S22.E12: In The Year We All Fell Down

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Benson walks into a hostage situation at a neighborhood restaurant. Rollins tries to help her father after he's hospitalized.

Airing Thursday, April 22, 2021. 

[dttruman]

On 4/16/2021 at 10:02 PM, saoirse said:

Quote

Benson walks into a hostage situation at a neighborhood restaurant. Rollins tries to help her father after he's hospitalized.

Airing Thursday, April 22, 2021. 

It will be interesting or very disappointing on how the writers and producers portray this hostage situation. When they mention Rollins and her father's hospitalization, I smell a soap opera moment with a social issue concerning medical care for all.

[Xeliou66]

This episode sounds like a nightmare featuring 2 of SVU’s worst tropes - Benson in a hostage situation and Rollins dealing with family drama.  We both know the writers love both and it was probably their dream come true to put both in an episode, but for viewers who don’t like soapy drama and tired stale plots, it will be a nightmare.

[melon]

I know that many disagree, but I love the Rollins family drama.  It's her kryptonite, along with her gambling and relationship issues.  It humanizes her, but also clearly shows that she shouldn't have a shield.

I'm not looking forward to Benson getting a lot of face time in this episode, plus this probably means we'll be treated to emotional scenes involving Noah.

 

[wknt3]

3 hours ago, melon said:

I know that many disagree, but I love the Rollins family drama.

It's a honor to have you joining us here Mr. Leight!

[wanderingstar]

Nothing makes my eyes glaze over faster than the words "Benson in a hostage situation"

[dttruman]

On 4/21/2021 at 4:10 PM, melon said:

I know that many disagree, but I love the Rollins family drama.  It's her kryptonite, along with her gambling and relationship issues.  It humanizes her, but also clearly shows that she shouldn't have a shield.

I would say that gambling and relationship issues aren't all the reasons,that she shouldn't have a shield. After all, Det Ed Green had a gambling problem and maybe had some professional relationship issues, but those he kept under control. I wonder why the SVU producers over the years have given their detectives so many flaws and they are part of a specialized unit?

 

Does anyone else think that the circumstances behind this situation is being extremely forced here?

Edited April 23, 2021 by dttruman

[Gigi43]

5 minutes ago, dttruman said:

Does anyone else think that the circumstances behind this situation is being extremely forced here?

 

Yup.

 

Spectrum tried to save me by making me reboot the box in order to watch and dipshit me actually went through with it.

[dttruman]

Oh my god! Benson is telling her that Tucker committed suicide and this lady is teetering on the edge of ending her life too. I don't think that is in the Handbook for Benson to talking her out ending her life.

Edited April 23, 2021 by dttruman

[Xeliou66]

This episode was just horrid. A fucking nightmare. Most of modern day SVU’s worst tropes packed into one awful hour. An hour of my life I’ll never get back.

There was no case, just Benson in a hostage situation, which we’ve seen a million fucking times, and of course the episode ended with St Olivia saving the day and being cheered on. How predictable. There was no suspense in this episode at all, just soapy dreck and St Olivia worship. 

And don’t even get me fucking started on the Rollins soapy drama, I don’t give a fuck about Rollins’ loser dad or her soapy drama, and it was sickening seeing Carisi act as her pet basically, why on earth is Carisi spending so much time caring about loser slut Rollins and her loser, trailer trash, worthless family? Sickening, I was happy Carisi had a girlfriend last week, if he breaks up with her to spend more time with Rollins I’ll be sick.

Fin wasn’t even in the episode, he always adds something good but he was MIA. 

There’s literally nothing positive I can say about this dreck. This episode belongs in the SVU Hall of Shame and is by far the worst episode of the season. SVU has been on a downward skid lately after 7 good episodes to start the season, hopefully they can rebound and finish season 22 on a solid note. 

[Neiman]

I’ve decided that I like Olivia and Carisi much better when they are in Stabler’s show.

I guess they’re setting it up so that Rollins keeps denying any romantic interest in Carisi until she finds out he’s got a girlfriend. Then and only then will she discover how much she wants to be with him. 🥱 
 

Some of Olivia’s lines in the hostage scene were good, but the delivery was off with awkward pauses. I actually saw tears in her eyes, but it was odd that she seemed to be turning the conversation to all about her given the situation.

Seeing the crossover event coming up makes it look like there will be more plot about Olivia’s brother. I was hoping we’d finally gotten past that storyline.

[dttruman]

5 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:

This episode was just horrid. A fucking nightmare. Most of modern day SVU’s worst tropes packed into one awful hour. An hour of my life I’ll never get back.

There was no case, just Benson in a hostage situation, which we’ve seen a million fucking times, and of course the episode ended with St Olivia saving the day and being cheered on. How predictable. There was no suspense in this episode at all, just soapy dreck and St Olivia worship. 

And don’t even get me fucking started on the Rollins soapy drama, I don’t give a fuck about Rollins’ loser dad or her soapy drama, and it was sickening seeing Carisi act as her pet basically, why on earth is Carisi spending so much time caring about loser slut Rollins and her loser, trailer trash, worthless family? Sickening, I was happy Carisi had a girlfriend last week, if he breaks up with her to spend more time with Rollins I’ll be sick.

Fin wasn’t even in the episode, he always adds something good but he was MIA. 

There’s literally nothing positive I can say about this dreck. This episode belongs in the SVU Hall of Shame and is by far the worst episode of the season. SVU has been on a downward skid lately after 7 good episodes to start the season, hopefully they can rebound and finish season 22 on a solid note. 

Another Smithsonian review, but I don't think they will accept it with all the expletives. So you may have to tone it down.

[Gigi43]

This was a project to get through. How many buzz terms were thrown in? Liv not wearing a vest was "Deescalating" the woman holding the realtor and Benson hostage was just a "crisis." She's unhinged and took hostages. The handwaving and basically making excuses for holding a man at gun point because he was the realtor (it seems it was the broker doing the eviction though) was annoying. So everyone screwed during COVID can take hostages? Okay. Sure. I really don't need to hear fictional people going on about COVID when we're all dealing with it in real life.

 

The  only good thing was Vanessa saying nice things about Tucker even if it allowed the Woe Is Olivia speech.

 

Carisi should go over to OC where he isn't yelled at by Benson and Kat or bogged down by Rollins family drama.

 

Stop trying to make Simon happen, show! No one cares. He was barely on and a mess of a human but I guess they're going to blame Wheatley and say it was his drugs? Please.

[wknt3]

The Good:
Carisi. There wasn't enough of him and he was stuck in Rollins nonsense, but he was his usual sensitive awesome self and made most of his scenes watchable.
Garland. He was what the show wants us to believe Benson is - an empathetic and sympathetic leader.
I'm going to throw in Kat too since I liked her this week.
No awkward crossover mentions of Stabler. I'm guessing the OC writters and producers saw the script and asked them not to say anything about their show.
It wasn't a 2-parter.

The Bad:
Another musical montage opening, poorly edited with overly loud music in an attempt to drown out the terrible writing and overacting.
No Fin. Not enough Carisi or Kat. Or Garland for that matter.
Rollins family drama. It was probably done about as good as it could be, but the show insists on taking a truncheon to this deceased horse until bits of equine flesh and entrails spray in the air. Although it's not quite as overdone as -
Yet another freaking hostage situation???!!! And yet again Benson charges in headlong despite all the previous bad outcomes. But it's OK because this is police reform or something. I was so rooting for her "friend" to shoot her. This plot should be retired, I would say just put it on the shelf for awhile, but by the time it is no longer too soon the series will be over.
The ending of that hostage situation. Jeeeezus. So it all turns out OK. Irresponsible much? I mean there was no effort to talk about all of the negative consequences and how wrong it was. Just yay the neighborhood came together and it will be OK. I am honestly somewhat surprised the network didn't insist on changing the ending a bit so it didn't seem to be coming down as pro-hostage taking. But then again if the network didn't care about driving away any viewers who were lured back by the return of Stabler with a reminder of why they dropped the show I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
The promo. Speaking about overdone plots. Liv's brother? That's what you are going to base the crossover event on??? Really????  Really??????

Overall this was a stinker with nothing to redeem it, Even the good parts were mostly only OK and good only by comparison with the turds that surrounded them. Basically they took all the worst parts of the last half decade of the series and crammed them into a single episode. I know that both Chernuchin and Leight have tried to manage Benson's ego by giving her some star turns while trying to take a more balanced approach to the majority of episodes and I have lived with it, but this is a bridge too far. A poor idea based on the worst elements of the series and executed poorly. F-

[zoey1996]

I really liked the show opening, showing how Vanessa got to this place in her life, like so many other real-life counterparts who worked so hard to keep their businesses going.  I was also pleased that Vanessa and her son were reconciled at the end.  

Good on Rollins for figuring out her father's wife (her step-mother, hee!) was up to no good, and also that they weren't legally married.  Also that her mother knew about the life insurance and his real age.  That will take some untangling, to get him on Medicare (and possibly Medicaid, depending on his situation), but it's a start.

[Amon]

Benson in a hostage situation🙄. I just skipped over entire benson part. A sign of a good artist is to know when to pass on the torch to someone else. I think it's time for benson to let someone else be the star of the  show. I wonder how Captain Cragen rarely left his office and how benson is literally everywhere. She might as well be with Rollins and Carisi at the same time while she was held hostage. 

[MaggieG]

I actually laughed at Carisi imitating his father. That was cute. 

[melon]

Worst episode I've seen in a long time.  Despite Benson's best efforts, I strictly saw the kidnapper as a criminal that needs to go away for a long time.  Many restaurants have gone through hardship, both before and during COVID.  Maybe I'm just desensitized from watching too many Kitchen Nightmares and Restaurant Impossible episodes where every family is broken and every restaurant is about to be shut down.

Question:  If Rollins' father passes away, does the money grubbing wife get the payout from the insurance policy?  With her not being a legal wife (presumably), does that invalidate the policy?

 

[MerBearHou]

32 minutes ago, melon said:

Question:  If Rollins' father passes away, does the money grubbing wife get the payout from the insurance policy?  With her not being a legal wife (presumably), does that invalidate the policy?

I believe it will invalidate her as the beneficiary.  She probably used a name that isn't legal on the insurance application.  Real quickly, they need to update that beneficiary so it isn't messy when he passes away.

[dttruman]

7 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

I really liked the show opening, showing how Vanessa got to this place in her life, like so many other real-life counterparts who worked so hard to keep their businesses going.  I was also pleased that Vanessa and her son were reconciled at the end.  

A lot of people in NYC were going through the same thing, but they weren't taking hostages just to vent. I thought it was in bad taste to use a hostage situation and the producers have overused this scenario to where it's now a ho-hum cliche, since they have done it many times.

 

7 hours ago, zoey1996 said:

  Also that her mother knew about the life insurance and his real age.  That will take some untangling, to get him on Medicare (and possibly Medicaid, depending on his situation), but it's a start.

I hope this doesn't lead to more soap opera moments with Rollin's and her parents or family

[dttruman]

1 hour ago, melon said:

Question:  If Rollins' father passes away, does the money grubbing wife get the payout from the insurance policy?  With her not being a legal wife (presumably), does that invalidate the policy?

They didn't say but he could have designated her as his beneficiary and then it wouldn't matter anyway. The producers will probably be so soap opera crazy, they will turn this into a court battle for some episode.

[Neiman]

I didn’t quite understand why Rollins waited until now to do a background check on her stepmom. Seems like she would have done that before her dad got married or shortly thereafter. 

[tennisgurl]

So I guess the moral here is that, if your business is going under and you need a way to save it, just take hostages and wait for the kickstarter to begin and for everyone to cheer for you! Small business owners, grab your guns and the nearest rando, this is your moment! 

Seriously, this episode was just embarrassedly stupid. No case, no stakes, just a mash up of my least favorite things about this show, including awkward use of buzzwords, Olivia worship and her awful whispering, weird morals wrapped up in fake wokeness, and Rollins family drama here to give us time to check Instagram, alphabetize your books again, work on your taxes...

The opening started out alright as far as annoying music video intros go, they did a good job at showing how things got worse and worse for Vanessa as the year went on, but then they had to ruin it with that stupid dramatic music screaming the point at us. We get it show, she's stressed and spiraling and alone with no one looking after her, we don't need you to add a song literally telling us what to feel. I get that Vanessa was at her wits end and I feel really bad for everything she went through, but the show is really underplaying the fact that she could have straight up murdered some poor guy for doing his job, even after he tried to help her, because she had a breakdown, but I guess its alright now no worries. I appreciate that they want to talk about deescalating in policing, but we also still need to be aware that people can be dangerous and can hurt other people and themselves, so going on over and over about how she isnt a criminal but is "in crisis" just makes it seem like what she's doing is basically not a big deal. Lots of people have bad days, but most people don't pull guns on people. That is, in fact, a crime. Its something that people can sympathize with to an extent and I am glad that the situation was resolved peacefully, but that fact that she has had a lot of hard breaks doesent make this not a crime. She wasnt even delusional or anything, she was plenty lucid it seemed, and again, I feel for her, but they were really underplaying the seriousness of the situation, especially at the end where it basically makes it seem like threatening to shoot people is the best way to get attention and get you what you want. Oh yeah, great lesson to put out there. Maybe all of this would have worked better for me without the high levels of melodrama or if it wasnt so freaking boring. Oh my GOD was this boring, I knew that St. Olivia would save the day and Vanessa wouldn't kill anyone or herself thanks to a bunch of Olivia pep talks and it was basically just "yeah, the pandemic sucks" and that was pretty much it for about forty five minutes without anything really insightful to say, except that mental health is important and hostage taking is a really smart business strategy. 

That brings me to St. Olivia our lady of perpetual perfection. After spending a decent amount of time backing off of St. Olivia they have gone back to that old well HARD the last few episodes, with this week being possibly even worse than last week. What a coincidence that Olivia was doing a demonstration on deescalating with knives, before walking into one of her favorite places where, guess what, she runs into a situation involving knives that needs deescalating. You could almost call it contrived. Never fear though, super detective Olivia is here to save the day from the lady having a breakdown and the dummie cops who all say the Wrong Things so that our guys can say the Right Things while Olivia says ALL of the right things and saves the day singlehandedly. Despite maybe a story about her ex boyfriend killing himself to a suicidal person being probably not a great idea, it totally works. This was just so boring, so pointless, I just kept waiting for things to get interesting and they never did. Also, could Olivia PLEASE speak up for once? I hate that stupid "sympathetic whisper" voice she does in tandem with her sad eyes, its so annoying I am shocked no victim has ever asked her to just talk to them like a normal person and not a toddler she's trying to wake up from a nap. This wasnt even a tiny bit about SVU, it was just an ode to St. Olivia. 

I don't even have much to say about Rollins boring family drama, just that it was very very boring. Rollins family is like some weird separate white trash dramedy that has nothing to do with this show, so I just cant get invested. Poor Carisi, stuck being Rollins's sidekick as they continue to tease us with them getting into a romantic relationship. Don't do it Carisi, don't get involved in this hot mess. Also, why did Rollins not do a background check on her sketchy new step mom before? 

There were some good moments. Like I said, the start of the episode was kind of promising with the montage, even if it fell apart with that super on the nose song, and the acting from the guest cast was all really strong. The actress playing Vanessa is one of those actresses I see in a lot of random stuff and is always good, and she is the only reason Vanessa even worked a bit as a character. The writing wasnt great but her performance as a normal person pushed to the edge did get me invested in her at least, and considering how mediocre the writing was, that's impressive. I also thought that Garland and Kat were pretty good, although I missed Fin. I do like the talk about deescalating these situations and not just jumping to shooting first, but I really wish they could make that kind of story better. You can let us feel bad for and emphasize with a person who has been pushed too far and that has caused them to lash out without trying to sweep away what happened. 

Edited April 23, 2021 by tennisgurl

[preeya]

"Whispers" was in rare form in that restaurant. 

I wonder what acting school taught her that.

ETA: I posted this before I read @tennisgurl's above post.

Edited April 24, 2021 by preeya

[TM101]

When these shows decide they want to reinstate COVID in the show, wow, they really go the extra mile. Sorry, but that was one of the cringiest beginnings and overall episode I ever seen.

The best was when her son came and walked into the apartment in the opening..”Where’s your mask!”....What?

This episode was by the most ridiculous of the season and over the top. Oh, and I almost forgot the Chief asking the realtor “What kind of gun?”..wtf?

Edited April 24, 2021 by TM101

[CrystalBlue]

On a lighter note, one of the things that cracked me up is after a scene inside Vanessa's kitchen with talk about the restaurant being done in for, a commercial featuring ingredients being stir fried in a wok appears.  Nice segue from Vanessa's closed down kitchen!  And it was for Panda Express, which was hilarious after the line about bad Chinese being closed down due to COVID-19.

No Noah.  That's always a plus in my book!

On 4/23/2021 at 5:35 AM, Gigi43 said:

Stop trying to make Simon happen, show! No one cares. He was barely on and a mess of a human but I guess they're going to blame Wheatley and say it was his drugs? Please.

Show is still trying to make Rollisi happen too.  Hand holding, you must be the husband, Sonny blowing off his date with new girlfriend, egads.

[wknt3]

3 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

No Noah.  That's always a plus in my book!

If they had actually gotten Noah mixed up in this I might have snapped. Maybe even headed down to the Wolf Entertainment offices with a list of demands for Leight and Martin. I'm sure all of you would pitch in to that GoFundMe right?

[Sake614]

8 hours ago, wknt3 said:

f they had actually gotten Noah mixed up in this I might have snapped. Maybe even headed down to the Wolf Entertainment offices with a list of demands for Leight and Martin. I'm sure all of you would pitch in to that GoFundMe right?

I would’ve met you there with my own list!

[Diana Berry]

 Am I missing something? I know this episode was a piggyback from the previous week in order to show de-escalation. So the owner has a hostage. The two cops are in range to taze the owner because she has not complied and dropped the weapon after they verbally asked her to drop it. But Liv comes in  and Makes the  two cops leave.  The owner then goes even crazier. She has a gun and the hostage starts having heart palpitations.

 

 So instead of the two cops just taking the woman down with the tazer, the owner could have killed  the hostage, Liv and herself with the gun. Luckily she didn’t, but they had to spend all night trying to round up the  husband and the son to calm this woman off the edge. How did Liv do such a great job with de-escalation?

[853fisher]

The last two episodes have definitely been the worst of the season for me.  The cheering crowd, and the news that even the guy she just held at the point of a knife and gun donated to her GoFundMe, was just the icing on top of a ridiculous hour.

Maybe this is an odd point to get stuck on amidst all the nonsense, but it sounded to me like the son's behavior was very irresponsible and might well have killed the grandmother.  They were talking about him like a defenseless child asked to leave the home for nothing, and there was no accountability before the sudden reconciliation.  If they were going to introduce that plot point, handling it as though he really did nothing so wrong after all annoyed me.  Sure, there are shades of gray around what we owe to those around us, cabin fever amidst the pandemic, etc.  Maybe a guilt trip would have been one thing but throwing him out was another.  Maybe all this could be explored in depth on a show other than one about sex crimes.  I don't enjoy it when this show takes on other social or cultural issues on their own, because it's seldom very intelligent or interesting.

Also, I live in a pretty lefty town and have pretty lefty friends.  None of them have gigantic Black Lives Matter flags over their sofas.  A sign in the window, sure, but not that.  I see they still have the same subtle set dresser who put up the WOMEN plaque in Benson's office.  I generally support the principles of these movements but gosh, the anvils hurt my head.

Edited April 25, 2021 by 853fisher

[MaryHedwig]

On 4/23/2021 at 3:35 PM, tennisgurl said:

So I guess the moral here is that, if your business is going under and you need a way to save it, just take hostages and wait for the kickstarter to begin and for everyone to cheer for you! Small business owners, grab your guns and the nearest rando, this is your moment!

I was waiting for a public service announcement at the end: 'If you are 'having a bad day'. please seek mental health counseling before considering taking your customers hostage.'

[preeya]

8 hours ago, MaryHedwig said:

On 4/23/2021 at 3:35 PM, tennisgurl said:

So I guess the moral here is that, if your business is going under and you need a way to save it, just take hostages and wait for the kickstarter to begin and for everyone to cheer for you! Small business owners, grab your guns and the nearest rando, this is your moment!

I was waiting for a public service announcement at the end: 'If you are 'having a bad day'. please seek mental health counseling before considering taking your customers hostage.'

Or, find yourself a real life St. Olivia, to talk it out and solve all your problems in 20 minutes.

[Zoe]

That's two episodes in a row that brought up Tucker. Guess it's inevitable that it will be a thing on OC. 

[jabRI]

My biggest complaint (boring/predictable has been covered), was how literally DARK it was, I got eye strain.  Why is this show one of the worst for that?

[Pj3422]

I’ve noticed this on both SVU this season and OC: What’s the deal with the music swelling right before the commercial break? It’s really dated; I felt like I was watching a ‘70s medical drama. 

[Irate Panda]

Can they send Rollins and her entire family on a permanent vacation perhaps Noah can go with them to a ballet camp and they can all dance right off my screen 🙄 I understand why the lady went off the deep end, but the hostage contributing to the Gofundme was preposterous even for this show.  Too much Rollins and Whispers and not enough Carisi or Finn (who was sorely missed).  Kat and Garland were fine.

[tennisgurl]

You could fix the biggest problem of the episode, the messed up "threatening to kill people isn't that big of a deal" message with one simple tweak, and I really don't know why they didn't do this in the first place. Have Benson talking Vanessa down from suicide, and not a hostage situation. The whole beginning goes the same way, we see Vanessa's life fall apart more and more, then she gets the call about losing her restaurant and getting her gun. Then Benson shows up at her at her place to get lunch and sees cops and the guy who was supposed to help her move out. He got there and saw her wandering around her kitchen rambling to herself holding her gun and when he went to check on her she pulled her gun and screamed at him to get out, and he ran out and called the cops. Then Benson volunteers to go in and talk her off the ledge. The other cops show up and try to turn it into a hostage situation and want to shoot her but Kat and Garland show up to give their speeches about nonviolent deescalating and its clear to us and Benson that the only person Vanessa wants to hurt is herself. Then the whole "she's in crisis, not a perp!" thing sounds a lot less ridiculous, because while what she is doing is dangerous and maybe illegal, no one else is being threatened and its clearly a suicidal person who is spiraling and needs help, which I feel like is a lot more sympathetic than hostage taker who really just needs a hug. Then the neighborhood rallying around her and raising money and she and her son reconciling becomes about a suicidal women driven to despair who realizes that there is still hope for better days and that the community she thought abandoned her still loves and supports her, which is a message that works a lot better than "hostage taking is a great way to save your struggling business." It wouldn't have fixed all of the episodes problems, but it would have solved the biggest one. The lack of hostage taking makes her automatically more sympathetic and still tells the exact same story of the pandemic driving people to despair when their support system breaks down. 

[Irate Panda]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

You could fix the biggest problem of the episode, the messed up "threatening to kill people isn't that big of a deal" message with one simple tweak, and I really don't know why they didn't do this in the first place. Have Benson talking Vanessa down from suicide, and not a hostage situation. The whole beginning goes the same way, we see Vanessa's life fall apart more and more, then she gets the call about losing her restaurant and getting her gun. Then Benson shows up at her at her place to get lunch and sees cops and the guy who was supposed to help her move out. He got there and saw her wandering around her kitchen rambling to herself holding her gun and when he went to check on her she pulled her gun and screamed at him to get out, and he ran out and called the cops. Then Benson volunteers to go in and talk her off the ledge. The other cops show up and try to turn it into a hostage situation and want to shoot her but Kat and Garland show up to give their speeches about nonviolent deescalating and its clear to us and Benson that the only person Vanessa wants to hurt is herself. Then the whole "she's in crisis, not a perp!" thing sounds a lot less ridiculous, because while what she is doing is dangerous and maybe illegal, no one else is being threatened and its clearly a suicidal person who is spiraling and needs help, which I feel like is a lot more sympathetic than hostage taker who really just needs a hug. Then the neighborhood rallying around her and raising money and she and her son reconciling becomes about a suicidal women driven to despair who realizes that there is still hope for better days and that the community she thought abandoned her still loves and supports her, which is a message that works a lot better than "hostage taking is a great way to save your struggling business." It wouldn't have fixed all of the episodes problems, but it would have solved the biggest one. The lack of hostage taking makes her automatically more sympathetic and still tells the exact same story of the pandemic driving people to despair when their support system breaks down. 

  You should be writing for the show, then we might have some logical story.  You’re right one simple change would have made a huge difference.

[balmz]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

You could fix the biggest problem of the episode, the messed up "threatening to kill people isn't that big of a deal" message with one simple tweak, and I really don't know why they didn't do this in the first place. Have Benson talking Vanessa down from suicide, and not a hostage situation. The whole beginning goes the same way, we see Vanessa's life fall apart more and more, then she gets the call about losing her restaurant and getting her gun. Then Benson shows up at her at her place to get lunch and sees cops and the guy who was supposed to help her move out. He got there and saw her wandering around her kitchen rambling to herself holding her gun and when he went to check on her she pulled her gun and screamed at him to get out, and he ran out and called the cops. Then Benson volunteers to go in and talk her off the ledge. The other cops show up and try to turn it into a hostage situation and want to shoot her but Kat and Garland show up to give their speeches about nonviolent deescalating and its clear to us and Benson that the only person Vanessa wants to hurt is herself. Then the whole "she's in crisis, not a perp!" thing sounds a lot less ridiculous, because while what she is doing is dangerous and maybe illegal, no one else is being threatened and its clearly a suicidal person who is spiraling and needs help, which I feel like is a lot more sympathetic than hostage taker who really just needs a hug. Then the neighborhood rallying around her and raising money and she and her son reconciling becomes about a suicidal women driven to despair who realizes that there is still hope for better days and that the community she thought abandoned her still loves and supports her, which is a message that works a lot better than "hostage taking is a great way to save your struggling business." It wouldn't have fixed all of the episodes problems, but it would have solved the biggest one. The lack of hostage taking makes her automatically more sympathetic and still tells the exact same story of the pandemic driving people to despair when their support system breaks down. 

wow probably the best and most creative thing i have seen for the show in a long time, nicely done

[gesundheit]

On 4/23/2021 at 8:59 AM, zoey1996 said:

I really liked the show opening, showing how Vanessa got to this place in her life, like so many other real-life counterparts who worked so hard to keep their businesses going.  I was also pleased that Vanessa and her son were reconciled at the end.  

 

Yeah, I have to say I quite liked the cold open, I thought the whole going-through-the-year-we've-had stuff was lovely, and Sarita Choudhury is always wonderful.

 

It was just literally every single thing after the opening credits that was just god-awful to me.

[tearsandhysteria]

I couldn't even finish this episode. The so called victim wouldn't quit hollering out and her reasonings for going extreme were crazy. I tend to shy away from episodes or shows in general where I can't stand the victim. It makes me feel bad lol. That's exactly why I let Big Sky go quickly. This was a terrible episode. 

Edited April 30, 2021 by tearsandhysteria

[Kel Varnsen]

This episode was super boring and really pointless. And throughout the beginning even after the restaurant lady grabbed her gun, I could not figure out how she would be a special victim?

Also I looked it up last year's Emmys and I have not seen any of the shows that the best lead actress in a drama series were on. And even I still know that Mariska Hargitay has no chance of making that list. So why the hell are they waisting so much time?

[Spartan Girl]

You had to laugh at Vanessa’s response to Olivia mewling about how she wished she could give her a hug: pull out her gun and tell her to keep the fuck away from her. Ha! We can all sympathize with that!

I agree that it would have been better to have Vanessa be just suicidal and not a hostage taker.