S26.E18 The Accuser

[Xeliou66]

Episode description 

When a man is ruthlessly assaulted and burned, the SVUs investigation uncovers a decades-old secret. Bruno helps a young witness find the courage to come forward 

[MediaZone4K]

Decent episode. Glad a plea was given to the defendant. it was cool to see Finn take the lead at the beginning of the episode.

It was also a little disappointing to see the first male victim in a long time actually be a perpetrator. It would've been cool to explore the rare instance of an older male sexual abuse of victim (that wasn't revenge for him committing previous abuse).

Looking forward to the crossover/flashback episode next week.

 

[wknt3]

The Good:
The opening. If they insist on doing the whole showing the victim before the crime thing, this is a good way of doing it. It was mercifully concise, didn't spoil the suspense, and lead into having the squad actually show up on scene WITHOUT Benson personally supervising in the field from the beginning. Plus it was a good musical choice and didn't rely on quick cuts to hide the lack of budget (just Criminal Minds levels of darkness.)

Fin and Bruno. Putting the two most likeable and charismatic characters together with lots of screen time is always a good thing.

Bruno solo. A lot of good stuff for him this week. Kevin Kane has such great chemistry with just about everyone. He was reminding of us of how you do a detective showing empathy for the victims without becoming a savior or miracle worker therapist. Mariska would do well to take notes.

The COTW. It flowed nicely with everyone involved, and showed how you can focus on one of the ensemble without relegating everyone else to bit players, and still keeping Mariska as the lead. It felt like old school SVU in a lot of ways, which is a good thing.

The Bad:
Even in a week where Liv is mostly acting like a CO and a cop we still have her acting like nobody else in NYC knows what they are doing. Plus the shock and disapproval that they had to use handcuffs. Benson is to the police what Maroun on the mothership is to prosecutors.

Overall this was a good episode after a couple of blah ones and hopefully is an indication that what seemed to be a promising trend is not a mirage. It mostly stuck to the classic SVU formula, and didn't try to pretend this was something new or unique, but relied on having some new characters to give us something that didn't feel like a complete retread. Hopefully they do a good job with the crossover and don't kill the momentum again.

[The Wild Sow]

Guess there really ARE no new stories. They dusted off Season 12’s “Branded.”

[Xeliou66]

Good episode

Bruno in particular was awesome as usual, I really liked his scenes with the teenager who was groomed, it was nice to see someone other than St O help out a victim and be a compassionate investigator. Bruno is the best thing to happen to SVU in a long time.

The case was predictable but still good, while it would’ve been interesting to see an older male victim who wasn’t a bad guy, it was obvious by the date and the vicious nature of the attack that this guy would be a perp. But I liked how everyone handled it professionally and didn’t get too emotional or biased, even Benson was tolerable, and it was a good investigation.

The crossover will be interesting but unfortunately it looks like it’s just going to be Benson taking it personally and going on a crusade, ugh, I hope they don’t trash the Mothership characters just to make St O look holier than she already does. 

[Diana Berry]

I thought the last scene with Bruno and the young man was very good.  Him questioning what his life will be like after what happened. Very powerful.

question the IA lady ( still don’t know her name).  Is she permanent or not? She’s not part of the opening credits.  I know all the networks are staggering their casts due to budgeting but why not have her listed with the cast? 

[Tdoc72]

I kept thinking the dad would be guilty of something b/c he was a name actor but they went no where. What a waste of Erik Palladino. 
 

Continued 😍for Kevin Kane. His character didn’t have to whisper his advice & support ala Hargitay. 

[marny]

I watched an old episode the other day where the actor who plays Bruno was the husband of a woman alleging ADA Stone raped her. He was really good in the role, of course. But it was funny to me to think, “Wow, Bruno has really moved up in the world from a guy holding an ADA hostage at gun point to an SVU detective. People really can change!”  Anyway. I do really like him as an actor and he brings a good vibe to the show. 

[Diana Berry]

10 hours ago, Tdoc72 said:

I kept thinking the dad would be guilty of something b/c he was a name actor but they went no where. What a waste of Erik Palladino. 
 

Continued 😍for Kevin Kane. His character didn’t have to whisper his advice & support ala Hargitay. 

I didn’t even realize that was him.  Will go back and watch. 

1 hour ago, marny said:

I watched an old episode the other day where the actor who plays Bruno was the husband of a woman alleging ADA Stone raped her. He was really good in the role, of course. But it was funny to me to think, “Wow, Bruno has really moved up in the world from a guy holding an ADA hostage at gun point to an SVU detective. People really can change!”  Anyway. I do really like him as an actor and he brings a good vibe to the show. 

Agree if they ever officially go to four.  Keep Finn of course, Bruno because he’s fabulous, Velasco because I like the brooding, mystery of him ( plus he’s come into his own over the years).  The two ladies? Interchangeable both are fine and would be happy with either one. 

[preeya]

6 hours ago, Diana Berry said:

Agree if they ever officially go to four.  Keep Finn of course, Bruno because he’s fabulous, Velasco because I like the brooding, mystery of him ( plus he’s come into his own over the years).  The two ladies? Interchangeable both are fine and would be happy with either one. 

Keep the whole team and say bye-bye to Olivia. SVU doesn't need a Capt. Butinski. 

Edited April 12 by preeya

[wknt3]

On 4/10/2025 at 10:07 PM, The Wild Sow said:

Guess there really ARE no new stories. They dusted off Season 12’s “Branded.”

To be honest they pretty much ran through all of the variations of sexually based offenses over a decade ago. Now it's all variations on old themes. I doubt there will be any COTW that are truly novel ever again. Which is honestly a good thing as trying to come up with a new case only leads to getting away from the concept and into unrelated crimes that are loosely tied to a sex crime. And that is a road we don't want to travel again - remember this?

Now imagine that with half the budget and having to end on a Benson speech...

On 4/11/2025 at 12:02 AM, Diana Berry said:

question the IA lady ( still don’t know her name).  Is she permanent or not? She’s not part of the opening credits.  I know all the networks are staggering their casts due to budgeting but why not have her listed with the cast? 

$$$. Recurring is usually around half the cost of main cast per episode. It can be more for big names or if the producers are generous and have a character recurring for creative reasons, but Dick Wolf is neither generous or creative.
 

16 hours ago, Tdoc72 said:

I kept thinking the dad would be guilty of something b/c he was a name actor but they went no where. What a waste of Erik Palladino. 
 

I actually like when a procedural hires someone known and doesn't make them the perp or a hero. It helps keep things interesting. I remember when The Closer had on Joe Spano and the ending was actually a surprise, because I kept waiting for the twist where he was actually the hero. And this series has done a lot worse with ER cast members over the years...

[preeya]

3 hours ago, wknt3 said:

To be honest they pretty much ran through all of the variations of sexually based offenses over a decade ago. Now it's all variations on old themes. I doubt there will be any COTW that are truly novel ever again. Which is honestly a good thing as trying to come up with a new case only leads to getting away from the concept and into unrelated crimes that are loosely tied to a sex crime. And that is a road we don't want to travel again - remember this?

I remember this episode but not all the particulars. How and why was it considered "sexually based?" Didn't Stabler get shot in this one?

[tennisgurl]

Don't you love episodes where I can guess almost everything from the episodes description? Obviously the old guy would turn out to be a bad guy who abused someone years ago, we already got this premise several seasons ago, although I did actually like it better than I expected. I like that the victims weren't really who I expected, a working class teenage boy and a tragically messed up woman who fell into addiction and poverty after her trauma, and overall it was a solid case without a ton of lectures and melodrama that used the whole cast well. 

I love Bruno, he's such a great character and Kevin Kane is such a good actor, his scenes with the teenaged victim were all so good. I loved that moment when the kid started to open up about the abuse and he flinched for just a minute, like he knew that this was coming but it was still so hard to hear. The last scene between them was really good as well, he did a great job both times at showing empathy towards the kid without feeling condescending like some police captain I could mention. 

Both the perp and his wife suck, I am guessing there are a lot more victims of that asshole who never said anything, no way does he go from molesting a girl decades ago and then would just randomly start again with a new victim, and the wife can say that she didn't believe the little girl, which is bad enough, but it seems like she did believe that he did it enough to be worried about her kids, who want nothing to do with him. 

Edited April 15 by tennisgurl

[MarylandGirl]

Agreed that this was a good episode, especially the parts Bruno played. I was worried something would happen with the boy's father not believing him and claiming he was gay and kicking him out (got a weird vibe from him at first), but glad it didn't turn out like that. Sad how at the end, he was worried he'd end up hurting someone, too.

[Zaffy]

Decent episode from quite a decent season.
Bruno has been a good addition to this show.

[DaynaPhile]

It bugs me that they mentioned the cycle of abuse at the end. What that girl did to the main perp was not the cycle of abuse. It was revenge. If she had started abusing other kids then that would have been the cycle. She did it because she never got justice.