybe I missed something, but what exactly was new and different about this method they were being trained on?  What did they learn that they haven't been doing all along, because I couldn't see it.

It continues to be absurd having all the detectives going off on their own while investigating.  What if someone needs backup unexpectedly?  It sounds like we're gonna get someone on the squad later in the season.  Whether that's a new detective or a bunch of recurrings, I say again they should've put them in the ADA spot.

I think KG is an attractive woman, but she's of an age now where most young men aren't gonna trip over their tongues when she bats the baby blues and dials up the Southern charm.  I'm waiting for one of these guys to slap her down or laugh in her face.  She's not even subtle.

Plot-wise, the episode was okay.  The investigative work... worked.  I loved Rollins' reaction to having to pick up that bottle.  ::g::  Ariel Winter did an okay job.  The character was a mess, unlikeable, immature, etc., and, while she's not gonna win an Emmy, she pulled it off well enough.  At least, I didn't see Alex Dunphy onscreen. I also loved competent, decisive Carisi.  We just need him onscreen more and interacting with the squad!

Edited October 4, 2019 by Fellaway

[dttruman]

3 hours ago, SarahPrtr said:

5 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I liked Carisi’s scenes a lot and his role tonight gave me more confidence that him as an ADA will work, and I loved him and Fin in the interrogation room at the end, I’ll take any Carisi/Fin scenes I can get. I also liked Carisi calling Benson “Liv”, he rarely did that in the past, a nice touch to show that he’s not her subordinate anymore.

Thank you for the 20 seconds of Carisi they gave us.  Every time I saw Fin questioning someone, I kept missing Carisi.  Felt like he definitely should have been there.  I hope they'll show him questioning perps in the courtroom soon.  That'll be something new.

They could have made this an interesting trial. Exploring all the aspects of a girl who has a self destructive personality drinking too much, popping pills and probably less chaste than most think. I know these guys were scumbags and all, but how would it play out if she had hooked up with Stone when he tied one on. Would Raegan still be crying rape? All I know is Benson would still be arresting Stone.

[dttruman]

3 hours ago, Fellaway said:

Maybe I missed something, but what exactly was new and different about this method they were being trained on?  What did they learn that they haven't been doing all along, because I couldn't see it.

Yeah, I think they wasted too much episode time with this new method. They could have used that precious time for Carisi and the trial.

Isn't it ironic that they had a therapist written into the episode, but she wasn't there for the victim, but for Benson and the other detectives. Why don't they also write in that Benson earned a degree through night school, that makes her a trained therapist. It seems like they want her to counsel all the victims a lot during the episodes.

Edited October 4, 2019 by dttruman

[wknt3]

The Good:
It was an actual sexually based offense, competently and thoroughly investigated from beginning to end, including the legal side.
A second episode in a row with no Benoah or other soapy family drama!
Fin. He was the only one whose trauma I found interesting, both because he's not constantly shoving his past traumas in our faces and because it was played in a restrained manner. I would have liked to have seen more of it actually and less of the extended flashback to one of my least favorite plots in SVU history. It was also nice to see that he's continuing as the voice of reason/the viewer, pointing out the obvious - that there's nobody working there anymore, that 3 > 0, etc. Also I liked his scenes with Carisi.
Carisi ADA, the execution. There were some nice little touches like calling Benson Liv to show that he wasn't working for her anymore (in theory) and the plea bargain negotiations.
The little shout outs to other better shows. "A little crazy is OK, but not the full Fleabag" and the perp being brought in from Brooklyn by the Nine-Nine!
The preview for next week looks potentially interesting. And even if it sucks a non-white, male victim will be a refreshing change of pace on its own.

The Bad:
Benson. From the extensive flashbacks to the William Lewis suckfest, to the fact that they couldn't follow through with a victim actually not accepting Benson as their lord and savior who personally understands their trauma, I hated most of the time she was on screen, which was a shame as the rest of the episode was pretty good. Of course seeing Julie Martin's writing credit meant I was expecting it.
So they're still going with the idea that anyone can just walk off the street in to the squad without anybody talking to them? Yet when the victim storms out there's somebody at the desk and like 30 extras? Why can't some of them help out on this case BTW?
Carisi ADA, the idea. The show is still wildly unbalanced and feels empty without him on the squad. Plus given that Leight is on record as not liking courtroom scenes why move one of the few characters that has untapped story potential to a role that is most likely going to be minimized? Still kind of hoping this is a fake out and he ends up back on the squad.
Rollins mentioning her sister. Yes it was relevant and good continuity, but it gets me worried that Leight has ideas. Just leave her in the memory hole that they shoved her in.

Overall this was OK. Nothing special, but it didn't completely suck. Oh well on to next week.

[Gigi43]

11 minutes ago, dttruman said:

Yeah, I think they wasted too episode type with this new method. They could have used that precious time for Carisi and the trial.

Isn't it ironic that they had a therapist written into the episode, but she wasn't there for the victim, but for Benson and the other detectives. Why don't they also write in that Benson earned a degree through night school, that makes her a trained therapist. It seems like they want her to counsel all the victims a lot during the episodes.

She's Benson.  No degree required with just how amazing she is. That reminded me of one of my favorite scenes of this show unintentionally parodying itself.  Formerly missing girl was being reunited  with her family (who turned out to be an imposter ) and Carisi said it was being handled by a "reunification expert. " The next scene was Benson uniting the family. Because of course.

11 minutes ago, dttruman said:

Yeah, I think they wasted too episode type with this new method. They could have used that precious time for Carisi and the trial.

Isn't it ironic that they had a therapist written into the episode, but she wasn't there for the victim, but for Benson and the other detectives. Why don't they also write in that Benson earned a degree through night school, that makes her a trained therapist. It seems like they want her to counsel all the victims a lot during the episodes.

She's Benson.  No degree required with just how amazing she it. That reminded me of one of my favorite scenes of this show unintentionally parodying itself.  Formerly missing girl was being reunited  with her family (who turned out to be an imposter ) and Carisi said it was being handled by a "reunification expert. " The next scene was Benson uniting the family. Because of course.

Edit: I have no idea why it posted double like this or why I can't seem to delete just one. Sorry!

Edited October 4, 2019 by Gigi43

[Xeliou66]

2 hours ago, dttruman said:

They could have made this an interesting trial. Exploring all the aspects of a girl who has a self destructive personality drinking too much, popping pills and probably less chaste than most think. I know these guys were scumbags and all, but how would it play out if she had hooked up with Stone when he tied one on. Would Raegan still be crying rape? All I know is Benson would still be arresting Stone.

I was glad they had the case end with plea deals, it was much more realistic that way. I liked how Carisi worked out deals with each of them even though he was disgusted by them, it kept things much more realistic instead of having them go to trial and get a conviction in spite of the victim being very unstable. 

I really thought the therapy sessions were a waste of time and just a reason for Leight to bring back the Lewis crap and Rollins drama, Fin’s was the only session I found somewhat interesting just because Fin never talks about his personal life (I wonder what Carisi would’ve talked about if he was still a detective, he hasn’t had any major trauma like the others have). It would’ve been much better if the therapist was consulting on the case and helping Reagan remember what happened instead of the pointless scenes with the cops. 

[balmz]

53 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

I was glad they had the case end with plea deals, it was much more realistic that way. I liked how Carisi worked out deals with each of them even though he was disgusted by them, it kept things much more realistic instead of having them go to trial and get a conviction in spite of the victim being very unstable. 

I really thought the therapy sessions were a waste of time and just a reason for Leight to bring back the Lewis crap and Rollins drama, Fin’s was the only session I found somewhat interesting just because Fin never talks about his personal life (I wonder what Carisi would’ve talked about if he was still a detective, he hasn’t had any major trauma like the others have). It would’ve been much better if the therapist was consulting on the case and helping Reagan remember what happened instead of the pointless scenes with the cops. 

well we get so little of carisi maybe he does have a trauma but we never knew because of how much benson and rollins crap we get instead

[dttruman]

5 hours ago, wknt3 said:

Carisi ADA, the idea. The show is still wildly unbalanced and feels empty without him on the squad. Plus given that Leight is on record as not liking courtroom scenes

I didn't know this! Does this mean we won't see much of Carisi now? I thought since he was made ADA, that they were going to give him more courtroom scenes so it would give him experience, because he didn't 2nd chair any prosecutions. Are they just going to bring him in "once in a blue moon" for a trial? Will he just be doing this most of the time, showing up for a couple of scenes and just rubber stamping the cases with plea bargains?

[dttruman]

8 hours ago, Fellaway said:

Maybe I missed something, but what exactly was new and different about this method they were being trained on?  What did they learn that they haven't been doing all along, because I couldn't see it.

2 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I really thought the therapy sessions were a waste of time and just a reason for Leight to bring back the Lewis crap and Rollins drama, Fin’s was the only session I found somewhat interesting

What good is it? Will this "new method" or "therapy session" become part of the show now? It seems like a cost cutting gimmick to me. It's a catharsis moment for the detective and a solo dramatic moment for the actor.

[atlantaloves]

That was so bad I had to turn it off 30 minutes in, and I always stick it out. Barf. 

[illdoc]

On the plus side, based on next week's previews, we will have a BLACK MALE "special victim" (at least temporarily) in SVU's version of the Jussie Smollet case.

[tennisgurl]

5 hours ago, illdoc said:

On the plus side, based on next week's previews, we will have a BLACK MALE "special victim" (at least temporarily) in SVU's version of the Jussie Smollet case.

I am so not looking forward to having the few male OR black victim in ages (let alone both!) to be shown to be a lying attention seeker, if they're going to go full on from the story that being ripped from the headlines. If they're going to change thing so that he is telling the truth, which...ugh. Thats why ripped from the headline stories can go bad!

Great, lets start an episode with more flashbacks to the freaking William Lewis story, which is the only reason for this whole therapist thing. Just another chance to remind us how Olivia is such a victim and a survivor and she is SO strong and has suffered SO much and blah blah blah. Just focus in on Olivia's sad face right off the bat!

Of course its yet another pretty young middle or upper class white female victim, I know your all shocked! I guess the most diversity we can hope for when it comes to sympathetic victims is the pretty struggling actress Hispanic woman from last week.  

Ariel Winters was pretty good, especially playing a pretty unlikable characters, and I did actually like that the victim wasnt super sympathetic, especially her compulsive lies and unrepentant cheating. They could do a thing about how even someone who makes bad choices doesent deserve to be raped, but they only really kind of went there. I did giggle at the look on Olivia's face when Reagan said she gave her boss a blow job "while they were shopping for a birthday present for his wife." 

I just hate Olivia's "sympathetic" voice that she uses on victims, it sounds so condescending, and how she always calls them "honey" and stuff like that. I guess she should be happy that they only investigate pretty young women who can cry on her shoulder and thank Saint Olivia for saving them, because her calling an elderly woman or a sixteen year old boy "honey" or "sweetheart" would be even weirder than it already is. 

Edited October 4, 2019 by tennisgurl

[preeya]

Why did they name the victim Reagan?  Was there a shortage of character names?

Don't we have a whole family of NYPD Regans on Friday night???

[illdoc]

1 hour ago, preeya said:

Why did they name the victim Reagan? 

(a) Her name was spelled "RAEGAN" and (b) Regan (pronounced the same way) was the name of one of King Lear's daughters (the other two being Cordelia (the good one) and Goneril).

[SarahPrtr]

3 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I just hate Olivia's "sympathetic" voice that she uses on victims, it sounds so condescending, and how she always calls them "honey" and stuff like that. I guess she should be happy that they only investigate pretty young women who can cry on her shoulder and thank Saint Olivia for saving them, because her calling an elderly woman for a sixteen year old boy "honey" or "sweetheart" would be even weirder than it already is. 

Yuck, I HAAAATE being called 'honey/sweetheart/darling/dear', etc, unless the person is at least 80 years old.  That's a whole new generation, and that's just how they are.  Having the dreaded baby face, I get that all the time, even from people who are a lot younger than me.  I'm in my freaking 40s!  Don't call me sweetheart.  It's so condescending.

[dttruman]

1 hour ago, preeya said:

Why did they name the victim Reagan?  Was there a shortage of character names?

Don't we have a whole family of NYPD Regans on Friday night???

Did you ever see the "Exorcist". The spelling maybe different, but I can definitely tell you this one is just as demonic.

Edited October 4, 2019 by dttruman

[dttruman]

4 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I am so not looking forward to having the few male OR black victim in ages (let alone both!) to be shown to be a lying attention seeker, if they're going to go full on from the story that being ripped from the headlines. If they're going to change thing so that he is telling the truth, which...ugh. Thats why ripped from the headline stories can go bad!

I wonder if they are going to turn this into a bias view concerning the Jussie Smollett. They have already mentioned that there is predator out there attacking men in gay bars. Since Leight and a few others are Anti-Trump, will they have this predator wearing a MAGA hat and is also a Trump supporter?

[tennisgurl]

So what was, like, the chain of events here? Some random guy gets into an Uber/Lyft with a random driver and a drunk girl. These two strangers both just decided to not only rape this woman, they also called some other friends they knew would be down for a rape, and even took her to a second location to rape her, but then took her home? I know the episode said that scumbags have scumbag friends, but that’s a lot based around two random strangers both becoming rape bros out of nowhere. How did that conversation between the driver and passenger even go? I just...what?

[SarahPrtr]

31 minutes ago, dttruman said:

I wonder if they are going to turn this into a bias view concerning the Jussie Smollett. They have already mentioned that there is predator out there attacking men in gay bars. Since Leight and a few others are Anti-Trump, will they have this predator wearing a MAGA hat and is also a Trump supporter?

Can they just leave the political shit for one second please???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The last time they had that in the storyline, it ended atrociously.  They actually blamed the victim for putting herself in that position and was almost like she deserved it for being a Trump supporter.  I was surprised that Fin didn't stand up for her, because he's a Republican.  If they're going to Go There, then they need to treat it fairly and professionally.  Being a Trump supporter is NOT a reason to be flippant about a victim!!!  That is disgusting.  Like, she deserved to be RAPED because she has certain political views.  WTF.

[dttruman]

52 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I know the episode said that scumbags have scumbag friends, but that’s a lot based around two random strangers both becoming rape bros out of nowhere. How did that conversation between the driver and passenger even go? I just...what?

I think the person who thought up this episode might have gotten it out of Penthouse Forum.

[incandescent]

4/5 of the Dunphy family have now had roles on SVU and Ariel Winters' guest spot was the worst of the lot. But they also styled her more kindly than Modern Family ever did, so I'm sure that's a big win in her books.

[dttruman]

26 minutes ago, SarahPrtr said:

Can they just leave the political shit for one second please???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The last time they had that in the storyline, it ended atrociously.  They actually blamed the victim for putting herself in that position and was almost like she deserved it for being a Trump supporter.  I was surprised that Fin didn't stand up for her, because he's a Republican.  If they're going to Go There, then they need to treat it fairly and professionally.  Being a Trump supporter is NOT a reason to be flippant about a victim!!!  That is disgusting.  Like, she deserved to be RAPED because she has certain political views.  WTF.

I totally forgot about that episode, I was thinking of Hudson U and the campus rapes by a frat. Some student walks into the SVU and said she's raped by a couple of frat brothers, but some teacher with her, ends up doing all the talking. They find out later she wasn't raped, but the teacher said that's not important, the frat brothers are still guilty of rape.

[Xeliou66]

29 minutes ago, SarahPrtr said:

Can they just leave the political shit for one second please???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The last time they had that in the storyline, it ended atrociously.  They actually blamed the victim for putting herself in that position and was almost like she deserved it for being a Trump supporter.  I was surprised that Fin didn't stand up for her, because he's a Republican.  If they're going to Go There, then they need to treat it fairly and professionally.  Being a Trump supporter is NOT a reason to be flippant about a victim!!!  That is disgusting.  Like, she deserved to be RAPED because she has certain political views.  WTF.

Yeah you are talking about the episode Info Wars and I agree that episode was trash. It showed what a disgusting hypocrite Benson is, she always goes on about how all victims should be believed and gets mad at anyone who doesn’t, yet in that episode she was quick to doubt the victim just because she hated her politics. The episode was inflammatory, biased garbage.

I’m not looking forward to next week’s episode, we will either have another male victim that is lying/turns out to not be a victim, which gets very tiresome, or the guy will turn out to be telling the truth, which would be worse and an attempt by the writers to make a political statement by twisting the facts around and making the Jussie character sympathetic when in real life he’s a piece of shit who did a lot of harm to real victims and inflamed racial tensions for his own selfish reasons. 

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

So what was, like, the chain of events here? Some random guy gets into an Uber/Lyft with a random driver and a drunk girl. These two strangers both just decided to not only rape this woman, they also called some other friends they knew would be down for a rape, and even took her to a second location to rape her, but then took her home? I know the episode said that scumbags have scumbag friends, but that’s a lot based around two random strangers both becoming rape bros out of nowhere. How did that conversation between the driver and passenger even go? I just...what?

Agreed, I found this part of the plot far fetched, that the driver and passenger who had never met before and had no connection suddenly decided to team up to rape a drunk girl and one of them would call 2 of his other sleazebag buddies to use one of their boats to rape her. It was all too much IMO, I wish they had eliminated the detectives/therapist scenes and focused more on cleaning up plot details, who hatched the plan to rape the victim and how exactly did that conversation between the driver and the passenger go?

[spunky]

Writers, let this be the last time that Liv shakily whispers about William Lewis. He’s dead, let him stay that way. I wanted to hear more about Fin’s trauma of watching his mother get shot. It seemed as though they were trying to play up the Bipolar girl going through the manic phase storyline, but got bored halfway through. I loved how all of the perpetrators threw each other under the bus. Carisi was good this episode, but I’m waiting for him to have a courtroom scene.

[Xeliou66]

26 minutes ago, spunky said:

Writers, let this be the last time that Liv shakily whispers about William Lewis. He’s dead, let him stay that way. I wanted to hear more about Fin’s trauma of watching his mother get shot. It seemed as though they were trying to play up the Bipolar girl going through the manic phase storyline, but got bored halfway through. I loved how all of the perpetrators threw each other under the bus. Carisi was good this episode, but I’m waiting for him to have a courtroom scene.

I don’t think Carisi has enough experience yet to be lead prosecutor at a trial, I think that’s why they are avoiding trial stuff, I think if they have a trial in the next few episodes Hadid will be lead prosecutor with Carisi as 2nd chair. I would like to see Carisi handling an arraignment though, I wish they had shown us that in episode 1. I agree Carisi was good in this episode, he did his job well and I liked how he got the perps to flip on each other, I liked his interactions with the squad as well. 

[txhorns79]

37 minutes ago, spunky said:

Writers, let this be the last time that Liv shakily whispers about William Lewis. He’s dead, let him stay that way.

The way they kept going back to him, I thought we'd find out the therapist was his sister or something, out for revenge. 

And are they really suggesting that SVU has a grand total of one detective (since Finn is a Sergeant and Liv is a Captain) on the whole squad?  

[pinguina]

29 minutes ago, txhorns79 said:

And are they really suggesting that SVU has a grand total of one detective (since Finn is a Sergeant and Liv is a Captain) on the whole squad?  

This is almost exactly what I said about last week's episode!

Aren't they supposed to go in twos to see victims/perpetrators? They all seemed to go off on their own.

Although, Benson did say they were getting another/more detective(s).  

[Fellaway]

17 hours ago, wknt3 said:

Carisi ADA, the idea. The show is still wildly unbalanced and feels empty without him on the squad. Plus given that Leight is on record as not liking courtroom scenes why move one of the few characters that has untapped story potential to a role that is most likely going to be minimized? Still kind of hoping this is a fake out and he ends up back on the squad.

Word.  It's mystifying to me why they continue to not let Carisi have a life, especially when they re-hash Benson's and Rollins' personal lives, ad nauseam.  And, with him as ADA, now we'll even have less of the conversations and interactions with the squad that make him so enjoyable.  Gah.  I'm hoping, as the new dynamic shakes out, that they'll serve Carisi better, even if we don't see him in court much.  We always had plenty of Barba, after all, and he had a life.  But I'm hoping, even more, for that fake out, too.  Leight said that no one will be in the same place at the end of the season that they are in the beginning.  He probably means that metaphorically, but, in Carisi's case, I'm hoping he means it literally and Carisi goes back to the squad.

3 hours ago, dttruman said:

I totally forgot about that episode, I was thinking of Hudson U and the campus rapes by a frat. Some student walks into the SVU and said she's raped by a couple of frat brothers, but some teacher with her, ends up doing all the talking. They find out later she wasn't raped, but the teacher said that's not important, the frat brothers are still guilty of rape.

I remember that episode.  It was Season 16's Devastating Story.  It turned out she was raped, but by only one of the boys she was accusing, not a whole gang.  That teacher was wack.  It doesn't matter who did it, it just matters that it happened?  She totally screwed that victim.  

1 hour ago, txhorns79 said:

And are they really suggesting that SVU has a grand total of one detective (since Finn is a Sergeant and Liv is a Captain) on the whole squad?  

That is exactly what we're meant to swallow, and it's ridiculous.

1 hour ago, pinguina said:

Aren't they supposed to go in twos to see victims/perpetrators? They all seemed to go off on their own.

I would imagine it could cause issues with certain procedures, having only one detective involved.  Having a partner would help protect against accusations of impropriety or malfeasance, too.  If nothing else, they should have a partner for their own safety.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Fellaway

[CrystalBlue]

It's hard to believe that the Big Apple doesn't have more than a skeleton crew SVU, if only temporarily.  Saint Olivia should have dragged Raegan over to the "new technique" shrink pronto!

[dttruman]

On 10/4/2019 at 12:30 AM, Gigglepuff said:

I haven't been keeping tabs, but is there any outrage from the fandom about another white, cis, male being the ADA or is it all cool cause it's Carisi? 

I guess people thought Robinette and Carver as ADAs were good enough, but it would have been nice to see a regular black female ADA.  I never got a chance to watch that other L&O (was that Trial by Jury?), was there a black ADA there?

Edited October 5, 2019 by dttruman

[dttruman]

4 hours ago, Fellaway said:

I remember that episode.  It was Season 16's Devastating Story.  It turned out she was raped, but by only one of the boys she was accusing, not a whole gang.  That teacher was wack.  It doesn't matter who did it, it just matters that it happened?  She totally screwed that victim.  

FELLAWAY, Thanks for the episode title! My bad on thinking the girl wasn't raped (memory goes in and out on me). But it was the actions of the teacher that really stood out.

[dttruman]

3 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

It's hard to believe that the Big Apple doesn't have more than a skeleton crew SVU, if only temporarily.  Saint Olivia should have dragged Raegan over to the "new technique" shrink pronto!

Didn't Benson use it to get Raegan to remember?

[dttruman]

6 hours ago, pinguina said:

This is almost exactly what I said about last week's episode!

Aren't they supposed to go in twos to see victims/perpetrators? They all seemed to go off on their own.

Although, Benson did say they were getting another/more detective(s).  

Ever since they reduced the SVU squad (or cast) it seems like it became a necessity, so Benson could have her "one on one" time with the victims.

[wanderingstar]

Not enough Fin or Carisi. I liked the actress who played the shrink, though.

That's all I got.

[incandescent]

11 hours ago, pinguina said:

Although, Benson did say they were getting another/more detective(s).  

The line was:

Quote

Fin: If he wants us to be better, he should get us some more detectives.

Benson: We're working on that. And by the way, nobody wants that more than I do.

But she's wrong because I want it more than either of them.

[Steph Sometimes]

I've seen a lot of cringeworthy things on this show, but that scene with Rollins at the coffeehouse might have topped them all.