S24.E19 Play With Fire

[Xeliou66]

2 Hour crossover with SVU tonight 

Episode description 

Part 1 

A mysterious phone call to Captain Benson of the SVU leads detectives to the scene of a brutal murder.

Part 2

When the SVU and the 2-7 uncover a pattern of rape and murder targeting marginalized women, Carisi and ADA Price team up to charge the suspect with multiple crimes. 

[Raja]

The 27th Homicide what are you doing here attitude seemed to come from the early days of SVU. When I stopped watching that show regularly half of the time they also started with finding a body.

Halfway through and still running down folks guilty of something else, with evidence of the last being framed nobody thinks a cop is the kingpin?

[marc20]

don't usually care about ID'ing the killer, actively try to avoid it, but nailed the undercover/murderer...that argument with the female undercover on the street felt too weird...with all the undercover cop scenes over the years on L&O I don't remember any of them fighting with each other

trend toward action/running continues

please go back to an hour with regular cast

Shaw MIA again

p.s. next week is a repeat of this season's episode 3, with Riley and his brother

Edited Friday at 07:52 AM by marc20

[preeya]

I know this is Holy Week, but I wasn't aware it's also "SaintOlivia" week.

Edited Friday at 01:52 PM by preeya
Comment added.

[Raja]

39 minutes ago, preeya said:

I know this is Holy Week, but I wasn't aware it's also "SaintOlivia" week.

I found out that Peacock uploaded more than one episode of O.C. to finish out her miracles.

[dubbel zout]

Two hours was a long way to go to find out the cop was the main perp. When the young woman was murdered so soon after running out of the precinct, I was surprised no one started thinking there was a leak there. How else would the news get out so quickly? Good grief.

I enjoyed the smug being wiped of Benson's face when each successive person of interest's alibi turned out to be rock solid. She's unbearable, and I hate how she takes over the crossovers.

These episodes must have been shot while Mehcad Brooks was still working on his other project. It almost didn't natter, since we didn't see much of Riley even in the first hour.

[marc20]

how does a witness just stroll out of an interrogation room and onto the streets?

[Zaffy]

I quite enjoyed it. Fullest review at the SVU forum.

[preeya]

13 hours ago, Raja said:

I found out that Peacock uploaded more than one episode of O.C. to finish out her miracles.

Yeah, I watched them both, and guess who dominated the 2nd one?

[Irlandesa]

The one thing I did like was the different approaches between Benson and Brady.  It probably leaned a bit too much towards Benson but Benson's overly empathetic view was also proven wrong.  It wasn't just Brady's more blunt approach stumbling. 

 

[Raja]

1 hour ago, preeya said:

Yeah, I watched them both, and guess who dominated the 2nd one?

Spoiler alert dominant as in an actor having more scenes. Not in treating not your ordinary Sergeant Bell like she did Lieutenant Brady with her getting bull rushed by Captain Benson 

[KeithJ]

On 4/17/2025 at 10:49 AM, Xeliou66 said:

 

2 Hour crossover with SVU tonight

 

Glad my wife told me about this.  Easy pass this week. It’s enough I have to put up with her on Organized Crime.

Edited Saturday at 06:25 PM by KeithJ

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, KeithJ said:

Glad my wife told me about this.  Easy pass this week. It’s enough I have to put up with her on Organized Crime.

I thought Brady balanced the Benson scenes.

[Raja]

9 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I thought Brady balanced the Benson scenes.

While LT Brady pushed back as she has been generally more aggressive than the three other mothership squad leaders since her introduction I think that Captain Benson's rise in rank while doing the same job as always, the lead detective grates on a base of viewers.

[Zaffy]

I wouldn't mind having more Brady and Benson episodes. I like the chemistry and the balance Brady brings as she manages to tame Benson a bit :) 

[Xeliou66]

Agreed with everyone that it was nice to see Brady balance out Benson and not be pushed around by her. I’m very glad they didn’t trash any of the Mothership characters in order to make St O look better, although the only Mothership characters that got a large role were Brady, Price and Baxter -Riley disappeared at the halfway point, Maroun had one scene and Shaw was MIA. 
This episode it made sense for both Brady and Benson to take the lead on the case and work closely together. I also really liked the Price/Carisi prosecution tandem. 
Probably my favorite scene was when St O was pushing Baxter into trying to intimidate WhatsApp and Baxter told her he wasn’t running his office that way and to use the sting operation instead - Benson should’ve thought of that herself and it was kind of amusing to see the DA point out the obvious to Benson and not bow down to her. 
Overall I really enjoyed the crossover, they pulled it off well and I liked each character’s role although it was more SVU heavy than Mothership. 

[babyrambo]

I could almost feel the collective groan from half the audience when L&O opened with Benson lol. I’ve been pretty indifferent to her main character domination but this was egregious even for me. I did like that Brady (who I’ve liked from the beginning, but has really grown on me this season) got to trade a couple of barbs with her. But I wish they’d gone harder. Because she wasn’t wrong but Benson hardly let it sink in. Also wanted to see more of Riley and Silva, who I like on SVU but has always seemed pretty underused. 

[ML89]

This is the first L&O I can remember without the “in the criminal justice system.”

I actually liked Brady tonight, so good job Benson making me override my preexisting hostility!

They took way too long to realize Gomez was bad. They never cleared the priest, did they?

Places to not go in L&O - Hudson University and bathrooms. 

[Irlandesa]

6 hours ago, Zaffy said:

I wouldn't mind having more Brady and Benson episodes. I like the chemistry and the balance Brady brings as she manages to tame Benson a bit :) 

I was thinking the same.  This felt too much like a 2-part SVU episode with some OG guest stars but I liked the chemistry between the actresses and characters.

[Raja]

22 minutes ago, ML89 said:

They took way too long to realize Gomez was bad. They never cleared the priest, did they?

In the SVU half.

Spoiler

Given Captain Benson's statement to Force Investigations the Father was probably cleared at the same time an arrest warrant was issued on LT Gomez.

 

[storyskip]

Given the recent direction the writers have taken the character of Shaw, I didn’t miss him. One SJW > professional police, is enough, even for a crossover. Also I’m excited for some of Macad’s other projects, so it is a win/win for me.

I agree with the general sentiments being expressed here, I felt that Brady was a very good balance to Benson. The two actresses had really good chemistry, and given my opinion on the direction Mariska has gone with Benson, it is no easy thing for me NOT to fast forward through her scenes. But in this crossover, at least when she was with Brady, I not only tolerated Benson on my screen, but enjoyed the story!

Regarding Riley. It’s my head canon, that along with wanting to close a case that she was responsible for 2 years ago, Brady clocked Benson from the start. Brady saw how Benson was going to steamroll this situation,  and she was protecting Riley by getting him out of the way. Riley couldn’t have pushed back against a superior of Benson’s rank without risking his badge. Brady is just a Lt, but she is a commanding officer and more of an equal to Benson. She has more room to directly rebuke, and override Benson, than Riley.

Price has handled Benson in the past, so he’s also capable of standing up to her, especially with Baxter having his back. Carisi has an established rapport with Benson, and knows how to field some of her BS. Maroun would have just joined Benson’s crusades, so best to get her out of the way, and personally I enjoy any episode that has minimal Maroun.

So yeah, that’s my head canon for character motivations. Basically we still had Olivia in full righteous display, requiring 5 powerful characters to be her balance, because Olivia is just.that.awesome!  But hey, at least those 5 other characters were allowed to be right when they needed to be right, so I’m a happy audience member.

[zapper]

19 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I thought Brady balanced the Benson scenes.

this.  I found the episodes very watchable, and I usually duck out after 5 or 10 minutes of Olivia.  Brady is an excellent foil to Benson, calling her out on things that made me feel like she was a voice for the audience.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, storyskip said:

Maroun would have just joined Benson’s crusades, so best to get her out of the way, and personally I enjoy any episode that has minimal Maroun.

Ooo. True. But now I want to see a crossover with Benson and Maroun. 
Would they egg each other on?
Or would they see themselves reflected in the other and want to dial it back a bit?

[Sake614]

I knew 5 minutes in that the cop was the bad guy. 
 

Maria was a cop for ONE YEAR and Benson thought it would be a good idea to send her undercover? I don’t think it works that way IRL. 

it was nice to see Brady stand up to Liv, even if St Olivia the victim whisperer won out in the end. No one ever questions her so I’m glad it finally happened. Hell even Carisi wanted her to recuse herself from the case. Maybe she should join Maroun in starting a victim advocacy group and leave the policing to those who will actually do it.

[Raja]

2 hours ago, Sake614 said:

I knew 5 minutes in that the cop was the bad guy. 
 

Maria was a cop for ONE YEAR and Benson thought it would be a good idea to send her undercover? I don’t think it works that way IRL. 

it was nice to see Brady stand up to Liv, even if St Olivia the victim whisperer won out in the end. No one ever questions her so I’m glad it finally happened. Hell even Carisi wanted her to recuse herself from the case. Maybe she should join Maroun in starting a victim advocacy group and leave the policing to those who will actually do it.

 

I don't know about real life but in just about every NYPD based shows for young undercovers they get pulled near the end of their academy class cycles. What did Captain Benson have to do with the undercover unit? All I got was an officer she was mentoring found herself in that unit. Jump Street type guys have to start somewhere and if they are maturing as a street cop they might age out before being useful in many undercover missions.

[Sake614]

2 hours ago, Raja said:

What did Captain Benson have to do with the undercover unit?

Olivia recommended her for the UC assignment 

[blackwing]

On 4/19/2025 at 9:55 PM, Irlandesa said:

I was thinking the same.  This felt too much like a 2-part SVU episode with some OG guest stars but I liked the chemistry between the actresses and characters.

I liked the concept of a two-part case, and I have said before that some of the cases on L&O would be better if we had two episodes, to better follow evidence or explore legal arguments.  However, I agree with the sentiment that this was a two-part SVU episode.  The episode on L&O was dominated by Olivia and also featured a good amount of the Hispanic female detective and the silver haired attorney.  Then when we get to SVU, Brady and Price appear, but nobody else from L&O.  And even Brady and Price took a clear backseat to Olivia and Silver Haired Attorney.

Did anyone else think that Sofia/Maria and Ana looked like they were teenagers?  I swear I thought they were 17 or 18.  When it was revealed that Maria was an undercover cop, I thought no way, she's in high school!

I felt like the second hour just dragged.  It was fairly obvious to me that Gomez was involved, and the show sure took its time getting there.

After it became clear that Gomez was the suspect, why wasn't there more investigation about the death of the priest?  Especially since Olivia said that it seemed like Gomez may have shot himself.  Why couldn't the priest have been vindicated and cleared of grabbing Gomez's gun and additional charges for the murder of the priest be added?

On 4/20/2025 at 10:13 AM, shapeshifter said:

Ooo. True. But now I want to see a crossover with Benson and Maroun. 
Would they egg each other on?
Or would they see themselves reflected in the other and want to dial it back a bit?

It would be nice if they got spun off onto their own show.  "Law & Order:  For the Defence".  Tagline:  "In the criminal justice system, there will always be a place to follow a dream.  Two seasoned professionals pursue their passion and true calling.   Every accused deserves an advocate.  Every heart needs to bleed.  These are their stories.  DUN DUN!!!" 

Then I could happily just avoid it.

Edited Monday at 10:38 PM by blackwing

[blackwing]

Just realised that we are not allowed to write "S.a.i.n.t. Olivia" without the periods... there is an autocorrect that removes the first word.  Too funny.  

Edited Monday at 11:08 PM by blackwing

[CrystalBlue]

This is a test about Olivia.  Works for me.

OMG blackwing is right!  The word that begins with S was automatically deleted!

Edited Tuesday at 05:50 AM by CrystalBlue
Result of test

[Xeliou66]

16 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

This is a test about Olivia.  Works for me.

OMG blackwing is right!  The word that begins with S was automatically deleted!

That’s hilarious!! Is it now breaking the rules to mock Her Holiness?! 

[wknt3]

On 4/20/2025 at 11:13 AM, shapeshifter said:

Ooo. True. But now I want to see a crossover with Benson and Maroun. 
Would they egg each other on?
Or would they see themselves reflected in the other and want to dial it back a bit?

I don't think Benson understands the concept of "dial it back" at all. Her dials look like this at all times...



In any case I don't think there is any question about how Benson and Maroun would interact. Benson would take charge from moment one and Maroun would follow with maybe the occasional polite suggestion that what Liv wanted wasn't actually, you know, legal. Then the case would go down in flames until Benson took the stand and/or convinced the victim to testify and cross examined the perp herself, brushing aside the judge's objections about not being an actual attorney...

Edited Tuesday at 10:48 PM by wknt3