S21.E05: At Midnight in Manhattan

[dttruman]

This description is from "All Things Law and Order, At Midnight in Manhattan"

The detectives are spread thin when three major cases come in at Midnight. Rollins and Carisi argue over an arrest.

Starring Mariska Hargitay, Ice T, Kelli Giddish and Peter Scanavino. Guest starring Jamie Gray Hyder, Bea Cordelia, Afi Bijou, Ja'Siah Young and Nicole Brydon Bloom.

Credits from Fandom:

Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson

Kelli Giddish as Detective Amanda Rollins

Ice-T as Sergeant Odafin Tutuola

Peter Scanavino as A.D.A. Dominick Carisi, Jr.

Recurring cast

Jamie Gray Hyder as Detective Katriona Tamin

Guest cast (updated 10/25/19)

Bea Cordelia as Lakira Beca

James Udom as Leon Fuller

Jill Abramovitz as Nicole Cooper

Justin Rodriguez as Bernardo Ruiz

Aby Moongamackel as Sanjay Patel

Erin Anderson as Counselor April Andrews

Nicole Brydon Bloom as Chloe Cooper

Ben Davis as Paul Davies

Janelle McDermoth as Aleah Brown

Afi Bijou as Simone Fuller

Ja'siah Young as Andre Fuller

Ted Sod as Aadesh

Rhoyle Iv as Pier Kid

 

Edited October 25, 2019 by dttruman

[Xeliou66]

This episode sounds like it will deviate from the formula, and it sounds a lot like the Mothership episodes Mayhem and Couples, which focused on multiple cases in one day. Should be interesting.

[dttruman]

2 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

This episode sounds like it will deviate from the formula, and it sounds a lot like the Mothership episodes Mayhem and Couples, which focused on multiple cases in one day. Should be interesting.

I am ashamed to say I never saw "Mayhem" or can't remember it. But Couples was a classic! I am going to make a point of seeing Mayhem, was it better than Couples?

I think SVU's version will either be really good or really bad.

Edited October 22, 2019 by dttruman

[Xeliou66]

1 hour ago, dttruman said:

I am ashamed to say I never saw "Mayhem" or can't remember it. But Couples was a classic! I am going to make a point of seeing Mayhem, was it better than Couples?

I think SVU's version will either be really good or really bad.

Mayhem was good, it is unique in that one of the cases on it wasn't solved and that case came back on the SVU/Mothership crossover Entitled (season 1 of SVU/season 10 of the Mothership) and the case was solved then. Both Couples and Mayhem were good, both episodes had dark humor injected into the storylines. I don’t trust SVU to execute a similar concept as well as the Mothership did.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Xeliou66

[dttruman]

1 hour ago, Xeliou66 said:

Mayhem was good, it is unique in that one of the cases on it wasn't solved and that case came back on the SVU/Mothership crossover Entitled (season 1 of SVU/season 10 of the Mothership) and the case was solved then. Both Couples and Mayhem were good, both episodes had dark humor injected into the storylines. I don’t trust SVU to execute a similar concept as well as the Mothership did.

Just saw it on Dailymotion, it was a reverse image and the sound was different., but still watchable. I thought Mayhem was a little  more morbid and sad, but they were both quality made episodes. Churnichin and Balcer put together a good episode in Mayhem.

I wonder how Hargitay and Leight will spin this episode?

Edited October 23, 2019 by dttruman

[wanderingstar]

On 10/22/2019 at 3:32 PM, Xeliou66 said:

This episode sounds like it will deviate from the formula, and it sounds a lot like the Mothership episodes Mayhem and Couples, which focused on multiple cases in one day. Should be interesting.

Couples is an awesome ep. I love how funny it is. Can we hope for something similar in this SVU ep?

[dttruman]

2 hours ago, Gillian Rosh said:

Couples is an awesome ep. I love how funny it is. Can we hope for something similar in this SVU ep?

I doubt it, it would take some quality writing and they haven't had that of late. Fin has always had the best morbid sarcasm of late also, since Munch retired.

Edited October 24, 2019 by dttruman

[illdoc]

From "Ask Ausiello":  Question: I’ll take anything on SVU‘s Rollins and Carisi. Or Liv, if you don’t have Rollisi stuff. —Naomi
Ausiello: I can tell you that two of the people you named get into a highly emotional, verbal altercation in the middle of the squad room in this week’s episode.

[Xeliou66]

39 minutes ago, illdoc said:

From "Ask Ausiello":  Question: I’ll take anything on SVU‘s Rollins and Carisi. Or Liv, if you don’t have Rollisi stuff. —Naomi
Ausiello: I can tell you that two of the people you named get into a highly emotional, verbal altercation in the middle of the squad room in this week’s episode.

Great, more soapy drama. Why can’t they just give us the cases without personal soaps?

[dttruman]

5 hours ago, illdoc said:

From "Ask Ausiello":  Question: I’ll take anything on SVU‘s Rollins and Carisi. Or Liv, if you don’t have Rollisi stuff. —Naomi
Ausiello: I can tell you that two of the people you named get into a highly emotional, verbal altercation in the middle of the squad room in this week’s episode.

I wonder if any of the two people will be acting out of character or going over the top as some regular characters have been known to do on occasions?

[SarahPrtr]

1 hour ago, dttruman said:

I wonder if any of the two people will be acting out of character or going over the top as some regular characters have been known to do on occasions?

For the love of god, please no.

[dttruman]

Wow, the investigations of these three cases are going 100mph and then the soap opera outburst takes place.

[llongori]

Fin:  Sit down, Gilligan. 

LOL

I love Fin!

Edited October 25, 2019 by llongori

[HunterHunted]

Not so great victims and realistically shitty police work producing realistically shitty results. Who knew that all we needed to get a half decent episode is to have the characters handle more than 2 cases in an episode. And then...Rollins decides to throw a tantrum in the middle of the squad room. Maybe she did need to go home because her ass needed a bottle and a nap.

[breezy424]

Actually, I may be on the other side of the pool but I thought it was one of the better episodes in a while.

I still don't like Carisi as an ADA.  He'll still be a detective to me. 

[wknt3]

The Good:
The story. While it wasn't perfect by any means, it was what the show needs to be doing at this point - trying to shake up the storytelling a bit and give us some variety. Also it was nice that it was focused almost entirely on the case with minimal personal drama aside from the half-assed confrontation over Carisi abandoning Rollins. Plus it was nice to see them actually pull off some nuance.
Fin! He actually got some really good Fin snark for the first time this season, as well as some good material for Ice-T and he continued his invaluable work as the voice of the viewer. Yes please don't play the mommy card! Fin makes everything better - add him to the scene and they even figure out how to write the new girl like a believable human being instead of a trope! I do wish that they would have allowed him to be the one to tell Rollins to chill, but I guess that's a bridge too far.
Diversity! It was refreshing to see both victims and perps coming from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. And to see that sexually based offenses come in a variety of forms.
Carisi - with the exception of the aforementioned squabble with Rollins.
Benson. Boy it feels weird putting her in this section. She actually spent a lot of time acting as a CO instead of a detective, And they treated her like the lead in an ensemble instead of treating everyone else as minor players in her story,
The guest cast. Back up to the show's usual high standard. Or maybe it's just that's when you have actual material with more than an inch of depth you can actually do something with it. In any case the child actor especially was excellent.
The promo for next week looks good. Which can be deceptive of course, but at least it looks like we're going to keep getting a variety of cases and stories,

The Bad:
Rollins. She was just annoying throughout the entire episode. At least with everything going on this week they didn't spend a lot of time dwelling on her nonsense except for the big blowup.
They didn't quite stick the landing with the transgender victim. This might be unfairly punishing a really good episode for the sins of past bad episodes, and I understand what they were going for, but it left a bad taste in my mouth that she was bought off. So the pretty rich white cis-women always come through in the end and pursue justice no matter how unsympathetic or stupid their behavior is, but the marginalized and persecuted minority can't be counted on? Or maybe it was just that her case wasn't personally handled by St. Benson of Manhattan? I don't think that was the intent and we need more of these sorts of endings, but given what has come before I think they should have maybe switched things up a bit. Maybe found a way to have the rich and connected jerks be the ones to drop the charges?

Overall this was actually good and not just on the curve. Probably the best episode since the great run at the beginning of Season 17. It's obviously not a sustainable formula, and the multiple cases means that they can gloss over some of the structural problems that are still there, but it's encouraging.

Edited October 25, 2019 by wknt3

[Xeliou66]

I liked this episode pretty good, it deviated from the formula and while that’s always risky, for the most part it worked in this episode.

All 3 cases were compelling, and I liked how they didn’t all have happy endings, it was more complicated than that as it often is. The rich asshole getting off for assaulting the trans victim was realistic and I liked having an ending where justice in one case wasn’t served even though it was frustrating to see, and then in the other 2 cases justice was served but it was still complicated, with the battered wife having mixed feelings about the abusive husband going to jail, and them initially suspecting the wrong guy in the cab assault case. 

Fin was awesome, it was great that he got a lot to do, I liked him with the little boy and then finding a way to close the case, and he had some great lines as well. 

Benson wasn’t nearly as annoying as she usually is and she didn’t dominate the screen time, this is the least annoying I’ve found her in a long time, although I could’ve done without her final conversation with the abused wife with Benson’s trademark whispering and overdramatic facial expressions. 

Carisi was good again in his role as ADA, while I miss Carisi as a detective still I’m liking him in his new role and how he has more authority.

Kat was much better this week and I think I will like her as part of SVU. 

Rollins was the bad part of the episode, her meltdown at Carisi was totally unprofessional and inappropriate, Carisi wanted to be an ADA, get over it Rollins, his life doesn’t revolve around you. And of course no one calls Rollins out on her unprofessional behavior, I wish Benson or Fin had rebuked her. I really dislike Rollins, she was acting just as crazy as her sister in this episode, I wish she would take her 2 brats back to her trailer park and get off the show. 

Overall this was a very solid outing, they deviated from the formula and executed it pretty well. And the promo for next week looks good, I hope it lives up to its potential.

[SarahPrtr]

5 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Fin was awesome, it was great that he got a lot to do, I liked him with the little boy and then finding a way to close the case, and he had some great lines as well. 

Benson wasn’t nearly as annoying as she usually is and she didn’t dominate the screen time, this is the least annoying I’ve found her in a long time,

Carisi was good again in his role as ADA, while I miss Carisi as a detective still I’m liking

Rollins was the bad part of the episode, her meltdown at Carisi was totally unprofessional and inappropriate,

Agree with all of your points.  When the writers write Fin as who he is, he is always awesome - witty, snarky combacks, funny banter and never intimidated. 

Whenever I see Benson doing anything now, I imagine Cragen doing them and if it's something he didn't, or would never do, I just roll my eyes and wonder, wtf are you doing, Olivia?  I think they were just so desperate to have a female captain on a major show, that they just made her one.  Also, she's been working in SVU for over 20 years, so they probably think that she earned it, even though she's not up to that standard yet.

Rollins - never liked her, I doubt I ever will.  What does Carisi's position as an ADA have to do with you???  "YOU LEFT!!!" like a child screaming at her parents.  You are a freaking grown women.  Enough with the hysteria, you're giving other professional women who KEEP it professional, a bad name.  He worked his ass off to get a law degree, and you don't think he's ALLOWED to be a lawyer because you didn't want him to leave???

[dreamer]

This episode really showcased Carisi's transition from a detective to lawyer. However, his "interactions" with Rollins are getting out of hand, and it was hilarious to witness Benson keeping them in check the same way Cragen did with her and Stabler.

Also, maybe Lakira was one of the most realistic victims on the show. She seemed to know where she stood in all of this and acted on it.

The HailMe one was the weakest, as well as, the most tragic.

Overall, the episode was very engaging and had some good moments.

[dttruman]

Overall I like this one. It was still mostly about the detectives, but it was what they had to deal with in each investigation when it came to uncooperative victims and along with demanding and sometimes unhelpful relatives of the victims.

When will they realize Fin's appearances and interactions help drive the plot and quality of each episode. It's a massive oversight that I can't believe they have continued to let happen for so long. In this episode less of Benson made it a more enjoyable episode. We got to see more of Fin, Carisi, Tamin, and guest stars.

Each investigation was a subplot that when put together made it one of their best episodes so far and hopefully for the season. Each one had their weak points but they were very minute.

For Tamin's case, cuffing Kira, was a bit heavy handed since she's obviously the victim. Was that their way of showing a Freudian slip on the part of law enforcement. Tamin's experience in vice was helpful here but, her exuberance will hinder her for a while. Trying to get justice for her friend was a disappointment in the end. Considering Kira's way of life, the "money grab" should have been expected by Tamin.

Rollin's case was somewhat overshadowed by her outburst in the squad room, because I thought she was going into a meltdown. Why does Hadid's name always have to pop up? They are almost making it a cliche if they need an antagonist, as the Cooper parents made so clear. What I don't get here, is the attorney that represents Muhammad was trying to make a deal, before she even talked to him.

The wife beating and rape case that Fin handled was well done. Fin handled it professionally, but Benson had a problem with the wife testifying and the wife's sister was not helping at all. There should have been a social worker or some kind of shrink there to help her. The son shouldn't have been that conflicted. He sees his mom getting raped and beaten, but he still likes his dad. He should have been talking to a shrink too.

Edited October 28, 2019 by dttruman

[Gigi43]

Last weeks ep is still unwatched on my dvr so this was my first dose of Tamin. She's fine so far but I hate when cops are shocked a victim will take a pay off. A transwoman prostitute doesn't have a lot of reason even in 2019 to think she'll be taken seriously by a jury no matter how many speeches SVU might make. Makes sense to settle for money if you believe you won't get real justice.

I liked they tried a different format. I liked everyone got screen time. Fin shined. 

Rollins... uhg. Carisi isn't dead. He's still always around. Shut up and grow up. It's not his job to support you emotionally because other men in her life have been shit. That was pathetic. I liked how Carisi just stood there and I thought Peter did a good job with Carisi's frustration through the episode. 

Benson ordering Carisi to go with Tamin complete with a "GO!" You're not his boss anymore. FFS though that's gonna continue. Carisi should have paraphrased the Long Island Bagel Store Guy Meltdown "you're not my boss, my [mother] or God!"

[SarahPrtr]

5 hours ago, dreamer said:

This episode really showcased Carisi's transition from a detective to lawyer. However, his "interactions" with Rollins are getting out of hand, and it was hilarious to witness Benson keeping them in check the same way Cragen did with her and Stabler.

Haha, I was thinking that exact same thing!  I had Cragen's voice in my head in his very stern fatherly voice saying "Benson! Stabler! In my office! NOW!" and could hear him saying "Rollins! Carisi! In my office! NOW!"

Maybe if Rollins got her relationships straight and had an actual stable boyfriend or husband, she wouldn't be relying on Carisi or other men for constant support.  Yes, he was your work partner, but he didn't 'leave' you.  She's making him sound like he had some obligation to her or that she was abandoned. When you did have a chance with him, you screwed some random guy, and you're barely friends.  Stop seeing him as some boyfriend or father figure for yourself and your children.

[preeya]

SVU needs a half dozen Tamin clones sans Rollins & Benson

[CrystalBlue]

Rollins' boo hooing that Carisi Left Her is ridiculous and the hallway tantrum was the lowlight of the episode.  Carisi held his own though; he continues to shine and I'm glad they're using him as the ADA.  Fin's presence was the best part.  Interesting cases and even one involving black people!

[dttruman]

13 hours ago, SarahPrtr said:

Maybe if Rollins got her relationships straight and had an actual stable boyfriend or husband, she wouldn't be relying on Carisi or other men for constant support.

11 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

Rollins' boo hooing that Carisi Left Her is ridiculous and the hallway tantrum was the lowlight of the episode. 

I wonder if next week she will be apologizing for her inexcusable behavior and say it's one of her family traits. IMO, they really need to explain this to the viewers and come up with some kind of plausible reason. Almost everywhere I read, they were saying it was ridiculous or made no sense at all.

Edited October 26, 2019 by dttruman

[Kel Varnsen]

Mostly a solid episode although I am surprised that after all these years of being a detective Fin doesn't keep a change of clothes in his desk drawer for this type of situation.

Also I choose to believe that the Van Buren projects mentioned in this episode were named after NYPD lieutenant Anita Van Buren, because she is so awesome.

[Xeliou66]

50 minutes ago, dttruman said:

I wonder if next week she will be apologizing for her inexcusable behavior and say it's one of her family traits. IMO, they really need to explain this to the viewers and come up with some kind of plausible reason. Almost everywhere I read, they were saying it was ridiculous or made know sense at all.

I highly doubt we’ll ever hear about Rollins’ meltdown again, and they won’t have Rollins apologize because they don’t want to acknowledge Rollins was wrong. It’s weird how the show tries to be all about “female empowerment” and yet they have Rollins have a meltdown because a man she worked with left (and it’s not like she never sees Carisi, he’s still around all the time), that doesn’t make Rollins a strong character, it makes her weak and unstable. Rollins is a pure trainwreck, and I really think they don’t know what to do with her, I’ve never liked her and last night is another example of why.

I was also annoyed with the constant mentions of Hadid, maybe it’s because I really don’t like the character, but it was unnecessary to have the mom of the one victim know Hadid. I would like to see Carisi doing his job without Hadid playing a role, the only episode where Hadid hasn’t played a role is episode 2. I wish they had made Carisi’s boss a more compelling character and not just a one note bitchy bureaucrat. 

[HunterHunted]

6 hours ago, SarahPrtr said:

Maybe if Rollins got her relationships straight and had an actual stable boyfriend or husband, she wouldn't be relying on Carisi or other men for constant support.  Yes, he was your work partner, but he didn't 'leave' you.  She's making him sound like he had some obligation to her or that she was abandoned. When you did have a chance with him, you screwed some random guy, and you're barely friends.  Stop seeing him as some boyfriend or father figure for yourself and your children.

4 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

Rollins' boo hooing that Carisi Left Her is ridiculous and the hallway tantrum was the lowlight of the episode.  Carisi held his own though; he continues to shine and I'm glad they're using him as the ADA.  Fin's presence was the best part.  Interesting cases and even one involving black people!

The ability to get away with a "you left me" is limited to a long term romantic partner, spouse, other parent of your child, and sometimes a relative. A child is able to lob a "you left me" to their parent if the parent has left before the child was 21 (I'm being generous) or the child has some condition that would make living autonomously as an adult very difficult. An elderly and infirm parent might say that to their child. Siblings might sometimes say it to each other, buuuuuuuuuuuuuut there's a real limitation to when and how they can pull that off. Seeing as Carisi isn't related to Rollins and he's not in a romantic relationship with her, Rollins has no business melodramatically wailing about Carisi leaving her, especially when 2 seasons ago Rollins and Carisi were out of state investigating something, they got a little flirty, and Rollins went and banged the bartender. Then she correctly called Carisi on his immature fit of pique. So I wish the show had given Carisi to the opportunity to tell Rollins that she can either lock him down (and even still she'd be hella wrong) or remember that they are just friends. 

[dttruman]

9 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Mostly a solid episode although I am surprised that after all these years of being a detective Fin doesn't keep a change of clothes in his desk drawer for this type of situation.

I don't know much about a detective's life at the office, but I'm assuming that their work days  are not normally  9 to 5. So I'd say they probably keep a change of clothes in their locker or some place at work.

But since this is one of their better episodes in a long time, I am willing to over look it.

[dttruman]

7 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

Rollins has no business melodramatically wailing about Carisi leaving her, especially when 2 seasons ago Rollins and Carisi were out of state investigating something, they got a little flirty, and Rollins went and banged the bartender.

Do you think they may drop a "surprise bomb" next week or maybe later and say they have been dating and they were trying to keep it a secret?

[EtheltoTillie]

51 minutes ago, dttruman said:

Do you think they may drop a "surprise bomb" next week or maybe later and say they have been dating and they were trying to keep it a secret?

Well, then it would be unlikely that he kept his transfer from her. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Mostly a good episode for a change, so I will just nitpick.

1). How did the fake HailMe driver find the girl?  He wasn’t going to be able to intercept the calls like a hacker did in another episode.  

2) DV case:  how was the wife suddenly going to support herself?  All the Benson platitudes at the end weren’t going to help. “Women are stronger.”  Puh-leeze..

they did a good job of showing how economics affected all the cases. 

[dttruman]

43 minutes ago, GussieK said:

Well, then it would be unlikely that he kept his transfer from her.

Considering their writing and plot surprises, they may have her confess, "I thought I could take it, but I can't", then melts down again. We never know what she was going to do. I have always thought that her breakdown would be about the pressures of juggling her job, her two kids and their fathers wanting more visitation, not to mention dealing with her trouble making mother and sister.

[dttruman]

45 minutes ago, GussieK said:

1). How did the fake HailMe driver find the girl?  He wasn’t going to be able to intercept the calls like a hacker did in another episode.  

I think it was all a coincidence when she got into his car by mistake and he was so frustrated about his father's problem, he lashed out too. But then again I may have missed something, the pace was very fast.

[dttruman]

49 minutes ago, GussieK said:

2) DV case:  how was the wife suddenly going to support herself?  All the Benson platitudes at the end weren’t going to help. “Women are stronger.”  Puh-leeze..

That's where the appearance of a social worker and counselor would have really made sense to explain things to her. I couldn't believe that wife's sister, what the hell was wrong with her? She was wearing a uniform, was she a cop or a city employee?

[EtheltoTillie]

. 

Edited October 26, 2019 by GussieK
Double post

[EtheltoTillie]

7 minutes ago, dttruman said:

That's where the appearance of a social worker and counselor would have really made sense to explain things to her. I couldn't believe that wife's sister, what the hell was wrong with her? She was wearing a uniform, was she a cop or a city employee?

I was guessing she was a security guard. 

[dttruman]

1 minute ago, GussieK said:

I was guessing she was a security guard. 

She was no helpful support for her sister. Some here like yourself have said that this show is about women can do things, but this wife's sister was OK with her getting beat up, just as long as the money came in. Where is the empowerment there?

For what it's worth, I thought the actor playing the beat up wife was very good.

[dttruman]

Was the wife who was raped and beat up, was her first name Simone or Joelle? Fandom and IMDB listed it as Simone, but "All Things Law and Order" use the name of Joelle. Which is right? Did anyone record it?

[wanderingstar]

Fin napping within seconds of lying down on the bunk in the squad room was an entire mood.

Had to roll my eyes at Rollins whining about Carisi walking out on her. Poor Carisi looked genuinely baffled. Good reaction work from PS there. Liv gets on my nerves, but she was channeling me when she scolded both Rollins and Carisi for yelling while she was on the phone. That is a big pet peeve of mine.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Gillian Rosh

[dttruman]

53 minutes ago, Gillian Rosh said:

Liv gets on my nerves, but she was channeling me when she scolded both Rollins and Carisi for yelling while she was on the phone. That is a big pet peeve of mine.

Do you think she should have called them into her office, since the blow up wasn't about aspects of any case, but was something personal?

[preeya]

1 hour ago, dttruman said:

Was the wife who was raped and beat up, was her first name Simone or Joelle? Fandom and IMDB listed it as Simone, but "All Things Law and Order" use the name of Joelle. Which is right? Did anyone record it?

Subtitles has her name as Joelle Fisher.

[Kel Varnsen]

9 hours ago, dttruman said:

I don't know much about a detective's life at the office, but I'm assuming that their work days  are not normally  9 to 5. So I'd say they probably keep a change of clothes in their locker or some place at work.

But since this is one of their better episodes in a long time, I am willing to over look it.

I am sure they did it for production reasons to really hit home that it was all the same shift, especially since they put Rollins in that bright yellow top, so I kind of get it. Although it would be hilarious if they went full method actors and actually used the same unwashed shirt all through filming.

[wknt3]

20 hours ago, dttruman said:

I wonder if next week she will be apologizing for her inexcusable behavior and say it's one of her family traits. IMO, they really need to explain this to the viewers and come up with some kind of plausible reason. Almost everywhere I read, they were saying it was ridiculous or made no sense at all.

19 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

I highly doubt we’ll ever hear about Rollins’ meltdown again, and they won’t have Rollins apologize because they don’t want to acknowledge Rollins was wrong. It’s weird how the show tries to be all about “female empowerment” and yet they have Rollins have a meltdown because a man she worked with left (and it’s not like she never sees Carisi, he’s still around all the time), that doesn’t make Rollins a strong character, it makes her weak and unstable. Rollins is a pure trainwreck, and I really think they don’t know what to do with her, I’ve never liked her and last night is another example of why.

Yeah this was the annual Rollisi episode where one of them acts like a middle schooler and then they don't ever do anything because they are so busy trying to force Benson into either forced UST or a relationship that they don't ever do anything with and end up ruining a good supporting character. Or both. I was kind of hoping with Leight back that they would go back to letting things happen organically where everything is left to the viewers imagination. But I guess not. Maybe this is something that comes from somewhere other than the writers?
 

4 hours ago, dttruman said:

Do you think she should have called them into her office, since the blow up wasn't about aspects of any case, but was something personal?

No. She should have called in  Rollins only and reprimanded her because, no matter what she might want to believe ADAs don't work for her. And because she started it. Actually they should have Fin set her straight in his low key no bull shit way, but that's probably too much to ask.

Quote

I was also annoyed with the constant mentions of Hadid, maybe it’s because I really don’t like the character, but it was unnecessary to have the mom of the one victim know Hadid. I would like to see Carisi doing his job without Hadid playing a role, the only episode where Hadid hasn’t played a role is episode 2. I wish they had made Carisi’s boss a more compelling character and not just a one note bitchy bureaucrat.

I think the constant mention of Carisi's boss is because they want to have the tension between ADAs and the squad and they have spent so much time the past decade or so painting any concerns about legal practicalities as spineless, bordering on evil, that it really wouldn't work coming from one of our heroes. So they need to pin it on the boss. They have a formula with the ADAs going back to the classic years where the ADAs start off in conflict because they want evidence and testimony and won't push cases just because the perps are scum and the squad knows it and then gradually (or quickly in the later years) become "part of the family" who occasionally get hung up on little things like the law, but it doesn't work when they start out firmly on the side of the angels. So they can either come up with something completely new or do the same stories but pin it on an outsider. And big shocker they took the lazy way.

[CrystalBlue]

10 hours ago, dttruman said:

I don't know much about a detective's life at the office, but I'm assuming that their work days  are not normally  9 to 5. So I'd say they probably keep a change of clothes in their locker or some place at work.

But since this is one of their better episodes in a long time, I am willing to over look it.

Maybe Fin usually does keep a change of clothes at work, but they too were in the laundry.  Even the most prepared person can get caught short sometimes.  Or he had said change of clothes sent out to laundry or dry cleaners and they hadn't delivered them yet or there was a delay in the schedule.

[CrystalBlue]

8 hours ago, dttruman said:

Considering their writing and plot surprises, they may have her confess, "I thought I could take it, but I can't", then melts down again. We never know what she was going to do. I have always thought that her breakdown would be about the pressures of juggling her job, her two kids and their fathers wanting more visitation, not to mention dealing with her trouble making mother and sister.

Noooooooo!!! Not another Amanda meltdown!

[dttruman]

19 hours ago, preeya said:

Subtitles has her name as Joelle Fisher

Thank you for posting that!

[faithie]

LOL- a couple of posters beat me to the punch but might as well pile on.  there was clearly a personal element to Rollins' screed at Carisi.  I too immediately thought back to a couple years ago when stable, mature family-oriented Carisi showed romantic interest but Rollins pushed him away.  She was too busy being pumped and dumped by selfish bad-boy jerks. 

you can spend all day questioning just how much "reality" is depicted in this series but the writers nailed this one: the "nice guy" gets pushed away and then later on the woman regrets it but it's already too late

[Blakeston]

So the homeless transwoman who works as a prostitute on the pier to survive, and is named Lakira, is white?

I can't even fathom that the role was written for a white person. Everything about her dialogue would strongly suggest otherwise. All the talk about her "moms," and "I know life ain't got no fairy tale ending" (or something to that effect). It sounded very strange coming out of a white woman's mouth.

[dttruman]

2 hours ago, faithie said:

LOL- a couple of posters beat me to the punch but might as well pile on.  there was clearly a personal element to Rollins' screed at Carisi.  I too immediately thought back to a couple years ago when stable, mature family-oriented Carisi showed romantic interest but Rollins pushed him away.  She was too busy being pumped and dumped by selfish bad-boy jerks. 

you can spend all day questioning just how much "reality" is depicted in this series but the writers nailed this one: the "nice guy" gets pushed away and then later on the woman regrets it but it's already too late

Wanna bet Benson is the one that brings these two back together. She'll tell Carisi, "that Rollins made a mistake and isn't she entitled to do that?. The important thing is that Rollins wants you now, so if you have feelings for her, you will go to her and tell her".