S26.E09 First Light

[Xeliou66]

Here’s the description for tonight’s episode 

“An abhorrent web of lies and betrayal is uncovered when a woman is confronted with video of a night she can’t remember. Carisi struggles to move on from his ordeal when the suspect changes his plea”. 

[Spartan Girl]

Figures they do an episode based on what happened to that woman in France.

[wknt3]

The Good:
The opener. I always like Leland Orser playing charmingly quirky and it was nice not to see the everything at the start so there is an actual mystery. Even if we know that the perp was going to be the well known character actor who has already been the perp on multiple past franchise episodes.

Some and Fin and Carisi scenes. It was nice to see. (And again it shows why he should have been there last episode!)

Another Carisi focused episode with lots of actual courtroom content. And they seem to have avoided the traps of either Benson saving him or a prolonged slog of PTSD.

The Bad:
Not liking the return to Curry and Benson as the only ones who can handle challenging damaged victims in what is supposed to be a specialized unit dedicated to just that. Especially in an episode where there are characters barely used. I like Curry (although it is ridiculous having 2 captains on one squad) and I like that they aren't trying to power through weeks with only 2.5 detectives any more but why not use Bruno or Fin or show us Benson mentoring the new detective? Why have the whole squad in on this when most of them only get a couple scenes? It's just an odd use of resources especially when we are going to be heavy on Benson and Carisi and have to fit in Rollins as well.

The last scene with the victim. Of all of the many annoying tropes on this show I think Benson's whispered words of wisdom bringing healing,understanding, and acceptance to the victim might be my least favorite.

 

Overall this was a perfectly cromulent current era SVU episode I guess. Mostly competently written and well acted, but nothing special. Like the last episode this could have benefited from tightening things up a bit and adding more Fin, but that is probably true of just about every new episode. Maybe next week will be interestingly good or bad?

[Xeliou66]

Decent episode, I liked that there was a mystery to solve and things weren’t obvious from the start, and the courtroom scenes were mostly well done - one thing SVU has done well this season is giving us way more courtroom scenes with Carisi. I disliked Carisi needing a pep talk from St O to get his focus back but I did like seeing him get a larger role and seeing the courtroom. I liked the reference to Nick Baxter as well, I know he’ll be in an upcoming episode which will be interesting. 
While I love Fin and Bruno and I like seeing the whole squad together, it wasn’t a good episode to have everyone in it as some of them barely got any screen time and it wasn't an urgent case that required all hands on deck. So having everyone there plus a Rollins cameo was kind of unusual, knowing that everyone other than St O will be absent for a couple of episodes. But overall this was decent, the Benson worship wasn’t as bad as many other episodes, the case was decent and all of the characters were solid and nice court scenes. SVU has definitely improved this season after an awful season 25, hope it continues to be an improved season.

[MediaZone4K]

I agree that there are too many unused detectives on this show.

I like The case variety that we got tonight. It's not the run of the mill rape where the suspect is obvious. 

 

[Wizardpatch]

Wouldn't ProfessorPerv have tried very very hard to get his wife to not go to the cops in the beginning? Was he that confident the guy in Jersey wouldn't be found and expose him? Makes little sense.

[Andyourlittledog2]

I get annoyed by the little things. Like why are New York cops arresting someone in New Jersey?  They need New Jersey cops to do that for them and then extradite. Right? And why do the characters seem to often make conversation about the weaknesses of their open case (or anything about their case) in front of bystanders who are clearly close enough to hear everything they say? Shouldn't they be concerned about info getting to the defense, the public at large via social media (everyone has a phone out recording nowadays when something exciting like an arrest in the middle of a campus class or office is being made right in front of them)?  Do people (including police) just shove annonymously provided thumb drives into their laptops without a thought about viruses?  In this age? 

I can't help but feel once again that this show (writers weaknesses aside) would be a lot more fun and interesting if we could rid ourselves of Mariska Hargitay entirely and just focus on either a new lead or the other cops/attorneys we already have. She just brings the whole thing down IMO.  But since the entire world seems to worship that woman and give her awards and accolades all the time I guess I'm in the minority.  I've wracked my brain and I just don't get it, what they see in her.

[preeya]

1 hour ago, Andyourlittledog2 said:

I can't help but feel once again that this show (writers weaknesses aside) would be a lot more fun and interesting if we could rid ourselves of Mariska Hargitay entirely and just focus on either a new lead or the other cops/attorneys we already have. She just brings the whole thing down IMO.  But since the entire world seems to worship that woman and give her awards and accolades all the time I guess I'm in the minority.  I've wracked my brain and I just don't get it, what they see in her

THIS ↑ a million times.

[Xeliou66]

Agreed completely about how Mariska and her ego drags down the show, I’ve been saying it for years, her demand to be front and center all of the time and to portray Benson as an all knowing, always correct saintly figure is the main reason why SVU has been so bad at times in recent years. Mariska’s influence has caused the show to lose a lot of its edge and become a watered down, Hallmark version of SVU. I will say this season has been a huge improvement over the awfulness of last season, and they finally have a really good squad of characters around Benson. But Benson, and the comical way she’s portrayed as some superhero crusader without flaws, is cheesy and weakens the show. 

[Fostersmom]

On 1/17/2025 at 7:27 PM, Andyourlittledog2 said:

 Do people (including police) just shove annonymously provided thumb drives into their laptops without a thought about viruses?  In this age? 

 

Why worry about virus ridden thumb drives when the second police chief is just sticking bottles of pills to be used as evidence in her coat pockets? 

Edited Sunday at 04:21 PM by Fostersmom

[Iguessnot]

Not a bad episode, but the acting was somewhat annoying. The victim kept doing the facial overacting like Hargitay does. 

The other actress was a perfect stereotype of a blue collar New Jersey resident who writes "whore" on the other woman's property. But I found the interrogation scene off. They told the detectives their stories within earshot of each other, but the lack of reaction would be indicative of interviews done in isolation from each other. If they were trying to demonstrate misdirected anger from the wife, they failed with bad staging.

When the other new cop was interviewing the guy at the school and got a bit of info out of him, she slams her hand down and says"now that's a good start". Unnecessary cowboy affectation. 

After the show went on, I realized they never mentioned Carissi's struggles. Then, boom, they had him flame out in court for no good reason.