S25.E06: Carousel

[txhorns79]

Airing February 29, 2024.

Quote

The SVU must track down a mysterious suspect targeting tourists staying in hostels and race to identify one woman's attacker before she opts to go home.

 

[Xeliou66]

Pretty good episode - I didn’t think it was going to be at the start, with the overly long opening, but it had good twists in it and was an interesting premise. Plus I liked the squad and their dynamics - it felt fresh and it was nice to have a full squad. I did miss Fin and Carisi, but Curry and Sykes fit in well in this one and I like Bruno and Velasco. The St Olivia worship was kept to a minimum which was good.

It was a good twist that it was the third suspect who raped the girl at the start of the episode and not one of the two other guys, and the premise of them preying on females from around the world and collecting DNA was interesting. The investigation was good.

I liked Velasco/Bruno playing good cop/bad cop with the suspect, and the squad dynamics felt natural here and I liked the interactions between everyone. Things felt more like old school SVU in that regard which was nice.

This was probably the best episode of the season so far actually - no glaring flaws that I caught, less St Olivia worship, an interesting case and good work from the whole squad. Impressive that they managed to deliver a good episode even without Fin and Carisi. 

[wknt3]

The Good:
The COTW. A solid investigation with the squad all working together and everything progressing naturally with no glaring short cuts or loose ends. It felt a lot like old school SVU with a mix of investigative methods and interrogation tactics and not just one investigator and a couple cops doing a bit of leg work.

The new blood. I still can't forget how ridiculous it is that we have gone from not being able to a uni wtaching the door anymore to Major Crimes levels of staffing with 2 captains questioning a suspect and an FBI agent on call (was McGrath not just a d-bag, but embezzling as well? Maybe IAB should be looking at that instead of going off looking to back on the street?), but it is nice having an actual team feeling and allowing cast to have the week off without leaving nobody running the store.

Bruno. The best addition to this series in ages. He fits nicely into the Fin/Munch mold without being a carbon copy and has had more development as an extra than any main cast member since Carisi.

No Maddie. Addition by subtraction.

The Bad:
Even if the Benson worship has toned down, the writers still feel the need to have her as the expert and source of all authority, even for people who aren't actually working for her. They should go back and watch some old episodes to see how a CO can work with a consulting FBI agent. For instance asking if they can use their connections to expedite a VICAP search instead of it being their idea and order.

The weird stylized lighting and set designs they have gone with over the last decade or so really looked off here. Every scene in the school came off like they were on a bad green screen.

The ending. Between the whole Ladies Social Club vibe it's a bad idea to have the ending based on Mariska's ability to convey nuanced emotions via facial expression.

 

Overall this was a solid episode, even a good one. I think a whole series devoted to the concept of an elite squad investigated sexually based offenses might actually work better than one devoted to the life and mind of one commanding officer. Who could have figured?

[TakomaSnark]

What was with that weird edit between the first foray into 'Poindexter's' living room in the daytime and the sudden switch to night, with patrol lights in the background outside... And suddenly then they discover the map covered with pins?

[jmonique]

I actually like this year's crew of strays, but an episode without Fin, Carisi or Rollins and just Olivia and newbies and kind-of newbies is giving real "Saved By the Bell: The New Class" vibes.

But thank God for no Maddie and her parents.

[bamlou]

Did I I hear right that the consulate flew  the Bulgarian victim back to NY so that she could be interviewed by Olivia? And that the victim hopped on that plane at a moment’s notice? Seemed like a stretch even for this show, but maybe I misheard, or I’m underestimating how cooperative the consulate would be to help. 

I was also surprised the school only expelled the 3 guys from the robotics dept. - the press conference didn’t mention any consequences for the other student from the genetics dept. who was testing/verifying the DNA swabs, and he was the one directly involving the school by using its equipment on school property. 

[faithie]

A bunch of college kids keeping score of their sexual encounters?  Extremely plausible.

The kids collecting DNA samples and keeping vials in a Hi-Tech lab?  Preposterous.

[Wizardpatch]

I lost track of all the crimes going on. Did the Asian kid do anything illegal or wrong besides associating with the two rapey white guys? 

Edited March 5 by Wizardpatch

[MinorL]

I thought it was a good episode but I literally laughed out loud when the victim’s name was written on the test tube. These guys are supposed to be geniuses?

[MarylandGirl]

Did anyone else think the other woman at the hostel then at the bar with the victim was going to be involved? The whole "mysterious suspect" in the episode description especially made me think that. Like I thought maybe she actually assaulted the victim at the hostel after she was brought back by the taxi. She just seemed suspicious to me.

[tennisgurl]

I'm sorry, aren't these guys supposed to be super smart? Then why the hell would they write down the names of their victims/hook ups on lab tubes? Why not just out the country? Taking DNA seems stupid in general, especially considering they had to know that gathering DNA without consent is illegal in New York State and that two of them were rapists. 

This was probably the best episode of the season, which is admittedly not saying much. The case was pretty interesting and unique, the guest stars were all good, and it was great to see a full squad again. I still think its absolutely ridiculous that a captain and an FBI agent would want to work as detectives just be be under St. Olivia, but they were both fine and it was just nice to see more than three people working this case. 

Not too much St. Olivia workshop, especially compared to the Maddie Saga, but still a lot of her being the most expert expert on literally everything, and it still boggles the mind that a captain would have so much time to run around solving cases all of the time instead of actually running SVU. 

Velasco/Bruno playing good cop/bad cop was nice, and while I guessed that the third awkward guy might be the rapist, I thought it was also just as likely that he's a red herring. SVU is really lucky that the guys were dumb enough to take DNA samples for their game or else it would have been really hard to charge them for anything if they couldn't get them on the rapes. The game itself is sleazy and gross but not illegal if everything is consensual.