S25.E12: Marauder

[txhorns79]

Airing May 9.

Quote

Agent Sykes struggles to cope on the anniversary of her sister's disappearance. Benson suspects a cold case from Manhattan could help her get closure.

 

[wknt3]

The Good:
It was good to see most of the squad involved and contributing to the case. The teamwork with Benson and Fin was particularly welcome and it was nice to see Fin back in the role of voice of reason, making it feel like the writers at least knew they were stretching the suspension of disbelief.

The guest cast. Some nice performances that showed that they haven't forgotten how to direct restrained and naturalistic performances.

There was actually a glimmer of self-awareness that maybe Benson could be less than perfect and have problems other than caring too much.

The COTW. It felt like old school SVU in a lot of ways, even if it couldn't reach those heights by virtue of the story having been done so many times before and the same old fatal flaw of not being able to have the protagonist actually be fallible and flawed. But it was still a solid story and competently executed.

The Bad:
The opener. It felt like something rejected from one of the lesser seasons of Criminal Minds or that made it to a subpar CBS procedural a decade ago. The flashback added nothing and the bar scene simply recycled the same tired tropes they have done so often of St, Mariska preaching to her wayward flock. I think Rollins' return brought back some bad habits in the writers' room.

In the end of course Benson was right all along. I really miss the old days when Benson or Stabler could be the lead, and be heroic but flawed and actually wrong even when they won.

They never really came up with a reason for why a skilled FBI profiler never made the connections and came to the conclusions Benson did. There were some suggestions that maybe it was about reopening old wounds, but it was the one glaring plot hole for me.

The preview for the finale. Another big shootout? Is Benson once again going to magically save the day with an incredible shot or action heroics after completely f-ing up tactically and charging into a situation that would make Custer decide discretion was the better part of valor?
 

Overall this was a solid, even good episode. Let's hope the finale continues the recent upward trend.

[Judiz]

Extremely proud that my nephew, Phil Sloves, made his television debut tonight playing the part of Ronald Givens Junior!!  

Edited May 10 by Judiz

[TVMovieBuff]

Seems the episodes have improved since last season. I found this pretty compelling, the investigation aspect. 

[Xeliou66]

This episode felt kind of boring to me - maybe because the cases were cold and so it kind of lacked intensity, and it was solved rather easily, I didn’t get why the cases went cold for so long - maybe they were never linked but Benson and company linked them easily. The opening added nothing to the show and failed to get me interested, and it was just a rather boring episode IMO - while I liked seeing the whole squad working a case, I didn’t get why St Olivia didn’t let everyone in on what was going on, it seemed like she has no trust in her squad besides Fin, she really annoys me. Fin had some good scenes, and Bruno was good as always. Overall I really don’t have much to say about this one, it wasn’t nearly as bad as a couple of other episodes, but it wasn’t that great either. 

[jmonique]

Whew. I'm glad there were no rapes, molestations, kidnappings or whatnot going on in Manhattan that week, so they could dive into an ice cold case from Pennsylvania. 

Remember when the show used to be able to afford extras to make it look like there were others working cases in the office?

[Ohiopirate02]

7 minutes ago, jmonique said:

Whew. I'm glad there were no rapes, molestations, kidnappings or whatnot going on in Manhattan that week, so they could dive into an ice cold case from Pennsylvania. 

Remember when the show used to be able to afford extras to make it look like there were others working cases in the office?

And New Jersey.  I still have to laugh at how accommodating the local PDs are when St. Olivia comes a calling.  There's never any turf wars going on with the various law enforcements, they always cede everything to her including whatever glory there is to be found for solving these cases.  I guess Olivia does not show up during an election year for those sheriffs.  

[slowpoked]

I’m just glad someone pushed back against St. Olivia being on her caped crusader mission again. Not sure if Agent Sykes will be back after throwing Johnny D. and William Lewis to her boss’ face, but man, it was cathartic to watch.

[Spartan Girl]

9 minutes ago, slowpoked said:

I’m just glad someone pushed back against St. Olivia being on her caped crusader mission again. Not sure if Agent Sykes will be back after throwing Johnny D. and William Lewis to her boss’ face, but man, it was cathartic to watch.

Indeed. Too bad it all got shunted to the side because St Benson was right again. Just once, I wish someone could just tell her off and make it stick.

[januaryman]

It was nice to see that Kenneth Tigar is still active.

[The Wild Sow]

The killer was just so ordinary -- kind of like Rex Heuermann or BTK.  But I guess serial killers are, to get away with it for so long.  At least they didn't go with "daughter was adopted" or "dad has a twin brother" or any of the other tired old tropes!

Cousin Cal looked way too old to be Gwen's same-age cousin.  My youngest was born in '89, and I have a pretty good idea of what 34/35 year olds look like.  I don't know how old the actor is, but that ain't it!  

If the killer lived in Jersey, how come his truck had PA plates?

[Sake614]

25 minutes ago, The Wild Sow said:

If the killer lived in Jersey, how come his truck had PA plates?

Same reason NY drivers have PA plates: insurance is significantly lower there 🤣

[slowpoked]

6 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Indeed. Too bad it all got shunted to the side because St Benson was right again. Just once, I wish someone could just tell her off and make it stick.

Yes, that would have been great.

But we have to take our wins when we can. At least Agent Sykes didn’t fall into St. Benson’s arms in a I-finally-got-closure warm, loving embrace. She still told Olivia to fuck off, in a much nicer “I need to be alone…” way. Or at least that’s what I think she meant by what she said.

[preeya]

12 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

12 hours ago, slowpoked said:

I’m just glad someone pushed back against St. Olivia being on her caped crusader mission again. Not sure if Agent Sykes will be back after throwing Johnny D. and William Lewis to her boss’ face, but man, it was cathartic to watch.

Indeed. Too bad it all got shunted to the side because St Benson was right again. Just once, I wish someone could just tell her off and make it stick.

Three cheers for Sykes. Her confrontation with St. Olivia was the best part of the episode.

[txhorns79]

6 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

Cousin Cal looked way too old to be Gwen's same-age cousin. 

Yes!  The actor looked like he was closing in on 50.  The acting was fine, but the casting person really should have tried a little harder to find someone who looked age appropriate. 

12 hours ago, slowpoked said:

I’m just glad someone pushed back against St. Olivia being on her caped crusader mission again. Not sure if Agent Sykes will be back after throwing Johnny D. and William Lewis to her boss’ face, but man, it was cathartic to watch.

It was amusing watching Olivia squirm and try to come up with a justification for pursuing the cases when confronted by Sykes.  And Sykes was essentially right. Olivia was doing it for herself, not because she cared about getting justice for anyone.   

[The Wild Sow]

19 hours ago, Sake614 said:

19 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

If the killer lived in Jersey, how come his truck had PA plates?

Same reason NY drivers have PA plates: insurance is significantly lower there 🤣

 Back when I lived close to the Ohio line, a lot of us western PA drivers got Ohio plates if we could.  Because Ohio doesn't have state inspections!

[gesundheit]

A pretty decent episode by current-era standards! Liv bringing Fin in on it so she wasn't solo-crusading, actually coming up with a Manhattan-based crime to justify out-of-state activity (despite Washington Heights feeling extremely unlikely with that particular serial killer's MO, but I'll allow the artistic license), the cousin confessing as a way to get the body exhumed, Jordana Spiro being generally compelling as all hell, Larry Pine popping up as his 5th or 6th L&O-universe character -- I'll take it! 

I just hope we don't lose Sykes now. 

My heart really broke for that one girl's dad who was still so upbeat and convinced his daughter was still alive. I kind of wish they'd shown which SVU detective got the horrible job of breaking the news to him. That kind of thing has got to be so much more brutal for cold cases.

 

 

[Iguessnot]

2 hours ago, gesundheit said:

 

My heart really broke for that one girl's dad who was still so upbeat and convinced his daughter was still alive. I kind of wish they'd shown which SVU detective got the horrible job of breaking the news to him. That kind of thing has got to be so much more brutal for cold cases.

 

 

They had the dad at the exhumation site holding a picture of his daughter. Who in production thought that scenario was remotely possible? 

[gesundheit]

8 hours ago, Iguessnot said:

They had the dad at the exhumation site holding a picture of his daughter. Who in production thought that scenario was remotely possible? 

Wait, I totally missed that -- the dad was at the exhumation of someone else's daughter??

[Iguessnot]

3 hours ago, gesundheit said:

Wait, I totally missed that -- the dad was at the exhumation of someone else's daughter??

No, his own daughter. She hadn't been found yet. The perp lead the police to where all the bodies were buried. However, no family members would be invited for this gruesome forensic work. He was standing there with a large, framed photo of his daughter like this was some media memorial. 

[gesundheit]

48 minutes ago, Iguessnot said:

No, his own daughter. She hadn't been found yet. The perp lead the police to where all the bodies were buried. However, no family members would be invited for this gruesome forensic work. He was standing there with a large, framed photo of his daughter like this was some media memorial. 

Oh sorry, I thought you meant the one they exhumed in NYC.

 

That's just bizarre! I completely missed that.

[tvfanatic13]

All I kept thinking about was how come when the sister at the beginning was not at the pool within 5 minutes she didn’t jump out of the truck. There was no way she could have been locked in. 

[slowpoked]

12 hours ago, tvfanatic13 said:

All I kept thinking about was how come when the sister at the beginning was not at the pool within 5 minutes she didn’t jump out of the truck. There was no way she could have been locked in. 

This was my thought too. It’s not like she was in the passenger seat where the driver has control of the lock. She could have jumped out of there, left the bike, and come away with a few bruises rather than being kidnapped. I think it was bad writing to have her on the truck bed than the passenger seat.

[tennisgurl]

I am shocked, shocked that Olivia was right about everything and that she was apparently the only one who could who could solve this case that has stumped countless investigators, even an obsessed FBI profiler. In episodes like this, I really do have to think about the many boxes of evidence from countless murders, assaults, domestic violence, child abuse, etc that are gathering dust somewhere because the captain is off solving a cold case from Pennsylvania because its connected to her or another major character. 

Agent Sykes, your so denying our lord Olivia and not totally trusting in her no questions asked. I admit I enjoyed her throwing some of her fuck ups back in her face and the fact that she didn't collapse into Olivia's arms, apologizing for not listening to her while Olivia whispers about how its not her fault, even if Olivia turned out to be totally vindicated. She really called it when she accused of Olivia making this case all about herself and not justice or getting a dangerous predator off the streets.

This was overall a pretty good episode, I liked the guest actors a lot and we got some decent police work from the whole cast, but it was mostly just fine. Not really bad, but not all that great or memorable. 

Edited May 13 by tennisgurl

[Zaffy]

I literally fell asleep, on the desk, on the keyboard. I think that's the effect Mariska's voice has on me...

[Tachi Rocinante]

I really enjoyed Jordana Spiro's performance.  My guess is she won't be back next season.

[Tdoc72]

On 5/10/2024 at 5:34 PM, januaryman said:

It was nice to see that Kenneth Tigar is still active.

I asked my cat if that was Mr. Raymaker (from the 80s movie Just One of the Guys).  Sounded the same, just looked older. But glad he (the character) got his closure as this was the case that haunted him judging by his murder board. I’m glad they had him at the exhumation site. 

[januaryman]

On 6/10/2024 at 6:40 PM, Tdoc72 said:

I asked my cat if that was Mr. Raymaker (from the 80s movie Just One of the Guys).  Sounded the same, just looked older. But glad he (the character) got his closure as this was the case that haunted him judging by his murder board. I’m glad they had him at the exhumation site.