S21.E12: The Longest Night of Rain

[dttruman]

5 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

On the Law & Order franchise, big names mean squat. Both Joan Jett and Steven Weber (of Wings fame) were both offed before the opening credits of Criminal Intent!

I personally was disappointed with the L&O C I episode with Joan Jett, because I was wondering what kind of an actress she was. Oh and by the way, that was the only thing that disappointed me about that episode.

[WendyCR72]

3 hours ago, dttruman said:

I personally was disappointed with the L&O C I episode with Joan Jett, because I was wondering what kind of an actress she was. Oh and by the way, that was the only thing that disappointed me about that episode.

If I recall, she actually had a substantial role at some point in Highlander or its spinoff. And I know she was in that movie, Light of Day, playing the sister of Michael J. Fox's character. If I recall, she wasn't Oscar material, but she also wasn't half bad.

[ChristiKRN]

1 hour ago, Xeliou66 said:

No, the writers want to put Benson through a ton of soapy angst just for drama. I’m sick of Benson’s personal drama, why can’t they just leave it alone and focus on writing good cases? 

I’m surprised there wasn’t a final Noah-Benson-Tucker scene to add to the angst of Tucker’s terminal cancer.  A running underlying theme over all 21 seasons is Benson’s continued lack of happiness and fulfillment in her personal relationships, mostly by her own choice.  I’m sure that trend isn’t ending anytime soon.  With the soap opera mentality of this show at times,  the series finale will probably have a focus on Benson finally getting her happy ending.  

 I still wished that they didn’t kill Tucker off; I think Bobby Burke is a fantastic actor.  He actually enhanced and elevated other actors’ abilities in his scenes.  

Side note: I just saw a picture of the actress who portrays Kim Rollins filming a scene with Mariska; Ice T was in the background.  Dear God almighty.  I’m not ready.   

Edited February 2, 2020 by ChristiKRN

[Xeliou66]

2 hours ago, ChristiKRN said:

Side note: I just saw a picture of the actress who portrays Kim Rollins filming a scene with Mariska; Ice T was in the background.  Dear God almighty.  I’m not ready.   

Oh dear god, not Kim Rollins!! Why the fuck are they bringing her back? The writers love shoving Benson and Rollins personal drama down our throats, even though most viewers don’t want it. Kim Rollins is one of the worst and most annoying characters in SVU’s history, the last thing we need is for her to come back. I hate the whole Rollins family and wish they would all just go back to their trailer park. I don’t know of many fans who like these soapy stories, but the writers insist on having them and especially shoving Benson and Rollins personal crap to the forefront. Honestly, the show sucks now for the most part. 

[ChristiKRN]

13 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

Oh dear god, not Kim Rollins!! Why the fuck are they bringing her back? The writers love shoving Benson and Rollins personal drama down our throats, even though most viewers don’t want it. Kim Rollins is one of the worst and most annoying characters in SVU’s history, the last thing we need is for her to come back. I hate the whole Rollins family and wish they would all just go back to their trailer park. I don’t know of many fans who like these soapy stories, but the writers insist on having them and especially shoving Benson and Rollins personal crap to the forefront. Honestly, the show sucks now for the most part. 

I know!!!  The original photo is on Lindsay Pulsipher’s Instagram page; she is the actress that portrays the horror show known as Kim Rollins. I almost puked; I think my eyes started bleeding.  It is a certainty that we are going to have another hour of Rollins drama.  It looks like they are in an interrogation room or in prison.  

[dttruman]

11 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

Oh dear god, not Kim Rollins!! Why the fuck are they bringing her back? The writers love shoving Benson and Rollins personal drama down our throats, even though most viewers don’t want it. Kim Rollins is one of the worst and most annoying characters in SVU’s history, the last thing we need is for her to come back. I hate the whole Rollins family and wish they would all just go back to their trailer park. I don’t know of many fans who like these soapy stories, but the writers insist on having them and especially shoving Benson and Rollins personal crap to the forefront. Honestly, the show sucks now for the most part. 

Maybe they will probably be thinking of "us" for once and kill off this character. If not, it's going to be doubled up excruciating if it's a Rollins family soap opera episode that Benson has to conveniently step into and make everything OK.

[tennisgurl]

Ouch, poor Tucker. I guess we should be happy that he didnt get a total trash edit, more that he was kind of naive and blinded by a friend (granted, a friend who was so obviously a dick) than was actually a bad guy, but he also got brain cancer AND a suicide, because it really sucks to be reoccurring character on this show. Why bring the guy back just to kill him off? Other than to give Olivia more tear time I guess. 

The episode itself was decently competent, but it was mostly boring and intensely cliche and predictable. I basically knew how the story was going to go by just reading the episode description. I knew the second we saw the jerky partner giving his humble brag speech that he would be the rapist, and that it would turn out that Rachel was ignored, and that evil rich seemingly untouchable white guy would be the bad guy and would get dragged away by a pissed off Kat in front of his employees, its all so by the numbers. The only thing missing was the pretty young white girl crying into Olivia's arms by the end. 

I really left this episode wanting to know more about Rachel, we got bits and pieces of her story, but they didnt seem to make a complete picture. So she went from ambitious straight laced top of her class cop who made detective in Vice to sleeping with multiple married co-workers, including calling her bosses wife, and then after being raped spiraled quickly into homeless alcoholism. I could see her being raped and ignored and that leading to her problems, but what was going on before that? Just having lots of sex doesent mean there is anything wrong of course, but sleeping with, like, all of your married co-workers who you work with in such a tough beat, it sounds like there were other issues there, and I wanted to hear about them. Of course, the ridiculous finger blaming from the department didnt help with the rape allegations, acting like they weren't sleeping with her and cheating on their wives, but, again, that sounds like a more interesting story than what we got, because she was already dead before she really had her say. Of course, poor Rachel was already dead, having served her purpose of starting the plot and getting that evil rich guy in a suit in cuffs. 

The dialogue was as weird and shaky and on the nose as it always is. I know this show has never exactly been known for its amazing wordsmiths, but its just so gratingly full of cliched now. "I had to shut her up." "So they slut shamed her."

There were at least some decent character interactions. Finn is great as he so often is, Kat was pretty good as well, and I did feel her pain at losing her mentor that way, and I am really glad that Finn was the one that checked in with Olivia instead of Rollins in some kind of awkward girl power moment. They've known each other for years, and their dynamic actually felt real in ways that Olivia moments so rarely do now. 

Like many episodes, we end up with a side plot or idea that is actually interesting, but it gets forgotten or downplayed for the sake of melodrama and subplots. The stuff dealing with the high rate of cops committing suicide is an unique issue that its good to raise awareness about, especially the stigma that still exists about seeking treatment for mental health issues, but it didnt really work because they arent killing themselves over depression or PTSD or whatever, its because of this really specific situation, like this rape, guilt from possibly covering it up (I still dont totally know what was going on with Kats mentor) or brain cancer. It touched on the issue, and had some decent moments where they almost seemed to be making a point, but it was mostly just background noise to the case. 

Glad that Dr Lindstrom didnt bow to Olivia and her self importance and kept his clients secrets confidential. Its so rare to see someone not bend over backwards for St. Olivia and not be instantly declared a villain.

[wknt3]

I just of thought of how this could have done really well and made for a truly great episode. Of course it does require something that happened after Leight left to be acknowledged so that's probably why it would never have flown. Tucker had left IAB to head up the new Conviction Integrity Unit last we saw him. What if his last case before his retirement was an old SVU case? The cold open is at the retirement party. When the squad makes it graceful exit he tells them he sees them tomorrow. They interview Liv's old friend with Carisi there representing the DA's office (because of the conviction integrity angle there is actually a good reason to have an ADA in the filed the whole time) and she commits suicide right outside the squad room after telling them she might have blown it since she was really messed up at the time of the case due to Tucker's old friend raping her. The rest of the case plays out pretty much the same, but with the angle that if the nail the scummy cop the original perp ends up probably walking due to evidence being tossed out and the conflict, both internal and external, comes from the moral struggle that they might end up with TWO perps walking since the case against scumbag cop is weak, but if they don't pursue than they are guilty of a coverup Plus what if they are wrong about the boss and it ends up setting the original perp free? (admittedly that's probably a stretch but you could have it coming from Hadid and Tucker and the rest of the brass). Tucker talks about how upset he is that he missed it and his failure might have killed two cops. At the end we find out that Tucker is dead of an OD or a medicine interaction he had been warned about, but is never entirely clear if he killed himself or if it was the memory and cognitive effects of his disease that lead to a medication accident. We end with Benson and the squad upset and Carisi leaving for court on the original case that is now even weaker, but there is a chance they can use something they learned in this investigation and Tucker's prior testimony since he is now unavailable and there is mention that Tucker having worked extensively on appeals with the DA these last couple of years would have known that. Benson is still front and center, but now there are real moral stakes and Tucker's exit doesn't seem so completely out of character. Nothing is black and white but everyone is still shown as trying to do the right thing as best as they can. This is the kind of thing they were doing so well the first half of Leight's final season and it's a shame that he and the show no longer seem capable of reaching that level.

[DaynaPhile]

On 1/31/2020 at 2:45 PM, dttruman said:

I know this may come out morbid and a little insulting, but were the writers and producers going for a new record for suicides in an SVU episode?

For a split second at the end I though Olivia was going to be one of them when she reached into her desk drawer. 

[incandescent]

Me: Oh Tucker's my favorite Benson Boyfriend! Hope they don't fuck his shit up too badly!

SVU: He's married now oh and also he accidentally covered up a rape oh and ALSO! He's now committed suicide. :)

Me: Okie...

Edited February 23, 2020 by incandescent
Pretty up formatting

[wanderingstar]

I'm just catching up on the last few episodes, so I am way late on this, but THAT is how they wrote out Tucker? *smh*

Anyway, I like Robert John Burke, and he'll no doubt show up on several other shows.

Should've known Michael Gaston's character was the bad guy in this one. I mean, why else would you cast Michael Gaston.

[Joe Hellandback]

AKA the one where everyone shoots themselves? Will we EVER see an ex-cop who isn't crooked? This was pretty lame, I thought it might get better when they got into the courtroom, the legal arguments with the shrink were quite interesting. And once again Benson has the TOUCH OF DEATH!

[wanderingstar]

Not sure why this came to mind today, but I'm still miffed about the way they killed off Tucker. No, he wasn't an integral character, but he did have relationships with the main characters. Couldn't they just let him retire to Florida?

[Xeliou66]

4 minutes ago, Gillian Rosh said:

Not sure why this came to mind today, but I'm still miffed about the way they killed off Tucker. No, he wasn't an integral character, but he did have relationships with the main characters. Couldn't they just let him retire to Florida?

Especially with Stabler coming back, they shouldn’t have killed off Tucker, Tucker always made for a good foil for Stabler. It really made no sense to kill off Tucker, unless they wanted him out of the way when Stabler returned so Stabler wouldn’t have any foil.