S26.E06 Rorschach

[Xeliou66]

Episode description 

Agent Clay consults with Benson when a woman is found gravely injured at a remote campground and the suspect could be anywhere along the Eastern Seaboard; Bruno and Silva take a chance on an odd hunch to see if it becomes a lead

[wknt3]

The Good:
They actually gave us some proper "new to SVU" character development work with Silva! Some nice interactions with Bruno who is awesome as usual. FYI writers - this is the kind of thing we should see in episode 1 or 2, not 6. We even got her being a little younger than the rest of the team being a good thing! Hopefully we can build on this and they don't feel a need to trash her like they have all of the other new female main cast members added since KG.

It's nice to see Graham Patrick Martin getting work. Apparently he is carving out a niche for being involved in sketchy activity in parks on procedural dramas...

The whole squad was involved again with Benson mostly leading and dealing with the victims. I do wish we had gotten a little more of substance for Fin, but at least he got to call bullshit on the ridiculousness of the setup.

The Bad:
They can't even be bothered to find a reason to bring in the squad? It's just "Liv you're so special that nobody else can solve this"? And now Benson is just calling up the Commissioner? I was half expecting the doctors at the hospital to ask her for medical advice.

All of the scenes in the hospital. The epitome of late season Benson worship and lazy cliched SVU writing. Watching it I considered following the episode's lead and stabbing myself, but I decided to just drink half a bottle of whiskey instead.


Overall this was uneven, but most of the COTW elements and the fieldwork was pretty strong. If you FF through the scenes of Benson in the hospital it might even be actually good. Unfortunately those scenes are a pretty big chunk of the episode so we just have to settle for competently mediocre with some actual good parts. Which means it's probably one of the better episodes of the season so far.

[The Wild Sow]

2 hours ago, wknt3 said:

It's nice to see Graham Patrick Martin getting work. Apparently he is carving out a niche for being involved in sketchy activity in parks on procedural dramas...

Ha! But really, who didn’t see that coming?

[Xeliou66]

Okay episode - Benson at the hospital was annoying and had all of the usual St Olivia worship and cliches that have plagued SVU since Mariska became the de facto showrunner, but the case was pretty good. Good investigative work from everyone and nice to see the whole squad, I enjoyed Bruno and Silva working together and I’m hopeful Silva becomes a solid addition to the show. Fin and Velasco were good as well.

But the case was dead obvious - it was clear from the start the boyfriend did it, no suspense whatsoever. I wish they had at least done something to try to make it suspenseful but this was one of the most predictable SVU’s ever

[preeya]

Gabby Petito & Brian Laundrie

On 11/7/2024 at 10:50 PM, Xeliou66 said:

But the case was dead obvious - it was clear from the start the boyfriend did it, no suspense whatsoever. I wish they had at least done something to try to make it suspenseful but this was one of the most predictable SVU’s ever

Loosely copied from the Gabby Petito / Brian Laundrie case.

St. Olivia's last scene at the hospital nearly made me vomit.

Edited November 9 by preeya

[EtheltoTillie]

On 11/7/2024 at 10:08 PM, wknt3 said:

It's nice to see Graham Patrick Martin getting work. Apparently he is carving out a niche for being involved in sketchy activity in parks on procedural dramas...
 

I just realized he's Rusty from The Closer/Major Crimes.  (I had to look it up, realizing he looked familiar.)

[Sake614]

Well I’m sure the rockland County PD was just thrilled to have Manhattan SVU take over their case. And of course the ONLY sex crimes expert on the entire east coast is Olivia Benson, victim whisperer. 🙄

Admittedly I’m not much of a drinker, but how did they expect Chris to identify the type of liquor on the alleged perp’s breath? I couldn’t tell you scotch from whiskey to tequila!

i was quite surprised that Ellie didn’t immediately squeeze Benson’s hand and suddenly wake up. I mean,St  Olivia can perform miracles, right?

gah! This show just gets more heavy handed with each passing season. At least this was a full team effort.

[MediaZone4K]

Good episode but no suspense. 

Since stabler left the entire team --even the captain now-- not just the two central detectives investigate crimes. I understand the show had to be restructured so Olivia could be the captain but do 5 detectives really work on a single regular profile rape case? 

Why do they keep trying to add two extra detectives? I think Finn, Velasco and Bruno are enough. If they needed a female presence they had Rollins and I don't know why they got rid of her.

SVU is still an enjoyable Thursday watch, but clearly past its prime. 

[The Wild Sow]

On 11/9/2024 at 9:54 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

On 11/7/2024 at 10:08 PM, wknt3 said:

It's nice to see Graham Patrick Martin getting work. Apparently he is carving out a niche for being involved in sketchy activity in parks on procedural dramas...
 

I just realized he's Rusty from The Closer/Major Crimes.  (I had to look it up, realizing he looked familiar.)

I recognized him from the preview the week before! 

[Zaffy]

ok.. am I the  only one that I expected the victim to miraculously wake up while Olivia was holding her hand? 

I had this nightmare...
There was crossover with LO SVU and ST Discovery, full with moments of Benson and Burnham dramatically whispering to each other and then the universe imploded.
Brrrrr!!!!!
 

Edited November 13 by Zaffy

[tennisgurl]

St. Olivia in the hospital was truly embarrassing, I'm amazed the girl didn't pop right up to declare Olivia the one true savior. I knew from the first second where this was going, the COTW was pretty clearly based on the actual case of poor Gabby Petito, who was murdered by her fiancé while they were traveling the country in a van while documenting the trip on social media, so obviously the boyfriend was abusive and obviously he did it. I would have been interested if there was actually some kind of twist, but nope. 

I did enjoy finally getting to know Silva a bit, and she and Bruno were a good pairing out in the field. I thought the actual investigation of the case was actually pretty good, and its nice to have a full squad, and some of the conversation about how people portray themselves on social media compared to their actual lives was kind of interesting, but it needed a bit more umpth to be a really good episode. 

I guess no one in Rockford has ever been sexually assaulted ever, or else why would they need to bring in an NYPD captain from Manhattan to solve a case that has nothing to do with Manhattan? Oh, wait, silly me, I almost forgot that Olivia is the only expert on sexual assault on the entire east coast (possibly on the planet) who must be brought in to use her magic victim whispering powers to solve the case. Olivia, are there really not enough crimes in New York? Of course, her eyes sparked as soon as the fed showed her a picture of the victim, a pretty, innocent looking young white woman, that's her favorite kind of victim, so of course she hits the road ASAP.

Edited November 18 by tennisgurl

[CrystalBlue]

Ripped from the headlines of the Gabby Petito story.  I liked the sly humor when Chris said that Ellie went to do laundry.  I'm guessing that in the end they took her off life support, despite the hand squeezing.