S26.E13 Extinguished

[Xeliou66]

Episode description

Velasco teams up with a community security guard eager to prove his mettle to find a suspect in the assault of two teens

[wknt3]

The Good:
The opener. Relatively subtle establishing Velasco's neighborhood and stake in the case, plus we didn't see the whole crime or waste a lot of time with a montage of the victim. Plus it is nice to see Benson actually assigning a case instead of immediately taking the lead.

We actually got to see some technical specialists instead of having the squad doing everything.

Velasco. It is great to see him getting some actual material, instead of being just another warm body. Pisiano may not have Kevin Kane's charisma (very few actors do) but he is a solid performer and deserves more than he has gotten from the writers. They also did a nice job pairing him up Bruno and Fin at the right times to take advantage of their perspectives.

Fin. Speaking of characters who have needed some more solid material and actually got it...

Benson. A rare appearance in this section, but she was actually acting like a CO who is also series lead rather than single handedly solving all sexually based offenses in NYC.

The COTW. It was a solid investigation with a team approach from start to finish, and more importantly than just using the squad, actually used them thoughtfully instead of just as random supporting players for Benson. It was a refreshing throwback to days gone by.

The Bad:
Benson and Velasco. Why is she always giving him shit and holding him to standards nobody else is expected to live up to? I mean NOW she has no advice and isn't going to use her magic psychic powers for community relations??!! Yes she apologized in the end and complimented him, but it's getting a bit ridiculous.

Overall this was an actually very good episode. Best in a long time. The script actually cared about ALL of the characters and not just Benson and maybe whoever else they had as #2 this week. And it was a good story that actually gave us a fresh take on things. Graziano and Martin should be proud to put their names on this script. And now we know they can still do more than "better than we expect these days" and shouldn't accept less.

[Xeliou66]

Wow this was the most I’ve liked an SVU episode in ages - a strong case with good detective work and we finally got some personal scenes and focus on characters other than St O and without trashing them or making it a soap opera. This reminded me of classic SVU.

It was very nice to see Velasco get more material and development and in a way that wasn’t a soap opera. Fin also got good material and I liked his scenes with Velasco. Bruno and Silva were strong as well. I liked how the various characters were paired up at different times and it’s very refreshing to have a full squad of characters, and it was nice that for once Benson took a backseat and didn’t do everything herself and they dialed her back.

Case of the week was solid as well, nice investigation of a heinous crime and it flowed well.

I agree that Benson getting on Velasco earlier in the episode didn’t make sense and I don’t get why she doesn’t seem to trust him as much as the others. At least Benson recognized him for his good work at the end and finally someone other than Benson got to have good screentime.

SVU has improved tremendously this season after the shitshow of last season, and they can still do good cases and they finally have a complete and strong cast of characters. If they dialed back the Benson worship the show would be strong now. But I like the improvement in the show since last season and it was very refreshing to see Benson take a backseat for once in this episode and let other characters get a chance to shine.

[MediaZone4K]

As others said, I love that we didn't get too much background on the victims before the crime, and that much of the crime was not shown. I also appreciate a whodunit rapist story instead of recent episodes that have been like criminal intent. We know who did it, it's just a race to catch them. Surprisingly they didn't spend too much time on the perp, they just showed his brief apprehension and then moved on

Even though I'm wary of them trying to tie cases to the detectives' personal lives, the vigilante security guard being in Velasco's building was a nice touch.

I just knew the episode was going to end with him telling him to turn the music down lol!

Sidebar, I hope we see more non rape episodes like child or elder abuse, or whatever else fits under the purview of SVU, just to switch up the subject matter now and again.

Edited Yest. at 01:27 PM by MediaZone4K

[tennisgurl]

I have to say, this season, even with a few clunkers, has been quite good so far. We finally have a full squad of likable detectives who are actually allowed to be competent and while we still have to deal with Olivia worship, its at least a bit toned down. I thought that this was overall a really good episode, solid detective work, an interesting horrible case, good performances from both the main and guest cast, and we got to get to know a character without a ton of melodrama or the character getting trashed. 

It was great to get more of Velasco and his life outside of the office, I like him a lot and Octavio Pisano is a really likable actor. It was a personal case but not so personal that it felt soap opera and while it was annoying that Olivia had to get on his ass for dumb stuff again, she did at least give him his due kudos. 

If they could just dial back a bit more on the Olivia worship, which has to happen even in episodes where she finally lets the detectives do their jobs without micromanaging, this could even be one of the better late runs of the show. They have scaled back on the awkward lectures and are even getting some fan banter, which was such a feature of the early show even during the darkest cases, its great to see. 

[pezgirl7]

I agree with what others have said. This was one of the more enjoyable, well-rounded episodes that we've had recently.

Can someone please explain the meaning of the episode title? Also, I don't understand why when the victim was being interviewed in the hospital, she turned to her father and asked "Should I tell them?". I was expecting her to give some twist about what happened that affected her family, but I guess she was just getting his permission to answer their questions. Felt clunky.

[wknt3]

5 hours ago, pezgirl7 said:

I agree with what others have said. This was one of the more enjoyable, well-rounded episodes that we've had recently.

Can someone please explain the meaning of the episode title? Also, I don't understand why when the victim was being interviewed in the hospital, she turned to her father and asked "Should I tell them?". I was expecting her to give some twist about what happened that affected her family, but I guess she was just getting his permission to answer their questions. Felt clunky.

The episode title was a reference to Benson telling Velasco he needed to "put out the fire" in his neighborhood.

As far as the interview I too wondered at fist if it was setting up some sort of twist, but it was just about the family not trusting the system and/or not being sure about sharing what happened with strangers. Probably could have been done a little more gracefully, but it didn't end with Liv preaching to them until they saw the light or waiting until the parents were gone and then whispering to the victim and magically changing her mind. So it was pretty much more realistic and less heavy handed than 90% of the victim interviews the last half decade or so...