S22.E01: Gimme Shelter (3)

[WendyCR72]

As has been promoted, this will be a 3-way crossover with OC and SVU. As this is labeled with the number following the title, it seems the Mothership will air last for this arc. Airing September 22, 2022:

Quote

A girl is shot and Cosgrove teams with Det. Jalen Shaw to track down her killer. Benson and Stabler assist and realize it's more than a typical homicide. McCoy and Price seek justice against an international crime ring.

[Xeliou66]

This sounds promising - storyline sounds intriguing and I like what I’ve heard about how they are doing the crossover as a 3 hour movie and not 3 separate 1 hour shows. I look forward to meeting the new detective and seeing all of the characters interact. Hopefully it will be all case focused and won’t get dragged into to any soapy shit that SVU and OC love to bring in. 

[WendyCR72]

TV listings have updated, and the confirmed order (even if this is billed as a movie) is OC at 8 ET, SVU at 9 ET, and the Mothership at 10 ET.

So the order is a bit different than usual.

[Door County Cherry]

I hate Stabler. 

And I had John Oliver's "copganda" bit from his last episode in my mind as Staber and Cosgrove showed themselves to be awful cops who cost people their lives, and while people were thrown around or threatened in the pursuit of "justice."  It never used to be this bad on the original L&O.  I feel like it's the Stablerization of this damn franchise and all his anger. 

I was somewhat hopeful about the new guy, though, when we learned he was a lawyer and called Cosgrove out on the threats.  I hope they come back to more of that dynamic--the one they had at the beginning of the first episode. 

The second hour was a bit of a waste and then they returned back to glory are the cops.  Not enough law.  

[storyskip]

While I really enjoyed getting to see some of these actors work off one another, and some of the character dynamics, I've got to agree that I am getting really tired of the new "Law" VS "Order" format. I mean at this point it feels like any defense attorney worth their salt in New York just needs to get a key piece of evidence squashed or thrown out and then step back to watch the cops and the DA rip themselves to shreds on the blame game.

If Stabler wanted to yell at someone about why Price had to cut that damn deal, he should have gone and yelled at Liv. It was her decision that backed the DA into that corner. 

It just feels like, at least with the mothership, the writers are more interested in making tension through driving a wedge between the cops and the DA, when the whole original premise was to show how the two systems need to work side by side.

Edited September 23, 2022 by storyskip

[WendyCR72]

1 hour ago, storyskip said:

If Stabler wanted to yell at someone about why Price had to cut that damn deal, he should have gone and yelled at Liv. It was her decision that backed the DA into that corner. 

But Liv is NEVER wrong! *gasp* So good luck there. Even if I agree.

[TakomaSnark]

'I'm a cop, not a judge' is a helluva line coming after a scene where Elliott Stabler bashes some guy's head in over and over.

[shapeshifter]

I have questions.

Was there some reason why the madam couldn’t testify against Rublev so they didn’t have to make a deal for Sirenko to get out in less than 20 years for shooting girls, trafficking girls, selling street drugs, building and planting WMDs, etc.?

But wouldn’t both Sirenko and the madam likely get shived in prison anyway because they knew too much?

Wasn’t that the Empire State Building in the background of that last shot of Olivia and Nicole in the park? But isn’t Nicole staying with relatives in Canada??

[Xeliou66]

I’ll post all of my thoughts on the 3 hour premiere here

Overall I think this was a success - not perfect, but it was a success given the challenges of pulling off a crossover with the different styles of each show. I enjoyed the case and I enjoyed seeing characters interact that have never interacted before.

I really liked Cosgrove in this one, we saw a different, softer side of him with his daughter as well as the intense side of him working the case. Shaw fit in smoothly, and I look forward to seeing more of the Cosgrove/Shaw pairing, I thought they handled bringing in the new detective well and I liked how him and Cosgrove got to get a feel for each other’s style without a ton of tension. I happen to be one of the viewers who likes Cosgrove and I think they’ve fleshed him out nicely after his bad introduction. 

There was more action in this one than in any episode in L&O history IMO, which made things different, and the lawyers didn’t enter the picture until hour 3, but I enjoyed it.

The bad part was St Olivia, once again acting like she knows better than everyone else and going behind the DA’s back, I LOVED Jack saying “she doesn’t get to play god” and I liked Price confronting her as well. What really would’ve been awesome as if Jack had called Chief McGrath and had him chew out Benson for her actions and maybe suspend her, I’m so sick of her crap about how she knows what’s best for everyone and thinks she can do whatever she wants. And I totally agree with the above poster about how Stabler should’ve chewed out St Olivia instead of Nolan, because it was St Olivia shipping the witness off that caused the DA’s to cut a deal with Sirenko in the first place. Fuck off with your sanctimonious, know it all attitude, Olivia!!

I thought the DA’s should’ve offered to hand Sirenko over to the feds, who could probably seek the death penalty against him for terrorism, and then he might’ve taken a plea for life. Anyway, I’m with Maroun, I hope he gets killed in prison, and given his connections to Russian oligarchs and organized crime there’s a decent chance of that happening. And I was thrilled when the big bad got shot at the end before he could cut any deal with the feds, good riddance to that piece of human waste.

It was great to see Jack get a heavy role in hour 3, and he still brings the passion when he told them “arrest that son of a bitch”. Jack is awesome, and I enjoyed the legal work and debates, Price and Maroun were good as well, I like them as a prosecuting duo.

I loved Dixon showing off her authority with that deputy mayor and then ordering Cosgrove and Shaw to evacuate the building, Dixon is a good squad leader, she had huge shoes to fill as no one can top Anita Van Buren but she’s doing nicely in the role.

Not surprising Cosgrove and Stabler clashed given their intense personalities, but I liked how it was Cosgrove who stepped in between Stabler and Sirenko when Stabler was goading Sirenko into grabbing his gun.

I have to say, it was bold of NBC to mention Putin by name, often times they shy away from referencing real life, powerful people, so that was nice to see.

Barely any role for Fin and Velasco, and Carisi was just reduced to caring about Rollins, which is all his character has become in many episodes sadly, I was hoping for a Carisi/McCoy scene. I didn’t really care about Rollins getting shot, I’ve never liked Rollins and I knew she would pull through so no suspense there.

I liked seeing Cosgrove/Shaw visit the ME, that was a nice touch that we haven’t seen much of.

I was also confused by the end of Benson and Nicole in NYC when she was going to Toronto.

Overall this was a success given how different the shows are - yes it was action packed, but it flowed nicely from start to finish, and it helped for me that it was centric to Mothership characters for the most part as the Mothership is by far my favorite of the shows. St Olivia annoyed me as usual but other than her there were no glaring weaknesses in the episode. I enjoyed the crossover and it’s great to have L&O back!!

[Door County Cherry]

50 minutes ago, TakomaSnark said:

'I'm a cop, not a judge' is a helluva line coming after a scene where Elliott Stabler bashes some guy's head in over and over.

And begging Sirenko to pick up the gun so he (Stabler) could shoot him.  My goodness.  And it was Cosgrove of all people who put an end to it?

I'm glad I wasn't the only one confused by the teen not in Canada.  Did Liv lie? 

And I do have to say I'm a little annoyed that the show seems to be taking the order side over the law side a bit more.  In the past, there were times when both sides screwed up. 

[TAG42481]

I think it was pretty obvious that Olivia PRETENDED Nicole had gone to Toronto to stay with relatives, but Nicole hadn't gone anywhere.  Olivia said that just to protect Nicole and prevent her from having to go on the stand.

[ZettaK]

4 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

And begging Sirenko to pick up the gun so he (Stabler) could shoot him.  My goodness.  And it was Cosgrove of all people who put an end to it?

I'm glad I wasn't the only one confused by the teen not in Canada.  Did Liv lie? 

And I do have to say I'm a little annoyed that the show seems to be taking the order side over the law side a bit more.  In the past, there were times when both sides screwed up. 

Yes, Olivia lied. They were in New York. The girl was never sent to Canada.

[dubbel zout]

7 hours ago, storyskip said:

I am getting really tired of the new "Law" VS "Order" format

I was thinking about that, too. I miss the days when Abby or Jamie would have scenes with the cops and they're having dinner while sifting through bank or phone records, chatting away congenially. 

Stabler has been on the NYPD long enough to know that prosecutions aren't perfect, so his moral high horse is a bit much, especially coming from someone who goes over the line on a regular basis.

I totally cracked up that the "confidential conference room" had an entire wall of windows. Way to be covert. No wonder Rublev got shot. There were probably lookouts on the bridge (which you could see from the room).  

I don't think this was entirely successful, but for a season premiere it did what it had to do. NBC spent a lot of dough on SFX, what with the war scenes at the beginning and then the bomb.

I like Mehcad Brooks and think his intro was quite good. Hopefully he'll be able to de-douche Cosgrove a bit.

[Jenniferbug]

It seems NBC has pulled their content from Hulu and also locked all L&O behind a paywall, so I will not be able to watch. Silly me, for not making the show a priority over my kids' homework. At least I know for next week that I need to watch live or not at all. 

[TV Diva Queen]

2 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I was thinking about that, too. I miss the days when Abby or Jamie would have scenes with the cops and they're having dinner while sifting through bank or phone records, chatting away congenially. 

Stabler has been on the NYPD long enough to know that prosecutions aren't perfect, so his moral high horse is a bit much, especially coming from someone who goes over the line on a regular basis.

I totally cracked up that the "confidential conference room" had an entire wall of windows. Way to be covert. No wonder Rublev got shot. There were probably lookouts on the bridge (which you could see from the room).  

I don't think this was entirely successful, but for a season premiere it did what it had to do. NBC spent a lot of dough on SFX, what with the war scenes at the beginning and then the bomb.

I like Mehcad Brooks and think his intro was quite good. Hopefully he'll be able to de-douche Cosgrove a bit.

and don't forget "secure hotel"  

[storyskip]

Having had some time to think through some more of the episodes I do agree that I think it was a VERY well done crossover format. Rather than it being 3 individual hours with some shared characters/plot, this really felt like the entire team (OC, SVU, Regular police) working together against a serious threat.  It was very solid story telling and even if NBC was getting their monies worth by shoving in as many commercials as possible, it was 3 fast moving hours of content.

Also I appreciated that I really felt an emotional punch when the characters who got killed.  Even with brief screen time, the writers made me care about Ava and Vincent, especially Vincent. Not bad writing work given that these were episode specific characters!

I really enjoyed the different dynamics between all the characters, except for Olivia. She really is not a team player, which makes me sad because I used to really enjoy the character back in the day. But the rest of the team, from the police, to the lieutenants, to the DAs, I'd love to have more of that please.

Two things I also noted, which have been noted above, the wall of windows, with a bridge behind it when they were questioning Rublev. Count me as another someone who was waiting for a sniper bullet to come flying through those windows. And the end, when it was obvious that the girl was still in NY with Liv, I honestly do not know WTF the writers/producers were trying to make us feel with that. It made NO story sense, EXCEPT to show Olivia in a very bad light.

Because if that girl was in NY the whole time, not only does that effectively get Rublev killed, it got Sirenko the deal and the entire DA case falling apart for ... nothing?  Definitely Olivia playing God there and I agree with other posters that I hope McCoy figures this out and nails her to the wall. If she really is taking the law into her own hands like this, and hey it could be part of the story and a natural progression of a jaded cop, then it is time for her to retire from the Force.

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I have questions.

Was there some reason why the madam couldn’t testify against Rublev so they didn’t have to make a deal for Sirenko to get out in less than 20 years for shooting girls, trafficking girls, selling street drugs, building and planting WMDs, etc.?

But wouldn’t both Sirenko and the madam likely get shived in prison anyway because they knew too much?

Wasn’t that the Empire State Building in the background of that last shot of Olivia and Nicole in the park? But isn’t Nicole staying with relatives in Canada??

The way I understand it is the madam wasn't in the room. It had to be someone in the room to give legal legitimacy to what was said on the recording. Also it is suggested that all she did was deliver the girls to the yacht and Sirenko. Probably she never even saw Rublev, so again she can't confirm -from a legal standpoint- that he was ever there.

Not sure about the madam getting shived in prison, since she honestly doesn't know that much to make it worth anyone's efforts. Sirenko is probably going to have to watch his back for the next twenty years. But he came across as someone who has a lot of 'friends' and influence so hard to tell how much danger he's in.  Ironic that the man who was seen as the 'top' of the food chain in this one, turned out to be the one who had the most to lose.

[shapeshifter]

8 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

It seems NBC has pulled their content from Hulu and also locked all L&O behind a paywall, so I will not be able to watch. Silly me, for not making the show a priority over my kids' homework. At least I know for next week that I need to watch live or not at all. 

I just signed up for Peacock Premium for $19.99 per year. 
(goes up to at least $49.99 per year if not canceled by 1 year from when you sign up, so I marked my calendar) 
and it includes this 3-show premier (and as well as all NBC shows). 
The offer is good through the end of this month, so you’d have to sign up within the next week. 

Edited September 23, 2022 by shapeshifter
Clarity

[Aileen]

I really enjoyed the more movie-like cross over compared to distinctly separate episodes like we’ve had in past crossover “events.” I really like the final moment reveal that Benson totally played Price to keep Nicole safe.

[Door County Cherry]

4 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

It seems NBC has pulled their content from Hulu and also locked all L&O behind a paywall, so I will not be able to watch. Silly me, for not making the show a priority over my kids' homework. At least I know for next week that I need to watch live or not at all. 

How do you watch live?  If it's cable (or YouTube TV)  you should still be able to access it On Demand. 

But really?  Homework?  Just make an excuse why it doesn't get done next time. ;)

[Jenniferbug]

1 hour ago, Door County Cherry said:

How do you watch live?  If it's cable (or YouTube TV)  you should still be able to access it On Demand. 

But really?  Homework?  Just make an excuse why it doesn't get done next time. ;)

We have Hulu TV for live watching. The DVR through that service should have recorded the show but somehow it didn't (despite recording all last season). I've seen a few Reddit comments that people watching live TV through YouTube TV had the same issue, so I assume it's something NBC has done to try to drive people to pay for Peacock. It was free next day on Peacock last year buy they apparently changed it this season. 

I'll have to skip the homework next week. Sorry kids, you're on your own! 😆

[Raja]

2 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

How do you watch live?  If it's cable (or YouTube TV)  you should still be able to access it On Demand. 

But really?  Homework?  Just make an excuse why it doesn't get done next time. ;)

Well I tried to finish the movie on demand but not available yet. Sometimes shows never get added 

[WendyCR72]

13 hours ago, TAG42481 said:

I think it was pretty obvious that Olivia PRETENDED Nicole had gone to Toronto to stay with relatives, but Nicole hadn't gone anywhere.  Olivia said that just to protect Nicole and prevent her from having to go on the stand.

So...she lied. And should face consequences. But it's Olivia, so...

[Xeliou66]

51 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

So...she lied. And should face consequences. But it's Olivia, so...

Yeah, like I said, Olivia was the part of the episode I didn’t like, I just can’t stand her anymore. She never sees the big picture and acts way more like a victim’s advocate than a cop, and while I was glad Nolan and Jack were pissed at her (it was nice to see other “good guys” call out St Olivia), the DA’s office should inform the NYPD brass about Benson’s actions, while I don’t like McGrath, I would’ve loved to have seen him appear and tear into Olivia for her stunt. It’s about time Olivia pays the price for her unprofessional behavior, but instead they act like she can do no wrong. At least she got called out by 2 other characters in this episode, I guess that’s the most we can hope for now. I just find St Olivia so hard to stomach.

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, storyskip said:

The way I understand it is the madam wasn't in the room. It had to be someone in the room to give legal legitimacy to what was said on the recording. Also it is suggested that all she did was deliver the girls to the yacht and Sirenko. Probably she never even saw Rublev, so again she can't confirm -from a legal standpoint- that he was ever there.

Sure.
But IRL, wouldn't the Madam have known a *lot* of personal info on Rublev because the trafficked girls who craved the Madam's approval and "love" would have eagerly shared such info with her?
Or would the Madam have stopped them from telling her stuff, explaining that it was dangerous to know too much? 
IDK.
In my version of the story (which would be way too long for this 126-minute, action-packed format) the Madam would have had her own recordings stashed to use to bargain with the DA in the event she was arrested.  

[preeya]

I'm hoping this "three hour movie" was a one and done event as it was very tedious. That's all I'm saying this week.

Edited September 23, 2022 by preeya

[storyskip]

36 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Sure.
But IRL, wouldn't the Madam have known a *lot* of personal info on Rublev because the trafficked girls who craved the Madam's approval and "love" would have eagerly shared such info with her?
Or would the Madam have stopped them from telling her stuff, explaining that it was dangerous to know too much? 
IDK.
In my version of the story (which would be way too long for this 126-minute, action-packed format) the Madam would have had her own recordings stashed to use to bargain with the DA in the event she was arrested.  

I am not a lawyer and don't even play one on TV, but I believe anything they shared with her would be considered hearsay and inadmissible.   

It had to come from someone actually in the room with the man to collaborate that what was seen/said on the video was actually said by Rublev. With Ava dead that left Sirenko and the girl. So it was either the girl who had to testify or the deal with Sirenko for him testifying.

What Olivia did was illegal and immoral as hell and she should pay consequences for it.  It would make absolute story sense for her to move on to become a victims' advocate and would be a great job for her, but she needs to get out of police work if she no longer believes in the law.

[gibasi]

4 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

We have Hulu TV for live watching. The DVR through that service should have recorded the show but somehow it didn't (despite recording all last season). I've seen a few Reddit comments that people watching live TV through YouTube TV had the same issue, so I assume it's something NBC has done to try to drive people to pay for Peacock. It was free next day on Peacock last year buy they apparently changed it this season. 

I'll have to skip the homework next week. Sorry kids, you're on your own! 😆

I watch on cable and my DVR didn’t pick it up either. I don’t watch much on NBC and don’t want another streaming service. I wanted to see how they introduced the new guy. Did they say what happened to Anthony Anderson’s character? 
 

if my DVR had recorded it all I would fast forward through anything with Benson or Stabler. I quit on L & O SVU very early in its run. And I never watched the OC version.

[LizDC]

3 hours ago, gibasi said:

Did they say what happened to Anthony Anderson’s character? 

They did not.  They are supposed to mention something in next week’s episode.

[Raja]

A Russian Agent, close to Putin no less, bombing a NATO conference and somehow the US Attorney didn't snatch the terrorist portion of the case? I get the FBI as part of the terrorism task force wanted to go home early and the NYPD developed the case alone but still.

[Serena McClain]

This was an unusual line up and very confusing. Considering the airing of the L&O shows last season, I figured the order would be L&O, SVU, and then OC. Not that they would switch L&O and OC. When I looked at the episode list of L&O, it said that episode of the crossover was Part 3. I'm like, what. Then watching the OC episode online since this was apparently the start, it came off as a L&O episode because it focused on Cosgrove and his new partner from the beginning and we saw much of the 27th precinct for half the show. There was even the title card transition sequences that were not used on OC thus far. Heck, the intro representing the mash up even had L&O first, then SVU, and then OC so I was like, what is going on here. Is the internet wrong on the order. I only got the feeling something was off due to the filming style which I figured resembled more of OC than L&O and when Christopher Meloni's name was top billing, so then it all made sense. But still many reasons to think this was the L&O portion. I wish as an OC episode, they began with those characters and we transitioned to having the L&O ones involved somehow.

[Raja]

I guess the defense attorney learned his lesson from Omar Little and knew when to get out when a murdering human trafficker/terrorist for hire admitted what he was when testifying against the boss.

[Zaffy]

That was the weakest of the 3.
So they do not only deal with Russian Mafia but also with friends of Putin and still  they do not take the necessary security measures to protect the witnesses, especially the Russian guy.
I loved what Olivia did for once, dunno but this version of the L&O DA office is annoying as hell, so go Olivia! In next crossover I hope Stabler will also mess with them!

I quite liked Mehcad Brooks, he was really good.

I thought they would kill off Amanda, I had read it is her last season, but I did not expect to get rid of her so quickly.

Edited September 24, 2022 by Zaffy

[illdoc]

17 minutes ago, Zaffy said:

I thought they would kill off Amanda, I had read it is her last season, but I did not expect to get rid of her so quickly

You didn't actually think they would kill off a long-term character during this "3-way crossover" did you? If they kill her off, it will be during a regular SVU episode, revolving around her and the affect of her death on everyone.

[wknt3]

On 9/22/2022 at 11:36 PM, Door County Cherry said:

And I had John Oliver's "copganda" bit from his last episode in my mind as Staber and Cosgrove showed themselves to be awful cops who cost people their lives, and while people were thrown around or threatened in the pursuit of "justice."  It never used to be this bad on the original L&O.

Detective Fontana would like to have a word...

On 9/22/2022 at 11:44 PM, storyskip said:

While I really enjoyed getting to see some of these actors work off one another, and some of the character dynamics, I've got to agree that I am getting really tired of the new "Law" VS "Order" format. I mean at this point it feels like any defense attorney worth their salt in New York just needs to get a key piece of evidence squashed or thrown out and then step back to watch the cops and the DA rip themselves to shreds on the blame game.

If Stabler wanted to yell at someone about why Price had to cut that damn deal, he should have gone and yelled at Liv. It was her decision that backed the DA into that corner. 

It just feels like, at least with the mothership, the writers are more interested in making tension through driving a wedge between the cops and the DA, when the whole original premise was to show how the two systems need to work side by side.

I think there was actually a lot of episodes that focused on the tension between the separate, but equally important representatives of the people. I do think it's been a little bit overdone in the reboot, but it's not a new thing.  I wish they would dial it back a bit, but that's true of a few different things in the writing.

On 9/23/2022 at 1:06 AM, WendyCR72 said:

But Liv is NEVER wrong! *gasp* So good luck there. Even if I agree.

Once again I'm wondering if Rick Eid is working out some of his trauma with SVU with the line from McCoy about Benson not being God and showing her actions actually having negative consequences...

[Raja]

Since it concerns Detectives Cosgrove and Shaw I'll put it here. But in the first half hour while Frank was tutoring the new homicide detective on the job, doing more than Ed Green did for Nina Cassidy, I was sitting wondering what was up at the 32nd  sending Shaw out alone

[CheshireCat]

On 9/23/2022 at 6:48 PM, storyskip said:

I am not a lawyer and don't even play one on TV, but I believe anything they shared with her would be considered hearsay and inadmissible.  

From what I understand from what legal experts explained not too long ago, anything/any conversation she witnessed wouldn't be hearsay, also, anything the plaintiff said to her about a crime wouldn't be hearsay even if she didn't witness the crime herself and if someone involved in a conspiracy admitted the conspiracy to her it wouldn't be hearsay either.

What would have been hearsay would have been if Sirenko had said something to the CI or the CI had witnessed something and the CI had told her.

About the episode, aren't there methods to authenticate videos nowadays? Even if the girl testified, couldn't the defense have pressed her about authenticating what was that which she probably wouldn't have been sure about anymore and then suggesting the video had been edited?
Also, why did the prosecution not get out in front of it and informed the jury of Sirenko's cooperation through his testimony before the defense got to him? And when he is asked by the defense attorney why they should believe him, why doesn't he say because the deal's off if he's lying?

That was the third victim who died in someone's arms in this episode after begging them not to let them die. Was that a condition to repeat that in every of the three hours or something?

[wknt3]

So it is good to see that some things never change in the franchise. The Russian mob are still the worst criminals ever and ruthlessly efficient. If I am in a Law & Order show I would sooner walk through the Hudson University campus at 3am after announcing to a major corporation that I intend to be a whistleblower then testify against the Russian mob.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, wknt3 said:

So it is good to see that some things never change in the franchise. The Russian mob are still the worst criminals ever and ruthlessly efficient. If I am in a Law & Order show I would sooner walk through the Hudson University campus at 3am after announcing to a major corporation that I intend to be a whistleblower then testify against the Russian mob.

Heh.
Pasha D. Lychnikoff reprised his Eastern European Bad Guy role with the ease of rolling off a log. 
But I was disappointed when he died with his eyes closed instead of open. Poor directing? 

[Iguessnot]

I have some observations. Why was Ava recording? I expected some wider connections to be revealed but it seems it was just a plot device.

Vince got to Sirenko's phone. Yet when Sirenko's phone is left out in the open in an abandoned house, nobody's Spidey senses went up. Furthermore, they send Vince back to Sirenko, when it seemed to me that Sirenko would be suspicious of Vince. But if I take the writing at face value, there was no real suspicion. He just swatted a gnat.

Olivia, for many seasons, has been pushing women to testify, regardless of the consequences. She insisted they couldn't get on with their lives unless they did. In this trilogy, she says the girl shouldn't testify in order to get on with her life. Complete change of script, except she's still acting like a guardian angel.

We get to watch Olivia's typical victim interaction, which has Olivia talking to the victim like a toddler and the victim responding in kind. It struck me that when she was interviewed, the best info she could offer was an old man with a Russian accent and a star. Yet when we watch Ava's recording, she could have given a lot more information. But Olivia is not a cop when interviewing victims, so doe eyes are valued over obtaining solid info.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Iguessnot

[The Wild Sow]

7 hours ago, Iguessnot said:

I have some observations. Why was Ava recording? I expected some wider connections to be revealed but it seems it was just a plot device.

Ava may have been a trafficked teenager - but don’t forget she was also a Ukrainian war orphan!  No doubt she realized who, and what, that guy was. Handing him over to some Ukrainian officials would be a way to help her country and help herself. She may even have seen herself as a patriot and a spy for her homeland. 

[Serena McClain]

On 9/24/2022 at 1:32 PM, Zaffy said:

I thought they would kill off Amanda, I had read it is her last season, but I did not expect to get rid of her so quickly.

I thought so too after that occurred, but I remembered in an article the showrunner of SVU saying he will give her and Carisi a good ending to their relationship, so I figured she wouldn't die. But hey, would have been a bold choice since when was the last this show killed off a major character. I think Amanda would have been the first MAIN character, and a long running one at that to actually be handled this way. 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Serena McClain

[blackwing]

On 9/23/2022 at 5:27 PM, preeya said:

I'm hoping this "three hour movie" was a one and done event as it was very tedious. That's all I'm saying this week.

Agreed.  I haven't watched any of this yet.  I don't really relish the idea of sitting through the first two hours.  If I just watch the mothership episode, will I be completely lost?

[Xeliou66]

31 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Agreed.  I haven't watched any of this yet.  I don't really relish the idea of sitting through the first two hours.  If I just watch the mothership episode, will I be completely lost?

Yes because it really was a 3 hour movie, not 3 separate episodes, and the Mothership characters played a huge role in hours 1 and 2. Hour 3 was pretty much all about the lawyers. 

[Raja]

47 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Agreed.  I haven't watched any of this yet.  I don't really relish the idea of sitting through the first two hours.  If I just watch the mothership episode, will I be completely lost?

The first half of the listed Organized Crime episode was basically the first half of a conventional L&O. Then came the massive twist with the specialty squad's characters before the ADA's closed the show

[blackwing]

23 minutes ago, Xeliou66 said:

Yes because it really was a 3 hour movie, not 3 separate episodes, and the Mothership characters played a huge role in hours 1 and 2. Hour 3 was pretty much all about the lawyers. 

6 minutes ago, Raja said:

The first half of the listed Organized Crime episode was basically the first half of a conventional L&O. Then came the massive twist with the specialty squad's characters before the ADA's closed the show

Thanks.  Going to start from the beginning, hope it's worth it!

[853fisher]

I couldn't help but laugh when they said Rublev was a special consultant to the president (or however they put it - that's definitely not verbatim), Maroun asked "what's that mean," and McCoy replied "that means he's friends with Putin."  Something about McCoy's delivery seemed to imply "...you idiot."  It was a pretty stupid question!

[blackwing]

Watched all three episodes and I really enjoyed it.  Mainly because this really seemed to be Cosgrove's story.  I liked Jeffrey Donovan a lot on "Burn Notice" and this episode really seemed to be driven by him.  Was this the first time we saw his daughter?  If I remember correctly, he is divorced.  He's eating lunch with his 15 year old daughter, and this other 15 year old is killed, and he is determined to get justice for her.

I liked that they showed that Frank has more layers to him.  Last season it seemed like he was always on edge, and kind of a bit unhinged.  Maybe they are toning that down slightly.  I still hate the accent though and wish he used his normal voice, but I guess the show decided last season that at least one of the characters had to have a Noo Yawk accent.

I don't think I've watched SVU in years (maybe in the early seasons a few times) and I've never watched Organized Crime.  I was a little lost on who everyone besides Benson and Stabler were, but I thought this movie made good use of all of the characters.

So they gave immunity to the lesser thug to testify against the big time thug, and then big time thug gets killed.  Shouldn't there be an investigation as to who killed him?  I automatically assumed that lesser thug set it up.  At least lesser thug still gets 20 years.

On 9/23/2022 at 12:45 AM, shapeshifter said:

Wasn’t that the Empire State Building in the background of that last shot of Olivia and Nicole in the park? But isn’t Nicole staying with relatives in Canada??

I see that everyone here is assuming that Benson lied, but I watched that scene very closely.  We see Olivia and Nicole in a park.  But then the scene overlays very subtly with another park scene, there are people riding bikes and then the camera pans up to show the New York skyline, I think there was a voiceover about doing duty or something.  If you look closely, there is a slight fadeout from Olivia/Nicole to the bikes/skyline.  So those are not necessarily the same location.  I thought that Nicole is indeed in Toronto, and then the scene cut from Toronto to New York.

Edited September 27, 2022 by blackwing

[Xeliou66]

2 minutes ago, 853fisher said:

I couldn't help but laugh when they said Rublev was a special consultant to the president (or however they put it - that's definitely not verbatim), Maroun asked "what's that mean," and McCoy replied "that means he's friends with Putin."  Something about McCoy's delivery seemed to imply "...you idiot."  It was a pretty stupid question!

Like I said, I thought it was bold for them to mention Putin by name.

One thing I noticed was that Maroun seemed to be more outspoken in this episode, challenging Jack in the one scene about the witness that Benson hid from them, I liked seeing Maroun be more outspoken, the second chair ADA needs to be able to challenge the bosses some, and I thought the chemistry between the legal players (McCoy, Price and Maroun) was strong in this episode, it’s gotten better IMO. It seems like quite a few people have an issue with either Price, Maroun or both, I actually like both of them and I think the entire cast has good chemistry now. I hope to see more scenes between the police and DA’s going forward.

[Xeliou66]

5 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Watched all three episodes and I really enjoyed it.  Mainly because this really seemed to be Cosgrove's story.  I liked Jeffrey Donovan a lot on "Burn Notice" and this episode really seemed to be driven by him.  Was this the first time we saw his daughter?  If I remember correctly, he is divorced.  He's eating lunch with his 15 year old daughter, and this other 15 year old is killed, and he is determined to get justice for her.

I liked that they showed that Frank has more layers to him.  Last season it seemed like he was always on edge, and kind of a bit unhinged.  Maybe they are toning that down slightly.  I still hate the accent though and wish he used his normal voice, but I guess the show decided last season that at least one of the characters had to have a Noo Yawk accent.

I don't think I've watched SVU in years (maybe in the early seasons a few times) and I've never watched Organized Crime.  I was a little lost on who everyone besides Benson and Stabler were, but I thought this movie made good use of all of the characters.

So they gave immunity to the lesser thug to testify against the big time thug, and then big time thug gets killed.  Shouldn't there be an investigation as to who killed him?  I automatically assumed that lesser thug set it up.  At least lesser thug still gets 20 years.

I see that everyone here is assuming that Benson lied, but I watched that scene very closely.  We see Olivia and Nicole in a park.  But then the scene overlays with another park scene, there are people riding bikes and then the camera pans up to show the New York skyline, I think there was a voiceover about doing duty or something.  Those are not necessarily the same location.  I thought that Nicole is indeed in Toronto, and then the scene cut from Toronto to New York.

This was the first time we saw Cosgrove’s daughter - he mentioned her once last season. We don’t know if he’s married or divorced, and this episode didn’t really give us a hint, I kind of took it he was divorced from what’s he said but he could be married. I liked seeing another side to Cosgrove as well in this one

I don’t think the lesser thug had Rublev killed, he didn’t have the juice for it, yeah Dixon said the police and the FBI were investigating who killed Rublev but I think it was probably someone powerful in the Russian government since he was about to flip on them. Given that Russian oligarchs and powerful figures seem to have people killed routinely, and get killed routinely for that matter, it’s doubtful they could ever find who exactly masterminded the plot, it could’ve come all the way from Putin himself.

[watcher1006]

I can't see how Price and Maroun would be talking to Rublev about a deal without the Feds present in one form or another. And with heightened federal security surrounding the place where the discussion was taking place. If Rublev really was close to Putin then the FBI, NSA, the State Department and so forth would IMO keep a close eye on everything that was happening to him, knowing full well what can happen to people who expose information about the Russian state.

This felt was a three hour movie, as noted above. Crossovers often have some degree of awkwardness with the characters from the "other" show(s) seeming a bit out of place in the "base" show's setting. But this three hour string did bring the characters from the three shows together into one cohesive story.