S21.E02: The Darkest Journey Home

[dttruman]

2 hours ago, incandescent said:

14 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.

Benson may want and demand more detectives, but only one person has the ultimate power to decide that, and that person is

Spoiler

Mariska Hargitay

Will that person ultimately listen and grant Olivia Benson that one request?

[dttruman]

1 hour ago, Steph Sometimes said:

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

When it comes to rape episodes or paternity tests, are they planning on adding more over elaborate ways to get DNA?

I didn't exactly understand why Rollins was trying to be so flirtatious, to get his DNA. All she had to say was "does it taste sour to you". He takes a swig and there she has it.

[wknt3]

On 10/4/2019 at 4:40 AM, 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.

You didn't really miss anything, it just wasn't ever put on screen, because they were so busy giving us flashbacks to bad stories. Trauma Informed Interviewing is a real thing and both the real life and ficitional SVU have been adopting these techniques for years now. If they had been willing to put in the time they could have shown us one of the squad noting they already do this and have an example of where they try, but fail. But that would have taken time from the rehashes of their favorite bad past plots (including yet another return to the bipolar well)

For those who are interested in learning a little bit about what they were trying to show us here are a few links.
 

The NYPD’s Real SVU Is Changing Its Approach to Sex Crimes

SAKI Quick Take: 5 Keys to Trauma-Informed Victim Interviews

Enhanced Interviewing Techniques to Improve Memory Recall

Perhaps the most needed thing they need to take from this real life approach is right here -
 

Quote

Two Memorable Quotes

“Don’t treat them like suspects,” said Satinsky.

“Cops are not therapists,” said Satinsky.

I wonder if they use pictures of Rollins and Benson to illustrate the presentation?

[observer]

(moved here from episode 1 thread)

So Olivia's first act as Captain is to go into the field to the hospital to interview a rape victim herself?  I guess when you only have to manage two people (only Rollins and Fin left, right?) in your department you have a lot of spare time on your hands.  And...now she is going to the rape victim's apartment for further expenditure of Captain's wage level sleuthing.

Then when Rollins tells her they have a hit from a military data base on one of the semen samples, after Olivia asks if it is Nick or Julie's:  I spy another acting technique involving  narrowing of the eyes in a frenetic manner added to the dropped open mouth technique, I think meant to demonstrate disbelief. 

Hahaha, best line:  Olivia asks Reagan how traces of semen were found in her Invisaligns.

Stellar police work here:

Quote

Olivia:  "I know that you were raped."

Reagan:  "How do you know?"

Omnipotent Olivia:  "I just know."

Plethora of hoarse voice technique this episode.

Thank goodness for Fin.  

Oh great, Billy Joel Uptown Girl earworm.

And in one final hoarse whisper, it ends with Olivia triumphant once again.

Edited October 5, 2019 by observer

[dttruman]

3 hours ago, wknt3 said:

If they had been willing to put in the time they could have shown us one of the squad noting they already do this and have an example of where they try, but fail. But that would have taken time from the rehashes of their favorite bad past plots (including yet another return to the bipolar well)

Well put!! It's their way of bring back old clips, which only puts extra time on editing. I don't think there has been an episode recently where Benson is in a coma or injured and the detectives starts telling stories about her and the clips pop up?

Thank you also for being informative concerning that "Trauma Informed Interviewing"

[breezy424]

I hate Carisi as an ADA.  He gets less screen time and we don't get to see the person that many of us has come to love and enjoy.

Enough of William Lewis.

When did Benson take the captain's test?  As far as I know you still have to take a test to become a captain.  Next levels up are appointed.  Captain and lower ranks require a test.  Oh wait.  This is Olivia Benson world.

No Noah scenes.  Yay.

[CrystalBlue]

11 hours ago, dttruman said:

Benson may want and demand more detectives, but only one person has the ultimate power to decide that, and that person is

  Hide contents

Mariska Hargitay

Will that person ultimately listen and grant Olivia Benson that one request?

Aren't they one and the same?  Doesn't Mariska believe she is Olivia by her own admission in an interview somewhere?

11 hours ago, dttruman said:

When it comes to rape episodes or paternity tests, are they planning on adding more over elaborate ways to get DNA?

I didn't exactly understand why Rollins was trying to be so flirtatious, to get his DNA. All she had to say was "does it taste sour to you". He takes a swig and there she has it.

Because she's a skank?

[CrystalBlue]

20 hours ago, dttruman said:

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

I meant that Raegan could use some counseling by a therapist to explore her out-of-control behaviors that have landed her in the ER four times in the last year.

[dttruman]

5 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

Aren't they one and the same?  Doesn't Mariska believe she is Olivia by her own admission in an interview somewhere?

Then do you think when her kids don't do their homework, break some valuable furniture, or kill and mutilate a neighbors pet, she will look them in their eyes and say in a low whisper, "It's not your fault"?

[dttruman]

5 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I meant that Raegan could use some counseling by a therapist to explore her out-of-control behaviors that have landed her in the ER four times in the last year.

That's right, I can't remember? Was she using that "her husband was abusing her" excuse, when she goes to the ER? She definitely needs professional counseling, but as we all know Benson works miracles?

[SarahPrtr]

39 minutes ago, dttruman said:

Then do you think when her kids don't do their homework, break some valuable furniture, or kill and mutilate a neighbors pet, she will look them in their eyes and say in a low whisper, "It's not your fault"?

Oh, good grief, the Good Will Hunting method.  Yay.

[statsgirl]

16 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I meant that Raegan could use some counseling by a therapist to explore her out-of-control behaviors that have landed her in the ER four times in the last year.

This.

I was happy that they investigated the case despite her behaviour because too often authorities assume that she's making it up since she's so out of control. But it bothered me that no one referred her to a psychiatrist or a psychologist to find out what's going on with her, especially since she was flagrantly lying because "real life is so boring."  There is something going on there on anyone who cared about her should have got her to check it out.

Made worse by the fact that Rollins dismissed Raegan saying "she's like my sister". Your sister has bipolar disorder, sweetie, maybe you could consider that Raegan has some sort of illness too.

On 10/5/2019 at 3:08 PM, wknt3 said:

 Trauma Informed Interviewing is a real thing and both the real life and ficitional SVU have been adopting these techniques for years now. If they had been willing to put in the time they could have shown us one of the squad noting they already do this and have an example of where they try, but fail. But that would have taken time from the rehashes of their favorite bad past plots (including yet another return to the bipolar well)

It's fascinating, thanks for the links.

I wish they had devoted even 30 seconds to explain why closed ended questions are a bad idea. As it was presented, it just seemed like self-indulgent crap.

[tennisgurl]

You know, not long ago, I watched Unbeilevable on Netflix, a mini series about a young woman who was raped and was convinced by the police to say that she made it up (she didnt) and the rapist was a serial rapist who would go on to rape more women until he was caught and the original victim was vindicated. Not only was it a lesson in how law enforcement should and should not handle a report of sexual assault, but it really stood out next to this show, especially looking at the victims. The first victim looked like a typical late season SVU victim, being a young attractive woman, but she was also a troubled teen in foster care, and the other two main victims we see are a heavier set college student, and an older woman. It really struck me how few of those kinds of victims we have seen the last few seasons, poor people, older people, people that are not "TV standard" skinny and pretty, and it just makes me sad. There are so many survivors out there with stories to tell, and we only get the a tiny sliver of them because this show only seems to care about certain, photogenic, victims now. 

[Aethera]

Now is a good time for our annual reminder: take Olivia-centric discussion that does not relate to the episode to her thread, please. 

[Kel Varnsen]

On 10/4/2019 at 1:56 AM, futurechemist said:

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.

That reference to the Nine-nine was the best part of the episode possibly the best part of the last few seasons.

On 10/4/2019 at 10:32 PM, 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?  

When the victim was talking about how she didn't trust Olivia and didn't want to go through with this, I really wanted Olivia to just say "look it is me and 2 other detectives handling sexual assaults and cases with children for all of Manhattan. If you don't want to move forward with this I have other cases that need my attention".

[ShepardRahl]

>”Don’t tell my fiancé. He has anger issues.”

Oh of course he does. They always do. It’s magical.

Reagan tells Benson that her parents are on a cruise, but later Rollins reports her father is dead and her mother is in assisted living. Benson just carried on like normal. The fact that she didn’t immediately disclose the discrepancy to Rollins and Fin speaks volumes about her character.

Carisi defers to Benson on what they should do like he still works for her. A lot of people speculated that by putting Carisi as ADA he would cuck to her every time basically putting her in charge of the prosecution as well.

[dttruman]

10 minutes ago, ShepardRahl said:

Reagan tells Benson that her parents are on a cruise, but later Rollins reports her father is dead and her mother is in assisted living. Benson just carried on like normal. The fact that she didn’t immediately disclose the discrepancy to Rollins and Fin speaks volumes about her character.

I didn't see that. It shows that Benson will do almost anything for a victim. I sympathize up to a point, but when it can be shown that the victim needs to take some responsibility for her (or his) dilemma and the police don't point that out to her. Some innocent guy could get punished. Because at a later time, Raegan could have another sexual encounter with a guy who could be just as drunk and on drugs as she is, and she could say she was raped again, even though both would be culpable.

[wonderwoman]

what a tedious episode, although hair and makeup did such a great job with ariel winter i didn’t recognize her.

the trauma therapist scenes were a snooze. but, by far, my favorite moment was a, shall we say, novel product placement, at least on the nbc app. st olivia confronts raegan about the traces of semen found in her invisalign followed by a commercial for, guess what? yup, invisalign!

[bobalina]

Half way through I turned it off. Not even the great Ice T can help this any more. Will watch finale if Van Buren really does get to arrest St. Olivia

[ShepardRahl]

On 10/10/2019 at 7:38 PM, dttruman said:

I didn't see that. It shows that Benson will do almost anything for a victim. I sympathize up to a point, but when it can be shown that the victim needs to take some responsibility for her (or his) dilemma and the police don't point that out to her. Some innocent guy could get punished. Because at a later time, Raegan could have another sexual encounter with a guy who could be just as drunk and on drugs as she is, and she could say she was raped again, even though both would be culpable.

Yeah. When Rollins says the father is dead and the mother is in assisted living Benson does this subtle expression where her eyes slightly go wide and you can tell she realized the girl lied about her parents, but she never discloses this to Rollins and Fin. She never does throughout the episode. So in essence she's covering for Reagan. That seems a bit corrupt to me. Just another thing in a long line of extremely questionable things she's done over the last few years.

[CrystalBlue]

3 hours ago, ShepardRahl said:

Yeah. When Rollins says the father is dead and the mother is in assisted living Benson does this subtle expression where her eyes slightly go wide and you can tell she realized the girl lied about her parents, but she never discloses this to Rollins and Fin. She never does throughout the episode. So in essence she's covering for Reagan. That seems a bit corrupt to me. Just another thing in a long line of extremely questionable things she's done over the last few years.

Yeah, Liv was more concerned with her victim advocating than properly commanding the investigation and letting her detectives (one's who a sergeant) what they're dealing with and up against.  Business as usual in the Church of Our Holy Saint Olivia.

[Joe Hellandback]

Pretty terrible.

1. A lawyer on their first week of law school could talk could have talked their client out of this one, she was drunk, drugged and wildly promiscuous, constantly changing her story and can't remember half of what happened. That lawyer was understating it when he said he'd have made her into a puddle, he (and the 3 other susp's lawyers) would have vaporised her. 

2. The whole therapy flashback thing didn't work at all, once any therapist starts asking their patients to start indulging in roleplay everything goes out the window. 

3. Quite liked the Carisi stuff but he should learn to be more objective and critical of witnesses. He did the right thing going for a plea bargain but you'd like to know how much they got? I doubt very much?